Lone Star Christmas Rescue. Margaret Daley

man was Rosa. “Thanks. I need you to send me a photo of the man who came out of the storage room. Also, a picture of Kay leaving her room. Send it here.” Drake gave the security guard a card with his cell number and email address. “Keep this footage until I say otherwise.”

      “Yes, sir.”

      Drake knew Rosa had left work about an hour ago. Earlier she’d told Officer Emert that she hadn’t seen Kay leave with the baby, and from the footage that appeared correct. But she hadn’t said anything about that man visiting Kay’s room earlier. Maybe the nurse could tell him what she’d seen.

      First, Drake stopped at the storage room and went inside. He examined what was really only a large walk-in closet for evidence the guy from the tape might have left behind. Everything appeared in its correct place, so he took latent prints from the inside doorknob, then headed downstairs to the main office to get Rosa’s home phone number and address. He was glad she didn’t live very far from the hospital.

      Soon he pulled up in front of the head nurse’s ranch-style house and parked in the driveway. The bright Christmas lights around the front welcomed him as he rang the bell.

      A teenage boy opened the door with earbuds stuck in his ears, the sound of a current popular song loud enough for Drake to hear.

      “Is your mom home?”

      “What?” the kid shouted.

      The teen was in his own world. He hadn’t even bothered to look at Drake other than a brief glance when he answered the door. Drake pulled out his credentials and waved them in the boy’s line of vision. “I need to see Rosa Martinez.”

      Eyes wide, the adolescent yelled, “Mom, the police are here.” He remained in the entrance to the house.

      Rosa hurried from the back, waving her hand at her son. “Thanks, Samuel. You still haven’t shown me your English paper. It’s due tomorrow.”

      The teen stepped back from the entryway and removed his earbuds, his attention now glued to Drake.

      “I need to talk to you about Kay,” Drake said to Rosa.

      “I’m sorry I had to leave, but I had to pick up Samuel from the school library. I don’t know what happened. I went into her room to take Kaleb back to the children’s wing. She and the baby were gone. I notified security, and then an emergency took most of my time after that.”

      Samuel still hung around, moving slowly toward the hallway.

      Kaleb? Had Kay remembered the baby’s name? “Can we talk in private?” Drake asked, remembering the times he would do anything to get out of writing a paper for school.

      “Sure. The kitchen should be private enough.” Rosa sent a glare in her son’s direction. He left quickly.

      “Is he your only child?”

      “Yes, how can you tell?”

      “Too quiet here.” Drake followed Rosa to the kitchen. “I have a sister near my age who has four children. She lives in Houston. When I visit, the house is always noisy, except when they’re all asleep.”

      “You don’t have any children?” Rosa gestured at the table while she walked to the counter and filled a mug. “Do you want some coffee?”

      “Sounds good.” As Rosa handed him a cup and sat, Drake joined her. “I’m not married. I was once.”

      “What happened?”

      “She was killed in the line of duty. She was a highway patrol officer like I was before I became a Texas Ranger. She stopped a truck driving too fast. The driver shot her.”

      Rosa took a long drink. “I’m so sorry. Did they catch the killer?”

      “Yes, he’d been transporting illegal immigrants.” Another reason Drake had wanted to be on the human trafficking task force besides the suspicion about what happened to his younger sister.

      “Being a police officer is dangerous. I’m so glad my husband has a boring job reading X-rays. He’s a radiologist and should be home from El Paso soon.”

      As he took several sips, Drake relished the coffee. “I know you talked with the two officers in Kay’s room, and they passed on what you told them, but I’m here about an incident that happened a couple of hours before you discovered Kay was gone.”

      Rosa’s forehead puckered. “Incident?” She paused, then said, “Oh, you mean the stranger who came into her room looking for another patient.”

      “Yes, he was about six feet with dark hair.” Drake clicked on the photo the security guard had sent him and showed his cell phone to Rosa.

      She nodded. “He was looking for an Amy Grafton. We didn’t have a patient on my floor by that name. Later I found there was a patient called that, but on the third floor in room 336—an older woman who was being discharged. He probably wrote down the wrong number.”

      “You didn’t see him after that?”

      “No. Why?”

      “Because on the security tape, that man left Kay’s and went a couple of doors down into a storage closet. He stayed there for twenty minutes, then left.”

      “That’s strange.”

      “I agree. I’ll check with Amy Grafton to see if she knows this man.”

      “If she doesn’t, do you think he took Kay and the baby?”

      “Kay left with the child. The man had already disappeared, but something doesn’t feel right.” Why hide in a storage closet for twenty minutes? Drake sighed. “I won’t take up any more of your time. You’ve put in a long day.” He rose.

      “Please let me know when you find Kay and Kaleb.”

      “Did she remember the baby’s name?”

      Rosa pushed to her feet, tired lines carved into her features. “‘Kaleb’ came to her, and the child responded to it. It was obvious the baby knew her. But she hadn’t recalled anything else. At least that I know of.”

      Had she recognized the man who entered her room? “If you think of anything else unusual that happened on the floor today, give me a call. You have my card?”

      She nodded and walked with him to the foyer. “I’m off for the next two days, but I’ll help any way I can. I’ll be here.”

      “Thanks.”

      Weary, Drake needed sleep after the past two long days, but he still wanted to see if Amy Grafton could help him ID the man in the photo. The police were working on identifying the man. At the moment, he was the only lead Drake had other than the security camera showing Kay leaving the hospital by the back door, dressed in the clothes she’d worn the day before. Then she’d disappeared.

      At least she had three hundred dollars. But the money without having ID was strange. Had she been faking not knowing who she was? Was the baby hers? The locket indicated she knew the child somehow. He hoped he would hear soon about the latent prints he took off the inside door handle of the storage closet. He couldn’t shake the sense of urgency he felt, as though someone was homing in on Kay and the child—someone she’d been fleeing when he found her?

      * * *

      Kay shrank farther into the shadows of the dimly lit café, the ambience more for couples looking for a night of romance than a woman with a baby. She’d cased the place for an hour before she’d come inside to get off the street and order something to eat. Kaleb was finally asleep, strapped against her chest. The only other place she’d gone after leaving the hospital was a store where she’d used the money she’d found in her jeans pocket to buy necessary items for Kaleb and a clean shirt that didn’t look like she’d rolled around in the dirt. She used less than a hundred to equip herself and Kaleb to disappear somewhere in the area until she decided on her next move.

      She had no idea who was after