Girl In The Water Part 28

Daniela Daniela scanned every female in the boarding area, looking for Carol and anyone resembling the photo of Essie that Ian had on his phone. Ian was looking through the shops interspersed with the gates.

When Daniela couldn't spot the women, she held up her CPRU ID to the gate agent at the desk. "Has a Carol Peterson boarded already?"

The woman s.h.i.+fted uncertainly on her feet, glancing around for a supervisor and finding none. When Daniela didn't budge, at last the gate agent checked the pa.s.senger list. "We don't have a Carol Peterson on this flight."

But...the Miami flight had been the only ten a.m. flight to the US on the departures board. If Carol isn't going to the US, where is she going?

The loudspeaker system was announcing flights that were boarding. Which one? Daniela ran toward the long line of other gates, explaining to Ian as he followed that Carol wasn't going to Miami.

What if she was already on a plane? They'd never catch her before her flight took off.

When Daniela finally spotted Essie with a stroller, in line to board a flight to Rio, Daniela rushed forward. Only one child in the stroller. A brown-haired toddler.

"There," Ian shouted behind her.

She turned.

Carol was pus.h.i.+ng another stroller from the direction of the bathrooms. This one held a blonde baby girl, six or seven months old, sitting up and blowing saliva bubbles. The exact baby they'd all seen in Carmen and Phil Heyerdahl's posters.

Ian and Daniela broke into a run.

Carol spotted them the next second, her eyes snapping wide. Then she was careening around a group of tourists with the stroller, and took off running, her long white linen skirt flapping behind her.

Unfortunately for her, airport security was finally rus.h.i.+ng up to the gate. Ian had only to hold up his CPRU ID and point, and two guards were right there, grabbing Carol.

"Easy!" Ian ran forward. "She's pregnant. Be careful."

Baby Lila was crying, then crying harder, scared by all the people surrounding the stroller. Ian picked the baby up, held her against his chest, and patted her back with soft little taps.

"Hey," he cooed, something Daniela had never heard from him before. "Everything is okay now. We're going to take you back to Mommy."

The baby looked up at him, teary eyed and blotchy faced. Hiccupped. Then gurgled. Then smiled at the giant of a man who held her. And Ian smiled back.

As Daniela watched him, her heart suddenly felt too large for her chest. That sweet, achy pressure filled her, an indefinable longing that was so sharp, it stole her breath for a second.

Security was tugging a protesting Carol away. "Ian. This is not what it looks like. Help me."

Ian glanced at Daniela. "Can you hold the baby? I'll go with Carol."

So Daniela took Lila from him, with a squeak of protest from the baby, who, after a moment, was content to settle against Daniela and shoved her little fist into her mouth. "Go."

Because Carol was pregnant. And Ian would want to make sure the guards weren't too rough on her, wouldn't hurt her unborn child by accident. Because that was the kind of guy Ian was.

Exactly why Daniela had fallen in love with him.

Carmen Carmen nearly dropped the phone. Their small room seemed to close in on her. She couldn't breathe.

Phil was by her side instantly. "What is it?"

Her body trembled so hard, she thought she was shaking the room. She put out a hand to steady herself on the doorframe. "They have her."

"They have our Lila?" He grabbed her gently by the shoulders, his gaze eagerly searching her face. "Who?"

Tears streamed down. "The police. We have to go to the station."

Her hair was a mess. Her clothes were a mess. She'd let Gabriela and Fernanda give her a makeover earlier, to the girls' great entertainment. Whenever she wasn't out on the streets looking for her daughter, she was with the girls downstairs. They kept her sane.

She glanced in the small mirror on the wall as she flew toward the door. Winced at her reflection. And kept going. Thank G.o.d she had clothes on, because if she hadn't, she wasn't positive she'd take time to dress. She might have run out in her underwear.

Phil ran right by her side, catching her when she tripped over her own feet, his voice tight. "What did they say?"

"It was Daniela. She said they had Lila."

"Is she sure it's Lila?"

"They've seen her picture enough." But Carmen didn't dare fully believe it either. Her heart was a soap bubble.

They ran into Pierre at the bottom of the stairs, sorting mail. "What's going on?"

"They have Lila!" Phil shouted as they pa.s.sed the Frenchman. "We're going to the police station."

Pierre ran after them. "I'll take you. The truck is up front."

Mrs. Frieseke came running from somewhere in the back at the commotion, a wooden spoon dripping in her hand. "What happened?"

"The police have Lila!" Pierre called back. "We're going to the station."

Carmen kept running. Then she was in the truck, and if willpower could make trucks fly, they would have been in the air already.

Pierre took the wheel. A good thing, because Phil's hands were shaking as hard as hers. They held hands the whole way over, sometimes praying out loud, sometimes praying silently, and sometimes just sitting there and crying.

She didn't dare be happy. Not yet. Not yet.

What if it wasn't true?

G.o.d, let it be true. Please, dear G.o.d.

She barely registered when they arrived at the station. Or when they ran inside. Or when they were shown to the back. Everything pa.s.sed in a blur.

Then they came to an office with a window to the hallway. A uniformed officer stood in front of the door. On the other side of the window, inside the room, a female officer rocked Lila back and forth as the baby slept.

The world stopped. Snapped into focus. Blood rushed loudly in Carmen's ears as she gripped Phil's arm. She was light-headed. She lunged toward the door anyway.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. No one can go in," the officer said.

She stared at him, barely comprehending the words, even though her Portuguese was excellent. "That's my baby in there."

Phil went nose to nose with the guy. "Look here-"

"It's okay." Detective Gustavo Santos hurried down the hall from the opposite direction. "Let them in."

As soon as the door opened, Carmen flew through, then she had to slow down so she wouldn't jostle Lila too much and wake her, scare her.

She didn't take a full breath until she had the baby on her shoulder, having to remind herself not to hug her too tightly. She buried her nose in the silky baby hair and breathed in her sweet baby scent, let the tears flow as Phil's arms went around them.

There wasn't enough air in the room. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't say a word. All she could do was stand there and hold her baby.

"Thank G.o.d," Phil said to the top of her head, his arms steady, his voice shaky.

Lila stirred. Opened her eyes.

Then those little baby blue eyes widened, and she went nuts, squealing and wiggling, smiling, grabbing for Carmen and her daddy. Some people thought babies this age didn't really know what went on around them, but Lila sure did. She was overjoyed to see her parents.

"We have some paperwork for you to fill out when you're ready," Detective Santos said from the doorway. "Take your time. Officer Romero will be outside the door. He'll let you know when the ambulance gets here. The baby will need to be checked out at the hospital and released by a doctor before you can take her home."

Carmen just nodded without looking at him, barely registering the words.

The man said, "She wasn't hurt, as far as we can tell. The people who had her took care of her to make sure she could be-" He stopped. Continued with "adopted."

But as seamlessly as he'd transitioned, Carmen knew what he'd meant to say. So she could be sold.

The utter outrage of the unspoken word burned through her. That her precious baby daughter could have been sold. Had nearly been sold.

And even though Lila had been saved, other mothers' daughters were sold. Every day. All over the world. Including right here in Manaus.

Somewhere in Carmen's brain, the thought registered that she wanted to think about that, harder than ever before. Work harder than ever before to stop these tragedies. But right at that moment, she couldn't think past having Lila in her arms.

Santos said, "I was about to start the interrogation when I learned that you arrived. I better get back."

The detective left and pulled the door shut behind him.

Phil sank into the nearest chair and pulled Carmen onto his lap, just hugged them and hugged them.

"We got you, baby," he repeated over and over.

And Carmen kept saying, "We love you so much."

She didn't know how much time pa.s.sed before Detective Santos returned with a handful of printouts. "The ambulance is here. If you fill out the paperwork now, you won't have to come back to the station again today. I'll stop by See-Love-Aid tomorrow, and we'll talk. Today, just enjoy your baby."

Carmen kept holding Lila. Phil filled out the paperwork. She only signed her name on the bottom of a few sheets and didn't even put the baby down for that.

Ian and Daniela waited in the hallway, walked out with them. Carmen thanked both of them, and so did Phil.

When the medic said only one of the parents could go in the back of the ambulance with Lila to the hospital, Ian immediately offered a ride. Apparently, Pierre had gone back to See-Love-Aid a short while ago, but he'd left them the truck.

Since Phil hadn't even held Lila yet, Carmen gave her daughter a million kisses, then handed her over to her father. "You take her. I'll go with Ian and Daniela."

Phil kissed her hard, teary-eyed, and got in the back of the ambulance with Lila.

Carmen could barely sit still in the truck as they followed behind them. "It really happened, right? She's back?"

While Ian drove, Daniela hugged Carmen tightly. "She's back."

Lila is back. Thank G.o.d, Lila is back.

She caught her reflection in the rearview mirror, all the makeup the girls had put on her. Flinched. She looked like a clown. Not that she cared. But still, she tried to rub some off with the back of her hand.

"Check the glove compartment," Daniela said.

And when Carmen found an old, wrinkled napkin, Daniela took it from her and wiped off the makeup as the pickup rattled toward the hospital.

"How did you find her?" Carmen asked finally.

At first, all that had mattered was that Lila was alive and safe, but now Carmen wanted to know everything.

"Carol took her." Ian's voice was clipped, his expression tight with anger.

His words made no sense. "Why?" Carmen blinked at him. "Carol is about to have her own baby."

Daniela gave Carmen a squeeze. "Her baby is sick."

"Sick how?"

"A problem with her heart. Inoperable. She's not expected to live a day or two beyond delivery. Carol has known for a while now. She actually had a date for inducement in Rio."

A somber silence fell over the truck's cab.

"Lila wasn't stolen to be sold into adoption. Carol was going to have her baby in Rio," Ian said. "Take the birth certificate, then pretend that Lila was that baby. The difference is big now, but in a year..."

Carmen shook her head, wiped her tears, horrified, relieved, confused, trying to get a grip. "And Lila is such a little thing anyway. Carol could have gotten away with it."

Thank G.o.d, Carol had been stopped, was all she could think.

And good luck to Lila, because she was going to be thirty before her parents ever let her out of their sight again.

Ian Midnight pa.s.sed by the time Lila Heyerdahl was finally released from the hospital to the custody of her incredibly grateful mother and father.

Daniela and Ian stayed with the Heyerdahls until the end and drove them back to See-Love-Aid through a city shrouded in darkness. Since there wasn't enough room in the pickup's cab, Phil volunteered to ride in the back.

Of course, at See-Love-Aid, n.o.body slept. They'd all waited up, and everyone came running, everyone talking and laughing at the same time, everyone wanting to at least pat the baby's head. Lila ate up her sudden celebrity status and blew bubbles. At the end, they all piled into the cafeteria, the only place large enough to hold the crowd.

"Why?"

"How?"