An Unholy Mission by Judith Campbell

Author:Judith Campbell [Campbell, Judith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mainly Murder Press
Published: 2012-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

At Grace Mangiani’s request Olympia agreed to go down to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and look in on little Giovanni. If the father was there, she would introduce herself and offer to sit with him, if he wished. If not, she’d wait until he left and come back later.

As she entered the dimly lighted room, she was surprised to find Sister Patrick ensconced in one of the rocking chairs, holding a very small bundle. The nun’s lips were moving, but Olympia couldn’t hear what she was saying.

“What are you doing here, Sister?” asked Olympia.

The nun continued her rocking and looked at Olympia. “I come in here sometimes to rock the babies. It calms us both down. It’s not an opportunity one generally finds in a convent, or in my case, in the apartment I share with two other sisters. What are you doing here yourself? I thought you were upstairs in maternity.”

Olympia explained the situation of the healthy twin and the at-risk twin and then turned to see if she could locate little Giovanni Mangiani.

“Olympia, have you been over to the TU at all today?” asked Sister Patrick.

“Not yet,” said Olympia, “I thought I’d run up there after I look in on the twin.”

“Then you don’t know that Nancy Farwell passed away last night.”

“What?”

“She died sometime before midnight. She was due to get a liver this morning. They located one, and it was in flight when she died. No one expected it. They called in Timothea to be with the family.”

Olympia pulled up another rocking chair and dropped into it like she’d been punched. “I can’t believe this. She was very weak when I left her on Friday, but there was no indication that she might actually die.”

“It came as a shock to everyone, Olympia. When I went up there this morning, no one could tell me exactly what happened. You can be sure I’m going to find out, but it certainly changes things as far as what you told me this morning.”

“What do you mean?” Olympia was rubbing her temples with her fingertips, trying to come to grips with what she just heard. Poor dear fragile Nancy, gone.

“What I mean is, now anything involving what you said about Luther and Nancy has just become your word against his.”

“He said, she said,” replied Olympia, shaking her head.

The nun simply nodded, got up out of the chair and handed the little bundle over to Olympia.

“Here,” she said, “rocking a baby helps me think. You might try it. Give her another two or three minutes. The nurse on duty will put her back for you.”

Olympia looked down at the sleeping baby in her arms. Both her sons had been twice that size. “She’s a pretty good size for a preemie, Sister.”

“She’s not premature. She was less than five pounds at birth. She’s drug addicted and going through withdrawal, so she’s considered to be at risk. They’ll keep her here until she’s stabilized. Then she’ll go into foster care until she’s adopted.” The nun shook her head.

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