“Are we clear?” Ali demanded.

Sister Anselm looked startled. “Yes,” she said. “Everyone’s gone. Why? What’s wrong?”

“Turns out the wait isn’t nearly what we expected. Deputy Sellers is downstairs with someone who claims to be Enid’s father. He’s asking to see her. The cop is someone we’ve seen before, by the way. He was here earlier with Gordon Tower—both times. He just wasn’t in uniform at the time. The other guy, the one claiming to be Enid’s father, is Richard Lowell. From what Cami told me, I’m guessing he’s The Family’s head honcho.”

“How interesting,” Sister Anselm said. “Okay, have a seat. You dish up the pizza while I send a message.” Picking up her iPad, Sister Anselm dictated into the machine. “Lockdown on the surgical floor, please. Now. And extra security to the lobby.”

“Not here?”

“No,” Sister Anselm said. “Let’s see what they have to say for themselves. But just for argument’s sake, turn on your iPhone’s recorder.”

By the time the elevator door opened again, both women were comfortably seated with plates loaded with pizza in front of them. Ali hoped that they looked as though they didn’t have a care in the world.

The two men stepped off the elevator together. Deputy Sellers stopped short when he saw them. “That’s her,” he said, pointing in Sister Anselm’s direction.

“Good evening, gentlemen,” Sister Anselm said, putting down her plate. “May I help you?”

Richard Lowell stepped forward. “I’m here to see my daughter,” he said. “Her name is Enid.”

As if anticipating that someone might ask for documentation, he handed her a white leather-covered Bible. “This is our family Bible. You’ll find Enid listed on page four, the third line down.”

Sister Anselm paged open the book, ran her index finger down the page, and then handed it back. “I don’t see any mention of her mother’s name.”

“Her mother is deceased,” Richard Lowell said firmly.

“What was her name?” Sister Anselm asked. “Someone seems to have used Wite-Out to remove it. Is that customary where you come from?”

“It doesn’t matter what’s customary and what’s not,” Lowell growled. “The only thing that matters is that I’m Enid’s father, and I demand to see her. I’ve been told that you intend to move her somewhere else in the morning. She’s still a juvenile. As her father, I absolutely forbid it.”

“I have no idea where you came up with the notion that Enid is about to be transported to some other facility. She’s in no condition to be moved, and neither is her baby.”

Lowell glowered at Amos, holding him responsible for passing along the erroneous information Ali had fed him.

“As for the rest? Your daughter happens to be a juvenile who is married and also who just gave birth to a baby,” Sister Anselm observed. “According to this, she won’t be seventeen for several months. So presumably you would have given your consent and signed off on it in order for her to obtain an underage marriage license.”

“None of that is any of your business,” Lowell insisted, “but of course I gave my permission.”

“Good,” Sister Anselm said, “because, unless Gordon can produce a valid marriage certificate, he may well be brought up on charges of statutory rape.”

Richard Lowell visibly blanched at that. Like Gordon Tower, he was unaccustomed to being challenged in public, and most especially by a woman.

“Be that as it may,” he said, “I want to see my daughter. Now. And, as soon as she’s well enough, I fully intend to take her home.”

“No,” Sister Anselm said.

“What do you mean no?” he asked.

“I mean no, to both. You can’t see her, and you can’t take her home.”

“You can’t do that.”

“I’m afraid I can. I’m Enid’s patient advocate. She has given plain instructions that she has no intention of going back home or of letting her baby go back there, either.”

“You’ve spoken to her, then?” Lowell demanded.

Sister Anselm gave him a grim smile. “What do you think, Mr. Lowell?”

Lowell turned to Sellers. “She’s here someplace,” he muttered. “Find her. If she’s well enough to talk, she’s well enough to travel. We’ll take her home by force if necessary.”

Tensing, Ali prepared to spring into action, but before Deputy Sellers could do as he’d been told, the elevator door slid open and Leland Brooks came into view. Ali was astonished to see him. When she had spoken to him on the phone from the lobby earlier, she was sure he had been at home in Sedona. She hated to think how fast he must have driven to make it all the way to Flagstaff in that amount of time.

Dapperly dressed and apparently unconcerned about his breakneck driving, he emerged from the elevator leaning heavily on the gnarled hickory cane he had purchased a few weeks earlier when he had slipped and twisted his ankle during a visit to the Petrified Forest. Limping into the maternity-floor lobby, he looked for all the world like a helpless doddering old man, but Ali knew appearances could be deceiving. Armed with that cane, he was every bit as dangerous as Sister Anselm was with her Taser and Ali with her Glock. Ali estimated that, in the scheme of things, Leland’s presence more than balanced out Deputy Sellers’s sidearm and whatever else he or Richard Lowell might be carrying.

Leland glanced from face to face as if assessing the situation, then he grinned at Sister Anselm. “Oh good,” he said. “I see I’m not too late for pizza, and I’m not the last to arrive, either. How soon do you expect the others?”

Sister Anselm immediately followed Leland’s lead. “They should be here any moment,” she said, peering at her watch. “I expected them half an hour ago.”

Deputy Sellers sent a questioning glance in Richard Lowell’s direction. He was rewarded with the tiniest of head shakes. Whatever the pair had intended to do wasn’t going to work with a crowd of witnesses present.

“Let’s go,” Lowell said.

He turned and headed for the elevator with Deputy Sellers trotting at his heels. As the elevator door closed, Sister Anselm picked up her iPad and dictated another message. “Two coming down,” she said. “Make sure security escorts them from the premises, and they are not to be allowed back inside.”

“Well,” Leland said, beaming at Sister Anselm after she sent the message and set her iPad aside. “It appears to me that reinforcements arrived just in the nick of time.”

“I’m quite sure we could have handled them on our own,” she said. “Bullies are the same the world over—they always back down, but thank you all the same, Mr. Brooks. Now let me go find another plate, and you can join us for pizza.”

25

From the way Richard Lowell and Deputy Sellers had slunk off with their tails between their legs, it seemed unlikely that they’d show up for a return engagement. As a consequence, what followed seemed like a celebratory party.

“So this floor is entirely deserted at the moment?” Leland asked, enjoying his pizza and sipping at his own cup of vending-machine cappuccino.

Sister Anselm nodded.

“How did you make that happen?”

“After two rounds with Gordon Tower, the hospital administrator already regarded Enid’s presence here a problem. I may have slightly overstated the danger I thought her family members might pose to other patients and staff members. His initial solution was to transfer her to another facility tonight, but I nixed that idea based on her current condition. After that, I had him.”

“You did indeed,” Leland agreed.

A moment later, however, Sister Anselm’s face grew somber. “That Bible was evil, you know,” she said.