Thank you soo much for the reviews! hope you aren't disappointed by this chapter. Only 1 or 2 left i think.
PART IV:
Agatha shuffled slowly into the living room with a warm bottle of milk in her hands. She had been surprised when her grand daughter Chrissy had appeared at her door the previous evening. That too with a baby in her hands. The poor mite had looked undernourished and was nowhere near the size or weight of a three- week old baby. Agatha reached the wailing baby on the couch and tenderly picked it up and gave it the bottle. The baby immediately became silent, hungrily drinking the milk. Thankfully Chrissy was asleep in the bedroom; it seemed to Agatha that the baby cried more when its mother was around. Maybe they should have kept Chrissy for some more time in that hospital, maybe she wasn't cured yet. In Agatha's opinion Chrissy should not have had another child so soon. But could anyone blame her for wanting one. It was not her fault that her first baby had died; she just hadn't known how to take care of it. Sh hadn't known that she had to feed it, just as she hadn't known how to stop it from crying. She had simply wrapped the baby up in a cloth and put it inside a drawer to muffle the noise, only it baby had died of suffocation. That was when those doctors had taken away Chrissy. But her problem hadn't started then, they had begun when she had received a head injury in the car crash in which her parents had died. She had not been the same since.
Agatha pulled the yellow jacket more tightly around the baby to keep it warm. It was cold and the heating system in Agatha's run down home was not good. Chrissy said that their entire luggage had been lost and she was going to buy some clothes for herself as well as the baby that evening, if Agatha would give her some money. Agatha was too afraid to do or say anything against Chrissy. She could fly into a terrible rage and would have no trouble hitting her own grandmother if she had to. The baby started crying again and the noise snapped Agatha out of her reverie. She slowly rocked the baby to sleep after pulling a sheet to cover herself and the baby to keep them warm.
Gary got out of the cab and handed the driver a few notes, not bothering to wait for change, he ran into the shop he had visited the previous day. The same girl was at the counter. He ran to her and asked her, "Do you remember a young woman, dark brown hair who came in here yesterday, about early afternoon or evening?" The girl shrugged her shoulders and replied, "Sir we get so many customers here… and why do you want to know?" Gary explained hurriedly. "…so that woman may be the kidnapper, you must have seen the news on television!"
The girl quickly directed him to the place she had told the woman about the previous day. It was just a few minutes away from the store.
Gary quickly called John Barrett from the nearest pay phone and asked him to call the police as soon as possible. He then went to the second-hand store himself and was soon met by a police detective who carried with him the sketch of woman they had made from Gary's description. The detective questioned all the people in the store and showed them the sketch but no one had seen anyone even remotely resembling her. The detective then asked Gary if he had been sure that it was the same woman from the store. Gary replied in the affirmative. "It was definitely her! I don't know why I didn't realize before. The yellow scarf that she dropped was the clue. It was the same thing that she bought from the store yesterday, show it to the sales clerk, she will definitely recognise it!" From that moment, there was at least one police man keeping a watch on the place, in plain clothes. But that whole day, the kidnapper did not appear. Gary was feeling dejected once more, there had been no change in the paper, the woman had not been seen, no ransom note had appeared, they were at a dead end.
Agatha had tried asking her grand daughter politely to go and buy some clothes for the baby as well as for herself. She had finally resorted to shouting, but Chrissy's voice was much louder than hers. Chrissy was still in the same clothes she had been in when she had arrived the previous day. It was growing colder and Agatha didn't have many warm blankets. The heater had finally conked out and her helpful neighbour had promised to fix it the next day, but they had to make do till then. It was close to nine but she finally convinced Chrissy to go and get some clothes form the shop she had mentioned the previous day. She had finally agreed and had just left, it wasn't too far, just a few minutes walk.
