Prairie Gothic Read Online Free PDF Page B

old man wasn’t going easy and I thought…No, hell, I should have thought. Your brother always carries things to their illogical extremes. But what’s that got to do with a dead baby?”
    â€œAfter Mad Dog left with Tommie, some of the seniors went for an early morning stroll. Alice Burton was one of them. You know about her?”
    â€œShe’s not one of my patients, but yeah. I know. She’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but she’s not as far gone as her family seems to want to think. This got something to do with that doll they gave her?”
    â€œI guess she took the doll along. Nobody noticed anything until after they got back. Somewhere, she seems to have traded plastic for the real thing.”
    â€œAnd I assume they didn’t traipse through any nurseries. You’re thinking this child was abandoned?”
    â€œShortly after birth from the look of things. Part of the umbilical cord is still attached. I’m hoping this kid belongs to someone who was just passing through town.”
    â€œI can appreciate that sentiment,” Doc said.
    â€œWe may end up with a lynch-mob reaction to this. Can you suggest any likely candidates for the baby’s mother?”
    â€œHalf the teenage girls in this county. We don’t teach our kids sex education. We don’t offer much recreation. The nearest Planned Parenthood office is halfway across the state. Having a ‘premature’ kid six months or less after the wedding is pretty much the norm around here.”
    â€œI meant specifically.”
    Doc turned his face away from the crowd in the lobby. “You know I don’t do abortions, Sheriff. Not because I don’t believe they’re occasionally a better option, but because if I did, even an occasional secret one, word would get out and I couldn’t live here anymore. Literally. You and I could list a dozen people in this county who would seriously consider shooting me if they believed I was killing unborn babies. So, I’d have to say no in answer to your question. No one’s come to me for a solution to an unwanted pregnancy, and even if they had, I’d never admit it. I took an oath. If anyone told me something like that, I couldn’t reveal it.”
    â€œSorry, Doc. The possibilities of this thing scare me as much as they do you. I was thinking of myself more as coming to someone’s rescue rather than leading a rush to punish.”
    â€œI know.” A shiver ran up Doc’s spine that the sheriff didn’t think came from the cold. “Let’s take a look. I’m coroner here and I’ll share with you anything I learn from performing my duty. What you do then is between you and the law, or you and your conscience.”
    The sheriff couldn’t recall ever seeing Doc so obviously upset. Neither of them knew a thing about this baby yet, and already both of them were as skittish as a pair of taxpayers facing IRS audits.
    He opened the inner doors and shooed people aside. They pushed through to the hall that led to the cafeteria and offices and headed for the one where Deputy Wynn stood guard, one hand hiding his empty holster. The sheriff had locked his deputy’s .357 in the glove box of his truck and wasn’t sure he would return it.
    â€œMornin’, Doc,” Wynn said.
    â€œIf there’s a disaster, I can always count on you being there, can’t I, Deputy?”
    Doc really was in a mood. If there was one man in the county who was never unkind to those who meant no harm, it was Doc Jones. Wynn didn’t seem to notice the insult. He just opened the door to the nurse’s office, then followed them inside.
    â€œAh, damn!” Doc muttered softly. He peeled away the blanket that swaddled the infant with a touch so gentle it seemed he must believe the potential for suffering survived beyond death.
    The room felt too small for three adults and a dead baby, though not for want of square