Laurel Heights 3

by Lisa Worrall

  Scott stared at him for a moment, speechless. What an asshole! “No, Mr. Barrett. She has no legal rights here.”

  “At least that’s something,” Michael replied. “My cousin has been through enough without some bimbo begging for handouts.”

  “Mr.—”

  “Goodbye, Mr. Barrett,” Will quickly interjected. “We’ll be in touch.” He ushered Scott out of the house before he could knock the sleazy bastard out, which is exactly what he wanted to do.

  “Nice to know compassion is alive and well in White Plains,” Scott drawled sarcastically as he yanked open the car door and all but threw himself in behind the wheel. “What a fucking asshole!”

  “Uh-huh.” Will’s response was a distracted mumble and Scott half-turned in his seat to look at him.

  “Something wrong?” Noah said from the back seat, the sound of his voice startling Scott. He’d almost forgotten the kid was there.

  Scott frowned at Will, who was staring contemplatively out the windshield. “Will? What is it?”

  “Her reaction.”

  “What?”

  “When you told her about Tiffany,” Will replied. “Something about her reaction bothered me.”

  “What?”

  “There wasn’t one.”

  Scott’s eyes widened. “She knew?”

  “I’d lay money on it.”

  “Like I said,” Scott turned on the engine. “Jealousy’s one hell of a motive. But bigamy is even better.” He sighed heavily as he turned the car around at the top of the cul de sac. “Let’s get back to the station and talk to Hall. I’ve a feeling she’ll be a little more forthcoming if we bring her in.”

  They were almost at the station when Will’s phone pinged, signaling the arrival of a text. Out of the corner of his eye, Scott saw him open it, read it, then shove his phone back into his pocket. He didn’t need to be a genius to know who the message was from. He counted to ten slowly in his head to tamp down the urge to open his mouth and probably put his foot squarely in it. He’d told Will he could do whatever he wanted, so he could hardly complain when he did just that. Did his unwillingness to get involved have more to do with his sister than his belief that Rachael and Jack were Class A drug addicts? Probably more than he was willing to admit. He sighed, internally. Will was right, he had known them, grown up with them. Hell, Rachael had given him his first kiss during a game of spin the bottle in Jack’s basement when he was twelve and Jack had taught him how to throw a curve ball. Drug addicts? Magic mushrooms, sure. A little weed, definitely. But heroin? Not the Jack and Rachael he knew. Not after—

  “You okay?” Will asked.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “You missed the turn.”

  “I need more coffee,” Scott growled as he checked the mirror and swung the car around. “A lot more coffee,” He steered the car into the underground lot and pulled into their usual spot, ignoring the narrowing of Will’s concerned gaze. “Okay,” he said, turning off the engine. “Who wants to talk to Hall? Are we drawing straws or flipping a coin?”

  “I think that honor should go to the one who’s known him the longest,” Will replied, opening his door. “What do you think, Noah?”

  “I’m just a rookie, sir.” Noah grinned, climbing out of the back seat. “I should probably handle the coffee.”

  “Wow,” Scott drawled as he got out of the car. “You both really suck. You know that, right?”

  “Oh yeah,” Will agreed, pushing Scott toward the elevator.

  They heard Glenn yelling the moment the elevator doors slid open on the third floor. Scott scowled at Will and Noah. “Thanks, guys.”

  “Don’t worry,” Will said as he patted Scott on the back. “I have complete faith in you and, if it does go South, I have a first aid kid in my drawer.”

  “Asshole.” Okay, it may not have been the most eloquent of responses, but Scott felt it pretty much covered everything, as Will and Noah left him outside Glenn’s door and ran for cover. He was busy figuring out exactly how he was going to make Will pay, when Glenn yanked open the door.

  “What?” he yelled.

  “Okay, that’s enough,” Scott mumbled and pushed Glenn back into his office, slamming the door behind them. “I told Will you had to figure it out on your own, but fuck that!” he ground out as he strode around the office and drew the blinds.

  “Turn—”

  “Uh-uh.” Scott shook his head. “Elvis has left the building, baby. It’s just you and me now.” He sat down in one of the chairs in front of Glenn’s desk and glared at his friend. “Start talking.”

  “What do you want me to say?” Glenn asked wearily as he sank down into his chair.

  “Do you love him?”

  “It’s not that simple.”

  “Yes, it really is.” Scott threw up his hands in frustration and repeated the question. “Do you love him?”

  “Of course, I do.”

  “Do you want to lose him?”

  “No! You know I don’t, but—”

  “There is no but here, Glenn,” Scott said, lowering his tone. “You have to decide what’s more important. What you want, or what everyone else thinks. Look, you’re not the first straight guy to fall in love with a man, and you sure as hell won’t be the last. Are you seriously going to let some kind of outdated, narrowminded thinking ruin the best thing that’s ever happened to you? ‘Cause when the job’s done and you hang up your gun for the last time, no one here is going to give a shit who you get into bed with at night. But you will when you climb into it alone.”

  Glenn buried his head in his hands. “I’ve been such a fool.”

  “Then fix it.”

  “How? He won’t take my calls.”

  “That part you’re going to have to figure out on your own.”

  “I know.” Glenn sighed heavily.

  “But do it quick,” Scott’s lips twitched, “before you, or one of us, gets arrested for assaulting a police officer.”

  “Ouch,” Glenn grumbled. “You and Dear Abby just can’t help yourselves, can you?”

  “Nope.” Scott smiled and raised a questioning eyebrow. “Can we get back to work now?”

  “Please do.” Glenn sat back in his chair.

  “I want to bring Audrey Petersen in,” Scott said firmly. “We know she did it, she knows we know she did it, but she’s clinging to the one-armed man story.” The phone on Glenn’s desk rang and Glenn answered it.

  “I’m in a meeting,” he snapped and hung up before the person on the other end could respond. “Did you tell her about the second Mrs. Petersen?” Scott nodded. “And?”

  “Didn’t bat an eye.”

  “She already knew?”

  “Definitely.” Scott frowned. “She denied the abuse, too. I mean, that’s her defense right there. Why wouldn’t she grab it?”

  “Who knows what that kind of thing does to a person?” Glenn replied. “Everyone’s knee-jerk reaction is, ‘why didn’t she leave?’ But no one has any idea what they’d do if it happened to them.” The phone rang again, and Glenn picked up the receiver and replaced it without a word.

  “Interviewing her in the comfort of her living-room is a little different than doing it across a table in a fifteen by fifteen room with no windows,” Scott said succinctly. “I think she’ll sing a little louder if we bring her in.”

  “Okay.” Glenn folded his hands on his stomach as he nodded. “You know the drill. Bring her in. You’ll have twenty-four hours to see if she folds.”

  “Thanks—” The phone rang again, and Glenn growled as he picked up the receiver.

  “I said I’m in—” Scott’s half-smile froze on his face as Glenn’s eyes widened. “When…? Okay….” He grabbed a pen and scribbled something Scott couldn’t see on the notepad on his desk. “How long was she there? Jesus. Yeah, thanks for letting me know. I’ll send someone. Thanks. ‘Bye.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Kimberly’s in the hospital.”

  “What? Why? Wha
t happened?” The words tumbled over each other as Scott stared at Glenn in disbelief. What the fuck? “Glenn, what happened?” Scott’s blood ran cold at the next words to come out of Glenn’s mouth.

  “They said it was a drug overdose.”

  The drive to the hospital took even less than the usual two minutes from the station, because Will turned on the lights and siren before they’d even left the parking lot. Scott held on as Will wove in and out of the traffic and concentrated on getting them there as fast as he could. When Scott had come flying out of Glenn’s office, Will had stood up, immediately knowing something was very, very wrong. He’d only had to say the words, Kimberly and hospital, and Will had gone on automatic pilot.

  Tires screeched as Will braked heavily right outside the ER, much to the security guard’s displeasure. Scott heard the guard yell that it was a no parking zone, followed quickly by the jangle of Will’s keys being thrown at the guard and Will’s brusque, “Move it, then!” as they ran past him.

  They both skidded to a halt at the reception desk and Scott showed the young woman his badge. “Kimberly Stein?”

  “Are you a relative?”

  “No, she’s our coworker,” Will replied. “She was brought in about an hour ago, something about a drug overdose.”

  “I’m sorry, sir, but if you’re not a rel—”

  “We’re the fucking police!” Scott snapped, his frustration rising.

  “There’s no need for that—”

  “Scott?”

  Scott spun around at the sound of his name and froze as he saw Ally standing in the doorway of what appeared to be a waiting-room. What the fuck was she doing here? “What are you—?”

  “They told us to wait in here.”

  Before he could say anything else, Will was already pushing him toward the room with his hand in the small of Scott’s back, so he had little choice but to follow his sister inside. He rounded on her as soon as Will closed the door behind them.

  “Why are you here?”

  “The hospital called me,” Ally replied, sitting down next to Matt.

  “Why would they call you?” Scott snapped.

  “Because I’m her emergency contact.” Ally kept her tone calm and even, as though she were speaking to a child, which pissed Scott off even more than her presence.

  “Her emerg—why the hell are you her emergency contact?” Scott was confused. “What about her parents?”

  “They moved to Florida three years ago,” Ally explained. “When Kimberly took the job in the coroner’s office, she asked me if she could put my name down instead.” She raised an eyebrow and gave him the same condescending look she had perfected when they were kids. The one that drove him out of his gourd. “Is that a problem for you?”

  “Now why would the fact that you seem to have kept in touch with everyone in Tivoli apart from me, be a problem?” She recoiled, as if Scott had physically struck her, and for a moment he felt awful—for a moment.

  “Sco—”

  “Ally,” Will interrupted. “What happened? Is she okay?”

  “I don’t know,” she replied, her gaze remained on Scott. “From what I’ve been able to find out, she didn’t show up for work this morning, so one of her colleagues went over to the apartment to see if she was okay. He found her in her car in the parking lot at the back of the building. There were….” She trailed off, unable to continue.

  “They found a syringe in her arm and cocaine and heroin, along with what they termed ‘the tools of the trade’ on the passenger seat,” Matt finished. He slipped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “That’s all we’ve been told.”

  “Heroin?” Scott shook his head. “Bullshit. Kim gets wasted if she has too much wine in her spritzer.”

  “Exactly!” Ally snapped. “Do you still think there’s nothing to look into?”

  Scott looked at Will, who shrugged. Not that Scott could think of anything to say either. Jesus, Scott! It’s Kimberly, man! He scrubbed a hand over his face and slumped onto the chair opposite Ally, gratefully accepting the warmth of Will’s body as he sat down next to him. Hospitals always made him feel so cold.

  “When did you last hear from her?”

  “She called me just before she left work last night,” Ally replied.

  “And how did she seem?”

  “Fine.” Ally smiled wistfully. “She was supposed to come over for dinner tonight. We’d invited Chris, Matt’s friend from the gym. She was looking forward to it.”

  “You set her up?” Will chuckled.

  “Not a set-up, exactly,” Ally drew out the word as if she were thinking of how to finish the sentence, but she needn’t have bothered, because Matt finished it for her.

  “Total set-up.”

  “Did anything seem out of place?” Scott asked. “Did she give any indication that something wasn’t right?”

  “No.” Ally shook her head. “She said she was looking forward to tonight, that she’d bought a new dress and….” She frowned.

  “And?”

  “I’m not sure.” She shook her head again. “She said she’d bought a new dress and that she’d call me tomorrow but, just before she hung up, I could’ve sworn she said something else, but it wasn’t to me.”

  “What did she say?” Scott demanded, the hair standing up on the back of his neck.

  “I’m not sure, I—”

  “Think for God’s sake! Think!”

  “Scott, calm down,” Will said, sternly.

  “Ally!”

  “Oh, it’s you.”

  “What?”

  “She said, ‘Oh, it’s you’.”

  Scott turned to look at Will and saw his own thoughts reflected in Will’s eyes. Someone else was there, and Kimberly knew who it was.

  “You said Rachael told you she felt like she was being followed before she died, right?” Will asked and Ally nodded. His next question was directed at Matt. “And Jack said he had something he wanted to talk to you about, but he didn’t get the chance?” Matt confirmed it with a nod. Will turned back to Scott. “What if Rachael wasn’t imagining things? What if she really was being followed?”

  Scott immediately picked up on where Will was going with this as he added, “And what if Jack wanted to tell Matt the same thing?”

  “Jesus, that’s thin.” Will groaned loudly and threw his head back to stare up at the ceiling.

  “Really fucking th—”

  The door opened and they all jumped to their feet as a doctor and nurse in matching blue scrubs, walked into the room.

  “Mrs. Stiles?” the doctor, a man in his fifties Scott surmised, with kindly blue eyes, looked inquisitively at Ally.

  “Yes.” Ally shook the hand he held out to her.

  “I’m Dr. Wells.”

  “How’s Kimberly? Is she okay?”

  Wells sighed heavily. “I’m afraid she’s in a coma.” He ignored the collective gasp in the room, one Scott was sure he was more than familiar with, as he continued. “The dose she took should’ve killed her, but for the moment she’s holding on.”

  “Oh, thank God.” Ally breathed a sigh of relief.

  “How long has she had a problem?”

  “She doesn’t,” Scott growled.

  Wells raised an eyebrow and looked at Scott as if he’d just drooled on himself. “Mr.….?”

  “Stein,” Ally replied. “They’re her brothers.”

  “I thought you were her emergency contact?” Wells asked, obviously confused.

  “We live in Flagstaff,” Will countered. “We’re in town for a friend’s wedding.”

  “Yeah.” Scott flashed him what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “Our parents moved to Florida three years ago, so Kimmy asked Ally here to do the honors.”

  The doctor’s gaze flitted suspiciously between all four of them for a moment, then he slowly nodded. Although to Scott it looked more like he was too tired to figure out if they were telling the truth, rather than he actually believed a word they’d said.<
br />
  “Mr. Stein.” Wells addressed Scott. “She’s going to need your support if she comes through this. Denying she has a problem is not going to help.”

  “She doesn’t have a problem.” Scott took a step toward the doctor.

  Wells was obviously having trouble keeping calm. “You do understand that she took a speedball so potent it would have killed a man five times her size? That doesn’t happen by accident and, to be perfectly honest with you, I, for one, have absolutely no idea how she’s still alive!”

  “Forgive my brother, Dr. Wells.” Will stepped forward and put his hand on Scott’s arm. “He and our sister are very close. Of course, she will have our full support. We just want her to be okay. Is she going to be okay?”

  “Even if she makes it through the next forty-eight hours,” Wells replied. “We won’t know what damage the brain has sustained until she wakes up… if she wakes up.”

  “Oh God,” Ally groaned.

  “I’m sorry,” the doctor’s smile was sympathetic. “But I don’t want to give you any false hope. As I said, the next forty-eight hours are crucial.” He turned to the nurse beside him. “I have to get back to work, so I’ll leave you in Nurse Snyder’s capable hands. I’ll be back to check on your sister later.”

  “If you’d like to come with me,” Nurse Snyder said with a gentle smile. “I’ll take you up to her room.”

  They followed the nurse to the elevators down the hall where she ushered them inside and pressed the button for the sixth floor. Scott’s heart pounded as he watched the numbers on the panel above the door light up one by one, willing the tin box to go faster. He wouldn’t be able to relax until he’d seen her for himself. Of course, if she had been awake, she’d have him thrown out, but right now nothing was going to keep him out of that room.

  Nurse Snyder led them along the corridor that spanned the length of the sixth floor and stopped outside room two-two-four. “She’s been intubated and put on a ventilator,” she said quietly. “So, please don’t be alarmed at all the machines, wires and tubes, they’re there to help her through this. You can go in two at a time. There’s a vending machine at the end of the hall, but it spits out hot mud rather than coffee, so I’d recommend the cafeteria on the fourth floor, and there’s a button for the nurse behind the bed if you need anything.” With another reassuring smile, she turned on her heel and her sensible shoes tip-tapped along the tiled floor as she headed back toward the elevators.