Amy Maxwell & the 7 Deadly Sins (The Amy Maxwell Series Book 2)

by Heather Balog

  My voice is high pitched and squeaking so it’s no wonder that the nurse cringes as she steps through the curtain just then.

  “I’m going to have to ask you people to keep your voices down in here. We have other patients, you know.” She shoots a murderous look at me as she sweeps the curtain back.

  Wow, what a beaotch! Speaking of beotches, I am wondering where Beth is and why it is taking them so long to evaluate her. But first I must find out what the heck Roger was thinking calling River. Repeatedly.

  “So how did you get his phone number?” I ask Roger even though I have a feeling I know the answer.

  “I programmed it into my phone. Just in case,” Roger mumbles.

  Yup. Mortified, I cannot even look at River or Jason for that matter. Jason has just been leaning back in his chair with a satisfied smile on his face, arms tucked behind his head. I glance at him and he winks at me. I bet he’s thinking, I’m so glad I’m not married right now.

  “And then you called him? Why?” I have switched my gaze back to my husband.

  “Well you were gone and I had a feeling you weren’t getting pizza like you said. You and Beth were acting very suspicious,” Roger explains.

  “Oh that makes tons of sense. My sister came with me to meet my lover. Do you even hear yourself, Roger?” I lean back against the pillow and cross my arms over my chest. The pain in my foot is intensifying and I want to ask Nurse Ratched for more pain medication. She’ll probably bite my head off if I do. Wait, did I even take the pain meds? I don’t think I did.

  “Well it’s a good thing he did.” River speaks up interrupting my inner speculation. “It alerted me to the fact that you were in trouble. If he hadn’t called me, I wouldn’t have called you, and you wouldn’t have realized you still had your phone.” He beams at us like he has solved the world’s most puzzling conundrum.

  “True,” I reluctantly admit. He is correct. Roger’s meddling may have been what saved me and Beth. I owe him my life in a way. I still wish he would have trusted me.

  “After I got your message, I called Jason,” River is explaining. “He called the local police and told me to call Roger back to activate the ‘find my phone’ feature of your cell.”

  I wrinkle up my brow. “Find my phone?”

  “Yes. Here, I’ll show you.” River reaches for my phone and presses a few buttons. “You don’t even have this thing password protected. You really should at least put a password in. Anyone could just pick it up and read your messages or make phone calls from it.”

  I just may have to put in a password in the future to prevent my husband from nosing into my affairs. Um, not affairs…bad choice of words.

  River is showing me an icon on my phone. It is green and almost looks like a radar screen. I never noticed it before. “You can find the phone from your iPad or if you’ve linked it to another phone. I called Roger and explained the situation. Despite his suspicious attitude, he was eager to help and was able to locate your phone quickly from the iPad at home.” River nods at Roger. “Great job.”

  Roger beams like River has given him the Nobel Peace Prize. Allie is always reminding him how technologically challenged he is so I guess being able to activate an app has completely bolstered his ego.

  “Okay, so let me get this straight. You,” I poke Roger in the chest. “Called River because you thought I was meeting him and carrying on some affair with him.” I practically spit out the word. I can’t even look at River when I speak because the idea of me having an affair with him, as sweet as he is, is completely laughable.

  Roger nods sheepishly as I continue. “He calls me because he is concerned. I discover that I have my cell phone, use it to redial and reach River’s cell phone. River gets my message, calls Jason.” I wave in Jason’s general direction. I definitely can’t look at him right now. “Jason calls the cops, River calls Roger, Roger activates the app that finds my phone.”

  The three men are nodding. “Then I called the police and gave them your location. Which is how we rescued you,” Jason adds.

  “Okay. I understand that part, but what I don’t get is what happened after I hit my head. There were gunshots. Rapid gunshots. That couldn’t have been good. How did Beth escape unscathed? She only looks like she has a scratch on her.”

  River and Jason glance at each other uncomfortably. Roger arches his eyebrows and purses his lips. It is his classic ‘I know something you don’t know’ expression. He usually walks around like that for the entire week before Christmas. And it typically means that he’s seen what the children have wrapped up for me and it’s not good. It usually involves me pasting a fake face that says oh my God I absolutely love this broken refrigerator magnet or just what I needed; another I heart Mom mug!

  “What is going on?” I raise my eyebrows and take turns glaring at the men. Beth is unscathed isn’t she? She wasn’t bleeding, she didn’t look like she had any broken limbs… Oh my God! She wasn’t just a figment of my imagination, right? What if she was dead and I was the only one who could see her? What if this is like The Sixth Sense and all of a sudden I see dead people? Did anyone else in the room talk to her?

  My panic is interrupted by a doctor and new nurse sweeping through the curtain. “Hi, Mrs. Maxwell,” the doctor says while holding out his hand. I assume he is the doctor because he is holding a clipboard and wearing a stethoscope and a name tag that says Dr. M. Wolfe. He also appears to be twelve years old, a real life Doogie Howser.

  “Um, hi,” I reply unenthusiastically while shaking his un-calloused hand. I am hoping he is just coming to check on my blood pressure or something because it’s really not a good time…

  He is sticking an X-ray film against the white lighted box on the wall. “Mrs. Maxwell, as you can see, you have a complicated fracture of your left talus navicular and the first through fourth metatarsals.” He is pointing at the blurry picture and speaking Greek to me.

  “Um, ok.” I squint my eyes and bob my head up and down, acting like I understand what Doogie is telling me. “So I need a cast then?”

  “Oh no, no,” the doctor replies shaking his unruly blonde locks vehemently.

  Oh good. I don’t even need a cast. Wrap an ace bandage on this puppy and send me on my way. With plenty of Percocet.

  “You’re going to need surgery,” Dr. Doogie announces as he points to the nurse. She scoots over to my bedside and hands me her own clipboard and a pen.

  “Sign here and here,” she remarks while pointing to a space on the bottom of the page that is marked with a giant X. “Go ahead, Mrs. Maxwell,” she urges as she jerks the pen toward me once more. I am just staring at it dumbfounded as if I have never seen a pen before and would have no clue what to do with it. The men in the room are also staring at me as if I have lost several points on my IQ in the last few moments.

  “What’s the matter, Amy?” Roger finally asks. “Does your hand hurt, too?” He glances at the doctor as if he would know if I’m in pain by some sort of mental medical telepathy.

  “No!” I shake my head. “I can’t have surgery! How can I have surgery, Roger?” I push the nurse’s hand away. She straightens up, looking rather offended in the process as if I have refused her award winning chocolate chip cookies.

  “Um, they put you under anesthesia and then they cut you and fix the problem and stitch you back up?” Roger asks while tilting his head to the side.

  “Not how like that!” I scoff with aggravation. “How would it be possible for me? I don’t have time for that! We’re having Thanksgiving at our house in three weeks and I’ve got an exam next week and I am in charge of Lexie’s next Girl Scout troop trip and Colt has hockey tonight and I’m supposed to get the snack and Allie needs a ride to-”

  “Amy,” Roger says while placing his hand on my arm firmly. “You need your foot fixed. It’s not a choice. We will figure out…” he pauses for a moment and reconsiders his words. “I will figure out how to get that all done. Your mother can help and Laura and maybe since Beth is the
one that got you into this mess…”

  “Beth!” I jerk my entire body off of the bed, ignoring the stabbing pain in my foot. Beth must be alive! “Where is Beth?”

  Once again, the men in the room glance around as if they haven’t heard me. “Roger,” I growl as I grip the sleeve of his jacket. “What is going on with Beth?”

  Roger swallows so hard I can see his Adam’s apple bob up and down. “Beth is being interviewed by the police right now.”

  “Oh.” I let out a sigh of relief as I settle back down comfortably.

  Of course she was being interviewed by the police. How silly of me. They need to get her account of what happened. They’ll probably interview me next and get my statement. That makes total sense.

  “Yeah, she shot that Claudia up pretty bad,” River remarks off handedly.

  I shoot back up in the bed. “What?” My sister shot Claudia? How? How is that even possible? Beth didn’t even have a gun!

  “Mrs. Maxwell!” The nurse is taping the pen to the clipboard pretty impatiently. “You need to sign here. I need to book the OR and-” I am not even listening to her as I hastily sign the bottom of the page, not even taking my eyes off the dynamic duo in front of me.

  “What does he mean, shot that Claudia up pretty bad?” I ask again.

  Jason glares at River. “I thought we agreed that we wouldn’t bring that up. You’ll make a hell of a cop,” Jason mumbles as he shakes his head.

  River pales (yes, even paler believe it or not) and lowers his eyes like a preschooler being admonished for eating paste. “Aww, geez…I’m sorry.”

  “You need to work on your communication skills,” Jason is muttering as I frantically grab the sleeve of Jason’s shirt.

  “Yell at him later! I want to know what happened! Is Beth ok? Is…” I gulp, not sure if what I am about to say is completely out of the realm of possibilities. “Claudia dead?” I stare at Jason, my eyes pleading with him not only to tell me the truth, but to tell me the truth that I want to hear.

  He averts my eyes and I immediately begin to panic, thinking the worst. “Oh shit,” I mutter and let out a long, low whistle. “That’s bad.”

  “Shit,” Roger mutters and I swivel my head toward him. I have forgotten he was sitting there.

  “It’s not completely terrible,” River injects.

  “River,” Jason warns.

  River shrugs his shoulders at his cousin, making him look like a scarecrow. “She’s not dead…”

  “Oh thank God,” I breathe out a sigh of relief. Not that I truly care about Claudia’s welfare. It’s Beth’s fate that I care about. I shudder to think of what could have happened if she killed Claudia. Jail time, a trial…possibly prison. I have a feeling Beth would not do well in prison. The fellow lady prisoners probably wouldn’t be interested in doilies Beth could knit for their hotplates.

  “She’s not out of the woods yet,” Jason advises. “Claudia is actually in surgery right now.”

  “But I thought she only sustained minor injuries,” River remarks to his cousin.

  “There’s a bullet lodged in her spine, River. I wouldn’t exactly classify that as minor,” Jason remarks sardonically. I gasp as I imagine Beth shooting her nemesis in the back, a bullet getting stuck between her C4 and T1. (Yeah, yeah, I watch too many hospital dramas, too. Not that I’ve ever wanted to be a doctor or nurse. Wayyyyyy too bloody for me).

  “Ok, maybe minor is the wrong word. Non-life threatening. How’s that? Better?” River counters with his own level of sarcasm. Wow, their family holidays must be just as lively as ours.

  Jason nods. He pats my hand as he sees I am quite distressed by this news. Roger scowls and grips my other hand. Tightly. I cringe and try not to wrestle my hand away from him but it’s difficult because he hurts.

  “It will be most likely construed as self-defense though, Amy,” Jason is reassuring me. “Beth was in a hostage situation and she needed to fire the gun to escape her captor.”

  I nod with complete understanding despite the fact that something is nagging at my brain. Something is not quite adding up, but I can’t for the life of me put two and two together. My brain keeps coming up with five.

  “Well, she didn’t have to fire that many times,” River remarks.

  Now it is Jason’s turn to scowl. “I really don’t think that’s going to make an iota of difference in this situation, River. She was under a lot of stress and she just witnessed-” Jason stops speaking abruptly and clamps his mouth shut.

  It’s suddenly dawning on me; the critical piece I missed. “What did she witness?” I ask with my eyebrow raised. I am glaring at Jason who is trying his best to avoid eye contact with me. River is slinking out of my visual field. Roger looks completely perplexed. I’m sure he has not been debriefed about the situation at all. “Jason? How did Beth shoot Claudia? She didn’t have the gun. Claudia didn’t even have the gun the last I saw. Kevin had it.”

  “You’ve had a very stressful day,” Jason remarks off-handedly as he rises to his feet. “River and I should probably be going now and let you get your rest before they take you for surgery…”

  “No way.” I grab his arm before he can escape. “You are going to tell me what Beth saw or I will make your life a living hell. Don’t you dare underestimate me,” I growl.

  Roger grunts as he crosses his arms over his chest and leans against the wall. “Yeah, you definitely don’t want to underestimate her ability in that category.”

  “Shut up, Roger,” I snap.

  He shuts up and sits back in the chair.

  “It’s probably not a good idea to get you all worked up before surgery. I’m sure the doctor would agree.” Jason is craning his neck and parting the curtains as if he is searching for the doctor to come swooping in and rescue him.

  “Stop treating me like I’m a baby!” I slam both of my balled up fists into the mattress (or whatever you call the cheap crap they put on hospital gurneys…a combo of sawdust and fabric).

  “Fine. Just remember, you asked for it,” Jason mutters as he runs his hands nervously through his hair. “Kevin shot himself in the head.” He sticks his hand behind my body, as if to catch me when I fall.

  ~Seventeen~

  I don’t pass out this time. I’m just so stunned by Jason’s words that I can’t speak.

  “Splattered his brains all over the window. Blood, guts, and glass everywhere. That was the shattering noise we heard before the gunfire,” River informs me. Now I gasp.

  “Jesus Christ, River!” Jason yelps while smacking him in the back of the head. “Really?”

  River shrugs as he leans out of his cousin’s way. “Sorry. She wants to be a cop, Jason. She’s going to have to stomach these things.”

  “You don’t have to be so damn blunt,” Jason mutters.

  “Oh, wow,” I finally manage to say. All three men are staring at me expectantly like I am going to sob or throw a tantrum or pass out. But I’m not. I don’t even really care, actually. I know that sounds heartless, but I didn’t know Kevin. Yet, I ran the gamut of emotions in his presence tonight and it is sobering to think that he would have done something that drastic to get out of the situation he was in. Well, to tell you the truth, the whole situation was pretty drastic from start to finish, but I am certain that killing himself was not the only way to solve the challenge he was in.

  “Is that how Beth got the gun? She took it after Kevin shot himself?” I ask, my voice cracking on the edges of the sentence. I feel tears stinging at my eyes, not for Kevin, but for Beth. For all she did to get herself into this mess with this horrible couple, nobody deserves to have the night that she did.

  Jason nodded. “We’re not sure of the particulars yet; that’ll hopefully get cleared up when they finish interviewing Beth…and of course, as soon as Claudia is able to speak about it. From what we have gathered so far, Kevin shot himself and the gun dropped out of his hand. Apparently Claudia was stunned and Beth acted pretty quickly. That was probably the difference
between life and death for her.”

  I nod as I blow out the air that I’ve trapped in my throat. I didn’t even realize I was holding my breath. River adds, “But you know how eyewitness accounts are. Especially traumatized eyewitnesses who have shot someone or have been shot at. We’ll probably never know exactly what happened in that car.”

  “That’s not exactly true,” a booming voice from behind the curtain retorts.

  Who let the Wizard of Oz in here?

  As the men swivel their heads toward the voice, the curtains part and a heavy set, older gentleman with several chins, very closely cropped silver hair, a perfectly tailored suit comes gliding into the makeshift hospital room. I would have assumed it was nearly impossible for someone that bulky to enter a room so gracefully but he manages to make it look effortless. He stands next to Jason and River, completely dwarfing them and making the tiny area feel even more claustrophobic. I am trembling from his presence. He appears calm, but he reeks of authority.

  Is he here to share bad news about Beth? Or even Claudia? Not that I really care about Claudia, but what happens to her may directly affect my sister’s fate.

  “Detective Joe Neville, ma’am. A pleasure to meet your acquaintance,” he remarks while clasping my shaking hand into his giant paw. He pumps my hand enthusiastically, a huge grin spreading across his broad face. I guess he isn’t here to share devastating news of my sister’s fate because he wouldn’t be so friendly, right?

  “Um, hi,” I answer oh so eloquently.

  “What do you mean, that’s not exactly true?” Jason asks with his eyebrow raised and his head cocked to the side as he stares questioningly at Detective Neville.

  Detective Neville grabs Jason’s hand and also pumps it with vigor. Jason looks like he is going to vomit from the fierce up and down motion. “Hi! You must be Agent Collins. I’ve heard fabulous things about you from my boys. We really do appreciate your fast acting and take charge attitude. A pleasure to meet you.”

  Jason studies the detective with suspicion, attempting to discern whether the man is pulling his leg or not. “Um, yeah, right,” is Jason’s response as he inches closer to the head of the bed. It almost seems to be a protective move, one that does not escape Roger’s notice. He also moves toward my head on the opposite end of the bed.