Ultimate Fear (Book 2 Ultimate CORE) (CORE Series) (50 page)

When she entered the living room, Wayne stopped packing and looked at her. The approval in his eyes made her sick.
He
made her sick. She might love him, but she resented that he’d been unsupportive. Maybe if she hadn’t been forced to sneak around and keep Chloe a secret, the girl’s pregnancy could have gone full term and her baby wouldn’t have to be sent into God’s kingdom. But she would never know. Because of Wayne, because of his righteousness, she would also never know what it would be like to be the mother of a newborn. She wouldn’t be able to watch Elton grow into a man. There would be no grandchildren to fill her house with love and laughter. There would only be her and Wayne and, at this point, she wasn’t sure if she could count on him to remain by her side. Numb, knowing her son’s short life would end soon, she wasn’t sure if she cared.

At that moment, Elton stopped crying. She looked down at him, then kissed his perfect nose. “Mama loves you,” she whispered, then, drawing in a shaky breath, she carefully handed her son to Wayne.

“I told you it doesn’t have to be this way,” Wayne said. “With medical treatment, he’ll probably be okay.”

“No doctors.”

His jaw hardened as he nodded. He looked out the window. “It won’t be dark for a couple of hours.”

“It’s not like you can bury him in the city. By the time you drive out of town and find a secluded place, it should be dark.” Tempted to snatch her baby back from him, she fisted her hands and took several steps backward. “Where’s the shovel?”

“My truck.”

She used the back of her hand to dry her cheek. “Then I’ll leave you to it,” she said, her chin quivering, her heart breaking.

“Honey—”

“Just go.” She took another step back. “I’ll finish packing while you’re gone. There’s nothing here for us.” She glanced to her baby. “Not anymore. And I want to leave in the morning.”

Holding Elton in one arm, Wayne snatched his ball cap off the kitchen counter, then placed it on his head. “I know it doesn’t feel like it, but you’re doing the right thing,” he said, grabbing his keys. “I’ll see you later tonight.”

When the door clicked shut, her knees buckled and she dropped to the floor. In a few hours her baby would be gone. As she curled into a ball and cried, she knew she would never recover from the loss. No matter how much she prayed, she would never be able to bring her baby back.

*

Three and a half hours later, Wayne parked his truck on a side street about a block from the apartment building. As he walked toward the entrance, he lifted his cap and scratched his head, then replaced it. He’d done the right thing. He’d done right by that baby. His only regret was that he couldn’t help the baby’s mother. If only Dimples would’ve told him where she was, he could have helped her. Now his wife was responsible for killing two women.

The queasiness that had been coiling through his stomach since he’d left the apartment with the baby caused bile to burn at the back of his throat. His wife was a killer. Even though she’d been quick to dismiss the boys they’d taken, and had thought he’d sent them into God’s arms, she’d never harmed them. She hadn’t had it in her to hurt any of those boys. Just because she’d thought they were gone and had been the one who’d ordered their deaths—that hadn’t made her a killer. Murdering two women for their babies had, though.

His chest tightened and his head grew dizzy with dread. Dimples was sick. She had an obsession that he wasn’t sure could be cured. For all her innocence, she’d proven she could be sneaky and conniving. While he thought she was out hunting for a job, she’d been hunting for her next baby. He couldn’t trust her, and couldn’t trust that she wouldn’t go on the hunt again.

When he crossed the street, he looked to the right and saw a police cruiser near the entrance of an alley that led to a storage facility. Although paranoid, he kept his pace normal and walked toward the apartment building. He couldn’t wait to leave tomorrow morning and take them as far away from Chicago as possible. Without knowing what Dimples had done to the baby’s mother, he worried she’d made mistakes that could lead back to them. Dimples might be sick, but he didn’t want her to go to prison or worse. He didn’t want to, either. What they’d done had been wrong. Up until Dimples had killed the women, though, no real harm had come to anyone.

Even as the thought passed through his mind, he knew he was lying to himself. He couldn’t continue to justify his or Dimples’s actions, and he could no longer make excuses for her. As he entered the building and took the steps to their apartment, he worried about the future. He worried that he would have to do something drastic, like keep his wife locked away while he worked. What other solution was there? In a few months, she could be on the hunt again, using God as a crutch to fuel and justify her obsession.

His stomach knotted when he reached the apartment door and unlocked it. He’d either have to lock up his wife wherever they eventually settled, or see to it that she was locked away in a psychiatric ward. He couldn’t continue to live with the fear of being caught, or the anxiety that she’d kill or kidnap again.

He entered the darkened apartment, set his keys and hat on the counter and flipped the light switch. Dimples had boxed the rest of their things and had set them in the far corner of the living room. He walked into the spare bedroom and found the same. Afraid of what state he’d find her in, he slowly approached the bedroom door. Drawing in a deep breath, he opened it. The light on the nightstand bathed the room in a dull, yellow glow. She lay on her side, her back to the door, the covers pulled up to her shoulders.

Since there was no point in waking her, he edged out of the room.

“Is it done?”

He froze, and kept his hand on the door knob. “Yeah, it’s done.”

“How’d you do it?”

Never once had she asked him how he’d disposed of the boys. When he’d dropped off the first Elton, he’d come up with a story for her, but had never ended up using it. Same went for the others. He quickly thought back to those stories and created a new one.

“Just like you suggested, I drove out of the city. He’s buried in the woods off the freeway.” Although he had driven out of the city and had managed to kill close to two hours while waiting for the sky to finally grow dark, he’d turned back around before dropping off the baby. He’d been anxious to drop him somewhere safe. During the drive, he’d decided he would take him where he would be given immediate medical treatment. With the help of his GPS, he’d settled on MetroHealth Medical Center, which was the one hospital located the furthest away from the apartment.

“I want to know how he died,” she said, keeping her back to him.

Hopefully the baby wouldn’t die and was already being treated. He’d kept the boy in the infant carrier and had left him outside the back entrance of the hospital, designated for employee smoke breaks.

“You’re already hurting bad enough. I don’t think you need to know.”

She glanced over her shoulder and narrowed her swollen, bloodshot eyes. “Tell me,” she cried, with a catch to her breath. “I need to know.”

He swallowed hard. He might be angry with Dimples, but he hated to have to hurt her with his own lies—especially when they were so far from the truth. “I, ah, placed his blanket over his face and suffocated him while he slept.”

Tears shimmered in her eyes. “Was it quick?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think he suffered?”

“No.”

She nodded and looked away. “Good.” She curled back on her side. “The boxes are packed. I want to leave after the morning rush hour.”

“Okay.”

“Close the door.”

After he did, he went into the living room, then sat on the couch. Although tempted to put on the TV and empty his mind, he needed sleep. He wasn’t sure where they’d head tomorrow, but knew he would drive all day.

But as he lay on the couch, his mind raced. He hadn’t noticed any security cameras on the tall lampposts or near the hospital employee smoking area, but what if someone in the parking lot had seen him? He tossed onto his back. What if Dimples wanted another baby once they were settled in a new place? Could he keep her locked away? He didn’t know. One thing was for certain, though…she couldn’t be trusted. Her sickness had grown out of control and she needed to be stopped. But was he man enough to do it?

The L rumbled by and he closed his eyes. Instead of seeing Dimples as she was now, he conjured up memories from the past. Seeing her for the first time on the schoolyard playground, falling in love after their first kiss, the day they were married in the backyard of her mama’s mobile home. The night they’d both lost their virginity. He missed the woman he’d loved almost his entire life and wished he could turn back the clock.

Because right now, the future looked too bleak.

Chapter 20

JESSICA STOOD IN MetroHealth Medical Center’s NICU, staring at the baby discovered last night by hospital employees who had been heading out for a smoke break. Forensics Investigators had already checked the infant carrier he’d been found in, along with his clothes and blankets. While they’d discovered no prints, fibers or any traces of DNA, they had one huge piece of undeniable evidence—a photograph of the man who had left the baby outside of the hospital.

After the baby, whom the neonatal staff had dubbed Kaden, had been rushed to the NICU, the police were notified and the hospital security camera feed immediately viewed. While doctors gave Kaden medical care, the footage of the man she believed was the same man from the Walmart surveillance DVDs, had been copied and still shots created. Investigators had then emailed the photos and footage to every TV station in not only Illinois, but all of the surrounding states, asking that this new lead be aired with the composite sketch of the woman, and a picture of the suspects’ grey Ford F-150.

She glanced to the clock on the wall. The four a.m. newscast had begun airing over two hours ago, and she prayed to God that someone would recognize the male. After the composite sketch had been shown on last night’s news, dozens of people had contacted Chicago PD claiming to have seen the woman. Several had said she’d come into their stores during the week asking for job applications. Unfortunately, she’d never returned them, and the names she’d given to the few managers she’d spoken with had varied from Jenny Smith, to Jenny Jones, to Jenny Baker. One promising lead had come from a hardware store about three blocks from the storage unit where Jane Doe had been found. A clerk claimed the suspect had bought a cooler, fans and lanterns. Another store clerk, who worked at Gymboree, had also called. She’d said that the woman had been inside Gymboree earlier yesterday, and had bought an outfit and blanket for a baby boy. She’d also claimed that the woman had been wearing a maternity top, had said she was expecting a boy in August, and that she’d planned to name him Elton.

Jessica rubbed the goose bumps skittering along her arms.

“Cold?” Dante asked, and looked down at Kaden, who slept in the clear, plastic incubator.

“Worried.”

“The doctor said the baby should be okay now that they’re treating him.”

Although Jane Doe was at a different hospital, when Kaden had been discovered and suspected to be the missing baby, NICU staff had been informed by investigators that the possible mother had heroin in her system. NICU doctors had confirmed that Kaden’s symptoms were due to an opiate withdrawal, and he’d been given drugs to counter that and stabilize him—along with anti-seizure medication, since seizures were common.

“I’m not just worried about Kaden,” she said.

“Kaden?”

“The staff didn’t want to call him Baby John Doe, so they named him Kaden, which they told me means fighter.”

He smiled and stared at the baby. “Considering where he was born and the condition he was found in, I think that’s very appropriate.”

“Yes, it is,” she agreed. This baby, like his mother, was a survivor. Any other time she’d likely criticize a woman who had selfishly continued to abuse her body despite her pregnancy. Right now, Jane Doe didn’t need to be judged, she needed to wake up and meet her child. She just hoped that the girl would find the help she needed to stay clean, cherish her son and realize how lucky she truly was to not only be alive, but to have this baby.

“I’m worried about the female suspect,” she continued. “She’s dangerously unstable. She pretended to be pregnant knowing she’d take Jane Doe’s baby. And when she finally had the baby, she had the male get rid of him, but left the mother to die. It’s sick.”

“If the baby didn’t need medical care, I doubt he’d be here right now. In a way, his mother’s heroin addiction saved him from being raised by a killer.”

A baby saved by heroin. Now
that
was a sick thought.

A NICU nurse approached. “Sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you two to leave,” she said with a smile. “I need to check Kaden’s vitals.”

“I appreciate that you let us see him,” Jessica said, and looked back down at Kaden.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t let you hold him,” the nurse said. “He’s a precious little guy. I think everyone here fell in love with him on sight.”

Even if she’d been given the opportunity, she would have been afraid to hold Kaden. He was beautiful, but weighed only four pounds, four ounces. In comparison, Sophia had been double his size, and had been a gorgeous, chubby baby.