"A baby girl. Both are… stable." Tiel glanced at Doc, and he gave her a small nod. "Assure Mr. Dendy that his daughter is in no immediate danger."
"Sheriff Montez informs me there's a local man in there with you who has some medical training."
"That's right. He assisted Sabra through the labor and birth."
Doc's eyes narrowed a fraction-the gunslinger about to draw.
"Sheriff Montez can't recall his last name. Says he goes by Doc."
"Correct."
"You don't know his name?"
Tiel considered her options. She had been totally involved with the labor and delivery, but she wasn't entirely unaware of what had been happening outside. She'd heard the clap of helicopter rotors. Some would be police and medical choppers, but she would bet they also indicated the arrival of media from Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, Houston. Big stations. Network affiliates.
The active role she was playing in this unfolding story had automatically elevated its media-worthiness. She wasn't what she would term famous, but, in all humility, she wasn't a nonentity, either. She was seen nearly every night on the evening news in her television market. Those newscasts were also aired on cable stations in smaller markets throughout Texas and into Oklahoma, which amounted to several million viewers. She was a flavor-enhancing ingredient to an already juicy story. Throw into that mix the involvement of Dr. Bradley Stanwick, who three years ago had disappeared from the public eye shrouded in scandal, and you had a tasty potboiler that would cause a feeding frenzy among the press corps.
But Tiel wanted it to be her potboiler.
If she gave away Doc's identity now, she could kiss her exclusive good-bye. Everyone else would report it first.
The story would be broadcast before she had filed her initial report. By the time she could produce her own account of events, the resurfacing of Dr. Stanwick would be old news.
Gully would probably never forgive her for this decision, but, for the time being, she was going to keep this spicy tidbit as her secret ingredient.
So she avoided giving Galloway a direct answer. "Doc did an incredible job under very trying circumstances.
Sabra responds to him favorably. She trusts him."
"I understand he was wounded during the exchange of gunfire."
"A scratch, nothing more. All of us are all right, Mr. Galloway," she said impatiently. "We're tired, but otherwise unharmed, and I can't emphasize that enough."
"You're not being forced to say this?"
"Absolutely not. The last thing Ronnie wants is for someone to get hurt."
"That's right," the boy said, "I just want to be able to walk out of here with Sabra and my baby, free to go our own way."
Tiel conveyed his wish to Galloway, who said, "Ms.
McCoy, you know I can't let that happen."
"Allowances could be made."
"I don't have the authority to-"
"Mr. Galloway, are you in a position to speak freely?"
After a momentary pause, he said, "Go ahead."
"If you've had any interaction with Russell Dendy, then you can well understand why these two young people felt desperate enough to do what they've done."
"I can't comment on that directly, but I understand your meaning."
Apparently Dendy was within earshot. "By all accounts the man is a tyrant," Tiel continued. "I don't know if you're aware of this, but he has pledged to forcibly separate these two and put the baby up for adoption. Ronnie and Sabra want only the liberty to decide their own future and that of their child. This is a family crisis, Mr. Galloway, and that's how it should be handled. Perhaps Mr. Dendy would consent to a mediator who could help them work through their differences and reach an agreement."
"Ronnie Davison still has a lot to answer for, Ms. McCoy.