by Lee Hollis
Hayley knew she would be all right.
Sergio raced down the embankment from the road, kicking up dirt in his haste, followed by his two loyal deputies, Donnie and Earl. He grabbed Hayley by the arm to help keep her steady in case she was feeling woozy and might lose her balance, but Hayley felt perfectly fine and just patted Sergio on the hand, indicating she thankfully could walk without assistance.
“What happened?” Sergio asked, his face full of concern.
“The brakes just gave out coming down the hill, and Liddy lost control of the vehicle,” Hayley said, watching as Liddy continued flirting shamelessly with Jay the paramedic as he insisted on her lying down on the gurney that he and his fellow medic had carried down to the scene of the crash.
“We need to get you both to the hospital,” Sergio said.
“That won’t be necessary, Sergio, we’re not hurt,” Hayley argued, as she touched a small cut on her forehead from a piece of broken glass. “We’re just a little banged up, that’s all.”
“Well, I’m not taking any chances. I want a doctor to check you both out,” Sergio said, handing Hayley off to the other paramedic, the one not as dashing and good-looking as Jay, who escorted her up the grassy embankment to the ambulance, where Liddy waited for her in the back.
Hayley barely had a chance to sit down across from Liddy and Jay, who was busy taking her vitals as she grinned from ear to ear and winked at Hayley when the door slammed shut and they were speeding off back toward town, siren wailing.
There was a flurry of activity when they pulled up outside the emergency room and the hospital staff converged upon the ambulance. Hayley felt all of this was an extreme overreaction, since both she and Liddy appeared perfectly fine, but Sergio insisted on making sure that neither of them had suffered a head injury, which might take its deadly toll a few hours later if not quickly identified and diagnosed.
When the back doors to the ambulance were flung open, Hayley offered to walk herself inside, but the nurse was having none of it and insisted she plop down in a wheelchair. Hayley reluctantly complied, and then she was whisked inside, right behind Liddy, who was lying prone on a gurney, smiling up at Jay, clutching his hand. He awkwardly smiled back down at her.
After being thoroughly examined, X-rayed, and questioned by a couple of different doctors on duty, Hayley and Liddy were soon ensconced in a semiprivate room with two beds, where they were told to lie still and rest until the doctors had a chance to study all of the X-rays.
Hayley was impatient and annoyed by the whole situation. She just wanted to go home and have dinner with Bruce. Liddy, on the other hand, was enjoying the drama of it all, reveling in all of the attention.
“What happened to Jay?” Liddy asked, perplexed, looking around, expecting him to show up with a fistful of flowers and a get well card.
“His job was finished once he dropped us off at the hospital,” Hayley patiently explained.
“Well, it would have been nice of him to come by the room to check on me and see how I’m doing.”
Hayley decided not to comment on that.
Suddenly Bruce tore into the room, his face stricken. At the sight of Hayley alive and well, he exhaled a huge sigh of relief. “Thank God you’re okay!”
He raced to Hayley’s bedside and practically threw himself on top of her, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing her tight.
“Bruce . . . I’m fine . . . I just can’t breathe . . .”
Realizing he was smothering her, he released his grip and stood upright. “You wouldn’t believe the rumors swirling around town about you two . . .”
“What rumors?” Liddy asked, sitting up in her bed, intrigued.
“Once the accident came over the police scanner and the town gossips heard your names, they went into overdrive exaggerating the seriousness of the accident.”
“Oh no . . .” Hayley moaned.
“Well, to be fair, it was serious! My Mercedes got wrapped around a telephone pole! It’s completely totaled!” Liddy cried.
“Yes, but the important thing is, we’re fine!” Hayley reminded her. “Just a few cuts and bruises.”
“I know, but I loved that car,” Liddy murmured, frowning.
Bruce hugged Hayley again. “I was so scared when I heard the news. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you.”
Hayley was surprised by the sincerity of his tone. Bruce had such a reputation for sarcasm and deadpan humor, watching him now filled with such raw emotion, his eyes welled up with tears, was quite frankly startling, and yet, it gave Hayley a warm feeling inside.
Bruce really did care for her.
Out of the corner of her eye, Hayley caught Liddy lying in bed across the room, forlornly watching them.
Bruce gently kissed the bandaged cut on Hayley’s forehead.
Liddy grimaced and then turned over in the bed, unable to take it anymore. It was clear she was thinking about Sonny and how it had all gone wrong. And now, in her hour of need, he wasn’t here for her like Bruce was for Hayley.
But then, almost as if on cue, suddenly they heard shouting coming from down the hall.
“Where is she? Where is she?”
Some nurses were trying to speak calmly to the hysterical man, but were drowned out by his bellowing voice. “Where’s Liddy? I need to see her right now!”
Liddy turned back over and bolted upright in bed again. “Is that . . . ?”
Sonny blew into the room, eyes wild, face full of panic. He saw Hayley first and gasped, fearing she had made it through the accident, but Liddy tragically had not.
His eyes finally settled on Liddy in the bed across from Hayley’s. She was busy adjusting her baby blue paper hospital gown to show more cleavage.
Sonny burst into tears. “Liddy!”
He scampered over to the bed and snatched up her hand and placed it over his heart. “They said . . . they said . . .”
He couldn’t get the words out, he was so overcome with emotion.
Tears streamed down his cheeks.
“They said what?” Liddy asked, clenching his hand tightly.
“They said you were in a coma, on life support . . .”
“Who?” Liddy demanded to know.
“Some old biddies at the Shop ’n Save. I stopped in to buy a bottle of wine because it’s been one of those days, and I overheard them talking about the accident . . . and how you had been nearly crushed by a telephone pole . . . and I . . . I . . .”
“I’m fine, Sonny. Just some bruises on my arms and legs and a small cut on my cheek, thankfully not on my good side.”
Liddy gasped as Sonny got down on one knee, clutched both of her hands in his, and whispered, “I’m never letting you out of my sight for as long as I live. Please, sweetheart, I’ve been a fool, taking you for granted like that, not making you my number one priority. That whole dating Lisa episode is in the past, long dead and buried . . . I mean, no disrespect to poor Lisa, who is actually dead . . . But if you give me one more chance, just one, I promise I will never disappoint you again, never, ever, as long as I live!”
He stared lovingly at her, his eyes full of hope, his bottom lip quivering.
Hayley and Bruce watched the scene unfolding across the semiprivate hospital room like they were watching a Nicholas Sparks movie. All that was missing was a box of popcorn that they could share between them.
Liddy, always one to milk a moment, waited just long enough to make Sonny squirm, and then, she dramatically broke into a wide, loving smile. “I’ve always been a sucker for a man who’s not afraid to cry.”
The wedding was back on.
Again.
Hayley crossed her heart and prayed there would be no more hiccups on the way to the altar.
Sometimes prayers are answered.
And sometimes they’re not.
Chapter 24
Pete Lyle wiped the grease off his hands with a sullied gray rag, his droopy eyes settling on Hayley and Sergio, who stood expectantly in his garage
next to the giant pile of crushed metal that was once Liddy’s Mercedes.
“What did you find?” Sergio asked.
“The brake line was cut,” Pete said with a detached drawl, as if the severity of his conclusion was completely lost on him.
“You’re saying someone deliberately sabotaged Liddy’s car? Who would do that?” Hayley blurted out, stupefied.
Pete shrugged. “Beats me. Although if you give me some more time, I could probably come up with a pretty long list.”
There was a bitterness to Pete’s tone, and Hayley wondered why, until it finally dawned on her that he and Liddy had a checkered history. Of course, it went all the way back to high school, when Pete asked Liddy to the prom and she flatly refused the invitation. She had her eye on the quarterback of the football team, Chad Simpson, and Pete, who was rather shy and withdrawn, usually found sitting in the back of the classroom, wasn’t even on her radar. As Hayley recalled, Pete was so crushed by Liddy’s outright rejection, he stayed home on prom night and never forgave her. That was over twenty years ago now. But Pete, as Hayley was learning, really knew how to hold on to a grudge.
“Come on, Pete, Liddy may have her enemies, but I don’t think any of them would be so nasty as to intentionally endanger her life . . . and mine, by the way!” Hayley said.
Pete shrugged again. “You never know, the way she treats people. I can sure see someone having had enough of all her foolishness and cruelty and just snapping.”
He was obviously talking about himself.
Sergio glanced at Hayley, confused, with a look that said, Should I be arresting him right now?
Hayley stepped forward, closer to Pete, who was now staring at the grease-stained rag in his hand. “Pete, I know you had a beef with Liddy back in high school, but that was so long ago . . .”
“She changed the course of my life, Hayley,” Pete said, eyes fixed on the floor. “I was a confident kid, made good grades . . .”
Okay, that one was a stretch. Hayley remembered having Pete in her chemistry class where he was briefly her lab partner, and when he wasn’t skipping school, he could barely tell the difference between a beaker and a test tube.
“Then, when Liddy so callously broke my heart in senior year, without a second thought, and I saw her in the cafeteria laughing about it with all her girlfriends, my life took a sudden turn. I lost my confidence. I felt really bad about myself, and it took its toll on everything in my life . . . I wanted to be a NASCAR driver, but thanks to Liddy and her heartlessness, I didn’t dare pursue it, because I was afraid of further rejection and people laughing at me, so I went to work in my uncle’s garage, and here I am today . . .”
“But you own the garage now,” Sergio offered, trying tactfully to be helpful.
“Big whoop. I’m not living my dream. I’m a two-bit mechanic, divorced from a crazy shrew who takes every penny of profit I make because of a bad alimony deal her fancy lawyer conned me into signing.”
Sonny Lipton had represented Pete’s ex-wife in the divorce settlement, which suddenly made Pete look even more suspicious in Hayley’s mind.
“Pete, you can’t seriously blame Liddy for all that’s happened to you since high school . . .” Hayley said.
Pete spit a glob of saliva out of his mouth and onto the floor and then wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his gray coveralls. “I sure can. She’s like the devil, as far as I’m concerned. Anyone who tries to take her out has my respect, if I’m being honest.”
“You’re being very honest with us, Pete,” Sergio said, a stern look on his face. “Maybe too honest. Have you ever worked on Liddy’s car before today?”
Pete snickered. “Hell, no. I don’t want her business. And if you’re trying to nail me down as the bad guy here, why would I tell you someone cut the brake line if I was the one who did it?”
He had a point.
“Besides, I’ve been out of town the last few days. Me and a couple of buddies flew to Arizona to see Kevin Harvick compete in the TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway.”
Hayley didn’t even pretend to know what he was talking about.
“I just got back this morning when I got your call to have a look at Liddy’s car,” he said. “I can give you the phone numbers of my buddies, if you think I’m lying, who can corroborate my alibi.”
“That would be helpful, Pete, thank you,” Sergio said, all business.
Pete Lyle certainly had a clear motive to see Liddy perish in a fiery crash. He was still wounded from her rejection in high school, and the man she was about to marry screwed him over financially. What better revenge than to seriously injure or even kill the woman Sonny was about to marry? However, if his alibi did check out, then he was in the clear.
Still, Hayley was more driven than ever to find out who was behind this, and if it was in any way connected to Lisa’s poisoning. Because after all, Hayley too had nearly lost her life in that car crash, so in addition to protecting her best friend, she was out to protect herself as well.
“We’ll be in touch, Pete. Don’t leave town for another NASCAR rally until I have a chance to speak to your friends, okay?” Sergio warned.
Pete just shrugged, nonplussed.
Once they were outside, Hayley had her phone to her ear and was calling Liddy.
“Hi, what’s up? Sonny and I are at the florist picking out arrangements,” Liddy cooed, having already forgotten she had just been in a near-fatal car accident. “Oh, honey, aren’t those tulips gorgeous?”
“Yes,” Hayley could hear Sonny obediently agree.
Hayley took a deep breath. “Liddy, pay attention. I have some news . . .”
Chapter 25
“Oh, Gemma, you have outdone yourself! This is absolutely scrumptious,” Liddy cooed as she sampled a piece of cake, freshly baked, while sitting at the table in Hayley’s kitchen.
“I’m so relieved you like it,” Gemma sighed. “I was afraid it would be too dry.”
“Not at all, it’s very moist, and the frosting is perfection!” Liddy said, scooping some up with her small silver dessert fork and popping it into her mouth. “You were so smart putting Gemma in charge, Hayley! She’s so gifted!”
Hayley patiently waited for Liddy to finish eating the cake before she attempted to get their conversation back on track. “Okay, now that the taste test is over, can we get back to discussing the postponement of the wedding?”
“There is absolutely nothing to discuss, Hayley. Sonny and I talked it over, and we have decided to move ahead with the wedding as planned.”
“But somebody intentionally fiddled with the brakes on your car, Liddy! Your life is in danger!” Hayley cried.
“And our beloved Sergio is on the case. In the meantime, I have a gazillion things to get done before the big day,” Liddy said, setting her dessert fork down and standing up from the table. She marched over to Gemma, who was standing by the oven across the kitchen, and planted a big kiss on her right cheek. “Thank you so much, Gemma. Your cake is exactly the type of traditional cake I always dreamed of having for my wedding reception.”
“You’re welcome,” Gemma said, smiling. “I was so nervous. I know this is a big opportunity, so I really didn’t want to blow it. Mom’s been so busy I decided to take matters into my own hands and see what I came up with.”
“Am I the only one who is the least bit concerned about nearly getting killed in a car crash?” Hayley yelled.
“For your information, Hayley, I am very concerned too, but if I dwell on it, then I will scare myself silly and probably never dare leave my house, which is definitely not an option with so much left to do for the wedding,” Liddy argued.
“Gemma, help me out here . . .” Hayley begged.
“I’m just happy she likes my cake,” Gemma said, grinning from ear to ear.
“Of course I do! You actually listened to me about what kind of cake I wanted, unlike stupid, awful ogre Lisa . . . may she rest in peace!”
“But Lisa did listen to you, Liddy,�
�� Hayley sighed. “She finally relented and baked the cake you requested, the angel food cake with buttercream frosting, and then someone poisoned it!”
“So? That’s Lisa’s problem, not mine,” Liddy sniffed, still not getting it.
“Oh . . .” Gemma groaned, finally realizing.
Liddy spun around after stuffing one more forkful of cake in her mouth. “What? What am I missing?”
“I think what Mom’s trying to say is, whoever poisoned the cake may have known Lisa specifically made it for you . . .”
Liddy’s eyes darted back and forth between Hayley and Gemma, slowly comprehending what they were trying to tell her. “Are you saying you believe someone poisoned that cake expecting I would be the one who ate it?”
Hayley threw her hands up in the air, relieved that she was finally getting through to her. “Yes!”
Liddy swallowed the cake in her mouth and stared at them for a few seconds and then, with a look of steely determination, wiped her hands on a dish towel and headed for the door. “Sonny and I have a meeting with Reverend Staples to go over our vows. I better get going.”
Hayley raced to stop her. “Liddy, please, listen to reason. You need to call off the wedding, at least until we figure out what’s going on here.”
Liddy spun around, her face flushed, her fists clenched, and said quietly, “Never. I have been waiting for this day my whole life, and honestly there were times when I thought this day was never going to happen. But I found the man I want to spend the rest of my life with, and the wheels are finally in motion, so I have no intention of putting on the brakes at this late stage—”
“Someone cut your brakes!” Hayley cried.
“That was a metaphor, Hayley,” Liddy sighed. “I’ve already called off this wedding once—”
“Twice,” Gemma interjected.
“Twice.” Liddy winced, correcting herself. “I’m not going to do it again.”
