113.Hornet's Nest

In Barnacle Bay, Sandra was having a hard time sticking to her husband’s orders, mainly because the woman she was supposed to keep an eye on was rude and unfriendly.

She’d visited their tenant a few times, once to drop off homemade cookies and run some errands for her and the other times just to say hello, and each time the reception from the blond had been cold.

Keeping Tamsyn to herself was getting increasingly difficult too. Her neighbors were curious about the new tenant and the constant baby cries coming from the cabin and she had had to persuade the welcome wagon not to descend on Tamsyn by coming up with some silly story; she’d told everyone the baby was sick and whatever he had was highly contagious. The possibility of contracting some unknown disease had kept everyone at bay, for now, but Sandra knew sooner or later, her luck would run out.

As she stood outside the cabin, wondering if she should go in, the thought of calling the police and end all this madness once and for all crossed her mind. But then she remembered John’s warning, the less people who knew about the sick lady and the stolen baby, the better their chances of getting that reward.

Thinking about John, she wondered where he was, she hoped he was already on his way back. He’d only called her once when he arrived in Bridgeport, and that was three days ago. She was beginning to worry about him. He wasn’t used to the big city. Heck, he’d never traveled outside of Barnacle Bay. She hoped he was okay.

The door opened suddenly. Tamsyn Smith came out and scowled down at her, the trash bag in her hand dangled at her side.

For a scary second Sandra was afraid of what might be in the bag. The baby was nowhere in sight, and his constant screaming had stopped, something she hadn’t noticed until her eyes fell on the black bin bag.

“Can I help you?” Tamsyn asked, raising her voice just a little.

Sandra made her way up the rickety steps, hiding her fear and worry with a fake smile.

“No, I just came to see if you needed anything, some general maintenance around the house?” Sandra replied brightly.

Tamsyn shook her head. “Everything’s fine. Thanks. And if I need anything I’ll call your husband.” With that she turned back to the house,  but Sandra quickly stopped her. She couldn’t go away without knowing what was in the black bag. 

“How’s the little one today?” She asked softly. 

“He’s fine. Taking a nap. I should go check on him,” Tamsyn replied icily, tapping her foot impatiently, the floorboards groaned under her weight.

“Doing some spring cleaning?” Sandra nodded at the bin bag Tamsyn had dumped on the porch.

“Yeah, I thought the house needed a little sprucing up. If you don’t mind, I’d like to head back inside now,” Tamsyn mumbled, her cold blue eyes appraising her.

“I’ll be on my way then. It was nice seeing you. And I’ll take this for you,” Sandra breathed a huge sigh of relief when she heard bottles and cans clinked against each other as she grabbed the bin bag.

“No that’s okay, don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of it,” Tamsyn tried to stop her, but it was too late, Sandra had already started down the path. She ignored her tenant's frantic cries and the newspaper girl’s enthusiastic, “Morning Mrs. Miles.

She was so relieved it wasn’t the baby inside the bin bag she didn’t notice she’d passed Tamsyn’s garbage can. And it wasn’t until she was standing in the middle of her kitchen that she realized she still had the plastic bag in her hand. She dumped it on the table, and the sound of the bottles hitting the wood surface made her curious.

She opened the bag and looked through the garbage. It was mostly baby things, some food items and… 

“Fucking hell,” Sandra cried softly as she stared at the bottles of cough mixture, there was easily two or three.

 It all made sense why the baby had grown quiet suddenly. That sick woman was drugging him.

 She had to let someone know, alert the authorities. The baby was in more danger than she and John had initially thought. Forget the reward money…