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conference room. “Hospital has no login time for a Dr. Anna Smith, Sulie’s alias, from yesterday.”
    “Are you sure the call came from a patient?” Raymond asked Dixon.
    Dixon rubbed his reddened eyes. “Positive. She needed to get to the hospital for a birth of a vampire.”
    Again, Ben typed on the keyboard. This time, cell phone records popped up on the wall and replaced the hospital log. “I’ve tapped into her cell phone account.” After a minute, he continued, “Her phone’s GPS is disabled.”
    Sterling shook his head. “And?”
    Ben took a deep breath. “Her phone is either out of battery, the memory chip is out or it has been destroyed.”
    As silence filled the room, Ben explained to them what they all saw on the smart board. “This is her call and text log for yesterday.”
    Dixon scanned the list on the board. His number appeared repeatedly throughout the day. Several calls and texts from him were from earlier in the morning, when he needed to get a refill on his meds. Another series of calls and texts came later that evening when he first suspected something had been wrong.
    Ben focused on midday and highlighted the entries as he explained them. “This brief call is from the hospital. Several minutes later is a text from her to Raymond. After that is a call from a local phone number, which also was short.”
    “I was with her for that first call,” Dixon said. “That was the baby one.”
    “One sec…” Sterling said as he typed into his computer. A beep sounded and he leaned in to read the results. “The phone number on the second call is a burner. Disposable. Untraceable.”
    “Wait,” Raymond said. “Pull up hospital records and confirm the couple arrived and if Sulie attended in the birth.”
    After a few minutes, another record flashed on the screen. “Seven babies were born after 3pm yesterday. All had attending physicians who were not Dr. Anna Smith,” Ben reported.
    “Alex, I want you to count baby heads in the nursery. Maybe the vampire family didn’t want a paper trail and compelled the hospital staff to comply,” Raymond said into the speaker.
    “ Not a problem. I’ll walk over now,” she replied over the phone.
    Ben returned the screen to cell phone records. “There is only that one text between the hospital and mystery call, and that text was to Raymond. And then there are several from Dixon after she ran off.”
    “We don’t know if she ran off,” Dixon said as he now took a seat at the table. His laptop showed a screen saver image of him and Sulie. It was the first picture he had taken with his digital camera years ago. He normally didn’t think much of the picture, but today he studied it. The new camera was a gift from Sulie for his birthday that year. He looked at her image. She had smiled, but hadn’t shown her fangs so he wouldn’t have to erase the picture. She had been so excited to see a clear image of herself as an adult. It had been the first time she had ever seen it. Of course, she focused on the flaws of her face, dwelled on the shape of her cheekbones and such, but overall seemed happy with her appearance.
    Dixon remained so lost in thought, he almost missed what Ben was showing on the screen.
    “We can view the text she sent to Raymond.” As Ben punched on the keys to bring up the message Raymond stopped him.
    “I know what the text reads. Do not open the message.”
    Dixon looked across the table to Raymond and thought back to their conversation last night. Only the two of them knew Sulie wanted to get married. That she was lonely. That she secretly wanted a family.
    A moment later, Alex returned to the phone. “Baby head count checks out. Since Sulie wasn’t scheduled to work yesterday, I’ve been asking around, and no one remembers seeing her.”
    Dixon folded his hands across his chest and mentally brought up the time line. Sulie had raced to the hospital to deliver a baby, but the text to Raymond was at 3:14pm. She must have arrived