Beautifully Forgotten (37 page)

The only link they had to their child was Darcy’s mother, and as much as she didn’t want to go back to Queens, she wanted to take a look around her mom’s apartment. Darcy checked her watch. Her mom was most likely out, picking the loser she was going to take home for the evening. She could be in and out before her mother ever got home.

The smell almost knocked her over when she keyed into her mom’s apartment an hour later. Her eyes watered as she tried to breathe through her mouth. The place was a sty, but maybe she’d get lucky and find something that might give them a direction to focus their search.

An hour later, Darcy gave up. The only thing she learned conclusively was that her mom was a disgusting pig and had a matchbook fetish. She looked around the place that had been her prison and wanted to torch it—but that wouldn’t accomplish anything except landing her in jail. She pulled the door closed behind her as disappointment filled her, but at least she wasn’t standing on the sidelines doing nothing.

Ember sat and listened as Charles told all his volunteers that he was pulling out of the race. It was only two weeks since he’d told Trace about Heidi and already he was folding up camp. They had met earlier with her editor for the article she was going to write for
In Step
. She felt sorry for him because he had been a pawn too.

For a man to have to give up his dream because of the actions of another was hard to watch, but he did so with integrity and again Ember found herself admiring him. Vivian looked about ready to spit nails, probably more concerned about how the change in Charles’s circumstances was going to affect her social life. Vivian Michaels looked out for herself, though, so Ember had no doubt she would land on her designer-shoe-covered feet.

Ember had started looking into her part of Darcy’s case, but because it had happened fourteen years ago, nothing was electronic. Per the hospital, files before 2005 were hard copy only and stored in archives.

“Hey, did you hear that the cops are no longer looking at Seth?” Brandon settled on the corner of her desk, grinning.

“I didn’t, no.”

“Yeah, he’s relieved. I mean he knew they’d eventually figure it out, but now that they have, he’s like totally flipping.”

“Thank God. I wonder if Trace knows?” Ember thought out loud.

Ember knew that Brandon had a crush on her, which was why she usually found a way to work Trace into their conversation, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t help him. “I was just talking to my editor about you. You still need to put in community service right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, she thinks she can find a place for you.”

His brow furrowed before he asked, “Why would she do that?”

“Because I asked her to.”

It took him a minute before a smile spread over his face—a lethal smile. “Sweet.”

He noticed her notepad where she had jotted down notes from her conversation with the hospital. A strange look passed over his face. “Are you sick?”

“What?”

He pointed to the name of the hospital that she had scribbled on the pad. “Oh no. I’m trying to get my hands on records that are pretty old.”

“Records about what?”

“A friend is looking for someone.”

“Oh. Are the records at the hospital?”

“Yeah.”

“And you can’t just ask for them?”

“That’s where it gets complicated, because the records I want are employee records.”

“So, what’s your plan?” he asked. But she suspected he already knew, and he confirmed this when he said rather incredulously, “You’re thinking about stealing them, aren’t you?”

“Not steal, but I would like to get my hands on them. The problem is, I don’t know how to get access to the archive room or where in the room I would need to look.”

“I’ll help.”

“How?”

“Well, the way I see it, you need information, and there are people who work in the archive room, so why not just ask the people who work in the room to find what you want?”

“Because it’s against hospital policy to share employee records. If I could get a copy of my friend’s file that would help, but I’m not the patient, so doctor-patient confidentiality will keep them from sharing that with me.”

“Why don’t you just ask your friend to come and get the file?”

“If I have to I will, but she’s going through a really tough time right now. The last thing I want to do is force her into a place where she has some truly horrible memories.”

“Fair enough.”

Clearly something was on his mind, so Ember asked, “What are you thinking?” But she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer.

He flashed her a grin that got her heart beating a bit faster. “I’ve a way with people.”

“Of that, I have no doubt, but this is insane. I can’t pull you into this.”

“You’re not. I’m volunteering,” he said, and wiggled his brows at her.

“And the fact that I’m actually considering it means I’m going to hell.”

“I can’t believe I agreed to this.” They were walking down the administration wing of the hospital on their way to—as Brandon so simply put it—ask for the information they wanted.

“Are you sure you can do this?” Ember asked.

He grinned and the sight of it was both disarming and very familiar to Ember. When he noticed her stunned expression, he said, “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing, you just looked a lot like a friend of mine for a minute.”

The grin turned into a full-on smile. “Sweet.” And then he added, “Watch and learn.”

Before she could ask him what he was talking about, he strolled away from her and headed to the desk where two women were working. Ember stood off to the side and watched as Brandon turned on the charm; even as a kid of sixteen, he had the women eating out of his hand. She watched as the one woman shook her head no, but Brandon wasn’t discouraged. After only about five minutes, the woman headed into the room behind the desk. A few minutes later she came back out with a file, photocopied the contents, and handed them to him. Ember was convinced that she was definitely going to prison.

In the next minute, Brandon turned and walked back to her all loose-limbed and easy. “Piece of cake.”

“You are entirely too good at that.”

“It’s a gift.”

“What did you tell them?” she asked.

He shrugged before he said, “That I was looking for my birth mom.”

They headed outside to a bench before Brandon handed Ember the file. There had been two nurses in with Darcy when she’d delivered, a Nora Jerkins and a Lacy Shane.

“I wonder if these women still work at the hospital?”

“Do you want me to go back and ask?”

Ember couldn’t help but smile—he was just so freaking adorable. “Thanks, but I’ll call my uncle.”

She reached for her phone and did just that.

“Hey, Ember.”

“Can you do me a favor?”

“Sure thing, honey.”

“Can you look into a Nora Jerkins and Lacy Shane? I need to know if they still work at Mt. Sinai. And I also would like their home addresses.”

“Sure, I’ll google them—there’s probably an online directory. Is this about Darcy?”

“Yeah.”

“Give me a minute.” Brandon stood and started to pace around while Ember waited the few minutes before her uncle said, “Okay. Nora died in 2002. Lacy Shane doesn’t work at the hospital; she quit in 2004. I have her address if you want to write it down.”

She pulled a pen from her purse and jotted it down.

“Let me know what you find out, and be careful, Ember.”

“I will, thanks, Uncle Josh.”

Brandon was now leaning up against a tree as if he had not a care in the world.

“Find them?” he asked.

“Nora died, but Lacy is still around. I’ve got her address.”

“So let’s go talk to her.”

“Now?”

“Do you have anything else to do?”

He was right; she had the entire day open. “Okay, and after I’ll buy you lunch.”

“Good deal.”

Lacy Shane lived in a rundown row house in Queens, so if she had been paid off all those years ago, she hadn’t been paid much.

“Can I ask what this is all about?” Brandon asked.

Ember stopped midway up the front path to Lacy’s house and turned to Brandon. “I’m sorry—of course. A friend had a baby that she was told had died in childbirth, but she recently learned that it was a lie.”

He said nothing at first, just studied her. After a minute or two he said, “That really sucks. How long ago was this?”

“Fourteen years ago.”

“And your friend, how is she handling it?”

“She’s devastated, but wants to find her child.”

“Fourteen years is a long time. How does she know if her kid is still around?”

“I don’t know, but that won’t stop her or the father.”

“They’re married?”

“No, but they’ve recently reconnected.”

Brandon shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “Sounds like something on those soaps I see the nuns watching when they don’t think anyone is around.”

Ember looked at him from the corner of her eye and smiled. “And yet you seem to know enough about the plots to comment.”

His grin came in a flash. “Guilty pleasure.”

“Let’s get burgers at that place you took me to, once we get done with this. My treat.”

“You liked it there?” he asked.

“Guilty pleasure,” Ember said, and got a laugh in response.

Lacy wasn’t what Ember was expecting. She was in her late fifties, heavy, and with enough gray hair to add a few more years to her age. Her home was as rundown on the inside as it was on the outside. She didn’t look pleased to see them and Ember suspected that she, like Brandon, liked her soaps and they were intruding on them.

“What do you want?”

How to put it? Ember decided straight up was the best plan.

“Close to fourteen years ago a child was born to a seventeen-year-old girl, a child she was told died in birth, but has now learned survived.”

Ember was about to continue, but Lacy’s face went completely white. She looked as if she might faint. She opened the door wider before she said, “Please come in.”

They settled in her kitchen, but Lacy couldn’t seem to keep still and paced in front of her stove.

“I’ve been waiting every day for this moment. I was in the middle of a nasty divorce back then. My ex was getting everything and then some guy offered me twenty grand to just turn my back once the baby was born. Every day I thought about what I did to that poor girl and that baby, and for what? I quit my job because I couldn’t sustain the lie.”

“And Nora?” Ember asked.

“She was my contact and the one to forge the documents and slip the baby from the ward. She never told me how much she was offered, but I had a feeling it was significantly more than I got.”

“Do you have any idea who approached you?”

“It was a man who arranged everything, but he only ever talked to Nora and she filled me in.”

“How were you paid?” Brandon asked.

“At a bar here in Queens—Polly’s. A woman called to tell me they had an envelope with my name on it behind the bar.” She stopped her pacing to look at Ember before she asked, “Are you the girl?”

“No, but she’s a friend of mine.”

“I hope she finds him. He was a beautiful baby.”

Tears welled in Ember’s eyes. “The baby was a boy?”