Rainey draped her arm over Graham’s shoulders. “It’s okay, we’ll talk about it later.” She shot Danny a look that said back off. “Agent McNally and I will explain how the BAU really works to you. Right now, we just need to get warm. Welcome back to the world, Graham Dean Colde. Now, let’s go put Ellie Paxton behind bars, shall we?”
He smiled up at her and then went limp under the weight of her arm, collapsing instantly.
“Do we need a helicopter? Is he breathing?” Danny asked, startled by Graham’s sudden downturn.
Rainey turned to Danny. “Is my nose bleeding?”
Chapter Nine
7:58 p.m.
Overcast, 36oF, Windchill 28oF
“Danny, have you found her?”
Katie’s shaky voice answered the phone. Rainey could tell she’d been crying.
“Baby, I’m okay.”
The phone went silent and then all Rainey could hear was her wife sobbing on the other end.
The next voice she heard was Molly’s. “Danny?”
“No, it’s me. I’m okay. Let me talk to her.”
“Glad they found you. And you’re okay?” Molly asked.
“Yes, I’m fine. I need to talk to Katie.”
Rainey heard Molly say, “Come on, Katie, she’s okay. She wants to talk to you.”
Molly said into the receiver, “She just needs to catch her breath. She was scared out of her mind. Give her a second.”
Rainey said, “Put the phone to her ear.”
When Katie’s ragged breathing sounded in the receiver, Rainey said softly, “I love you. Catch your breath. It’s over, now. I’m fine. I’m so sorry, Katie. I know you were scared. Talk to me. Tell me you’re okay.”
“Did Theodore do this? Did I let a killer into our lives?” Katie asked through her tears, but she was calming.
“No, honey. He’s here with me. He’s not a murderer. You didn’t do anything wrong. Did you think you caused this? Oh Katie, I’m so sorry.”
“I thought I’d gotten you killed,” Katie said.
Rainey reassured her, “This wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault except the bitch that tried to drown me. It was someone neither of us had a clue existed, Ellie Paxton.”
“Ellie Paxton? The woman that said Theodore attacked her and abducted you?”
“Yes, and she should be in handcuffs by now. I’m sorry about your van, by the way, but it was under about fifteen feet of water the last time I saw it.”
“I don’t care about the van,” Katie said, sniffling, almost recovered from her shock. “Where are you?”
“I’m on my way to the hospital in Waitesville.”
“Are you hurt?” Katie’s concern began to rise again.
“Not too bad. I think my nose is broken, but other than that, I’m just cold. I don’t think my feet will ever be warm again,” Rainey answered as casually as she could, hoping to lower Katie’s alarm. “Danny has the heat on full blast, so that’s helping. My nose, however, is going to need setting, and I’m afraid I’m going to look pretty horrendous for a few of weeks.”
“Is that why you sound so funny?” Katie finally chuckled and said, “You sound like a six year-old with allergies.”
Relieved at Katie’s returning humor, Rainey laughed. “So I’ve heard. I’ll be home as soon as I can. I promise I’ll be there for our Valentine’s date.”
“My mom already has the kids. Do we need to come get you?”
“Danny’s going to bring me home.”
“Come as soon as you can. I love you. You honestly have no idea how much.”
“The feeling is mutual,” Rainey said. “I love you, too. Get some sleep, and tell Molly thank you for arranging Danny’s transportation. He found me. You did good, Katie. I knew you would know what to do.”
Rainey could imagine Katie’s humor and optimism returning when she joked, “Unfortunately, I am well trained in DEFCON 1 operations since I started living with you. I swear you are the only person in the world that can go to a funeral and end up kidnapped.”
“Are you and Danny sharing material now? He said the same thing.”
“Well, those words may have come out of my mouth a few times today.”
“Are you going to be all right, now?” Rainey asked.
A tension release sigh filled the earpiece, before Katie responded. “I’ll be better when I can see your face.”
Rainey chuckled, peeking into the mirror over Danny’s shoulder at her swollen, crooked nose and blackened eyes. “I’m afraid you’re not going to see that face for quite a while, maybe never if they don’t fix my nose right.”
“I’d know those eyes behind a mask. Come home, Rainey.”
#
8:27 p.m.
Overcast, 36oF, Windchill 29oF
Danny pulled the SUV into the emergency entrance at Memorial Hospital in Waitesville. Undersheriff Brad Dawson opened the vehicle door for Rainey, as bystanders gawked and pointed. Evidently, the news of what happened had traveled through the county faster than Danny could drive.
“Good to see you again, Brad,” Rainey said, to the buff, handsome Undersheriff.
When she met him two years ago, while working on a case with Molly, he was a deputy. He had moved up the chain of command since then. Rainey occasionally saw Brad at social functions, as he was an old friend of Leslie and Molly’s.
“I’m glad Danny found you,” Brad said, shaking her outstretched hand. “I would have hated to make another phone call to your house without good news. Molly and Leslie were as bad as Katie. I do believe they would have stopped speaking to me if this hadn’t turned out so well.”
“Determined women, that lot. Welcome to my world and I’m most happy they are in it,” Rainey replied.
Brad looked over her shoulder at Graham, as Bill helped him into a wheelchair held by a waiting nurse. Another nurse covered the patient with a warming blanket.
“Is that Theodore Suzanne?” Brad asked.
Rainey stepped aside and made the introduction. “Undersheriff Brad Dawson, this is Graham Dean Colde. I’m sure you are familiar with his case. We’d both like to make a statement concerning the murders of the Paxtons in 2000. Ellie and Ely Paxton killed their parents and blamed Graham. An injustice was done here and I’d like to see it rectified, right after you arrest her for trying to kill us and the nine other people she already murdered, including Wellman Wise.”
Brad extended his hand to Graham. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. We’ll make sure all this is cleared up.”
“Thank you, sir. Could I ask a favor?”
“What can I do for you?” Brad replied.
“Could someone call my mother? I’d like to see her.”
Rainey knelt beside the wheelchair. “We’ll call her, Graham. Go inside and get checked out.” She looked at the nurse. “He faints at the sight of a drop of blood. Can you make sure he isn’t exposed to any in there?”
The nurse had a strange look on her face, as she stepped around to the front of the wheelchair and made eye contact with her patient. “Graham, do you recognize me?”
He looked up at her. “No, I’m sorry.”
“My name is Lisa. I was in your class in school. You were always so sweet. I never thought you killed Ellie’s parents, and I always thought she was a bitch. Come on, let’s get you warm. We’re going to take very good care of you.”
“Thank you, Lisa,” Graham said, softly.
He was exhausted from the ordeal and losing energy fast. The nurses took him into the building. Brad nodded at a deputy, who followed Graham closely.
“What was that about?” Rainey asked. “I told you he isn’t a criminal.”
“It’s for his protection,” Brad answered.
“Is Ellie Paxton in there?” Rainey said, already moving toward the door.
“Rainey, I need to talk to you,” Brad said, catching up to her. “Let’s go inside, out of this cold.”
Danny, Bill, Rainey, and Brad all stepped beyond t
he automatic doors, and into an unoccupied hallway. When they stopped, Brad’s body language told Rainey he did not want to have this conversation.
“I have a feeling I’m not going to be happy with what you have to say,” Rainey said.
“No, I’m afraid you will not like what I have to say at all,” Brad said, as he shook his head from side to side. “When Danny called me, I kept it very quiet.”
Danny interrupted, “But someone squawked that Rainey was alive on the radio, right?”
“Yes, and Ellie must have heard it. The deputy was outside the doors there, talking to me on the phone, when his radio started jabbering about calling off the search. Ellie was in a treatment room near the nurses’ station. They have a scanner out there.”
Rainey felt the anger start to rise and tried to control it, but she couldn’t. “She’s gone, isn’t she?”
She turned and walked away, without waiting for an answer. She could see it in Brad’s eyes. They had not a clue where Ellie Paxton Read had gone.
“Rainey, wait. I need to get a statement from you,” Brad called after her.
Rainey wheeled on him. He didn’t deserve it, but he got all the frustration of her day thrown right at him. “Ellie Paxton Read drugged me, confessed all her sins, and then tried to leave Graham and me at the bottom of a sandpit. She’s already killed nine people. Find her, or the next one is on you. That’s my fucking statement. Now, I’m going to get my nose put back in place and go home to my family.”
As she turned away and walked toward the nurses’ station, Rainey heard Danny say, “It doesn’t happen often, but she can cloud up and rain all over you if you’re not careful. You better give her a few minutes to calm down.”
#
9:52 p.m.
Overcast, 37oF, Windchill 29oF
Rainey didn’t calm down until the pain medication ordered by the emergency room doctor finally kicked in, just before he set her nose and packed it. It still hurt like hell, but she didn’t care as much. She had suffered no ill effects from the cold, just an aching for warm feet and a hot drink, preferably a stiff one. Graham was still under warming blankets when she found him in a trauma room.
“Cool mask,” he said, referring to the broken nose guard Rainey wore.
“When I told the doctor I had two-year-old triplets, he insisted I wear this,” Rainey said, crossing to his bedside. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m better now. My bones don’t feel as cold anymore.”
“That’s good. You’ll be staying overnight I hear.”
Graham nodded, but didn’t answer verbally. Rainey could tell he wanted to say something, but couldn’t find the words. He looked so small and helpless. Graham Colde never hurt anyone, but the world sure left its scars on him.
“Graham, do you mind if I sit down?”
He stared at the blanket in his lap, not looking at her when he said, “Okay.”
Rainey sat down gently on the edge of his bed. “I really have only one question for you. The list, what was it for?”
Continuing his blanket watching, Graham responded, “I drew the picture, I’m pretty sure. I’ve never seen the original note, but the evidence copies I did see appear to show the note was printed over my drawing.”
“You’ve spent a great deal of time researching your case, haven’t you?” Rainey asked.
“Yes. I just had to know why and the more I dug into it the more I remembered, but then I wasn’t sure if those were real memories or wishful thinking. I was never sure until I heard Ellie in the van.”
“So you were awake for most of that?” Rainey asked, hoping he was.
“Yes, but it won’t make a difference. People will always treat me as if I am a murderer. I can never come home.”
He had yet to lift his eyes to her. Rainey needed him to understand something.
She leaned closer and said, “I knew a young man who was wrongly accused and convicted of a crime. He spent sixteen years in a maximum-security prison labeled a serial rapist. That’s not easy time. After all those years, when he was finally freed and the real rapist sent to prison with definitive DNA evidence, this man stepped into a world foreign to him. He had been told he was guilty for so long, he couldn’t remember being innocent. He became a victim of doubting his own self-worth. He didn’t know how to look people in the eye anymore, so he couldn’t see they were no longer judging him. Look at me, Graham.”
He slowly brought his chin up and made eye contact with her.
Rainey grinned and joked, “I know I’m trying to be all serious, but with this nose guard I must look ridiculous doing it. Feel free to laugh.”
Graham smiled, but only chuckled slightly.
Rainey began again, “Besides some issues with boundaries concerning my personal and professional life, which I think we can deal with in the future, you have no reason to be ashamed. By the way, how did you copy my office so well?”
“I put a camera on Joey. Don’t be mad at him. He thought I was just recording his day for a game simulation. I recorded you when I could to get a good framework for your character’s movements.”
“That has to stop and the game is going to change. Those files you got into, they represent real murders of innocent people. And my case file—you are most certainly out of bounds using those details. You can’t use that stuff for entertainment. You do see how wrong that is, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Graham said, his chin lowering again. “I never meant any harm.”
Rainey patted his leg under the covers. “You know, I really believe that’s true, or I’d have you in handcuffs right now.”
Graham’s eyes darted to hers.
“Don’t worry. I think you’ve learned your lesson. And about the other crimes you were accused of, you need to let go of that guilt. This injustice was done to you, not by you. Your mother never believed you killed the Paxtons. That nurse said she didn’t either. People believed in you then. They will believe in you now. Hold your head up, Graham. Look them in the eye so they can see a survivor, not a victim.”
“Graham?” A woman’s voice said from the doorway.
Rainey turned her head to see Susie Colde, wearing an expression of disbelief on her face. She probably never thought she’d see this day. Susie told Rainey her son died fourteen years ago. A rare second chance had been granted and it was time for Rainey to leave the room.
She patted Graham’s leg again, saying, “I think you two have some catching up to do. We’ll talk when you’re better. I have some ideas about your game and I think you can help me with something. Quid pro quo.”
Graham pulled his arm from under the warming blanket and held up his hand for Rainey to shake. He looked her straight in the eyes and said, “It’s a deal.”
Rainey shook his hand firmly. “I look forward to working with you. Now, say hello to your mother.”
She turned to leave the room, but Susie stopped her, placing a gentle hand on her arm. “Thank you, Ms. Bell. Thank you for giving my son back to me.”
Rainey patted Susie’s hand. “Don’t underestimate him. Graham brought himself back. He doesn’t remember everything, but he remembers you. That bond was never broken.”
“Mom,” Graham called out, “I didn’t kill the Paxtons.”
“I know, honey,” his mother replied and crossed the room to her son’s side. Rainey took her leave, just as Susie said, “Graham, I’ve missed you so.”
Rainey passed a couple of detectives in the hallway. The badges hanging from the breast pockets of their respective jackets identified them as such. The eyed her closely, but did not attempt to speak to her. She heard them knock on Graham’s door.
“Mr. Colde, we’d like to take your statement, if you feel up to it.”
Rainey found Danny in the hall by the emergency entrance.
“Can I go home now?” Rainey asked. “I want to get there before the pain meds wear off.”
Danny frowned. “You can’t just blow the locals off like that. You are a victim and
a witness. They need your statement now. You know the drill. Stop throwing a tantrum and write it down.”
“Give me your phone,” Rainey demanded.
Knowing her the way he did and the mood she was in appeared to leave him no choice but to comply. She knew his password, because he never changed it. Predictable Danny. Rainey opened his voice recorder and began to speak.
“This is Rainey Bell. It’s February 13, 2014. Ellie Paxton Read tried to kill me today. She did not succeed. I’m going home now. Details to follow when my face isn’t throbbing. Tomorrow begins Valentine’s weekend, which I intend to spend with my wife. Don’t call me until Monday. That is all.”
She turned off the recorder and handed the phone back to Danny.
“Stop being a brat, Rainey.”
“Danny, I was drugged. If I signed a lawn care contract right now, it wouldn’t hold up in court. Do you think a damn thing I say in an official statement will? Ask me later, when the drugs have cleared my system.”
“Will you remember then?”
Rainey narrowed her eyes, “Ask me whatever you want on the way home, but I am leaving, with or without you, McNally.”
“You’ve dealt with witnesses like this. What do you suggest I do?” Danny asked, his hands up in surrender. He shook his right hand slightly, where the keys to the SUV dangled. “Besides, I have the keys.”
Rainey stopped being a brat. She knew she was and had let it run its course for a moment. All of the stress of the day had to go somewhere. She remained in control around everyone but Danny. He could take it. He knew how to weather the storm and that it was necessary to blow off bits of steam, before too much bad shit built into a rage. Only Katie knew Rainey better than Danny, and even then, he’d been places with her Katie could never go.
She grinned at her old partner from under her mask. “You don’t think I could hotwire that sucker and leave you here holding the keys?”
“You were inches from being a criminal, weren’t you?” Danny said, with a chuckle.
“You have to know them to catch them,” Rainey replied.
Colde & Rainey (A Rainey Bell Thriller) Page 20