She stepped inside with a, “Mr. Harrison. I’m Cressida Cassidy. I’ve caught you at a bad time.”
“Not a bad time.” He tossed an innocent look Trinity’s way. “Would you say ‘bad’?”
She shrugged and hugged herself in a robe that puddled around her feet. “Maybe a little inconvenient.”
Ms. Cassidy’s smile was paper-thin. “You didn’t mention you were married.”
“I’m not.”
The woman blinked then sniffed. “I see.”
He pushed on. “This is Trinity…” His mind went blank. “Ah, Trinity…”
Trinity threw out a welcoming hand. “Matthews.”
Zack ran a hand through his bed hair. “Early mornings my brain doesn’t work so well.”
“It’s after nine,” Ms. Cassidy said, releasing Trinity’s hand as if it might be contaminated with some rare STD. “I apologize for taking you both unawares. You may not know but a large trunk has fallen directly across the entrance to your front door. Rather than trying to scale the—”
A far-off cry interrupted Ms. Cassidy’s tale. She blanched at the same time Zack froze and Trinity leaped off and into action. The baby sounded as if she’d been stuck with a pin. While his pulse thudded in his temples, Zack forced himself to stand calmly as a clearly concerned Ms. Cassidy waited for Trinity’s return.
As worry turned to suspicion, Ms. Cassidy’s face began to harden and her double chin pulled in. “Mr. Harrison, where have you got that baby?”
An appeasing gesture, both Zack’s palms went up. “She’s perfectly safe. Cruiser’s looking out for her.”
“Who’s Cruiser?”
At that moment, the dog barreled out and plowed into the backs of his legs. Zack winced and introduced the other member of the household. “Cruiser, Ms. Cassidy.”
“You let a dog babysit?”
“Only last night. We were right here pretty much the whole time.”
Her attention skated over to the empty wine bottle and her lips pursed. “I’d like to see the baby.”
Trinity sang out. “Be there in a sec!”
While Ms. Cassidy tapped her boot, sending mud splatters over the timber floor, Zack zipped into the laundry room and pulled on some jeans and a T-shirt. He came out running a smoothing hand through his hair and wishing that Cruiser hadn’t taken his babysitting job quite so seriously and had left his post long enough to warn them ahead of time about visitors. He and Trinity might not have heard a car arrive, but a dog’s hypersensitive hearing must have.
“Trin must be changing her,” Zack told Ms. Cassidy. “She wakes up soaked.”
The woman’s lips tightened more. After another brittle minute, she shifted to force her way past. Thank God Trinity was on her way back out. She was dressed in the business clothes she’d worn the day they’d met, although the skirt was crooked and some of her blouse buttons weren’t fastened. The baby in her arms, however, looked happy and healthy and wide-awake.
“Have you found out anything?” Trinity asked their visitor as she stopped at Zack’s side.
“We’ve located the mother,” Ms. Cassidy said. “She’s outside in a police car now.”
Zack’s blood pressure dropped. Police? “So something is wrong?”
“I’m not at liberty to say.” Ms. Cassidy put out her arms. “I’ll take her now.”
Trinity turned a notch away; a natural enough reaction, Zack thought, feeling a twitch himself. If a person looked after a baby the way she had, of course they’d be shielding. Obviously they’d have grown attached.
“She’ll need a bottle,” Trinity said.
Ms. Cassidy replied, “The mother says she takes the breast as well as formula.”
While Trinity stood agape, clearly lost for words, Zack stepped up. They had a right to know…didn’t they?
“I think you can imagine how worried we’ve been for this little girl. How did she come to be in that cab all alone?”
“You’ll appreciate, Mr. Harrison, there are legal issues regarding privacy involved here.” Ms. Cassidy found an understanding smile. “But I assure you the mother is ecstatic to have her baby back. It was all an unfortunate mistake.”
“Mistake?” he said. “I’m sorry, but that’s hard to believe.”
“I’ll pass on your contact details,” Ms. Cassidy said firmly, “and she can get in touch with you, if that’s what she wants to do.”
Zack’s back teeth ground down. He burned to say more, for himself and Trinity, too, because as much as there was no way out, clearly she didn’t want to hand the baby over like this. He felt the same way. Sure, Bonnie wasn’t theirs. He supported privacy issues; he had people enough try to delve into his business and dig up the dirt. But didn’t he and Trinity deserve at least an explanation?
Was the mother negligent? Did she have support? What’s to say Bonnie wouldn’t end up in a worse situation and soon?
The woman’s arms were still out. Trinity took two deep breaths and then, her eyes glistening, carefully handed the baby over.
Cressida pulled back Bonnie’s wrap to inspect her rosy cheeks and for the first time released a genuine smile. She glanced up. “Thank you, Mr. Harrison, Ms. Matthews, for looking after her.”
Zack had fetched the car seat. With his other arm around Trinity’s waist, he said, “We’ll walk you out.”
Not an offer. Rather a statement.
Together he and Trinity followed Ms. Cassidy and the baby back out the opened glass door and all four—five including Cruiser—set off along the snow-covered path.
The sun was out, uncommonly bright and warm, Zack thought. All around, snow was turning to slush and the air had that freshly washed smell he usually liked. As they rounded the path, two cars came into view in the driveway. In the backseat of the police car, a young woman sat holding her brow. Through the window, she looked decidedly wan.
As Zack grudgingly handed the carrier to Ms. Cassidy, his stomach muscles gripped and every hair on the back of his neck lifted. Surely they wouldn’t hand Bonnie back if the mother was ill. Hell, maybe she was on drugs and didn’t even remember leaving her baby in that cab.
Ms. Cassidy crossed to the police vehicle and while the policeman fit the carrier on the far passenger side, the baby was handed to the woman—girl—in the backseat. He heard her gasp and saw her snuggle Bonnie close. He should have felt relief. He only felt chilled. What was her story? Was there any way of finding out where she lived? He wouldn’t sleep tonight. Maybe ever again.
Trinity was shivering beside him, more due to shock than the weather, he suspected.
“She looks sixteen,” she murmured, “seventeen, tops.”
Zack held her more firmly against him, her side to his. “Only a kid herself.”
“She must have parents who can help.”
“So where were they when the baby was left alone in that cab?”
Truth was they might never know.
Trinity curled into him more as they watched the young mother slide Bonnie into the car seat and buckled it up. When she sniffed, he almost felt her tears needing to break. Damn it, his throat was so clogged, he felt like crying himself.
Ms. Cassidy slid into her dark blue sedan and