When they both pulled in and parked in front of Emily’s unit she raced out to greet them. “How’d it go?” Emily asked.
Dewi walked over. “Easy-peasy.”
Joaquin shot her a look but didn’t comment as he opened the back passenger door and unfastened the crying infant, handing her over to Emily. She wore a T-shirt and diaper and nothing else.
The baby, not Emily.
“Now I don’t have to worry about bailing your dad out of jail,” Dewi joked. “Andwe can get back to Tampa in time for dinner. I need to use your bathroom first, though.”
But Emily didn’t look relieved.
In fact, she looked terrified as she held the baby, and that pulled Dewi up short. “What’s wrong?” Dewi asked.
“Um, Ms. Bleacke? I-I don’t know h-how to tell you this…but this isn’t Hannah.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE
DEWI
Dewi blinked. “Saywhut?”
Emily looked terrified. “This isn’t m-my b-baby.”
Does. Not. Compute.“What do you mean she’s not your baby?”
Emily hooked a finger in the front waistband of the baby’s diaper and pulled it out, just enough she could look. “This is a boy. Hannah’s…not. A boy. She’s a girl. And he’s at least a couple of months older than Hannah. He’s a lot heavier than her. And bigger.”
“Are you sure?” Dewi asked. “That that’s not Hannah? You’repositivethat’s not your baby?”
“Uh, pretty sure, yeah.” She stepped closer so they could see where she still had her finger hooked in the diaper’s waistband, pulling it out a little more.
Dewi and Joaquin both leaned in and looked.
Sure enough, there was no denying it was a baby boy.
And he was still fussing, although not crying as hard as he was before Joaquin unbuckled him from the car seat.
“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Joaquin groaned. “I cannotbelievethis!” He glared at Dewi. “Easy-peasy myass.”
“Well, to be fair,” Dewi said, still processing this hiccup, “babies look a lot alike to me when they’re little.”
Joaquin glared at her.
“Okay, so who in the hell’s baby isthis?” Dewi asked. “He was in the car with Henry and Fawny when we chased them down! Why would wenotexpect this to be Hannah?”
“And now how do we find Hannah?” Joaquin asked. “Andhow do we get this baby back to his parents?”
“Can you ask Henry?” Emily asked.
Joaquin snorted. “Kind of hard to do when he might be somewhere in the middle of the Everglades right now.” He glared at Dewi.
“What?” Emily gasped. “He’sdead?”
“He’s not dead,” Dewi wearily said. “I told him to head due west until the sun set or he got arrested, and then head east. He’s to turn himself in for any crimes he’s committed that he hasn’t been arrested for. And pay off his debts. And punch himself in the balls.”
“And heading west meant straight into sawgrass swampland along Krome Avenue,” Joaquin explained as he pulled out his phone. “Then there’s a possibility the gators and pythons and other natural dangers might mean he never makes it back. Unless the cops already caught him. We need to find Fawny’s place, right now. In case any cops show up there looking for relatives. If the baby’s there and the cops get there first, we’re fucked.”
“Who are you calling?” Dewi asked.
