by Harper Lin
Amelia didn’t want to say it. Not in front of Officer Connor or the paramedics. She barely wanted to tell Dan, but she had to. The look on Dan’s face was graver than she’d ever seen, telling her that he already knew what she was going to say.
“Dan.” She gulped and folded her arms across her chest. Tears filled her eyes. “They were Lars’s shoes.”
Dan blinked and took a deep breath. He rubbed his head and shook off the paramedic, who was just finishing taping gauze over his wound. His jacket sleeve hung open raggedly. He took a few steps ahead and pointed.
“Get in the car. I’ll take you home,” he muttered.
Amelia felt her heart sink. He was mad at her. She should have waited. She shouldn’t have mentioned Lars’s name in mixed company. What was she thinking? This was a delicate matter, and she knew that, but she blabbed like a horse auctioneer, letting everyone know that she saw Lars’s shoes. How many people were named Lars around here? Who else would wear those awful things? They were hideous green and brown designs. Why would he wear them? He was a cop who should have known they were distinct enough to be identified. Unless he was confident there wouldn’t be anyone alive to point them out. The thought made her shiver.
“Home?” she whispered. “But, Dan, he could be packing his bags right now, getting ready to head to Canada.”
Just then Dan’s cell phone went off.
“Walishovsky,” he grumbled. “Yeah. Yeah. Did you check the I-Pass? Good. I’ve got a hunch.”
As soon as he hung up, he grabbed Officer Connor and began rattling off instructions Amelia barely understood.
“Consider him armed and dangerous,” she heard Dan say. He said it like he was ordering an iced tea. Her heart started pounding, and when he looked at her, he gave her that smirk. Now? How could he smile at a time like this? What was going on in his head? “Get in the car, and when I say stay down, you stay down.”
She nodded obediently and hopped in the passenger’s seat, slamming the door shut and quickly fastening her seat belt. Within seconds, Dan and two squad cars began speeding down the expressway. Amelia thought they should be heading to Lars’s home. Wasn’t that where he’d go? Wouldn’t he want to set up an alibi with his wife? Or perhaps she didn’t know he even went out.
Amelia’s mind raced with possibilities. But as they hurried away from Portland to a small stretch of nothing but trees and hills, she lost hope of trying to read Dan’s mind. He had a plan, and she was literally just along for the ride.
Chapter Seventeen
As the miles quickly passed, and fewer and fewer cars appeared on the road, Amelia wondered if coming along was really a good idea. Dan was barking orders over the police radio back and forth between himself and the other squad cars, but just before the lights of an oasis appeared around the bend, they went completely silent, and all lights went off.
“Now, get down on the floor, Amelia, and no matter what happens or what you hear, do not look up or get out of the car. Do you understand?” He looked at her with a face chiseled from stone. Amelia nodded, slipped out of her seatbelt, and got as comfortable as possible down on the floor.
The car rolled onto some gravel, but they were not in front of the motel or gas station. They’d pulled off the road. Dan withdrew his gun from his shoulder holster and checked to make sure it was loaded. The sight of him with his weapon excited and terrified her.
“Remember. Stay on the floor.” Those were the last words he said before he got out of the car. He didn’t shut the door all the way, probably in an effort not to make any noise. And he didn’t. Neither did the other officers as they crept up to the motel. But just when Amelia thought this takedown would be quiet and peaceful, she heard the pounding on the motel door. This wouldn’t be peaceful at all.
“Lars! Open up!” Dan shouted. “Look, it’s over, Lars. We know what’s happened. What you’ve done. It’s going to be okay. Just open the door.”
Amelia heard mumbling, but she couldn’t make out a single word. All she could tell was that Lars was not happy. Not happy at all. And then her heart stopped.
Gunshots!
Amelia held her breath. She heard shouting and running. The words “officer down” cut through everything. They echoed in her head as she imagined Dan on the ground, a pool of blood spreading out behind him. She wanted to run to him but couldn’t. She promised. She promised to stay out of the way and not give him anything else to worry about. She was going to do that. As hard as it was, she stayed put, crying and desperately trying to hear something, anything that would let her know Dan was okay. She couldn’t tell one voice from another. Everyone sounded the same. She looked up through the windshield and could see only the tops of the trees in front of a black sky.
“We’re going in!”
“No back exit!”
“Clear on north and south sides!”
There was another gunshot and then another. For all the shouting, Amelia only heard three gunshots total. But that first one kept ringing in her ears. It was followed by “officer down.”
She wiped her eyes and listened. Someone kicked the house’s door open just as another shot rang out. The sound of an ambulance quickly approaching made Amelia’s heart pound. Could she get out of the car now that they were there? Did she even want to?
The smell of the pines and cool air mingled with the smell of Dan’s old sedan. His cologne hung there softly, but Amelia was keenly aware of it now.
What was she going to tell Meg and Adam? How would she ever explain that she didn’t get out of the car to go help him? How could she ever make this up to them, her babies? They loved Dan as much as she did. And he loved them. He loved them more than their own father did.
Amelia wiped the tears from her eyes. Her cheeks were saturated. Her head pounded, and she could do nothing but bury her face in her hands and sob. The salty taste of tears slipped over her lips.
Time seemed to stand still but race forward. The ambulance pulled up to the motel without hesitating. She heard the EMTs jump into action, shouting orders and dragging out their stretcher, its metallic legs snapping into place against the ground.
“There’s another one in there,” Amelia heard someone say. “Gunshot wound to the head.”
Amelia swallowed. It was all over. Wasn’t it? Could she get up now? Did she want to see it? Was she capable of seeing Dan hurt, dying, dead? She cried as she started to creep up from her crouched position and nearly screamed when the driver’s-side door was pulled open.
Dan stood there, his sleeve even redder from bleeding.
“Dan!” Amelia cried as she scrambled up and out of the seat. She wrapped her arms tightly around Dan’s neck. He pulled her to him more tightly than she’d ever felt before. “I heard them say officer down!” she choked into his shoulder.
“I’m sorry. It’s Connor. Lars shot through the door,” Dan said.
“Oh no. Do you need to go to the hospital with him?” she asked but didn’t loosen her grip.
“No. They’ll take good care of him,” Dan said.
“Dan, I wanted to get out of the car. I was afraid it was you. I’m sorry for Connor, but I was afraid it was you. What would I do without you, Dan? What would the kids do without you?”
Finally, she broke down and wept into Dan’s broad chest. They stood there, underneath the dark pines as a gentle breeze blew, and clung to each other. Dan whispered in Amelia’s ear, soothing her, telling her it was all okay and that the bad guy was caught. They were safe. Nothing would hurt them. They were safe.
Dan drove Amelia home but then had to go immediately to the hospital himself. When she stepped into the house, it was dark and quiet. Amelia went upstairs and checked on Meg.
As she stepped into her daughter’s room, she smelled the sweet lilac talc and deodorant her daughter wore. In the faint light of her daughter’s pink daisy nightlight, she saw clothes piled on the floor and her schoolbooks on the side of the bed. Meg’s dark brown hair spilled across her pillow. When Amelia bent dow
n to pick up a pair of gym shoes and set them out of the way, Meg opened her eyes.
“Mom?”
“Hi, honey. Go back to sleep. It’s late.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.” Amelia smiled and took hold of the comforter, pulling it up to her daughter’s chin. “Go back to sleep.”
“I was afraid Dan changed his mind,” Meg muttered as she turned over onto her side. “After all the plans we made.”
Amelia didn’t know what Meg was talking about and chalked it up to a dream. Meg was forever telling her about the weird dreams she was having. She probably caught her daughter in the middle of one. Without hesitating, she kissed Meg on the forehead and left, closing the door behind her.
After going into the basement and finding Adam in the same dreamy state as his sister, Amelia felt that everything was back to normal. At least as normal as it could be for her family. She poured herself a glass of wine, went back upstairs to her room, and turned on the television. With the volume down to a murmur, she watched as James Cagney arrived at his mother’s house in the classic Public Enemy. She’d missed the part where he smashed the grapefruit in his girlfriend’s face. That scene was considered so violent for its time the critics went nuts.
She sipped her wine and wondered if Lars Hegan ever thought he’d end up like James Cagney’s character. Probably not.
Chapter Eighteen
It was all over the news for the following couple of days that the dirty cop, Lars Hegan, was responsible for the string of killings in the town’s red light district. The names of his victims were not released, since so many were underage. Instead, they were referred to by their career title, prostitutes.
Amelia knew their names didn’t matter to the press. The newscasters would harp on the sensationalism of a bad cop. Anything they could find to make the police look bad. Not that Officer Connor had almost lost his life trying to apprehend the S.O.B. Not that Dan had given up so many hours of his life to track this monster down because he didn’t see the victims as prostitutes. He saw them as girls. Each one was someone’s daughter.
Lars was in stable condition at the hospital after he botched his own suicide. According to Dan, Lars wasn’t really interested in killing himself. He was interested in setting up an insanity plea. The problem was that he was not only tied to the string of murders but also responsible for the fires that had been breaking out all over town. When Amelia heard that, she almost screamed.
“That was where I’d seen that guy before!” she yelled at the television. When Lars had come to the truck with Dan and then left putting on that baseball hat, she was sure she’d seen him somewhere before. He was at the burnt-out warehouse. He’d been talking with Pete, and she remembered Pete not looking happy. Now she knew why. According to the news, Lars had been shaking down local businesses.
“If only he’d used his powers for good,” Amelia said, shaking her head. As she looked at the clock, she saw she needed to get to work. Meg had stayed over at Katherine’s house to work on a science project they were doing together. Adam was already gone, having left to meet with Amy and get breakfast at McDonald’s before school. It was the new thing to do. Somehow, meeting for a McMuffin and large Coke before class made the kids feel grown up.
With her nerves finally back in check, Amelia was happy to go to work. The normal feeling of running her business and talking with Lila and Beatrice and the customers kept her grounded.
Plus, Lila had the new ad for help to run the second truck written and ready for approval.
“I can’t promise we’ll get a diamond like Beatrice,” Lila said when she handed the sheet over to Amelia. “But if we take our time and sift through the riff-raff, we might get lucky.”
“Okay, well, that’s the best we can do,” Amelia said. “Go ahead and run with it. We’ll see what happens. I’ve still got to get the truck painted and the logo put on. I’ve already ordered two times the bags and boxes and napkins and all that stuff. I’m getting a pretty good deal since I’m ordering so much more.”
“Well, we have an interview today,” Lila said, wincing as she told Amelia.
“How can that be if you haven’t placed the ad? Lila, what did you do?”
“Look, when an opportunity presents itself, we’d be stupid not to jump at it, right?”
“Maybe. It depends on if that opportunity is at the bottom of a cliff or on good solid ground.” Amelia shook her head and smiled.
“Of course it’s on good solid ground. Very solid. You’ve seen this kind of solid.” Lila nodded and folded her hands like an angel. “In fact, here it comes now.” She nodded again, this time toward the service window.
Like Hercules walking through a crowd of mortals, Robert Jayne approached the truck.
“He can’t work in my truck. He can’t even fit in it,” Amelia whispered.
“Not him. The guy next to him.”
A smaller version of Robert walked beside him. This man was muscular, with a square jaw and black hair cut close to the scalp. Every single woman in the vicinity looked at the duo as they approached the truck.
As soon as Robert saw Lila, his face lit up.
She cleared her throat, adjusted her hot pink T-shirt, and exited the truck to greet her friend properly.
“Hi, Lila,” Robert said, gently engulfing her in his strong arms. “I can’t thank you enough for this opportunity.”
“Hi, Robert. Well, I’m not the boss. Amelia is. She makes all the hiring decisions. So, this is your nephew, Henry?”
“Hello, ma’am. You can call me Hank. Everyone does.”
“You can call me Lila. And that lady up there is Ms. Harley,” Lila said, pointing to the open service window. Amelia waved. “She owns this establishment. Why don’t you and I go for a walk and talk a bit.”
Lila led him toward an empty set of picnic tables.
“How are you, Amelia?” Robert asked pleasantly as he leaned against the truck with his arms folded across his chest, making his biceps bulge even more.
“I’m doing well, Robert. This is my chief baker, Beatrice. Beatrice, this is Robert Jayne.”
Beatrice finally looked up from her batter to stutter and stammer a hello before blushing wildly and quickly turning her back.
Amelia winked at Robert. “She’s the best baker in the state, if not the entire coast. She’ll be the final say in who gets hired as the baker for the other truck.”
“Well, I don’t know what’s baking back there, but count me in. I’ll take one of whatever’s hottest.”
Amelia giggled, shook her head, and asked Beatrice for a carrot and ginger cupcake with vanilla frosting. Robert returned Amelia’s wink as she handed him the dessert.
“On the house, Robert.”
“Much obliged, honey.”
Just before Amelia could help Beatrice with her nerves, she saw something even prettier than Robert Payne. From around the bend of some bushes and trees appeared Dan’s familiar stoic face. But Dan was flanked by two even more beautiful faces, Meg and Adam.
“What in the world are they doing out of school?” Amelia said to Robert. He looked over to where she pointed.
“Looks like they are coming to see Mom,” Robert said, devouring the cupcake in two bites. Then he did something Amelia didn’t expect. He waved. “Hey, Dan. You must be Meg, and you’re Adam.”
Robert walked up and shook the kids’ hands before clapping Dan on the shoulder and disappearing in the direction Lila had gone.
“What’s going on?” Amelia asked, unsure whether she should be mad or happy.
“We got expelled,” Adam joked.
“The school burnt down,” Meg joined in, giggling.
“Don’t pay any attention to them,” Dan said, looking up at Amelia.
“Dan, what in the world is going on?”
“Well, we’ve got an issue,” Dan said.
“Obviously,” Amelia said. She looked at Meg, who grinned from ear to ear and bounced on her toes. Adam, who was usuall
y distracted by his own thoughts, was also grinning. Two grinning teenagers? Something was going on.
But before she could find out what it was, Amelia was startled by a man calling her name from the back entrance of the truck.
“Amelia! I need to talk to you.”
“John? What the heck are you doing here and why are you on my truck?” Amelia spat as she whirled around to face her ex-husband.
“What are the kids doing here? They should be in school,” he growled.
“What are you doing here? You are supposed to be at work,” Amelia snapped back.
He shoved some papers in her face. “Here, the contract I told you I was going to draw up. I’m sure you’ve had some time to think about it and come to your senses. You know you need a partner if the business is expanding. You don’t need some cop telling you what to do.”
Amelia’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “What did you just say?”
“Come on. Sign these, and we can get started really making some money.”
“Get off my truck, John. Right now!” Amelia shouted. She was furious and embarrassed all at once. She looked out the service window and saw Robert talking with Dan. The kids were there. Oh no. If they had to make a scene in front of the kids, that was too much.
Amelia tried to figure out a way to defuse the situation, but nothing came to mind. She couldn’t think of anything except to lead John away.
“John!” Robert called out, smiling happily. “Name’s Robert Jayne.”
Amelia watched him walk up to the back of the truck and extend his hand to John. Apparently caught off guard by the incredibly perfect mountain of muscle and good looks, even John was struck dumb momentarily and took Robert’s hand. With a yank, he pulled John off the truck. “Woops. Watch yourself. That first step is a lulu. John, you’re interrupting something. Why don’t you and I go for a quick walk?”
“Get your hand off me.” John tried to intimidate Robert, but Robert never lost the grin on his face. “Do you have any idea who I am?”
