by Beverly Long
He got in, started the vehicle, and texted Sawyer. On my way back. Be there in fifteen.
He was five minutes away from his destination when he saw the jewelry store. He’d shopped there a few times over the years. A necklace here. Some earrings there. They did a nice job with wrapping birthday and Christmas gifts.
There was an empty parking spot in front of the store.
He took that as a sign.
“Can I help you, sir?” the young woman behind the counter asked.
“Yes,” he said. “Yes, you can.”
* * *
WHEN ROBERT SAT down at his desk, Sawyer looked up.
“I expected you forty-five minutes ago,” he said. “I was getting worried.”
“I had to make a stop.”
Sawyer nodded.
“You going to ask me where?” Robert challenged.
Sawyer cocked his head. “Well, I guess I could. If you’d like me to.”
“You don’t have to,” Robert said.
“Oh, for God’s sake, Robert. Talk.”
Robert looked over both shoulders. There were other people in the room but nobody was paying them any attention. Tasha was not at her desk.
“I was at the jewelry store.”
“You’re getting your tongue pierced?” Sawyer asked.
Robert rolled his eyes. “Right. Just as soon as I do yours.” He stopped. “I went in thinking I might get a necklace, maybe some matching earrings. Carmen was upset about her car. I thought it might cheer her up.”
“Did you find anything?”
Robert tapped his pen on his metal desk. “I got a ring.”
“Okay,” Sawyer said.
“An engagement ring,” Robert clarified. He sat back in his chair and waited for the inquisition to start.
Sawyer didn’t say anything, and that made Robert crazy. “Well?” he prompted his friend.
“Congratulations,” Sawyer said. “I guess I didn’t realize it had gotten to this stage.”
“We haven’t actually talked about it,” Robert admitted.
“What have you talked about?”
“Oh, you know. Favorite ice cream flavors, best movies of the year, spring soaps.”
Sawyer raised an eyebrow.
“Never mind. Am I crazy?” Robert asked. “I feel crazy. I feel crazy and light-headed and totally out of control. I swear to God I wasn’t planning on buying a diamond ring. It was just a day ago that I was reflecting upon why I’d never get married.”
“Marriage is wonderful,” Sawyer said.
Robert shook his head. “You’ve met my mother.”
“Yeah, and I like her. Here’s a news flash, Robert. You’re not your mother.”
Robert cupped his chin in his hand. “I know that. But I’ve spent my whole life determined not to follow in her footsteps. And then suddenly I was inside that jewelry store and it was as if the diamond rings were calling my name. It sounded sort of like, ‘Hey, dumb-ass.’”
“You answer to that?”
Robert frowned at him. “Not usually. You know, I was this close to beating the hell out of Frank Sage this morning. Just because I thought he might have painted a white stripe on Carmen’s car.”
“So that’s why you bought a ring?”
Robert shook his head. “I bought a ring because she was sad the other day and I don’t want her to ever be sad again. I don’t want her to be cold or hungry or to ever worry about money. I want to wrap her in cotton and keep her safe from idiots like Sage. I want...I want to come home to her at night and talk about our days. I want to hold hands at the movies and eat off each other’s ice cream spoons.” Robert stopped. “I’m losing my mind, aren’t I?”
Sawyer smiled. “I knew something was different last night. Tara was doing everything but stand on her head to get your attention and you just looked uncomfortable. I’ve never seen that before. Not interested, certainly. But never uncomfortable. I thought to myself, where is the cool, calm and collected Robert Hanson who can manage a string of women?”
Robert rolled his eyes. “He got caught in his own fishing line and he’s choking.”
This time Sawyer laughed. “If it makes you feel any better, you’ll be over this in forty or fifty years,” he said. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. Happens to the best of us.”
“I love her,” Robert said. “But here’s the thing. I don’t know how to be a husband and I sure as hell don’t know how to be a father. My mother had a parade of men, but none of them were very good at either job. I don’t have any role models other than you. And unfortunately, the techniques you’re using on Catherine probably aren’t the same ones that will be effective with a surly fifteen-year-old boy.”
“You’re worrying about nothing. You know everything you need to know.”
“I hope you’re right,” Robert said, shaking his head.
“When are you going to pop the question?”
“I have no idea.”
“Good plan.”
* * *
CARMEN STOOD IN Liz’s doorway and buttoned her coat. “Have a good night,” she said to her friend. “Are you getting out of here soon?”
“Yes. I just called Catherine’s sitter and told her I’d be there in about fifteen minutes. What about you?”
“My late appointment canceled so I’m almost done. Just need to stop by Montgomery High School. There’s a counselor there who wants to talk with me. She’s got a potential referral. I told her I’d stop by on my way home from work.”
“You should try to get home before it gets too late. I’m a little freaked out about your car getting vandalized. I know you told me that you don’t think Frank Sage had anything to do with it, but the timing is sort of suspect, isn’t it?”
Carmen tied her scarf around her neck. “That’s certainly the path that Robert seems intent upon following.”
Liz smiled. “Yes, Robert. What started with a little pizza at my house seems to be flourishing into something more. You know every time you say his name, your cheeks get pink and there’s this look in your eyes that I’ve never seen before.”
Carmen unwound the scarf that she’d just tied. Just thinking about Robert made her warm. “I don’t know what’s going on,” she said honestly. “I am so out of my league here.”
“No, you’re not,” Liz said, waving her hand. “Just let it go where it’s going to go. Relax.”
“He kissed me,” Carmen said.
“I figured as much,” Liz said, her tone guarded.
Carmen knew Liz would never ask for details. She was way too classy for that. But then why did she have an adolescent need to give her some?
“It wasn’t like a hey, good friend, nice to see you again kiss. It was...something. My neighbor saw us in the hallway and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to look her in the eye again.”
“Mrs. Curtiss?”
“Yes. I forgot that you’d met her.”
“You probably made her day. She’s cool now so she was probably really cool when she was your age.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve never been cool. I’m a twenty-nine-year-old woman with the dating skills of a fourteen-year-old.”
Liz got up from her desk and walked over to Carmen. She hugged her. “I am so happy for you,” she said. “Robert is a great guy. A wonderful friend. What could be better than two of my best friends getting together?”
Carmen shook her head. “There’s no hooking up going on here,” she said, deliberately using the term that their clients used.
“Well, maybe there should be,” Liz said. “Multiple, explosive hookups.”
“You’re no help,” Carmen said, shaking her head in mock disgust. “I have to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Carmen walked out o
f OCM and across the street to the parking lot where staff parked. While it wasn’t yet dark, the streetlights were on, making the white stripe against the dark paint stand out. The backseat window was covered with duct tape. All in all, it looked pretty bad.
She’d tried to convince Robert that it was random. And she hadn’t been blowing smoke. It had to be. Because the idea that somebody disliked her so much that they felt the need to publicly proclaim it was too distasteful.
She’d call tomorrow and see if she could get her car in to get the paint job repaired and the window fixed. It would mean relying on public transportation for a few days, but anything was better than driving this. It looked like an injured skunk on wheels.
Carmen unlocked her door and slid into the cold vehicle. She started the car and shivered while the heater struggled to warm the space. After a couple minutes, she put the car in Drive and pulled out of the lot.
Montgomery School was ten minutes away and then her apartment another ten. She was grateful that no fresh snow had fallen during the day. For once, the streets were pretty good and the traffic not too heavy.
She accelerated toward the green light at the bottom of the hill, only to tap her brakes when it turned yellow.
The pedal went to the floor.
Her brakes were gone. And her car was picking up speed. The light turned red.
She saw the large delivery truck coming from the left, barreling toward the intersection, and knew there was no way they weren’t going to collide.
* * *
ROBERT WAS PORING through the reports on all the evidence that had been gathered at the scenes where the dead kids had been found, looking for some connection, when his cell phone rang. “Hanson,” he answered.
“This is Officer Smith. We met yesterday.”
At Carmen’s. Good. Maybe they had found some shred of evidence. “What can I help you with?” Robert asked.
“Well, nothing, I guess. I just had some information that I thought you might be interested in.”
“Okay.”
“The car that was vandalized, well, it was just in an accident. When the responding officer entered the license plate, my name came up. He gave me a call.”
Robert shoved back his chair and grabbed his coat. “Where?”
“Corner of Pecan Street and Webster Avenue. Pretty big mess,” he added.
“Fatalities?” Robert forced himself to ask.
“No, but the female driver was transported to Mercy Memorial.”
Chapter Thirteen
When Robert got to the emergency room, nobody would tell him anything. He pulled his badge and demanded information.
“I’ll get a charge nurse,” the woman at the desk told him. “I’m not authorized to provide any information.”
“Just tell me that she’s alive,” he said, leaning over the counter.
Either he scared her or she felt sorry for him because she entered a few clicks on her computer. “Alive and stable upon arrival. That’s all I can tell you.”
It was enough. Carmen was alive. Stable didn’t mean that there weren’t injuries, even serious ones. But stable was better than all kinds of other potential descriptors that were making his knees weak.
What the hell had happened? He pulled out his cell phone and in minutes had the responding officer on the phone. “This is Detective Hanson. I’m looking for information on the accident that you just processed at the corner of Pecan Street and Webster Avenue. What happened?”
“Female driver, C. Jimenez, driving a dark 2010 Honda blew through the intersection. Back end was clipped by a delivery truck that managed to swerve, or the damage and the injuries would have been significantly worse.”
“How badly was she hurt?”
“I don’t know. Paramedics were worried about internal injuries. She was conscious, though. Told me that her brakes failed. The lack of skid marks at the scene supports that.”
Failed brakes. It happened. But rarely.
Had someone tampered with her car? Deliberately put her at risk? “Where’s the vehicle now?”
“It wasn’t drivable. We arranged to have it towed to our impound lot so that one of our guys could take a look at it.”
“Push it up on the list,” Robert instructed. Screw it. Let his boss scream and yell about the importance of not appearing too personally interested in a case.
He wanted blood.
“Will do. Seems like a nice woman, Detective. Kept apologizing for the accident, for causing so many people to have to come out into the cold. Wouldn’t get in the ambulance until she’d talked to the driver of the truck, just to make sure he was okay.”
Carmen Jimenez was as nice as they came. And she could have easily have been killed today. “Call me the minute you have results.”
Robert disconnected and punched Sawyer’s number.
“What’s up?” Sawyer answered.
“Carmen was in an accident this afternoon. Her brakes failed. She’s at Mercy Memorial hospital. Stable condition. I haven’t seen her yet.”
“Damn,” Sawyer hissed.
Robert understood. He knew that Sawyer thought the world of Carmen and that he’d be worried about how Liz would take the news. He also knew that Sawyer wouldn’t like the proximity of the danger. If someone was threatening Carmen, then Liz could potentially get caught in the cross fire.
He put his hand into his pocket and ran his fingers across the flat sterling-silver case that held the diamond ring. “I need your help,” Robert said.
“Anything.”
“Do you know where Carmen parks her car?”
“Yeah. There’s a small lot just east of OCM. That’s where they all park.”
“Okay. Get out there. See if there’s anything to suggest that somebody tampered with her car.”
“Done.”
“I need you to do something else, too. Go find Frank Sage. If he can’t account for every minute of his time, arrest him.” Yeah, he didn’t even know for sure if Carmen’s brakes had been tampered with, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t going to give Sage time to think of an alibi.
“Anything else?”
“Yeah. Tell Liz that I’ll call her with an update on Carmen’s condition just as soon as I know something.” Robert disconnected.
Robert thought about what he should do next. Should he find Raoul? School was out but the kid was probably at band practice. Robert decided to wait. He’d spent the day being pretty irritated with the kid, but there was no doubt that Raoul thought the world of his sister. There was no need to worry him needlessly.
Oh, God, he hoped it would be needless worry. Hoped that somebody would walk out of those doors right now and tell him that everything was fine. Just fine.
He went up to the desk again. “I’m still waiting for information on Carmen Jimenez.”
The clerk shook her head. “Hang on,” she said. She pushed her chair back and walked away. She was back in about two minutes with another woman, ten years older, in blue scrubs with a white lab coat.
“I’m Chelsea Andrews,” the woman said. “I’m in charge today. I understand that you’re interested in an update on Carmen Jimenez. Is she under arrest, Detective?”
Police business generally took precedence over personal business. “Miss Jimenez is a material witness to a very important ongoing investigation,” he said. “I need to talk to her. Now.”
“Come with me,” she said. “But for what it’s worth, the woman has had a hell of a day. I would think the cops would cut her a little slack.”
She led him past six closed doors. At the seventh, she stopped and knocked briefly before opening the door.
The exam room was small, with a bed taking up most of the space. Carmen was in a faded blue-and-white gown, in a bed, propped up by two or three
pillows.
She had airbag burns across the bridge of her nose and her cheeks. Under her eyes, the skin was red and bruised and he suspected she might have a black eye in a day or two.
She’d still be beautiful. “Hi,” he said.
She smiled at him. “I’m not even going to ask how you knew I was here.”
He shrugged. “How are you?”
“I’m okay. Lucky,” she said, looking at the charge nurse who continued to stand in the doorway. “That’s what everybody is telling me.”
He reached for her hand. Her skin was warm and he felt himself relax for the first time since he’d received the awful phone call. “Do you have to stay here?” he asked.
“At least until they read the results of the abdominal CT scan. Then I’m hoping to go home.”
Robert looked over his shoulder. The charge nurse was frowning at him. “Material witness?” she said, letting her gaze rest on their linked hands.
Robert shrugged and the woman shook her head, turned and left. She closed the door behind her.
Robert leaned over the bed and kissed Carmen. Gently. Sweetly. “I’m so sorry that you’re hurt.”
“I’m going to be okay,” she said, her voice a mere whisper. “It was so scary,” she added.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I know that I was driving and I saw the light turn yellow. I pushed on the brake and the pedal went to the floor. I knew something was terribly wrong but by then, I was so close to the intersection. There are businesses on both sides. I didn’t see anywhere to go.” She swallowed hard.
“Then I saw the truck and I really, really thought I was going to die. I pulled my emergency brake and my car went sideways. Then the truck hit me, my air bag went off, and I think I might have blacked out for a minute because the next thing I knew, there was somebody at my door, telling me to just sit tight, that help was coming. I kept asking if anyone else had been hurt and nobody would tell me anything.”
“Everybody else is okay,” he said. “Don’t worry about that.” He hated seeing the look of despair in her pretty brown eyes.
She shook her head. “I just feel horrible. I always maintain my car. I had no idea my brakes were bad. That poor man driving the truck. I finally got to talk to him and he said he was fine but it could have been so much worse and it would have been all my fault.”
