The Fisherman and the Baby by the Rocks

CHAPTER 4 - What the Sea Returned

Erik could only stare.

"No," he said, though the word sounded weak even to him. "That isn't possible."

"It is," Owen replied. "We checked the ink, the clinic stamp, and the witness signature. You signed this twelve years ago."

Mara looked from one man to the other. "You have to explain that."

Erik shut his eyes.

Then memory came back in broken pieces.

A storm. A ferry delay. A night in the harbor shelter after a rescue effort. A woman crying because she had no family, no papers, and no place to go. He had given her dry clothes, hot tea, and the only spare room at the fisherman’s hostel. She had told him her name was Elin. He had never thought of himself as important enough to remember.

But she had.

And now the child in his arms was looking up at him with his same green-gray eyes.

He swallowed hard. "I didn't know."

"I believe you," Owen said. "But someone else will not."

That someone arrived an hour later.

A white SUV stopped above the cliff, and a man in a tailored coat stepped out with two officials from child services. He carried himself like the rules belonged to him.

"Mr. Nilsen," he said, "you are being asked to release the child immediately."

Erik tightened his hold. "No."

The child woke at his voice and began to cry, a frightened little sound that made his chest ache.

Mara stepped forward. "She's exhausted and cold. If you take her now, she will panic."

"We have procedures," the man said.

"Then follow them after you hear me out," Erik snapped.

He lifted the orange buoy.

"This was with her. It has my initials on it. There is a note from her mother. And if your procedures can't wait ten minutes, then they are not meant to protect children."

No one answered.

Then Owen spoke.

"There is another issue. Elin was not fleeing alone. She was hiding the baby from her former partner. A man named Henrik Soren. He has been asking about the child since last winter."

Mara went pale again. "Henrik is in the village?"

Owen nodded. "He checked into the harbor inn last night."

Erik looked down at the baby, then toward the road where the van had disappeared.

For the first time, the danger was no longer abstract.

It had a name.

And it was close.