Little Boy Gone

By Mary Lou McDonald

A nurse takes her young patient for a walk early one morning and has a heart attack. A child abduction ring has been trolling the area and finds the small boy crying in his stroller. They grab him. He is just what they have been looking for. He is blond, blue-eyed, and young. Only he is a lot more than they bargained for. The child is very ill. The woman chosen by the ring to take care of the child falls in love with him, and she kidnaps the child from the abductors. The child's family is looking for him. A task force is set up. The abduction ring is desperately searching for the child. Hopefully, before he becomes seriously ill, or worse, and this toddler will be safely returned to his family

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098004422

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Little Boy Gone

Mary Lou McDonald

Copyright © 2019 by Mary Lou McDonald

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Prologue

"Are you having fun? We can’t stay out too long, baby. It’s getting hot and muggy. It’s supposed to get into the nineties today. Wait. Let me wipe your face. Don’t fuss. You have drooled all over. Goodness, it’s warm. Okay, we’re going. There aren’t many people out and about, are there? My, I don’t feel very well. Hold on, I can’t breathe. Oh, my baby, we must get you back home. I’m sorry. It’s just too hot for me. Oh my, I really don’t feel well. Here’s somebody. Maybe they’ll help."

Chapter 1

Dana started calling Peggy’s cell phone at 10:40 a.m. Dana’s youngest sister, Shelly, had woken her up at a little after nine. Peggy’s shift started at six in the morning, and Dillon usually woke up around seven. After he was fed and given all his medications and his aerosol treatment, Peggy, the full-time home-health nurse, usually dressed him and took him for a walk in the neighborhood. She would go early, especially if it was going to be warm. It kept him quiet so Shelly wouldn’t be woken up. Peggy usually didn’t go for more than an hour though, unless she left Dana a text on her cell phone. For some reason, today was different.

Dana didn’t start worrying until ten thirty that morning. When Peggy didn’t answer the call, Dana left a message. When Peggy hadn’t called back and still didn’t answer, Dana put Shelly in her car seat and drove slowly through the neighborhood. After the third trip around, she drove into the small strip mall next to their neighborhood. Peggy would sometimes take Dillon shopping. She always let Dana know though.

After asking clerks in the closest four stores if they’d seen a blue-eyed blond toddler, small for his age, and a woman in her fifties with graying brown curls, wearing nursing scrubs, Dana drove back through their streets one more time. This time, she found two people outside, and she stopped to ask them if they had seen Dillon. A small Chinese woman shrugged and scurried back into her home. The younger man smiled and said he had just come out to get into his car and hadn’t seen anything. Dana thanked him and drove home.

After changing and feeding Shelly, Dana placed her in her crib. Shelly had picked up on her mother’s uneasiness, and Dana had to read her three books before she fell asleep. She then went downstairs and did something she should have done two hours ago: she called 911.

Dana then called her mother. Sophie Jinivitch lived twenty miles away but promised that she would head right over. She only missed the patrol car by eight minutes.

After several hours had lackadaisically crept by, Sophie stood with her back to the room, staring out at the red and blue flashing lights marring the beautiful sunset. Her infant granddaughter, Shelly, squirmed in her arms. Shelly needed to be put to bed, but she provided a distraction and a barrier to the chaos in the room. Besides, it took energy to move, and Sophie felt like a pool of gelatin. Only stubbornness held her up. Shelly started fussing. Okay, darling. It’s time for bed. Hush now. Grandma will get your bottle and change you first. This, and pray, were all she could do to help her daughter.

Dana sat wearily at the kitchen table with two city police officers. She needed to do something besides sit there—drive around, get the word out on the internet, something!

The officers advised against it. Dillon’s stroller had been found almost two hours ago… His empty stroller. A search of all the hospitals in the area had been conducted around noon. Peggy had been admitted to the Ohio State University Medical Center at ten fifteen that morning but had died of a heart attack before Dana arrived. Interviewed staff had stated that she had inquired about the baby, but no one else was seen when emergency medical services had arrived on the scene.

The person who had made the 911 call just happened to drive by and only saw the nurse on the ground. The few people at the scene had been focused on Peggy and the medical personnel. No one remembered seeing a child in a stroller with her.

All this occurred in her neighborhood, only a few blocks from her home! Why hadn’t she known? She was asleep. How could she sleep when her son—her special, precious son—needed her? And why didn’t any of her neighbors help? She had lived there since she was married—four years ago! Many of them mentioned seeing Peggy walk with the stroller frequently but not that morning! Why not?

Dana lived in a diverse commuter neighborhood, and she didn’t really know any of her neighbors or interacted with them, except to wave, but someone had to have seen something! If, Dana thought, she had to sit there doing nothing for a minute longer, she would start crying and then she wouldn’t be able to stop. Besides, crying didn’t help anything. Did it save John? Did it stop her labor with Dillon only twenty-four weeks into her pregnancy? No! Crying solved nothing, and Dana refused to allow one tear to fall.

Chapter 2

Her husband, John, had died suddenly fourteen months ago. The doctors said it was an undiagnosed heart anomaly. He was only thirty-two. Dana had been four months pregnant at the time. He hadn’t even known that they were having a baby girl. Because Dillon was born so early, Dana’s second pregnancy was considered high-risk. They hadn’t intended to have another child so soon, but John was really excited. He loved kids!

Dillon had been at the Children’s Hospital for twenty-one weeks after his birth. When he came home, he was on an apnea monitor to let them know immediately when he quit breathing. He was also on oxygen to ease the burden on his tiny heart and lungs. The monitors were finally removed when he was nine months old. Dillon still endured seizures and continued to take an array of medications, but eventually, he overcame the seizures as well. Dana’s little son was such a fighter.

He was born at one pound and five ounces. In his already fragile state, he also underwent surgery on his heart and intestinal tract before he was six months old. Dillon was just learning to crawl and couldn’t yet