Nighttime is my time by Mary Higgins Clark

Author:Mary Higgins Clark
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Psychological fiction, Class reunions, Mystery & Detective, Cornwall on Hudson (N.Y.), Fiction, Psychological, Women deans (Education), General, Suspense, Crime, Adopted children, Serial murderers
ISBN: 9780743206075
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2004-04-06T13:51:52.387000+00:00

51

Peggy Kimball was a generously sized woman of about sixty who emanated an air of warmth and intelligence. Her salt-and-pepper hair had a natural wave; her complexion was smooth except for the fine lines around her mouth and eyes. Jean had the immediate impression that Peggy was a no-nonsense person and that it would take a lot to faze her.

They both waved away menus and ordered coffee. “My daughter picked up her kids an hour ago,” Peggy said. “I had cornflakes and cocoa with them at seven o’clock, or was it at six-thirty?” She smiled. “You must have thought you were listening to Armageddon on the phone last night.”

“I teach a college freshman class,” Jean said. “Sometimes I think those students sound younger than toddlers, and they certainly can be noisier.”

The waiter poured the coffee. Peggy Kimball looked directly at Jean, her bantering demeanor gone. “I do remember you, Jean,” she said. “Dr. Connors handled many adoptions for young girls in your position. I felt sorry for you because you were one of the very few who ever came to the office alone. Most of the girls were accompanied by a parent or some other concerned adult, sometimes even by the baby’s father, who was usually just another scared teenage kid.”

“Be that as it may,” Jean said quietly, “we’re here because I am a concerned adult worrying about the nineteen-year-old girl who is my daughter and who may need help.”

Sam Deegan had taken the original faxes, but she had made copies of them along with the DNA report, which verified that the strands of hair on the brush were Lily’s. She took them out of her bag and showed them to Kimball. “Peggy, suppose it was your daughter,” she said. “Wouldn’t you be upset? Wouldn’t you construe all this as a threat?” She looked Peggy in the eye.

“Yes, I would.”

“Peggy, do you know who adopted Lily?”

“No, I do not.”

“A lawyer had to have handled the paperwork. Do you know what lawyer or law firm Dr. Connors used?”

Peggy Kimball hesitated, then said slowly, “I doubt there was a lawyer involved in your case, Jean.”

There’s something she’s afraid to tell me, Jean thought. “Peggy, Dr. Connors flew out to Chicago a few days before my due date, induced labor, and took Lily from me hours after she was born. Do you know if he registered her birth in Chicago or back here?”

Kimball stared reflectively at the coffee cup she was holding, then looked back at Jean. “I don’t know about you specifically, Jean, but I do know that sometimes Dr. Connors registered a birth directly to the adoptive parents, as though the woman had been the natural mother.”

“But that’s illegal,” Jean protested. “He had no right to do that.”

“I know he didn’t, but Dr. Connors had a friend who knew he was adopted and spent his adult life trying to track his birth family. It became an obsession with him, even though he was deeply loved by the adoptive parents and was treated exactly as they treated their birth children.

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