by Peggy Bird
After both Kaylea and Jake were gone and Barbara was on her way to the Justice Center, Danny collapsed into a dining room chair. “Well, I doubt I’ll ever want to cook a meal in there again,” she said, nodding toward the kitchen.
“It’ll be fine once it’s cleaned up. And the doc didn’t look too bad when they hauled him out of there. You did good, partner. You kept her talking and engaged until we could get in. You should get a commendation for this.”
“Save the awards and decorations for later. I’m just glad it’s over and we caught the fucker. Although she wasn’t exactly who I thought the fucker would be.”
Sam laughed. “Me neither. But I’m not about to tell anyone that. L.T. wants to hear from you … from us. Even if you’re not happy with how this all turned out, he will be. Shall I tell him to meet us at the hospital?”
“Yeah, I want to get to the hospital and see how … see how Kaylea is.”
“Yeah, you go see how Kaylea is.” Sam punched her lightly on the upper arm. “Who you trying to fool, Hartmann, about who you’re going to see?”
She sighed. “Me, I guess.”
“And how’s that working for you?”
“Not well.”
Chapter Seventeen
Kaylea and Jake were taken to the same hospital where Sam had been treated when he’d been shot. Now, in a creepy déjà vu, Danny was waiting to see how another gunshot victim was doing.
But the hospital and the injury were all that were similar. The rest was uncomfortable, new territory, like much of her relationship — dammit, her friendship — oh, hell, whatever it was she had — with Jake. It had been professional when she’d been there for Sam, and she’d had Amanda and Margo for backup. Now she was alone and it was way too personal.
Besides, back then she’d been sure of how she’d be received by the patient in question. But Jake? She’d been avoiding him for days, wasn’t sure he wanted to see her and was even less sure how she’d feel when she saw him.
Then there was his father. She knew for damn sure she didn’t want to face him. And she had a snowball’s chance in hell of avoiding him since Danny knew that within minutes of Jake’s arrival the entire staff of the hospital would recognize the name and get the news to the senior Doctor Abrams. It was only a matter of time before he showed up in the ER.
Danny went looking for her boss who, she hoped, had arrived. Reporting to him would get her out of the way. Except she couldn’t find him or Sam. So she tried to become part of the woodwork, hanging out in the waiting room with her back to the door so if Jake’s father came in, he wouldn’t notice her.
Of course it didn’t work. Harold Abrams saw her as soon as he came into the room and immediately came up behind her, putting his arm around her shoulders. She turned to see a grim faced and tense looking man who, as she’d expected, was clearly reacting as a father to what had happened, not as a doctor.
“Danny, I’m so glad I found you,” he said as he hugged her. “I ran into your partner down the hall. He told me you were the one who got Jake out of the mess he was in. I don’t know how to begin to thank you.”
“Sam and a whole lot of other cops got all of us out,” she said, untangling herself from his embrace. “How is he? How’s Jake?” She tried to sound calm but could hear the strain in her voice.
“He has a flesh wound in his thigh from a bullet. Apparently he tried to get the weapon away from that woman and the gun went off. He fell, and hit his head on something sharp — he has a large gash in his head. It took I don’t even know how many stitches to close it. He doesn’t remember too clearly what happened after he fell. He did say he tried to play dead so she wouldn’t do any more damage.”
An image of how dead Jake looked lying on her pantry floor flashed through Danny’s mind and she shuddered. “Yeah, he did a good job at that. Fooled us all.”
“I talked to the other woman … his patient … I can’t remember her name … ”
“Kaylea Garwood.”
“Right. Kaylea. She said he fell hard and just lay there. She was convinced he was dead.”
Danny needed to get the image of the dead-looking Jake out of her head so she asked, “Do you know how she is? Kaylea, I mean? They insisted she come here to be checked out, too.”
“They examined her thoroughly and she’s fine. Pretty badly shaken up but physically she’s okay. I think they’re about ready to release her. I understand she was staying with you. Will you be taking her home with you?”
“I don’t think either of us wants to go back there right now. I need to get someone in to clean up all the … clean up … get the kitchen … ” The image of Jake bleeding all over her floor was back again.
“It’s okay, Danny. I know how head wounds bleed. It must have made a mess.” He put his arm around her shoulder again. “Do you have a place to stay? You and your houseguest are welcome to come stay with us.”
“No, thank you. I’ve already made other arrangements.” She hadn’t and she was sure Harold Abrams knew she hadn’t but she was not about to go stay with Jake’s parents. That would only pull her deeper into the quicksand of Abrams family life, which couldn’t happen. Not when things with Jake were like they were and a solution to their problems was nowhere in sight.
“Well, then I’ll let you go check on Jake and then you and … Kaylea? Is that her name? Good heavens, I can’t keep anything in my head for longer than two seconds right now. Anyway, you and Kaylea probably want to get out of here.” He kissed her on the cheek. “Miriam and I owe you for saving our son’s life.”
“Please, Doctor Abrams, I was only doing my job.” Once more Danny pulled away from the warmth of his affection.
“Nevertheless, we’re grateful.” He started to leave the waiting room but stopped at the door. Without looking back at her, he said, “My son told me he hadn’t seen you in some time. I hope whatever happened doesn’t prevent you from coming to see us so we can thank you properly, both of us.”
“Really, that’s not necessary.”
“Maybe not for you, but it is for us. We owe you our gratitude. And I know Miriam will want to tell you so herself.” He looked around and pinned her with his gaze. “And you might want to go see Jake. Regardless of the circumstances, I’m sure he wants to thank you, too. He’s been moved from the ER to a med-surg floor. He was awake a few minutes ago.” Harold Abrams left before she could come up with some excuse, any reason at all, to explain why seeing Jake was a bad idea.
So, although she suspected it might be the biggest mistake of her life, as soon as Doctor Abrams senior was out of sight, Danny went to the nurses’ station and asked where Jacob Abrams had been sent.
• • •
Goddamn, his head hurt. It hurt so much he was having a hard time remembering exactly what had happened. Lots of the day was foggy but he was able to get a few clear images.
The message that Kaylea called.
Going to Danny’s house.
Barbara Black following him.
Why? What … wait. She’d been after Kaylea. She’d thought Jim had told Kaylea about her visits to the camps. Thought Kaylea had recognized her the day she killed the guy in Forest Park. Barbara Black was who they’d been looking for. All the time they’d been talking about “he” and it had been a “she.”
Barbara had made him tie up Kaylea with something. He’d gagged her, too. Barbara was about to do something to him — maybe shoot him — when she was distracted. A phone rang, that was it. When she’d looked around for the phone, he made a move to grab her gun, then struggled with her until the gun went off and he fell.
He closed his eyes, exhausted from the effort to remember. There was more, he knew, but he needed a rest before he pushed any harder at a brain that felt like mush.
Whatever had happened next must have included a pretty hard hit to his head. He started to raise his right hand to his head only to see the IV in it with a unit of blood running wide open into him. Must have bled some.
Using his
left hand he felt around his head and found a large surgical dressing. That’s why his head hurt. Holy hell, the dressing covered a good part of his head. The wound must have been — must be — huge.
His thigh hurt, too. Hell, everything hurt. He should give in and slip back into sleep. But there was something hiding just out of reach at the edges of his mind that he knew he wanted to remember. But what? What?
Danny. That was it. Danny had been there. He’d been dazed by the fall, slipping in and out of semi-consciousness when he heard her voice. But he couldn’t understand what she was saying. Why? Why couldn’t he … oh, she wasn’t speaking English. What was she saying?
He’d have to figure that out later. He had worked his brain as much as he possibly could. All he knew was he and Kaylea had been there but now he wasn’t, thanks to Danny. And Sam. Sam had been there too.
God, all these bits and pieces. Nothing solid to hang on to. Only fragments. It was like being in the hospital after the IED.
Holy hell, he couldn’t go there again. Not for anything. He had to hang on to something more pleasant, a better memory.
Danny. Thinking about Danny was better. He could see her leaning over him, her fingers streaked with blood. She put her hand up to his face and hushed him. Then she went on speaking. It was Hebrew. That’s it. She was speaking Hebrew.
She looked so worried. Maybe he was worse off than he thought. No, his father had been here and told him he was okay. Just lost some blood from the scalp wound. Dozens and dozens of stitches to close it up.
Why was Danny worried, then? If only he could believe she was worried about him.
Good God, there she was. He could see her standing at the door of his hospital room. She couldn’t be real. He must be able to conjure her up by thinking about her. Her blouse and trousers were spotted with something. Blood? No matter. She was beautiful. Always so beautiful.
• • •
Jake did look better. Danny could see that even from the doorway. All the blood had been washed off him and the gray pallor that had convinced them all he was dead had been wiped away by a transfusion. Satisfied that he really was all right, she thought she could leave quietly. But he seemed to have seen her. He didn’t say anything, though. Only stared at her. It was unnerving.
She broke the silence. “Jake? Are you okay?”
His head jerked back, as if he was startled. “Danny? Is that really you? You’re here?”
“Yeah, Sam and I came over as soon as the crime scene guys got to my house. I wanted to see how you … how Kaylea was.” She took a step into the room and stopped.
“She’s here, too? How is she?”
“Good. She’s good. They checked her over and she’s fine. As soon as she signs her discharge, we’ll leave.”
“You won’t be going home right away, I guess.”
“No, I thought I’d have someone come in and get your blood off my kitchen floor before I went back to living there.”
He tried to pull himself upright in bed but she could see it was a struggle. “If I need this unit of blood and all this bandaging on my head, I must have left a mess.”
“What the hell happened, Jake, that you ended up bleeding all over the floor?”
“I’m a little fuzzy on the details. I think I saw a chance to get the weapon away from Barbara. We struggled. I fell. Must have hit my head.”
Danny was quiet for a few moments, feeling the control she’d had over her emotions begin to slip away as her frustration about what had happened began to morph into anger. She didn’t want Jake to see that she had any emotion attached to him but she had a feeling her tense shoulders and balled up fists were a dead giveaway even before she spoke.
“You know, Jake,” she began, trying to control her voice, “you’re a piece of work. You lecture people who know what they’re doing about how they shouldn’t be taking risks, then turn around and do something stupid like try to wrestle a weapon away from a killer when you’re not trained to do anything like that.”
He seemed taken aback by her comment. “I wouldn’t say I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“Oh, right. I forgot. The Guard trains its docs in hand-to-hand combat.”
“Of course they don’t but I know how to deal with weapons.”
Danny jammed her hands into her trouser pockets so she didn’t give in to the impulse to wrap them around his neck. “Did it occur to you what could have happened if she’d had the presence of mind to keep pulling the trigger?”
She was sure from the look on his face that he hadn’t but he wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of saying so. However, the silence that greeted her question gave her the answer.
“Do you know what would have happened to you, to Kaylea? Hell, to my kitchen? My God, Jake, you could have been … ” She stopped and glared at him.
He squirmed in the bed, avoiding her eyes, picking at the sheet, looking more uncomfortable than he had when she walked in. “Well, she didn’t do that,” he finally said. “And as soon as I fell, I pretended to be unconscious. Then she said something that made me think she thought I was dead so I lay still and let her think that.”
“Pretending you were dead was the only smart thing you did all day. You took a stupid risk by trying to disarm her. Hell, you took a stupid risk by going to my house. You should have called me. Or if you didn’t want to deal with me, you should have called Sam.” By this time, Danny was pacing the floor in the room, running her hands over her face in frustration.
He seemed to want to say something but she didn’t let him. It felt so good to unload all her frustration. “Didn’t it seem odd to you that Barbara Black told you that Kaylea called the clinic? If she had been in trouble don’t you think Kaylea would have called your cell phone? Or called me? The cop? The person she was living with?” She turned her furious gaze to him. “And how the hell did you know where she was, anyway?”
Before he could answer, she waved him off. “Never mind. I don’t think I want to know. This is too fucked up for me to even … ”
A nurse stuck her head in the door. “Is everything all right in here? It’s getting a little loud.”
Jake said, “It’s okay, nurse. Detective Hartmann is asking me some questions about what happened. I’m afraid she’s not happy about some of my answers.”
“Well, if you could keep it down, please. You’re disturbing the patients in the next room.”
“We’ll try,” Jake said, flashing his most charming smile at her.
When the nurse had left, Jake took the opportunity to sneak in a response, “I found out where Kaylea was from Bob Aronson. He told me when I was making rounds at the camp. He thought I’d know how she was. She’d told him not to come to your place because she was afraid he’d lead the killer there.”
“So, instead you did.”
“Not on purpose. For God’s sake, Danny, cut me some slack here. I thought I was responding to a request for my help. That’s what I do.”
Danny finally stopped pacing and stood next to his bed, looking him straight in the eye. “Yeah, you respond to calls for help. That’s what you do. Like I do.” She ran her hand over her face again. “This is old ground. I didn’t mean to get into this discussion now. I’m really only here to see for myself that you’re okay, like your dad said. I’m glad you are. I better go and see to Kaylea.” Without saying good-bye she walked to the door.
Jake put out his hand to her. “Danny, wait. Can’t we talk?”
But she ignored him and left the room.
Chapter Eighteen
Danny took Kaylea from the hospital to the Marriot, where they stayed for three days until a company that specialized in cleaning up crime scenes got Danny’s kitchen cleaner than it had been when she moved in. Kaylea didn’t move back home with her, however. Social services found her a spot on the east side, away from any of the places with bad memories, and she settled into a small but pleasantly furnished apartment.
It was hard for Danny to move back into her ho
use, with or without Kaylea. She couldn’t face cooking in the kitchen. No matter how clean it was, she saw Jake’s blood on the counter and floor every time she went in there. Sometimes even swore she could smell it. So for the first few nights she was back in her house, she brought take-out home with her and ate in the dining room.
Finally she decided to put on her big girl panties and cook herself a steak dinner. Wrong choice of entrée. The hunk of meat she’d spent way too much money on ended up in the garbage along with the wrapping and packaging that had altogether too much blood in it to make her comfortable.
She’d never given much thought to being a vegetarian but if this kept up she’d be one soon. A vegetarian who lived on take-out.
It didn’t help that she was pissed off at herself for blowing up at Jake in his hospital room. What the hell kind of former lover … girlfriend … whatever … was she? He’d been shot and injured and she lit into him, calling him an idiot or worse. It didn’t escape her notice that he’d been so out of it he didn’t offer much of a defense but lay there in a very un-Jake-like manner.
Of course she hadn’t heard from him since he got out. She knew he’d been discharged, because she’d checked. He’d gone home before she’d moved back to her house. Some small part of her hoped he’d call but most of her understood that, no matter what had happened in wrapping up the case, he was probably angry about how it had ended between them.
Then she talked to the Bureau’s expert on PTSD about both Jake and her reaction to the recent events at her house. It made her feel worse. He explained that Jake’s actions in Forest Park were to be expected from someone who had full-blown PTSD, as Jake apparently had. The counselor pointed out to Danny that her reaction to what happened in her house was a small taste of the same response. She might not have nightmares and flashbacks but she did have an emotional reaction to what had happened that played out after the event. It was not out of the ordinary.
That night, after talking to the company shrink, she sat eating her take-out Pad Thai, trying to face the fact that she was responsible for the huge hole in her life where her relationship — yes, dammit, they’d had a relationship — with Jake had been. She stared up from the hole she’d gotten into but didn’t know if she could climb out of it and walk back from what she’d done.
