Authors: Chelsea Heights
Delaney pushed the red button on her call bell and asked for more pain medication.
Within minutes the nurse appeared carrying a syringe.
“On a scale of one to ten, what would you rate your pain?”
She hated this question.
Twelve hours ago she had been shot and left for dead on a beach.
It was tempting to ask the nurse if she had ever taken a bullet.
Clenching her teeth, she said, “It’s a ten.”
Seconds later the burning sensation of the morphine being pushed into her IV was a welcoming feeling.
Listening to the nurse’s footsteps, she waited until she heard the door close before turning her head into the pillow and cried herself to sleep.
Leaving the vet with Fetch lying across the back floor of the ice cream truck, Mike and Cecily decided it would be better for them to take care of the dog at Delaney’s house.
They figured it would be more comforting to her in her own surroundings than in someplace unfamiliar.
The poor dog had been through enough and deserved to sleep and recover where she knew she was loved.
Mike found the extra key taped under the porch rocker like Jake told him he would.
Opening the door he turned on all the lights and made sure it was safe.
He wasn’t in the mood to take on any more shooters.
He and Cecily didn’t know why someone would want to kill Delaney but after being interrogated by cops for three hours he knew it had to do something with Caroline O’Sullivan’s baby.
The shooting was declared an act of self-defense and the cops were impressed with his head shot with nothing but the light of the moon and stars to guide him.
Mike didn’t tell them he spent years training in sniper school and another year in Iraq taking out top wanted Taliban leaders hundreds of yards away under much more grueling conditions.
He figured it wasn’t necessary and chalked it up to luck.
Jake knew better though, and it was something that would stay between the Marines.
Cecily went through the cabinets looking for something to eat.
“Absolutely nothing fit for human consumption,” she yelled out to Mike as he was changing the bandages on Fetch.
Grabbing a box of dog bones, she headed toward the living room and dropped onto the couch.
She felt exhausted.
Cecily had never heard gunfire before but when she did she recognized it immediately.
Instinctively she dialed 911 from her cell and could hear the screeching sirens before she saw the lights.
It still felt like forever before the first cops arrived.
Staying on the beach, she watched as Delaney’s body was carried into the ambulance by stretcher.
She was certain her new friend was dead.
When Mike ran down to meet her all she could do was grab him and cry.
He held her for awhile before she had the courage to ask.
She was relieved to learn her friend was going to survive and felt a little guilty for being happy that Mike was safe.
She couldn’t live without him.
Tossing a few bones on the floor she motioned for Mike to come lay with her.
It was only minutes before they fell asleep in each other’s arms.
They didn’t wake for nine hours.
Then they made gentle love and went back to sleep.
The sound of the ringing phone startled them and they both jumped up from the couch.
Cecily answered.
“Hello?”
She could hear the grogginess in her voice and looked at the clock.
It was already ten in the morning.
“Hi, Delaney?
It’s Caroline O’Sullivan.”
Cecily’s ears perked up at the name. She glanced at Mike and watched him trying to pull on his pants without falling over. “No, I’m her friend Cecily.
She’s not home right now. Can I take a message?”
Cecily didn’t want to talk about her friend being shot.
“Oh, I didn’t think she would be home.
I just read in the paper and saw that she was shot.
Is she going to be okay?
Do you know if it had anything to do with me?”
Cecily wasn’t a good liar.
“I’m not sure why someone shot her but maybe it had something to do with you and maybe not.”
Mike just shook his head.
She was even a bad liar over the phone he thought.
“Well I guess I’ll call back in a couple of days.
I already tried the hospital but the operator wouldn’t put me through to her room.
My mom told me she was here at my house with a man from the FBI.
She had given them a box with a camera.
Do you know if she found out anything?”
Cecily knew she was referring to Jake but had no idea about anything involving a camera in a box.
“I’m sorry, I really don’t know anything about the case.”
Sounding much more sincere and believable, she said good-bye and hung up the phone.
Mike was outside with Fetch now so Cecily decided to do some snooping.
Entering the home office she spotted the camera box right away.
Next to it was Delaney’s MacBook.
Gathering up the items she pulled the computer charger from the wall socket and shoved it into the box with the camera.
Then she carried it all out to the ice cream truck.
She had Mike drop her off at her apartment so she could shower and change.
After telling him to take the box with the camera and laptop to the hospital, they gave each other a long kiss and said their good-byes.
Mike watched as she walked up the path to her front door and he smiled as she blew him a kiss.
He couldn’t wait to make her his wife.
Mike was surprised when he entered Delaney’s room and found her awake watching HGTV and Jake sleeping like a baby on a pull out chair.
“Look who it is.
I just wanted to go sailing and instead get in a shootout and have to be interrogated by cops.
Then I spend the night feeding bones to your dog and sleeping on your couch.
You really know how to entertain.”
He had a huge grin on his face and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
Looking up, she read his tight fitting t-shirt that had
U.S.M.C. Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children
written across it.
She let out a laugh and felt instant pain travel up her arm.
“Don’t make me laugh, it hurts too bad.”
“Sorry.
I’ll try to be boring and fast.
Cecily wanted me to tell you Caroline called and knows you were shot.
She read it in the paper.
She was asking about a camera and if you found new information.
She thought you might want these.”
He placed the box on the bedside table and pushed it within her reach.
“Tell Cecily I said thank you.
And Mike, thanks for saving me and Jake.
I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”
Smiling broadly he said, “You already did.”
Delaney gave him a strange look but before she could respond Mike started laughing and said, “Cecily and I had wild monkey sex on your couch all night.
Thanks for letting us use it.”
Then he turned and walked out.
Delaney grabbed her arm and didn’t know if she should laugh or cry.
She waited for the nurse to plug in her charger before booting up her laptop.
Carefully removing the SD card from the side slot of the camera she transferred it into the slot of her Mac.
It was only a matter of minutes before the pictures were transferred to her hard drive.
She created a folder, named it Andrew, then used Photoshop elements to open the file.
She clicked on
Play Slide Show.
All she saw were close ups of random things in the hospital room, a mauve water pitcher, a privacy curtain, and then the wall clock.
She wasn’t kidding when she said she didn’t know how to work this camera.
Delaney felt like she would be looking at five hundred pictures of nothing.
As the slideshow played pictures of the walls and floors, she suddenly spotted the gloved hands of the midwife reaching down and pulling Andrew into the air.
The baby was covered in blood, and a thick purple shiny cord attached him to Caroline.
She had never seen such graphic pictures of a birth before but she knew she was seeing a miracle unfold.
The camera was now shooting in continuous fast mode at four frames per second, almost as if it were a movie.
Every following picture was only slightly different from the previous.
He had huge dark eyes and they reminded her of Caroline.
It was amazing to see the second in time when mother and baby first met.
Tears were flowing down Caroline’s face and she could tell she was saying something to Andrew.
In the next frame she saw the start of the seizure, eyes rolling back followed by the next frame when only the whites of his eyes were shown.
As the slide show played she could almost feel the panic in the room.
Caroline’s arms were outstretched for Andrew as the nurse took the blue baby from her.
He was limp, his head back and little limbs just dangling in the air.
The lifeless baby was lying in the incubator and Susan was still snapping away.
She probably didn’t even realize her finger was pressing the button, Delaney thought.
As Susan turned to watch her grandson be swept away down the hall to intensive care, the camera continued clicking away.
Delaney couldn’t believe her eyes.
In the next frame was Dr. Wu.
She recognized him immediately and it was beginning to make sense. He was standing in the hall outside of the room with his back against the wall.
In the following frames she could see him following the little incubator down the hallway and through the NICU doors.
“Oh my God,” were the only words to come from her mouth.
Quickly she replayed the DVDs from the hospital security cameras.
As she watched Dr. Wu walking through the doors with a bag over his shoulder, she zoomed in and saw an older model car parked in the valet area.
Behind that car was another, occupied by Chief O’Malley.
Her mind racing, she recalled how Becca O’Malley had been pregnant that same summer as Caroline.
At the time she was amazed by the woman’s strength.
She knew that Becca had suffered from a string of miscarriages and for a long time assumed she couldn’t have children.
Chief O’Malley bragged how his wife gave birth at home in their bathtub and he cut the cord.
He had told everyone they had attended classes on the “Bradley Home Birthing Method” and the home delivery had been planned the whole time.
Not knowing much about childbirth herself, Delaney never questioned it.
But now she knew Becca had never been pregnant, at least not long enough to have a baby on her own.
She had to find O’Malley.
He would lead her to Andrew.
Chapter Twenty Three
Picking up the bedside phone, she insisted the operator take her credit card information and connect her to her father’s international cell phone.
Five minutes of arguing later, she heard the first ring.
“Come on, Dad, answer.” A second ring.
Then the third and fourth.
She was getting ready to hang up when she heard her dad’s voice traveling across the Atlantic.
“Dad, what took you so long to answer?”