GUNNED by Elaine Macko Page A

girls all born on the same day.”
    “Sit down, please. Yes, it was crazy. When one started screaming they all started screaming. I don’t know how people do it with twins. But to answer your question, no, I never had a feeling anything out of the ordinary was going on. The nurses were kept running. I know because my sister, Kathy, was one of them. I was really glad she was there. Cyrus, that’s my husband, he was at the shop working and didn’t get to the hospital in time to be with me, but I had my sister there to talk me through the pain.”
    “So you didn’t feel threatened in any way when Mr. Spiegel showed up here?”
    “Threatened? No. I was upset. He had some nerve coming in here and blurting out something like that. And especially now after all these years. Not much he could do about it at this point except upset everyone. All those baby girls are grown women now and probably come from close families like ours. Even if a baby had been switched, who cares? Biology is one thing, but what about all the time and effort you put into raising these children over close to thirty years. You can’t undo any of that, and I doubt these young women wanted to be bothered.”
    I certainly wasn’t going to tell her that Jennifer felt out of place and was curious about whether she might indeed be the child of Mr. and Mrs. Spiegel. I felt certain it was just natural curiosity. I had to admit if someone showed up claiming to be my real parent, as much as I love my family, I might be interested to learn something more about them after the initial shock wore off.
    “Oh, Cyrus, these are the people who talked to Jen earlier.”
    A man of medium everything walked into the room. He had a square jaw and piercing blue eyes, and gave us a guarded look.
    “We heard about that man dying,” he began. “I’m sorry to hear it, but I don’t like my wife being upset. Having a baby is a wonderful thing, but it was a trying time for us.” He didn’t continue and I turned my gaze to his wife.
    “What my husband means is that my father died three days before Jen was born. I was so close to that man, Cyrus too.”
    “He was always a great father-in-law. Helped us out at the nursery when my own father died. We both took his death hard.”
    “Was it unexpected?” Annie asked.
    “Yes it was. He just dropped dead. Something wrong with his heart, and the doctors said it had been with him all his life. He wasn’t one to complain or go to the doctor for checkups. Some congenital thing. Scared me to death,” Gwen Shalt said. “What if I had it, too, and I dropped dead leaving my little baby without a mother. And they said it could also skip a generation. All my kids are fine and so am I. Slowing down a bit with age, but all in all, I’m healthy. But that news was a lot for a new mother to deal with on top of the grief I was going through with my father dying. Mr. Spiegel showing up here out of the blue just brought it all up again. I’m fine now.”
    Annie and I left the Shalt home. It was time to meet the guys for dinner, and I was looking forward to some pasta at our favorite Italian restaurant.
    “They do not seem bothered by Mr. Spiegel’s story of a switched baby. But that was very interesting about the heart problem,” Annie said.
    As I made my way back home through the quiet streets of Indian Cove, I had the same thought. I just wondered how it could possibly have anything to do with why Mr. Sheldon Spiegel was gunned down.

 
     
     
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
     
     
    Walking into Gianelli’s Italian restaurant was like walking into my grandmother’s house. It felt like home with its warm ambiance and the heady smell of garlic and rich tomato sauce.
    We were quickly shown to my favorite table close to the pizza ovens. Despite the mild day, the air had cooled and it felt good to be by the warmth of the fire.
    Our waiter appeared with menus and placed a basket full of tiny chunks of warm fried dough and softened butter on the table.