by Raine Thomas
He finally clued into why Katie was dressed like she was. Knowing how terrified she must have been had him holding her tighter.
The flash of a camera nearly made him snarl until he grasped that it was a crime scene tech rather than someone trying to take advantage of the situation for a publicity pic. A man and a woman wearing regular clothes stopped whatever conversation they’d been having and turned to greet him.
“Mr. Campbell, my name is Detective Baskin,” the man said, “and this is my partner, Detective Jeffries.”
Will gave them both nods of greeting. “Can you tell me what happened?”
Jeffries looked at Katie. “I don’t think we should discuss this in front of your daughter.”
So many horrifying scenarios ran through his mind right then that he nearly went into full-blown panic mode.
“Just a sec,” the officer said. “I have an idea.”
He jogged back outside.
“The security system is operated from the computer in Jasmine’s office,” Will told the detectives to fill the silence.
“Visual and audio?” Baskin asked.
Will nodded.
A few seconds later, the officer returned holding a pair of large earmuffs. “I keep these in my unit for when I go to the range,” he explained. “They’ll block all sound. They’re going to be a bit big though.”
“Katie,” Will said, “I’m going to keep you with me, but I want you to wear these, okay?”
Rather than reply, she lifted her head long enough for the officer to get the earmuffs positioned on her head.
“Would you call my dad, Frank Campbell?” Will asked the officer.
“Sure. What’s his number?”
Will gave it to him. After thanking the officer, he went with the detectives to Jasmine’s office. He deliberately avoided looking down at the blood as they passed it, afraid it would send him right over the edge.
He guided the detectives through logging into the security feed, explaining how the program worked so they could access the camera and microphone recordings they needed to review.
“I think it might be best if you wait in the lobby, Mr. Campbell,” Jeffries said.
Will suspected if he hadn’t been one of the city’s most popular professional athletes, she wouldn’t have worded it that way. He wasn’t at all above using his status to his advantage right then.
“I’m staying right here.”
The detectives exchanged glances. Neither of them argued with him.
Will watched along with them as they started with the footage from that morning. They watched it at an advanced speed until there was anything worth viewing.
A woman arrived out front around noon. She walked from somewhere out of the parking lot’s camera range rather than parking a car. When the feed switched from the outdoor overhead view to the camera over the front door, Will frowned.
“I’ve seen her before,” he said. “She’s one of the parents or grandparents who wanted their kid to have lessons here.”
“Her identity is one of the reasons we want to view this footage,” Baskin said. “There are differing stories on that.”
“You mean…that woman…she’s the one who…”
“We’re verifying that right now,” Jeffries said, not unkindly.
Will withheld his other questions through the rest of the viewing. He watched with the detectives as the woman circled the building, examining the windows and the doors as though trying to find a way in. After thirty minutes, she left.
Jasmine, Alima, and Katie arrived at half-past three. Seeing them all talking and laughing as they walked up to the front door so soon after that woman skulked around the building gave Will chills. Even if he hadn’t already known something bad had happened, he would have experienced the same grim sense of foreboding.
The detectives stuck to live footage from there. At first, the only feeds with any footage worth viewing alternated between Alima in the front office and Jasmine with Katie in the dressing room. Will watched with a painful knot in his chest as Jasmine styled Katie’s hair. He listened to them talk about Katie’s day.
He heard Jasmine tell Katie she loved her. Saw that love in the expression on her face.
It was the first time since he’d met with Carol Ann that he acknowledged how deep a cut she had made with the words she spoke about Jasmine. He had tried his best to convince himself not to believe anything she said, knowing she was manipulating him. But try as he might, he couldn’t deny that she had described his relationship with Jasmine almost to the letter.
Doubt had taken root. He’d spent the past week and a half questioning whether he had made a serious mistake.
And he had, he realized now.
He hadn’t trusted Jasmine.
The camera continued to alternate between Alima’s phone calls and Katie’s dance lesson for another fifteen minutes. Then there was movement on a third camera…the one over the front door.
The woman who had scoped out the studio earlier once again approached from somewhere off-camera. She paused by Jasmine’s car and looked inside. Will puzzled over why she went from the driver’s side window to the rear window. Whatever she saw in the back made her smile.
What did she see? Will wondered. The only thing he could think of would be…
“Katie’s booster,” he said out loud.
The detectives looked at him.
“Sorry,” he said. “I think she was smiling because she saw Katie’s booster seat in Jasmine’s car.”
Baskin nodded and jotted something in the small notebook he carried.
They watched as the woman walked up to the front door and knocked determinedly on it with the side of her fist. On the split screen, Alima paused her phone conversation and Jasmine walked over to mute the music before heading into the lobby. Jasmine indicated to Alima that she’d get the front door, then opened the door to greet the woman.
Will wouldn’t forget the next ten minutes of footage as long as he lived.
By the time the police arrived, Alima had Katie with her outside the building. She unlocked the door so the police could enter. They rushed in, yanking Jasmine off Ginnie and pressing her face-first against the ground, securing her hands behind her like a criminal as Ginnie yelled about having been brutally attacked.
Meanwhile, Will thought hollowly, Jasmine was the one with blood all over her face.
“They had to determine who was attacking whom,” Jeffries said, evidently seeing the look on Will’s face. “Ms. Li appeared to be the aggressor.”
He had no words to give her that she would want to hear.
Ginnie persisted in ranting as the police also secured her in handcuffs. Alima stood outside giving a tear-filled explanation to the police. One of the EMTs approached Katie, who stood still and unmoving by Alima’s side.
Will could only imagine how much therapy his daughter would need after all this. Hell, they’d probably all need it.
The detectives stopped the feed once Ginnie was loaded into one of the squad cars and Jasmine was released from her restraints. They turned to him.
Jeffries spoke first. “We appreciate your assistance with this, Mr. Campbell. We’ll need a copy of this footage as evidence.”
“Of course.”
“Thanks.” Exchanging a look with her partner, she said, “We may have some follow-up questions for you, but I think we’ve got everything we need for right now.”
Baskin nodded. “Ms. Li has been transported to Piedmont Hospital. She was experiencing pain in her chest and the EMTs wanted to get her X-rays in case any of her ribs were broken. She also appeared to have a broken nose.”
Will swallowed hard. “Thanks for letting me know. There’s supposed to be a big event here in a couple days. Will you be done with whatever you need to do here so that can still happen?”
“With this footage, we can be done in here by the end of the night,” Baskin said.
Will turned at the sound of his dad’s voice out in the lobby. “Sor
ry. Can you take these?” He removed the earmuffs from Katie and handed them to Baskin.
“Sure.”
He met his dad in the lobby. He was staring at the blood.
“It’s Jasmine’s,” Will said in a tight voice. “She’s okay. I’m sure the detectives will explain, but I need to get to Piedmont Hospital. Katie needs me too, so I’m bringing her with me. Would you please help the detectives with the security footage they need and do whatever needs to be done to get this place ready for the Open House?”
His dad’s eyebrows fell into deep slashes over his eyes. “Katie and Jasmine are both okay?”
There was no sense saying that “okay” was a relative term. He just nodded.
“I’m on it,” Frank said. “Go to Jasmine.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
It took some convincing to get Katie to let go of him long enough to get her into her booster in the back of his truck. What finally worked was him saying they were going to see Jasmine.
Fifteen minutes later, they were personally escorted to Jasmine’s room in the ER by one of his biggest fans. The fan had enough training to be empathetic and comforting rather than asking for an autograph, something Will would remember when it came time to leave.
Alima, May, and Jasmine’s father were already gathered around her bed by the time Will got there. He was deeply relieved to see them, knowing they would provide her comfort.
“Hey,” he said as all eyes turned to him.
Katie stood beside him, gripping his hand. When she spotted Jasmine, she released him and ran to the bed, grasping the edge of the mattress and bracing her arms like she was going to lift herself.
“Wait a sec, kiddo,” he said.
“It’s fine,” Jasmine said, patting the bed beside her. “Come on up.”
Jasmine’s dad helped Katie onto the bed since he was closest to her. She curled up against Jasmine’s side. Will saw Jasmine wince and felt it like a stab to his own chest.
“How many are broken?” he asked.
“Just one,” she said. “It’s nothing.”
No, he thought. It was everything.
“We sure had an adventure today, didn’t we, Katie?” she said.
Katie didn’t respond. Her head rested on Jasmine’s shoulder and she stared into the distance with a dull look in her eyes.
“I kicked her ass, did you know that?”
Will’s eyebrows lifted. Katie’s expression shifted as she looked up at Jasmine.
“I sure did,” Jasmine affirmed. “She’s going to jail for what she did. And she’s never, ever going to be allowed near you again.”
“Really?”
Hearing Katie speak brought all of Will’s emotions rushing to the surface. He’d been so worried she would regress back to where she had been eight months ago. It would have destroyed him.
“Not ever,” Jasmine promised.
The resolute, lifelong vow once again told him how much she loved his daughter, something he’d already known in his heart before that day…something he never should have doubted.
Something he would never doubt again.
“And if she ever tried,” Jasmine added, “I’d stop her again. She doesn’t scare me and she shouldn’t scare you.”
Katie considered that for a long moment. Then she nodded.
“Okay.”
Jasmine met his gaze over the top of Katie’s head. For the first time all evening, he took an unhindered breath.
With everyone standing around them in the small room and members of the hospital staff rushing past the open door, the moment wasn’t right for him to tell her everything she deserved to hear. He couldn’t spend the next several hours attempting to convey how brave and heroic he thought she was. How he’d never met anyone even close to as extraordinary as her. How he wanted to spend the rest of his life trying to make her happy and doing his best to live up to her incredible example.
Instead, the words passed unspoken between them. Every one of them conveyed the love they shared and the path that lay ahead of them.
Together.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Five months later…
“Does Simon have his bow?” Jasmine asked Chelsea, who was serving as the prop master for Pirouette’s upcoming recital.
“Of course he does,” Chelsea replied with a grin. “What good would a Cupid be if he didn’t have his bow?”
Jasmine smiled and high-fived her friend. “Great. Thanks.”
She continued on her way through the backstage area of the high school auditorium where the recital was being held. They needed the big stage to accommodate the performance. Jasmine had developed a partnership with the school before Pirouette opened. A majority of the high school’s dance students now also took classes at Pirouette. By offering those students a discount on lesson fees, Pirouette was allowed the use of their auditorium four times a year.
Today was the dress rehearsal for the studio’s big Valentine’s Day recital. She had hesitated to schedule the event on a holiday, worried no one would attend because they would be out doing other things.
Alima was the one who suggested turning it into a date night event. After the afternoon recital, parents could leave their children with the Pirouette staff for a small fee and go enjoy a date night together. The response had been enormous, once again proving that Alima had a great head for this business.
Another reason Jasmine decided to move forward with the Valentine’s Day event was because Will and his fellow pitchers and catchers had to report to spring training the following day. The recital would allow the players who had kids enrolled at Pirouette to enjoy one last heartwarming memory before the season began.
And as the reigning World Series champions, the team definitely needed to start the season off on the right foot.
She paused at each of the cameras set up around the stage, making sure they were pointed at the best vantage points. Pirouette’s social media accounts relied heavily on their videos. Fans went crazy for them, especially when Katie danced.
The talented little girl continued to blossom. It had been a year since Jasmine first met her in Everly’s waiting room. She couldn’t have imagined that shy child transitioning into the shining star she had become. Even the shocking events that took place before the Open House hadn’t kept Katie from reaching her potential.
Jasmine and Will continued to participate in family therapy with her. Gareth was guiding them all through the difficult aftermath following the incident. It was taking time, but they were all working through it.
Knowing they stood together as a unit helped Jasmine the most. She still remembered how uncertain she’d been about Will’s attitude in the days leading up to the attack. None of those doubts remained afterward though.
He loved her, plain and simple.
The day after the incident, Will hired Ordinem to do a deeper investigation into Carol Ann’s background and Katie’s childhood than had previously been done. After conducting in-depth interviews with Carol Ann, her mother, their extended family, and the people in their community, they discovered the darker details that neither Ordinem’s standard check nor the private investigator Will had hired had found.
They already knew Carol Ann’s mother, the woman who had called herself Ginnie but who was in reality Phyllis Driskel, raised Carol Ann on her own after her first husband, Abel Wilkins, died when Carol Ann was two in a single vehicle accident after he got behind the wheel while intoxicated.
They also knew Phyllis married her second husband, Donald Parkerson, when Carol Ann was five, and that after the marriage ended in divorce due to several infidelities by Donald, she married Stan Driskel when Carol Ann was nine.
What wasn’t public knowledge was that Stan started molesting Carol Ann the following year. She brought the abuse to her mother’s attention, but Phyllis hadn’t believed her. Instead, she started “disciplining” Carol Ann to get her to recant the abuse claims. It wasn’t until Phyllis walked into the room while the abuse was ha
ppening during Carol Ann’s fourteenth birthday party that she finally divorced Driskel. Even then, she refused to report the abuse, blaming Carol Ann and saying she was the reason Stan had been tempted to stray.
To try and earn her mother’s forgiveness, Carol Ann started having sex with the most convenient source of willing men: the fresh, young players at the local ballpark. Her mother, it seemed, had said the best way Carol Ann could be helpful after costing her the husband who supported her was by bringing in some income. At the tender age of fourteen, that meant selling drugs or her body. A friend told Carol Ann how much she could get for selling a baby in a private adoption. The rest was history.
As Ryan guessed, Carol Ann struggled more with giving a daughter up for adoption than she had the two boys she birthed. A part of her longed to raise a little girl and provide her with the love and support she hadn’t gotten from her own mother, she said.
Of course, that meant earning a steady income, something she couldn’t do unless she had childcare. Her only free source of childcare was her mother.
When Katie turned three, Carol Ann started to notice the signs.
The bruises.
The welts.
The sprains from rough grabs and falls after being knocked to the ground.
Carol Ann told Ordinem that was when her deepest depression began. She said she realized she hadn’t succeeded in raising a little girl with the love and support she envisioned. She had brought another child into her own personal hell.
Without telling her mother her plans, she saved what money she could to make the drive to Denver and left Katie on Will’s porch with what she hoped was the promise of a better life.
Or so she claimed.
Jasmine’s more skeptical side believed Carol Ann’s goal wasn’t nearly that maternal or altruistic. She thought she did it to get revenge against her mother.
Carol Ann’s actions had driven Phyllis to the brink of madness. Phyllis believed she had a second chance to raise the “perfect” child after failing to do so with Carol Ann. When Carol Ann took Katie from her, Phyllis stopped at nothing to find her.
She learned Katie was with Will nearly around the time Jasmine met Katie at Everly’s. It had required a lot of time and what little money she had, but she stalked Katie and Will long enough to figure out the best approach to get Katie back, leading to her downfall at Pirouette. She was now imprisoned after being convicted of attempting kidnapping, aggravated battery, trespassing, and vandalism.