Chapter 13 - Deborah Lane
Deborah Lane was Marian’s older half sister.
I had never heard her name.
She had been a registered nurse.
Twenty-two years earlier:
Temporary maternity nurse at St. Catherine’s.
There.
The connection.
Police records confirmed Deborah had been interviewed after Hannah disappeared.
She said she was assisting with maternal transfers during the evacuation.
No one identified her as the woman seen in the stairwell.
She remained employed another six weeks.
Then resigned.
Three years later she died from complications after a car accident.
The letter in Marian’s box was dated five days after Hannah vanished.
It read in part:
I did something I cannot undo by walking back through the door.
Then:
She is safe. She is beautiful. I know what I have done.
My stomach turned.
Deborah described losing a baby girl to stillbirth eleven months earlier.
She had returned to work too early.
During the evacuation she encountered Hannah temporarily separated from Victoria while staff reorganized bassinets.
She carried her toward another unit.
Then toward a stairwell.
Then kept walking.
No elaborate plan.
No forged hospital conspiracy.
A catastrophic act committed in minutes.
She drove to Marian’s apartment.
Marian was horrified.
The letter said:
You told me to take her back. I said they would put me in prison. You said prison was what should happen.
May you like
So why didn’t Marian call police?
That answer was not in the first letter.
