Baby Be Mine by Diane Fanning

grin was so big and so constant that it was a challenge for him to chew his meal.
    Whistle Stop owner Kathy Sage scowled with irritation. “Lisa, you don’t bring a newborn out in public,” she scolded.
    â€œYeah, it’s only a day old,” Lisa said.
    â€œWe didn’t know you were pregnant.”
    â€œMost people didn’t,” Lisa said and turned her attention back to her breakfast.
    Despite her sharp words to Lisa, Kathy couldn’t help admiring the baby. She smiled down at the pretty, petite infant in her pink bonnet. The Amber Alert Kathy heard on the news that morning did not cross her mind.
    Kevin’s boss, Darrell Schultze, was there too. He hadn’t turned on the television or radio yet that day and was unaware that authorities issued an alert. Nonetheless, the presence of the baby gave him cause for alarm. The baby herself was one of the cutest Darrell had ever seen, but the timing of her arrival made him uncomfortable. “Where in the world did you get this baby?” he asked the couple.
    After Lisa explained the story of the baby’s birth the daybefore in Topeka, Darrell said, “You didn’t look that close to delivery when I saw you a week ago.”
    Kevin said the baby was small—Darrell could see that—then added that Lisa never shown much during any of her pregnancies.
    Darrell asked Kevin about the birth experience and Kevin told him that he hadn’t been there. “I didn’t know about the baby till I got home and Lisa called me from Topeka.”
    â€œYou should have been there, Kevin. You can get off from work for that. Why didn’t you call him, Lisa?”
    â€œI tried,” Lisa said, “but I couldn’t get hold of him.”
    Something was not right with that answer. Acme Sign was Darrell’s company. He knew that it was always possible to get a message to any of his employees during the day—even for much more minor things than the birth of a baby. But he just complimented them on the baby and said nothing more.
    After eating, the couple went up the street two blocks and around the corner to the parsonage of the First Church of God, where Kevin, Lisa and Kevin’s parents regularly worshiped. They wanted Reverend Mike Wheatley and his wife to see the baby.
    When the Wheatleys opened the door, Kevin’s grin was so big it obliterated his cheeks. Lisa looked very tired—just like someone who’d given birth the day before. She was more quiet than usual, but the Wheatleys didn’t read much into that. They just blamed her tight lips on exhaustion.
    They were a bit taken aback, though, by the trio on their doorstep because for months they had not believed that Lisa was really pregnant. They suspected that she only claimed to be to get attention. But there before their eyes was proof of the reality of her pregnancy. Nonetheless, they thought it odd that the Montgomerys were bringing the baby around to visit so soon.
    Despite the surprising nature of the visit, the minister and his wife took turns holding the baby for about an hour. Lisa told them that she and Kevin selected “Abigail” becausethey wanted a biblical name for their child. Abigail was an obscure but real reference to one of King David’s wives in the Old Testament. The Wheatleys noticed a little scratch on the baby’s cheek as if she had gouged herself with her tiny fingernail. They observed a small bruise on the back of her hand. Neither of those little injuries seemed out of place, but they could not understand why the infant’s head was not misshapen from passing through the birth canal just the day before.
    Kevin and Lisa then drove down to Lyndon, Kansas—the seat of Osage County. They stopped by the Lyndon County Courthouse, a large, blocky, tan structure built in 1921 in the center of town. They entered the high-ceilinged halls of the first floor with its shoulder-height pinkish marble panels on the