Colton's Lethal Reunion (Coltons of Mustang Valley)

And didn’t say a word about pretty, available Brenda. Which didn’t stop Kerry from thinking about her. And all of the other women who’d known the pleasures of Rafe’s body over the years.

He’d have had a lot of them. And not just because he was rich, but because he was gorgeous. Smart. Kind. He had a way of focusing on who he was with, making you feel special.

But she wasn’t special. She was one of many. Had been one of many. There would be no more of Rafe’s body in her future.

It would be best if she’d remember that.

* * *

Used to commanding attention, and having people jump to do his bidding, Rafe struggled a bit to take a back seat to Kerry as they made their way to Terrence Jones via two other hospital employees, one of whom was hospital administrator Anne Sewall. Rafe had already spoken with the woman the morning after Payne was admitted, but when she started to address him, to answer Kerry’s questions about a janitor named Terrence, he took a step back and looked toward Kerry. Anne, a professional, sixtyish woman with her blond bob and wire glasses framing brown eyes, took his cue and not only gave Kerry the man’s last name, but walked them down to him.

Terrence was an interesting fellow. Someone Rafe felt he’d like to have a beer with just to be able to sit and listen to his observations—that was if a Colton ever had a beer with a janitor. Terrence knew nothing about the fire, other than remembering hearing about it and calling in to make sure that they didn’t need him to come in. He’d taken vacation that week to be home with his mother and younger siblings for the holiday, and had no idea what medical personnel had been working. Back then he’d been in charge of cleaning labs, not wards.

These days he ran the whole janitorial department.

“I do know someone you might want to ask, though,” Terrence said, glancing from Kerry to Rafe and then back. “Noelle Lando. She’s been a nurse here for about as long as I’ve been around. She’s sixty-five now and someone was trying to get her to retire, but that ain’t gonna happen. Not yet, anyways. I’m not sayin’ she was in the maternity ward back then. Just that she was working here and might know who was. I think she’s up on surgery now, but maybe its pediatrics. Something with the older kids.”

Kerry went right back to the hospital administrator, Anne, who’d told her she’d do anything she could to help. The woman made a call and within minutes Kerry and Rafe were sitting at a table within a little conference room on the second floor with Noelle. In scrubs, and with her blond hair in a bun at the back of her head, the nurse frowned as Kerry asked about the day of the fire.

“I was working days then,” she said, seated directly across from Rafe. “I remember Mrs. Colton coming in, in labor, while I was still there on Christmas Eve. That was a pretty exciting thing for us. The local oil

baron’s wife having her first child. Everyone was making excuses to get to that floor, to get a peek at her. There was some question about the health of the baby. It was stressed, as I recall. I remember hearing someone say Baby Colton...”

“Do you know the name of the doctor who delivered the Colton baby?” Kerry asked, almost as though to distract the older woman from trying too hard to come up with a name. So she wouldn’t unwittingly block the memory?

Either way, he liked watching her work. Was impressed all over again.

His family had been trying to figure out who’d delivered Ace. With Tessa gone and Payne in a coma, none of them knew...

“I don’t remember,” Noelle said. “I was newer then and didn’t work maternity. And the Coltons had their own doctor, not someone who was here all the time. I do know it was someone different than the doctor who delivered the next two Colton babies. I heard someone mention it when the second child was born a few years later. Something about how tense the first delivery had been and the second one being the exact opposite...”

“Do you know who was working maternity back then?” Kerry asked, when Rafe would have liked to hear more of the story. Needed to hear more of the story. Biting his tongue, he waited for Kerry to do her job.

Another frown, and a shake of the head was Noelle’s response. “I know that none of them are still here,” she said. “I’m the only nurse on staff who’s been here that long.

“I was working when the fire happened. There was a lot of excitement that morning, I can tell you that. And not the good kind. We didn’t know how fast it would spread, and everyone was running around trying to get patients to safety, directing ones who could walk by themselves, and finding enough chairs to get those who couldn’t. We needed to keep the bed traffic to a minimum as much as possible because they took up more room in the hallways. The beds required use of the elevators which, technically we weren’t supposed to use, but when it was a question of having a chance to get the patients out, or possibly being trapped in the elevator, we took the chance.”

She shook her head again. “As it turned out, the damage was mostly in the nursery, but it could have been much worse.”

“Did you ever hear how it started?”

“No. I mean, some of us talked. It was an electrical fire, so could have just been a short, but maintenance has always been a priority here. I, and some of my coworkers, thought it had been set. Which makes no sense, either. Why are you asking about it?”

Kerry looked at Rafe.

“Please just tell me about Ace’s birth.”

“We’ve always been so careful here...and with that baby...everyone was on high alert. I just can’t...” She stopped again. “It was really odd how well he’d improved overnight,” she told them. And then looked kind of sad. “I...um...actually... I started going back to church again, after that. It was like this Christmas miracle, you know, that he’d thrived so much in just one night... We all took turns going to the nursery to look at him!

“That’s really all I know, though,” she said. “We were all crazy busy that day, getting our patients resettled after the scare and with it being Christmas Day everyone was having visitors and what celebrations they could. The cafeteria cooked a huge Christmas dinner for family, and for what patients were allowed to eat it. I managed a quick look at the Colton baby in the nursery, but like, two seconds. It was out of my way and I had patients to tend to. It was just...you know...something famous... Tessa and Payne Colton’s first baby right here in our midst.”

She stopped, her gaze far-off, and then stared at Kerry.

“I remember one nurse!” she said, looking at both of them. “I remember because we were all so excited about the baby, and relieved about the fire being contained so much more easily than expected, we were all talking about Christmas miracles and she was grousing because she’d had to stay late. She’d been on nights, Christmas Eve night to Christmas morning in the maternity ward, so the fire definitely affected her ability to leave. I can’t remember her name, but it started with N.”

Rafe glanced at Kerry, who was sitting at the head of the table and to his direct left, his own sense of attention on high alert, knowing she had to be getting excited, too. If they could search hospital records for female nurses whose names started with N, and then narrow the search to those who worked in the maternity ward...

“Nan! Her name was Nan,” Noelle exclaimed, throwing her hands up off the table and then settling them back down. “Nan Belman, maybe. Telman...” She snapped her fingers. “Gelman, that’s it. Nan Gelman. She was a real grump, even on normal days.”