Forever Beach Read Online Free PDF Page A

she asked, then covered hermouth and nose with her hand, while the officer groped his way across the room. He tore away a blanket that they’d tacked to the window frame and forced open the sash, which let in a little air and enough light to show an unmade bed, stained and encrusted with filth, and a boy curled up in a ball, looking at Reesa with dull eyes.
    He was so malnourished he couldn’t even be afraid.
    Reesa had to force herself to move closer. This was the worst situation she’d seen in a long time. If ever.
    She didn’t sit on the mattress but leaned over to the boy, careful to keep her clothes from touching anything.
    â€œHello, sweetheart, I’m Mrs. Davis, and I’m going to take you to get some food.”
    His eyes closed.
    â€œSweetheart?” Reesa said quietly.
    The boy’s eyes opened slowly, blinked as if he were emerging from a hypnotic trance.
    â€œHoney,” Reesa said. “Can you tell me where the baby is?”
    Nothing.
    Reesa looked around; there was a crib, but it looked like it was being used as a laundry basket. She didn’t want to look more closely, but she had to find that baby.
    She moved toward it and forced herself to peer down through the dirty clothes. The child was there, covered in a T-shirt too big for him, no diaper.
    Reesa bit back a cry, moved closer. For a terrified moment she thought she was too late. She forced herself to touch the skin. It was warm; the little mouth moved, a slight sucking motion, so minute a movement that Reesa at first wondered if she was willing it to life. She leaned toward it to make sure; yes, the baby was sucking.
    â€œOfficer, call the EMTs. We’ll need a pediatric harness and an infant carrier.”
    He was still staring at the kid on the bed, his face twisted in the same emotions Reesa was feeling herself. Shock, disgust, compassion.
    â€œOfficer!”
    He jolted to life. Grabbed his radio and began giving orders as he walked out of the room.
    Reesa forced herself to return to the first boy. He was still alive. But for how long?
    And rage bubbled up and tore through her.
    She tried to force it back down. Tried to remember the times when things worked out, where parents did care and would be reunited, like last week and the Valentis. A couple who had fallen on hard times but who worked hard and who loved and deserved their children.
    She stopped herself. She wasn’t supposed to make emotional judgments, but today she couldn’t help it. She wanted to lash out, yell at that piece of humanity sitting out on the couch, worried about her boyfriend.
    A siren whined in the distance coming nearer and, after an eternity, footsteps sounded on the stairs. Reesa waited by the bedroom door and directed the EMTs to where two children lay near death.
    She stepped aside, but not before she saw the revulsion on the emergency workers’ faces. They recovered instantly. While one prepared the harness, the other two slid the boy onto the gurney.
    A second team came in behind them, lugging an infant carrier. They moved toward the crib as Reesa followed the first gurney out of the room.
    The mother just sat there sniffling while they hooked Jerome up to an IV. But when the second EMT came out carrying that small bundle, she threw herself off the couch. “What are you doing? Put my baby back! You can’t take my baby!”
    One of the policemen restrained her as the EMTs strapped the infant carrier onto a second gurney.
    â€œThere’s one more at a neighbor’s,” Reesa told them and started toward the door.
    Ms. White broke away from the officer and lunged after Reesa. “You can’t take them. You can’t take my babies. You bitch! You . . .” She yelled a string of profanity that echoed down the dirty hallway.
    Reesa took the stairs down to the first floor where hopefully she would find the oldest boy still alive.
    She was almost afraid to knock. But it was her job. “Ms.