LITMIR.BIZ

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She’d come close to hating him then, he knew. He didn’t want to talk to her now. Not with news like this.

      But he had no choice. And he had to hurry. Pulling himself back to the present, he fished the keys from his jeans.

      Miguel came up from behind and scooped them from his hands. “I’m driving, buddy.”

      Nolan nodded in the direction of the wreck. “You’ve got work to do.”

      “Officially I’m off duty as of fifteen minutes ago. Hank’s going to bring the squad car back to town when they’re finished here.”

      “I’m fine,” Nolan protested, but Miguel slid behind the wheel.

      “You don’t need to do this,” Nolan tried to argue again.

      Miguel ignored him. He started the engine and waited. Nolan slapped a hand against the closed driver door and gave in. The second he’d slammed his door shut, Miguel had the vehicle in gear. Another cop waved them safely onto the road, and Miguel eased the speed up to the posted limit.

      “Do you have your phone?” he asked.

      “Yeah.” Nolan pulled it out of his jacket.

      “Okay. You call Mary. Tell her after I drop you off at the hospital I’m picking up my own car and coming back to get her.”

      AT THE ARROYO COUNTY HOSPITAL, a nurse ushered Nolan into a special little room and told him the doctor would talk to him shortly. Nolan glanced at a stack of magazines on a table in the corner. The glossy paper gleamed. They’d never been touched. He put a hand to his head and it came away damp. The snow, he remembered.

      How was Steve doing? Nolan hung on to hope, despite Miguel’s grim expectations.

      There’d been no answer when he’d tried calling Mary. She’d always been a deep sleeper, but he’d let the phone ring until the answering machine picked up, and then he’d called again. Still she hadn’t answered. Miguel was on his way to her house now. So Nolan wouldn’t be the one to tell her about the accident after all.

      A deeply-buried regret stirred within him. He never should have let three years pass without making an attempt to reconcile with his sister. His mother had always said he was too damn stubborn for his own good.

      The door opened, and Dr. Ochoa came into the room, wearing a clean white lab coat, pen in his hand along with a clipboard. Nolan had consulted with him a few times on various stories for the Bulletin. This was the first time he’d spoken to him on a personal level. Mercifully, Dr. Ochoa came straight to the point.

      “I’m so sorry,” he said to Nolan. “Your sister has died.”

      Mary? What the hell was he talking about?

      “But I spoke to Miguel Eiden at the accident scene. He said there were no passengers. Just the driver. Just Steve.”

      Ochoa sighed. Despite his distress and confusion, Nolan couldn’t help but be aware of the older man’s intense weariness. “Mary’s death occurred earlier this evening, Nolan. Before the accident.”

      “What?”

      “I know it’s a lot to take in. Let me try to explain. This afternoon your sister and her husband went to The Birth Place. Mary was in labor. After about seven hours the midwife in charge of her birth—Lydia Kane, a very proficient, experienced midwife—decided to transport your sister to our hospital.”

      Nolan hadn’t even known Mary was pregnant again. He remembered Miguel mentioning two kiddie seats. What the hell was going on?

      “On my initial exam, your sister appeared fine and so did her unborn baby. But the situation deteriorated quickly. We lost Mary at nine-oh-three. Her baby was never resuscitated.”

      Nolan knew this couldn’t be happening. “Women don’t die in childbirth anymore.”

      “In very rare cases they do. In this one…”

      The doctor recited terms Nolan had never heard before. Shoulder something and amnio something else.

      “We tried everything we could to save her. Lydia Kane is to be commended for bringing her to the hospital so quickly. We had all modern medicine to hand, but it wasn’t enough. Sometimes it isn’t.”

      Nolan put both hands to his head. Mary was dead? Gone? No, please. Let there be some mistake…

      “Mary Davidson. You’re sure?”

      “I’m so sorry.”

      Even through his shock, Nolan noticed the slight waver of disbelief in the doctor’s voice. He hadn’t expected to lose this patient.

      So why the hell had he?

      Nolan forced his teeth together, pressed his lips tight. Don’t lash out at the doctor. Not yet. Need to gather all the facts, first. Make sure what Dr. Ochoa said was true, that everything possible had been done.

      “Steve was in the room when this happened,” the doctor added.

      Now, suddenly, Nolan saw the whole picture and all the pieces—the tragic events of this awful night—fell into place. Steve, totally distraught, had tried to drive home after the tragedy. Instead he’d driven off the road. On purpose?

      Hell, it was possible. What man who’d just seen his wife die on the delivery bed, who knew that his newborn baby was dead, too, wouldn’t have the thought cross his mind?

      One quick turn of the steering wheel and it’s all over. No more suffering.

      It could easily have been an accident, too. Switchback Road was unforgiving at the best of times, requiring every ounce of a driver’s attention. The snow had been blinding and Steve had been an emotional mess. Probably his vision had been blurred with tears, as well.

      “The ambulance brought him here,” Nolan said.

      The doctor nodded. “Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do. His head injuries were massive. Again, I’m so sorry.”

      Nolan didn’t know what to say. A family had been wiped out tonight. A mother and father and their new baby. Leaving him and— Oh, my God.

      “Mary and Steve have a daughter. Six years old…”

      Deep sorrow glimmered again in the doctor’s eyes.

      “Samantha, Sammy for short.” Nolan remembered her third birthday. That had been the last happy family gathering before his mother’s death and his and Mary’s estrangement.

      “Someone has to go talk to Samantha,” the doctor said “Do you think you could?”

      Nolan felt numb. He had to call Miguel, as well. Right now his good friend was probably knocking at the Davidsons’ A-frame. Soon he’d realize Mary wasn’t home.

      “There’ll be other family members to notify, too, of course,” the doctor continued.

      Nolan nodded. He’d have to get in touch with Steve’s mother, Irene, before she heard about the accident on the news. Or read his paper.

      Shit. He’d have to get Cooper to write something. There was no way he could. Besides, he’d have other concerns. There’d be obituaries and funerals and… Oh, hell, this just couldn’t be real.

      The doctor was consulting his chart again. “Any other immediate family?”

      Steve shook his head. Some aunts and uncles, most of them out-of-state. He’d have to check with Irene for the other side of the family. He’d go to her house now. Maybe Sammy was with her.

      Sammy. He couldn’t even remember what his niece looked like anymore. Chubby cheeks and a lisp, he vaguely recollected. But that had been three years ago.

      CHAPTER THREE

      KIM SHERMAN KNEW her co-workers at The Birth Place didn’t like her. She knew she had a reputation for being ruthless,

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