Chapter Twelve

T he policeman rubbed a hand over his swarthy face and shook his head. “Take me through it again, you just found the child here?”

“Max, it’s not rocket science,” Cordelia said. “Yes. He’s a child. It’s not like he brought himself here. Anyway, there’s a note.”

“A note,” said Max.

Lydia looked over to where she’d laid Toby down on the soft cushions in the play area. He’d gone back to sleep, a decision that she suspected might be about to come back and haunt her. She bit her lip and turned back to Max. “I’ve got a feeling this might be my fault.”

“Your fault?” asked Max. “How exactly?”

Lydia sighed. “Nat Greene was in the surgery yesterday. She, uh, she’s been struggling a bit.” She wondered how much she could say without breaking confidentiality. But then, surely this kind of emergency trumped spilling something that couldn’t possibly be a secret from the whole town.

Fortunately, Cordelia stepped in. “Elias has gone walkabout again.”

Which more or less summed up what Nat had told Lydia. Her erstwhile partner, Elias, had gone off ten days ago now, leaving Nat and Toby alone. Something that Nat was finding hard to deal with, given both her young age and the fact that she had no close family living nearby .

“So Elias has gone walkabout and what?” asked Max, eyeing the sleeping Toby.

“And it appears that Nat has gone after him,” Lydia said, taking control back now that she wasn’t forced to mention anything Nat had told her during her appointment. “At least that’s what the letter she left says.”

Max looked down at the note. “It also says that there’s a bag?”

“Over there by the door,” said Lydia. “I’ve already been through it. It’s stuff for the baby, nothing else.”

“And this note specifies that she knows that Toby will be in good hands and that she’ll be back as soon as she can,” said Max, frowning at the letters like they might reveal more. “Well, it’s clear she hasn’t abandoned the child at least.”

“No, no,” said Cordelia. “She hasn’t. What she has done is leave him in the care of the surgery. Or, I suppose, in Lydia’s care since she’s the doctor.” Lydia felt Cordelia’s eyes on her and her back itched. “And since Lydia appears to have been the catalyst for all this.”

“All I did was recommend that she rely more on family and friends for help, I told her she didn’t have to handle all this alone,” protested Lydia.

“And she took you at your word,” said Max. He rubbed his face again and blew out a breath. “Sorry, I’m not at my best. Dash has had us up two nights in a row now. The combination of that cold that’s going around and his asthma isn’t a good one. Alright, let me think about next steps.”

“Surely next steps are that we call social services,” Lydia said. She was already pulling her phone out of her pocket.

“Hold on, hold on,” said Max. “Let’s not be too hasty here.”

“It’s the logical thing to do. Probably the legal thing to do,” said Lydia, turning to Cordelia and expecting to see clear agreement. But Cordelia wasn’t nodding, instead she was frowning, worried-looking. “What?”

Cordelia flashed a look at Max who nodded at her. “The problem with calling social services is that once you’re in the system, it’s hard to get out again. ”

“But the system is there for a reason,” Lydia began.

“And normally I’d be the first to agree with you,” Max said. “But I know Nat and Elias. They’re young, impulsive, not always the best decision makers, we can all agree on that. Something else I think we can agree on though, is that Toby is a loved and well looked-after child. There’s no signs of abuse or anything that would make me worry about him.”

“Other than that Nat just left him here and waltzed out,” Cordelia said thoughtfully.

“Yes, but she didn’t leave him unattended, she left him where she knew he would be looked after with people she knew would care for him,” said Max.

“What are you saying?” Lydia said. Toby was starting to shift in the cushions, a sign that meant he was about to wake again.

“I… I don’t know exactly what I’m saying yet,” Max said.

Lydia looked at Cordelia. She’d thought that Cordelia would be the first to want to get rid of Toby. The first not to accept responsibility. But maybe she’d misjudged. Perhaps Cordelia was nicer than she’d thought. Or, more to the point, perhaps Cordelia was nicer than she’d like people to think.

Now Cordelia was sighing. “We’ll keep an eye on him for a couple of hours,” she said.

Max grinned. “Would you? It’d be a weight off my mind. And Nat did trust you with him, after all. Just give me time to go around town, chase her down, see if she’s around or at least get a number for her.”

“We’ve got her mobile number in the practice records,” Cordelia said, going to her desk. Max followed her. “But there’s no answer. It just goes straight to voicemail.”

Toby stirred again. Lydia went over to him and picked him up. He wasn’t a large child, and he nestled nicely against her, calming immediately. But it wouldn’t be long before he woke up, before he was hungry, before he missed his mother. Then what?

“Alright,” said Max. “I’ll drop by in a couple of hours, hopefully with some good news.” He grinned at Lydia. “Good thing that you’re shacking up with Cord, it’d be a nightmare if we had to decide which of you Nat had intended to leave the nipper with.”

“Actually,” Lydia began, but Max was already whistling his way out of the surgery, leaving Lydia holding Toby and Cordelia tutting and shaking her head.

“Won’t be long before he’s hungry,” Cordelia said.

“I’m sorry about this,” said Lydia, honestly meaning it. She hadn’t meant for Nat to take off to find her partner. But she could see now how Nat might have interpreted things that way. “I have a hotel booked, I’ll call them, I’m sure having a baby there won’t be a big deal. Or I can just stay here for a couple of hours until Max has more news or…”

“Oh no,” Cordelia said. “Or nothing. You’re not leaving me holding the baby. And I’m not letting an almost-stranger take a child. You’re coming home with me until we get all this sorted out. And don’t think that means I’m happy about it.”

She didn’t seem… unhappy about it though, Lydia thought. Which just reinforced her idea that Cordelia was far nicer than she wanted people to think. Cordelia stepped in and lifted Toby from Lydia’s arms, held him close to her body and the child nuzzled her.

For a moment, they were all smiling. Cordelia at the warmth of a milky child, Lydia at the sight of Cordelia being sensitive, protective. The look suited her and she thought what a shame it was that Cordelia didn’t have children of her own.

Although maybe she didn’t want them.

“Go on then, get your things together,” barked Cordelia, breaking the moment. “I’m sick of the sight of that damned suitcase.” She sniffed, then sniffed again. “Actually, strike that, I’ll take the case, you can deal with whatever this stench is.” She hoisted the now awake Toby over to Lydia’s arms.

“Why do I have to do it?” Lydia asked, pulling a face at the very pungent smell.

“You’re a doctor, aren’t you? Surely you’ve seen worse things,” said Cordelia. She yanked at the handle of Lydia’s suitcase. “I’ll be outside. ”

IT WAS AFTER seven when Max knocked on the door and Toby was smeared in tomato sauce and had a chicken nugget clutched in one hand.

“Looks like he’s in good hands,” said Max when Lydia led him through to the kitchen. “Although I’m not sure that eating on the floor is the best idea.”

“It’s clean, I cleaned it,” Lydia said. “And we don’t have a high chair, so…”

“Right,” said Max. “Well, the news isn’t great, I’m afraid.”

“What news?” Cordelia asked. She was leaning against the kitchen counter with a cup of tea in her hand and looking for all the world like it was perfectly normal to have a child covered in ketchup on her floor.

“I’ve been all over town and by all accounts, Nat left this afternoon. Someone saw her in a taxi, presumably on her way to the station. Which leaves us with a bigger problem than we might have thought.”

Cordelia looked at Max, then at Toby, then at Max again. Max put up both hands.

“Look, I’d take him myself, Cord, you know that. But with Dash’s cold I can’t. It wouldn’t be fair on either of them. And there’s every chance that Nat will be back tomorrow with Elias in tow.”

“And if she’s not?” Lydia asked.

“Then I’ll put out a BOLO and say she’s a person of interest, it won’t be long before someone tracks her down,” Max said. “In the meantime though, do we really want to call social services on this little tyke?”

All three of them looked at Toby who was happily munching on his chicken nugget. And Lydia knew that technically they should be involving the authorities. But she also knew that children that went into care often stayed there longer than they should, that the system wasn’t perfect, that Toby was a well cared for child. And that Nat Greene didn’t deserve to be punished for one impulsive decision.

She was about to tell Max that she’d take responsibility for all this. But Cordelia spoke first.

“We’ll keep an eye on him for a couple of days,” she said.

Lydia didn’t miss the ‘we’ in that sentence.

“Great,” said Max with relief. “I’ll keep you posted with whatever I find out.”

Cordelia showed him to the door and Lydia watched Toby and thought that she’d misjudged Cordelia quite badly. She wasn’t the defensive, prickly, chaotic woman that she’d initially met. Or maybe she was. But she was also caring, generous, and kind.

And none of this was really her fault at all.

When Cordelia came back into the kitchen, Lydia was wiping ketchup up off the floor. She looked up. “I’m supposed to be moving out,” she began, ready to make her apologies, ready to offer to do whatever it took to fix this situation.

“Fuck no,” Cordelia said. “You got us into this situation, you’re damn well sticking around until it’s all solved. In fact, take that suitcase upstairs right this second, you’re not leaving this house until Nat Greene’s back or Toby’s somewhere else safe.”

Lydia smiled.

“Don’t grin, I’m not doing you a favor,” said Cordelia.

But Lydia smiled anyway because Cordelia was all bark and no bite and because for an instant back there, when Cordelia was holding Toby, she was pretty sure she’d seen a glimpse of the real Cordelia.

And she liked her.