Gingerbread Man

worried look. "They said the human mind knows what it can and cannot withstand. That if I'd blocked something out that completely, maybe there was a reason."
    "Maybe you couldn't handle remembering."
    Amanda swallowed hard. "Maybe. But that's no longer relevant."
    "Of course it's relevant!"
    "No, it's not. If I don't remember now, that little girl could end up dead. And I'll be responsible for it. No. No, I have to remember. And I can only think of one way. I have to go back. I have to go right back there, to the gate where Reggie found me that night."
    Holly frowned at her, shifting her gaze rapidly from Amanda's determined face to the road and back again. "And do what? Try to backtrack?"
    Amanda nodded. "If I can retrace my steps, make it as much like it was before as I possibly can, then maybe..." Sighing, she lowered her head. "It's a long shot, I know, but I just can't see any other way."
    When thunder rumbled softly in the distance, Holly said, "Sounds like the weather's going to cooperate."
    Amanda looked up, eyes probing the black depths of the sky. "Yeah." And she shivered. "God, I hate thunderstorms."
    * * *
    "DR. GRAYCLOUD?"
    The doctor held up a hand toward the nurse, and kept on with his conversation with Vince and the federal agent guarding Reggie's hospital room door. "I don't want to catch anyone trying to get into this room again, do you understand me, young man?"
    "With all due respect, doctor. Special Agent Selkirk is my superior."
    "But he has no right to put my patient's life at risk," Graycloud insisted.
    Vince cut in. "Listen, kid, if the suspect dies because you didn't do your job, it'll be your ass, not Selkirk's. You got that?" His own methods were a bit more direct, but he didn't have time to dick around with the rookie. He and the doctor had come along the hall to see Selkirk with his hand on the hospital room door, about to go inside, and the guard looking the other way. "If you're too scared of Selkirk to stand up to him, then just call one of us next time he tries to get into the room."
    "I'm not scared of Agent Selkirk, Detective."
    "Shoot, you wouldn't know it to look at you." Vince shook his head. "Can you do the job, kid, or should we ask for someone else?"
    "I can do it just fine, sir."
    "Good."
    "Doctor, please," the nurse said again.
    "Just a moment, will you? Listen, son, if we hadn't come by just as Agent Selkirk was heading in there, I can't even predict what would have happened. Now, I know what you're thinking—so he dies, no great loss. But keep in mind that we have no solid evidence of that man's guilt. But we have very good reason to believe he might be the only hope we have of finding little Bethany Stevens alive. So you think about that, all right? You're not protecting a suspected child killer. You're protecting the life of a little girl."
    "Yes, sir," the agent said, and he looked, for once, as if he meant it.
    Sighing, Graycloud nodded, turned away. "Now, what is it nurse?"
    She walked beside the doctor and Vince through the hallway, flipping open a folder as she did. "They messed up the blood samples you requested," she said. "Must have been a glitch in the hospital lab; either way, we're gonna have to do them over again."
    "Why's that?" Frowning hard, Doc pulled a pair of bifocals from a pocket and slipped them on, then took the chart from her, scowling at the pages inside.
    "Miss D'Voe's friend insisted on being tested as well. And as you can see, the results between her workup and Miss D'Voe's are, well they're..."
    "They're damn near identical." He lifted his gaze to Vince's.
    Vince swallowed hard and felt the blood drain from his face.
    "Exactly," the nurse went on. "I had the lab double-check. They swear the results are right, but it's obvious they must have mislabeled the samples, or tested the same one twice. For two adults to test this way they would practically have to be—"
    "Siblings," Doc said.
    Vince shut his eyes tight. "My God."
    "Thank you for the information nurse. I'll, uh, I'll take it from here," Graycloud muttered, and the nurse left them with an odd look.
    "We can't breathe a word of this," Vince said. "Not to anyone, not until we're absolutely sure. I don't think Doris could take the shock, much less the heartbreak if it turns out we're wrong. And as for Holly..." He shook his head slowly. "I don't know how she'll take this, but I do know we have to be sure. I don't want to hurt those two—those three—any more than they've already been