CHAPTER 10
I didn't recall the drive to the hospital. I wasn't even sure which hospital Susan had been taken to for treatment. Trey had not said much at all only that he had received a called from the police indicating that his mother had been taken there by paramedics; her condition was underdetermined at this point. There would be detectives there to interview us once we arrived he had said.
"Where is Preston?" I asked Trey.
"I'm sure she was either left with a neighbor or is at the hospital with Mom," he responded calmly.
"Someone at the hospital is likely looking after her until we get there."
"What kind of accident or injury happened to your mom?"
I'm not sure but let's please hope and pray for the best okay?"
"Okay," I answered as Trey pulled into the Emergency Room parking lot at St. Matthews Hospital.
As we entered the lobby to the ER, several police officers immediately approached, and led us to a private waiting room off of the ER which I could only guess was used for privacy when the news was bad. I felt my throat start to close up as Trey pulled me along side of him into the room. One of the officers shut the door and instructed us to take our seats.
"Your mother will be fine," he assured us right off the bat.
I breathed a sigh of relief and felt Trey relax beside me. Our relaxation was to be short-lived.
"Mr. & Mrs. Sinclair, when the paramedics brought your mother in a little while ago, she was unconscious due to a concussion; she started coming around just a few minutes ago and has been disoriented and extremely anxious. She is insisting that whoever bashed her over the head, took your baby daughter. Do you have a baby daughter that would have been in the apartment with your mother when the fire alarm sounded?"
"Fire alarm?" Trey asked.
"It was just a false alarm; don't worry your building is fine. If in fact your daughter is missing, it could have been an attempt to divert attention away from the alleged perpetrator."
I hadn't heard anything after Trey had questioned the police about the fire alarm. Oh my god, she did it! She fucking did it. I had known that somehow and some way my mother would come back to hurt me. It was what I had feared and dreamt about; it was the reason for the paranoia inside of me that the pills Dr. Addison had prescribed had magically tucked away from my subconscious.
Mom had my baby I was as sure of that as I was of my love for Trey and Preston. The bitch was mine! That was the last conscious promise I made to myself before I was blessed with darkness as my body took over and I careened into oblivion.
I was awakened abruptly by a nurse waving smelling salts underneath my nose. Trey was right there, he had lifted me back onto my chair. The nurse had a gurney there but I refused. I knew that I would be fine. I had to be fine because I was going to find my baby and kill that bitch.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," I said, pushing the nurse's hand away with the disgusting smelling salts.
"Sweetie," Trey pleaded, "I think you are in shock right now as we all are, let them help you, baby."
His eyes were teared up, pleading with me. He was destroyed; I could see that. The problem was that he didn't know what I knew and I knew that my fucking slut of a mother was behind this and she wouldn't be hurting Preston; I was sure of that. Preston was worth something to her, I just had to figure out what and why.
"Trey," I pleaded, "Let's see how your mom is doing right now. We have to see what she recalls about what happened. I refuse to believe that some random faction took Preston. I know who is behind this."
"You do?" he asked, totally in shock. Who?"
"My mother," I announced very matter-of-factly.
"I know that it was her. We just have to find her."
The look that passed between my husband and the police was unmistakably one of disbelief. Okay - they thought I was nuts, paranoid - had a 'mommy' issue, whatever. I knew the truth.
The detective wanted to question Trey alone - probably to see what he knew about his 'Mommy-In-Law Dearest.' Trey could only fill in him on what he knew for certain: that included Charlie's connection and conspiracy with her; as well as the fact that Trey's P.I. had discovered some time back that my mom had been living with Daniel somewhere in Indiana.
I could count on Trey; he had been with me during a lot of the fallout that could only be attributed to mom and the minions that she directed such as Charlie.
Trey guided me back out to the waiting room, instructing me to sit there until the detective had finished questioning him. He made me promise that I would sit still.
(Whatever... he needed to chill. I had a plan.)
Trey returned to the small room where the detective was most likely questioning him on both of our mental stability and why we might want out baby daughter dead. I had seen enough movies on LMN and TruTV to know how it flowed. I hoped that Trey wouldn't take offense. It was standard procedure to suspect a family member after an "alleged" abduction.
My hopes were dashed when I heard my husband's voice getting louder and louder. He dropped several "F" bombs before he exited the room indicating that any future questioning would be conducted with his own counsel present.
Weird - he would seek other counsel to defend us against what? I knew damn well who the perp was; I was certain I would be able to unravel her whereabouts given the resources I knew that Trey could afford to provide.
Trey held his hand out for me to take it as he pulled me from the chair and we headed out toward the mail lobby. He asked someone at the "help" desk about his mother. We were directed to ER 5, where Susan was currently getting treatment for whatever injuries she had sustained during her "accident."
As we entered ER5 behind the curtain, Susan was laying upon a gurney. She had a bandage over one eye and another around the forehead. Oh God, what had my mother done to her?
Trey immediately was by her side, leaning over, kissing her cheek. Her eyes sprang open and they were full of guilt, pain and fear.
"Oh Trey," she wept, "Tylar, can you ever forgive me?"
She was wailing, tears flowing down her cheeks. She was near hysteria. A young doctor was beside her, giving her an injection of some sort.
He turned to Trey.
"This will calm her," he explained. "She has had a major shock with what she has been through today. She will be out in just a few minutes."
A few minutes were all she had so I needed to work fast. I approached her gurney, taking her hand into mine.
"Susan," I said gently, "We want you to calm down and relax. You need to take care of your health for the moment, okay? No one is angry with you, do you understand?"
She nodded pathetically, totally grief-stricken about what had happened. I needed to get some questions answered before she drifted off.
"Okay," I said, steadfast in my mission. "Can you please tell me what happened to Preston?"
"Nurse Bradley took her," she choked out between tears. "During the interview, Preston started fussing to eat. I asked Nurse Bradley if she would hold her while I went to the kitchen and warmed up a bottle of your breast milk. She was more than happy to do so," she said.
"I heard the baby stop fussing while I was out in the kitchen. I went ahead and finished heating up her bottle."
Susan was sobbing now, totally absorbed in her tears and guilt. I could see that.
"What happened?" I prodded as Trey stood by in a zombie-like trance.
"Well, when I came out with Preston's bottle, I saw that Nurse Bradley was sitting on the couch with her. She had her blouse unbuttoned and she was . . ."
Susan stopped to sob louder now, clearly disoriented by what she had observed. I needed her to finish.
"What Susan?" I pressed, my voice louder and more demanding than I had intended.
"She was nursing the baby," she wailed. "Preston was latched onto her breast, nursing from her!"
"What the fuck?" I said loudly.
Susan starting wailing louder; Trey had turned into a statue again.
"Susan…Susan," I said firmly. "What happened then?"
I could tell that she was starting to feel the effects of whatever drug she had been given.
"I asked her what the hell she thought she was doing. She said she had lost a baby but kept pumping her breasts. She said she had been donating her breast milk to the Fulton County Milk Bank. I told her she needed to leave and I went to take Preston from her. She kicked me with her foot and I landed on the floor. She laid Preston on the couch, grabbed the poker from the fireplace and bashed me on the head with it. The next thing that I remember is being here."
She continued sobbing; my heart went out to her. Trey leaned down, kissing her and stroking her hair. He told her that everything would be okay.
I had one more question that I desperately needed to ask Susan before she sank into oblivion.
"Susan," I said loudly. "I thought Nurse Bradley had retired from the hospital. How could it be that she was still of child-bearing age?"
Susan looked me dead in the eye when she answered.
"Tylar, there was no way that lady was any older than forty years old I swear. I don't know what age it is that nurses can retire, but grey wig and all, I could tell she wasn't more than late thirties or very early forties."
"Wig?" I asked.
It was too late. Susan had drifted off to sleep. I had no further description from her other than she knew that the faux Nurse Bradley had been wearing a grey wig and that she in no way looked liked she was old enough to have been retired after twenty years spent as a nurse.
I did recall that the resume at our apartment for this Sheila Bradley had said her nursing years had been spent at North Bay hospital where I had delivered Preston. We needed to get there.
Trey was still in shock. He was on the phone with one of his partners letting them know the situation. They assured Trey they would pull all strings possible with the authorities to get an Amber Alert issued. The problem was we had nothing to go on. Susan was not even up to talking to a sketch artist at the moment. We had no clue what the perp was driving, though I strongly suspected it was a newer model, white SUV. The same vehicle that had struck Jean.
The attending physician that had been treating Susan came in to let us know that they were admitting her overnight for observation of her head injury. Trey wanted to stay with her but he didn't want me to be alone at home. He was right. Seeing Preston's stuff and anything that had been a part of the struggle with Susan against my mother would be disturbing. I stayed with Susan while Trey made a couple more phone calls. He called Clive to let him know what had happened. Gina had returned to Atlanta the previous day. He called her to see if she would come and get me for the night. He let me know that she was on her way to pick me up and that I was to stay there until I heard from Trey in the morning. He had talked to Tristan and Nigel as well; Tristan was getting the first available flight to Atlanta. Trey needed his family's support right now. I was glad that he had a family that was supportive.
I didn't want to be away from Trey but I knew that both of us could not stay with his mother. Trey was constantly on his Blackberry with the police and state highway patrol. I knew that this wouldn't do any good. My mother if nothing else was good at duplicity and avoiding detection. What she had failed at was the realization of how much I loved my baby and that was her fatal mistake. I would bet the whore's life on it…
Once off of the phone, Trey cautioned me to say no more about my suspicions relative to my mother. I wasn't sure if it was because he thought me delusional but the reasoning he gave me sounded logical. He said that if the local authorities deemed this a "domestic incident" it would delay getting the FBI involved. Trey wanted every resource available to be involved in finding Preston. I would not hinder that in any way. Trey said we could not discount that this had been a kidnapping for ransom in which case, we wanted the assistance of the feds.
I knew my mother well enough to know that kidnapping for ransom was not her game. She didn't possess the international savvy it would take to leave the country and keep a low profile for the rest of her life. She didn't roll that way. Preston was valuable to her but for some other reason; something less dramatic but equally lucrative without the risk. She had made a grave mistake in underestimating the love that Trey and I both had for our baby girl. That is because my mother did not understand the concept of love. She would soon experience the wrath that results when a loved one is put at risk. She had crossed a very dangerous line this time.