Pyro

“I’m sorry, but I can’t release those records,” the lady said.

“Then transfer me to someone who can,” I demanded. “I was told that one of my children had died and I have a right to know why.”

“You gave up those rights when you put the children up for adoption.”

“Listen, I want to talk to someone higher up than you. I don’t care if I signed my rights away twenty million times; I deserve to know why I was told that one of them was dead. I deserve to know why I was led to believe that I only had twins left when it was really triplets. I also deserve to know why it’s taken this long for me to even know. Get me someone who can tell me. NOW!”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I was placed on hold and waited as patiently as I knew how to.

About forty-five minutes later, someone came back on the line. “This is Janelle, I’m the hospital administrator, what can I do for you?” the woman said.

“My name is Hailey Jonston and ten years ago I gave birth to triplets,” I said. “I was told that two of my children had lived and one had died during the night. They said that her lungs had collapsed and that they couldn’t revive her. I put my children, Anita and Merry, up for adoption. I was told by the adoption agency that I hadn’t just put Anita and Merry up for adoption, but Laurell as well. I want some answers.”

“I remember that night. Listen, I don’t want to talk on the phone. Is there somewhere we can meet?”

I gave her my address and she hung up the phone. “That was weird.”

“What do you mean?” Kendra asked.

“She said that she remembered the night I was talking about and then said she didn’t want to talk on the phone and asked to meet somewhere. I gave her the address.”

“Maybe you should have Jonathon nearby,” Jackson said. “Just in case.”

“In case of what?”

“Exactly.”

I looked at him and wondered if he’d had a screw loose.

* * *

A few hours later there was a knock on the front door and I answered it. “Can I help you?” I asked.

“Hi, we spoke on the phone,” the woman said.

“Come on in. We can talk in the living room.”

“Thanks.” She looked around. “Is it okay to talk openly here?”

“Yes. The man to the left is their father. The woman is my soon-to-be wife and the other man is a friend.”

“Okay. That night was really strange, you may remember that.”

“Right. Full moon and getting overcast. Rain was in the forecast. Heavy rains with thunder and lightening.”

“Correct. Well, to make things stranger this woman came up to me, just after you’d been taken to recovery.”

I nodded.

“She begged me to tell you that one of the babies had died. I told her I couldn’t do that. I heard her going around to the nurses and doctors begging them to do the same thing. They all told her that they couldn’t do that.”

“Someone did though.”

“When I came around a few hours later, the baby was there. Just before you were told I went and the baby was gone. I don’t know what happened. We had preventative measures to keep things like that from happening.”

“Someone stole our baby?” Jackson asked.

“Yes and I think the hospital covered it up.”

“Why did you wait so long to say something?” Kendra asked.

“Because no one ever came to ask me questions before today. There were no police or anything like that. Their new parents came to pick up the other two and since no one had reported her missing, I didn’t think anything of it.”

“Why didn’t you want to speak on the phone?”

“I just didn’t think I’d be able to tell you everything that I knew. You never know with public places these days. Big brother is supposed to be everywhere.”

“Why did you trust me enough to show up here and speak with me? Didn’t you think I’d call the cops?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“If you’d known about the kidnapping you’d have called the cops and had them come to the hospital to question me.”