Diana Racine 02 - Goddess of the Moon

disrupt her concentration. She stood motionless for almost four minutes.
    Opening her eyes, s he let out a long, slow breath. “This is strange.”
    “What?” Lucier asked.
    She draped the blanket over the railing, looking confused . “I felt the baby. She’s alive, I’m sure, and not being harmed, but I sensed the presence of other babies. I heard them.”
    Mr. Seaver let out a strangled sigh. Tears filled his eyes. “I’m sorry. This is very emotional for me.”
    “I understand,” Lucier said. “ Anything else , Diana ?”
    Her gaze shifted from Lucier to Beecher to Mr. Seaver and back to Lucier. “She’s in a pleasant place. Warm, with sun shining in. Another nursery, I think. The room was painted pink with high ceilings and crown molding, characteristic of an old Victorian house. ”
    She started to say something else but stopped . S omething she didn’t want to say in front of the baby’s father ? Walking to the window , she touched the sill.
    “Are you sure my daughter is okay?” Mr. Seaver asked .
    She turned to face him . “ Some people don’t believe in what I do, Mr. Seaver , and though I don’t want to give you false hope, I’d stake my reputation that your daughter is alive and being well taken care of.”
    He stifled a sob , and this time the tears slid from the corners of his eyes . “Thank you.” T o Lucier, he said , “Find the man who took our baby, Lieutenant. Find him and lock him away forever.”
    * * * * *
    O n their way back to the station, Lucier asked Diana what she didn’t say at the house.
    “What I saw ― the room ―there was an aura of danger. The baby feels safe, but she’s not.”
    “In what way?” Beecher asked.
    “I don’t know.” Diana wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. “Those babies are in an atmosphere of evil.”
    Lucier didn’t like to show overt affection toward Diana in front of his men, but this time he didn’t care. He pulled her close because she shivered in the fear she just described . “Did you see anyone with her?”
    “N o, I told you everything I saw.”
    “Get Stallings on the phone, Sam. Ask him if the stats in this case match any other incidents. T he feds do it better and faster. I don’t recall any baby kidnappings in New Orleans, but there might be a pattern. First, l et’s verify if we’re dealing with a single episode. ”
    They drove into the parking lot of the French Quarter Police Department . “ Someone targeted that baby ,” Lucier said . “ I assume you have a l ist of patients and visitors during the time she was in the hospital ?”
    “We do. Employees too , ” Beecher said.
    Lucier ruffled Diana’s mass of curly black hair and added an affectionate smile. “ Maybe Halloran noticed something on the tapes .”
    * * * * *
    “ A nything?” Lucier asked when Halloran entered his office.
    “I captured some stills of people at the birthing center that week,” Halloran said. “Most worked there. O ne of our guys is there now with the photos to s ee who hasn’t show n up for work. ”
    Lucier ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “ Hope we get lucky.”
    * * * * *
    D iana remembered the first time she walked into the French Quarter police station . I nstead of the disdain she ’d experienced that first night , today the cops seemed glad to see her. After chatting with a few of the m she took the visitor’s chair in Lucier’s office. The framed degrees and citations still hung on the wall, and t he photos of his family sat in the same place on the bookcase, as they should . Only now , her picture faced in his direction on his desk, leaving no doubt they w ere in a personal relationship.
    Beecher entered the office , tucking in his unruly shirt. When they first met, Beecher had called Diana a phony and a charlatan. The epithets weren’t new. She’d heard them all before when she gave up helping the police at age fourteen to enter the entertainment world. She usually ignored the comments, but Beecher’s attitude had bugged the hell out of her. Her on-target psychic readings had changed his opinion, and their relationship settled into one of mutual respect. In fact, they actually liked one another, but both kept up the adversarial repartee to keep things interesting.
    “No one remembers seeing anyone at the hospital who shouldn’t have been there,” Beecher said. “But the pictures might jog someone’s memory.”
    “ What about the Seavers’ neighbors?”
    “ The people on