Seeing a new face in the cafe that was an employee intrigued Shark as not many people were willing to work with Phoebe. The older woman that was behind the counter looked somewhat familiar to him and he figured out who she was but just to confirm, he searched online for pictures of the Mayfair family.
'Mrs Rebecca Mayfair! What is she doing here and making coffee at that?' Shark wondered.
His spider senses kicked in and he started to piece together what he could from the information Phoebe had given to him and her questions about the Mayfairs. There was also a DNA test which Claire mentioned Phoebe requesting her to do.
It was possible that the information he was about to give Phoebe was already known seeing that the old woman was already here.
Phoebe had seen Shark when he arrived so she asked Rosette to takeover the client that she had been dealing with. Their business could not be delayed, it needed to be handled immediately.
"Give her these herbs and direct her on how to use them." She gave Rosette the paper on which she had written notes about the client and a possible diagnosis.
She then moved to the counter and greeted Shark, Phoebe went as far as to introduce the detective to her grandmother.
The fact that she introduced as 'my grandmother' pieced everything together like glue for Shark and the fireworks in his mind went off. Who knew that working with Phoebe would bring him so many excellent connections? He would have the backing of the Mayfairs and Saxons if he played his cards right. Who knew what the future held, maybe someday he could be the commissioner of Police.
"I am one of Phoebe's closest friends and protector. In her line of work things can sometimes get dangerous but i am always ready to assist her when she asks." A broad smile formed on his lips.
Now that he knew that Phoebe came from one of the richest families in Fog country, he planned to form a closer relationship between the two of them.
Grandma Mayfair smiled softly as she was more reassured now knowing that her granddaughter had someone so strong and in the police force by her side helping her.
"It's very nice to finally meet you, Phoebe here speaks so highly of you."
The smile on Shark's face grew wider on hearing her words. Phoebe on the other hand rolled her eyes because she had not spoken highly of Shark and grandma Mayfair didn't know how much of a headache the detective could be.
Phoebe didn't invite him to sit down and they stood around the counter. In a hushed voice, Phoebe went straight to the matter that had brought them all together.
"Let's get to it Shark, you told me that you have all the answers as to the truth of what happened over twenty years ago. What we know for sure is that Ruth and I were switched as babies at St. Marcelino children's hospital. What have you found out about the switch? Who the hell is to blame for all this mess? Was it something deliberate or a mistake?"
Grandma Mayfair leaned forward and nodded continuously, she wanted answers and also to make the culprit pay for what they did. If the hospital had a hand in this then it was going to be shut down for failing to do their job properly and the heartache that they caused them.
She tapped one of her fingers against the counter with strength and spoke authoritatively. "Start from who switched the girls, was it the Gabriels?"
The ghosts who had also finished assisting the ghost clients moved closer, this was a conversation everyone was interested in.
Shark sighed deeply and just like the power pleaser he was, he looked at grandma Mayfair rather than Phoebe when he responded to their questions. . "I don't know if Phoebe remembers the nurse that I told her about who was fired for switching babies four years ago at St, Marcelino."
"I do." Phoebe confirmed.
Shark nodded once and shared the rest of the discoveries he had made. "Well that wasn't her first rodeo. Her name is Maria Reilly and she worked with the hospital for forty years. She was one of the best nurses they had and most people had only good things to say about her. However, during her time of service at the hospital she switched one hundred and thirty babies."
"Wait, one hundred thirty babies!!!" Phoebe exclaimed.
Shark nodded and he smiled deeply. "They hid it deeply but i am Shark after all, i know the right people to ask and how to interrogate them. After grilling a drug addicted board member that i caught red handed at Club Play, he came clean and told me everything as long as i let him go.
Apparently after being sued four years ago, the hospital checked records of all the cases that were handled by nurse Maria. During their investigation, they discovered that she had switched babies from time to time just to ensure that no such case would pop up again out of the shadows.
According to him, this was an employee who was so kind, too God fearing and empathetic, she was popularly known as the angel of mercy. The hospital administration didn't expect to find anything as thought the first case was a simple mistake. But they ended up finding more than what they bargained for, one hundred thirty babies.
Maria kept records, they were hidden in her old files which were stored in the basement of the hospital"
"Is she crazy? All those children...my God!" Grandma Mayfair exclaimed.
Shark was expecting this kind of reaction and he knew it would be the reaction of the higher ups when they found out because of all the wealthy families whose wives and daughters had given birth at St. Marcelino.
"How long has the hospital known this?" Phoebe asked him.
"A couple of years now, four at least." he told her.
Grandma Mayfair waved her hand and ended up knocking over an empty cup that was sitting on the counter. Nobody cared about the cup as much the information they had just heard.
"Four years! they have been sitting on this information for years and said nothing. We are going to sue them, no...they should all be in prison. How dare they play games with other people's families?" Grandma Mayfair clenched her hand angrily.
The anger she was expressing was also another reaction Shark had anticipated. There would be a lot of that going around when they started contacting the families.
"Fear of repercussions is why the hospital chose to keep quiet about the mess. One hundred thirty babies is too large of a number, its an epidemic. They knew that if this information was released, the hospital would be finished.
As for the nurse, i personally looked for her and found her at a nursing home but unfortunately she has a condition known as dementia. She wasn't in the right state of mind to say what happened."
"Oh hell no! So she's going to get out of it so easily after creating this mess?" Sylvester voiced his disappointment.
And he wasn't the only one, Grandma Mayfair and Phoebe exhaled noisily through pursed lips. This was far from what they were expecting to hear, if the nurse was sick then nothing could be done. They couldn't make her stand trial when she had no memories of the crimes she had committed.
"How will we know why she did what she did to me? Because of her decision, i lived a hard life. Why does she get to forget and i cannot even confront her?" Phoebe raised her voice out of anger.
Grandma Mayfair was just as vexed. "She cannot even be arrested or explain herself. This is unfair to the victims, we deserve answers. We deserve to know why she picked us. Did she have a grudge against us?"