Man In The Mist. Annette Broadrick

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      “Mighty fine young ladies you have, Moira,” James said, feeling relief that they were safely delivered. “All of them beauties, just like their mother.”

      The new mother attempted a smile before she closed her eyes. Her work was done. Her babies had made it safely into the world.

      James moved her into one of their upstairs bedrooms to rest and recuperate while Margaret continued to care for the infants.

      Before she fell asleep, Moira caught James’s wrist in a surprisingly fierce grip, considering her weakened condition, and said, “Don’t let him find my babies.” Her eyes were glazed with fever and her voice sounded raspy. “He mustn’t find them. He’ll kill them. Please. Don’t let him find them.”

      “You and your babies are safe, Moira. You just rest and get better. You’ll be able to take care of them yourself once you’re better.”

      Moira stared at him, her grief and pain mirrored in her eyes. “I loved Douglas so much. I don’t want to go on without him,” she whispered.

      “You have three precious daughters to care for, Moira,” he replied in a gentle voice. “They need you.”

      “Please find them a good home. Promise me,” she whispered. “Promise me you’ll protect my babies.”

      James stared at her in alarm. “You must protect your babies. Give yourself time. You will be able to…” He stopped speaking when he realized she was no longer conscious.

      Moira never regained consciousness. It was as though she’d grown tired of struggling for breath and at the end gave up the effort with one final sigh.

      Moira with no last name had done what she could to give her babies a chance at life. Now it was up to James and Margaret to decide what to do with her legacy.

      Chapter One

      October 16, 2003

      Greg Dumas peered through the windshield of his rental car with a mixture of frustration and resignation. He could scarcely see past the front of his car. He leaned closer while the windshield wipers valiantly fought a losing battle to remove moisture from the fogged glass. Rain poured down, mixing with the heavy mist that swirled in the headlights.

      After several weeks in Scotland, he felt as though he’d stepped into another world made up of perennial rain and perpetual gloom.

      Greg knew he should have stayed in Craigmor tonight, rather than attempt to find one small village in the western Highlands after dark. The village hadn’t looked so far away on the map, but he hadn’t taken into account that he was in the mountains.

      He was exhausted. It didn’t help that the cough that had started sometime last week had worsened. He’d been on the move since landing in Glasgow last month. He’d rented a car and driven to Edinburgh, thinking he’d be returning to New York in no more than three days. Instead, Edinburgh had been the first stop of many in his search. Since then, he’d followed one lead after another, chasing back and forth across the Highlands like a de-ranged bloodhound.

      When he’d received the newest lead late this afternoon, he hadn’t wanted to wait another night to check it out.

      Greg knew he sounded like a barking seal every time he coughed. In addition, his head felt stuffed full of cotton and he couldn’t breathe without wheezing.

      To make matters worse, it was now close to midnight and he was lost. He thought he’d been following the map he’d marked earlier when he stopped to eat, but somehow he’d managed to find yet another narrow road that appeared to lead to nowhere.

      He couldn’t remember the last light he’d seen. Of course, with fog so thick, he could have driven through the hamlet—or the village, or whatever the towns were called—without being aware he’d reached his goal.

      Manhattan was nothing like this, he muttered to himself.

      He should never have taken this job, he thought—not for the first time—regardless of the money offered. In the three years since he’d opened his office as a private investigator, what had started as a one-man operation had mushroomed into a firm with several investigators—former cops as he was—and a growing support staff that threatened to spill out of their office space within the year.

      So why had he finally agreed to take this case? It hadn’t been the money, although the client had offered to double his usual fee and pay all of his expenses if he would personally handle this matter.

      He’d turned her down at first. He’d never been away from his daughter, Tina, for more than a night and he hadn’t been comfortable with the idea of traveling to Great Britain. However, Tina’s grandmother, Helen, had urged him to take the case. She’d felt he needed a change of pace from his busy schedule as well as a chance to see more of the world.

      When Helen convinced him that leaving Tina with her would be fun for all concerned, he’d finally accepted the assignment. Of course, he’d taken this job thinking he’d quickly find the answers he sought.

      Instead he was chasing false trails or trails that dried up, leaving him wondering where to search next, all because he respected Helen’s opinion.

      He didn’t know what he would have done if his mother-in-law hadn’t stepped in and helped him to take care of Tina after Jill’s death. She rarely offered her opinion. When she did, he listened.

      After three weeks in Scotland, he had no doubts that he’d made the wrong choice. What he had thought would be a simple matter—finding his client’s birth parents—had turned out to be far from simple. His search had turned into a mystery with few answers.

      If this latest lead didn’t pan out, he would give up and return to New York. He’d exhausted all other avenues.

      Right now, all he wanted to do was to hop on a plane and head for the States, sleeping the entire trip across the Atlantic. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen. Instead, he appeared destined to wander the western Highlands of Scotland for the foreseeable future.

      Greg knew he’d been on the road too long and had driven too many hours. He had to find a place where he could rest, and soon. Better yet, he needed to find a place to spend the night. Between the cold air and the dampness that had seeped inside him clear to his bones, he seemed to have acquired a permanent tremor throughout his body.

      His assignment had turned into a wild-goose chase. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have the protective coating of a wild goose. The cold, damp climate had him reeling.

      He’d headed west to find some middle-aged woman who had retreated to the isolated area of northwest Scotland. She’d been nowhere near the village where he had hoped to find the information he needed.

      From his interviews with several of the old-time residents of Craigmor, this particular woman was his best hope to discover the answers he needed.

      When he first arrived in Scotland he’d expected to contact the attorney who had handled his client’s adoption and/or the physician attending her birth to get the name of her biological parents.

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