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daughter is missing!  I’m
terrified of what he’ll do when he finds out.”
    “ We’ll take care of that,
ma’am,” Devlin said.  “We need to know if you saw or heard
anything that could help us find your baby.”
    She shook her head and sniffled.  “But
that doesn’t mean I don’t know who did this.  Detective, did
you listen to the tape?  They threatened me.  They knew
where we were.”
    “ I did hear it, which is
why we’ve had officers guarding your room since you delivered the
baby.  Does she have a name?”
    “ No,” more wailing
ensued. 
    “ Did anyone take pictures
of her after she was born?” I asked gently.  “If so, they
could be very helpful.”
    “ My nurse,” the distraught
mother rasped, “she took pictures of the baby with my cell
phone.”
    Where was this girl’s family? 
“Celeste, I’ve noticed that you don’t have anyone here with
you.  Is there someone we could call?”
    “ No,” she whispered. 
“After he… after you arrested Danny, my family wanted me to make a
choice I couldn’t make.  He’s my husband.  Our child’s
father… I couldn’t turn my back on him, not when he needs me so
much.”
    I bit back the urge to snort at her
stupidity.  If the tables were turned, Datello would’ve thrown
her under the bus just as fast as anybody else in his warped
family.
    “ You don’t believe
that.  I know you don’t know Danny the way I do.  I knew
he had a horrible life… before.  But he really did put it
behind him.”
    “ Celeste, I’m not here to
talk about that.  We need to focus on the baby right
now.”
    “ I need you to believe
that my husband would sacrifice his life, his freedom, his fortune,
everything he has to protect me and our daughter.  Someone
said that he was probably behind this.  You need to know that
he would never do this to me.  His family on the other hand
…”
    “ I’m aware of the lengths
they’d go to, Celeste.  Let’s talk about your family for a
moment.”
    “ They wouldn’t,” she
whispered.
    “ Perhaps not, but I think
that this might be the perfect time for you to mend fences with
them, don’t you?  The next few hours are critical in this
investigation.  I don’t feel right about you facing this
alone.”
    “ Can’t you talk to that
judge?”
    “ I’m not sure what you’d
like me to talk to Judge Gates about.”
    She clutched my hand.  “She could give
Danny permission to be here with me.  If he could be out for
just a little while, I know he could help you find our baby.”
    “ I know you believe that,
but his interference will only hamper our search,” I said. 
“We’ll try to talk to him, Celeste.  I hope he’ll be
cooperative.”
    “ But you don’t think he
will be.”
    I shook my head.  “Unfortunately, your
husband doesn’t trust me.  Frankly, I was surprised that you
wanted to talk to me at all, Celeste.  I don’t doubt that
Danny has shared his opinions with you on a number of things.”
    “ I don’t believe you
could’ve killed Rick,” she said.  “I don’t see that kind of
hate in your eyes.  You’re not like the rest of those people,
Detective Eriksson.  I’d like to think that if Danny had
gotten away from his family the way you did your father, that he
could’ve been very much like you are now.  Noble. 
Honest.  Decent.  Those were the traits I saw when I fell
in love with him.  I knew there was another side, but I
thought …”  Speech disintegrated into sobbing.
    “ You thought you could
save him?”
    She nodded.  “I will never believe that
he’s the monster that people have accused him of being.  But
we won’t heal this rift if you can’t find my daughter.”
    I was momentarily taken aback, not only
because she refused to acknowledge that there were scores of
witnesses to what Datello perpetrated at the Medical Examiner’s
Office, but his employees tried to kill uniformed police officers
when we attempted to apprehend them.  I couldn’t