It was almost completely dark by the time she arrived at Glen Valley Commons. The stench of the facility repulsed her just the same as that morning. Another déjà vu moment was the encounter with the receptionist, whose politeness had decreased another notch with the demise of the day.
“It’s after five,” she said coldly, barely looking at the badge she presented. “If you weren’t a cop, you’d be asked to come back tomorrow, during visiting hours.” She dialed a number, then spoke into the receiver, “It’s that cop again, for Shelley. Uh-huh, I told her no one pays for overtime here.” Then she hung up, and invited Kay to take a seat while she waited, with a stern gesture of her hand and a frown on her brow.
Kay didn’t obey. The chairs aligned along the off-yellow walls were stained and worn to the thread.
“Detective,” Kay heard the nurse’s voice call. She turned and walked briskly in her direction. “Or should I call you doctor?” The woman’s crooked grin was filled with disdain.
“Detective is fine,” Kay replied, following her into the same room where they’d spoken with Shelley before. “Dr. Sharp, if you prefer.” Then she stared her off until the woman left the room and closed the door behind her.
Shelley looked at Kay with inquisitive eyes, still red from the tears she had wept. Kay crouched in front of her wheelchair, like she’d done before, and took the woman’s hand in hers.
“Mrs. Harrelson, I don’t know how to tell you this—”
“Whatever it is, it must be serious, since you drove all the way back here,” she whispered, her voice filled with tears. “I’m not afraid anymore, so go ahead, say it. I have nothing left to lose.”
Filling her lungs with air and bracing herself, Kay chose her words carefully before letting them leave her lips. “I’m afraid we’ve made a terrible mistake, and I can only hope you can forgive me.” She hesitated still, not sure how to best say what she was about to. “You see, the girl whose body we found at Blackwater River Falls was not your daughter.”
“It wasn’t my Rose?” she asked, her thinning eyebrows shooting up.
“No, it wasn’t. For some reason, the DNA we had on file was wrong—”
“That means, my baby could still be alive?”
“Yes,” Kay said, still holding Shelley’s right hand. “Yes, that’s exactly what it means. We have no new information regarding Rose; this has all been an unfortunate case of mistaken identity, for which I’m asking you to accept our most sincere apologies—”
The woman squeezed Kay’s hand so tightly it seemed unbelievable, considering how frail she was. “Find her,” she pleaded, her voice filled with tears and a shred of hope. “Find my baby, please. If anyone can find her, you can.”
“I promise you I’ll leave no stone unturned until I find out what happened to your daughter that night fourteen years ago, and maybe, if we’re lucky to find her alive, we’ll bring her back to you.” She choked a little, seeing the woman’s intense emotion and wondering if she wasn’t giving Shelley false hope. But Rose could, in fact, still be alive out there somewhere, and she would find her. She would bring her home.
“Thank you, my dear,” Shelley replied, tears streaming down her face while a timid smile stretched her lips. “Tell me, who was the girl you found murdered?”
Kay hesitated, wondering if she could disclose the information, being she hadn’t notified Alyssa’s next of kin yet. In that particular case, it seemed warranted she break the rule. “It’s not yet been made public, but the girl was Alyssa Caldwell.”
Blood drained from Shelley’s cheeks, leaving them a cadaveric shade of gray. “Bill Caldwell’s daughter?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper, her hands trembling.
“Yes, Alyssa was Bill Caldwell’s daughter. Did you know him?”
Shelley pulled her hand from Kay’s and took it to her chest. With frail, trembling fingers she grabbed the fabric of her gown and pulled hard, as if she was suffocating. She struggled to fill her lungs with air, then she let out a heart-wrenching sob.
“Oh, God… oh, God… all this time… my baby… no, please, no…”
Kay frowned, seeing the woman’s mouth, previously agape in agony, turn crooked, while her left pupil dilated. “Did you know Bill Caldwell? Have you ever met him?” Kay asked, while taking out her flashlight and checking the reactivity of Shelley’s pupils.
“No… no… my baby…” she cried, her voice fainter and fainter, her words less and less intelligible.
The flashlight lit her left eye, but her pupil didn’t contract. Shelley Harrelson was having another stroke.
Rushing to the door and opening it wide, Kay called for the nurse, then ran back to Shelley’s side and dialed emergency services for an ambulance. She stripped a blanket off the nearby bed and covered the woman in it, before rolling her to the main entrance.
“What’s your ETA?” she asked into the phone, with the 911 operator on the other end of the line. “I need that ambulance stat, or this woman will die.”
13Touched
Five Days Ago
Sharp pain shot through her ankle. Kirsten lay still on her side, her right leg flexed at the knee so she could keep a cool, soothing hand on the swollen joint. She didn’t count the minutes, nor did she worry about what was to come. She lay there, patiently waiting for the sharp pain to turn into dull throbs, slowly subsiding, while she kept her eyes on the crystal blue sky of the California morning.
There was nothing like the azure of the Golden State’s clear sky, especially after rain had washed through. She’d only seen it on TV until that day, and had yearned to witness it with her own eyes one day. That day had finally come, and found her lying in a ditch with a swollen ankle and nowhere to go but
