He was slipping if he hadn’t noticed her come up. “Hey, Dani. What are you doing here?”
She held up a bag of food. “Brought sustenance for you two. Caleb mentioned you’d come back to the hospital.”
“What else did he tell you?”
“Nothing.” She didn’t even look a little guilty as she stood there. “So you know her name, Todd?”
“Has Caleb shared information out of turn?” He’d throttle his partner if he had.
“No. You know he doesn’t do that. Drives me crazy sometimes, but the man is a vault when it comes to keeping information from me.” She sighed but held up a bag from Runza. “The food is getting cold, but maybe I should trade it for information.”
The aroma of fries and Runzas made his stomach growl, and he almost snatched the bag from her hand. “You’re a saint and a tease.”
She stared at him. “I can help if you let me. Research is my middle name.”
“You know I can’t.”
“But I can.” Bridget reached for the bag. “Thanks for this.” She reached in and pulled out the Swiss cheese and mushroom Runza before handing the bag and the rest of its contents to him. “We think we know who Jane Doe is but we now have more questions than answers. It’s odd how getting a name has only created more questions.”
“What’s the name?”
“Don’t.” Todd growled the word, but Bridget ignored him.
“Eliza Brandenberg.”
Dani swayed and Todd jumped up to grab her, the bag spilling at his feet. “You okay, Jamison?”
Her face had drained of color, and she looked unsteady. She didn’t fight off his hand, a very un-Dani action. She was the queen of independence, only leaning into Caleb. “Did you say Eliza Brandenberg?”
He had to lean in to hear her words. “Yes.”
“I need to sit.”
Bridget scooted over on the couch, and Dani sank next to her. Todd picked up the bag and set it on the side table, thoughts of eating the food abandoned as he considered texting Caleb. He reached for his phone, but Dani shook her head.
“I’ll be all right, promise.”
“This isn’t like you, Dani.” Caleb really should know if something more was going on.
She gave him a small smile. “I’ll let him know.” She sighed as she twisted her hands together in her lap. “Right now, I need to know everything you can tell me about Eliza.”
Bridget frowned at her. “Why?”
“Because the family that adopted my daughter thirteen years ago had the same last name, I think. And I called my daughter Eliza. I don’t know that they kept that name, but the odds seem very small that there would be another Eliza Brandenberg in this part of Nebraska, don’t you think?”
Bridget met his gaze above Dani’s bent head.
This certainly complicated things. How was Todd supposed to tell his partner that Caleb’s wife thought Jane Doe was their long-lost daughter?
CHAPTER 11
Eliza Brandenberg could be Dani’s daughter?
That was a twist Bridget hadn’t foreseen. “Was your adoption open?”
Dani blinked a couple of times, then turned to Bridget. “No. I had no idea where Eliza went. I wasn’t supposed to know the adopting family’s name, but the set of paperwork I received had a mistake in it – the attorney included the name on the release I signed. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but it took everything in me not to look for her over the years.”
“You didn’t?” Bridget found that hard to believe, especially when she’d seen how much Dani wondered about her daughter just the night before.
