Next Day Gone

by J C Wing

  “It was smart making sure Cabot knew what was going on. He’s worked on this whole mess since the very beginning.”

  “Well,” Zac said, running a yellow light, “I figured it was about time I did something right.” They were getting closer to the house. “So, you’re a psychologist. Elias had a lot to say back there. You got a diagnosis?”

  “Are we talking professional or personal?”

  “Professional first.”

  “He’s got a problematic psychological disposition of being judgmental. He finds satisfaction out of making negative moral assessments of other people. Clinically, I would describe it as the enhancement of one’s own sense of moral worth by comparisons with the supposed lesser moral status of others.”

  Zac took a corner a little sharp and Edie gasped.

  “Sorry. Okay, so translate that into layman’s terms.”

  Edie touched her wrist and it radiated a painful heat. She was sure it was broken, but she didn’t have time to think about that now.

  “Elias is a fucking low-life murdering asshole who thinks he’s better than everybody else.”

  “Now that I can understand.”

  “Thanks for shooting him in the knee.”

  Zac nodded. “It was my pleasure.”

  He turned down the Larsen’s street and the night was filled with pulsing red and blue lights.

  “I will never forgive myself if something has happened to Drew.”

  The truck lurched to a stop and Edie winced as she flung her seatbelt off and hopped out of the cab. An ambulance rested at the curb and a police officer stood near the open doors at the back. Both Edie and Zac ran across the lawn and up the front steps.

  “Drew!” Edie called. “Drew! Where are you?”

  “I’m in here with G-Ma,” he responded from the kitchen.

  Edie ran into the room, sliding on the floor.

  “This is a crime scene,” one of the officer’s yelled. “You Dr. Heath and Zac Roth?”

  “Yes, sir,” they both answered in unison.

  “Great. Now get the hell out before you contaminate something.”

  The four of them filed out of the room, and the second they were out of the way, Edie pulled Drew close to her with her good arm. She rained kisses down on his head and cried into his hair.

  “You’re in one piece,” she said, her voice full of emotion. “Mrs. Larsen? You’re not hurt, are you?”

  “The boy and I don’t have a scratch on us,” Corinne answered. “I need some fresh air. It’s a bit too stuffy in here for me.”

  She turned and the other three followed her out the front door.

  “Drew, tell me what happened.”

  “I got a text telling me there was an emergency, that G-Ma needed my help.”

  “Who texted you?”

  Edie thought it had been Elias, but he’d made it clear there was someone else involved. She felt Drew wrap his fingers around her good wrist and pull her toward the ambulance. “You need to see this for yourself,” he said. “Uncle Elias killed my mom.”

  Edie took a deep breath. “Yeah, Roo, I know. I just figured that out myself.”

  “He tried to kill you, too, didn’t he?”

  “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Is he dead?”

  Edie shook her head. “No, but Zac made sure he wasn’t gonna walk again anytime soon. Detective Cabot has him. He’s gonna be locked up for a very long time.”

  Drew approached one of the officers near the ambulance. “Excuse me, sir,” he said. “Can I get another look at the man who helped kill my mom?”

  The officer dipped his chin and stepped aside. “Stay right here. Don’t go any closer.”

  Drew pushed Edie to open door. She peeked in and saw a paramedic scrambling to get the man inside stabilized. He had suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and there were lights and beeping machines all around him.

  “Come on, let’s go!” the medic yelled, smacking the partition between the cab and the back of the ambulance hard with his palm.

  The man was a mess of blood and tubes, and there was an oxygen mask covering up most of his face. His eyes were closed, but Edie would’ve recognized him anywhere.

  “Parker Holt,” she breathed.

  “I’m going to need you to step back,” the officer commanded before shutting the bay doors. The sirens wailed and Edie and Drew watched them rush one of the men away who had helped plan the deaths of both Willow and Paige.

  Drew leaned against Edie. “I’m not sure if I want him to live or die.”

  “You know what?” Edie said in a loud whisper, “I’m not sure how I feel about that either.”

  They watched the ambulance as it turned the corner and disappeared out of sight.

  “I’m going to need to call a hotel,” Corinne said, stepping up beside her grandson.

  Edie squeezed her eyes shut when she felt more tears threatening to come. She stood next to a woman who had lost her daughter and her husband and who was facing the reality that her son had been responsible for both of their deaths. Corinne Larsen couldn’t sleep in her own house because it had just turned into a crime scene, and Edie wondered if she would ever want to sleep in this house again.

  “I have a better idea,” Edie said turning to face Zac, Drew and Corinne. “I have plenty of room at my house. Here,” she said, digging into her pocket and producing her keys. “You two go on ahead. Zac and I will meet you there after we make a trip to the ER.”

  She kissed Drew again, so grateful that he was standing there in front her. She felt Zac put his arm around and allowed him to guide her back to his truck.

  “Don’t get upset for me for touching you now,” he told her. “I’m just trying to get you to the hospital before anything else happens.”

  They both got into the truck and Zac pulled away from the curb.

  “I’m still not sure I was wrong about you.”

  “You’re a hard woman to impress, Dr. Heath.”

  She was quiet for a second. “You still might be a bad penny,” she told him, “but I’m sure glad you turned up tonight.”

  EPILOGUE

  Edie moved gently back and forth in the swing on her back porch. Drew sat next to her, careful to sit on the side that wasn’t being taken up by her cast. She hadn’t seen patients for the last two weeks. The ER doc told her she’d suffered a severe concussion and that she should take it easy for a while. She decided it was a good time for a little break.

  She could hear Dean in the kitchen with Corinne. His laughter, mostly, and the mumble of conversation but not actual words. They were making an apple pie for dessert. Drew told them they should probably make two.

  “Elias said that he killed Paige because she didn’t come from a good family.”

  Edie was quiet. He hadn’t talked much since Elias and Parker had been arrested. She knew he would when he wanted to. She continued to push them with her toe and watched Rosie gnaw on the new chew toy Zac had brought her.

  “Non-traditional is what he said,” Drew corrected himself, “not good. He said her mom traveled too much, that she didn’t care enough about her girls. He didn’t think Paige was a good influence on me. He thought I was too young to be that serious about a girl. That she might get pregnant like my mom did.”

  Edie wrapped the blanket that was draped around them tighter around her shoulder. Her wrist was aching, but she didn’t want to go inside just yet.

  “You know that Elias doesn’t think straight about a lot of things, right? He hasn’t for a long time. None of that crap he said about Paige’s family is true. Elias is a serial killer. I think it’s best not to put too much weight on anything he has to say.”

  They continued to rock. Rosie was now chasing a squirrel in the yard and Drew’s eyes followed her as she moved.

  “Hank spied on us for him. They met last summer when Hank applied for a job at L & H. They got to talking. Hank’s always been a bully. He was sent to Winston because his parents cou
ldn’t handle him. My lawyer thinks he liked the attention Elias gave him.”

  They’d learned a lot since Parker and Elias had gone to the hospital that night. They were still there under police surveillance. It was touch and go for a while with Parker. After she’d had some time to think about it, Edie was glad he hadn’t died if only to make it easier on Corinne. She’d been the one who shot him. There had been too much death. At least she didn’t have the weight of Parker’s to carry around on her conscience. Neither man would come home. When they were deemed recovered enough, they’d go straight to prison. For how long was anybody’s guess.

  “You called me Roo,” Drew said. “That night at G-Ma’s.”

  Edie laughed quietly. “I did. It wasn’t intentional. It just kinda slipped out. When Willow was pregnant, I called her Kanga and you Roo. It was just somethin’ kinda silly between us.”

  “Maybe it could be somethin’ kinda silly between you and me.”

  Edie grinned. “Only when we’re not around other people you mean?”

  He nodded. “I’d like to call you something, too.”

  “Oh, no,” Edie let out another laugh.

  “I was thinking Aunt Edie sounded pretty good.”

  Edie’s nose tingled and she sniffed. “Okay,” she agreed, “but you can call me that no matter who’s around.”

  He moved his hand from beneath the blanket and Edie caught a shine of gold.

  “What’cha got there?”

  He dangled it in the air between them and Edie recognized it right away. “Your mom’s locket.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “She got that for her sixteenth birthday. She never told me who she got it from, but I’ve always kinda thought it might have been a gift from your dad.”

  “Really?”

  Edie nodded. “There was never a picture in it. Now I think had there been one, the boy next to Willow would have probably looked a lot like you.”

  “Maybe he loved her.”

  When Edie heard Drew say the words, she thought he might be right. “You know what? I think maybe he did.”

  Drew leaned the side of his head against Edie’s shoulder and sighed. “Now what?”

  It was two small words but an enormous question.

  “Rosie,” Edie called. The dog turned immediately and stared at her owner. “Up.” Rosie trotted across the lawn, then hopped up next to Drew. She settled her head into the boy’s lap and sighed.

  “We say thank you to the people who love us. We remember the ones who are no longer with us. We take care of one another, and we live our lives to the fullest.”

  She saw a flicker of movement to her left and turned her head to see Zac standing by the back gate. He gave her a smile and she returned it. She heard Dean laugh again from inside the house and moved so she could wrap her arm around the shoulders of her best friend’s son.

  “I’ve got him.” Her own voice sounded inside her head. The universe was big and wide, and she didn’t know if Willow or Paige could hear her. She sent the promise out there anyway, just in case. “He’s safe, and I’ve got him.”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  J.C. Wing is a multi-genre novelist whose works include The Color of Thunder, The Gannon Family Series, the Goddess of Tornado Alley Series and a collection of short stories, personal essays and poetry titled Acquainted With Butterflies. She wrote a novella called The Key, and became a bestselling author with her first mystery, Nine Ladies Dying. She is a contributing author and editor for the upcoming Grey's Harbor anthology.

  J.C. has a fondness for peanut M & M's, iced chai tea, Greek mythology and reading really good books. She has taught creative writing and poetry classes for children and worked for A & H Publishing, Kids 411 Magazine and Booktrope. In 2016, she decided to work for herself and launched Wing Family Editing. She is an indie author and publishes under Black Cat Press, her own imprint. Her writing companions include Mouse, a cranky but lovable twenty-pound cat, and Tara, the golden retriever of absolute happiness.

  J.C. is an eternal optimist and a friendly sort. She smiles a lot ... but she is silently correcting your grammar. She doesn't mean to. She's an editor. She can't help it.

  Please visit J.C. Wing at the following links:

  Website:

  https://www.jcwingandthegoddess.com/

  Amazon:

  http://www.amazon.com/author/jcwing

  Facebook:

  https://www.facebook.com/authorjcwing/

  Instagram:

  https://www.instagram.com/writerjcwing/