Birthright

looked at the little bag in Doug’s hand. “Is it for me?”
    “Yeah. But if you don’t want it, I’ll hang on to it.” Doug reached in, pulled a palm-sized tyrannosaurus out of the bag.
    “It’s a dinosaur. It’s a T-rex! Thanks!” Ty fell on Doug’s neck in gratitude and the love a four-year-old boy has in abundance. “It’s the best! Can I go bury it and dig it up again?”
    “You bet.” He straightened as Ty sprinted off to the spoil pile. “That seems to be a hit.” He looked back to see Lana grinning at him. “Want a present?”
    “I do.”
    He reached in the bag again, watched her mouth fall open as he pulled out her gift.
    “Is that . . .”
    “Yes, it is. An official electric-blue, guitar-shaped Elvis flyswatter. After considerable search and debate, this was the silliest thing I could find. I hope it does the job.”
    “It’s perfect.” Laughing, she threw her arms around his neck as Ty had done.
    “I missed you. I don’t know if I like that or not. I’m not used to missing anyone, but I missed you.”
    She drew back. “Are you used to being missed?”
    “Not really.”
    “You were,” she said and took his hand.
    C allie had just called for the team to gather up their loose when the last visitor arrived. Diggers and students began the routine of gathering tools for cleaning and storage.
    Bill McDowell, his arms full of trowels and pails, jogged over. “Want me to take this one, Callie?” He nodded toward the baby blue sedan. “I don’t mind.”
    “That’s okay.” Callie watched Betsy Poffenberger lever herself out of the driver’s seat of the blue Camry. “I know her.”
    “Okay, well, a bunch of us are going to camp out here tonight. Grill up some dogs, have some beer. Just hang out. You gonna?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe.”
    “I’ll get your loose for you.”
    “Thanks.” She spoke absently, and was already walking away. “Mrs. Poffenberger.”
    “Isn’t this just something. Look at all those holes in the ground. All those trenches. You dig those yourself?”
    “Some of them. I was hoping to hear from you.”
    “Thought I’d take a drive out, have a look-see for myself. Heard you on the radio this morning. Sounded real scientific.”
    “Thank you. Were you able to find out anything for me?”
    Betsy studied Callie’s face. “You didn’t mention you were Suzanne Cullen’s girl.”
    “Does that make a difference?”
    “Sure it does. It’s just like a mystery story. I recollect when it all happened. Suzanne and Jay Cullen’s picture was in the paper. Yours, too. Just a baby then, of course. There were flyers, too, all over Hagerstown. Now here you are. Isn’t that something?”
    “I’d appreciate anything you can tell me. If anything you can tell me helps, there’ll probably be more newspaper stories down the road. I imagine reporters will want to talk to you.”
    “You think? Wouldn’t that be something. Well, I talked to Alice and Kate, and Alice, she remembered that it was Mary Stern who was the delivery-room nurse when Suzanne Cullen’s babies were born. Remembered for sure because she said she spoke to Mary about you after you got snatched away. Alice, she’ll gossip about the phase of the moon if you give her half a chance. Got a couple other names for you, people she remembered. Night-shift nurse, and so on. Don’t know as all of them’re still in the area.”
    She took out a sheet of paper. “I looked the names up in the phone book myself. Got a curious nature. Mary Stern is living down in Florida now, got divorced and remarried. Had herself a baby when she was damn near forty. Sandy Parker here, she died in a car wreck about five years ago. Terrible thing, read about it in the paper. She was on the night shift.”
    Callie tried to tug the sheet away, but Betsy clung tight, adjusted her glasses and continued to read. “Now, this one, this Barbara Halloway, I didn’t remember her till Alice reminded me. She wasn’t on staff more than a year, and on night shift, too. I didn’t know many of the night-shifters well, but I remembered her after Alice jogged my memory.”
    “Thank you, Mrs. Poffenberger. I’m sure this will help.”
    “Snooty young thing,” she continued. “Fresh out of nursing school. Redheaded girl, had her sights set on bagging a doctor, from what I heard. Got one, too. Not around here, up north somewhere. She moved away not long after the whole thing happened. That’s why I didn’t remember her right