Unbreakable Bond & The Missing Twin: Unbreakable Bond / The Missing Twin. Rita Herron

chest constricted. “Do you remember her name?”

      Carrie chewed her bottom lip. “I’m really not supposed to divulge that information. I could get fired.” She fidgeted. “Besides, the poor woman suffered a terrible tragedy herself.”

      “I understand,” Nina said. “What happened to the baby?”

      “I don’t know. He was probably taken for an autopsy.”

      “The woman’s name?” Slade pressed.

      “Gwen Waldorp,” Carrie said. “I think she moved to Kings Mountain.” Carrie glanced at her watch. “If that’s all, I need to get back to work.”

      “One more question,” Slade asked. “Do you know William Hood and his family?”

      Carrie nodded. “I’ve seen their pictures in the newspaper.”

      “Were either William or his mother at the hospital the night Peyton was born?”

      She backed away, fidgeting with her hair again. “I don’t remember seeing them.”

      “How about William’s wife? Her name is Mitzi.”

      “I told you I don’t remember. It was madness here, everyone in a panic.” She tapped her watch. “Now I really have to get back to work.” Her ponytail swung behind her as she turned and rushed down the hall.

      “What do you think?” Nina asked.

      Slade frowned. “I think that nurse knows something she’s not telling us.” He gestured toward the elevator.

      “That bone your forensics person found, it could have belonged to the stillborn,” Nina suggested.

      He gave a clipped nod. “I’m going to check out this Waldorp woman and have a chat with William’s mother.”

      Nina’s thoughts raced as they took the elevator to the main floor, and Slade drove back to her house. Compassion for the woman who’d given birth to the stillborn baby squeezed her heart. Could she have been distraught enough to have kidnapped Peyton?

      And William’s mother…she’d been adamant that she should get rid of her baby. Could she have stolen her or hired someone else to and arranged for an adoption?

      “Does Mrs. Hood live in Winston-Salem, too?”

      Nina nodded.

      “I’ll question her tomorrow, but first I want to do some background work. I’m going to take that doll to the lab.” Slade maneuvered around traffic through town, flipping on his windshield wipers as a light rain began to fall. “I’ll also see if I can get an address for the Waldorp woman. I’ll call you if I find anything.”

      Shadows flickered along the sidewalk, night setting in, the rain clouds adding to the gray fog over her house as he pulled into her drive.

      Nina grasped on to hope as she climbed out and hurried up to her door. She went inside, flipped on the lights, then went upstairs to shower. A few minutes later, she dried off and pulled on a loose warm-up suit.

      But the moment she went downstairs, the hair on the back of her neck stood on end, and panic hit her.

      The CD of lullabies she’d bought for Peyton was playing.

      And the baby blanket she’d crocheted and stored in the blanket chest in the attic was wrapped around another rag doll that had been stabbed just like the first.

       CHAPTER EIGHT

      SLADE STOPPED BY GAI and found Amanda Peterson still poring over forensics files. Benjamin Camp poked his head in when he saw Slade, and he brought them both up to speed on what he’d learned so far.

      “You said a baby was stillborn that same day,” Amanda said. “I’ll find out if this bone could have belonged to that child instead of the Nash baby.”

      “Thanks,” Slade said. “I’m sure it won’t be easy.”

      Amanda grinned. “That’s what I do,” she said confidently. “Besides, if I can find out where the bone was located, that might help. And you said the stillborn was a baby boy?”

      Slade nodded. “That will narrow things down. I’ll make a phone call to the medical examiner and find out the names of any forensic specialists brought in to study the bones. If they had a forensic anthropologist working with them, we should get some answers.”

      “I’ve been trying to dig up records on all the employees who worked at the hospital at the time,” Benjamin said. “If the Hoods or Mr. Nash decided to arrange for an adoption, they might have hired someone to kidnap the baby.”

      “That’s definitely a possibility.” Slade heaved a breath. “Look for anyone with a shady past, a record, financial problems, anything that throws up a red flag.” He remembered Carrie’s nervous fidgeting. “Be sure to check out a nurse named Carrie Poole. She was on duty that night in the NICU.”

      “What’s your next step?” Amanda asked.

      “I’m going to investigate the Hoods, and William’s wife, Mitzi. She dated William before Nina and was pissed when Nina turned up pregnant with his child.”

      “Sounds like motive to me,” Benjamin muttered.

      Slade sighed. “Yeah, although the nurse didn’t remember seeing William or Mitzi at the hospital that night.”

      “You said yourself it was total chaos,” Amanda commented. “With all the panic and rescue workers scrambling about, anyone could have slipped through and no one would have noticed.”

      “Something else is bugging me,” Slade said. He removed the doll and showed it to them, then explained about the psychiatrist’s report.

      “Do you think she’s unstable, that she put it there herself?” Benjamin asked.

      Slade shifted on the balls of his feet. “No. At least she doesn’t appear to be delusional.” He decided to run with a theory. “But what if someone wanted everyone to think she was?”

      Amanda drummed her fingers on the desk. “Then putting things in her apartment, like the lullaby CD and doll, that would remind her of her loss would do the trick.”

      Slade ran a hand over the back of his neck. It was devious, effective and cruel.

      And he intended to find the son of a bitch who’d tormented her and make him suffer.

      * * *

      INSTINCTIVELY NINA REACHED inside her purse for her cell phone. She had to call Slade.

      But after her father’s comment and seeing the psychiatrist’s report, she was afraid Slade wouldn’t believe her.

      The windowpane rattled upstairs, the floor creaking, and pure panic seized her.

      What if the person who’d put the blanket on the rocker and started the CD was still inside?

      The rain pounded harder, beating the roof, and suddenly the lights flickered off. Nina froze, listening, waiting.

      But common sense kicked in, and she slowly slipped into the kitchen, pausing to listen for an intruder. The wind whistled through the eaves, the rain intensifying, and she eased open the door to the garage, scanning the darkness. A streak of lightning illuminated the interior, then suddenly a shadow moved across the window.

      Terror streaked through her, and she ran to her car, jumped inside and locked the doors. Her hands shook as she dug her phone from her purse and tried to punch Slade’s number. But she was trembling so badly she dropped the phone. She glanced at the window and saw a hand scraping across the fog-coated pane as if the man was reaching for her.

      She screamed, bent to snap up the phone again then inhaled a deep breath to calm her nerves. She was locked in the car. The man was outside.

      She