Love Inspired Suspense June 2014 Bundle 1 of 2: Undercover Marriage\Collateral Damage\Forgotten Past (25 page)

“If you lived in a tiny town and you'd just made an attempt at your sixth murder, would you raise suspicions by making yourself scarce, or would you blend in with the crowd to allay those suspicions?” Gerard asked.

“I bow to your experience. You believe someone from our town attacked Emma.”

“I can't rule it out anymore.”

“But do you think someone might have followed Emma up the hill? If so, wouldn't Alec have seen?”

Gerard sighed. “Unfortunately, it could have been any number of scenarios. In my years on the force, I saw pretty much everything, so I tend to suspect wrongdoing until it's ruled out. I've been doing follow-up background checks on my rehab families, covering all the bases.”

“Find anything?”

“Nope. And if I had any questions I wouldn't cover for them. We'll have to keep looking.”

“We need more eyes on the town, but we need to know which eyes we can trust,” Nick said. “Emma might eventually recall more, but she has retrograde amnesia.”

“You should go in there for Sarah's sake, Nick. Sit with her. She doesn't look like she's holding together too well right now.”

“When Dad gets here, send him back, would you? Sarah's always had a special connection to my parents, and Dad has a way of comforting those most in need of it.”

“Meanwhile, I think I'll fire up some of the old radar from my Corpus Christi street days and see if I can do some detecting. I'll start mingling if our citizens come in.”

* * *

Sarah stood in the doorway to the E.R. exam room, fists clenched as she watched Emma being wheeled away from her. Despite the radiation, she wanted to be there when they put her into the machine, wanted to hold her hand and tell her everything would be okay, but the tech refused the company.

Before Sarah had a chance to melt into a puddle of anxiety on the E.R. floor, Nick stepped around a corner past the central desk and walked toward her. She rushed to him, throwing her arms around his nicely firm abs as she buried her face in his chest. The comfort of his return hug brought more relief than any antianxiety med could have done.

“She's going to be okay, Sarah.” His strong voice rumbled in his chest and she closed her eyes as it echoed through her mind. She hadn't felt safe or protected since the explosion killed her parents. Their parents.

She released her death grip on him. “I don't know how much more I can take, and please don't tell anyone I said that, because I'll do whatever I have to for Emma.”

He kept an arm around her and guided her back into the empty exam room, then pulled the visitor chair over for her to sit down. “The CT shouldn't take long. The E.R. doesn't look too busy, so I doubt she'll have much of a wait. The reading will be the only thing the doc will have to wait on, and I learned from the nurse that there's a radiologist on call who has a pretty quick turnaround.” He pulled the rolling doctor stool over and sank onto it so he could face her. He took her hands. “At the risk of repeating myself, you're not alone.”

She allowed those words to settle over her. “I'm beginning to believe you.” And she never got tired of hearing him say those words.

“Dad's on his way here, along with half the town, I'm afraid.”

“It's their way.”

“Maybe it's the doctor in me, but I never understood the tendency for a huge group of people to crowd the hospital to attend to one friend.”

She grinned at him. “Oh, come on, Nick. Before you were a doctor, you were a preacher's kid. We PKs know people feel a need to be close so they can pray better.”

“Illogical. God can hear prayer wherever it's coming from.”

“You're too much like me. I like my interpersonal exchanges to be in small groups, not huge clumps of people all talking at once.”

“This time we could be catching a break.” Nick glanced over his shoulder, then shoved the door shut. “If Emma's head injury wasn't an accident, Gerard thinks the culprit might show up with others from Jolly Mill.”

Sarah was unable to suppress a shudder. “I hate this.”

“Gerard can read people. If he sees anything out of place, he'll check it out. Come to think of it, Dad's a pretty good judge of character, too. I might have him mingle.”

“Edward likes to think the best of people, and he'll be uncomfortable watching members of his own congregation. You won't. Why don't you do the mingling?”

“Okay, then when Dad gets here, Gerard will send him back so you won't have to be all alone in this room. I'll join the others and get to work.”

Sarah wrapped her cold, bare arms over her chest and rubbed them. “Edward can wait with Emma. I'll join you when he gets here.”

“You need to focus on Emma.”

“I didn't have time to explain to the doctor that she doesn't typically chatter like a squirrel—”

“It is Emma we're talking about. It's a family trait.”

“But she never trips over her own words, and something was frightening her. Maybe she'd just picked up on your suspicions, but when they were wheeling her through the E.R., her gaze darted all over the room, from person to person, paranoid.”

“After what she's been through, that's not unusual. We'll have to watch the abnormal behavior. How would you feel if the doctor decides to keep her in the hospital for observation?”

Sarah shook her head. “Only if I can bring a weapon in with me, and that's not allowed in a hospital. You're a doctor, Megan's not far away, we don't need the hospital for anything. Not enough security here.”

“What if Gerard and I took turns guarding her room tonight?”

Sarah met Nick's gaze. “Someone was able to sneak past Gerard and destroy his infirmary with his nurse inside.”

“Even more reason for us to take precautions. Chaz is dead and Emma's injured. I think we don't know enough about what we're dealing with yet. Our culprit has the upper hand and is reigning with extreme prejudice.”

“A reign of terror,” Sarah said. “Who's next?”

EIGHT

I
t had always been a family joke that Nick, though an introvert of the first order, had chosen a profession in which he worked with people constantly, invaded their privacy, personal space, their home lives, worked with staff and sometimes was forced to manage the very crowds of well-wishers he'd complained about to Sarah. He'd had no doubt about his calling from the time he entered high school. God definitely had a sense of humor.

He still didn't like crowds, but he had to admit to himself that Gerard was right as he mingled through the press of people in the outpatient waiting room at Cox Monett Hospital. This was an excellent way to study a lot of people at once without being obvious about it.

There were several members here from Dad's church, old classmates of Nick's, including Alec, who had, as expected, brought his new lady love, Petra Journigan—that was where he'd likely been headed, and who he'd been calling, when he raced past the rehab center, delivering his news to Gerard at a run.

Though Nick and Sarah had been reluctant to leave Emma's exam room, Dad was there now giving her the comfort she desperately needed. Nick had convinced Sarah to help him study the crowd as it grew. No one could console a fretting spirit as naturally as Edward Tyler.

The hallway door opened and Carmen rushed through, blond curls flying everywhere, her typically pretty, open face tight with tension. When she caught sight of Nick and Sarah she rushed to them.

“I ran out of the clinic as soon as I heard. I had to be here. Poor Lynley and Megan are handling it all without me. Anything?”

“No results from the CT yet,” Sarah said. “It shouldn't be much longer, and the doctor knows to reach me here.”

Carmen clawed at her arms, lips pressed together, eyes squeezed shut for a few seconds before opening them again. “My fault, guys. This was my fault. What was I thinking? I knew about Emma's rambunctious personality, but—”

“You couldn't know everything,” Nick said. “Stop blaming yourself.”

“If that girl has sustained permanent damage from this, I'll never forgive myself. I promised you I'd send her straight home when she left the clinic this morning, but I thought she was going back to you for breakfast.”

“And she should have.” Nick couldn't say more with others listening. He scanned the faces of several longtime residents of Jolly Mill. Nora Thompson, Alec's mother, stood talking quietly to one of her and Carmen's oldest friends, Kirstie Marshal, their voices so soft as to be silent. When they spotted Carmen, Nick and Sarah, Nora grabbed Kirstie's arm and they wove their way among the others to her side.

Nora and Kirstie huddled around Sarah, hugging her, commiserating with her, giving her the comfort she obviously needed.

Nora looked up and pulled Nick aside. “Alec told me about your blog. I'm surprised it's taken me this long to find out about it.” A tall, exotic woman with midnight black hair, she didn't have to stretch too far to press her lips near his ear. “I know that grim look on Gerard's face, and Alec's more worried than I've seen him in...well, in weeks.” She gestured toward her son, who stood with his arm around red-headed, freckled Petra. Typically upbeat and smiling, even Petra looked shaken. It seemed everyone in the room now believed Nick's suspicions, and that made it all the more real. Even Nick's estranged cousin Billy stood in a corner shooting a glare in Petra's direction from time to time. Or was he glaring at Alec?

Hmm. Billy had a crush on Petra in high school, but that was a lifetime ago.

“I'd hoped the sheriff's department would reopen the case and connect the dots,” Nick said. “I even sent links to my blog posts.”

“I've called the sheriff, too,” Nora said. “I have to say I'm disappointed, but they're low on manpower and I have a feeling something's up, probably another meth lab bust, where they need all hands on deck. I'm so afraid we're on our own.”

“We're never on our own.”

Nora grimaced. “Of course I know God's watching over us, but don't you think it'd be wise for us to protect ourselves, as well?”

“God has sent us some good people. We have Gerard, Alec, Dad, who does know how to handle a weapon, and will, to protect his own, even if he is a preacher. We aren't helpless in Jolly Mill, and now that everyone is aware there is danger, all will be on the lookout.”

Nora's dark eyes narrowed as she looked up at him. “Unfortunately, there's a wild card, my dear. We don't know who's doing all this. Everyone is afraid Emma was attacked, but by whom?” She glanced around the room as if she, too, suspected the killer might be here.

“Another question is why,” Nick said. He studied Nora for a moment. Though a pillar of their tiny society, Nora Thompson had a...somewhat textured history. Last year she had risked her life, her freedom and her good name in town to protect her son's future—which hadn't needed protecting—and to keep Gerard Vance from moving his rehab center.

And then, according to Dad, when Gerard won the zoning vote from the town council to establish his project, not only had Nora befriended him with every bit of her genteel hospitality from that time on, she had volunteered her own services. She now taught night classes in business administration at the center.

Sometimes Nick wondered why the abrupt change of heart.

Nora took a few steps away from the gathered group and strolled toward the outpatient entrance. She glanced over her shoulder and gestured with her eyes for Nick to join her. “Carmen told me Emma couldn't remember how she hit her head.” Nearing her mid-fifties, Nora wore three-inch heels like a runway model.

He caught up with her. “Retrograde amnesia. She remembers nothing about the fall.”

“So she could have tripped.”

“Absolutely.” Nick didn't believe that for a minute. “The injury on her head might match the edge of a stair step.” Trying not to be obvious, he considered Nora for a moment. She wasn't above using political misdirection and community trust to leverage her businesses, but how far would she go?

“Never play poker.” Her sultry voice wrapped around him.

“I'm sorry?”

“I can see what you're thinking by the way you're not looking at me. I might be a killer, but I'm not a murderer.”

He met her gaze. Nora had killed two men in her life, though according to Dad both killings had been justified in court as self-defense. The first man was Nora's abusive husband when Nick and Alec were still in high school. The second was Kirstie Marshal's estranged husband last year, after Nora suspected him of poisoning Kirstie for the fortune of a dying uncle. Both men discovered Nora wasn't to be trifled with.

“No, Nora, you're not a murderer.”

She turned in an elegant pirouette and perused the community of folks who had gathered. “Most of these people are either members of your father's church, or they once belonged to Mark Russell's congregation. They're here to show support. Good people, all of them. Or rather, maybe all but one.”

Her words didn't surprise him. Nora was insightful, cunning, tough. She was also loyal to those she knew and loved. She was loyal, for instance, to the citizens of Jolly Mill, but if she suspected anyone but her son to be the killer, Nick wondered if she might take the role of executioner into her own hands in defense of other innocents. She'd do as fine a job of sheriffing as she did everything else—with consummate skill and a deadly aim.

“You have a suspect in mind?” Despite her poor choice of husbands—that was a long time ago—he valued her opinion.

She raised a well-arched brow. “Still thinking. I can't imagine why anyone would kill people in the ministry, but I've always been a small-town girl with typical Bible belt values, so killing a servant of God is like attacking God Himself. Still, I'm as human as the next person, and you do realize your cousin Billy and his father were at outs over the restaurant?”

“Why would that put ministers in danger?”

“Your mother was a fabulous cook, and she worked with your uncle Will when he ran the place.”

“She didn't want to own it, though.”

“I could easily see your mother running that place. She and I even talked about selling my specialty cookies from the counter with coffee.”

“But Mom—”

“I'm just bouncing some ideas off you. Your suspicions about your father being a target over the Spring River toxic spill might also have some merit, but we don't have anything to back up either of our theories. And poor Cindy Rouse, the nurse at the rehab center? I don't understand her death at all. There was so little connection between her death and the others.”

“Sarah and I considered she and Chaz might have been collateral damage. Maybe they knew too much.”

Nora's eyes narrowed as she thought about that. She nodded. “Then you'll agree that there was probably only one target. All but one death might have been collateral damage. Has your father mentioned any connection Cindy might have had to the retreat that weekend?”

“She attended Dad's church, so she took snacks and lemonade to the conference center a couple of times for their breaks.”

“Did she, now? Do you suppose she might have seen something while she was there that could make her suspicious after the explosion?”

“Such as?”

“No idea,” Nora said. “I can't believe she would be targeted for her work in the infirmary.”

“Did she and Chaz know one another?”

“Most likely. Both were young, single, attractive.”

“It would stand to reason that if she did see something suspicious, she might have said something to Chaz about it, since she knew he was investigating the explosion.”

Nora tapped Nick's arm. “Yes. He was very anxious about the whole thing. I remember talking to him once, and when I mentioned the investigation, his eyes bugged out, he started to sweat and he excused himself almost immediately.”

“Until the second explosion, no one even suspected there might be a murderer in our midst. Did you notice anyone else around you at the time you spoke with Chaz? Someone who might have overheard?”

Nora paused, and Nick couldn't miss the trepidation in her eyes. “We were in the clinic,” she said. “Poor kid was so stressed he needed something to calm him down.” Her eyes widened. “I just violated HIPAA.”

“I won't tell.”

“No other patients were around. Megan and Carmen were finishing up for the night, so they were the only two who observed his behavior. No, wait, Alec had come to collect a deposit to drop by the bank. All of them are trustworthy, Nick, you know that. Chaz was simply terrified, as we know now, and at the time we didn't know what was wrong. He wasn't talking.”

“Did you know him well enough to suspect he might have been involved in any way? Sarah suggested he might have taken drastic measures to draw some attention to his powers of observation in his new job title.”

Nora hesitated. “I never would have thought it, but here's a scenario for you. He didn't know the conference center was in use that weekend. He caused a leak in the gas line so it would blow over the weekend, and Cindy saw him and mentioned something to him, forcing him to do the same to her to save himself. But Chaz was raised by a good family, and the guilt became too much for him. He could have covered himself, then in a fit of angst, rammed the balustrade at the bridge to escape the overwhelming guilt.”

“Has Alec discussed this with you?”

“As if he would. He thinks I'm breakable.” She tapped Nick's arm with perfectly manicured nails. “My scenario doesn't explain Emma's fall today, unless it was an accident.”

“Or Emma was followed because she was the youngest Russell daughter?”

Nora's dark eyes widened. “Sweetheart, I can't imagine anyone in our town being filled with so much hatred they'd resort to killing an innocent child.”

“I've reluctantly considered the possibility of escorting Sarah and Emma back to Sikeston.”

“If Chaz wasn't the culprit, then our killer can drive there just as easily. Besides, I doubt they have a place to stay in Sikeston that has alarms set up on every door, plus a killer Doberman on the prowl. Carmen's also got a good eye with a weapon in her hand.”

“Unfortunately, half the town probably expects them to stay there.”

“I see that as a good thing.” Nora began her graceful stroll back to join Kirstie and Carmen.

Nick watched the group with increasing frustration. He knew every person in the room, and though he'd learned to read faces and body language well, he'd seen nothing that alerted him.

Billy Parker walked across the room toward Alec and Petra, and it wasn't difficult to read the jealousy in his expression. That didn't surprise Nick. He could imagine how quickly Billy had jumped at the chance to hire Petra when she'd returned to town. He'd always had a special fondness for her.

When Billy reached the couple, Alec stiffened for a moment, but Petra whispered something in his ear. He glared at Billy and walked away.

A few seconds later, Petra laid a hand on Alec's arm and smiled up at him. He practically jerked from her touch. She looked hurt and stepped away, crossing her arms and hunching her shoulders. Alec shook his head and put a hand on her back, whispered in her ear. She leaned against him again.

He looked like a man in love.

Gerard strolled to Nick's side. “Some kind of triangle going on with them?” He nodded toward the two lovebirds. “Your cousin doesn't approve?”

“Old grudges, I think. I'm sure Alec's as distracted as the rest of us are. You and he still not on speaking terms?”

“We're on nodding terms. I believe my wife will help him decide in my favor. He shouldn't complain—Megan's quadrupled the patient load since she arrived.”

“He's unhappy about something,” Nick said.