The Guarded Widow

by K M Gaffney

Then she stepped away and let loose.

  “What the heck were thinking going after Daddy all by yourself?”

  An angry threatening male voice reverberated off the curtains.

  “Actually, I’ve been wondering that very same thing myself,” Gavin stated as he completely parted the curtains to enter in.

  Olivia lifted Maddy’s concerned hands into her own, choosing to ignore Gavin.

  “Maddy, I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you when I got out of your car…”

  Her astonished gasp ended Olivia’s explanation in midsentence.

  “Do you mean to tell me you knew when I dropped you off? You knew Daddy was being held by that lunatic and you didn’t care to tell me?”

  Olivia stared down at their joined hands. “I was afraid you’d want to come along. You could’ve been injured.”

  Maddy’s temper flared, yanking her hands away, she vented her frustrations on her sister.

  “Are you kidding me, Olivia? You’re sitting here battered and bruised. Ron said you’re probably going to need stitches and he also told me when Gavin entered the scene Johnny Johnson was on the brink of raping you! You don’t think you were injured?”

  Her blunt reminder of the morning’s dramatic events made Olivia shudder involuntarily, and then she glanced up at Gavin.

  He stood near the edge of the privacy curtain, his arms crossed over his chest with his piercing blue eyes narrowed, gleaming dangerously, as he studied her, waiting for an answer.

  “I understand that you’re upset, Maddy. I really am sorry for my poor decision.”

  Beyond exasperated, Maddy waved a hand toward Gavin, her words dripping with sarcasm.

  “I’ve heard enough. It’s your turn, Gavin. I’m sure you’re ready to yell at her. Maybe you can penetrate that thick skull of hers, but I doubt it,” Maddy spat, shaking her blond head in disbelief. She surveyed her sister one last time before sweeping back the curtain and hurrying out of the room.

  Left alone with a huge scowling police officer was rather anticlimactic compared to earlier this morning; Olivia decided as Gavin turned his back on her and inhaled deeply.

  “Olivia, I don’t think I will ever understand why you’d choose to meet Johnny Johnson alone rather than, God forbid, ask for my help. I’d promised you I would protect you. But then you go and deliberately place yourself in a situation that prevented me from being able to so.”

  She noted his low, calmly controlled tone of voice, and realized over the last few weeks she’d grown to despise that tone.

  However, when she started to open her mouth to justify her rational, Gavin finally spun around to face her and the cold angry look on his face quickly silenced her explanation. “There’s nothing you can say to me that could make me understand. You simply didn’t trust me.”

  “Well, I’m sorry you feel that way Gavin. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust you, I just needed to get to my Dad before it was too late,” she said, trying to stifle tears of frustration and exhaustion.

  Renewed anger surged through him as he stepped forward, hurling questions at her.

  “I’m not buying it! If that’s the case, why didn’t you immediately call me after receiving the call from Johnson? Why did you leave a note, instead?”

  He gripped her upper arms and gave her a small shake.

  “Why would you risk your life like that?”

  The full depth of his fury raged like wildfire through his eyes.

  Then he left go of her arms and repeated himself, sounding disappointed. “You just didn’t trust me enough to help you, Olivia.”

  Ron stepped up to the curtain partition and stopped to listen. He waited patiently, until there was a lull in the conversation before coughing into his hand and entering into the tense curtained space. As he walked in, Gavin dropped back, shoving his hands deep into his jeans pockets.

  Ron spoke quietly.

  “Olivia, I just saw Maddy. She wanted me to tell you, your Dad will remain hospitalized for the next twenty four hours, but it looks like he’ll be fine.”

  Relief flooded through her, unleashing the restrained tears she’d so narrowly managed to control thus far. Embarrassed by her own outburst of emotion, she swiftly attempted to regain her composure.

  Olivia was still wiping away tears when the heavy curtain was pushed aside again. The nurse returned, informing them a physician’s assistant would be coming in soon to place the stitches.

  Despising any type of medical procedure, Ron chose this opportunity to excuse himself.

  “Olivia, don’t forget we’re going to need a statement,” he said, nervously eyeing the curtain. “Gavin, can you bring her down to the station later?”

  Gavin shrugged. “Either I will or Maddy will.”

  As antiseptic was rubbed onto her forehead, Olivia winced. She couldn’t decide if Gavin’s cold attitude or the antiseptic stung more. She breathed out slowly as the local anesthetic was administered by the physician’s assistant and was quite pleased when he announced the completion of the stitches. She hadn’t felt a thing.

  Numerous emotions raged through Gavin as he watched Olivia’s stitches being placed. He was relieved, of course, that she was alive, and thrilled that her only injuries involved a few stitches with a couple of bruises.

  But he was also furious. Her decision to meet Johnson alone galled him. Every time he thought about it, new waves of fury would crash over him.

  Once the nurse completed relaying the post operative instructions, Gavin offered Olivia his hand to help her slide off of the exam table.

  She smirked at him.

  “Don’t pull the mannerly cop act with me. I know you’re mad. I know you, Gavin. Since this whole fiasco’s over now, you can finally move on with your life. You don’t need to worry about guarding me any longer.”

  He grabbed her arm again, immediately lightening his grasp when he felt her flinch beneath his hand.

  “You’re damned right, I’m mad,” he whispered, harshly. “I’m absolutely furious with you right now. I’m just not sure what I’m supposed to do about it.”

  Angrily yanking her arm away, she shrugged. “I don’t want you to do anything about it. I don’t need you to do anything about me. I can take care of myself. Now, I’m going to go see my Dad. I can find my own way to the station. I certainly don’t need you as a police escort any longer,” she sneered.

  Then she squared her shoulders, cast him a hateful look, and stomped off.

  Sheer aggravation made Gavin roughly drag his hands over his own face as though trying to grind out frustration. Then he turned in the opposite direction and walked out of the hospital.

  As Olivia approached the hospital room where her Dad was being treated, she slowed her gait, experiencing an episode of panic and a wave of nausea upon seeing how small he looked lying in the hospital bed. The room was completely silent except for the periodic blips from the IV machine and her Dad’s labored breathing. Slipping quietly into the room, she whispered a tearful apology to him, and then rose up onto her tiptoes to take a closer look at the sutured wound on the top of his head. So completely engrossed in examining her father she didn’t realize Maddy was sitting in a chair, partially hidden behind the wooden door, silently observing her.

  “Olivia, he’s going to be alright,” she said, softly. “I’d asked Ron to tell you that when I saw him leaving Dad’s room earlier.”

  Maddy walked over, reached across the bed and gathered Olivia’s hand within her own. They faced one another, their hands linked over their father.

  “This isn’t your fault. Johnny Johnson and Tom are the ones to blame.”

  Sighing heavily, Olivia spoke in a whisper.

  “He, Johnny Johnson, told me that Tom was trying to end it. Tom must’ve wanted out and he was going to contact the FBI. Johnny Johnson confessed to me that he was responsible for Tom’s death. He killed my husband, Maddy.”

  She brushed away the few tears which were gently slipping down her face.

  “Tom wa
nted to make things right because of me and the boys. I’d been so enraged with him and now that I know all this, I feel differently. Honestly, I know this sounds ridiculous but I’m thankful I went out there alone, because now I feel like I’ll be able to finally forgive him and move on with my life.”

  Olivia sobbed quietly as Maddy walked around the foot of the hospital bed and embraced her weeping sister.

  Wiping away tears, Maddy told her, “If the silver lining in your stupid decision is finding closure for the betrayal in your marriage, then I guess I won’t be able to stay mad at you.”

  “I wonder if Gavin will be as forgiving as you are, Maddy,” Olivia asked aloud, but she highly doubted it.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Olivia stood outside the front door of the police station, not wanting to go in. She knew once she entered the building she would need to relive the entire morning again, recalling every detail with as much clarity as she possibly could.

  Feeling vulnerable and exhausted, she opened the door and crossed the threshold anyway.

  Ron spied her walking down the corridor and met her halfway.

  “Olivia, thank you for coming in. I know you’re probably tired, but we’ll obtain more details if we do this today rather than if we wait another twenty four hours.”

  Smiling wistfully, she contemplated turning around and walking right back out the front door.

  Instead she replied, “I understand, Ron. I just want to get this over and done with so I can finally go home.” She flashed him a genuine smile. “I can go home and know this is whole ordeal is over. It’s finally over.”

  He led her down a narrow hall, into a windowless interrogation room where Gavin and another man were already seated at a long rectangular table. They stood up as Olivia entered. Gavin moved forward, addressing her first.

  “Good afternoon, Olivia. I’d like to introduce you to Agent Harold Messinger; he’s with the FBI. Agent Messinger’s been conducting the investigation pertaining to employees associated with Viccerroy Malpractice Group, who were suspected of collecting insurance premiums on fraudulent insurance policies.”

  She extended her hand to greet him and then swayed involuntarily toward a chair.

  “I hope you don’t mind, but I really need to sit down.”

  Agent Messinger pulled out the chair for her, once she was seated comfortably, everyone else selected seats around the table.

  Ron addressed her in a formal tone. “We’ll begin with your statement. I need to tell you this will be recorded.”

  Nodding her acceptance, Ron started the tape recorder. After stating her name, date, time, and the case number, he then nodded in return, giving her permission to begin.

  Olivia drew in a deep calming breath and closed her eyes, allowing her memory to return to the early morning hours of this interminably long New Year’s Day.

  She began by describing the phone call she’d received at Mulligan’s and how she returned to her house to obtain the fake policies and floppy disk from the safe. As she talked she kept her eyes closed, trying to visualize the events of the morning so she could recount them in correct chronological order.

  When she opened her eyes and cast a sidelong glance at Gavin, she found he was once again listening to her with the neutral expression of a trained police officer. She gave a rough estimate as to the length of time it took for her to arrive at Little Pine State Park and described how she’d made her way through the dark toward the cabin.

  Next, she explained how the painful shock of Johnny Johnson slamming her headfirst into the cabin wall caused her to drop the policies and the base ball bat that she’d been carrying as her weapon.

  Suddenly, her eyes flew open.

  “I never gave him the disk,” she murmured. “It must still be in my coat pocket.”

  Ron looked to Gavin, who in turn, nodded his head, acknowledging the truth of her words.

  “We found it in your coat,” Ron assured her.

  Expelling air she didn’t even realize she’d been holding, Olivia hastily blurted out her next words.

  “Johnny Johnson confessed to killing my husband, Tom.”

  All three men, who up until now had been wearing poker faces, experienced a slight shift in facial expressions as they glanced around the table, at one another.

  Gavin, in an attempt to betray as little as possible in the presence of Agent Messinger, kept a death grip on his pen until he was sure his emotions were contained, and only then did he slowly lift his gaze to focus on her face.

  Ron cleared his throat before coaxing her on.

  “Olivia, please try to repeat what he told you, verbatim.”

  She took another deep breath before speaking again. Once she was finally able to continue, her voice was thick, strangled with emotion.

  “Johnny Johnson told me, Tom had agreed to participate in their scheme because he was concerned about providing for our family. He said that Tom had wanted out and either wanted to contact or had contacted the FBI. Johnny expressed that he felt Tom had betrayed him. He told me that he’d cut the brake line on Tom’s car which resulted in the accident that took his life.”

  She became quiet for a moment.

  “He told me he took care of Tom,” she said simply, wiping away a lone tear which managed to escape. “After he confessed to playing an active role in the death of my husband, I attacked him. At some point during the altercation with him, I remember scratching my fingernails down the one side of his face.”

  She swallowed hard as she recalled the next turn of events.

  “After that Johnny told me he wanted to enjoy me, before he killed me.”

  As she voiced the words, she glanced up at Gavin and saw a muscle flexing along his jaw. “He started groping me, and tried to force himself on me. He’d already managed to unbutton my jeans when Officer Rafferty intervened, after that I no longer had any contact with Johnny Johnson.”

  Since her statement was completed, Olivia’s eyes lifted to meet Gavin’s fierce gaze, he was studying her intently.

  Agent Messinger spoke first.

  “Mrs. Jones I need to inform you that we believe there may be a third party involved in this insurance scam. If that is the case and our suspicions are confirmed I’m completely confident this person will be identified by Johnny Johnson, but I wanted to provide you with this information.”

  She silently nodded her head before Agent Messinger continued to ask her about a few more minor details.

  Finally, Agent Messinger dismissed her, informing her she’d be contacted if there were anymore questions. Thanking them, Olivia stood up to leave.

  Gavin rose simultaneously, gently taking her arm.

  “I need a few minutes of your time.”

  After they both shook Agent Messinger’s hand, he followed her out of the interrogation room.

  She stole a quick glance at him as he held the door open for her. Now dressed in his uniform, he seemed so detached, so unfamiliar that suddenly an unexplainable sadness washed over her.

  She was going to miss him. She loved having him there in the mornings, loved sharing her day with him and loved knowing he was there, keeping them safe.

  In Gavin Rafferty, she’d found a friend. She also realized at that moment, when faced with no longer having him as a daily part of her life, that she’d fallen hopelessly in love with him. She wanted to be with him, day in and day out, sharing her family with him. But since he’d never once uttered any of the same sentiments to her, she opted to remain silent and kept those new found feelings to herself.

  Sure he’d talked marriage once before, but there was a huge difference between marrying for sex and marrying for love.

  Silently, they walked down the hallway until they reached a side door leading into the rear parking lot. Then Gavin pulled her outside.

  Olivia decided she needed to speak first.

  “Gavin, I’m very tired. As a matter of fact, I’m exhausted. I need to go home. I don’t have it in me to discuss anything else
today.”

  He noted her bloodshot eyes and the dark purple shadows which had formed under them. She was pale with exhaustion.

  “Olivia, I’ll give you a few days to recuperate. I need some time to think things over. I just wanted to tell you, I’ll be coming up to the house tonight. I won’t come in, but I’ll meet my parents so they can follow me over to my apartment.”

  She gaped at him. “Why would your parents need to leave right away?”

  Noting her confused expression, he shrugged his shoulders. “I guess I just assumed since I’ll no longer be staying there, my parents should stay with me.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” she snapped. “Your parents are guests in my home and they are welcome to stay there until they’re ready to leave.”

  Gavin gave her an amused grin. “You’re not so exhausted that you’ve lost your edge, Olivia.”

  Rolling her eyes at him, she grinned back. “I’m never that tired, Gavin Rafferty. Now would it be rude of me to ask you for a ride out to Little Pine State Park? My SUV is still out there.”

  Gavin shook his head.

  “An officer returned it to your house earlier this afternoon. I’d found your car keys in your coat pocket along with the floppy disk,” he paused, arching an eyebrow. “I also found a rock.”

  Olivia smirked at him. “I don’t carry a firearm, so I figured the rock may be helpful instead.”

  Chuckling with amusement, he placed an arm over her shoulders and casually walked her around the front of the building to a police cruiser. The car was barely out of the precinct parking lot before Olivia was fast asleep.

  Chapter Twenty

  He waited forty eight hours. After spending the last two days deliberating exactly what he wanted to say to her when she opened the front door, Gavin apprehensively drove up the long winding driveway toward the stone farmhouse that now felt like home to him.

  The last two days had been torment. He’d missed Olivia and the boys with a fierceness that was completely foreign to him. Not to mention, he’d been mentally reliving the entire nightmare regardless of whether he was asleep or awake.