by Dana R. Lynn
No matter how the nurses coaxed, she wouldn’t give in. Finally, they let her have her way. A new commotion outside the door had her sitting up. She sighed, relieved, when she noted that the police had arrived. It was about time. An unfamiliar police officer breezed in to question her. Where was Ryan?
Don’t be ridiculous, Elise. The man has to sleep sometime, she reminded herself. He was a sergeant with the police department. He had an important job and responsibilities. He was not her personal bodyguard.
Still, she felt a bit bereft that he wasn’t the one interviewing her. After a few questions, her chest grew tight and her belly quivered. What if this was a trick? That nurse had been a fraud. What if this officer was just another person sent to get her out of the way?
Elise shifted to the side on her bed, as far to the opposite edge as she dared without falling off the mattress. The officer gave her a quizzical glance. She froze. If he was legitimate, he was probably thinking that she was a little nuts. If he wasn’t...
If he wasn’t really a cop, she might have just tipped her hand and let him know she was onto him. Her muscles tightened. She needed to be ready to escape if he made a move toward her. Inching her hand closer to the edge of the blanket, she curled her fingers around it, ready to whip it away if necessary.
After the longest fifteen minutes of her life, he departed, saying he had all the information he needed.
The instant the door closed behind him, she was out of the bed. How did she know she was any safer now than she’d been an hour ago? She didn’t. That officer could have been the real deal, or not. But she could not afford to lie there and take her chances. She wasn’t safe here.
She wasn’t safe anywhere.
The thought struck her like a punch in the gut. She wasn’t safe. And neither was Mikey and Leah.
What if Leah had tried to contact her? The only place Leah would know to go to find her would be back at her house. Sure, she always left her contact information hanging on the refrigerator in case Leah needed her, but she had no idea if Leah knew the number. Her imagination started working overtime with images of Leah sneaking back into her house and being found by Hudson.
No. She couldn’t remain here. That was certain. She needed to go home. And if Leah hadn’t shown up there, then Elise would make plans to find them. Should she call Ryan? He’d left his card on her bedside table. She snatched it up. Once she got home, she decided. If she called him now, he’d probably tell her to stay in the hospital and let the police take care of it. Good advice, except the hospital had already proved to be dangerous for her health.
Fearing someone would come in, she hurried to get dressed. Fortunately, she didn’t need to worry about the IV any longer. She tied her shoes, then moved as soundlessly as she was able to the door and pulled it open just a teeny crack. Enough to let her slip out.
No one was there.
You’d think there’d be security. Then she heard voices and opened the door a tad bit wider. Ah. There was a security guard in the hall. And he was flirting with the cute night nurse at the desk. If she wasn’t sneaking out, it would no doubt annoy her that the guard wasn’t more vigilant. As it worked in her favor, though, she decided to take advantage. Slipping out the door, she moved quickly and turned down the next hall.
Within moments, she was striding out of the hospital and into the cool night air. Now what? Her car was back at her house. The buses wouldn’t start their routes for another three hours. And there were no taxis waiting outside the hospital. She pulled her cell phone out of her purse. Dead. Of course. Maybe if she walked to the gas station on the next corner, someone would let her use their phone to call for a cab.
“Elise! Is that you?”
Startled, Elise whirled around. A woman had pulled her car up to the curb and rolled down the window. She’d recognize the black spiky hair anywhere. Angie Yates, the college student who used to watch Mikey. “Oh, hi, Angie. What are you doing out at this time in the morning?”
Angie raised her finely drawn eyebrows. “I was about to ask you the same thing. I’m just heading back to the dorm after spending the weekend with my mom. You?”
Elise wrinkled her nose as she contemplated whether or not to tell her the truth. Angie was a bit of a rebel. She might enjoy aiding and abetting a fugitive. “Actually, I am making an escape from the hospital. I was in a bit of an accident earlier and they wanted me to stay overnight for observation. But I feel fine, so I am trying to make it home.”
As she suspected, Angie’s full lips widened into a grin, and her eyes lit up. “Girlfriend, let’s get you home to your boy. Hop in.”
Ignoring the ache in her chest at the reference to Mikey, Elise ran to the car and opened the door. She didn’t attempt to explain the truth to Angie. She liked the woman, but they weren’t close friends. She didn’t have any of those. The less Angie knew, the better. The last thing she wanted was for Angie to decide the situation was too dangerous and change her mind about taking Elise home. The urgency to find Mikey grew with every moment that passed.
Angie kept up a steady stream of conversation as she drove to Elise’s house. Elise’s attention was scattered. She was grateful for once that Angie was happy with a monologue.
“Well, here we are.” Angie shifted into Park and let the car idle in front of Elise’s garage. Diana’s car was gone. Someone must have towed it to the impound. Elise’s car was still sitting partway down the driveway. “Why is your car all the way down there?”
“Oh, I came home earlier and stopped to check on something. That’s all. I’ll move it when it’s light out.”
“Why not get it now?”
“My car keys are inside the house.”
“Can you get inside?”
“Yeah. I have a key hidden.” And not in one of those easy-to-spot places like under a doormat, either. While Angie waited, she walked to the ornamental brick wall that started at the garage and lined one side of the driveway. It was about a foot tall. There was a loose brick butted up against the garage. Turning it slightly, she reached her hand in and pulled out the spare key. Angie waited until she was standing at the back door before she pulled back down the driveway.
That’s when what she’d done fully registered.
She’d left the hospital where there was a security guard, even if he wasn’t a very good one, to return to the place where she’d been attacked, and her babysitter had been killed. And she hadn’t let the police know she was here.
Ryan wasn’t going to be pleased with her.
She shook her head. Well, she was here now. And she very much doubted that Hudson had stuck around. He was after Mikey. She needed to beat him to it.
The house was quiet. Too quiet. A sob tore from her throat. Her poor baby wasn’t here. Moving as if compelled, she soon found herself standing outside Mikey’s room. Stepping into the doorway, her foot squished down on something. What? Reaching into the room, she flipped on the light switch. A second sob choked out of her. This time, though, it was a sob of fear.
Mikey’s room had been torn apart. His toddler bed was on its side, the mattress sliced open. Her eyes flickered to the floor. She’d stepped on a stuffed rabbit. Or what had once been a rabbit. Bending down, she picked up the small animal. Mikey slept with that rabbit every night. The urge to be sick was strong. Covering her mouth with one hand, she squeezed her eyes shut and bent over at the waist. After a few minutes, the urge subsided, although she still felt queasy.
Ryan had said that the rest of the house had been relatively untouched. She knew he had.
One thought went through her mind.
She’d been wrong. Hudson had stuck around or come back.
What reason could Hudson have had to come back and trash his son’s room? He had to have been looking for something. Something other than his son.
* * *
“Where is she?” Ryan glared at the youn
g security officer and the night nurse. “Your patient, Miss St. Clair, is not in her room.”
“Of course she is!” the security guard blustered.
His face reddened as he met Ryan’s glare. He broke eye contact first. Probably because he’d been caught neglecting his duty. Ryan had no patience for people who’d sworn to serve and protect and took that obligation lightly. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this angry. Or this scared. Elise St. Clair, who’d been little more than a husky voice on the dispatch radio for so long, was now a pretty woman with a missing nephew and who was herself in grave danger. And he had begun to care. That’s what happened when you suddenly saw someone as a real person. His gut clenched just knowing that she was out there on her own somewhere in the wee hours of the morning with a killer after her.
When he’d woken up to find a text from Officer McLachlan notifying him that Elise had been attacked at the hospital and Security had been notified, Ryan had found himself dressed and heading to the hospital without a thought about the time or what he would do when he arrived. Part of him had been embarrassed rushing up to her room like a rookie. The moment he’d seen the state of affairs, though, he had thanked God for guiding him to where he was needed.
“No, she’s not there,” he informed them. “I was just in her room. Her clothes are gone, as are her shoes. When did you last see her?”
The guard started to splutter off an excuse. Ryan’s cell pinged. He looked at the screen and let out a sound that was part sigh of relief and part grumble of frustration.
Snuck out. At home.
“You two are fortunate. She just texted me. This is still going in my report. And I will be notifying your supervisors.”
The two looked thoroughly chastised. He almost felt bad them. For the briefest second, he considered letting the matter drop. Then an image of Elise fighting an attacker invaded his mind. No, there was no excuse for leaving her unsupervised when they knew she was in danger. He’d told them her room needed to be watched when he’d left. She had almost died. Again. Fixing a glare on them, he waited long enough to be sure that his message wouldn’t be forgotten before spinning on his heel and striding toward the elevator.
As the doors slid closed behind him, he allowed his chin to drop.
“Thank You, Jesus, that Elise is alive. Guard her, Lord. And help me not to mess this up.”
The elevator hiccuped, and the doors whooshed open. Setting his jaw, he stalked out of the hospital. Once outside, the urge to hurry pushed him to a jog until he climbed into his cruiser. He notified the station that he was leaving his current location and heading to Elise’s place.
As his vehicle wound up the lane that led to her house, Ryan was struck by how inconspicuous the place looked. No one would ever guess just by looking that someone had been killed here mere hours before. Or that Elise had nearly lost her own life. A shiver traveled up his spine. He was reminded of a similar scenario years before. His best friend Ricky’s face flashed through his mind.
He shoved it away. He needed to focus. Elise was alive. Unlike Ricky. He’d been on time to save her, and would do everything in his power to protect her and find both Mikey and Leah. Being a police officer was more than a job to him. It was a sacred call. And it was his way to make sure that what had happened to Ricky wasn’t meaningless.
He pulled up in front of the garage and turned off the engine. There were lights on in the house. Actually, it looked like Elise had turned on every light. Probably to make herself feel safer. Or to keep the house from feeling so empty without her child. He could only imagine how hard it was for her to be inside, knowing what had happened before and not knowing where her nephew was.
As he stepped out of his car, his cell phone rang. He glanced at the screen. It was Elise. He clicked it to accept the call.
“Elise?”
“Ryan?” Her voice was hushed. Why was she whispering? She sounded freaked-out. “I hope you just pulled in.”
Ah. It made sense that she’d be worried when she’d heard the car approach.
“Yeah. I’m on my way in.”
“I’ll meet you by the back door. You need to see something.”
The phone clicked. She’d hung up. He shrugged and sauntered to the house, keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of movement. Everything looked in order, but the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
Never one to ignore his instincts, he called Jackson, knowing that he’d just be coming on duty.
“Hey, Parker. What do ya know?” Jackson answered with his usual greeting.
“Not much,” he replied drily. “Listen, I’m at Elise’s house. She has something she needs me to see. I got the sense she’s this close to freaking out.” He glanced around again. “And I can’t shake the feeling that something’s off. You busy?”
“Nah, just paperwork. I’ll come out.”
Satisfied, Ryan disconnected. It was always better to have backup. He’d learned that early on. And he had the bullet scar to prove it. Ruefully, he rubbed his side where the bullet had exited. The old injury didn’t bother him, not anymore. But on nights like this, it was a reminder of how fragile life was.
As if he needed that. He’d learned all about the fragility of life at the age of sixteen. That lesson had driven him to reject his father’s dreams of his becoming a doctor like his parents and become a police officer, instead. A path that his father still didn’t approve of.
Ryan shook off his reverie and met Elise at the back door. Even scared, she was just about the prettiest woman he’d ever seen. Her short curls brushed her jaw, making his hands itch to reach out and brush them back.
He held in a snort. Yeah, that would be appropriate. He was here for a purpose. And romance wasn’t it.
“You said you had something I should see?” He winced. His voice had come out a little brusque. Something about her knocked him off balance. She set off all his protective instincts, and then some. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to notice anything off in his tone. That was good, but at the same time, the fact that she didn’t seem to be suffering from the same attraction he felt irked him.
Get over it, Parker.
“It’s upstairs. Come on.” Elise held the door open so he could enter. As he passed her, he caught a whiff of a light floral scent, so subtle it was barely there.
“Jackson’s on the way. I’m going to tell him to text me when he gets here. Let’s lock the door.”
He sent the text while she slid the dead bolt into place, then followed her upstairs. She slowed as she neared a door on the right. The set of her shoulders tensed, and she drew in a deep breath before showing him the room. He whistled. It was obviously her bedroom, and it had been trashed. Drawers empty, the contents all over the floor. Her mattress thrown off the bed and sliced open. Closet open, the clothes strewn all over.
“Was it like this before?”
Ryan shook his head. “No. It had looked like a few things were out of place, but nothing was destroyed.”
His phone pinged. He glanced down. “Jackson’s here. I’m going to let him in.”
Ryan hurried down to the back door, unwilling to leave her for long. He unlocked the door and swung it open. “Hey, Jackson. Come on.”
Jackson raised an eyebrow. Ryan relocked the door, then lead the way back upstairs. Their uniform shoes made loud clomping noises on the hardwood of the stairs. Elise would know they were on their way back.
Soon the three of them stood side by side. Jackson’s eyes widened, then narrowed as he surveyed the room.
“Why don’t the bad guys just search without making a mess? They’re just letting us know that they’re out there. Seems it’d be smarter to search without giving us a heads-up.”
Silently Ryan agreed, although he winced as he caught Elise’s tormented expression.
“There’s more.”
Elise’s voice wa
s soft, broken. How much could one woman take? Ryan caught her hand and squeezed it, then let it go before she could comment. His ears were hot. Why had he done that? But he knew why. He hated seeing her in pain.
Without a word, she turned and led them to another room. It hardly seemed possible, but this one was wrecked even worse than the first room. And Parker had to agree with Elise. Whoever had done this wanted her to see it.
“Is he trying to scare me?” she whispered. “Because it’s working. I’m terrified.”
FIVE
The hard heels of the police-issue shoes worn by both officers echoed in the open room as they crossed the hardwood floors. It was almost like she was standing on the field with the marching band again during the halftime show in high school. There’d been many nights where she’d left the field with her ears ringing from all the noise. Still, right now she found the sound comforting. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the hallway wall as the men went over the scene. She had stepped out of the room as soon as they had put on their disposable gloves and activated their body cameras.
Her tired brain was trying to process everything that had happened. She knew that other cops would arrive soon. Her home was once again a crime scene.
Her eyes popped open. Her home was a crime scene.
And she’d contaminated it. How could she have been so stupid? She was a 911 dispatcher. She knew better. And yet she had walked right into that mess without a thought before she’d called Ryan. She’d even picked up that rabbit. As much as she didn’t want to, he’d have to be told.
It was now completely daylight. The long night was catching up with her. All she wanted to do right now was to curl up on the floor, fall asleep and wake up to find it was all a horrible dream. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a dream. And if she ever doubted it, she had enough pains and bruises for proof.
She couldn’t wait any longer. Stepping into the doorway, she watched the two men working so seriously in the mess. She winced as she looked into the chaos. If possible, it appeared even worse in the daylight.
