Page 7 of Forged in Steele

Bristol gave a firm nod. “Good move on her part. She’s in the security center and will remain in charge while I conduct interviews.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She cringed. The woman Jared had once known wouldn’t like the formality used by the guard. She’d always been laid back and fun-loving. But she could’ve changed since they’d been together. She likely had. He sure had. A stint in the Navy and four years with the FBI saw to that.

“You see anything unusual while in the atrium or out here?” she asked.

“No, ma’am.” He clamped his mouth closed as if he wanted to say something else but didn’t.

Jared would keep that fact in mind for the formal interview that would come later.

She took a good look at him. “Let me know if something comes to mind.”

Seemed as if she also thought Damon wanted to talk, but she went into the room, and an image of the last kidnap victim Jared had tried to save came to mind. Ten-day-old Wyatt. Jared drew in a long breath before stepping across the threshold. He had to wash away the pain from Wyatt’s family. The pain of losing a lively baby to a kidnapper only to learn he’d died.

Not all the air in the hospital would erase such a memory from Jared’s mind.

A gowned woman sat in bed, a pink and green plaid baby blanket clutched in her hands. Her eyes were red and swollen, terror mixed with the tears. She flashed her gaze to them. “Did you find Luna?”

“I’m sorry,” Coglin said. “Not yet.”

The woman wailed and pressed the blanket against her face as she drew her knees to her chest. The nurse whose badge clipped to her uniform readJohnsonpatted the woman’s shoulder.

The man with a bracelet on his wrist, who Jared believed to be the father, stepped forward. “And who are you anyway?”

Coglin and Bristol introduced themselves.

Jared took out his ID and displayed it. “I’m very sorry this has happened to you.”

“As am I,” Bristol added. “And I’ll bring your daughter back to you. I promise.”

Rookie mistake. Never promise such a thing ever but even more so when she didn’t know if she would be involved in the investigation. In fact, Jared doubted she would be. Not as a patrol deputy. She didn’t mention that she worked patrol, but he doubted she was on the job long enough to have reached detective status.

The father eyed Coglin. “How could you let this happen?”

Coglin stiffened. “We have excellent security systems in place. We’ll figure out how this happened and find those who did it.”

Right.Spoken like an executive protecting his company’s assets.

“You better do it quick.” Nurse Johnson clasped her hands together. “We’ve been working to regulate the baby’s blood sugar for three days now, and if she’s not fed every few hours, it could pose a serious health issue. That’s why Mrs. Pratt hasn’t been discharged yet. We have to get Luna feeding right.”

“Can you tell me more about that?” Jared asked, wanting to get the medical information before he split up the parents and the nurse to be questioned on their own.

Johnson nodded. “Because the baby was a larger size at birth and she arrived late, she burns through sugar at a higher rate and needs to have it replaced more frequently than many babies.”

“How big is she?” Bristol asked.

“Eight pounds, eleven ounces,” Nurse Johnson answered. “We’ve needed to give her a few sugar supplements and make sure she feeds often. If she doesn’t get the sugar she needs, hypoglycemia can cause a myriad of problems that we don’t want to even contemplate. And worse, it might not present with any symptoms at all, and the person who has her might not see it.”

“Which means you have to find her fast.” The mother’s frantic cries cut into Jared like one of the big rotors on the ships he’d been assigned to in his Navy days.

So it was official. They were dealing with a missing baby.

Even worse, a ticking time clock was counting down until the child’s health could put her very life in danger.

2

Bristol’s gut hurt as she texted Teagan, who remained in the security office manning operations.

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