Oh Mister Moon, moon, bright and shiny moon

Please shine down on,

Have a heart and shine on,

Please shine down on me, Oh Mister Moon.

The night sky brought to mind an evening when she and Joe had stretched out on the grass in the backyard and looked up at the moon through a pair of binoculars. Jamie had been aware that Joe was watching her as she studied the pockmarked lunar surface, amazed at the details she could make out with just binoculars. He told her that her hair looked silver in the moonlight. And he had touched a strand.

With her dark hair and a baby in her arms, Joe probably wouldn’t recognize her as the girl he had once known.

When Billy began to try to eat his fists, Jamie called to Ralph, who was nosing around under a yucca plant by the front steps. When he didn’t respond, she used a firmer tone, and he backed out from under the bush.

“Good boy,” she told him, scratching his head. “Let’s go upstairs and feed this baby.”

She had just finished nursing Billy when there was a knock on the door. She went to the door and, leaving the security chain engaged, opened it just an inch.

When she saw that it was Lynette, she disengaged the chain and invited her inside.

The hospital had just called, Lynette explained. The eleven o’clock shift was short, and she had been asked to fill in. “Could you look after Sally Ann?” she asked.

Jamie agreed, of course. Lynette said she would bring Sally Ann up around ten-thirty.

Jamie had hoped to purchase a secondhand playpen, which could double as a bed for Sally Ann, but she could manage for one night. She put Billy in the infant seat, changed the sheet on his bed, then took a shower. She had on a nightshirt when Lynette arrived with her baby and pink polka-dotted diaper bag.

She watched Lynette place her sleeping child in Billy’s bed, cover her with a lightweight blanket, and leave a second blanket at the foot of the bed.

“I just fed her,” Lynette said. “If she wakes up in the night, offer her a pacifier. If that doesn’t work, give her a bottle. I’ll pick her up around seven-fifteen or so.” Lynette put a hand on Jamie’s arm. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have you looking after her.”

Jamie locked the door behind Lynette and carried Billy into the bedroom. Ralph was already curled up at the foot of the bed. She sat on the side of the bed with Billy on her knees and told him what a very handsome little boy he was and how very much she loved him.

And he smiled.

It wasn’t just gas. It was a real smile. But just to make sure, she kept cooing and talking.

Billy smiled again, waving his arms and legs and looking quite proud of himself. And Jamie’s heart absolutely melted.

She convinced him to do it yet again. “Look, Ralphie,” she said. “Billy is smiling at us.”

Today had been a good day, Jamie thought. And yesterday, too. Two good days in a row. Her baby had smiled for the first time. She had an income and a new hairdo and had begun her search for a car. And she actually had two friends-Lynette and Ruby.

Before turning out the bedroom light, Jamie padded across the living room to check on Lynette’s baby. Moonlight streamed through the open window, illuminating the sleeping infant. Little Sally Ann. Such a pretty little girl. Jamie pulled the lightweight blanket up to her chin and put a hand on her tiny fragile chest, feeling it move up and down. Babies were so precious. Life was so precious.

Then she went into the bedroom where her own baby lay sleeping. Even though Billy was months away from rolling over, she had stuffed a rolled-up blanket between the mattress and the wall and another one between the mattress and the headboard.

She sat on the side of the bed for a time just watching Billy sleep. The feeling that swelled in her breast went beyond love, beyond adoration. It encompassed something quite elemental and even ferocious. No one was ever going to take her baby away from her. Ever.

She reached down to pat Ralph’s head and tell him good night. He didn’t open his eyes, but his tail swished a bit. “You’re all worn out, aren’t you, boy? Me, too. It’s been a busy day.”

Then she stretched out beside her baby and stared out at the sky for a time. She couldn’t see the moon from this window, but the stars were bright and mysterious. She wondered where Joe was at this moment and what he was thinking.

Just before she closed her eyes, she glanced through the open doorway of the bedroom and could just make out the form of Lynette’s sleeping baby.

Chapter Thirty

IT WAS A FEW minutes after one when Jamie discovered that Lynette’s baby was missing. Billy had been trying to wake up. Sometimes he would go back to sleep if she walked around the apartment jiggling him in her arms. That’s what she had been doing when she realized Sally Ann was no longer in the baby bed.

Panic filled Jamie’s chest and clouded her mind. They knew where she was. They thought they had taken her baby.

Even as she tried to deal with the horror of the missing baby, her mind was trying to push ahead.

How long would it take before they realized the baby they had was a girl?

And why hadn’t the person who took Sally Ann killed Jamie first?

Jamie imagined a shadowy figure putting a gun with a silencer to her temple while she slept and pulling the trigger. Or putting a pillow over her face and suffocating her.

But there was something wrong with both scenarios. And with Jamie sleeping through Sally Ann’s kidnapping. Ralph would have alerted her the instant an intruder set foot in the apartment.

Ralph would have barked.

Ralph!

She raced to the bedroom. Her scruffy little dog was still curled up on the foot of the bed. Jamie knew before she touched him that he was dead. But still her mind cried out in protest. Not her Ralph. Not her sweet little dog who had been at her side for all these many months. Who had saved her sanity and been her devoted little buddy. Who had loved her unconditionally and trusted her completely.

She wanted to scream. To cry out in her grief. And rage. But she didn’t have time to rage or grieve. Not even for Ralph.

She had to get out of here.

She put Billy on the bed, grabbed her backpack, and raced around frantically stuffing things inside. Some clothes for Billy. A couple of baby blankets. Diapers. The baby sling. The Oklahoma map. Then she realized she still had on her nightshirt. She threw on some clothes and stuffed an extra shirt and underwear in the backpack.

She reached under the mattress and pulled out the manila envelope and slid it under the pad in the infant carrier. Then she put her baby in the carrier and bent to kiss her little dead dog good-bye, her chest heaving with the pain of her loss. “I am so sorry,” she whispered. “Good-bye, my darling Ralph. I’ll never forget you.”

Blind with tears, she slung the backpack over her shoulder and picked up the infant carrier. And glanced at the clock on the bureau. Less than ten minutes had passed since she realized Sally Ann was gone.

Billy was chewing on his fists and only seconds away from crying. On the way to the door she picked up Sally Ann’s pacifier from the baby bed. She didn’t take the time to wash it or even wipe it on her sleeve. Billy had never used a pacifier, but he latched on instantly.

Ever so carefully, Jamie unlocked the door and, leaving the chain lock engaged, peeked out into the hall. Then she closed the door, disengaged the chain lock, and opened it again. She took one last look over her shoulder and saw a pair of feet appear in the open window.

The kidnapper was coming back to kill her.

She slipped into the hall and gently closed the door behind her. Then raced down the hall. Down three flights of stairs.