We All Sleep Alone (Finley Creek Book 11)

by Calle J. Brookes

  “I don’t understand why some people think that whatever they want, they are going to get by saying it. It’s the law that we report it. Never mind the fact that someone shot at him tonight.”

  Annie stalked toward Izzie. The fierce expression on Annie’s face told Izzie everything she needed to know. “Give them to me.”

  “I can do it. If you want to take a break.” Izzie studied Annie quickly. There was blood on Annie’s white tank top. The pink jacket Annie had worn for years lay on Allen’s kitchen table, saturated with red, ruined. “You’re not hurt?”

  “No. I wasn’t the target. He was. Which is why he’s an idiot for not getting someone to guard him. No. It might screw up whatever scheme he’s got going on. Never mind that someone tried to kill him. Could have killed the both of us!”

  Annie jerked around until she was staring at him. “You...you...” She spun back around. No one dared to talk. Izzie shot a quick glance at Allen. He was staring at Annie like she’d grown four heads. Izzie smirked.

  Yep. Allen Jacobson hadn’t ever seen the real Annie. Not many people had.

  Annie had one of the hottest tempers Izzie had ever seen. She also had one of the biggest senses of control. Izzie had only seen her lose that control a handful of times. Usually with Annie’s mother. Or with bullies. There had been that one memorable time when Izzie had done something royally stupid—involving a man six years older than she was, when she was fifteen at the time—Izzie had been on the receiving end of that temper.

  Annie stormed over to the sink and began washing the blood off her hands and arms.

  Izzie turned toward the mayor of Finley Creek. She’d met him through a friend of hers about a year ago—and while not exactly a friend, she liked him well enough. Not if he was going to get Annie hurt. “Well, you’ve really set her off now.”

  “She has a temper.” There was shock in Turner’s eyes. She didn’t think it was from blood loss. “She seems so...sweet.”

  “She is. She doesn’t suffer fools easily. Especially when she’s scared.” Or cared about someone. Izzie was starting to suspect that Annie did care about this man. He’d certainly found his way into Annie’s world quite a few times lately.

  Izzie pulled the tetanus booster out first.

  Annie would need a few minutes to calm herself back down. “So what exactly happened, and why didn’t you go to the ER?”

  “I have my reasons.”

  The look in his eyes told her those reasons were darker than he had wanted anyone to know.

  “Is Annie going to be safe?” she asked bluntly. “In whatever’s going on? She has three kids who need her safe.”

  “I’m not going to let anyone hurt her ever again.”

  That didn’t answer Izzie’s question. Not by a long shot.

  Allen had apparently sewn up the wounds on Turner’s arm before she’d gotten there. Going along with the mayor’s scheme.

  “Why are we not reporting this? You can get into trouble for this.” She looked at Allen. He ran the biggest risk by not following the laws. She wouldn’t want to see him get into serious trouble for this. He was far too brilliant of a surgeon for the hospital to lose him over something like this.

  “We are,” he said, surprising her. “I’ve already called Elliot Marshall. He’ll be here as soon as he can.”

  “Damn it, Al. A little loyalty here. Solidarity against the pretty ladies,” Turner said, his eyes trained on Annie. Like he couldn’t look away.

  He seemed fascinated.

  “Someone shot at you. They could have hurt Annie. Regardless of what you have going on—or what you want coming out in the open—we have to report it to the TSP. What they do with that information is up to them.” He shot a look at Turner. “Elliot owes me a few favors. I’ll call one in. See if I can get him to delay releasing the information by a few days.”

  “That’s probably the best I’m going to get, isn’t it?”

  Allen nodded. Izzie took a moment to study him quietly, against the backdrop of his home. He looked…good. Attractive. It was no wonder the doofy nurses on first shift went gaga over him. “I’m afraid so. If Annie hadn’t been with you, I’d have been able to keep my mouth shut. I’m not going to take any chances with her. I’ve...seen what can happen too many times lately. I’d rather not risk it.”

  She had to agree with him there.

  35

  Jake stared at the woman’s body as Chuckie the evidence tech retrieved the body from the water. “How long has she been there?”

  Murder. Again. This time there weren’t guns involved. There had been far too many homicides in recent days in Finley Creek lately. Far too many for a city of around sixty thousand people. There was a reason for that.

  Jake had been trying to identify that reason for eighteen months now.

  It still stung that Marshall had pulled him from the case.

  Chuckie shook her head. In the setting sun, her brown hair looked almost red. “It’s hard to tell. With all the rains we’ve had, and the condition of the body, anything from weeks to days. We’ll know more once we get her to the ME.”

  Jake knew better to ask when that was going to be. Everything was backlogged because of the storm. It would be for months to come. The TSP was now starting to rebuild on the actual location. “Keep me in the loop. I’ve been looking for her for weeks.”

  “She still has a wallet. That’s surprising,” Chuckie said. She pulled it from the victim’s back pocket. “It’s stuck in her pocket pretty tightly.”

  It took some maneuvering, but she was able to get the slim folio clear. Chuckie flipped it open and pointed a small waterproof penlight at the contents. “ID is partially legible. Connie, but the last name is obscured by ink bleed. ID number is still fully visible. We’ll have you a full ID by the end of the day.”

  “Just confirm it. She’s Callum’s missing nurse. She disappeared a week or two before the tornado.”

  He’d been searching for her for weeks. Only one of the cases he had. His load had doubled since the tornado. No surprise. Everyone’s had. Jake stepped back.

  He had a family notification to make.

  Damn it. Those were the worst part of the job.

  He hadn’t made it halfway across the city before Marshall was calling him again.

  Damn it. This shit never ended.

  36

  They’d found a body. He’d seen it on the news playing in the rec room. Wallace suspected exactly whose it was. She’d been in the water for weeks now. Found not even three miles downstream from where he’d put her.

  They’d slept together. There could be DNA on her body, still. Even though she’d been submerged for so long.

  He’d used a condom—he would never risk Jennifer’s health by having unsafe sex—and he’d bathed Connie’s body thoroughly while wearing gloves. He’d been careful.

  She’d been submerged for weeks. That had to mean something.

  There was talk, even in the jail, about who she had possibly been. There had been an ID made, but the TSP wasn’t releasing that information yet.

  He knew, though. He knew.

  Of course…he could be wrong. The sheriff of the county south of Finley Creek had had an actual serial killer obsessed with plastic wrap active in the area recently. That man had been arrested, Wallace had read. Everyone had lived in fear for weeks because of that.

  It could be a part of that. Even though the body had been found on the Finley Creek County side of the reservoir.

  He needed to calm himself down. There wasn’t much to tie him to Connie.

  Unless she’d told someone about their affair.

  She could have. She didn’t have super-close friends, but she could have told someone. It was probably only a matter of time until they found him out. About Connie…about Miranda.

  Maybe this was what he’d deserved for what he’d done to all of them. Each of their faces flashed through his mind again. Connie. Miranda. Innocent little Izzie.

  He was glad
he hadn’t killed her too.

  “Henedy. Your visitor’s here. Guess you got you a fancy attorney with all that money, huh?”

  Wallace stood. He had gotten really good at doing what he was supposed to do in prison. It was a different kind of life in this place. The walls kept the bad guys in. He wished to hell that they kept all the ghosts out, too.

  Jennifer was waiting there. His heart raced, seeing her.

  He loved that woman so much.

  Her big dark eyes were cold to him now. She had her own demons. Demons he’d created.

  Wallace wanted to touch her but didn’t dare. He didn’t know how she had managed this, but his wife had plenty of connections in the city. Jennifer always had managed to find her way to everything she wanted. He was so proud of her. He wanted to tell her that, but didn’t. He didn’t know what to say to her. She had one word to say to him, though.

  “Bail.”

  “What?”

  “We’re going to get you out of here, Wallace,” the attorney said. “But it will take some time. I need you to be honest with me—is there anything you’ve done that will make it harder for that to happen?”

  Wallace shook his head. No. He wouldn’t ever mention what he’d done. That would be stupid. Dangerous.

  It would ruin everything for Jennifer and Reggie.

  37

  Allen took one look at Izzie and knew she had been pushing herself far too hard. She leaned over the patient, a middle-aged man near sixty, who’d come in suffering from pain in his left arm and suspected indigestion.

  They both knew the possible ramifications of those symptoms.

  Allen stepped closer to the bed. Nothing she was doing required specialized care. Allen had done it a million times himself. He was perfectly capable of doing it now.

  He leaned close enough to her to whisper next to her ear. “Go take a break. You look exhausted.”

  “I’m scheduled to go in an hour. I’ve got this; there are three patients waiting for you.”

  He’d been called in after a minor traffic accident that had backed Cage and Virat up. Now, he was sticking around to help where he could.

  He could help right here, right now.

  “Take a break now. I’ll square it with Cherise.”

  “It’s not possible. There are other nurses who’ve been here longer than I have. We’re all exhausted, but what’s new?” She didn’t want him butting in. Allen got it, but the woman had no business working a full shift right now. It was obvious to anyone looking closely that she wasn’t quite up for it yet. Being an ER nurse was grueling and thankless, even in the best of health.

  “Then you head to exam room C and get started over there. The sooner we get everyone evaluated, the sooner you can take a break.” Izzie needed one. He saw the exhaustion beneath her eyes. Saw the way her narrow hands shook. “Grab something to eat, too.”

  No, it was in her best interest, and the best interest of the hospital and patients, for her not to exhaust herself like this.

  Allen almost said that, but he knew it would have her erupting. That was the last thing they needed right now. He kept his mouth shut until she was finished with the patient. When she was about to step out of the exam room and head to the next, he caught her at the door. “Izzie, you have to take better care of yourself.”

  “I’m doing the best I can. I don’t need you to take care of me.”

  Izzie practically stormed out of the exam room.

  The patient chuckled. Allen winced. He’d almost forgotten where they actually were.

  “Feisty thing, isn’t she? Pretty, too. Reminds me of my own wife. Before I lost her. Cancer, two years ago. All that fire makes a man’s life interesting. I don’t think even two days were the same with her. You’re a lucky man.”

  Allen almost corrected the man about his involvement with the woman, but didn’t.

  As he contemplated it, he knew one thing—whatever man did finally catch Izzie MacNamara would be a lucky man, indeed.

  If he survived the process.

  38

  If Izzie had to talk to one more arrogant, pushy, know-it-all physician, Izzie was probably going to scream. The temporary physician Rafe had been “trying out’’ in the surgical department was a total asshole.

  He’d sleazed up to Izzie the first day, after learning Jillian was the boss’s wife, and Annie involved with the mayor. First, she wasn’t too keen on being anyone’s third choice or part of the crowd. Second, the guy thought he was gifted.

  She didn’t mean in his chosen profession. Unless slimeball was on the Bureau of Labor statistics list somewhere.

  He thought he was sexy as a god and smarter than one, too. Especially smarter than all the nurses who dared to question his goodness.

  Well, Izzie had always had a bad habit of questioning. She had three disagreements and one outright argument with him—in the two days they’d worked together.

  He was worse than Dr. Lanning had ever been.

  That had been saying a lot.

  Dr. Lanning had literally given her nightmares.

  She grabbed her bag and stormed outside.

  She paused on the sidewalk, long enough to pull in a deep breath. It was going to storm again. Just like her mood.

  Great.

  Seemed like all it had done since May had been rain or storm or flood. Mother Nature really had it in for Finley Creek. Either that or she’d been burned out for a while and was taking it out on Texas lately.

  Almost torrential rain started as she was halfway across the parking lot. She could barely see the sign for W4HAV in the distance.

  A part of her wanted to go over there. To see where it had happened one more time. Another part of her wanted to never think about it again.

  Neither she nor Nikkie Jean had been ready to go back to that building yet.

  Nikkie Jean had been talking about it lately. She’d started counseling again—doing it all within the hospital. Her counselor at W4HAV understood that the trauma now associated with W4HAV was going to take a long time for Nikkie Jean to process.

  Nikkie Jean was starting to seriously consider going back.

  It was Izzie that was still hesitating.

  It wasn’t the building that had nearly killed her. In her head, she knew that. The sight of the familiar green-and-white sign had her stomach tightening.

  Wallace Henedy had even taken W4HAV from her.

  Her sense of safety had been ripped away.

  It must not have been all that real to begin with.

  Some of the rain she wiped from her cheeks wasn’t rain at all.

  Damn them. Damn them both. Damn him for doing this to her, and her for letting herself feel so scared of a sign.

  Maybe she should leave this hospital and go into private practice with a physician that she actually respected.

  She could take Cage Ralstone up on his offer to work in his pediatric surgical practice. He only worked at Finley Creek General and Barratt County a few days a week. He had a practice where he saw patients.

  Unfortunately, it was right there across the street. In the W4HAV building.

  In the office he shared with Allen Jacobson.

  Well, there went that idea.

  Allen Jacobson. Talk about awkward. She winced as she remembered yesterday’s confrontation with him. Him and that ass Dr. Baker—all within two hours of each other.

  Allen seemed to be everywhere, challenging her on everything, lately.

  Izzie had no idea what she was supposed to say or feel about him.

  She wasn’t exactly proud of herself for that moment yesterday. He’d had no right telling her that she had no business returning to work yet. She’d been winded and fatigued after dealing with a patient that had outweighed her now one hundred eighteen pounds by two hundred and twenty. He hadn’t been cooperative. She’d had to call in Shane and Ted—two male nurses who together weighed a good five hundred pounds and were strong as bulls—to help her finish up.

  He had a lot to s
ay about her rushing back.

  There had been what had happened with the mayor. Turner was lucky he hadn’t been killed. Him or Annie.

  Fear for her friend struck her once again.

  Something...something bad was going to happen.

  Izzie could feel it. Something bad that had everything to do with Annie.

  39

  Reggie needed to find his mother, as ridiculous as that sounded. His father’s attorney had called. It wasn’t going to go well for his father now.

  Especially if his father continued to not cooperate.

  He’d been told bluntly that all his father seemed to care about was the fact that his wife was leaving him. His father didn’t seem to even be aware of what he had done.

  The attorney was going to claim diminished capacity. Reggie hoped it would work, that they could get his father the help he so obviously needed.

  His dad and Ray had been extra close. Losing Ray in the storm had practically destroyed his father. To lose his mother, too, it was no wonder his dad had gone a little sideways there.

  Not that there was an excuse for shooting someone. Maybe that had been his dad’s way of calling for help when he so desperately needed it.

  The attorney needed Reggie’s mother to confirm how close he had been to Ray, and that she had told his father she was leaving him at the funeral.

  She could have waited a week or two. Reggie bit back the anger.

  Maybe his dad had been an asshole to his mother, but his father had been really close with Ray. She didn’t have to hurt him like that.

  She’d lived with his affairs that long, a week or two wouldn’t have killed her.

  Instead, his father had almost killed someone else in his grief and rage.

  Logically, Reggie knew his mother wasn’t to blame for that. Her timing could have been a hell of a lot better.

  He had grabbed his phone, when someone knocked on the door to the small Craftsman bungalow he was currently living in. He liked to buy foreclosures and live in them while he repaired them in his spare time. It made him feel like he was making a real difference. Taking something old and broken and making it work again.