LITTLE DID SHE KNOW: An intriguing addictive mystery novel (Eva Rae Thomas Mystery Book 10)

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  We’re all bad in someone’s story.

  Unknown

  Prologue

  COCOA BEACH, FLORIDA

  Health First Cape Canaveral Hospital 4 a.m.

  Little did she know that this day would be the worst in her life. As she was rushed into the hospital hallways, moaning and grunting in pain while the baby made its way into this world, she was just so happy that the big, anticipated moment had finally arrived.

  Sierra Holmes had gone seven days over her due date, and her stomach felt heavy and like a burden. She had barely been able to walk. She couldn’t wait to meet her baby, the creature that had lived inside her for nine whole months.

  She knew it would be worth both the wait and the pain.

  “You’re doing fine, sweetie. You got this.”

  Her mother’s voice was encouraging and filled her with strength. Sierra had asked her to be with her in the delivery room since there was no dad involved. Now, she was holding her hand, looking down at her baby giving birth to a baby of her own. Her mother’s eyes were soft and compassionate.

  They hadn’t exactly been like that when Sierra had told her she was pregnant. At only fifteen, it wasn’t the news a mother wanted to hear from her daughter. And it had been quite surprising—shocking was probably a better word for it. Sierra wasn’t the girl you’d typically expect to become one of the statistics of teen pregnancies. She was—and always had been—a straight-A student. She worked as a volunteer at the local animal shelter. She took only honors classes and became captain of the girls’ soccer team just a few months before. She was one of the good girls. One of those that mothers talk proudly about when chatting with their friends. Sierra’s mom would often brag loudly about her daughter.

  Until the day her period didn’t come.

  Ever since she took the test and, while crying, showed it to her mother, things hadn’t been the same. They had been fighting almost nonstop about it and how she could let this happen. They both agreed on only one thing: They were keeping the baby. No matter what.

  Even though the father didn’t want it, and his family left town without an address where to find them. They would take care of it together, her mother said. And Sierra would finish school no matter what. Her mother would see to that. This was just an obstacle, a bump in the road, but they could deal with it. Together, they would get through it, even though it was causing them to fight.

  “Come on, sweetie; you can do it. One more push,” her mom said, moving the hair from Sierra’s sweaty forehead.

  Sierra closed her eyes and pushed, letting her body completely take over, and she felt like she could have passed out at that moment when everything suddenly stopped. The pain was gone, and the overwhelming sensation of needing to push was too, and Sierra opened her eyes then looked at her mom. She was standing with the baby in her arms, crying.

  “You did it, Sierra. You did it!”

  “Eight pounds of sheer beauty,” the nurse said, also smiling.

  Sierra sighed, relieved when the baby started to cry, and then she cried too. Her mother placed the baby in her arms, and she looked down at the tiny lump of flesh.

  Welcome to the world, little girl.

  Then she cried even more.

  “We’re gonna be fine, just the two of us,” she whispered gently to the very blue eyes staring up at her. Never had Sierra seen anything more beautiful, and never had she been happier.

  She knew in this instant that her life had been changed forever. She would never be the same again. Nothing else mattered in the world except for this little child. This really was what life was all about, she thought, tears rolling down her cheeks.

  “She’s beautiful,” her mother said and stood beside her bed, placing a warm hand on her shoulder. “Just like you were.”

  Sierra looked up at her mom with a soft smile, grateful that they weren’t fighting anymore.

  “Oh, Mom. I can’t believe she’s finally here. This is really my baby?”

  “It sure is,” her mom said, biting her lip. It was hard to understand that it was just a few hours ago when the two of them had fought incessantly over the fact that Sierra had been so stupid to get herself in this kind of trouble and how she would never trust her again. It was strange that it was the same trouble they were now both crying about in sheer happiness.

  “Look at how close you both are already,” her mom said, kissing Sierra’s forehead gently.

  “Nothing can separate you two now.”

  Sierra stared blissfully down at her baby in her arms. She couldn’t take her eyes off her, and even though she was completely exhausted, it was like she couldn’t get herself to close her eyes. She didn’t want to miss even a single second of her daughter’s life—not even a breath. It didn’t matter how tired she was. They had taken her away for some tests of her heart, and those minutes had been awful for Sierra. It felt like torture to be separated—almost like she could die. So, when they finally brought her back and told her the doctor would need to look at the results before they’d know what they meant, she had cried and decided she wasn’t going to let go of her again.

  A nurse had come in later and told her she needed to sleep when the baby did, but Sierra simply couldn’t do it. She wanted to hold the baby so tight and never let go.

  “It’s you and me forever,” she whispered and kissed her forehead. “Nothing and no one else matters.”

  Sierra’s mom had left her and gone home to get her two younger brothers up and ready for school. She would be back later in the afternoon, she had told her, once she got everything at home under control.

  “Just make sure you rest.”

  Sierra’s dad wasn’t in the picture. He had left when Sierra was just five years old, and her twin brothers were still infants. Sierra hadn’t seen him since he moved up north with some woman he had met. He had refused to pay child support, claiming Sierra’s mother kept the children away from him, so her mom had to get by on her own salary, selling medical insurance while trying to fight him through the courts. But her father was a lawyer himself and knew how to drag it out until her mom gave up because she couldn’t afford the lawyer bills piling up on top of having to provide for three children.

  Sierra didn’t need a father for her child. Not if that’s what they did.

  “You and I are fine on our own, aren’t we…Desiree?”

  Sierra smiled to herself. Yes, that was her name. Desiree. She hadn’t been sure about it until this moment when the baby looked into her eyes and made a small squeak that sounded like crying but wasn’t really. She truly was a Desiree.

  The door opened, and a nurse peeked inside.

  “Oh, good, you’re still awake?”

  Sierra didn’t look up. She just stared at her baby and nodded. “Yeah. I can’t stop looking at her, you know?”

  The nurse approached her. “She’s gorgeous.”

  “I know,” Sierra said, tearing up again. She was so exhausted, yet she didn’t want to sleep.

  “I’m here to take her upstairs for some tests,” the nurse said. “Then you can get some rest while she’s gone. You need it.”

  Sierra felt uneasy at the thought. “More tests? Why?”

  “Oh, don’t worry. This is just standard testing. I’ll have her right back in no time. But do try and get some rest wh
ile she’s gone. You’re gonna need it. Being a mom is no easy task.”

  The nurse reached down and took Desiree from Sierra’s arms. It felt like her heart was being ripped out, and Sierra gasped lightly as the baby disappeared from her hands.

  “Please…be careful with her…” she said, her voice trembling. “She’s so…little.”

  The nurse smiled gently and held the baby close to her chest. “Don’t worry. We do this all the time. Now, you rest, okay? Your young body has been through quite an ordeal. You’ll need your strength to take care of this baby.”

  Sierra tried to calm her beating heart. She watched as the nurse carried the baby out of the room, then sat and stared at the door for a few minutes, her heart hammering in her chest. She was barely able to breathe.

  The baby had been gone for less than five minutes. How could she miss her so deeply already? How could it hurt so much to be apart from her? How was it possible to love someone so much after only a few hours?

  Try and get some sleep. You’ll need it.

  Sierra closed her eyes for just a few seconds, or at least that’s how it felt. But when she opened them again, her mom was in the room, and as she looked at the clock, she saw that it was five in the afternoon.

  “That was a good long nap,” her mother said. “That’s wonderful. You probably needed it.”

  Sierra sat up, trying to blink the fogginess away. She had been so deeply asleep; it took a while to remember where she was and what had happened. But then she did, and her eyes shot wide open.

  “Desiree? Where is she?”

  Her mom looked confused.

  “What?”

  “Desiree, my baby.”

  “You don’t know where she is?” her mom said. “How can you not know where your baby is?”

  “The nurse took her. For tests, she said.”

  Sierra was trying to fight the panic spreading like cancer through her body. It was like everything was about to explode inside her.

  “Then that’s probably where she is,” her mom said, her voice calming down. “Let me go ask.”

  She went, then came back with another nurse. “They’re asking which nurse took Desiree?”

  “I…I don’t know,” Sierra stuttered while trying to remember. “She didn’t say her name….”

  “Well, what did she look like?” her mom asked.

  Sierra felt confused. “She was in scrubs, she was…I don’t know…tall, I think. I didn’t really look at her. She just said Desiree needed to be taken upstairs for tests. That’s all I remember.”

  The nurse shook her head. “Upstairs is the radiology department. I don’t understand…why would she be taken up…” the nurse stopped herself, and Sierra saw fear rush over her face. “Let me just…let me go ask the others. Wait here.”

  “M-mom?” Sierra said as her mother approached her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

  “Is Desiree okay?”

  “I’m sure she’s fine. I’m sure there is a logical explanation,” she said.

  But she struggled to keep her voice from trembling. No one else would notice that, but being her daughter, Sierra did.

  And it scared her more than anything in the world.

  Part I

  CAMP HOLLY, MELBOURNE FLORIDA

  Tuesday afternoon

  Chapter 1

  The bugs were biting his neck, and Gary Johnson slapped one, feeling the sweat between his fingers. The sun burned down on him from above as he steered the airboat across the brown water. A black cloud—looking like the end of the world—was approaching, growing in the distance, telling him he needed to get the tourists back so they wouldn’t get caught in the usual afternoon thunderstorm. The engine behind him roared as he sped up, feeling the sweat tickle as it ran down his back. In the bottom of the boat lay the dead four-foot gator he had just helped the tourist couple kill, then pull out of the water. It wasn’t the biggest one, and he had hoped to go for another one, but the weather wasn’t on his side. The thunderstorms were earlier than usual and building in size fast, too fast. Luckily, the tourists seemed proud and happy with their catch. Besides, they had gotten what they came for. They promised them a gator—one hundred percent guaranteed but never said anything about the size.

  “We need to get back,” he yelled, hoping they could hear him over the loud airboat engine. He pointed at the cloud in the distance.

  “A storm is coming.”

  The couple nodded, the husband waving in agreement, and Gary steered the airboat through the trails in the water toward the camp and the docks. He glared up at the cloud growing in front of him like a massive tower of darkness, and now he could hear the rumbling thunder.

  They still had about fifteen to twenty minutes before it hit them. It was time enough to get the couple back to the camp. It was Gary’s first year as a guide, and so far, he hadn’t been caught in a storm out on the water, but he knew others who had. His friend Pete had taken a family out a few weeks ago, and the engine had died in the middle of the swamps just as the storm hit. At first, the family had thought that he was just joking, trying to scare them. But as the realization sank in that they were stuck out on the swampy waters and a storm was approaching while they were sitting in a metal boat, they had panicked. Of course, Pete had called for help over the walkie-talkie and gotten ahold of the camp leader, who had come to them in another boat and taken all of them to safety. But the storm had hit first, and the lightning strikes had sizzled around them, causing the family to panic, and Pete as well.

  From that day on, Pete stayed on land and worked at the gift shop, selling trinkets and drinks to the tourists instead.

  “It’s very close,” the husband yelled at him. “Can we make it?”

  Gary smiled the way his boss had taught him to, seeming as reassuring as possible and maybe even a little patronizing, making sure there was no doubt he had everything under control. After all, they did this all the time.

  “Yes, we’ll make it. Don’t worry. We’re fine.”

  But Gary wasn’t as sure as he sounded. He felt the first raindrops hit his forehead, and the thunder was very close now. Lightning struck the ground not far away, and it sounded like the sky cracked. The wife whimpered anxiously, and Gary felt his heart hammering in his chest. He could see the camp now as he turned into a trail, then let the boat bump over a shallow area, then slide sideways before turning.

  They were almost there.

  And they were going to make it.

  At least they would have if it hadn’t been for the woman who suddenly screamed. Gary turned his head to look at her and saw that she was pointing at something. He looked at it and saw something in a dry patch area.

  “Is that…” the woman screamed. “Is that a…girl?”

  Chapter 2

  “Go, Alex, go!”

  I stared at my son as he ran with the ball. He had just started playing soccer recently, and it turned out he was really good at it.

  My kid? Who would have thought?

  Now, he was running solo down the field, losing the other kids completely. I was in awe. I had never seen him be into anything like this, maybe except his fire trucks and anything else with sirens and blinking lights.

  “Yeah, Alex!”

  And me? I had apparently become one of those super annoying parents standing on the sideline, yelling at my kid.

  I didn’t see that one coming either.

  But, hey, when you’re proud of your kid, then well…what can you do?

  “Shooot, Alex! You’ve got this!”

  Alex stopped, getting ready to take his shot at the goalie when another kid from the opposing team came storming toward him from the side, then tripped him just as he was about to make his move.

  “HEY!”

  I threw out my arms then turned to look at the people standing next to me. Alex fell to the ground, holding his leg in pain.

  “Referee!”

  I yelled as loud as I could while watching my kid on the ground, crying in pain. r />
  “Nice job, T-dawg!”

  The woman standing next to me was whistling and cheering on her son, the same boy who had just tripped mine. I stopped yelling then turned to look at her.

  “That’s your boy? He just tripped mine!”

  She frowned. “No, he didn’t. He just took the ball from him.”

  “My son is literally on the ground crying,” I said.

  “He’s just acting. It’s nothing.”

  I stared at her, my eyes growing wide. “It’s nothing? Your kid deliberately hurts mine, and you say it’s nothing?”

  “It happens all the time. It’s called playing soccer. Trent totally went for the ball. Your kid is just too wimpy.” She whistled again loudly, then clapped. “Way to go, T-dawg!”

  The boy turned his head and waved happily at his mom while I felt the anger rise in me. Alex’s coach was attending to him now and looking at his leg; then, he helped him get up. Alex started limping toward me.

  “Look at that. He’s hurt. You happy now?” I asked the woman. “Your kid did that. Is that how you want to raise your kid? To be a bully?”

  “Hey, if your kid can’t take it, then he’s got no business being on the field. He needs to toughen up.”

  I exhaled, annoyed. “Excuse me? You’re not even going to address this with your son?”

  The woman ignored me. I stared at the back of her, then tapped her shoulder, getting angrier and angrier.

  “Excuse me?”

  She still didn’t turn around, so I tapped her again. Alex was limping closer, and the game continued behind him. Trent ran toward another kid and tripped him as soon as the referee looked the other way.

  The kid went down, and Trent even stepped on his hand. The kid cried out in pain while Trent laughed and ran away, high-fiving a teammate.

  “Did you see that? Is that the behavior you want to applaud in your kid?” I asked.