He narrowed his eyes at the deputy. “Do I want to know?”
“Give the kids a break. They are in love,” Tom said. “You’ll be in love one day.”
“Right. Send them in here,” Eli directed as he looked down at the same paperwork in the past hour.
Tom saluted before he closed the door.
A minute later, Officers Beth and Ryan Banning walked in. Beth’s head hung low and Ryan’s shoulders were slumped. Both faces were flushed pink from ear to ear.
Eli knew exactly what the two had been doing in the back room. He’d caught them once before, right after they returned from their honeymoon. They’d been mauling each other like teenagers since they got married a couple months ago.
He tried to enforce the rule about married officers and had split their shifts. Beth took the first and Ryan had the second, but an hour overlap gave way to quick liaisons.
He stared at the two as they stood side by side. He realized what an odd couple they made. In looks, they were polar opposites. Beth barely reached to Ryan’s shoulders. Where he was thin and lanky, she was short with meatiness to her build.
Love must be truly blind.
“Do I need to separate you two by giving Ryan the third shift? Or should I be firing one of you?”
In sync, both popped their heads up and looked at him. Beth had watery eyes, while Ryan went from pink to pale. They shook their heads no.
“I don’t want to lose either one of you, but your actions need to stop now. You two need to fi—”
The radio chirped. “Dispatch. There’s an accident on Route U5, near marker 9. A hit and run, two victims. Request ambulance and back up.” Tom’s voice came over with urgency.
Before the dispatcher, Cindy Lee, answered back, Eli responded. “10-4. On route now. Cindy get on…”
“Already on it,” the short blonde shouted out as she passed the doorway of the office.
Eli shot up from his chair and grabbed his jacket. “Ryan, stay here. Beth, you’re with me.”
Chapter Ten
Eli and Beth arrived on the scene within ten minutes. A Volvo had crashed into a large balsam fir that grew out near the ditched road. The way the car hit, the front end was smashed against the tree and the back end sat wedged on the rim of the ditch.
As Eli pulled over to the side Tom rushed over to his side of the truck.
“Both victims are breathing. The man’s out but woman’s awake. Eli, I think it was Harold who ran them off the road. From the way the woman rambled on about a red truck, it has to be him.”
Eli got out of the vehicle. “We got this. Go bring him in.”
“Wouldn’t be better if you went?” Tom asked.
“No.” Eli gave a hard reply.
“Okay, Chief.” Tom got in his squad and raced off.
Eli ignored Tom’s barb, got out of the truck and focused his energy on the vehicle. “Beth, grab the blankets in the trunk and the med kit.”
He looked down at the ditch. The slope pitched almost in a ninety-degree angle with a few crags jutting out. The small patches of ice and snow made it difficult to find footing. Eli could have slipped under the car.
Afraid the car would tip forward and crash front first into the ditch, Eli dug his feet into shallow divots and carefully opened the driver side door.
The front end started to creak as he opened the door wider. Without wanting to test the stability, Eli left the door ajar halfway. It was wide enough in case he needed to pull the driver out.
Eli touched the man’s neck; his pulse was strong. The woman had passed out. He unlatched the seatbelt and waited for Beth to reach the passenger side.
The female came awake and turned her head toward him. Her eyes were glazed over with fear. She mumbled about a red truck and then a girl in a yellow dress.
Girl in a yellow dress? Eli paused. Too coincidental to ignore. “Ma’am, can you tell me what happened?”
Beth opened the passenger side door with cautious care. The car creaked again and jerked forward slightly. The officer jumped back and let out a small yelp. Eli looked over and gave a silent don’t move.
Once the car stopped, Beth proceeded to open the passenger side door.
“Careful,” he warned with a whisper. “I don’t want the front end to give out.”
With sloth-slow movements, Beth checked for the female’s pulse. She gave a nod of okay. “Her pulse is strong.”
The woman began to get agitated. “Why was the girl in the middle of the road?” She frantically yanked at her seat belt, and the car shook, which made both women scream. She tried to get out of the seat, but Beth placed a hand on the lady’s shoulder to keep her still.
“Please, I need you to stay still for me, ma’am—Your head is bleeding. What is your name?”
The woman calmed down. “Brenda… James.”
“Brenda, can you tell me what happened?” Beth asked while she placed the gauze square on the victim’s forehead.
The woman stopped talking. The blood drained from her face. Her eyes turned wide with terror. She pointed straight ahead and screamed again. “Do you see her?” the woman shouted.
Eli shifted his footing to see all around him. “Beth, do you see anything?”
Beth bent over to look out the front window. “No, Chief. I don’t see anything, or anyone.”
The woman grabbed at Beth’s jacket, which caught the officer off guard. She lost her footing and slipped down to the bottom of the ditch. She stopped face up, under the vehicle.
“Get out from under the car,” Eli shouted. He wasn’t sure if the woman would try to move, but for the moment, he needed his officer safe.
The woman yanked at her seatbelt, which made the car shudder. The tree shook and the car groaned.
“Move your ass, Beth!” he yelled. Eli hurried to the passenger side and grabbed the woman’s shoulders. “Brenda.” His voice turned hard as steel. Just as fast as her screams began, the woman collapsed into her seat and passed out.
Beth emerged on the driver side with mud on her face, the right side of her jacket and hands.
“Are you all right?” Eli asked. He was finally able to take an even breath.
“Yeah. I’m good.” Beth looked at her hands, then at the chief. “She kept repeating ‘the girl’. I didn’t see anyone.”
“Neither did I,” he admitted, scanning the area around them.
They stood by the victims until the fire truck and ambulance showed up. Not wanting to push their luck, they waited for the fire department to remove the victims. They were taken to Beaver Ridge hospital. The officers followed.
The moment he entered the building, he thought of Jane. The sudden urgency to see her seemed unnatural. His pulse quickened and a knot formed in his gut. Almost anxious. That’s ridiculous. Eli visited every day since she was found and hadn’t once gotten the need to rush to her room. Why now?
He instructed Beth to get the statements when the victims were conscious, then turned and rushed through the white metal door that led to the staircase and flew up to the second floor. Eli stopped within the threshold of Jane’s room and watched her.
Eli stood there like some stalker, which annoyed the hell out of him. So he stepped inside, staying quiet.
Jane was sound asleep, though he couldn’t help but take in the serenity of her face, even in its battered state.
The late afternoon sun ribboned through the blinds and masked the discoloration on her skin. The swelling of her yellow bruised cheeks was nearly gone. Her natural beauty was more apparent.
Her body showed frailty, but it didn’t camouflage the strength she had hidden within her. He still admired her, despite her claim of seeing ghosts. Maybe, more than admire.
The way he’d treated her before wasn’t right. That had to be the reason he felt so uneasy. He’d acted like an ass.
As Eli stepped closer, Jane’s breathing stopped and her eyes popped open. They were cold and honed in on him. The fury shone stalled his breathing.
Jane’s vulne
rability vanished. The serenity was gone and replaced with something ugly. Her brows furrowed deep and her unwavering eyes were dark, almost black. She didn’t utter a single word. Just glared at him with a snarl across her face.
He didn’t move. He didn’t dare. Eli let out a slow exhale and saw his breath crystallize. The room became ice cold. It made no sense. Frost coated around the edges of the window, like the bathroom mirror. He grazed his hand around the pane and found nothing to let in the cold. He turned his attention to the thermostat. It blinked seventy-two degrees, then shot down to sixty-five and then lower. What the hell is going on?
Eli looked back at Jane. Her eyes were closed and the sound of her breathing evened out again. Peace returned to her features. The room wasn’t cold any longer and the frost evaporated from the panes.
He knew he wasn’t going nuts. Or was he? Lack of sleep could do that to a person, but this—this was right. He saw Jane’s face, the way the temperature dropped and how the window frosted up, could it be something unnatural?
The events that led up to this point were making him rethink his non-belief in the supernatural—This was fucking crazy. Demented. Questioning his own mental stability seemed like a daily factor, every since Jane had entered his life.
One thing was for certain; he had to check out if a girl lived in the area of the accident. It was the only logical explanation. The yellow dress she wore had to be purely coincidental and not connected to Jane.
Though looking at her, he remembered the way he found Jane in the bathroom. A very small part of him wanted to believe in her ghost remark.
The crackle of Tom’s voice on the radio pulled him out of his thoughts instantly. He shook off any remnant of the chill and walked out into the hallway.
“Go ahead, Tom.”
“I got Harold at the station. He is full of piss and Scotch right now. He’s ranting that a girl caused the accident. He keeps saying it isn’t his fault. I think he’s lost it.”
Haven’t we all? “10-4. I’ll be right there.” He glanced at the doorway of Jane’s room before he headed back downstairs.
He found Beth talking to one of the ER doctors. He called her over.
She flipped through her notepad. “The male is still unconscious, but the woman, Brenda, said that a girl in a yellow dress appeared out of nowhere and stood in the middle of the road. She said that the oncoming red truck swerved into their lane and ran them off the road.
“I tried to get more from her but she became hysterical when the doctor checked her pupils. They had to give her something to calm her down. The man is patched up and brought upstairs.”
Has everyone gone crazy? The same details from three different people were too coincidental. The acknowledgement of a ghost clawed his sense of factuality, but he couldn’t ignore it any longer.
“I need you to stick around and get more information about this girl she saw. I have to get back to the station. Tom has Harold locked up. Radio Ryan to come and get you when you are finished here.”
“All right, Chief.”
“Beth?”
“Yes, Chief?”
“You did good.” He gave her a slight smile and headed out.
Eli passed through the sliding doors into the parking lot where he saw Caroline leaning against his driver’s side door.
“I don’t have time for your shit, Caroline. I have an emergency and you need to get out of my way,” he said as he tried to open his door. She blocked the handle with her rear end.
“Come on, Elias. I’m your emergency. I need to be taken care of, right, now.” She tried to sweep her arm around his neck but he took a step back from her. “You’ve been ignoring me for way too long. I can’t take it anymore. I want you, and I know you want me,” she said with a pout.
He looked down at her as though she spat in his face. “Caroline, I don’t know what drugs you’re on, but get sober. I don’t like you. Never did. Now get over it or you’ll be taking a ride in the back of my truck and I’ll book you for harassment. Your call.”
Caroline’s eyes turned wide and her mouth gaped opened. She puffed out her chest. “Fine.” She took a step away from the vehicle.
Eli glanced down at her chest and then back at her scowling face. It didn’t impress him how large her breasts had become since last year.
He reached for his handle while Eli dismissed her.
“You’ll pay for this, Elias. Mark my words, one day you’re goin’ to want me and I won’t be around for you.”
“Don’t make me any promises.” He got in the truck and started it without giving further thought to her threat. He slammed the shift into drive and headed for the station.
Lights flashing and his siren sounding off, Eli made it in less than five minutes. He didn’t want to leave Tom and Harold together too long.
“Where’s Tom?” he asked Ryan.
“The deputy headed back out for patrol. He’s pissed.”
Eli went straight back to the cells. To his surprise he found Harold curled up in one corner on the cement floor. He rocked back and forth, mumbling, “Not my fault. Not my fault.”
Eli grabbed hold of the bars that separated them. “What happened, Harold?”
Harold’s right eye was red and swollen. “Did Tom do that?” Eli unlocked the door and stepped into the cell.
“I swung at him first,” Harold confessed. His head fell forward, and broke down into tears. “I didn’t see that car until it was too late. I swerved to get out of the way but I killed them, didn’t I?” His body shook. It was hard to see his friend cry.
The fear etched on Harold’s pale face softened Eli’s anger. He sat on the cot, pushed back his hair and rubbed at his neck. “What should I do with you, Harold?”
Regret and sadness swirled inside Eli. Having Harold behind bars didn’t seem right. He wanted to believe his friend, but the law held him accountable for the accident.
Thin as a rail, Harold’s pale sallow skin was a drastic contrast to the dark smudges under his blue eyes. He had problems, which dated back many years. Always into doing stupid crap, but never to the point of taking someone’s life.
Reeked of scotch, Eli’s own addictive call for a drink choked at his throat.
“Tell me, Harold. Were you drinking and driving?” Eli asked sternly.
“I only took a small swig.” Harold wiped his eyes with his hands.
Eli’s shoulder relaxed a bit. “What happened then?”
“I left here to go straight home. I saw a girl standing in the middle of the road. I slowed down and veered out of the way but she disappeared. Then next I saw a white car coming straight for me. I tried to avoid them. I don’t know what happened next but…I kept on going.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t want to see the girl again. She scares the shit out of me, Eli!” Harold cried out.
Eli blew it out a heavy breath. Jail wasn’t the place to talk about ghosts. He already regretted his decision, but out of loyalty, he temporarily let Harold go. “Come on, I’ll drive you home. We’ll talk in the truck.”
“What about the accident?” Harold sat up and wiped his hands across his face. “I killed those people.”
“They aren’t dead. Shaken and scratched up pretty good, but alive.” Eli stood by the door. “I don’t want to stand here all day, Harold. Get your ass up and let’s go.”
Harold took a big swallow and rose to his feet. He wiped his eyes again with the heel of his palms and followed Eli out of the holding cell.
“Don’t ask,” Eli conveyed to Ryan, who got up from his desk. “Call Raymond for me. Tell him I’m bringing Harold home. And tell Tom I want a word with him later.”
The ride through town was quiet. As dusk shadowed the night, the small neon sign on Betty’s diner glowed. Main Street in the middle of town looked deserted. Sunday night, everyone hunkered down, but him. His job was twenty-four seven.
As they drove past the town center, next to the mayor’s office, the small gazebo was decorated f
or Halloween.
“Nice orange lights. Great for Halloween.” Eli broke the silence. He wanted Harold to calm down before they talked about the girl.
“Yeah, I guess.” Harold sniffled and wiped his nose on his jacket sleeve.
He glanced over at Harold then back to the street. “I want to know what really happened.”
Harold stared out the window. “I told you everything already.”
“I want to know about the girl.”
Harold shivered as he spoke. “I first saw her on the side of the road the day after we found Jane. I thought it was a— ”
“A hallucination?”
“Yeah. And now, I see her everywhere.” He took a gulp of air and continued. “After I left the station today, I head down County F. That strip is always deserted, so took a drink, and that’s when I saw her standing at every mile marker—I’m going fucking bat shit, Eli. You know I haven’t been able to sleep?” He clutched his arms tight to his stomach.
“No, I didn’t know that. Why aren’t you sleeping?” Eli knew exactly what his friend was going through. Anyone could turn a little crazy.
“It’s because of that girl. She gives me nightmares. That’s the reason why I go see Jane. And…”
Eli shook his head slightly. “What?” A cold chill like icy fingers ran throughout Eli’s body. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He wasn’t going to like what his friend had to say.
Harold huffed out a breath. “Eli, I see this girl in my dreams.” He raked his fingers across his scalp and shook his head. “I’m so confused and…I’m scared.”
“Why are you scared of a little girl?” Eli asked as he turned down Bonner Street.
“She’s no little girl,” he blurted out. “Her face. It’s not the same all the time. It changes, and not in a good way.”
Eli pulled up to the stop sign before he proceeded left onto County H. “What do you mean her face changes?”
Harold gave out a snort and laughed. “Sometimes…she’s smiling, but mostly… her face melts off her bones.”
He tried hard to understand what Harold had described, but it seemed too fucked up to believe. “All right. Then how did the accident happen?” Eli had to ask again.
Forgetting Jane Page 7
