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"Oh, yes, I remember her very well," Tasha Chen said, peering at the copy of
the hospital record sheet Tirrell had handed her. "Miribel Oriana. Had her
baby all alone no husband or friend in for support. Had a boy, didn't she? oh,
yes, there it is. Three point-two kilos yes, I remember him being small." She
gave the paper back to the detective. "What do you want to know about her?"
"Everything you can remember, Mrs. Chen," Tirrell said. "We're especially
interested in any visitors she may have had while she was in the hospital,
anyone who may have asked about her, or any names she may have mentioned."
"Whumph!" The woman made a face. "That's all, is it? You don't want shoe size
or favorite hobbies, too?"
Tirrell smiled politely; the comment might have been humorous if he hadn't
heard a hundred variants of it in the past week and a half. "I know; after
five years it's pretty hard to remember details about a patient you had for
two days. But it's very important that you try."
Mrs. Chen's eyes narrowed, suddenly thoughtful. "Does this have anything to do
with the kidnapping
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A Coming of Age down in Ridge Harbor two weeks ago?"
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"Miribel Oriana's son was the one taken," Tirrell said, ignoring Tonio's
startled look. The police weren't releasing that information to the public,
but Tirrell had had enough experience with people of Mrs. Chen's type to know
that beating around the bush would be a waste of time.
"I see." The thoughtful look remained. "Well, as it happens, Detective, I
do remember a visitor Ms.
Oriana had the morning after the baby was born. He went in and talked to her
for a few minutes and then just walked straight out without stopping to chat
with any of us who were on duty."
"Any idea what they talked about?"
"No, but I remember she seemed upset when I went in afterwards. She nearly
snapped my head off over something completely trivial."
Tirrell made a note. "You have a good memory," he told her.
She colored slightly. "As I said, she was a rather unusual case."
"True. Do you remember anything of the man's appearance?"
"Not a thing. Sorry."
"Any idea as to his relationship with her friend, relative, husband?"
"None whatsoever."
"Did you ever see either Ms. Oriana or the man again?"
"Not that I remember. Of course, I was only at the hospital another few months
before coming here and setting up my clinic. I haven't been back to Ridge
Harbor more than a dozen times since then.
Perhaps one of the other nurses could help you, or Dr. Kruse "
"We've already talked to all of them," Tirrell interrupted, closing his
notebook and standing up.
"Thank you for your time, Mrs. Chen, and if anything else should occur to you,
please call me. The number's on the card I gave you."
"Of course. Good luck, Detective; I hope you catch this man."
"Well, that was as pleasant a way as any to waste an hour or two," Tonio
commented when they were once again driving along the coastal road that joined
Cavendish and Ridge Harbor. "Is that the whole list, then?"
"Of the hospital people, yes," Tirrell said, inhaling deeply of the salt-laden
air coming through the car windows. Having spent the first half of his life in
the mining town of Plat City, he hadn't yet acquired the native coastlander's
indifference to the smell of sea air. "And don't knock Mrs. Chen's
contributions her story meshes very neatly with everything else we've got on
Miribel's mysterious
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A Coming of Age visitor."
Tonio shrugged. "Which is not a whole lot. Average height and build, nothing
remarkable in appearance, and stayed just long enough to have an argument."
"Which is an interesting point all in itself," Tirrell said. "If he was
interested enough to visit her in the hospital, why didn't he at least take an
extra minute to go see the baby in the nursery?"
"Um... okay, why?"
"My first-blush guess is that he didn't want to be seen by any more people
than necessary, which automatically suggests he had something to hide."
"If he's our fagin, hanging around nurseries would be a dangerous thing for
him to do at any time,"
Tonio suggested. "If the staff suspected he was picking out future prospects,
they'd have the police on him in nothing flat."
"True. But with Miribel's collusion he'd have had a perfectly reasonable
excuse to do so in this case,"
Tirrell said, scratching his chin. "That may be a strike against him having
anything to do with our fagin." He stared through the windshield, keeping the
car on the road by pure reflex, as he tried to get all the facts to jell into
something that would hold water. Dimly, he realized Tonio was talking to him.
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"Sorry what'd you say?"
"I said we're back to start again," the righthand said with the tone of
exaggerated patience preteens often seemed to use when they felt they were
being unjustly ignored. "Or have you changed your mind about one of the
hospital people being involved?"
"No, not unless one of the background checks turns up something." Tirrell
shook his head. "Tonio, this just doesn't make any sense. Look. The
kidnapper Oliver almost certainly knew Colin's birthday. If we rule out the
hospital staff and various records keepers, we're left with Colin's mother,
her hospital visitor, and someone close to the Brimmers as Oliver's possible
informant. Most of the
Brimmers' friends are above suspicion, and Ms. Oriana might as well have
fallen off the planet on her way out of the hospital for all the traces we can
find of her. That leaves her visitor, and we both agree the brevity of his
walk-on appearance is at least mildly suspicious. But if he Oliver or is
Oliver's informant, why didn't he at least case the nursery while he had the
chance? Even worse, if he was Colin's father, why didn't he petition for
custody of the child sometime in the past five years?
He probably could have gotten him and dispensed with the kidnapping entirely."
"But then how would the fagin have gotten him?" Tonio asked.
"Dad could have handed Colin over to Oliver and disappeared somewhere,"
Tirrell shrugged. "Or they could have set up a fake kidnapping that would have
been just as plausible and infinitely safer than the real thing. But even if
we can somehow hammer all of that into a reasonable theory, we're still stuck
with your old question: why would a fagin bother with a child as small as
Colin in the first place?"
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A Coming of Age
Tirrell ran out of words and shut up, and for a long moment they drove in
silence. Ahead, the road branched twice, and Tirrell kept his attention on the
red-and-yellow striped markers that indicated
Ridge Harbor. A wrong turn would wind them up in a farm cluster somewhere
instead; hardly fatal, but certainly embarrassing. "I suppose it doesn't help
to assume there's no fagin involved at all, and that Colin's father simply
decided he wanted his son back?" Tonio suggested hesitantly.
"If you do, you also have to assume the father is crazy," Tirrell said. "The
average adult can't discipline a kid with teekay why do you think the hive
system was set up in the first place?"
"Then I give up," Tonio said, with a touch of exasperation. "Maybe he
crazy then all of it could is make sense."
"Maybe. But I doubt it." He glanced sideways at the preteen. "You ever been to
Barona, partner?"
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