Briana’s sobs brought her around with a jerk. The movement let her know that her ribs were definitely bruised from the contact against the steering wheel. Not broken, they didn’t hurt bad enough for that. She knew that from experience.
Briana stood in front of one of the stalls, while tears poured down her dirty face. Nikki knelt on the cool tile and pulled the child into her arms. "Sweetie? Bri, what’s wrong? It’s okay, honey, tell me what’s the matter?"
Outside the bathroom, Jarrod’s thoughts scattered when he heard Briana start to cry. He had his hand on the door before he had time to blink. Only the fact that it was a women’s restroom kept him from charging through. Cautiously, he pushed the door open a crack and listened to see if there was any threat to his daughter. He heard a gentle, husky voice and he walked quietly into the restroom. Nikki’s voice was still a low mutter, so he crept closer until he could both see and hear what was happening.
Nikki knelt on the bathroom floor, her hair in wild waves over halfway down her back, and held the sobbing child in her arms. "Bri, what’s wrong? Do you want me to go get your daddy?"
Jarrod took a step closer and halted at his daughters words. "N-n-no. I c-can’t get my pants un-undone." She hiccuped and cuddled closer in Nikki’s arms.
"Here, I’ll help you, those overalls can be kind of tricky." She gently pushed Bri far enough away to reach the fasteners. "I had problems with overalls myself when I was your age." Nikki’s voice soothed as her fingers worked on the stubborn fasteners.
"But, but not anymore?" Briana hiccuped again and scrubbed the tears from her face.
Jarrod could hear the gentle smile in Nikki’s voice as she replied, "No. Not anymore. If they made these things in my size I probably would still have problems. They sure are cute though, all those little flowers. Pink looks good on you."
He smiled at the thought of a grown woman in overalls who had problems with the fasteners, then backed quietly out the door. It sounded as if Nikki had everything under control. As a matter of fact, she’d had everything under control the second she entered the picture.
Jarrod leaned against the wall, crossed his legs, folded his arms across his chest and waited for his daughter. He’d have to arrange to pay for the repair of Nicole’s car . . .
Still in a soft voice, Nikki talked to Briana while she undid the fasteners on the overalls. She smiled gently, turned the little girl toward an empty stall and stood.
"Go on honey, I’ll wait for you right here. You’ll be okay." Unknowingly she echoed Jarrod’s own words. "I’ve got to see if I can get some of these knots out of my hair." She looked toward the door. She’d heard the door open, but no one had come in. Maybe Jarrod or one of the cops was checking to make sure they were both okay. She shrugged her shoulders and turned her attention to Briana when she heard the toilet flush.
After Briana came out of the stall, Nikki helped her refasten the overalls. The fresh tears had made Briana’s small face look even grubbier. She lifted Briana up to the sink so she could wash her hands. After she set the little girl back down, she wet a paper towel.
"Come here, sweetie, let’s get some of that dirt off." She gently wiped the bruise on her left cheek and rubbed more firmly on the rest of her dirty face.
When she looked at the tangled halo of light brown curls, Nikki playfully wrinkled her nose. "Your hair looks like mine did a few minutes ago."
She brushed the dark curls and worked out the tangles, careful to make sure she didn’t pull Briana’s hair. The child looked up into her eyes. "You didn’t hurt my hair as bad as Mrs. Cunn’ham does."
She put the brush down on the counter, then tilted Bri’s chin up to survey her handiwork. "There, that looks much better."
"I wanna see, I wanna see," Briana chanted excitedly.
Nikki smiled and turned her around to look in the mirror. Briana tilted her head, looked first at one side then the other. She touched the bruise on her face then turned in Nikki’s arms to touch the bruises on her neck.
"He was a very bad man, wasn’t he?" she asked soberly. At Nikki’s nod she sighed. "My mommy was bad too."
At those words, Nikki’s heart lurched and her stomach rolled. Oblivious to her reaction, Briana continued, "She never hitted me. She left me when I was little." Her hands measured about a foot. "Daddy said I was three days old. She left me all alone and never came back. Daddy said that some people don’t make good mommies and daddies."
With a lump in her throat the size of a softball, Nikki nodded dumbly. How could any woman abandon her three-day old baby? If that was the kind of parent she was, then Briana was definitely better off without her. It was obvious her father loved her very much and Briana seemed perfectly well-adjusted. So Jarrod had to be doing something right.
For a moment she let herself wonder what it would have been like if her father had left her mother. Would her mother still be alive? What would her mother have been like without a domineering, abusive husband? What would she have turned out like without her father around? What if, God forbid, her mother had left her all alone with her father?
She came back to reality with a shudder and realized Briana stared up at her with a serious expression on her little face. Evidently she’d been silent too long, buried in her own thoughts.
She cleared her throat and tried to smile, then gave Bri a small hug. "Your daddy’s right. Some people don’t make good parents." What an understatement! She was still bitter after all these years.
She bent to lower Briana to the floor. Little arms tightened around her neck and a small head buried in her shoulder.
Surprised, it took Nikki a few seconds to recover. She straightened and wrapped her arms more securely around the little body, then stood still for several seconds to control the dizziness that threatened to swamp her.
She closed her eyes and thought of what it would be like to have children of her own. She reined in her thoughts and reminded herself that it wasn’t a possibility. She would never take the risk as long as her father was alive. She would make sure that her father never forced a child to go through what she had at his hands.
Nikki squeezed the small shoulders, picked up her brush, and left the rest room. She stopped abruptly when she walked through the door, which barely missed banging into her as it swung shut. Jarrod leaned on the wall directly across from the door. His arms were folded and a scowl covered his face again. He looked positively ferocious!
He’s certainly looks better when he smiles. She felt her heartbeat pick up speed. Maybe he’s just a little too attractive. I don’t want a relationship. Unfortunately for me, he’s the first real temptation I’ve had in years. She ordered her heart to return to normal speed and started to move again.
"Thanks for taking care of Briana," he growled.
She stopped in front of him and lifted one arched eyebrow. "Didn’t your mother ever tell you that your face would freeze like that?"
Nikki smiled at the surprised look on his face, then turned and started back down the hallway toward the captain’s office.
"Come on, Daddy, we have to go talk to the bald guy again." Nikki’s shoulders twitched in the effort not to laugh at Bri’s statement.
Jarrod cleared his throat as if to cover a laugh and walked behind them. Nikki felt his eyes on her back and wondered what thoughts were going through his head right now. Did he think only of his daughter and the relief that she was safe? Or did he think about her, as a woman? She mentally shook her head as if to shake the ridiculous thought loose. Her head had definitely hit the door frame harder than she’d originally thought!
Chapter 4
Almost two hours later, Nikki rubbed her head in agony. She had gone over her story so many times she swore she could recite it backwards. Jarrod and Briana had gone into one room with the captain, Nikki into another with Lieutenant Grover.
Grover seemed determined to shake her story. Why and for what purpose, she had no idea. Maybe he wanted her to have been in cahoots with Davies, changed her mind,
then turned Briana over to the police. She rubbed her forehead again. It was way past time for some more Tylenol.
She sat in a hard, straight backed chair. Grover paced back and forth in front of the table. He scowled. Still. He stopped, brought himself up to his full height of five and a half feet, tried to suck in his pot belly, and clasped his hands behind his back. His thin blonde hair, ruddy complexion and large nose, along with his nasty attitude all made him a very unattractive man.
If there was ever a man more full of himself than this one, she had never met him. It’s a wonder he can get his fat head through the doorway. This man definitely has short man’s syndrome, in spades. That and he likes to lord his power over us lesser mortals, especially if they’re women. She tamped down her anger, which rose ominously.
Grover looked down his oversized nose at her and rocked back and forth on his feet. "Okay, let’s try it one more time."
The Irish temper Nikki usually had so carefully under control snapped. "I have told you my story eleven times! I will not do it again! You have used a stenographer, a cassette recorder, and a video recorder. I will not repeat this story, to you or anyone else, ever again!" She clenched the edge of the table so she wouldn’t do something incredibly stupid, like hit him.
"I rescued a child from an abductor! I did not abduct the child! I had nothing to do with the abduction of the child! I never met the child or her father before this morning! I have bruises on my throat, a lump on my head, bruised ribs, a wrecked car, and I missed an important meeting to do all these wonderful things! I did nothing wrong and I will not be treated as a criminal for one second longer! Do I make myself clear?!"
By this time Nikki was on her feet, her voice a hairsbreadth away from a scream. Her hands were now clenched in fists and she shook with fury. Her heart raced and she knew from previous experience that her face was bright red from rage. "Either arrest me or get the hell out of my way!" This can’t really happen, she tried to convince herself. It must be a bad dream.
She took a step forward. Grover took a step back, then, seemed to realize that he couldn’t retreat from a woman, stopped and stood with his feet apart and his nose in the air. He looks like a banty rooster. Nikki had to stifle a hysterical giggle at the irreverent comparison.
"I’m in charge here and you’ll do as I say. Sit down and let’s go over this one more time."
The rage built higher. Nikki took two long steps toward the lieutenant and towered over him. "Listen very carefully to me, Lieutenant Rover . . ."
"That’s ‘Grover" and you know it," the lieutenant replied as his own face started to turn red.
Nikki continued without a pause, "Lieutenant ‘Rover,’ I’ve had as much condescending clap-trap from you as I’m going to take. You have harassed me for far too long. You refused to let me eat. You refused to let me use the rest room. You refused to let me take any more Tylenol. And you refused to let me call my lawyer. You have violated my civil rights and you will pay for that."
She took another step forward so she stood toe to toe with the lieutenant, then continued, in a low, furious voice, "I’m going to leave and I’m going to leave right now. I’m going to find a phone. The first call will be to my lawyer to press charges against you. You’re an arrogant, power-loving, egocentric, potbellied, short, little twit!"
"Now, now, there’s no need for that," Grover blustered. "We’ll get to your wish list all in good time."
Just as Nikki opened her mouth and clenched her bruised right fist tighter, a bellow from the doorway almost deafened her. "That’s enough!"
Jarrod McKay stood in the doorway, make that filled the doorway. His cheeks were flushed and his hands were clenched into massive fists. Awed, Nikki could only stare. He looked like an enraged bull and Grover was the red flag!
Jarrod stalked into the room and picked up Grover by the shoulders. His feet dangled, Lieutenant Grover squeaked, "P-p-put me d-down." A pit bull with a rat seems an appropriate comparison. Nikki swallowed the slightly hysterical laughter at the thought. Grover looked so scared Nikki wondered if he would have an accident.
Jarrod’s grip tightened. "You seem to get quite a thrill when you throw your weight around." He threw a contemptuous glance at the lieutenant’s prominent stomach.
"The lady’s going to walk out of here. Right now. I’ll help her find a phone and then she’ll call her lawyer. I’ll be the star witness at your trial."
Grover turned pasty white and started to stammer, "B-b-but . . ."
"No buts! She saved my daughter’s life! You violated her rights by this kind of treatment. If I have my way, and I usually do, no one will have to suffer your interrogation ever again." Jarrod shook Grover once, hard. "Do I make myself perfectly clear?" He bared his teeth in a savage grin, brought his face closer to the lieutenant’s unsteady face and in a low gritty voice, "I said, do I make myself clear?"
Clearly frightened and intimidated by the much larger man, Grover nodded violently.
"McKay!" A sharp command from near the door got everyone’s attention.
Intent on Jarrod and Grover, Nikki hadn’t noticed the captain walk into the room.
"Let him go, McKay." Edwards said in a hard, clipped voice. "Right now."
Jarrod let go so suddenly that Grover almost fell. Grover straightened his clothes, turned to the captain, and opened his mouth.
"Shut up, Grover. We’ve discussed this behavior before. Give me your gun and badge. You’re suspended until this situation is resolved. You have disobeyed direct orders in regards to your behavior. I thought you’d learned your lesson with the last suspension, otherwise I wouldn’t have let you in here with this young woman. You were supposed to take her statement. Period. Not interrogate her."
Edwards placed himself between the two angry men and held out his hand. "Your gun and badge. Now." With a dirty look at both Jarrod and Nikki, Grover sulkily handed them over to the captain.
"I was just . . ."
"Shut up and go clean out your locker. You’ll hear from Internal Affairs. Find a lawyer for yourself, you’re going to need it." The captain gestured toward the door. "Leave."
"You’re going to take her word over mine?"
"Yes. But I don’t have to. The department installed hidden cameras in all of the interrogation rooms three months ago. I’m sure that will say it all."
Grover turned even whiter. "You never liked me! You’re prejudiced!"
"Only against stupidity. Get out of my station before I have you thrown out."
As he edged out the door, Grover didn’t know when to quit. "You haven’t heard the last from me!"
Jarrod took a ominous step toward him. Grover was obviously intimidated by the bigger man, but he managed to stand up to his meager height and walk from the room with a semblance of dignity.
Where is Briana? Nikki wondered suddenly. She looked around the small, dingy room. Briana stood just inside the doorway. Her eyes were wide and her thumb was in her mouth.
Jarrod’s eyes followed Nikki’s gaze and he saw his daughter cowered against the wall. He swallowed a curse, took one huge step, and scooped his daughter up in his arms.
"I’m sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t mean to scare you when I yelled at that man." He buried his face in her small neck and closed his eyes in regret. Briana hadn’t sucked her thumb in over a year. Now she was so upset she had reverted to old habits.
Slowly Briana took her thumb out of her mouth and stroked her father’s hair with one small, damp hand. "It’s okay, Daddy. That mean man shouldn’t talk to our Nikki that way."
Jarrod stiffened at the "our Nikki" and lifted his head to look at his daughter. She smiled up at him angelically and patted his cheek. Then she smiled over his shoulder at Nikki.
"You ‘kay?"
Nikki pushed her shaky fingers through her hair and winced. She took several deep breaths before she looked up.
Jarrod thought he saw pain, disbelief, hope, wistfulness, and despair flicker in her eyes. Only for a few seconds. Then h
er emotions were once again under control.
Nikki cleared her throat carefully as if it hurt. She gave a weak smile when she met Briana’s gaze. "I’m fine." Her voice sounded even huskier than it had before.
She shifted her gaze, but seemed to focus on his left cheekbone rather than his eyes. "Thanks."
She turned to look at Captain Edwards with what looked like relief. "I might be in a holding cell right now if you two hadn’t come in."
Edwards smiled. "We could hear you yell at ‘Rover’ two doors down. I wouldn’t have let him put you in a holding cell."
Nikki smiled again, a little stronger this time. "If I’d broken his nose like I wanted to you’d have locked me up yourself."
He replied with a grin, "I’d also have taken up a collection from Grover’s co-workers out there for your defense fund. You’d have gotten off, ‘cause there’d have been enough money for two lawyers."
Edwards said over his shoulder as he walked toward the door, "And I would have been the biggest contributor. But I never said any of this." And he winked. The trio laughed and followed the captain back to his office.
Once everyone was seated, the Captain dropped the gun and badge into a desk drawer and turned to Nikki. "What do you need?"
Surprised, Nikki blinked. "I need something to eat, something cold to drink, some more Tylenol, a visit to the bathroom, and access to the phone. Not necessarily in that order."
The captain looked wary as he leaned back in his chair. "Who do you need to call?"
Nikki looked at him steadily. "Isn’t the question you really want to ask ‘are you going to call your lawyer?’"
He dropped his gaze and fumbled with the papers on his desk. "Yeah, that’s what I mean." He looked up at her again. "Well?"
"If charges will be brought against him to have him removed from the police force, then I’ll go along and testify against him. If you don’t plan on anything but a slap on his hand and a suspension of a few days, then I’ll call my lawyer and the media. In that order."
Alice Carpenter Page 3