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"I know. But...I have the time and the experience. As the rest of my siblings pointed out when I inheritedthe search." She’d been sitting there, feeling useless, on medical leave. Ariella had shown up with their brothers and asked her to take over.
It had been the last thing Zoey had wanted to do. But her siblings had families—young ones. She hadn’t. She’d had a mouthy, traumatized seventeen-year-old who was making her own way into her future.
Zoey had had the most skills, too. And the determination.
She hated the questions in Pen's eyes when Pen asked where they came from. If they were in any way likeher.Her sister worried she was like their mother, down deep. Where the real fears lived. The mother who had tossed Pen aside like trash, but had sold healthier babies for cash.
Denise had abandoned Zoey in the hospital. Pen had been left in an infant carrier propped up against the exterior wall of a hospital. In January. Their mother hadn’t even bothered to walk Pen inside a mere fifteen feet to where it waswarm.Denise could have at least left Pen inside the pneumatic door where it would have been a bit warmer.
She’d just walked away.
Pen’s greatest fear was being like their mother.
Her sister had the best heart of anyone Zoey had ever known. But finding a way to prove that to Pen had been harder than she expected.
"Well, come on, then. I'm yours as long as you need me. Even if that is for eternity. All you have to do is say the word."
He climbed out of the SUV. She had to follow. She didn't even truly know what she was looking for there. The warrant was rather broad—extremely broad, and she knew it—and had her brother-in-law not called in some favors, she wouldn't have it at all.
It looked like any other outdated, small-town medical practice.Smelled like dust, mold, and decay. With just the faint hint of lingering antiseptic that was probably more imagined than anything.
Or that stuff had seeped into the walls years ago.
This place had once been the town’s only medical facility for almost thirty years, she thought. Brown paneling from the 1970s hung along the waiting room walls. There’d been a hospital in the north part of the county until then. Up in Coleson Hollow. But it had closed when the family who had owned it went bankrupt, she’d thought she’d heard once.
All that was left of that place was a sprawling property with macabrely frightening buildings that Zoey swore had to be haunted now. Most of her interactions as sheriff in that place had been to run off teenagers looking for thrills.
Now there was a new general practitioner in town who worked her butt off six days a week—located at the opposite end of town. She was around the same age as Zoey. Zoey had honestly expected that woman to have left weeks after she’d moved in. But Dr. Zinck was a lot tougher than that.
"Guess whoever cleaned up after the vandals left the lights on for us, babe."
"Don’t call me babe." There were filing cabinets behind the registration desk. Generic, taupe filing cabinets. She pulled the handle on one. It slid easily. "Didn’t anyone secure anything before this place closed?"
There were more than four dozen files just sitting there in the drawer.Private information on patients that should have been stored properly or disposed of the instant the clinic closed—no matter what. She shuddered, imagining what someone could do with the information now at her fingertips.
Information could be very, very dangerous, after all.
"Apparently not. So what are you looking for?"
"The warrant covers anyone named Denise Daviess. Or D period Daviess, or Denise Alvarez. I'm also looking for Alvaro. Plus...Caine or Abel Alvaro—Rafe's family changed his name after the adoption. Penelope Daviess, Paige Daviess, Lucian Daviess, Simon Daviess. All of my known siblings’ names. It took Marc some maneuvering, but he was able to get the warrant for their medical records since we have their consent to find them. We had to have my siblings and their attorneys sign off on the requests. It took a while to get it all organized.”
"Just look for Daviess, basically?" He was next to the other filing cabinet in the corner. "So...Pen told me the story. At least yours and hers. What are hoping this place will show you?"
* * *
He didn’t thinkshe was going to answer. Murdoch waited.
“I’m hoping it will show me where to look next. My mother didn’t just hatch, after all. Someone knows where she came from. I’m here to find that someone.” Her expression tightened for a moment.
There was confusion in those gorgeous Zoey eyes. Uncertainty. She turned. Reached for a bottom drawer.
Murdoch opened the filing cabinet, forcing attention back to where it was supposed to be and not on his former partner’s far too sexy backside. He’d always find her eye-catching. Distracting. Fascinating.
He had a Zoey type, no denying it.
The cabinet drawer was being difficult. He yanked on it a bit warningly. It took him a moment to realize there were documents at the back, blocking it. Zoey had just bent over to look in a desk, after all, and he’d gotten…distracted.
He reached in, lifted the drawer out, and shone his light right in. Beady little eyes stared back at him. He swore—but, manfully, he did not jump back. It was tough, but he managed.
