"I can't just stand here," Goldie declared, handing Jemma to Jeff. "I'm going to go look, one more pair of eyes can't hurt."

But before she could, Janet put a calming hand on her arm. "You have to trust me, miss, if there's any news, it will come straight here, to me, first. You wandering round the store will do no good, and possibly get in the way the others. Please."

"Mm? Godie?" Jemma leaned toward Goldie, evidently preferring to be held by her nanny than her father at that moment.

Goldie's gaze softened as she looked at the toddler, and held her arms out, taking Jemma once more.

"Moreland? Come to the gents', please?" In the absolute silence in the store, they could hear the voice crackling over a walkie talkie of some sort. It was one of the policemen.

Both Goldie and Jeff turned to head for the men's restroom, but Janet shook her head once more.

"On my way, Bennet," they heard the reply, then the sound of footsteps and a door.

"Oh my god, Jeff," Goldie whispered.

Everyone waited, groups of strangers gathered near the registers, along with others, standing in the aisles, stock-still.

"We've got her," came the first policeman's voice. "On our way out to you now."

"Thank god, thank god," Jeff murmured, shifting Genie in his arms and kissing Goldie on the temple.

Outside, two more police cars had pulled up. One of the employees let them in.

Officer Bennet came around the display of brightly colored cereal, holding a weeping Pippa in his arms. She was clad only in her diaper, and had her fingers in her mouth.

She saw Goldie and Jeff, and took her fingers out so she could call to them.

"Godie? Dada? Dadada?" She twisted away from Officer Bennet, leaning toward them with outstretched arms.

Jeff and Goldie took a few steps toward them, reaching and taking Jemma between the two of them, hugging and kissing her. Around them, everyone was clapping, more than a few people crying as well.

"Jemma nakey," Genie noted from her father's arms. She touched her sister's tummy. "Nakey."

"Officer? Where are her clothes?" Jeff asked, swallowing. "Why isn't she wearing them?"

Goldie turned huge eyes to the policeman.

"Surely—I mean, there was hardly any time—" Jeff stammered. "Officer, was she, um, interfered with?" Jeff felt his world shifting as the words left his mouth.

"We'll have a doctor look her over to confirm, but no, I don't think so," Officer Bennet reassured them. "When tots are taken, the kidnapper frequently alters their appearance, first thing, to try to get them out of the store. We think that was the plan here—we found boys' clothes and a wig among the paraphernalia in the gents'. He also had some chemical and a cloth, so he was probably going to try to drug her a little bit before leaving to quiet her down."

"Oh my god," Goldie said, feeling sick. "How could he do all of this so quickly? I mean, it's barely been fifteen minutes, and you were looking for him within five of them."

Just then the other policeman, Officer Moreland, presumably, came out, walking a tall man in front of him. He looked completely normal, just a button down shirt and jeans. He hung his head, making eye contact with no one.

The crowd made disapproving hissing and clicking sounds, as he was walked by, with a few even calling out, "Shame on you!"

Jeff and Goldie held the three babies tightly.

"All the evidence is still in there, haven't touched a thing," Officer Moreland told one of the late arriving policemen.

He nodded and took off with two of his men.

Jeff sighed, feeling shaky, and Janet suggested they go to her office, where there were chairs.

Jeff, Goldie, the girls, Janet and Officer Bennet went to her office, a small cubicle next to the registers. There were chairs for Jeff and Goldie, which they sank into gratefully. The girls, seeming to understand that things were different and important, were content to merely stay in their arms, though normally they would've been clamoring to get down and explore their new premises.

Goldie took the yellow cardigan Jemma was wearing and buttoned it onto Pippa, so at least she was wearing something.

Officer Bennet took all of their pertinent information, including where they could be reached.

"Only for the next two weeks, though," Jeff added. "We live in New York, we're here to visit my parents."

"I though you were him," Officer Bennet responded. "You're famous."

"Yes, that's me," Jeff answered with a nod. "Now, what do we do next? Is there going to be a trial that we have to return for, something like that?"

"Probably not. This isn't his first go, we've been looking for this fellow for nearly a year."

"So he didn't want a baby to—to raise?" Goldie said, her voice dreadful. "He definitely wasn't looking for a family?"

"To be honest, Miss, usually babies taken under those circumstances are taken by women," Officer Bennet told her. He looked at her kindly. "I'm sorry to be so grim, but your little one's had a very narrow escape."

Pippa, who was in Goldie's lap, laid her head against Goldie's shoulder. "Pippa tired," she announced in a drowsy voice. "Bankie?"

Goldie grabbed a blanket from the stroller and covered the baby, who nestled familiarly into her nanny's body.

Officer Bennet turned to Jeff. "Anyway, to answer your question, we have a solid case against him in three other instances, I don't think we're going to need your testimony, unless you want to be included in the case."

"You mean he wouldn't be prosecuted for what he did here, today, but only the other three?" Jeff asked carefully.

Three? Those poor parents.

"Yes, that's right. We'd add you to the number, but we have plenty to prosecute him on without you." Officer Bennet looked between Goldie and Jeff. "Course you have to talk to CPS about all this to get the details."

"Crown Prosecution Service," Jeff explained to Goldie, who was slowly patting Pippa's bottom through the blanket to help her go to sleep. "They're the English equivalent of the District Attorney."

Just then, the EMTs arrived, but Jeff declined medical treatment for Pippa, who'd fallen asleep.

"He definitely didn't have time to drug her, correct?" Jeff asked Officer Bennet.

"The bottle hadn't even been opened yet," the policeman assured him.

"Then no, we'd just like to get the girls home, please, if that's okay," Jeff said.

Genie and Jemma were also showing signs of sleepiness, and would need to be put down soon.

"When may we leave?"

"You're free to go," Officer Bennet told them. "We'll be in touch in the next few days, to be sure, but no need to hang around here any longer. Let me find someone to give you a lift home."

"My parents are going to 'flip their shit,' as you like to say, to see us returning home in a patrol car," Jeff predicted to Goldie.

Sure enough, Gordon was sitting in an easy chair in the front facing room and saw the car pull up. He put his book aside and stared as Jeff and Goldie got out of the car with the by now sleeping babies in their arms.

"What in the world?" Pat asked in a distressed voice as she opened the door. "Are you all right? Did something happen to one of the girls?"

"Sh, mum, let us put them down and then we can have tea and explain to you, okay?"

Pat nodded as Gordon went out to collect the stroller.

Goldie and Jeff looked down at the sleeping girls, arms around each other.

Goldie turned into Jeff's chest, giving in to unrestrained tears at last.

"I know, I know, darling, sh," Jeff said as he patted her back, trying to offer comfort. "Nothing happened, we just need to think of that, and not the other, yeah?"

Wordlessly, Goldie nodded into his by now soaked sweater.

"I swear, I can't believe it happened," Jeff continued, his voice stunned. "I was just talking to that fan, I don't think my hand actually left the handles of the stroller, you know?"

Goldie nodded again. Her heart sank at the thought of telling Griffen and the Velasquezes about what had nearly come to pass. Nearly letting your baby get stolen from a supermarket could definitely be construed as negligent.

She wouldn't tell.

Goldie decided this as she and Jeff held each other in front of the girls' crib.

She just wouldn't tell. After all, it had happened on another continent, Pippa was fine, and they wouldn't be needed to testify or to make a case against the nameless monster.

She immediately felt much lighter after having made her decision. It was almost her fault, anyway, depending on how you looked at it. She'd known Jeff was talking to yogurt guy, she shouldn't have moved away down the aisle, right?

Right.

"You going to be okay?" Jeff murmured into her hair. "Hm? You okay to go down and talk to my parents?"

Goldie nodded, sniffing as she pushed herself away from Jeff's chest. "I'm fine," she assured him.

Of course, Pat had tea waiting for them, for which Goldie was grateful. Tea was comforting in a way that coffee just wasn't, she decided.

Pat was in tears by the time Jeff finished telling the story, with Gordon patting her back and saying, "There there, don't take on so, Patricia."

"And everyone's certain that little Pippa is fine?" Pat asked for the third or fourth time. "He didn't do anything to her?"

"For sure, mum," Jeff said, reaching out to take her hand. "She's absolutely fine."

Suddenly, Gordon and Pat's cell phones began going off.

"Odd," Pat said. "For us to both get calls at the same time.

"Hello?" She listened for a moment, then said, "Gordon, turn on the telly, please."

He clicked the remote, and Goldie gasped to see her own, tear streaked face as she left the grocery store holding the sleeping Pippa. Jeff walked next to her, holding Genie and Jemma, his face grim.

"I didn't see anyone filming us, did you?" Goldie asked.

Jeff shook his head. "We were distracted, still talking to the officer, I suppose."

"This was the scene outside a local supermarket today, where English rock singer Jeffrey Ormonde was shopping with his three young daughters and their nanny. One of his daughters was taken by one Aaron Brodsky, someone police have been searching for for well on a year—"

They sat and watched the whole thing, which made Pat cry again, of course. "Oh my dears," she said, turning to Jeff and Goldie. "I can't even imagine—" she couldn't continue.

"Well, I guess it's out there," Jeff said. "I'll have to get my people involved now, put out a statement and that. God, what a bother." He looked at his watch. "Just in time for the morning news in America, too. Wonderful."

Goldie's phone pinged with an incoming text, and her heart sank.

So much for not telling.