Because of a Girl

by Janice Kay Johnson

  “We need to move out of the way,” he murmured and shifted Emily. The second EMT nodded his thanks.

  Within seconds, the two lowered the gurney. He couldn’t help making the unpleasant comparison with the one he’d just seen, hauling a corpse.

  A blanket was tucked around Meg and a pole held fluids. Jack got one glimpse of her face, bloody and bruised and vacant. Damn. She looked dead.

  Stomach-churning scared, he led Emily into the ER. A uniformed officer stopped him before they could follow the gurney through swinging double doors into the treatment area.

  “Sir?” Then a surprised, “Detective Moore?”

  He turned, nodding when he recognized Don Knapstad, an officer who’d been on the job for easily ten years, accompanied by a skinny rookie whose name he couldn’t recall.

  “Is this incident connected to one of your investigations?” Knapstad asked.

  “I don’t know.” Jack had to clear his throat. “Nobody has told me yet what happened.”

  “The victim’s daughter—” Knapstad’s eyes rested on Emily briefly “—says she had gotten off the school bus and was walking the block and a half home when a black SUV came out of nowhere, jumped the curb and drove directly at her. Her mother had been walking to meet her. She was able to push Miss Harper out of the way, but was hit herself.”

  Emily still clung to him, her face buried against his shoulder, and it was all Jack could do to unclench his teeth. “And the driver?”

  “The vehicle did not stop. One headlight was broken in the collision.” The pieces of shattered glass would help them determine the make and model of the vehicle that had hit Meg, but that would take days to weeks. “We’ve put out a BOLO, but ten to fifteen minutes had passed.”

  Reality was that, given the size of Frenchman Lake, the son of a bitch who’d hit Meg had had plenty of time to make it home to his garage or ditch the vehicle if it had been stolen—which was Jack’s bet.

  But what hit him hardest was the knowledge that, during those same ten or fifteen minutes it took the first unit to respond, Meg had lain there, unconscious, broken, untended, on the sidewalk or someone’s front lawn. The image would have had him staggering if he hadn’t been holding up Emily.

  “No word?”

  Knapstad shook his head. “Nothing yet.”

  The mousetrap on his mind, Jack said, “If this was an attempt on Emily’s life—and it sounds like it might have been—it may very well have to do with my search for her missing friend, Sabra Lee.” He saw that both officers had heard about the investigation.

  “Makes sense Miss Harper called you.”

  “That’s not the only reason. I’m...involved with her mother. I’d planned to have dinner with them tonight, except I got called out.”

  Knapstad’s nod said he’d heard on the radio about the likely murder-suicide, too.

  “I need to find out how she is,” Jack said tautly. Emily made a small, frightened sound.

  “I understand. Ah...shall we stay on this?”

  “Yes, for now. Keep me updated.” He gentled his voice. “Emily? I’m going to see if they’ll let us go back where your mom is.”

  A swollen, splotchy face lifted to his, and Emily nodded.

  They approached the front desk, his arm encircling her. The receptionist talked quietly into her phone, and a minute later a nurse appeared through the swinging doors.

  “Are you family?”

  Emily nodded. “She’s my mom. And...and Jack’s her—”

  “Fiancé,” he put in, ignoring Emily’s startled look.

  As they followed the nurse, he murmured, “They might not have let me in if I hadn’t said that.”

  “Oh. Even when you’re a detective?”

  He squeezed her shoulder. “That might have been enough. I didn’t want to take a chance.”

  Outside a cubicle where several people surrounded a bed, the nurse stopped. “I’ll have to ask you to wait out here for a minute. I’ll let the doctor know you’re here.”

  A lump in his throat, Jack nodded.

  Inside the sliding door, a curtain was half-drawn, limiting what they could see. Activity wasn’t frantic, and the fact that they’d been permitted back here at all was a good sign, or so he tried to tell himself.

  That didn’t keep Jack from being so scared it was all he could do not to bull his way in. He hadn’t known Meg that long. They’d made love once. He shouldn’t have lied last night. Whatever they had was a lot more than a beginning. They were way past that. What he felt for her was powerful. If he lost her this way—

  His face contorted, and he turned his head so Emily wouldn’t see. All he could think was, No. It couldn’t happen.

  “I’m scared,” Emily whispered, wrenching Jack back from his own agony.

  “I know,” he said gruffly. “Me, too. But she’ll be okay. Your mom is a tough lady. No way would she leave you.”

  Emily’s whole body trembled. “It was this great big SUV. When...when it hit her, Mom went flying, like, ten or fifteen feet. And when she hit the ground, she just flopped.” She shuddered.

  Meg had likely already been unconscious. And, shit, he thought; that was exactly how the carjacker’s girlfriend had described the victim as she was thrown out of the car.

  He gritted his teeth. “What did she land on?”

  “Um...grass. It was Mr. Jones’s yard. He’s usually kind of an old grump, but he must have heard me screaming and he came running out. He got blankets to keep Mom warm, and he called the police. He was really nice.”

  “People usually are when it counts.” Jack squeezed the back of his neck. “You should have told me about the mousetrap.”

  Emily’s eyes welled with tears. “I never thought—”

  Jack stiffened when a brawny male nurse stepped out of the room. “Doctor says you can go in now.” He sounded friendly. “Are you Emily? Your mom wants to see you.”

  “She’s regained consciousness?” Jack didn’t recognize his own voice.

  “Yes, not long after she arrived.”

  Emily flew into the room. His own eyes stinging, Jack nodded at the nurse. “Thank you.”

  When he stepped into the cubicle, all he saw was Meg. She could get only one eye entirely open. The other side of her face was swollen, discolored and scraped. At least she wasn’t bloody anymore. Emily had rushed to her side, then stopped, stiff. “Mom?”

  “That bad?” Meg said, almost lightly. “Here, I can hug you on this side.”

  The hug was careful, and Emily stepped back right away, her appalled gaze staying on her mom.

  Meg’s gaze fastened on him. “Jack?”

  “Yeah.” He took his turn stepping forward, but was on the opposite side of the bed from Emily. He scanned her quickly, knowing she had to have suffered other injuries. “Had to be a heroine, did you?”

  She tried to smile and winced. “I didn’t, um, think it out.”

  No, that wasn’t the way it worked. He knew. It wouldn’t have made any difference anyway. She wouldn’t have hesitated to die for her daughter, if that’s what it came to.

  “Did they catch...?” she whispered.

  “Not yet.” He made himself turn to look at the middle-aged woman garbed in blue scrubs and a stethoscope who’d been patiently waiting. “How is she?”

  The woman smiled and held out her hand. “I’m Dr. Frenzel. I’m told you’re the fiancé?”

  Careful not to look at Meg, he shook the doctor’s hand. “That’s right,” he said easily. “I’m Detective Jack Moore. I also have a bad feeling this incident has to do with an investigation of mine.”

  The doctor’s eyebrows rose. “I’m told it was a hit-and-run.”

  “Yes, and it appears the intended victim was Emily, not her mother.”

 
“I see. Well, fortunately it appears Ms. Harper took only a glancing blow. We’ll know more once she has a CAT scan. I can tell you now that, because of her head injury, we’ll definitely be admitting her for the night.”

  “But what about Emily?” Meg protested.

  “I can call Cara or somebody if you don’t want me staying alone,” Emily said.

  “Not a chance.” There was no give in Jack’s voice. “I’ll stay at the house.”

  “Thank you,” Meg whispered.

  Behind him, the curtain rattled. The man who appeared smiled. “I hear somebody needs a CAT scan.”

  A moment later, he wheeled Meg out. Jack turned to the doctor.

  “Does she have broken bones?” he asked bluntly. If there’d been internal bleeding... God. A medical team would have been working frantically over her. He and Emily wouldn’t have been allowed in.

  “I can’t yet rule that out but don’t believe so,” the doctor said, voice kind. “She took most of the impact on her hip—” Seeing his expression, she elaborated, “She thinks she jumped, hoping to slide over the hood. It partially worked. I don’t know how fast the vehicle was traveling, but if she’d been hit straight on—”

  Emily whimpered. The doctor didn’t have to finish. Instead, she smiled at Emily. “You did everything you could, getting help for her as quickly as possible. You knew enough not to try to move her. She’s going to have some really colorful bruises, some major aches and pains and a whopping headache for a few days, but she’ll be fine.”

  Emily’s head bobbed. “Thank you.”

  “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll see you once we know more.” The doctor nodded and left them alone.

  Emily immediately ducked her head. Ignoring the chairs, Jack leaned a hip against the short counter that held a sink and watched her stare at her feet. He had no trouble recognizing guilt. But she’d been scared enough, he didn’t think he would have to push.

  Finally she lifted her head, misery in her brown eyes. “There’s other stuff I didn’t tell you.”

  * * *

  HE WAS NICER than she deserved.

  This had been the absolutely worst day of Emily’s life. Even more awful than when Sabra disappeared. Somebody had tried to hurt her or even kill her, and had come really close to killing Mom. If Mom had died because of her—because she’d been stubborn—Emily couldn’t even imagine. Mostly she’d been scared for Mom, but during the ambulance ride she’d been selfish enough to worry about what would happen to her if her mother died.

  Arms crossed, his posture relaxed, Jack never looked away from her face while she told him about how she’d covered for Sabra.

  “She’d never tell me who he was.” She gulped. “Only, a couple of times, she almost slipped. And...it sounded like it might be a teacher she was sleeping with.” She knew she was begging him to say she had to be wrong. “But how could it be? I mean, they’re mostly married. At least, Mr. Bouchard is, and I know she had a thing for him. Mr. Fuentes isn’t, but...” She bit her lip.

  “He’s engaged.”

  She nodded. “He talks about his fiancée all the time. Like he’s really in love with her.”

  “I had that impression, too,” Jack agreed.

  So then she told him what Kimberly Dearing said, about seeing Sabra with Mr. Hurn, too. “But he’s old,” she said. “And not cute at all.”

  Jack’s mouth twitched, like he thought she was funny, but then he frowned. “I didn’t talk to him.”

  “That’s because Sabra doesn’t have any classes with him.” She explained what Mr. Hurn taught. “So I don’t even know why she’d have been talking to him.”

  Jack’s jaw set in a way Emily had seen before. “You can bet I’ll be finding out,” he promised. “And I’ll take another look at several of the male teachers.”

  Another? Then...he’d thought the same thing already. “What do you mean?”

  “I know none of them were absent that day. At least, not all day. What I didn’t think to ask was whether any had reason to be gone for a short time.”

  “Practically all of them have teacher’s aides,” she said. “Sometimes the TAs monitor a class during a quiz. The office might not even know.”

  Jack’s unblinking stare was a little unnerving, but she finished, “Mr. Bouchard does that sometimes.”

  “Fuentes?”

  She shook her head. “He hasn’t for my class.”

  “What’s your best guess, Emily?”

  She swallowed, then mumbled, “Mr. Bouchard. Sometimes...he smiled different at her than at any of the rest of us.”

  Just for a moment, his expression scared her as much as everything else that had happened. But he must have noticed, because he hid whatever he’d been thinking and nodded at her.

  “Dr. Frenzel is right. You did good, kid.”

  Hot tears filled her eyes. “But it’s my fault!” she wailed. “You told me not to ask questions, only I did, and I bet he heard.”

  “I bet he did, too,” Jack said grimly, but he also stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her again.

  Having him hold her felt really different than having Mom hugging her. Especially since she’d never had a father. Having him around at all was different. But listening to his heart beat steadily and feeling the strength of his arms, Emily was incredibly glad he was there.

  She even thought she might not mind if he and Mom got married.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  MEG HAD A miserable night. She kept wishing Jack was at her bedside, maybe holding her hand or smoothing her hair back from her face, in that tender way he did. But she’d a thousand times rather he was with Emily, keeping her safe. And it wasn’t as if she’d hurt any less if he was here.

  Even with painkillers, she couldn’t get comfortable. Her head was the worst. It felt like a tunnel had been drilled to allow a freight train to roar through. But her back and hip and shoulder and arm all hurt, too. Every time she dropped off, adrenaline would jerk her awake. Sometimes she saw Emily, unmoving, in the shockingly bright light cast by those high beams. The roar of the engine drowned out the hospital sounds. Knowing she’d be too late, every cell of her body committed to not being too late, Meg felt herself stretching, leaping. The incredible force of the collision, flinging her into the air.

  And every time she woke up, she thought again, He came. Right away. He was scared for me. And maybe as important, He took care of Emily, too, when he didn’t have to. When she remembered the way he’d looked at her, her chest hurt, too, but in a good way. Because she found herself thinking that she could trust Jack Moore.

  A cheerful aide brought breakfast. Meg gritted her teeth when the head of the bed rose. She didn’t even have to try to know she didn’t want to lift her right arm. She wasn’t sure she didn’t feel worse than she had when first regaining consciousness.

  Clumsily, she reached for the metal teapot with her left hand.

  “Mom?” Emily appeared around the curtain, her eyes huge and apprehensive.

  Meg’s own eyes filled with tears. It didn’t matter that she hurt. Emily was okay. I wasn’t too late. She blinked hard and sniffed. “Oh, honey.”

  As she had in the emergency room, Emily approached tentatively. “You look awful. Do you hurt?”

  “Mostly my head.” Lie, lie. “Remember how you felt after you got thrown by Shannon’s horse?”

  Nose crinkled, Emily said, “I guess it’s kind of the same, isn’t it?”

  Meg smiled. Laughing was out; her head might shatter. “Yes, it is.”

  “I bet you’d feel better if you had a really hot bath.”

  “Which I’ll take as soon as I get home.” If she could manage to get into the tub.

  “Hey.” Jack stood at the foot of the bed, his eyes smiling. “You’re alive.”

&nbs
p; She tried to make a face at him, only it was too painful. Sad to say, she knew now what she looked like. With help, she’d tottered the few feet to the bathroom, where she had gaped at herself in the mirror.

  He came around the bed and bent to kiss her cheek, his lips soft. They touched the bridge of her nose, then traveled to her temple, where they lingered before he straightened and looked down with warm eyes. “Hope you don’t mind me keeping Emily out of school today. We’re here to break you out.”

  “Really?” She sounded so eager it was pitiful.

  “Unfortunately, we have to wait for the doctor to sign off on your escape. But we’ll keep you company until then.” He disappeared around the curtain, coming back with a chair.

  “Can I sit on the bed?” Emily asked.

  “Okay by me.”

  “That breakfast looks gross.”

  Actually, Meg hadn’t thought it looked bad, except her jaw ached along with her cheekbone. She could manage the scrambled eggs, she thought.

  While they waited for a doctor to come by, Emily chattered and Jack made occasional interjections in his deep, calm voice. They’d had hamburgers and French fries on the way home from the hospital last night, Emily told her.

  “I didn’t even know I was hungry ’til I smelled the French fries.”

  Meg moaned. “That sounds way better than the eggs and cold toast.”

  “I made waffles for breakfast. Jack says he’s never seen anyone make them from scratch.”

  “Best waffle I’ve ever had,” he agreed.

  His phone kept ringing. Each time, he excused himself and stepped out into the hall.

  “He’s popular this morning,” she commented after he disappeared for the third time.

  “He says he was at a crime scene when I called yesterday. So it might be about that.” Emily fidgeted, suddenly not wanting to look at Meg. “I told him some stuff, too,” she finally confessed. “Who I think Sabra was with. Jack called Mr. Rivera early this morning, and he’s talking to some students.”