“We were all called into the hospital. We needed all hands on deck. I remember hearing the hurricane as it raged outside. It was so hard to stay put, knowing that Katrina was destroying everything in her path and not knowing if my family was safe. But they needed me and I had taken an oath…” He closed his eyes again and went on, “I was called down to the emergency room and the first thing I saw was a skinny little teenage girl laying on a gurney. A doctor in a white lab coat stood over her with the defibrillator paddles in his hands. He yelled for everyone to stand clear and he applied them to her chest. That little girl bounced up about two feet off that gurney and as soon as she was still, all eyes were on the monitor. I remember the shudder that went through me when I saw that flat line. She was so young. I worked with the elderly most of my career once I’d finished my residency, so I’d never experienced the loss of a child.” When he opened his eyes again, they were filled with tears. He looked at his granddaughter and said, “Would you mind getting me a glass of tea, dear?”
She picked up the glass next to him and asked, “Are you okay? Please don’t do this if it’s too much for you.”
He smiled and patted her hand. “I’m just fine,” he said. She looked at him doubtfully and sighed, and then before she left the room she shot Cade a look that was clearly a warning to not upset him.
As soon as she was gone the doctor said, “Another patient was rolled in then, an elderly woman. I went to help with that one and for a little while, I forgot about the other doctor and the young girl. I lost my patient and as I was washing up to move on to the next one, I saw that doctor. ‘I saw the girl you were working on,’ I told him. ‘It must be tough to lose someone so young.’ He looked at me oddly and said, ‘I didn’t lose her. She’s on a ventilator, but her heart is working and she still has brain activity. I’m sure she’ll be fine.’ I was surprised because she’d been soaking wet and there was a huge gash in her head. I was sure she was gone when I saw him give her the shock. Miracles happen, but I was sure that even if she lived through the night, she’d never be ‘fine’ again. I congratulated him anyway, and he looked sad and said, ‘I’m just doing my job, and do you want to know the worst part?’ ‘What’s that?’ I asked him. ‘The whole time I was working on that girl, I was thinking of my own child. I kept looking at her face and wondering…’ He stopped there, and I assumed he was wondering the same thing I was, if his child was okay.” Dr. Franks paused to adjust the afghan and take a breath before continuing.
“I nodded at him and said, ‘That’s human. I’ve been thinking of mine as well.’ We both got called back in at that time. The ER was a madhouse and I ran into him a few more times as we both worked the next twenty-four hours. I was dead on my feet and still working when the ER supervisor came in and ordered me to take a break. I didn’t want to leave because there was still so much to do, but I wasn’t going to be able to help those people if I dropped myself. So I went to the doctor’s break room and spent some time trying to reach my family. The towers were down and all the phone lines were either congested or not working. I couldn’t get through to anyone. I was frightened and discouraged and thinking about leaving when Greg Marshall walked into the break room. He looked like how I felt and for a while we just sat there without talking. He was reclined back with his eyes closed when suddenly he said, ‘Do you ever regret something so badly that you feel like you want to spend your life punishing yourself for it?’ I hadn’t done anything that I regretted badly enough to want to spend my life paying for it, and that’s what I told him. He opened his eyes and I could see the sadness there as he said, ‘That girl from earlier, she died.’
“You go into this career knowing that you won’t be able to save everyone and your days will be filled with heartache and death. You do everything you can, but you’re only human, and I told him all of this. What I didn’t expect for him to respond with was this. He said, ‘I know. But you see, when I told you I was thinking about my child earlier, I didn’t mean the children that I’d had with my wife. I had an affair about seventeen years ago with a beautiful, mocha-skinned Creole woman. She was two decades my junior, at least…barely old enough, and much too young for me. But she was so fascinating and I let myself be flattered by her attention. We saw each other for about a year and then she told me she was pregnant. I was angry. I figured it was trap and I wasn’t about to leave my family for her. I know how horrible that makes me sound, and it should. I have no excuses for my anger or for what I did next.’
“I had just met this man and he was telling me one of his darkest secrets. I supposed at the time it was akin to a deathbed confession. None of us knew for sure we’d get out of New Orleans alive that day. I didn’t know what to say and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know the rest, but at last I asked him what he did.
“He furrowed his brow hard, like he was trying not to cry and he said, ‘I paid her to go away. I told her to use some of the money to abort the baby. She became hysterical and told me she’d never do that. She said she would raise the baby by herself and one day I’d be sorry that I had a child out there that I didn’t know. The money I gave her wasn’t a lot, but she took it and I never saw her again, or the child. At first, I thought it was a good thing, but she was right. I hated the idea that I had a child out there somewhere being raised by a mother with no education or skills and probably barely making a living. Her mother Symone was sweet and funny and sexy, but not the brightest woman I’d ever met. I tried to find them once when the child would have been about ten years old. I went to the bar where she’d worked when I met her and no one would tell me anything…except one of the older women who was a regular there, who slipped up and said the child’s name out loud. I have her name now and I’ve been searching for her. She’d be about seventeen, the same age as that girl on the table in there. The whole time I was working on her, I kept wondering if—I kept thinking if my own child died on the table in front of me, I wouldn’t even know it was her.’ He had a tear rolling down his face then and I was extremely uncomfortable. I didn’t know this man at all and I had no idea what to say.”
Melanie came back into the room then with a tray of iced tea. She poured her grandfather a glass and then offered one to Bobbie and Cade. Once they all had their tea and Melanie had taken a seat on the seat across from Cade, the old man went on.
“I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything. We both went to sleep then and when I woke up, he was gone. The next week or so was completely hectic between working at the hospital and finally contacting my family and assessing the damage to our property. I’d all but forgotten about Greg Marshall until I ran into him again three years later. It was 2008 and I’d taken a job at a women’s clinic. When I first saw Greg again, it took me a minute to even remember where I knew him from. When it came flooding back, I asked him if he ever found his daughter. He shook his head but with an excitement in his eyes that wasn’t there the first time I met him he said, ‘No, but I refuse to give up. I found out that her mother’s family owned an old sugarcane plantation. I went out there, but the place is non-operational and none of the houses on the property are livable. But I contacted the county purveyor and asked for information on the owner so that I could put in a bid for the property. I was given the phone number for the attorney that was handling the estate and found out it belonged to her grandparents and it was all left to her. So I have help now and I just have this really good feeling that I’ll be reunited with my Adele soon.’:
“Adele?” Bobbie gasped.
The old man nodded. “That was his daughter’s name, Adele.”
“Oh, my God! She was his daughter. That’s why he helped her.”
Dr. Franks nodded and said, “If he did what the two of you are telling me he did, I’m sure it was out of that guilt he carried with him. I worked with him for another five years before I retired. We didn’t keep in touch, so I never knew if he found his daughter…”
“I think it’s safe to say he did,” Cade said, “and you’re probably right. He was a respected physician and he came from old money. The idea of why he’d get into a baby brokering business was one that drove me crazy trying to figure out. Now it makes a lot more sense.” Cade stood up and so did Bobbie. “You’ve been very helpful…”
The old man raised a bushy, gray eyebrow. “I wasn’t finished.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” They both sat back down. The wheels in Cade’s head were turning. He had already researched the plantation and found out it belonged to Adele and was passed down by her grandparents. This was the first lead they’d had on her parents and he was anxious to get to the records department before they closed and find out which attorney executed the estate.
Dr. Franks smiled and said, “You’re a go-getter. I used to be just like that before…” He trailed off and was silent for a few seconds before continuing. “I was with Greg when he got a message from one of the receptionists about a month later. She told him that Anderson, Sweeney, and Sweeney had called twice and said they had urgent news for him. He was very excited about that, and about month later I heard him talking to a contractor about the ‘slave quarters.’”
“Slave quarters?” Cade asked.
“Yes, all of the old plantations had them. Greg was telling the contractor he wanted them taken down. It sounded like he was renovating the plantation so I asked him if he’d found her—his daughter. He smiled and said, ‘I found them…my family.’”
“Them? Was he talking about finding her mother too?”
Dr. Franks shrugged. “I’m sorry, I don’t know. He didn’t say any more about it and the next day my wife fell ill and I was on leave for a while. When I came back, Greg had moved on and I never saw him again until I started seeing his face on the news years later. I hope some of that is helpful.”
Cade smiled and reached for the older man’s hand. Shaking it heartily he said, “It is, you have been a great help, sir. Thank you so much.”
“You’re very welcome,” the doctor said. He looked at Bobbie solemnly then. “I hope you find your boy. No mother should be separated from her child.”
Bobbie had tears in her eyes and instead of shaking the doctor’s hand, she hugged him. He looked slightly flushed when she let go of him and said, “That’s the first non-relative, female hug I’ve had in a long time…I liked it.”
“Granddad!” Melanie scolded, but with a smile. Bobbie blushed.
“I wish you the best, sir. Thank you so much.”
After they said their goodbyes and made it outside into the humid, Louisiana air, Bobbie looked at Cade and said, “This is a good lead, right?”
Cade grinned and winked at her. “The best so far,” he said.