“Fine, anything is fine.”
“The reservation is open ended, so there’s no rush. I spoke with Miss Romero, and she said to take your time. Is there anything else you need from me?”
My skin slowly changed to white as I squeezed my knuckles around the steering wheel. Did I have Heidi do it or not? “Can you do me a favor?”
“Of course.”
“I’d normally never ask for something like this, send some gorgeous flowers to Vivian, she owns Sixes Bar & Grille. Just write, I’m sorry, an emergency arose. Love, Aaron.”
“Love? Wow, that’s something I’ve never written for you before.”
“Goodbye, Heidi, I’ll call if I need anything else.”
“Goodbye, sir.”
Two hours later, I crossed the bridge into Evansville, hit the map link Heidi had sent, and followed the directions to my hotel.
I pulled up to valet; it was always easier to have my car waiting as soon as I hurried out of a hotel than to have to walk to it with people following me and taking pictures or asking for photographs.
The valet wasn’t much over eighteen. He opened my door and froze staring at me. “Umm, hello Mr. Skkye.”
“Shhh, let’s not make a big deal of this, okay?”
He nodded, and I reached into my backseat and grabbed my hanger-bag with all of my clothes and my toiletry bag. He handed me my ticket, I handed him a twenty, and then I headed for the front desk.
Before I made it there, a woman in a polyester business suit that had to be itchy as fuck intercepted me.
“Welcome, Mr. Skkye, I’m Jenny Winternheimer, the general manager. We already have your room ready. Your assistant has given a card to be put on file. You are on the top floor, corner suite, here is your key. May we help you with your luggage?”
“No thanks, I’ve got it.”
“Would you like some breakfast sent up?”
“That would be awesome. Whatever they can do fast is great, I’m not picky.”
“We’re on it.”
“Thank you so much, Ms. Win . . . Jenny.”
She laughed. “Winternheimer, but don’t worry, hardly anyone gets it right the first time. Here’s my card, let me know if you need anything while you are with us.”
I took her card and headed for the elevators, Winternheimer . . . hmmm. Now that she mentioned it, I remember going to school with a lot of unique names, just never thought about them being German: Niemeier, Wimpleberg, Winzapfel, Snodgrass. That last one still caught me off guard, that name was a hard no for me.
There was a large basket of fresh fruit waiting for me inside my suite. I hung up my garment bag then grabbed a banana before moving the lock on my door and setting it so it wouldn’t latch and the room service waiter could come on in. Then I started making phone calls.
“Thank you for calling the Vanderburgh county department of Children and Family Services, we open at nine a.m., please call back during our normal time, or in the case of an emergency, please call eight-one-two . . .” I wrote down the number and then hung up.
Dialing the next number, I waited.
“Hello?”
“Hi, this is Aaron Skkye, some—”
"Oh, Aaron, I’m so glad you called. It’s me, Karen Koehler—well, you would remember me as Karen Kingsland. We went to high school together. I’m the one who called you. I know it isn’t proper protocol, but I saw the file when we were alerted about the girl and knew instantly who she was. Evansville still isn’t that big; we know everyone’s business. I remembered you and Maisy having that baby.” Good god, when would this woman shut up? I didn’t need to be reminded about things I already knew.
“What about seeing—”
“Anyway, she’s alone and there were no other next of kin, so I contacted you. When can you get to Evansville?”
“I’m here already.”
“Oh. Well then. She just had surgery—”
“Why? On what?”
“On her wrist, she needed it set.”
“Can I see her?”
“Well . . . ummm . . . we’re not sure she even knows that she was adopted. We need to go very carefully here. Since I’m the one handling Ireland’s case, I need to ask if you have heard from Maisy or know of her whereabouts?”
“No. Not once since she snuck out of the hospital. I have no clue where she is or even if she is still alive.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Tell me about it. I never understood her leaving.” I glanced up as my door opened, and waved for the waiter to carry in my tray. Like the valet, he paused and stared for a second.
I reached for the black cheque folder to sign the bill.
“It’s taken care of,” Troy, according to his name tag, said.
After I handed him a ten, he closed the door behind himself as he left, and I made a mental note to get cash.
“Let’s meet at Deaconess hospital at two o’clock, is that okay with you?”
“Sure, why not before?”
“I’m meeting the doctor at three, I’d like to talk with you, and then if we come to a consensus, you can listen as well. I’ll meet you at the main entrance.”
I hung up, set my alarm for twelve thirty and then turned to eat before taking a much-needed nap.
Aaron
Sorry, John Mellencamp, but your idea of living in a small town and mine are two totally different things.
I thumped my steering wheel as I drove down Mary Street on the way to the hospital.
My mind was whirling, could I do this? Of course I could, there was no other choice. The times I spent in foster care, when my mom was picked up and someone thought to look to see if she had any kids at home, were nightmarish. It wasn’t just that I was young and scared, either. There was always something cold about those places, no matter how hard they tried to make them feel otherwise.
There was no way I would allow my daughter to even
