by Fay Robinson
“We need maps.”
“Lucky has navigational maps in the cabin. On the bookcase. Have someone get them. Get the Walker and Jefferson County sheriff’s departments out here to help. Round up all the volunteers you can.”
“I’ve already put the word out, sir.”
“Hightower?”
“In custody. When backup arrived, they found him lying in the driveway with your friend sitting on his back, lecturing him about the evils of crime. That old guy’s something else.”
“He’s not my friend, Rogers. Ray is my father. But you’re right, he’s one of a kind.”
In a matter of minutes volunteers from other agencies started to arrive. They fanned out and began a search of both banks. Jack manned the command post they set up in the front yard, feeling helpless and more desperate with each passing minute. Lucky had been in the cold water for more than thirty minutes.
She was a strong swimmer. But if she’d survived the gunshot and was still conscious, she’d be bleeding and battling hypothermia. He couldn’t let himself even think about the baby. The grief of that loss would overwhelm him.
Jack stood on the pier and stared out into the turbulent water. “Hold on,” he whispered, as if Lucky could hear. “I’m coming for you.”
A cheer alerted him that something had happened. “Captain! They found her!” Rogers yelled.
THE EMERGENCY ROOM at Riverside Community Hospital was a chaotic mass of hospital and law-enforcement personnel. Leigh and Cal had arrived shortly after Jack. Shannon showed up minutes later, and Lucky’s parents and grandmother followed on her heels, alerted to the unfolding drama by Ray.
No one knew anything other than that Lucky was alive when they’d brought her in. Found clinging to a log three miles downstream, she’d fallen into unconsciousness the moment they’d put her in the boat.
That had been four hours ago. Jack sat apart from everyone as he waited, not wanting company in his misery. And he feared, too, what Matt and Ruth thought of him now that he’d endangered their daughter and probably killed their grandchild.
At some point he’d overheard Rogers say that Deaton and Hightower were already screaming to testify against each other in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
But Jack no longer cared about them.
A dull ache had started in the center of his chest and spread to his entire body. Grief. Hopelessness. The baby couldn’t have survived. He hung his head and prayed for Lucky’s life now, unable to bear the thought of losing them both.
God, please don’t take her from me.
“Cahill?” called a man in a white coat.
“Here,” Jack said, quickly rising. Lucky’s family rushed over.
“I’m Dr. Chopra. Your wife is in serious condition, but stable. The bullet glanced off a rib and came out her abdomen without hitting any major organs.”
Jack held his breath, waiting to hear the bad news.
“Her body temperature is critically low and she swallowed a lot of water, but…” The doctor scratched his head. “Actually the cold water helped. It slowed her circulation and the blood flow from the entry and exit wounds. I’d say falling into the river may have saved her life.”
A murmur of disbelief went through the crowd. Leigh and Shannon cried and their parents hugged.
“Thank God,” Cal said, kissing his grandmother.
Jack’s knees felt weak. “Wait…are you saying she’s going to be all right?”
“With rest, she’ll be fine,” the doctor predicted.
“The baby’s alive?”
“Yes.”
“And Lucky will be able to carry it to term?”
“Because your wife was in labor when she was shot, the baby had already moved into the birth canal and away from the path of the bullet. She wasn’t injured.”
“She?”
The doctor smiled. “Your wife delivered a baby girl not long after she came in.”
A cheer went up.
“I’ll send a nurse out to let you know when you can see your daughter. We want to continue warming her, but we’ve checked her thoroughly and she seems healthy. She’s of normal weight, and we have every reason to believe she’ll be fine.” He patted him on the shoulder and told him congratulations. “Let’s give your wife a couple of hours to rest before you go in there. She’s recovering from surgery.”
Jack tried to restrain the tears, but couldn’t. His legs would no longer support him. He barely made it back to the bench before he collapsed. Leaning over, he put his face in his hands and wept.
The bench creaked with the weight of someone else. He recognized the woman from her shoes, but still felt surprise when Leigh’s hand rubbed his back in comfort.
She encircled him in a loving embrace. He clung to her, needing what she had never before offered him.
And together they cried.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
WHERE IN THE WORLD was Jack?
Lucky pushed the button that raised her hospital bed so she could look at the newspapers her father had brought with him, but her mind was on her wayward husband.
After two weeks in intensive care and another in progressive care, doctors had ordered her moved into a regular room three days ago. Everyone had taken turns seeing her—parents, grandmother, sisters and brother. Even Ray had popped in for a minute to say hello.
But missing was the one person she wanted to see most.
“This is the article from the Register,” her father said, holding it up. The issue date was the Sunday after she’d been shot. The headline read:
Lucky Mother And Baby
Survive Ordeal In River
“That’s cute, Dad. It mimics the article from 1973.”
“I thought you’d like it. I’m having a copy framed so you can put it up in your office hallway when we renovate the building.”
“Thank you.” She made him lean down so she could kiss him.
“You look almost healthy today.”
Her right side hurt when she talked or moved too much, but she could walk to the bathroom now, and they’d taken out all her tubes. She was even wearing her own nightgown.
“Leigh helped me shampoo my hair and wash and that made me feel much better. How’s Grace today? I hope she’s not giving you and Mom any trouble.”
“She’s fine. Cries some, but that’s probably because she misses her mother.”
“I miss her, too. I can’t wait to see her again.”
Grace Emma Cahill, dark-eyed and dark-haired like her father, hadn’t suffered any lingering effects from her traumatic birth and had been released a week earlier. But with her mother recuperating and her father stupidly living in a motel room, she’d gone home with her grandparents.
Doctors had advised Lucky not to allow Grace to be brought back for a visit, since the hospital was full of flu patients. Lucky had only seen her once for a few minutes and ached to hold her.
“Does Jack still come by every night to see her?” she asked, finding it painful even to say his name.
“Like clockwork at six and stays an hour. He gives her a bath and puts her to bed. He’s really good with her.”
“I knew he would be.” At least he was visiting his daughter. “Did you talk to him? Did you tell him I want to see him?”
“I did. He won’t come, sweetheart. He feels responsible for what happened to you.”
“That’s crazy! Nothing was his fault.”
“I know. But he has this fool notion that he put you and Grace in danger because you weren’t able to trust him.”
“Oh, that’s ridiculous. I’m the one who put us in danger. He did his best to keep me out of the case.”
He shrugged. “Only passing along what I was able to pry out of him.”
“Can’t you reason with him for me? I’ve left messages at the motel and at the station, and he hasn’t returned them.”
“I’ve tried. Your mom even asked him to move to the house until you get out of the hospital. She thought that might m
ake him understand that we’re his family and we don’t blame him.”
“He wouldn’t consider it?”
“No, he’s distancing himself from Cal, too.”
“That’s not good. The two of them have always been so close.”
She sighed heavily, and he patted her hand. “Don’t worry yourself about it. Give him time to get past what he witnessed that day. He thought he’d lost you and the baby.”
“So when he finds out I’m okay, he deserts me? What kind of idiot have I married?”
He chuckled. “When you get out, you can set him straight.”
“I certainly will.”
She cursed under her breath. He’d sent roses every day with a card that said simply “Love, Jack,” but it was him she needed, not flowers. As soon as she saw him again, she’d kill him for staying away.
“Daddy, every time I ask the doctor when I can go home, he won’t tell me anything. What has he told you?”
“Nothing definite. A week or so. Maybe more.”
“Another week?” She couldn’t go another week without clearing this up with Jack.
“When you get out, we’ll have our family Christmas. Nobody felt much like having it before. Had to take down the tree of course, because it dried out, but we haven’t touched the presents. Everything’s sitting there waiting for you.”
“You all should have gone ahead without me.”
“We had a small dinner. That was enough.”
“What did Jack do Christmas Day?”
“We asked him to eat with us, but he spent a couple of hours with the baby, then said he had to go. Ray told me later that he showed up out of the blue and wanted to take him to dinner.”
“He and Ray spent Christmas together?”
“That’s what Ray said.”
“Oh, Daddy, that’s wonderful!” The news made her brighten a little, but she wouldn’t be happy until Jack was standing in front of her. “Um…is Leigh still outside? I forgot to ask her something when she was in earlier.”
“I think so. Want me to get her?”
“Please.”
“Okay, and then I’m going to run back to the house in case your mother needs help with the baby. Unless you need me to stay.”
“No, I’m fine. You go on. Oh! In these newspapers, are there any articles about the Indian mounds? Leigh mentioned the university had found them.”
“Sixteen. Seems it’s turning out to be a significant historical find. Interesting, too, because they’re farther from the river than researchers usually see.”
“The natives probably did that to keep their town out of the rising waters during the freshets. The stream would have given them access to the river without having to locate the town directly on its banks.”
“That makes sense.”
“Have the mounds been badly vandalized?”
“Several have, but the thieves kept their operation low-key to avoid detection, which means many of them haven’t been touched.”
The thieves. Deaton among them. Her eyes watered. She didn’t know if she’d ever be able to accept that her oldest friend had tried to kill her.
“Leigh’s written several article about all this,” her father said. “You’ll find them in the stack.”
“Okay, I’ll look through them. What about Miss Eileen’s car? Have they found it yet?”
“They’ve given up searching. They examined every inch of the pond and stream and found nothing. Floodwaters over the years must have carried it off down the river. I doubt it’ll ever be recovered.”
“Will not having her body affect the case against Hightower?”
“Probably not, since he confessed to you, but it doesn’t seem right that Eileen may never be properly laid to rest.”
He leaned over again and kissed her goodbye, and she remembered what Hightower had said about her father and Miss Eileen. Could he have had an affair with her teacher?
“Daddy?”
“Something else, sweetheart?”
“Yes, I…” She looked into the eyes of the man who’d always been there for her, who loved her mother deeply—and realized it didn’t matter. Anything he might have done was part of the past. “I love you very much.”
He smiled. “I love you, too, sweetheart. You try to get some rest today. Don’t overdo.”
A minute or so after he left, Leigh came in. “I was about to head back to work. Do you need something before I go?”
“Yes—clothes and a ride. I have to see Jack. Get me out of here!”
“No! I told you this morning, I’m not helping you. And I’ve already warned Shannon and Cal not to do it, either, so don’t even bother to ask them.”
“Leigh, please! I have to talk to him. You must’ve messed up when you explained to him what I said.”
“I didn’t. I told him about that morning, how you intended to ask him to come home. He thanked me for the information, but that was it.”
“Then I need to see him face-to-face. He has to hear it from me to believe it.”
“There’ll be plenty of time when you’re better.”
“But—”
“No! None of us are going to help you, so quit asking.”
Lucky growled in frustration. Her whole family was against her. Well, maybe not her whole family.
She resisted the urge to grin as a plan began to form. All she needed was a getaway driver who also knew how to pick the lock on her cabin door. Good thing she knew just the person for the job.
Shooing Leigh back to work, she picked up the phone and dialed Ray. Sweet pea was breaking out.
WHEN HE DROVE back to the motel that night after visiting Grace, Jack felt more drained than he ever had in his life. He wished he could spend more time with his daughter, but clearing up all the loose ends on the cases involving Deaton Swain and Paul Hightower had taken practically every waking hour.
At Deaton’s house Jack had found artifacts, the purloined case files on Olenick and a stun gun now being tested by DFS to see if it matched the marks on Bagwell’s body. Jack had uncovered more stolen items in Hightower’s garage and a substantial amount of hidden cash. The cases would go to a grand jury when Lucky was well enough to testify.
Lucky. In the messages she’d left, she’d sounded both angry and hurt, and it had torn him apart. But he was determined to stick to his decision to stay away.
He wouldn’t abandon his child, and he hoped Lucky would allow him to be part of Grace’s life, but she’d been right about the marriage not working. A woman needed security and protection. He hadn’t given her those. She needed to know she could trust her husband. He’d proved himself untrustworthy.
After taking a hot shower, he slipped into a pair of sweatpants and socks and sat up in bed to watch TV. Wasn’t much else to do here. When he moved out, he’d thrown all his books and tapes into the locker he and Lucky had rented earlier to store their bed.
Pretty soon he’d have to find a permanent place to live. The weekly rent was putting a big dent in his finances. His stomach couldn’t handle much more take-out food.
He yawned, his exhaustion emotional, as well as physical. Occupying himself with work had kept him busy, but it hadn’t prevented his mind from constantly reliving the terror of that day on the pier.
A soft knock sounded. When he opened the door, he was stupefied to see Lucky standing there. He couldn’t make his mouth work. “Wha…?” He sputtered a few times before he finally got out his questions. “What the hell are you doing out of the hospital?” He looked past her to the parking lot. “How did you get here?”
“Ray brought me. I had him break into the cabin and get me some clothes.”
“I’ll kill that old coot.” He let her in and closed the door. Grabbing a flannel shirt from the end of the bed, he put it on, then found his running shoes. “I’m taking you back,” he said, sitting in the chair to put them on.
“I’m not going anywhere. When you moved out, you took something of mine.”
“Lucky, y
ou’ve been shot, nearly drowned and just had a baby. Whatever it is, it can wait.”
“No, it can’t. I have to know it’s safe.”
He stood and threw up his hands, unable to imagine anything of hers he’d packed by accident. “What? What did I take that’s worth risking your life over?”
Walking to within couple of feet of him, she stopped. Her face appeared bloodless. She favored her right side and held on to the dresser for support.
“My heart,” she said. “I need to know what you’re going to do with it.”
“Baby, this isn’t the time for games.”
“Why wouldn’t you come see me? Are you leaving me?”
“We can talk about it when you’re well.”
“I’ll never give you a divorce, so get that into your hard head right now. I was in pain when I asked you to move out, but I was wrong. I don’t care who you are or what you call yourself. I don’t care about your past or what you did. The only thing that matters is that we love each other. Please…forgive me. I’ll never make you unhappy again. I swear it.”
“Forgive you?” He shook his head. “I’m the idiot who made all the mistakes.”
“No, I’ve made them, too. I didn’t understand why it was so important to you to have a normal home and family, but now I do, and I want you to have that dream, Jack. I want us to be a family—you, me, our daughter, other daughters and sons, Ray.”
“It’s too late.”
“No, it’s not! You forgive my mistakes and I forgive yours. That’s what people who love each other do. They put past hurts behind them and start over.”
“We already had our second chance, and I blew it.”
“So take a third.”
“I can’t. You deserve better.”
“Jack, please. I need to be with you.” She raised her arms, but he slipped out of her reach.
He cleared his throat nervously. “I need to get you back before you catch a chill.”
She ignored him and came forward. Again he moved away, climbing over the bed to do it.
This time, instead of looking at him with confusion, she laughed. “Oh, I get it. You’re afraid to let me touch you. One touch and you’re powerless against me. One kiss and you’re under my spell, willing to do any naughty thing I say.”