Duncomb nodded grimly and sighed. He leaned back in his chair, arms extended, palms flat on his desk.
“I can’t say I’m surprised to see you. I’ve kind of been expecting someone from the Promise Falls police. Word gets around; I understand that. Hard to keep a lid on these things forever. But I want you to know, I’ve got matters well in hand here. I run a tight ship, and I’ve got my people working on it. But I can understand your concern, and don’t mind bringing you up to speed on the steps we’ve been taking.”
Duckworth wondered what sorts of steps the college might be taking to protect the squirrel community, and was more than a little surprised to learn this was already a high priority. “Go on,” he said.
“Maybe you noticed, driving in, some of the emergency posts they’re installing on the grounds.”
“Emergency posts?”
“All you do is hit the button; that sends a message to the security team, tells them where you are, and we dispatch someone right away. Kind of like a fire alarm, or one of those panic strips they put in the subway cars in the big cities.”
“And you’re doing this why?”
Duncomb took his hands off the table and leaned forward in the chair. He eyed Duckworth suspiciously.
“You telling me you’re not here about the attempted rapes we’ve had? We got some nutcase running around, got every woman on campus scared half to death.”
SIX
David
“WHAT are you talking about, Mom?” I said. “What do you mean, ‘not again’? Marla’s grabbed a baby before?”
“While you were in Boston,” she said. “There was an incident.”
“What kind of incident?”
“At the hospital. She snuck into the maternity ward and tried to walk out with someone else’s baby.”
“Oh, my God. You’re not serious.”
“It was just awful. Marla almost made it to the parking lot before someone spotted her, stopped her. Probably someone recognized her, given that she’s in the hospital pretty often, not just to see your aunt, but I think she goes there to see a psychologist or psychiatrist or something. I think his name is . . . I just can’t remember it. It was right on the tip of my tongue. Oh, that’s so annoying.”
“Don’t worry about it. Just tell me what happened.”
“Well, the police got called, but Agnes and Gill explained what had happened, that Marla’d lost a child, that she was, you know, mentally unstable, that she shouldn’t be held accountable for her actions because of the state she was in, that she’d been getting help.”
“I never heard a word about this.”
“Agnes didn’t want anyone to know. You know what she’s like. And, of course, she was in a position to keep it quiet for the most part, but things do get out. People at the hospital talked. Even so, your father and I, we never told a soul, except for now I’m telling you. But something like that, you can’t stop the rumor mill. Agnes, of course, made sure the hospital didn’t take any action against her, and the parents were persuaded not to press charges. Agnes made sure the hospital picked up all the costs that their insurance didn’t cover. Thank God Marla didn’t hurt the baby. It was only two days old, David. We’ve been so worried about her, wondering whether she’s pulling herself together. I didn’t think she’d do anything like this again. This’ll just kill Agnes. She’ll go off the deep end for sure. You know how concerned she is about what people think.”
“I don’t think she took this baby from the hospital. It’s not a newborn. It’s probably nine, ten months old. You need to call Agnes, get her over here.”
“Some mother somewhere must be going out of her mind right now, wondering where her baby is. Hang on.” She raised her voice. “Don!”
“Huh?” Sounding like he was in another room.
“Was there anything on there about a missing baby?”
“What?”
“Didn’t you have the radio on? Did they say if the police were looking for a missing baby?”
“Jesus Christ, she hasn’t done it again, has she?”
“Was there or not?”
“I didn’t hear anything.”
To me, Mom said, “Your father says he didn’t—”
“I heard. I think I may know where the baby came from. I’m going to go over there.”
“You know whose baby it is?”
“You know anyone named Rosemary Gaynor?”
“No, it doesn’t ring a bell.”
“It might to Agnes. She might know Marla’s friends.”
“I don’t think Marla has any friends. She just stays cooped up in her house most of the time except to go out and run errands.”
“Call Agnes. Tell her to get over here as fast as possible. I want to go over to the Gaynors’ house, but I feel a little uneasy about leaving Marla alone with the baby.” I paused. “Maybe I should just call the police.”
“Oh,” Mom said cautiously, “I wouldn’t do that. I know Agnes will want to try to sort this out quietly. And you don’t really know what’s going on. For all you know, Marla’s just babysitting for someone, with their permission.”