Chapter Thirty-Three
Drew pulled the car around from the hospital parking lot and waited for his mother.
While sitting in the pickup line, his head was buried in his phone, texting. The group text included Tina, Tim, and the rest of the cross-country team.
This is wrong. Someone shot our coach! Drew sent out.
No one wants to kill a coach, someone shot our Sheriff. Tim texted.
Yeah, Drew figured that out.
“Hey, honey.”
Drew looked out the passenger window to see his mom standing there. “Want me to drive?” he asked.
She opened the door, dropped her purse in the seat. “Sure, that’s fine—” she stopped with one foot inside. “I forgot something. I’ll be right back.”
His mom closed the car door and Drew went back to his phone. The group was going back and forth with their idea of a round-the-clock babysitting service for Coach Ward once she recovered.
His mother’s phone buzzed from the passenger seat.
Ignoring it, he went back to his own conversation.
The buzz a second and third time surprised him. Without thought, he moved his mother’s purse to find that her cell phone had slid out. He picked it up and caught a glimpse of the green text message. The name on the sender was Stella.
Drew didn’t know a Stella.
We are not over. Don’t ever say that! The message coming in flashed on the home screen.
Drew attempted to open his mother’s messages and found it locked.
Why would his mother lock her phone?
Baby, I’ve done everything for you. Don’t do this!
Drew’s hands started to sweat. He looked over the hood of the car, watching for his mother. His own phone pinged, and he glanced at the screen on his phone.
He realized almost all the names he had in his phone were nicknames. Most of which were things like Slowpoke and Yard Time.
Answer my text, baby. I know you’re reading them.
Drew saw his mother’s orange shirt walking from the sliding doors of the hospital. He dropped her phone on the seat, knocked her purse over, and stared at his screen without reading a word.
“Forgot my purse,” his mom said as she reached through the window and grabbed it, and the phone. “I’m getting a soda from the gift shop before we head back. Want something?”
Drew shook his head. “I’m good.”
As soon as she turned away, Drew followed her. He saw her feet hesitate as she neared the doors of the hospital. She wasn’t inside a minute before she walked back out. This time she came to his side of the car and leaned in. “You know what, I’m going to drive back with your father. I’m worried about him.”
“You sure?”
Her tight smile scared him.
“Positive. Drive careful.”
“Let me know if something changes,” he told her.
“I will. Love you.”
“Yeah, okay. See you at home.”
She stepped away from the car and headed inside.
Drew pulled out of the turnaround, his eyes on the rearview mirror. For good measure, he pulled out of the lot and rounded the corner, doubling back. He cut the engine and waited.
It didn’t take long for his mom to walk back outside, look around, and then disappear into a three-story parking structure on the west side of the hospital.
“Holy shit.”
Drew sat in his mother’s car refusing to leave the parking lot. His mother didn’t reappear from the parking structure, and since there were two ways a car could exit the three-story garage, he had no way of knowing if she left with someone else. It would have to be someone else, since Drew noticed his father’s squad car pulling out of one of the emergency spaces designated for the police.
His phone buzzed with texts that went unanswered from his friends.
Drew couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d read on his mother’s phone. No one called another person baby unless . . .
His parents had been fighting a lot in the past year, but he never thought one of them could cheat.
He waited an hour before calling his dad.
“Hi, Dad.”
“You’re not talking on the phone while you’re driving, are you?”
“You mean like you are.”
“That’s different.” Yeah, cops seemed to think those rules didn’t apply to them.
“Ha.” Drew tried to laugh, and it came out strained. “Uhm, is Mom with you?”
“I thought she was with you.”
“She ran back into the hospital, said she was going to ride back with you.”
His dad was silent on the other end.
“Dad?”
“Yeah, I’m here. I’ll head back and pick her up.”
“I can do it. I didn’t get far. I wanted a burger.”
“No, no . . . you go on home. I’ll find your mother.” His dad sounded angry.
“You sure?”
“Positive. You’ve had a long day. I’d hate you driving tired.”
“Okay.”
“Hey, Drew?”
“Yeah?”
“Proud of you today. I know I don’t say that enough.”
His praise formed a knot in Drew’s throat. “Thanks, Dad.”
Drew was about to give up on spying on his parents when he saw his mother running from the parking garage. She appeared to be chasing down his dad . . . only it wasn’t his dad. He wore the same uniform, was similar in size . . . but it wasn’t his dad.
She caught the man by his arm, and he pulled away and shoved himself right up against her chest.
Drew reached for the car door to jump out.
He was halfway across the parking lot when he recognized the man in the uniform.
Stopping, Drew took in what he was seeing.
A man he’d known since birth pulled his mother into his arms, kissed her roughly, then stormed into the hospital.
Sensing his stare, his mother twisted her head and met his accusing gaze. Both her hands flew to her face as if she could hide the truth.
Jo’s butt hurt from lying in bed for hours. The sun outside the window was starting to set and she was beginning to think their playing possum was a bust. Well, outside of Karl’s confession, which, if she was honest with herself, was worth the whole ruse.
The adrenaline that had brought her to the hospital was finally waning and mixed with the boredom of waiting. Jo realized she had fallen asleep when noise from outside her room woke her.
“It’s okay. Take a break, get some coffee.”
It sounded like Stan, her temporary deputy and longtime family friend, telling the uniformed officer outside her door to grab some coffee.
Breathe in . . . one, two, three.
Breathe out . . . one, two, three.
“Jo?”
“Jo?” he said a little louder.
She felt a finger poking her shoulder through the covers. “Jo?”
He sighed. “You are one tough broad.”
“What are you doing, Mom?”
She sobbed, her body shaking with every breath.
“I’m sorry.”
Her apology doubled as a confession.
“Deputy Fitzpatrick? Really?”
“It isn’t what you think.”
Drew had a hard time looking at her. “I’m young, not stupid.”
She bit her lips as if trying to stop her tears. “I’m not having this conversation with you.”
“What about Dad? Are you going to have this conversation with Dad?” How could she do this to them? Why?
The woman who raised him wore her nerves in her shaking hands. “I need to talk to Jo’s boyfriend.”
“Gill?”
“Stan isn’t right. He’s been acting strange.”
“Men act that way when their girlfriends are breaking up with them,” Drew said.
His mother stiffened her shoulders, stared at him.
“I read your texts.”
“You need to respect my privacy.”
“You need to respect our family.”
His mother didn’t get angry often, but he saw irritation in her eyes before she walked past him and into the hospital.
Jo kept her breathing even, kept her eyes closed with only a slit casting shadows behind her lids.
Stan said next to nothing as he moved around the room.
His silence disarmed her.
Stan moved back to her bedside. The tubes of the IV line pulled against the tape on her arm.
His breath became quick, short pants.
Another tug on her arm.
The scent of his breath came close, his lips next to her ear. “JoAnne?”
Slow breaths. Slow breaths!
His chest pressed against her left arm and she felt his fingers grip her shoulder. “Sorry, Jo. It’s better this way. Would have been better if you’d just left River Bend after Daddy died.”
Jo felt a scrape on her arm and she jumped.
Her free hand reached out to grasp Stan’s, and the door to the room burst open.
Stan was in motion, a syringe in his right hand, Jo’s shoulder in his left.
Gill stood in the doorway, Caroline and Drew running toward them.
“Drop it!” Gill pointed his weapon at Stan’s chest.
The deputy didn’t stop, he jerked Jo’s injured arm and shielded his body with hers. She cried out in pain.
The shot was too close. Gill didn’t take it.
Caroline screamed Stan’s name, telling him to stop.
Drew shoved his mother behind him.
“Put the syringe down,” Gill ordered.
That’s when Jo noticed the grip Stan’s hand had on the syringe he’d destined for her. The pain in her shoulder and chest stopped being of any concern.
“Drop it.”
“What are you doing, Stan?” Jo asked.
Stan’s eyes were on Caroline. “See what you made me do? This is your fault.”
“Stanley, please.”
The other agents filled in around them, guns pointing at Stan. If he did manage to bury that needle in her arm, it would be the last thing he did.
“I was the only one you needed. But no. You couldn’t leave that weasel husband. Had to spread for this one’s daddy.” Stan shifted Jo side to side, his arm around her neck, the needle scraping her bare arm.
“Get them out of here,” Gill yelled at no one in particular.
Agents pushed in, dragged Caroline and Drew aside.
“Don’t do this, Stan.” Jo kept her voice even. Calculated her next move.
“You’re like a damn cat that just won’t die.”
“You’re not going to make it out of here.”
“No. Maybe not.” His voice was too calm, too controlled. “Doesn’t matter now.”
Jo caught movement in front of her. There were five weapons pointing at them.
She sought Gill’s eyes.
Without hesitation and ignoring the pain in her arm, she maneuvered her bare leg around Stan’s, grasped the hand he held the needle in with both of hers, and twisted her body toward his as she’d been taught in Virginia. He wasn’t expecting her move, but that didn’t mean he went down easy. Jo focused on the needle as they fell to the floor.
Pain shot through her body, and air left her lungs.
The room exploded when Gill charged. All Jo saw was Gill’s meaty hand grasping Stan’s. If his fingers didn’t break, they were made of titanium.
Stan’s grip on Jo broke loose, and someone pulled her back.
Grunts and the sound of a hospital room being destroyed filled the empty sound outside the walls.
Stan went down kicking.
But he went down.