Hope Stevens, now Alice Stevenson, broke into a run at Baines Jewish Hospital, overwhelmed by the flashing spectacle of police cars and emergency vehicles. A pain gripped her chest, but she continued running. Her eyes swept side to side, her focus shifted near to deep, alert for any special attention paid to her.
Battling her maternal urges, understanding the attention she would provoke by storming into the daycare center, she forced her legs to slow, and as she did so took deep breaths to settle herself to where she could talk clearly and calmly without betraying her terrors.
She felt exposed and vulnerable. Both government agents and the Romeros could be looking for her. A day ago-just twenty-four hours earlier-she’d been rebuilding, planning, comfortable in her life here. Now, when it mattered most, she not only couldn’t find Penny, but she’d driven her daughter to run away.
She reached the Children’s Hospital basement by a circuitous route known only to employees. Through a series of color-coded hallways, corridors, and underground passages, she passed through the central Baines building, heading north and finally into the subterranean infrastructure of Children’s, past laundry, food services, and maintenance.
She suppressed the urge to hurry, holding herself back for the sake of appearances. Reaching a clot of uniforms and scrubs that blocked the entry to daycare, she battled against her own guilt-ridden pessimism and did not ask what had happened. Instead she listened, gleaning bits and pieces. An intruder. Wanting an address. No children hurt. Awash with relief, she nonetheless coughed up a murmur of a mother’s anguish that mixed awkwardly with despondency and a sense of reprieve.
From behind her a uniformed cop approached, trapping her between the group and her only easy exit.
Then, a voice: “ Alice?”
She turned to see Phyllis’s astonished face peering around a door frame. Alice quickly reached the distraught woman, passing shoulder to shoulder with the cop, who barely looked at her.
“Penny?”
“We didn’t see her today…” Phyllis said. “A man… an awful man, Alice…”
“She wasn’t here? Didn’t come here?”
“Today? No. Listen… I’m so sorry…” Phyllis broke into tears, and not for the first time judging by the look of her.
Alice welcomed this news of her daughter, even though it meant Penny remained missing. “This man?”
“A policeman, or dressed like one. We wouldn’t have let him in… wouldn’t have opened the door…” Phyllis met eyes with Alice, hers bloodshot and tear-filled as she said, “We told him where you live.”
Alice backed up and slowly walked away, not wanting to bring attention to herself. She thought her heart must have stopped completely for the pain in her chest, but the pulse-pounding whine in her ears kept her moving.
“Hey, lady!” a deep male voice shouted from behind. “You! Lady!”
She headed left, then right, then right again, and then broke into a run. She would never allow them to catch her in these corridors.