The Black Market Baby Scandal
(Chapter Three: The Search For The Truth)
Olivia sat at her desk reading a file on another woman who had delivered a baby at the same hospital she had. This woman's son was born only two months before Olivia's daughter and was delivered by the same doctor. Her baby had died as well.
She took a deep breath and placed her hand under her chin as she stared down at the woman's address in the file. What if Elliot was right? What if something strange was going on? What if her daughter was out there somewhere, alive? Her eyes scanned the room landing on Elliot standing beside the coffee pot talking to Fin. Everyone had been acting strange around her today. By now they had all found out about her personal involvement with this case and they didn't know how to act or what to say around her, so they didn't. Infact, everyone had pretty much avoided her. Everyone, that is except for Elliot.
She stared down at the file once more then picked up her pen and scribbled the woman's name and address onto a yellow sticky note and grabbed the car keys from Elliot's desk. She had to get to the bottom of this.
"What's up?" Elliot asked with a puzzled look on his face as Olivia walked past him toward the elevator. He turned quickly to follow her out of the room. "Liv, where you going?"
"There is something I need to take care of," she replied stepping into the elevator and crossing her arms in front of her.
Elliot stepped into the elevator just as the doors closed and they began their descend to the first floor.
"Look El, I appreciate all of your support in this. I really do. But I think this is something I need to do on my own."
"Cragen told me not to let you out of my site until this thing is over. It is a fluke that you are even still on the case. Half the department is out with the flu and there is no one else for them to send in to cover you. Besides the media camped out front of the building are having a heyday with the story behind this Black Market Baby Scandal and I imagine things will only get worse once they figure out you are involved."
"We don't know that I am involved."
As the elevator doors opened and they stepped out onto the steps, Elliot and Olivia were immediately surrounded by a sea of microphones and flash bulbs. Olivia tried to fight her way through the crowd to get to their squad car parked out front, but it was no use. Half way down the staircase and she felt someone behind her take hold of her wrist pulling her back up the steps and into the lobby of the police station.
"So," Elliot said looking up at her as she tried to catch her breath, "do you wanna hear my idea?"
"What is that?"
Elliot pulled a set of keys from his pocket and dangled them in front of her.
"We take my car. It's parked out back."
"We?"
"I gave Cragen my word."
Olivia shifted her eyes to look at the swarm of reporters out front as three uniformed officers attempted to run them off. There was no way she was going through that mess again.
"Deal," she agreed as Elliot held the door for her and they walked through the fire exit and into the back parking lot. "How did you know to park back here?"
"When I came in this morning there were two news vans parked down the block from the precinct. I figured they had caught wind of the case. So I circled the block and came in the back way. So where are we headed?"
Olivia handed him the little slip of paper and Elliot studied the address. He looked back up at Olivia with questions in his eyes.
"This woman gave birth two months before I did. Same doctor, same hospital. Her baby died too."
"Ahh. So are you actually starting to think that maybe Emily could still be alive?"
"I'm starting to think that it is suspicious that a doctor delivers two infants two months apart who both die under suspicious circumstances and no one ever looked into it."
"Suspicious circumstances? I thought you said that Emily just died because she was premature."
"She did. Or that is what they told me. But the more I think about it now, there are so many things that do not make sense. I had been seeing my regular doctor for months, never missed a check up and he never said anything about placenta previa. I had an appointment the day before I had her and everything was fine. Then all of a sudden I started having complications?"
"Your doctor examined you the day before you gave birth and didn't mention a serious condition that should probably result in a cesarean delivery?"
"No. He said everything seemed fine. The nurse came in and gave me a B12 shot and then I went home. Everything seemed fine."
"She gave you a B12 shot?"
"She said the levels in my blood sample were low. It's not uncommon."
"So there was nothing out of the ordinary about that appointment?"
"Not really."
"So how do you go from being fine and having a healthy check up to having a premature birth just six hours later? Something about this isn't right."
"I know. It seems like there would be something, anything out of place. But everything was the same as each visit before that. Sometimes women just go into labor early. I am hoping to find out more once I talk to this woman, Dana Shaw. Maybe something about her experience can help me remember something. I just really don't want to jump to accuse someone if my baby really did die of natural causes."
"2801, 2803, 2805, here we go," Elliot said as he pulled the car into the drive way of the Shaw residence.
Olivia climbed out of the car and closed the door behind her. She looked around the yard at the children's toys scattered here and there.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine."
"Liv, if this is too much you can wait in the car and I can go in alone."
"No, I need to talk to her."
Elliot smiled and gripped her shoulder for a moment in support, then followed Olivia to the front door. Dana Shaw was a tall dark headed woman with green eyes. She wasn't old really, but had several gray and silver hairs woven through her pony tail. If he were to guess, Elliot would estimate Dana to be about five years older than Olivia.
Dana invited them inside to talk. Olivia's eyes immediately found the school photographs of the kids hanging on the wall. Three boys and two girls. All with freckles and perfect smiles.
"You have a lovely family Mrs. Shaw," Olivia said pointing to the pictures.
"Dana. Thank you. This is Daniel, David, Darren, Danielle and Dakota. And of course my husband Dan."
Olivia glanced at Elliot who raised his eyebrow and shook his head. She smiled and turned her attention back to Dana.
"We need to ask you a few questions about your son that was born on November 20, 1996. That baby passed away, is that correct?"
"Yes, Devon. I already had my oldest two boys. After we lost him, we didn't think we could have any more."
"Why is that?" Elliot chimed in.
"Well, the doctor at Saint Ambrose who delivered Devon said that something went wrong in delivery. Just before the baby was born, he rushed my husband out of the delivery room and said there were complications. They put an oxygen mask on me while I was pushing, but the gas made me so tired. About ten minutes later my son was born. The doctor said he was stillborn, but I didn't believe him."
"Why not?" Olivia asked.
"Well, I was groggy. But I wasn't completely out of it. I saw the baby move when the doctor handed him off to the nurse."
"Did your son ever cry?" Olivia stared at the woman with her heart pounding.
"See, that is the thing. I swear I remember hearing him cry when he was born. But stillborns don't cry. I told my husband about it later and he asked the doctor. But they insisted my son was born dead. I didn't believe them, so they showed me the body of a dead baby. But that baby seemed much smaller than the one I saw the nurse carry from the delivery room. I tried to explain it all to my husband that something just didn't add up right, but he said it was probably just the gas they gave me."
"Did you have any complications with your pregnancy?"
"No, it was fine. Perfectly healthy and I was set to deliver a full term baby boy. Even the morning he was born he was really active and kicking, but it was nothing out of the ordinary. There was no pain or bleeding. And this was not my first delivery. I had my first two sons when we lived in Texas….."
"Dallas?" Elliot asked with a looking at Olivia.
"No, Houston."
Olivia shot him a glare and Elliot shrugged his shoulders at her.
Dana looked back at Elliot then forward to Olivia once more.
"I didn't notice anything different with the delivery. There was pain from the contractions, yes. But nothing out of the ordinary."
Olivia took a deep breath and sighed.
"And this doctor told you that you wouldn't have anymore children?"
"Well, he said that the damage to my uterus was what had caused the complications and lead to the baby's death. But five years later I became pregnant with Danielle. After losing Devon, we decided we didn't want to go back to that hospital and chose a different one. My new doctor said that he didn't see any damage at all and I had a perfect pregnancy and delivery with both of the girls. After a while, Dan and I just assumed that this was a fluke thing and it happened sometimes. We just wanted to put it all behind us."
"That is understandable," Olivia said softly as she finished the last of her notes. "Thank you so much for your help," she adds trying to excuse herself to the door.
"What is this about? Does this have anything to do with that black market baby thing on television?"
Olivia looked up at Elliot. She couldn't speak. She couldn't bring herself to lie to this woman or blow her off just because they had no concrete evidence to support theory. Somehow she and this woman were the same. Both victims of circumstance in this sick game fate had decided to play on them. Olivia was there only because that was the hospital the ambulance had delivered her to. And Dana would probably have all six of her healthy children with her now had she and her husband just remained in Texas and resisted whatever calling had brought them to New York. Fate had fucked them both this time.
Olivia turned unable to face Dana and moved toward the front door.
"We are just checking with all of the women who delivered in the area around that time. It is just procedure. If we find anything, we will be sure to let you know."
With that Elliot followed his partner's lead before Dana could front him with any more questions he wasn't sure how to answer. Olivia was already inside the car by the time he made it down the front steps. He could tell she was upset by the information that Dana had given them. Something had triggered a memory or somehow released this dam of emotion she had been struggling so hard to hold back.
He stood beside the car for a moment to give her a few seconds in private to try and recompose herself before he intruded on her emotional breakdown. He knew she was crying now and as much as he hated to see her cry, she hated more for him to see her cry. After a couple of seconds, Elliot opened the car door and climbed inside. By now, her emotional outburst been reduced to a few occasional sniffles, foggy eyes and tear stained cheeks.
He said nothing. There were no words that could make this better for her. Elliot stared ahead through the windshield of the car as he reached his hand to her shoulder and squeezed it softly in support. She sniffled once more and drew a staggered breath.
"That doctor took that woman's baby," she said softly more sure of that than anything.
"Yes," Elliot answered simply.
"And you think he took Emily?" She cocked her head to the side ever so softly as she gazed into him with weary eyes.
"I do."
Elliot watched as a tear slipped uncontrollably from the corner of her eye and rolled gown her cheek.
"And you think she is still alive?"
Elliot nodded silently as Olivia began to tear up again.
"So do I," she whispered almost breathlessly. She lowered her face into her hands and cried.
"There is only one way to find out," he said with determination in his voice as he started the car.
It was well past quitting time by the time they got back into the city and Elliot wasn't about to make her face that media circus again tonight. Instead he drove her to his apartment across town. Olivia raised her head and looked out the window as they pulled into the parking space.
"Elliot, I'm sure it is safe for me to go home. The press has not found out yet."
"I know," he said slipping his hand into hers, "but it has been a long emotional day and I really don't think you should be alone tonight. Stay here with me. We'll order some take out and open a bottle of your favorite wine. I get you something to sleep in and you can use some of Eli's Mr. Bubble. I'll run you by your place in the morning to change before work."
Olivia smiled through her exhaustion, her head still leaned against the window. It was sad sometimes how adorable his childlike behavior was. He was beneath this big tough guy exterior big sweet kid who just wanted to protect everyone around him. And she knew that he would do absolutely anything for her and absolutely anything to make her smile or keep her from crying. This was the father in him coming out. The father whose fear of not being able to make the bad go away and protect her from it showed his venerability and this was his cover.
"Okay," she said softly. "But no pizza. I want Chinese food."
"Chinese food it is."
Elliot smiled softly and she laughed. It was so nice to know that no matter what kind of shit she found herself in, Elliot was always right there beside her waist deep in it too helping her to trudge through it until she found her truth on the other side. He was a true friend. One of those rare jewels that you find in the strangest of places. A diamond in the rough. And sometimes she wondered if she was the only one who could see his shine.
After dinner Elliot made a few calls. He contacted Alex, who in tern contacted a judge to get a warrant and permission to exhume the graves of each of the infants whom had presumably died after being delivered by either of the two doctors they now held suspect. One of those little graves being Emily's.
The next afternoon they stood by and watched as eight tiny little caskets were unearthed at local cemeteries. Each of them then being transferred to a local warehouse the department had rented to house them until a proper investigation could be conducted.
One by one Melinda Warner opened the tiny boxes. Elliot stood by Olivia's side, her hand clutched tight in his as Melinda approached Emily's little casket.
"I can't watch El," Olivia breathed as tears fell from her eyes.
Elliot turned her and cupped his hand to the back of her head bringing her forehead to rest against his chest. Olivia closed her eyes tight as she felt the warm comfort of Elliot's strong arms close around her in support.
She listened as the rusted hinges of the little casket creaked and the lid was opened.
"Olivia, look."
She felt Elliot's grip on her loosen as her turned her back to face the row of tiny coffins. She drew a deep breath and felt Elliot wrap his arms around her once more. She opened her eyes to stare ahead as six of the eight caskets now sat with the lid propped open and a small teddy bear laid in the place where each of the deceased infants should have been. One of them a badly mud and water stained pink bear where Olivia's daughter Emily was supposed to be resting all of these years.
Olivia turned and looked at the two closed caskets and back up at Melinda. "Those two actually contain remains. I'm going to have them sent to the lab for DNA testing and make sure the infant inside is the one who was supposed to be buried in that grave."
Olivia nodded.
"I don't know whether to say congratulations or apologize. It is good news that your daughter is not among these remains, but bad in the fact that your journey is just beginning and we have no way of knowing where she is."
"I'll find her," Olivia said raising her head and pressing her lips together. "She has been speaking to me all of these years. And now that I know for sure, I will never give up until I find her."
Olivia turned to look at Elliot as he brushed the tears from her cheeks.
"You are not alone in this. You know that, don't you? I'm going to be right here," he said squeezing her hand in his, "until we bring Emily home."
Elliot brushed a piece of hair behind her ear and before he knew it had guided her forehead to rest against his lips. Olivia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. For the first time in years she knew beyond a doubt that her daughter was still alive.