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“It was twenty-five years ago,” Catherine said drily.
“This woman . . . who left the baby in the car . . . she was trustworthy?” Elizabeth asked tentatively.
“We’d used her many times.” Catherine looked at Elizabeth and then glanced away, and Elizabeth understood this same woman had been instrumental in her own adoption. “She was well-respected around Deception Bay. It happened so fast. No one knew what to think of it.”
“Where’s this story going?” Ravinia asked, but Catherine ignored her and kept talking to Elizabeth.
“Shortly after the Gaineses adopted you, this woman was brokering another adoption. She was only away from her vehicle a short amount of time, but it was enough for someone to steal the child. A baby girl. She was just gone, and no one ever saw her again. At the time, she was dubbed Lost Baby Girl by the press.”
Ravinia demanded, “Why have I never heard of this?”
“Because you don’t listen very well,” Catherine said to her, somewhat sharply.
Ravinia made a leap of consciousness about the same time Elizabeth did.
“Are you saying Lost Baby Girl was Nadia?” Ravinia asked. “She’s from around here?”
“That’s what I believe. The child’s mother was a young woman whose father was considered a shaman in our nearest neighboring community.”
“Those are the Foothillers,” Ravinia said for Elizabeth’s benefit. “I told you about them.”
Elizabeth nodded. Though some of Ravinia’s convoluted tale from the night they’d met had been lost to her, she remembered the Foothillers who lived in the unincorporated town next to Siren Song and were mainly of Native American descent.
Catherine went on, “This young mother had been involved with a man whom we all thought was long dead, but suddenly he was back and . . . creating havoc.”
“Who was he?” Ravinia interrupted. Catherine gazed at her hard and Ravinia lifted her hands in surrender. “I just want to know.”
“He was a very bad man. An evil man. What his relationship with the child’s mother was . . . I don’t know. I don’t know if anyone really knew.” Catherine’s tone suggested it could be nothing good. “He was already gone when the baby was stolen, and he wouldn’t have cared, anyway. The child’s mother wouldn’t admit that she’d put the baby up for adoption. It was rumored the shaman prohibited her from even claiming the child as hers. So, after a short, fruitless search, the whole thing was dropped as if it never happened. The local police did what they could, but the shaman and his daughter would not help them. Both of them died years ago, and the story died with them.”
“What happened to the father?” Elizabeth asked.
“He’s dead,” Catherine answered with such finality that Elizabeth could tell there was far more to that story.
Thinking about it, she asked, “Was he related to . . . us?”
A long moment passed and then Catherine said, “Yes,” adding quietly, “I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone before.”
Ravinia’s head snapped around as if pulled by strings. Clearly, this was way out of character for her aunt. Elizabeth waited expectantly.
“About ten years ago, a woman from Deception Bay was dying of breast cancer and she asked to speak to me. Sheriff O’Halloran came to the lodge and wanted to know if I would go to her. I didn’t know who she was, but I went to her at the hospital and she reached for my hand. She had the idea that I could help her. Not save her life, but maybe her soul. I tried to tell her that, whatever she’d heard about us, we weren’t priestesses, but she didn’t care. She wanted to confess, and she wanted to confess to me, so I let her.
Her name was Lena and she and her boyfriend of the time were the ones who’d stolen Lost Baby Girl. They’d used a lawyer in Southern California, much like my adoption broker did, only the lawyer Lena used didn’t require as much in the way of documentation, apparently, and so the deal was done. Much later, Lena learned that the child she’d stolen was the shaman’s granddaughter, and though she wasn’t Native American herself, she wanted to be absolved by this shaman before she died. She didn’t know he’d predeceased her, but when she learned, she then turned to ‘the witches of Siren Song’ for absolution. When she asked me to help her, she didn’t know Lost Baby Girl was related to us through the father. No one did . . . and they still don’t know.”
“Did you give her absolution?” Ravinia asked curiously.
“I said a few words and told her she was forgiven and she relaxed and died several minutes later.” Catherine made a face. “It made me wish I’d done more to help seek out the child, but truthfully, because of her father, I didn’t want to find her.”
“What was wrong with this man?” Elizabeth asked, even though she could tell Catherine didn’t want to talk about him.
“He was my sister Mary’s father, Thomas Durant, and he’d been missing for years, so when he showed up, we didn’t immediately know who he was. Mary even invited him to the house as a guest, like she did with lots of men, and, one thing led to another. It was after that, that I closed the gates. . . .”
“He was my grandfather,” Ravinia said.
Catherine nodded and there was silence for awhile.
Then Ravinia asked carefully, “Please don’t tell me he was my father, too.”
“No.” Catherine was positive on that. “And he’s not yours, either, Elizabeth. I know you have questions about your father, but I don’t really want to talk about him right now. He was a good man, though.”
