Thirteen

The hospital room was semi-dark, and cool enough I had Jace put another blanket on me before he left. He’d closed the curtain around me for more privacy. Although I had a feeling he didn’t go far.

Jace had hovered near me since he carried me to the paramedics in the lobby. He'd also insisted on riding in the ambulance with me. The way he stroked my head while the paramedics worked clued me in on his growing feelings. Or did I somehow slip into Harry’s place as his best friend? The best relationships started by being friends first, or so they said. Whoever they were. The pain meds were really working.

It was nearly dawn. I’d spent most of the night in the emergency room having my left shoulder popped back into place, and stitches put into three very deep cuts in the tender part of my right arm. The doctor said something about a nicked artery. I believed it after I saw Jace’s blood-soaked shirt wrapped around it. Even then, it’d bled all over my shirt, and transferred to his white undershirt, as well.

The two IVs hanging next to my bed, one blood red, one clear, were nearly empty. The doctor told me I would be released after they were finished and I could stand up without assistance. I, uh, might’ve passed out in the ER, but I couldn’t remember for sure.

Willow had called the police as well as the paramedics last night. She’d turned over the gun to them. Although Taylor hadn’t wanted to press charges against Beth, Jace certainly did on my behalf. Letting Beth off without any repercussions wouldn’t have helped fix things between them. Their problems might continue to fester, unchecked. At least now Beth would receive a forced mental health evaluation and professional counseling, if not jail time for trying to kill her sister.

I was thirsty. A big insulated cup of ice water sat on the rolling table, but it was far enough away I couldn’t reach it. I had a hunch. “Jace?” A sudden deep breath came from outside the curtain. “Jace?”

“I’m here.” There was a rustling of fabric—the sound of a blanket being tossed aside. A moment later, Jace came around the curtain. His hair was disheveled and he ran his hand over his face a couple of times. He’d changed into a clean T-shirt since the last time I saw him. “Are you in pain?” he asked, gently taking my fingers in his big hand. “I can call the nurse.”

“No, I’m not hurting.” He continued to play with my hand. He seemed mindful of the IV needle taped to the back of it. I was sure if I didn’t have such a heavy dose of pain medication in me, I’d feel joyful tingles along my skin right now.

“But I am thirsty.” I looked over at the table. I didn’t have to ask before he held the cup for me as I sipped some cold, soothing water out of the straw. When I had enough, I said, “Thank you—baby.”

I couldn’t help smiling with the way Jace’s eyes blinked open wide momentarily. He set the cup back down on the table before he slowly moved a chair close to my bed. He didn’t speak immediately. Before he did, he found my hand again but didn’t look up into my face.

“To be honest, Max. I didn’t think you heard me say that.”

“I don’t think I did—then.” Jace moved his caring gaze from our hands up to my eyes. “But I can’t get last night out of my head. It keeps playing over and over again. The what ifs scare me more than what happened.”

“I know what you mean. I could hear you screaming for me through my phone as I ran up the stairs, but I kept thinking—what if I don’t reach you in time.” Jace took in a deep breath and blew it out. I guessed that was as close to a sigh a tough-as-a-brick man would allow himself.

“Jace, I haven’t had a chance to tell you this…” I managed a smile and held his hand tighter. In response, he lifted our hands to his chest. “My worst fear would’ve come true—falling to my death—if it hadn’t been for you. Thank you for saving my life.”

Jace leaned in closer, barely leaving a few inches between our lips. In that instant I knew he would kiss me. Even with the medication, my heart thumped wildly in anticipation. “I didn’t want to lose you.” In the next instant, he gently pressed his warm mouth against mine, kissing me gently, tenderly, like I would break if he moved too fast. It didn’t last long enough before he lifted his lips. Max…I’m in—”

The curtain suddenly slid back, and the nurse came in carrying a small tray. Jace groaned and fell back into his chair. And if I wasn’t hearing things, he’d mumbled a curse. I guess I’d have to wait to find out what he would’ve said before we were interrupted. But that was okay. We had time now.

~*~

The difference in acoustics between the hospital and my home were amazing. I couldn’t sleep for five minutes in my hospital room—it was so noisy, but there was only silence in my own bedroom. The six-hour nap I’d taken after Jace brought me home only left me wanting more sleep.

I sat propped up against the headboard with two feather-soft pillows behind my back and another two supporting my bandaged arm. I’d be wearing a sling for the dislocated shoulder for three weeks, at least, so Willow had decided to become my temporary nursemaid. I was sure she felt guilty for my condition—it was she who left the building’s door unlocked that set last nights near deadly events into motion. I didn’t blame her, and I told her as much this morning.

“Max,” Willow said, rushing into the bedroom. “Pierce and Taylor are here.”

I sighed. “Are we ready?”

Willow shrugged while giving me a mischievous grin. “This will be fun.” I had to wonder if she had secret desires of becoming an investigator, like I had so many years ago.

This morning, my team had been in my living room waiting for me to come home, and I’d had a chance to talk with them about Taylor recording me. Bullet had been working on that problem for me since I’d texted him early yesterday. He already broke into her computer, wiping everything connected with me, including tapping into her Cloud account where she’d stored audio files. Bullet wiped that indiscriminately. Everything got deleted. All that was left was her phone. She kept that with her all the time. I leaned my head back, relaxing, while the dance began downstairs.

I imagined it, pacing out the steps of Pierce bumping into Taylor hard enough she’d drop her phone, yet he’d keep her distracted so Lia could replace it with my old phone in a case that matched Taylor’s. She would pass Taylor’s phone to Bullet, who would delete the recording app and then wait while we had our final meeting.

Footsteps on the stairs carried voices along with them. It was time, but I couldn’t get excited about the next few minutes. I was angry with Taylor at what Bullet discovered planted in my home.

“Max,” Taylor said, coming into my room. “You’re lookin’ good.”

Yeah, right. No makeup, hair in need of a desperate washing—but I was alive. “Thank you.” I motioned to the upholstered chair next to my bed. I wanted a good view of her face. “I believe we have a few more things to tell you before we wrap up your case.”

“What’s there left to tell? Out of anger, Beth sent me threatenin’ emails from my old computer, and she tried to kill me.”

“Or maybe she only tried to scare you,” I told her.

“But she shot at us—she shot you.”

I looked at Jace. “Did you find out what Beth drives?”

Jace had his shoulder against the doorframe with his strong arms crossed over his muscular chest. “Beth Ann Hodges has a silver 2009 Honda Civic registered in her name. Her boyfriend, David Chandler, drives a white 1999 Ford F-150, which he’d reported stolen last Thursday. It showed up in his driveway again a few hours later, but he found damage to the passenger side view mirror.”

“Did she have her boyfriend try to run me down?”

Jace shook his head. “Chandler has a solid alibi. He was in his living room, watching baseball on TV with six of his buddies, which was why he didn’t hear his truck drive out of his carport. Police found your sister’s prints on the driver’s door handle as well as the steering wheel.”

“I don’t understand—so she tried to run me down, but she didn’t shoot at us?” Taylor asked as she stabbed at her phone. I could see the display screen. It was similar to hers, but not exactly the same. When she held still and stared at the cover photo, her breathing accelerated. “This isn’t mine.”

“No, it’s mine,” I said.

Her head swung up. A split second later, her brows furrowed. “Why…” Taylor whispered. “Where’s my phone?”

I nodded at Bullet, and he wordlessly handed it to her. I then looked at Pierce and nodded. He had a small blue envelope in his hand. I found it interesting how he made a production of opening it and pouring the contents onto the edge of my bed.

It had several button-sized listening devises in it. When Taylor saw them, her head jerked. She’d recognized them. She quickly opened her phone, but her search turned to panic as she moved the screens back and forth.

“It’s deleted!” Taylor gave me a heated stare that could’ve puddled steel. “You deleted everything. You bi—”

“Now, now. There’s no need for name-calling,” I told her, cutting in and leaning back on my pillows.

“It’s fingerprint protected security. How’d you get past that?”

I looked at Pierce. He held up a latex glove and said, “That’s basic break-in 101. You left plenty of fingerprints around the house. Lifting a copy of your thumbprint was simple.”

“And so was finding your listening devices,” Bullet said, taking the same stance as Jace, but using the bathroom’s doorframe for support. “You’ve got a lot to learn about plantin’ bugs.”

“I’m going to give you a little advice, Taylor. You might want to think about walking a little softer along your career pathway. Making enemies is extremely counter-productive to your health. That includes blackmailing producers to get to your own shows.” I leaned forward, giving her my own unyielding stare. “And I won’t be there next time to save you. Pierce, would you and Lia please escort Taylor to The Hilton Phoenix Suites? I think we’re done here.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Pierce said, giving me a quick salute.

Taylor threw my phone across the room, bouncing it off the wall, just missing the window as she rushed out the door. Jace barely had time to move aside.

“I hope Pierce man doesn’t need backup with that woman.” Bullet chuckled.

“That’s why I sent Lia with him.” That was more stressful than I thought it would be. I collapsed against the pillows, wishing for sleep.

Willow got up from the bench at the end of the bed. “I’m glad that’s over. You men leave. Max needs her sleep.”

Something bothered me about Jace’s findings. “If it wasn’t Beth, then who owned the dark blue car—the one who shot at us?”

Willow turned around, staring at me. “It was a dark blue car?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Jace said, as he came to sit on the edge of my bed. “It couldn’t have been Beth.”

“Then who was it?” Bullet asked, sitting in the chair Taylor had vacated.

Willow crossed her arms over her stomach. “Howard Andover, Andover Construction keeps a fleet of dark blue cars and trucks, and only dark blue. Max, is he coming after you?”

The End

A note from the author: I hope you’ve enjoyed reading IT TAKES A SLEUTH, and if you’d like, writing a short review on Amazon.com would be greatly appreciated.

Other works from Debra Erfert:

WINDOW OF TIME on .com

RELATIVE EVIL on .com

Acknowledgments

I want to thank Janine Christensen, Sariah Wilson, and Christina Tarbet for reading IT TAKES A SLEUTH in its first draft. Your skill and wisdom helped me work out the rough edges and fill in the few plot holes I missed. You’re the best!