Aurora 06 - A Fool And His Honey by Charlaine Harris Read Free Book Online Page B

smaller than Bubba and Lizanne’s kid.”
    He did to me, too. “Maybe—a month?” I hazarded.
    He shrugged his bare shoulders.
    “People will ask,” I said, and to my own ears I already sounded tired. “People always do.”
    “Oh, God.” Martin rolled onto his back, pressing his hands against his face as if to guard it from the world.
    “You’d better call Cindy,” I said, trying to sound matter-of-fact. “Regina halfway implied they were close. Maybe she can tell us some more about this baby. Maybe she knows how to contact Barby.”
    I went down the stairs carefully, holding up the nightgown and bathrobe with one hand while pressing Hayden to me with my free arm. I was relieved when I reached the bottom safely, and felt foolishly optimistic at this good omen.
    There was a discreet tap at the kitchen door. Now, this knock was unmistakable. My mother.
    I canceled the security and opened the door.
    My mother, Aida Brattle Teagarden Queensland, is fifty-seven and stunning. She is Lauren Bacall on a good day. She is sharp, smart, and by her own efforts she’s amassed a small fortune.
    I love her. She loves me. We live on different planets.
    “Have they found the girl?” Mother stepped inside.
    “The girl” would be Regina. “No. Not that we know of. I just got up,” I explained unnecessarily.
    “Martin still in bed?” She glanced up at the clock. It was already nine-thirty.
    “We had a late night,” I reminded her. I’d called Mother as soon as I could after the police arrived so she wouldn’t hear our news from someone else.
    Mother held out her arms and made a peremptory gesture. I gave her the baby. Mother had three step-grandchildren now, and to my amazement she was very fond of them.
    Mother looked down at the boy, who looked back, for a wonder in silence.
    “Maybe two, three weeks old,” she said briefly, and put him in his infant seat, still in the middle of the table. “Got formula?”
    “Regina mixed some up before she ...” I trailed off into confusion. Before she murdered her husband and ran? Before she was abducted by aliens?
    “You need a nurse for that baby,” my mother observed. Her voice was absolutely matter-of-fact; she judged me totally incompetent at child care, which wounded me somehow. But then, why should she have any faith in my ability to take care of a baby? I never had before.
    It was funny what hurt, and what bounced off. This really hurt.
    “You’d better call your friends and see if you can find a temporary baby-sitter,” Mother suggested.
    I stared at her. She wasn’t offering to do it for me, or rather to have her office manager do it?
    It dawned on me that all was not well with Mother. I’d been so absorbed in my own problems that I hadn’t even looked at her with much attention.
    “What’s wrong?” I asked. I hated the quaver in my voice.
    “John had a mild—well, maybe a heart attack—last night, about two hours after you called,”
    she said.
    “Oh, no,” I said, my eyes filling with tears immediately. I was fond of John Queensland, having been his friend before he dated and married my mother. I took a deep breath. Mother wasn’t crying, so I couldn’t cry. “How is he doing?”
    “I’ve moved him to Atlanta. They’re doing tests right now,” she said, and I could read the exhaustion in her face, and the fear.
    “I’m so sorry,” I said quietly. “What can I do to help you?”
    “You have your hands full,” she said, looking out the kitchen window. It was another windy, overcast day; a leaf from the gum tree whirled past. “It’s just a lot of hospital sitting, and you can’t help me sit.”
    I thought of Martin, the baby, the missing woman, the dead man.
    My mother finally needed me and I couldn’t help.
    “Are Avery and John David there?” I asked. These were John’s two sons, both in their thirties and married.
    “John David flies in this morning. Melinda’s going to meet him at the airport and get him to the hospital.