by Alison Stone
Instinctively, she backed up while clutching her things. Zach lifted his hands and seemed to be trying to tell her something with his keen gaze.
Her boss pushed the door closed with his foot. “Why did you have to do this?”
Bridget’s gaze moved from Dr. Ryan to Zach and back. Zach shook his head slightly. Taking his cue, she stayed quiet.
“Dr. Ryan, it’s over,” Zach said.
The physician scoffed. “For who? I’m the one holding the gun.”
“Killing isn’t in your nature. You’re a healer.”
Her boss seemed to blanch.
Zach held out his palm. “Hand me your weapon. This ends here.”
The physician seemed to consider this for a moment before shaking his head. He glared at Bridget. She had never seen him this angry. He always had a wonderful bedside manner, and only once had she heard him get upset with one of his employees. The nighttime janitor had accidentally left the alley door unlocked. Anything could have been stolen. Yet the doctor himself had been the biggest threat to the clinic.
“It should never have gone this far,” the physician said ruefully. “Why didn’t you mind your own business?” Dr. Ryan scrubbed a hand over his face and shuddered. “You and Ashley should have minded your own business.”
“Ashley...” The single word slipped out of Bridget’s lips. Her mouth felt dry. “You killed Ashley.”
“Bridget...” Zach warned.
Something flashed in the doctor’s eyes. “I didn’t mean... She wouldn’t listen.”
“You don’t want this to go any further,” Zach said, his voice calm yet authoritative.
Bridget’s boss turned, and in one swift motion, Zach disarmed him and had the man’s face pressed against the wall.
Bridget slid down the wall to the floor, sagging with relief and finally letting the tears fall.
* * *
“You okay?” Zach asked, pressing his knee into Seth Ryan’s back and yanking his arm up in the most uncomfortable position.
Bridget nodded and set her things on the floor next to her. She swiped at a tear running down her cheek.
“Any chance you have a zip tie in that kitchen of yours?”
“Yeah.” Bridget got to her feet and ran to the kitchen. He could hear her opening and closing drawers until she returned with a black zip tie. “This?”
“Perfect.” He took the plastic zip tie and wrapped it around the doctor’s wrists and cranked it tight. The doctor grunted. The fasteners should hold, because the doctor didn’t have much fight left in him. Zach grabbed the doctor’s arm and dragged him a few feet, letting him sit with his back against the wall. “Who’s down in Philly?” The DEA had tracked his credit card to a hotel down there.
Seth’s eyes narrowed, and he shook his head. It seemed the doctor wasn’t going to talk. Instead, he bowed his head and sobbed, loudly and with little dignity.
Zach joined Bridget, who was sitting on the edge of the couch shaking. She looked up at him, and he reached out and took her hand.
“Is it over?”
He wanted more than anything to say yes, but he knew that wasn’t true. In his experience, each of these guys was just a cog in the wheel. “Hang tight. I’m going to call this in.”
She exhaled a long, shaky breath. “Okay.”
It didn’t take long for a Buffalo police officer to come pick up Seth Ryan, then Zach turned to Bridget. “Let me get you home.”
“Home?” she asked when they were alone again. She straightened the footstool that had been jostled in the skirmish.
“Not here. You need to go back to Hickory Lane until we finish our investigation. It shouldn’t be long.” He wasn’t sure if the last bit was a white lie or not. Either way, he needed to reassure her.
“Are you going to drop me off and leave? I overheard you talking to your supervisor.”
The protest died on his lips. Bridget shrugged, seeming so frail and thin. “I get it.” She sniffed. “With Dr. Ryan in custody, the case should be over soon, right? Besides, you have better things to do than babysit me.”
Inwardly he winced at her choice of words. The same ones his supervisor had used in the office. They lacked respect. “Come on.” He held out his hand, and she accepted it, coming to her feet. How could he explain to her that these cases were never cut-and-dried? “We don’t know who else is in involved, but this is a huge start. Huge. Okay?”
“Okay...”
“I want you to go back to Hickory Lane for a few more days, at least.”
“Alone, right?” Her dejected tone suggested she already knew the answer.
“I’ll make sure you get settled.”
Bridget hoisted her backpack on her shoulder and picked up the items she had set on the floor. “Let’s go.”
Shortly after they got into the truck, his cell phone rang. His mother’s name flashed on the caller ID on his dash. He hit Ignore. A moment later, it rang again.
“Go ahead and answer it,” Bridget said.
His thumb hovered over Ignore before curiosity got the best of him. “Hello.” He hadn’t taken a call from his mother in over two years. The last time she’d been slurring her words and berated him. He hadn’t stayed on the phone long enough to find out why she had been all bent out of shape.
“Zachary, it’s your mother.” Her voice cracked over the line, filling the inside of the cab. She sounded tired but clear. Sober. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“How can I help you?” Realizing how formal he sounded, he was acutely aware of Bridget’s presence.
Her mother sniffed. “I heard about Ashley. Poor, sweet girl...” She went quiet before finding her voice again. “I saw her not that long ago. I gave her your business card. Did she call you?”
Zach rested his elbow on the door and rubbed his forehead. “She called me.” He cleared his throat. “Did you read about her death in the paper?”
“You know I don’t get the newspaper.”
Actually, he didn’t know. He had moved out of his mother’s house when he was eighteen for college. From there, he’d enlisted. He’d avoided his childhood at all costs, including his baby sister.
“Ashley’s parents told me. They said she was murdered.” His mother emphasized the word murdered as if it were offensive solely to her. “Her poor mother. I did what I could to comfort her, you know, one mother to another who lost a child. Only another mother could understand that.”
Growing anger bubbled in his gut. His mother loved the martyr card. What she failed to acknowledge was that she’d been too strung out to recognize the same symptoms in her own daughter. He gritted his teeth to avoid saying something he’d later regret. “Is there anything else? I have work to do.”
“Always work...”
He checked the traffic before turning right. “Well, there’s a lot of drugs out there.” He couldn’t help the dig.
“If you took the time to visit me, you’d know I’ve changed,” his mother said, her voice growing soft.
Not soon enough. Bridget stared out the passenger window. “I have to go. Please express my condolences to the Meadows family.”
“Goodbye, Zachary.” His mother’s tone was resigned. “It’s obvious that you don’t have time for me.”
Zach ended the call. Silence hung thick and heavy in the air.
Bridget shifted in her seat. “You’re estranged from your family, too.”
He hitched a shoulder. “My mother always chose drugs over us.”
“Now you’re doing the same.” Bridget sounded faraway.
“I’m on the right side of the law.” A hard edge sharpened his words. Zach turned on his directional and took the on-ramp to the Thruway.
“How do you suppose Dr. Ryan found us so quickly?” Bridget’s abrupt change in conversation caught Zach off guard. He checked the re
arview mirror. He had been careful to take a circuitous route before he got on the Thruway, and he planned to get off an exit or two after the one to Hickory Lane and then double back. He couldn’t be too careful.
“They’ll look into that. My guess, someone close by was watching the apartment.” He cleared his throat. “That’s why I was reluctant to take you there.” He sensed Bridget was about to apologize, so he held up his hand. “In the end, going back there was a great way to flush him out. Ideally, I would have had an agent go in with me, not a civilian. Thankfully it all worked out. Now we have him in custody.”
“Why do you think he did it?” Bridget asked. “I thought he was a good man.”
“I’m sure we’ll find out now that he’s in custody.”
Bridget let out a long breath. “How long will it take before I can come back to Buffalo for good?”
“Analysts are going through the records and the videos of people coming and going from the clinic. The Buffalo Police Department is investigating Ashley’s death. With more than one crime scene, the pieces will come together. Quickly.” Zach reached out to pat her on the knee, then thought better of it. “And now they have the doctor in custody. It shouldn’t be long.”
The protective shield he had built around his heart was crumbling. His heart ached for Bridget. The pain on her face made it evident that his confident reassurances meant little to her.
His mind flashed to the good doctor sobbing in the apartment. The compassion that he might have felt for a life ruined was replaced by hot anger at the lives destroyed in greed’s wake.
ELEVEN
Bridget’s twelve-year-old brother, Caleb, came charging across the field backlit by bold streaks of orange and purple in a glorious evening sky. If Bridget were to list the things she missed about Hickory Lane, the sunset would be near the top, somewhere after her family and the gentle quiet. She really missed the quiet.
Her little brother pulled up short, apparently embarrassed by his enthusiasm. “You came back,” he said with an air of disbelief.
Bridget’s heart broke for her sweet little brother. He had been only seven when she left Hickory Lane to become a nurse. They had been especially close. She’d read to him, helped him sound out words, determined to make him a strong reader. Her parents shrugged off his struggles. It was her own quiet rebellion. Little did her family know that soon she’d be committing the ultimate rebellion by leaving.
Bridget planted her hand on Caleb’s shoulder, not wanting to embarrass him by a full-on hug. The Amish weren’t much for displays of emotion. “I’m back.” She left out the words for now. She had no stomach for conflict or making others feel bad. That’s probably why she had initially been reluctant to report her suspicions about the clinic. Even now, thinking about Dr. Ryan being led out by the police made her heart break for his family. How had a man gone so wrong?
Bridget made a show of swatting at a mosquito. “Let’s get moving before I get eaten alive.” The three of them continued to traipse across the field. Bridget had her backpack hoisted up on her shoulder. It must have made an odd sight with her plain clothes. Zach hadn’t bothered to change because he was leaving. This definitive announcement was like a sucker punch to the gut.
Seemingly satisfied that his sister hadn’t left him for good, Caleb ran ahead to the house. He picked up a volleyball on the way and tossed it up in the air and caught it. When Bridget reached the house, she turned to Zach. There was so much she wanted to say—Would she see him again? Would he let her know when it was safe to come home? Was he going to reach out to his mom?—but all she could muster was, “Thank you for taking me to my apartment to get my things.”
“And we smoked out the good doctor.” A smile tilted the corners of his mouth. She was going to miss that handsome face.
“Kinda like he initially smoked me out?” She pressed her lips together. “I still can’t believe he was involved with all this. He was such a good man.” Bridget held her crossed arms close.
“People make bad choices.” He tilted his head to look into her eyes. “You made the right one. Don’t ever doubt that.”
Bridget nodded, slowly. Still not entirely convinced. “I’m going to miss the entire semester, aren’t I?” Pinpricks of anxiety reached every corner of her scalp. Despite having her laptop and her books, if she couldn’t return to campus, she’d inevitably fall behind. She blinked rapidly, then consciously tried to slow down her thoughts, her breath. This was only meant to be temporary.
Zach placed his hand on hers, stilling her fluttering motions. “I won’t leave you here longer than necessary. I’ll call when it’s safe. I’ll send someone to get you.”
Disappointment crushed her heart. He’ll send someone? Of course he’d send someone. She had no right to expect it to be him. He worked in a big office with lots of people. Forcing a smile to hide the hurt, she settled on a simple “Thank you.”
Zach leaned closer; a soft smile played on his lips. He smelled of aloe and mint. Her face grew flushed, and he pulled his head back a fraction. “Would you mind if I kissed you?”
Her mind went blank. All she could do was give her head a slight nod in the affirmative.
He reached out and cupped her cheek, his hand both strong and gentle. He leaned in again, and this time she closed her eyes. His warm lips brushed ever so softly across hers. Tingles of awareness rushed through her body. Slowly, she opened her eyes. He had a sad smile on his face.
“I’m going to miss you.”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe if circumstances had been different...” He searched her face.
“Yeah.” Say something more.
“You’re going to make a great nurse. Don’t ever give up on that dream.”
“I won’t.” Her heart beat wildly, drowning out her soft voice.
“Well...” Zach took a step backward. “I’m going to grab something I left at your grandfather’s. Then I’m driving home. I’ll be in touch.”
“Okay, sure.” She waved, feeling self-conscious. “’Night,” she said, more enthusiastically than she felt. Afraid her emotions were going to get the best of her, Bridget slipped into the house and went right upstairs.
She was surprised to find Liddie fumbling with something in the closet. She seemed startled when Bridget called her name. Her younger sister spun around. “Did anyone ever tell you not to sneak up on someone?” She laughed nervously. Then her shoulders slowly slid down from her ears. “You’re home.”
“I am.” Bridget plopped her backpack on the bed, tempted to gush about what had just happened. A bigger part of her wanted to keep it to herself. A cherished memory.
“How’d it go?”
“Fine.” She wasn’t ready to tell her sister everything. Talk of the doctor’s arrest would obliterate the warm and fuzzies she was still enjoying from her last interaction with Zach. “I had to make an official report before we went to my apartment.” She sounded normal, right? No sign that a handsome man had sent her pulse into overdrive with the most innocent of kisses. She rubbed the back of her neck and smiled to herself.
“Glad you had a good trip, even without me,” Liddie said, sounding like a petulant child.
“It was a quick visit.” Bridget unzipped her backpack and pulled out her computer.
“Wait.” Liddie narrowed her gaze. “Why do you have that funny smile?”
Bridget quickly schooled her expression and shrugged. She patted her laptop, eager to change the subject. “I need this for school. I should probably tuck it away so Dat doesn’t get mad?”
Liddie held up a finger and spun around and opened the wardrobe. She unfolded the top layer of a blanket on the bottom shelf. “Tuck it in here.” Liddie unfolded another blanket, revealing her cell phone.
Bridget met her sister’s excited gaze with concern. “How long are you going to keep this phone?”
Liddie smirke
d. “I don’t think you should be telling me what I can or cannot do.”
“You’re right.” Bridget couldn’t be a hypocrite. Hopefully, Liddie would find her way through Rumspringa and emerge on the other side, the adult she was meant to be. Funny, Bridget was still struggling with finding her place.
Did it include Zach? No, not possible. His life was undercover work. Her sole focus was school and beyond that, a career in nursing.
Bridget placed her laptop on the blanket in Liddie’s arms. Her sister folded the material over the top and then tucked the package in the bottom of their wardrobe. “I suppose we’ll have to find another hiding place once it gets cold and we need the blanket.” She shrugged. “Works for now.”
How long did her sister think she was staying? A hint of nostalgia burned the back of her nose. Bridget was already missing these days. Missing this day in particular. She cleared her throat and decided for however many days she had left in Hickory Lane, she’d try to stay present.
Liddie flopped down on her bed and crossed her legs at the ankles, and twirled her bare feet. They were black on the bottom. “Did you figure out how you are going to charge your laptop?”
Bridget laughed. “I’m hoping I’ll be back in Buffalo before classes start, but if I’m not, I’ll have to go into town and use the Wi-Fi and electricity at the coffee shop.”
“Wait till the tourists get a photo of you in your bonnet on your laptop.” Liddie stared at her with an amused expression. She shook her head, as if dismissing the idea. “Grandfather has a generator. I’m sure he’d let you charge your laptop.”
“Good to know. Thanks.” Bridget sat down on the opposite twin bed, the one she had slept in as a child. The one where she’d lain wide-awake planning her uncertain future and then secretly crying with self-doubt and indecision.
“One day at a time.” Bridget threw out the cliché to hide her frustration that she hadn’t had time to think any of this through. Maybe she should chase down Zach and beg him to take her back to Buffalo, because the unknown certainty she faced in Buffalo seemed less scary than the familiar side-eye and cool glares she’d face here.
