CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Olivia told Nate she would wait in the hall with the rookie deputy that had been assigned to watch Emily’s room. After a few minutes of awkward conversation and even more minutes of awkward silence, Olivia feigned a need to use the restroom.

She had spent enough time in the hospital to know how to navigate through the winding halls without getting lost. She didn’t know the room number she was looking for, but it was easy enough to find out by asking a nurse.

As Olivia stood at the foot of the bed, she felt a strange emptiness inside. She had expected to feel anger or disgust or even fear, but instead she felt nothing. The last time she saw Mark Gilliad, he was trying to kill Nate and he ended up shooting Olivia. Now, he was just a man in a coma.

“How did I know I would find you here?” Nate came slowly through the doorway speaking in a hushed tone that made his voice even deeper than usual.

“Nate.” Olivia blinked hard and snapped back to reality. “You’re supposed to be talking to Emily.”

“I’ve been done for ten minutes.” Nate gave her a worried look. “You’ve been in here a while.”

“I’m sorry. I just… had to see for myself.” She gave one last glance to Mark’s motionless form. “Seeing Tanner yesterday messed with my head. It was easier to think of Mark as nothing more than a murderer until facing his brother.”

Nate took her hand and pulled her away from the bed. “All murderers have families, Liv. That doesn’t make them sympathetic creatures.”

“I know.” Olivia noticed a few cards had been pinned to the board near his bed and she wondered who had sent them. Did Mark have friends that wished him well? “But he’s still a person. He still mattered to people.”

“I would pull the plug myself if they let me,” Nate said, putting an arm around Olivia and ushering her from the room. “I have no idea what I would have done if you hadn’t pulled through after the shooting.”

“You’d still be sitting in a dark room crying,” Olivia joked weakly. It was a weak joke because she suspected that it might also be the truth. She knew how much Nate loved her. Changing the subject, she asked, “Learn anything interesting from Emily?”

Nate steered them in the opposite direction of the exit. “She admitted to the situation with Tim, said she didn’t know about Rosie and Tim until after the fact, and she said she didn’t know you. She was definitely lying about that last one.”

“Are you lost?” Olivia asked, looking around. “We should’ve taken a left instead of a right.”

“These last few days have been pretty gory and depressing. I thought we could both use a break from the darkness.” Nate took another turn and they were standing in the maternity ward and the nursery was just ahead of them. “I dare you to look at these babies and not smile.”

Olivia shook her head at him. “You are such a woman sometimes.”

“Hey, I’m expecting a baby in eight months. I’m a little hormonal.” He grinned and nudged her forward. “Don’t pretend like you aren’t thrilled to be here.”

“Thrilled isn’t the right word.” Olivia reluctantly moved toward the glass windows of the nursery. She could see squirming and crying infants on the other side. “This is our future.”

Nate laughed. “You make it sound so ominous.”

“It kind of is.” Olivia hadn’t wanted to admit to Nate that she hadn’t been able to sleep because of her worries about becoming a mother. She felt like a bad mother for not being as thrilled as he was about their pending arrival. “That one on the end is pretty adorable. He kind of looks like you.”

“That’s a girl.” Nate came up behind Olivia and wrapped his arms around her. “There is still good in this world, Olivia. Despite all the death, there is still life. New life. Our baby is going to look at you with those freakishly big baby-eyes and you’re going to forgot about all the bad stuff in life. All that will matter is that he or she is in your arms.”

“How do you know that?” Olivia said doubtfully.

“Because that’s what happened to me the first time I held you.”

It was such a typical Nate thing to say. Coming from anyone else, Olivia would’ve rolled her eyes and faked a gagging sound. But with Nate, it was different. He meant what he said. Nate had never had a problem telling Olivia exactly how he felt about her.

“I know we didn’t plan this, but having this baby inside me… it’s like I have part of you with me all the time. I can’t think of a more amazing gift than that.” She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“So far,” Nate said, running a hand over her stomach. “I think we can top it.”

“No.” She turned urgently. “I know that I will love this baby so much, but I’ll never love anyone more than I love you, Nate. It’s just not possible.”

Nate gave her a long kiss that made her feel just as tingly and electric as their first kiss. “Careful Tucker,” she said, coming up for air. “You keep kissing me like that and I might start to think that you like me.”

“We should go,” Nate said, hands lingering at her hips. “Vince tracked down the address of Emily’s sister right here in Chicago.”

“That sounds promising.” Olivia straightened Nate’s tie. “Let me guess– you’ll do all the talking?”

“Actually, I think it might be more productive if you take the lead. The two of you have a lot in common.” Nate lead the way out of the nursery, keeping Olivia’s hand in his.

“You mean because we both have sisters that did morally questionable things after being assaulted by Tim McCaffery?” Olivia surmised.

“Well… yeah.” Nate frowned. “I wouldn’t have put it exactly that way, though.”

Olivia shrugged. “No need hiding from the truth. You know I appreciate honesty.”

“I’m your boyfriend, Liv. Honesty should be me telling you how good your ass looks in those pants, not talking about the mental health of your dead sister.”

“Really? These pants?” Olivia craned her neck. “I had no idea.”

“Technically, your ass looks good in everything. And nothing. But that’s not really the point.” Nate held open the door that lead outside. “I think you and I need to spend time together that isn’t about reviewing autopsy reports and interviewing witnesses.”

“Tell you what. When you solve this case, you and I will have a date night and I will dazzle you with flirty conversation and a dress that shows a little too much cleavage and we can end the date with hours of amazing sex.” Olivia grinned. “Deal?”

Nate groaned. “You’re killing me, Liv. How am I supposed to focus on work now?”

“The same way you always do, loverboy.” She wiped the smile from her face. “Put your game face on, Detective Tucker.”

Jenna Allen was Emily’s younger sister. With just 18 months between their birthdays, Jenna could be mistaken for Emily’s twin. After Nate made introductions, Jenna welcomed them into her apartment.

“Coffee?” she said, pointing to kitchen. “I actually just made a pot.”

“That would be great,” Olivia said, subtly looking around the room. Jenna’s place was perfectly decorated, like something out of a magazine. It was stylish, but not stuffy. Olivia doubted they would find stockpiles of weapons in her floorboards.

“Have a seat, please. I’ll be in with the coffee in a sec.” Jenna disappeared into the kitchen.

Nate pointed silently to a wall of framed photographs. There were pictures of graduations, beach trips, vacations, and family photos, but none of them included Emily. It was almost like she had been erased from her sister’s life. Olivia chose a spot on the soft, white sofa while Nate chose a leather chair. Now Jenna would be forced to sit next to Olivia.

“So, you’re a nurse?” Olivia asked when Jenna entered the room.

“I work nights usually, but I’m off for the next couple of days.” Jenna handed them each a cup of coffee and took a seat, daintily crossing one foot over the other. “I assume you’re here about Emily.”

“You know what happened to her?” Olivia said. Jenna wasn’t exactly acting like a worried sister.

“I know what she says happened to her. I visited her yesterday.” Jenna sighed. “Emily has been a handful since she was a teenager. She was always getting into trouble. I was hardly surprised when the police called and told me she was in the hospital because she was attacked. This isn’t the first time she’s gotten herself into a bad situation.”

Olivia was surprised at how open Jenna was being. Most of the time families, especially those of victims, were uncomfortable answering any questions about their loved one and went out of their way to choose their words carefully. They rarely offered information freely that damaged the credibility of the victim.

“When did Emily first start getting into trouble? Was it high school?” Olivia said. Nate sat quietly with his arms folded over his chest. He was watching Jenna carefully, reading her response to Olivia’s questions.

“Before that. I don’t know if you are aware, but Emily was a gifted athlete as a child. My parents put her in tennis lessons before she even knew how to ride a bike. We all thought she was going to win Wimbledon someday. Our parents even downsized our home to send her to summer camps.” There was a note of annoyance on her words. “She started acting out in junior high. It started off small with her skipping some classes and hanging out with high school boys. But then my parents moved to Mercy so Emily would be closer to one of her tennis instructors.”

It was painful to hear. Not only had Tim been violating Emily, but her parents had made it easy for him. “Why that particular instructor?”

“Emily liked him.” Jenna shrugged. “He also talked to my parents about it. Insisted that he could help Emily make it in the big leagues. Maybe he would have been successful if she hadn’t gone down such a bad path in high school.”

“What caused that?” Olivia took a tentative sip of coffee. So far, she hadn’t done a great job of completely giving up caffeine.

“I think she just got tired of all the pressure. My dad wasn’t the most sympathetic guy. He liked to remind her of how much the family had sacrificed for her tennis career.” Jenna frowned. “One time, he made Emily play the final match of a tournament with a sprained ankle. Another time he made her go to practice even though she was sick and later she was diagnosed with walking pneumonia.”

Olivia didn’t like that she was starting to feel a little bad for Emily. It was no wonder that she had psychological issues considering what she had gone though in her adolescence. “How did she change in high school? Did she give up tennis?”

“Not right away. Most of the change was in her personality at first. She was always angry and didn’t care about school at all. The friends that she did make were always in trouble for drinking and smoking weed. When she did finally quit tennis, no one was surprised.”

“What did Tim think of Emily’s fall from grace?” Olivia said.

“I have no idea. Emily never talked to me about him. I think they had a falling out or something because one day she just stopped going to her training sessions.” Jenna paused, studying Olivia. “You said you are originally from Mercy?”

“Yes.” They had made brief introductions, Nate the detective and Olivia the behavioral psychologist. Olivia had added the fact that she was from Mercy to hopefully build trust with Jenna, but she hadn’t told her about Rosie. Now seemed like a good time to gently make the connection. “Emily actually knew my older sister, Rosie.”

Jenna’s eyes widened. “Rosie Thompson?”

Olivia nodded.

“Emily used to worship Rosie.” Jenna’s face wore an expression that was common among people discussing Olivia’s dead sister. “It was so terrible what happened to her. Did they ever figure out who did it?”

“How did Emily handle Rosie’s death?” Nate interjected, speaking for the first time. “Seems like that would be traumatic for a young girl.”

“I think she mostly tried to block it out at first. She never talked about it, but she always kept this framed photo of her and Rosie taken at tennis camp one summer on her dresser. A couple years later, she got weirdly fixated on Rosie’s death.” Jenna’s face darkened. “Emily became obsessed with death in general, reading books about serial killers and watching a lot of horror movies. I assumed it was just a weird phase, but maybe it was some type of post-traumatic stress. Maybe Rosie’s death had been more impactful than anyone realized.”

“Did she have any long-term romantic relationships in high school?” Olivia asked, remembering what Brian had told her about their brief tryst.

Jenna squished her lips together as she thought about the answer to Olivia’s question. “Not in high school, she just dated or hooked up with a few guys as far as I know. But the summer after she graduated, she started dating this guy, Mark. They were together for a long time until he picked up and moved to Chicago one day a little while back.”

“Mark?” Olivia’s heart pounded in her chest. “Do you remember his last name?”

“Yeah, it was Gilliad. His name was Mark Gilliad.”

Nate was bursting with energy when they left Jenna’s apartment. The connection between Emily Allen and Mark Gilliad was almost too hard to believe.

“It makes sense,” Nate was saying as he opened the car door for Olivia. “After what happened to Mark, Emily would definitely be looking to retaliate. She’s clearly mentally unstable and wouldn’t care that Mark had been the one who kidnapped you and killed the other women.”

“But she didn’t slit her own throat. Who was she working with?” Olivia said in a low voice, keeping an eye on the window to Jenna’s apartment.

“Well, it’s not Gilliad. We just saw for ourselves that he’s still in a coma.” Nate leaned on the open car door. “My guess is that it’s someone else with a strong connection to Mark. Someone that Emily would trust enough to help kill strangers just to get back at you, and me.”

Olivia felt like she was going to be sick and it was nothing to do with morning sickness. “How many more people have to die because of me?”

“Liv.” Nate reached for her, but she dodged his arm and slid into the car. He waited a beat before closing the door. She knew that she was being overly dramatic, but she didn’t care. Olivia just wanted her life to go back to normal.

Nate was quiet for a long time, leaving Olivia alone with her pitying thoughts. He broke the silence only to call Vince and ask him to pull as much information as possible on Emily’s connections to anyone that might have crossed paths with Olivia. It didn’t take long for Olivia to realize they weren’t headed back to the station.

“Where are you taking me, Tucker?” she asked as they headed south.

“Don’t you worry about that.” He kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, hidden behind a set of dark sunglasses. “Just sit there and look pretty.”

Olivia stifled a groan. Anytime Nate tried to distract her with annoying comments, she knew he was about to do something that would annoy her even more.

She was surprised when he turned down familiar streets, headed toward a familiar destination. They were back on their old stomping grounds, their college campus. It had been a long time since Olivia had been back on campus.

“What are we doing here?” she said, feeling a wave of nostalgia rush through her. This was where she had found Nate, now thirteen years ago. This was where she had found herself.

“It’s lunch time. We’re getting some lunch.” Nate parked the car in front of an old brick building, right across from the science building. “You remember Hank’s?”

“Of course I remember Hanks.” Olivia had eaten at the restaurant at least once a week for four years. “But why did you just drive thirty minutes out of the way for us to eat lunch here?”

“Because I think you need to remember a simpler time, love. I think we both need to stop thinking about murderers for a little while.” He smiled at her. “Besides, this is where we had our first date.”

Olivia scoffed. “No, it isn’t. We have been here in years, Nate. Long before we ever started dating.”

“Maybe for you.” Nate’s smile turned sheepish. “Remember the day after the party where we met? You and I came here.”

“Yeah, you called and asked if I wanted to grab dinner.” Olivia smiled at the memory of a young Nate showing up at her dorm room. She’d had a huge crush on him at the time. “But that wasn’t a date, Nater.”

“Yeah, I figured that out about halfway through the meal. Nearly broke my heart.” Nate’s smile slowly faded. “I can’t believe it took 13 years to get you back here for an actual date.”

At first, Olivia had thought he was teasing her like he always did, but there was a serious edge to him that couldn’t be denied. He had asked her out 13 years ago and she had been completely oblivious, assuming that a guy like him couldn’t possibly be interested in a girl like her.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” she said.

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I guess I just assumed you weren’t interested and I figured it was better to keep you in my life as a friend than to not have you at all.”

Olivia quietly mulled that over while Nate exited the car. He was halfway to her side to open the door for her when she threw it open and jumped out, slamming it loudly behind her. “Nathaniel Tucker, how dare you wait 13 years to tell me this!”

“Whoa! Settle down.” He held up a hand and laughed. “Does it matter? We’re together now. We figured it out.”

“I was hopelessly in love with you all of freshman year. I lost sleep over you. I used to be twisted in a bundle of nerves every time we hung out.” She continued to glare at him, but he wouldn’t, or couldn’t, stop smiling. “Do you mean to tell me we could have been together this entire time if you would’ve just opened your mouth and told me that we were on a date?”

Now he was grinning wildly. “Olivia, honey, calm down.”

“Don’t honey me. How can you be so calm right now?” she challenged hotly.

“Because that was never supposed to be our story.” He caught her hand and pulled her toward him. “The real love stories are never easy. All that pining and tension over the years only made it all the more amazing when we finally got together. Falling in love with my best friend was so much sweeter than dating a girl I just met.”

“When you put it that way…” She reluctantly allowed a small smile as his arms went around her. “I just worry that we wasted so much time. No amount of time with you is ever going to be enough.”

The twinkle in his eye made Olivia’s heart jump and she couldn’t look away as he leaned in for a kiss, pausing to say, “You’ll just have to settle for the rest of our lives.”