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agreed. The same thing had occurred to him. “Now what?”
The entrance doors closed behind them and they began to walk toward the parking lot and Callum’s car.
“Now we keep digging,” Marlowe answered. “Maybe we can find out who was working at the hospital around that time. If we’re lucky, maybe someone saw something but didn’t know what they were seeing at the time. There had to have been a great deal of pandemonium and panic during the fire, what with everyone rushing around, trying to save the babies and their mothers.”
“I don’t know about that.” Callum didn’t seem so sure about the scenario she had just verbally sketched.
“What do you mean?” Marlowe asked.
“Dad would have mentioned something like that at some point. Maybe the fire was purposely a very small, isolated one,” Callum theorized. “Just big enough to destroy the records, but not big enough to threaten anyone else, including the babies.”
“Sounds like a good theory to me,” Marlowe agreed. The more she thought about it, the more likely it sounded to her.
“We just need to find someone who worked at the hospital in the maternity ward at the time to confirm that,” Callum said. He made it sound simple, but she knew it was anything but that.
Marlowe said it out loud for both of them. “Easier said than done. But then,” she reflected, “what fun is easy?”
Callum shook his head. “You do have a very unique way of looking at things.”
“I’m a Colton,” she said as they got into his car. “I was born unique.”
“And humble,” he said with a laugh, putting his key into the ignition. “Don’t forget humble.”
“Never,” she replied with a straight face. “I wouldn’t forget that.” And then Marlowe’s expression became serious. “I think we need to call the board together for another meeting so we can tell them what we found out—or didn’t find out,” she amended. “Maybe one of them has a better idea of what to do next.”
“Are you saying my idea wasn’t good?” Callum asked, pretending to take offense.
She slanted a look in his direction. “I’m saying that the more ideas we have to work with, the better our chances of resolving all this are. Besides, I think it’s time we get everyone involved in searching for any and all hospital personnel who worked at the hospital forty years ago. This isn’t a job for just one or two people, not with all of us having our own set of responsibilities when it comes to running Colton Oil.”
Callum sighed. “Yes, there is that.” Rather than race through a light the way Marlowe was wont to do, he slowed down as it turned yellow, then red. “There’s also another factor.”
Marlowe shifted in her seat to look at her brother. “Which is?”
Callum took his time in responding. When he did, what he said wasn’t anything that she’d expected. “How are you feeling?”
Nauseated as hell, she thought, but since she’d managed to keep everything down, she wasn’t about to say anything about it to her brother.
“Okay,” Marlowe answered. “Why?”
“Why?” Callum echoed incredulously.
“Yes, that’s what I just asked, Callum. Why?” Marlowe repeated.
“Because you’re pregnant.”
Marlowe rolled her eyes. She was trying to get away from talking about her condition, not dwelling on it. She thought he would have understood that. He was her twin, and there were times when each knew exactly what the other was thinking. “C’mon, Callum, don’t you start.”
“Hey, I’m just worried about you. I’ve seen you turn green a couple of times in the last few hours, and green is not your natural color. Are you getting enough rest?”
“I am fine, Callum,” Marlowe insisted.
He tried again. “Okay, what did the doctor say?”
She kept her face forward, not wanting to make any eye contact. “What doctor?”
“You haven’t been to see your doctor yet?” he cried. “Hell, what are you waiting for?”
“Um, in case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been a little busy, with my oldest brother suddenly not being my brother and some crazy person taking a shot at me inside my condo. That doesn’t exactly leave much time for me to go sashaying off to my ob-gyn’s office to read two-year-old magazines while I wait three hours for a consultation with her—if she doesn’t cancel at the last minute because she’s been called away to make a unscheduled delivery.”
