Her printer buzzed to life, spitting out a form she hurriedly scribbled her signature on. She then stood, suggesting this was the end of our consultation.
Matt took my hand and held it tight as we followed her from the room. Stopping at reception she leaned across to Adele and handed her the paperwork.
“Can you take some blood from Matt please, then send this request off to get his DNA?”
Adele looked quizzical as she accepted it. “Is this in relation to the records you’ve requested?”
“Ahuh. There seems to be some doubt around Matt’s genealogy. If we can prove he and Molly aren’t related it will relieve a lot of stress on them both.”
Adele nodded her understanding before smiling at Matt. “Come this way, young man. I can do this test right now.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Does Adele help Lara with the births?” Matt asked, leading the way to the carpark.
“I’m not sure. Why?”
“I don’t think she’s a very good nurse. It took her three attempts to take my blood. She dropped the first vial on the floor, and then had to retake it, only to keep missing the vein. I’m going to be black and blue by this time tomorrow.” He rolled up his sleeve and showed me the numerous tiny band aids now dotted over his skin.
I grimaced. “I think she’s mostly admin now. Well, let’s hope so anyway.” I shivered with the thought she could be around at the time of the birth and hoped it was her day off when I came in for delivery.
Matt smiled. “It was good news about the babies.”
“I think I’m still in shock.”
“It’s a good shock though, right?” Matt’s smile froze as he glanced down at me.
“Yes. I can’t believe the difference a week has made. I was worried I would never have any feelings towards my baby, and now here I am with two on the way and I’m completely in love with them.”
“You’re going to be a great mother, Molly.”
I beamed understanding how pregnancy really did give you a glow.
“What are you doing now?” I asked Matt as he beeped the car doors unlocked.
“I’m going to have a quick chat with Ed Helms in regards to the autopsy report on Paul Pritchard.”
I raised my eyebrow quizzically.
“I was supposed to interview Paul last week as he was going to do a whistle blowing story on the hospital in the 1960’s.”
“Is he the one who was found dead in his home?”
“That’s him.”
“So, what did the autopsy report reveal?”
“He died from a blow to the head. It looked like he fell and hit his head on the cement wall in his garden, but the police now believe he was murdered.”
“That’s awful!”
“Yeah, it is.”
“Are you going to follow it up?”
“I’d like to, but I don’t have a lot to go on, which is why I thought I’d chat with Ed. The police’ll investigate the murder but I was more intrigued in what Pritchard had to tell me. I suppose now I will never know.”
“Matt, do you think that story has anything to do with what’s happening to us?”
“I don’t see how it could. He never told me anything, and besides, he died before all of this started to happen.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “I guess so.”
“What you said back there about the blood groups has intrigued me,” Matt pushed on. “I thought I’d look into it some more. And I really want to know how that GPS tracker got in your bag.”
He wasn’t the only one.
“Do you think this is related to the green wagon following me?” I asked, sliding into the car and buckling my seatbelt. “It would explain how they know where I am all the time.”
“It’s possible. But what do they want?”
I shivered. “I’m really not that interesting.”
Matt grinned. “Oh, you’re interesting, believe me.”
I chose to take that as a compliment.
“What do I do with it?” I dug my hand into the front pocket of my bag and pulled the little black device out. “Should I throw it away? Or would it give the bad guy the heads up that I found it? Could it be dangerous? Are they going to get angry and then track me down and kill me?”
“I think you’ve been watching too many movies. But leave it with me. I’ll get the tech guys at work to do some digging for me.”
“Can they find out who it belongs to?”
“I doubt that, but it might hold some sort of information that will give us a clue.”
My phone jingled from the depths of my bag, and I jostled to find it as Matt negotiated his way out of the carpark and onto the main road.
“Hi Grandma,” I sang, once it was located.
“Molly. Where are you?”
“Ummm, I just had my doctors visit. Why?”
“I thought maybe you could give me a lift to that café down by the river. I have a hot date and your mother won’t take me.”
“Are you wearing your new outfit?”
“Sure am. And I even had Danny put a pink rinse through my hair to match it.”
I smiled to myself. “Alright. I’m with Matt, but I’ll drop him home so he can get his car. I can be there in about half an hour. Can you wait that long?”
“Well, I am aging here, but I guess half an hour won’t kill me.”
****
“Did mum help you into that outfit?” I asked, hiding my smile behind a cough.
Grandma huffed and pulled the strap of her pink cyclists’ bib back onto her shoulder. She’d yet to put the jersey on and the elastic of her knickers stuck out over the top of the shorts.
“She’s such a party pooper, your mother.”
“So, she wouldn’t help?”
“She told me I should start acting my age. What she doesn’t understand is up here I’m still twenty,” she said, tapping her skull. “The body may age but the mind stays the same. You wait till she’s in her eighties and see how she feels then.”
Somehow, I couldn’t ever imagine mum being any different to how she was today.
“So, who helped you? Please don’t say dad.”
“Pft, as if I’d ask him. No, it was Doris next door who gave me a hand. It was a bit of struggle but worth the effort, don’t you think?” She fluffed her tight curls and smiled. “Ted is going to love me in this.”
“Well, come on then. We’d better not keep him waiting.”
She hurriedly covered her bra with the jersey and grabbed her walker. “I’ve been working on the lingo they use too. I know that my walker is very aero. That means it’s aerodynamic. I also have to make sure I don’t get bonked.”
“Mum’ll be happy about that.” I grinned, leading the way to the car.
“I got a bit excited when I first read that term, until I realized it just means you’re buggered. If I was in charge of the sport it would mean something completely different.”
I had no doubts it would.
“Then I thought I was in for the win when I read there’s a Granny Gear. And before you get ahead of yourself it has nothing to do with the bonking. It’s a slow gear you use when you’re bonked and can’t ride up a hill. Quite insulting if you ask me. Depending on who’s in front of me, I bet I could get up the hill faster than some of the young ones.”