the wombs of sterile women. In these past eight years he learned how to immunize a host mother to prevent her from rejecting an alien fetus, at least for a few months. Most cases eventually ended in spontaneous abortion, but he did have one complete success.
'After that one success, he wanted to break more new ground. An Oriental woman named Anna Horan, who's married to a Caucasian, claims he knocked her out and took her fetus when she was unconscious. She was right. He had Vangie Lewis in the next room waiting for the implant. Vangie thought she was simply having some treatment to help her become pregnant. Highley never expected Vangie to retain the Oriental fetus so long. When her body did not reject the developing fetus, he decided to bring it to term. Who would blame him if Vangie had a partly Oriental child?'
'He was able to suppress the immune system?'
'Yes, and without harm to the developing fetus. But the danger to the mother was great. He's killed sixteen women. Vangie was getting terribly sick. Unfortunately for her, she ran into Highley last Monday evening just as she left Fukhito. She told him she was going to consult her former doctor in Minneapolis. That would have been a risk because her gynecologist would know that a natural pregnancy for Vangie was a million-to-one shot. And when she mentioned Emmet Salem's name, she was finished. Highley knew that Dr. Salem would guess what had happened. Salem was in England when Highley's first wife died. He knew about the scandal.
'And now,' Richard said, 'that's enough of that. All the rest can wait. Your eyes are closing again.'
'No… You said Highley had one success.'
'Yes. And if you had stayed five minutes longer at Molly's last Thursday night and seen the Berkeley baby, you could guess who it is. Liz Berkeley carried Maureen Crawley’s baby to term.”
“Maureen’s baby.” Katie tried to pull herself up.
“Easy, you’ll pull that needle out.” Gently he touched her shoulder, holding her until she leaned back.
“Does Maureen know?” she asked.
“It was only right to tell her and the Berkeley’s. Jim has been living with the belief that his wife lied to him about artificial insemination. You know how Maureen felt about that abortion. It’s been destroying her. She went to see her baby. She’s one happy girl, Katie. She would have given it out for adoption if she had delivered it naturally. Now that she has seen Maryanne, sees how crazy the Berkeleys are about her, she’s in seventh heaven.”
“What about the mother of Vangie’s baby?”
“Anna Horan is heartbroken enough about the abortion. We saw no point in telling her what Highley did with her baby. She’ll have other children.”
Katie bit her lip. “Richard, tell me the truth. When they found me, how far did they have to go to stop the bleeding?”
“You’re okay. You can still have a dozen kids if you want them.”
His hand reached over to cover hers. That hand had been there, had pulled her back when she was so near to death. That voice had made her want to come back.
For a long, quite moment she looked up at Richard. Oh, how I love you, she thought. How very much I love you.
His troubled expression changed suddenly into a broad smile. Obviously he was satisfied at what he saw in her face.
Katie grinned back at him. “pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you Doctor?” she asked him crisply.
