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D oreen phoned the Riverdale retirement home and asked if Lilybeth was there. The answer she got was positive, but she wasn’t having visitors. “Oh.” Doreen didn’t expect that response. “If you would tell her that it’s Doreen, the woman who works with all the cold cases in town, and that I had a few questions I wanted to ask about her years as a midwife. Maybe that would… change her mind.”

The receptionist sounded doubtful.

Doreen asked, “Is there a reason why she doesn’t have visitors?”

“Yes, she doesn’t want any,” the receptionist stated, with a snort. “We encourage our residents to be social, to interact with others, but, every once in a while, we get somebody who’s more reclusive than we like, and that’s Lilybeth to a tee.”

“I understand. Please leave her my message, and we’ll see.” Doreen disconnected and frowned.

What was she supposed to do if somebody didn’t want to talk to her? Why Lilybeth refused to talk was a whole question in itself, but there could be a lot of reasons for that. Realizing that worrying about it was pointless, Doreen turned her attention to going through the notes that she’d made at the library. Even knowing it was probably a complete waste of time, she still hoped it would trigger some other light-bulb moment as to how to go forward.

She had already sent a message to the captain, asking about DNA testing on the bones, so she could get it uploaded to the genealogy site. She didn’t have any response yet. As she sat here, her phone rang, and it was the captain.

“The DNA has already been pulled,” he began, sounding all gruff, “and we do have the results. As for what you’re asking about, I’m okay with you uploading it.”

“Good,” she cried out in delight because that could be the only way to get some forward movement on this. Not that she would hold back either way, but it was nice having him onboard.

“No luck yet?” he asked.

“I’m hoping to talk to a midwife who was very busy during that era to see if she has any thoughts or information on that situation.”

“Oh, that’s interesting,” he murmured.

“Why?”

“A lot of women back then used midwives,” he noted. “I hadn’t really considered that as an avenue.”

“Maybe it’s not a good one. I don’t know yet,” she said, with a chuckle. “I’m hoping to talk to her. She’s over at Riverdale retirement home, but apparently she’s fairly reclusive.”

“Oh my, are you talking about Lilybeth?”

“Yes, I’m talking about Lilybeth,” she confirmed. “I didn’t realize you knew her.”

“Yeah, I do know her. She was an old family friend for a while, but then something happened when I went into law enforcement. I know my mom was pretty heartbroken that she seemed to have lost Lilybeth’s friendship at the same time, but Mom never really understood why.”

“Do you think it was because you went into law enforcement?”

“I would hope not,” he stated, with a grunt, “but people are funny, and just because I went into law enforcement doesn’t mean everybody was happy about it.”

“I’m sure your mother was.”

“Yes, she was over the moon.”

“Odd about Lilybeth, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but, after her husband died, she was never quite the same again.”

“What happened to her husband?” she asked.

“Oh, well, that was a sadness in itself. Her husband was murdered, a mugging while he had been in Vancouver. The authorities caught the guy, but that doesn’t bring back Lilybeth’s husband.”

“Oh no,” Doreen muttered, “no wonder she’s reclusive.”

“Exactly. She’s a lovely lady. She really is, but she doesn’t want to talk about what happened with her husband, and she certainly doesn’t want to talk to strangers.”

“Of course not. Who would want to dredge all that up again?”

“Right, anyway I will get the DNA results back for you, and you can set up an account and upload it.”

“Perfect.”

As soon as she got off the phone, she immediately set up an account on an ancestry site, ready for the DNA to be sent her way. Her mind was busy on the midwife, still reeling from the information that her husband had been murdered. All too often it seemed the people who spent their lifetime helping others got completely shafted in the deal. When bad things happened to them—with no rhyme or reason—it sucked on so many levels.

It wasn’t long before she got the DNA report and had it uploaded onto the account she had opened. There was a small fee for it, but she didn’t care. Once the request was submitted, she sat back, knowing it would take a bit before the results came in.

She smiled, having at least achieved something. That didn’t mean it would bring any answers, but it did feel like progress. While she was sitting here, congratulating herself, her phone rang. Surprised, she looked down to see that it was Riverdale’s number. She answered the phone in a light tone. “Hello, this is Doreen speaking.”

“Hello, Doreen,” the receptionist replied. “I did speak to Lilybeth, and she’s reluctant to talk to you. She’s not at all happy about it.”

“Meaning that she’s afraid I’ll bring up something about her husband?”

“I think that’s probably it, yes,” she agreed.

“There’s a cold case involving a baby from many years ago,” Doreen explained, “and that’s what I was hoping to talk to her about.”

“Oh dear. I’ll mention it again, but I don’t know that she’ll go for it.” The woman was quite apologetic.

“I understand,” Doreen replied. “I’m also trying to put a name to that baby who died so long ago.”

“Right,” the receptionist muttered. “I see Lilybeth’s just coming out of the lunch room. I’ll put you on hold and go talk to her real quick.”

Surprised at that, Doreen waited, going through a few emails and cleaning out her inbox, until the receptionist came back on the phone. “That seems to have completely changed her attitude, so I’m happy to tell you that she has agreed to see you. Anything to do with babies, I guess, is okay.”

“That makes perfect sense, since she spent a lifetime helping babies.”

“She did, indeed.” The receptionist laughed. “She can see you at two today.”

“Oh my, that’s perfect.”

“I hope that time is okay?”

“It will be fine,” Doreen declared, with a smile. “I can definitely make that work.”

“Thank you,” the receptionist said, with a relieved tone. “She is… fairly direct as to…”

“What she wants?”

“Yeah, that’s a good word. Another would be… militant .” And, with that, she disconnected.

Militant ? Doreen frowned. That could be a challenge in itself.

Doreen didn’t have too much time before her meeting with Lilybeth, so she quickly looked up directions as to where she needed to go, and, with that done, she cleaned up the kitchen. She also might need a few names from that era to jostle Lilybeth’s memory and to help dial in the time frame. Grabbing her notes, Doreen jotted down the names of a few girls who had been born in that general period, wondering just how accurate Lilybeth’s memory would be, especially after all this time.

Before long, it was time for her to get going. She looked at the animals, all waiting at the front door for her. Doreen then quickly called Riverdale and asked if she was allowed to bring the animals with her.

“Today is visitors day,” the woman noted hesitantly. “It really depends on how well-behaved your animals are.”

“They’re very well-behaved,” Doreen stated, “and I do find that most of the elderly people we encounter really do enjoy the animals.”

“In that case,” she replied, “we’ll give it a try, but you may be asked to put them back in your vehicle if they prove to be too much.”

“Fair enough,” she said. “See you soon.” As she packed up the animals, she warned them, “You guys need to be on your best behavior.”

She almost heard Thaddeus snort in her hair, as he settled down for this adventure. Goliath just ignored her as usual, while clambering into the front seat, and Mugs took up the bulk of the back seat, his girth once again worrying her. He did seem to be already at an unhealthy weight. Yet she didn’t really know enough about dogs, and, since Mugs seemed happy and could still run extremely well, she wasn’t sure that she was doing him a disservice either.