None of them suggested an easy resolution and a happy outcome.
Why had Bridget left her job with Sydney? She truly had lost her mind to think she could make a difference or make the worlda better place. Because as she looked at the girl lying still and alone, she knew that the only thing she could do was fail her.
Just as she failed her brother every day.
The womanbehind him had barely breathed since she stepped into the doorway.
Todd wondered who she was and why she lingered there.
There was no reason to be a lookie-loo and stay more than a minute.
The first doctor hadn’t done much other than order a battery of tests. The poor girl had so much blood drawn she’d have called the man Dr. Vampire if she’d been awake. But she wasn’t. She hadn’t flinched when the tech’s needle had entered her skin.
That couldn’t be good.
Todd had needed to look away.
He didn’t do blood.
Or needles.
Or fluids.
He was a big baby.
But he wouldn’t tell the guys back at the precinct. He had a reputation to maintain. The guy who had a hard exterior. Who took the hard cases and chased them to the ground. But he did that to protect himself from feeling too much. This job could take everything from you if you let it. He had a feeling this one could take a lot. Who let a young girl disappear?
There was something about her.
She was small.
More than petite.
Something wasn’t okay. But he wasn’t a doctor, so he wasn’t sure what. He just knew it was something. And he wanted to fixit. But he couldn’t, and that made him want to hit something, especially since he had a feeling the woman standing in the door was with Children and Family Services, and that wouldn’t mean good things.
Her heart might be in the right place, but he’d seen too many families destroyed by inept employees with a god complex. The good ones got drowned out by the ones who would do what they were going to do—everyone else get out of the way. He hoped this woman fell in the good category.
He eased her direction, catching a glimpse of her in his periphery. Her shoulder-length hair glinted red in the light, but she also looked like she carried a weight on her shoulders. He considered saying something, then decided to wait her out. She’d entered his room.
After another minute, she blew out a breath. “You the one who found her?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He swallowed his orneriness and stuck out his hand for a quick shake. “Detective Todd Westmont, Lincoln PD.”
“Bridget Ellison, Child and Family Services.” She took a small step into the room. Hesitant as if she had bad experiences in hospitals. Interesting. “What can you tell me?”
“She was in an alley by Rosie’s. I administered Narcan on the scene, though she didn’t present like an overdose. The spray didn’t revive her, but the doctor doesn’t think it’s an overdose. Not clear what’s going on.” And that concerned him. She should have come to. Enough time had passed in his opinion.
“Anyone around?”
“Just a kid who called me to the alley, but he left while I was looking for her.” The teen had been vaguely familiar, but in the hunt for the girl, Todd hadn’t placed him. “There’s no name, so her identity is unknown.” He turned to look at the woman. “Guess that’s where you come in.”
“Can you tell me anything about her?”
“I’m afraid not.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “There’s no identification on her. Nothing that indicates where she’s from. I’ll start checking for reports of missing kids, but unless someone has reported her missing or a runaway, it could be hard to identify her.”
Bridget edged closer to the bed. “Who are you?” The words whispered into the room, filled with the whirrs and beeps of machines that created a background cacophony. She turned to him, and her blue eyes took him in with an edge of wariness. “What did the doctor say?”
“Nothing yet. They’re testing her blood sugar and a lot of other things. Filled a lot of vials with blood. Without knowing anything about her, it sounded like it would be a process of elimination to figure out why she’s unresponsive.”
