Sins of the Past

by Dee Henderson

  He stopped and pulled in a deep breath. “I don’t want to hurt you. I just want the stuff.”

  “I don’t know where it is, Tyler.”

  “I gave it to you! You hid it!” His voice rose with each sentence.

  Macey stayed frozen to the spot. “We were all hurt that night. It was crazy and cold and—” She pressed a hand to her head, then to her left shoulder. “I don’t remember what happened to the bag, and I don’t remember who shot me then buried me alive! I don’t remember most of that night.” Her breaths came in pants, the images flashing again.

  She stared up at the person standing over her. “Help me,” she whispered.

  Then she realized the figure had no face. No nose. No mouth. No eyes. Wait, it had eyes. Two black orbs boring holes into her.

  The right arm moved and Macey realized the faceless person was pointing a gun at her.

  “You should have stayed home.”

  She sat up as the person pulled the trigger. The bullet slammed into her left shoulder. Macey screamed and fell back, her right hand reaching to cover the wound. The pain throbbed a fast beat in time with her heart. Then the blackness swept over her once more.

  She gasped and blinked. Tyler still stood there, watching her.

  “Did you hear me? I said you remembered enough to send me to prison,” he hissed and jabbed the air near her face with his forefinger. “Now tell me where it is.”

  Macey’s mind spun. How was she going to get away from him? Her phone was in her pocket. What would he do if she pulled it out? The door behind her was still propped open. Would anyone hear her if she screamed?

  “I only told what I saw, Tyler. What I heard. I told the truth. I’m sorry you chose to do what you did, and I’m sorry I had to be the one to testify.”

  He sneered. “Right. Testifying kept you out of jail. You just wanted to save your own hide.”

  Anger pulsed inside her. “Was anything I said on that stand a lie?”

  His face reddened and his hands clenched. “You’re coming with me.”

  Her heart thudded and she knew the conversation was over. He was going to kidnap her. She started to run, but his hand shot out and gripped her wrist. Macey let out a scream and tried to pull away, but his grip was iron. He dragged her toward the car she just now noticed parked at the edge of the building.

  “Help!” She tried to plant her feet, to resist, but he was too strong, too determined. “Someone! Help!”

  “Shut up!”

  He stopped at the car and she kicked out and caught him in the knee. He screamed and reached into his coat pocket. To grab a weapon? Macey didn’t know, didn’t care. All she wanted to do was get away. She kicked out again and her foot landed hard against his shin. His hand fell from her wrist and she spun away from him.

  “Macey?”

  She raced toward the open door. “Chelsea! Call 911!”

  She heard Tyler curse and spun back to face him. She only saw his back as he climbed into his car, started the engine, and squealed from the parking lot.

  “Mace? You okay?” Chelsea asked.

  “No. It was him.”

  With a trembling hand, she pulled her phone from her pocket and sent a text to Chad. Tyler found me. Tried to grab me and force me to go with him. But he failed. I’m fine.

  Chelsea was on her phone with 911.

  Macey shook her head. “Never mind. Cancel it. They’ll never get here in time to catch him.”

  Chelsea frowned but did as asked. “What happened?”

  Macey gave her the thirty-second version of the incident.

  “You really should report it.”

  “I will.” Just to Chad, though. He would know what to do with the information. There was no need to get anyone else involved.

  Her phone buzzed with a text from Chad. Are you sure you’re all right? Is he still there?

  No. He’s gone. And I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me.

  I’ll get his face out there and we’ll try to track him down. I’m also requesting a cruiser be sent to sit on the station and keep watch.

  Thanks.

  She then sent a text to her sister. Tyler found me. He still thinks I know where the stuff from the safe is. Be careful. He might try to contact you again. Don’t talk to him, don’t trust him. He’s dangerous.

  She shoved her phone back in her pocket and sent up a prayer that God would let someone catch Tyler. She followed Chelsea back into the building and went to find her boss to fill him in.

  NINE

  The call came in at 4:55 in the afternoon, just as the clouds rolled in and thunder shook the building.

  “Let’s go, partner.”

  Chelsea grabbed her jacket, and Macey was right behind her, racing for the ambulance. She scrambled into the seat and clicked the seat belt into place.

  A car wreck. A hit-and-run involving a child. Her heart thudded and prayers slipped from her lips. “Please . . .”

  “Say one for me, too,” Chelsea muttered.

  The siren screamed and the radio crackled. Raindrops scattered against the windshield, and Macey kept a tight grip on the door handle while Chelsea expertly navigated the traffic. Six minutes later, they pulled to a stop on I-85.

  Macey took in the scene with a practiced eye. Three cars involved. One on the side just ahead, one in the ditch, and one turned sideways in the middle of the highway, stopping traffic. The driver’s door to the car blocking the road was open, and she could see a man clutching his bloody head.

  Macey climbed from the ambulance and glanced at the darkening sky. The rain had stopped for the moment, but she knew it wouldn’t last forever. The deluge was coming. The wind hit her in the face and she shivered, pulling the edges of her coat tighter. She spotted a car seat on the side of the road but no toddler. Then her attention was snagged by the woman sitting on a small hill away from the traffic, holding a child. “I’ve got them,” Macey said.

  “I’ve got the guy in the car.” Chelsea took off toward the patient in question while Macey went up the hill about ten yards from the ambulance.

  “Hey, are you all right?” Macey let her eyes roam the child clutched in the woman’s arms. The little girl looked about two years old, and her brown eyes were wide and curious but not scared—and she didn’t appear to be hurt. But she did look cold. Her little chin quivered. Macey looked over her head. “Ma’am? Are you okay?”

  The woman’s eyes matched the child’s. “Yes. I’m okay.” She blinked and shook her head. “He came out of nowhere. Was he drunk?”

  “I don’t know, ma’am. Do you mind if I check your little girl?” The woman nodded and Macey examined the child for any trauma, grateful that she found none. “Was she in her car seat?”

  “Of course. I—I just took her out to get away from the traffic.”

  “She looks good. Where’s her coat?”

  “In the car.”

  “I’ll get it. What’s your name?”

  “Sylvia.”

  “All right, Sylvia. What about you? Any pain?”

  “No. I had my seat belt on and he only sideswiped me. I went into a spin but managed to hold the wheel and stop without crashing, but the car that hit us stopped, and it felt like he was just looking at us. Then the other two cars crashed, and he just . . . drove off. I can’t believe it.”

  Macey examined the woman while she talked. A bruised shoulder from the seat belt and a wrenched knee, but nothing broken. She’d been fortunate.

  “Okay, hold that thought. I’ll be right back.” Macey raced down the hill to the car and found the child’s coat in the back. She grabbed it, stopped by the ambulance and snagged a blanket, then headed back up the hill.

  Her phone buzzed and she glanced at it. Her sister checking on her. Valerie could wait.

  She helped the shivering little girl into her coat then wrapped the blanket around the woman.

  “I can’t believe he just drove off. I can’t believe it.” Sylvia seemed to take comfort in repeating the phrase.

>   “Did you get a look at him?”

  “No. I mean, I guess it was a guy. The . . . uh . . . windows were tinted. I actually couldn’t see the driver.”

  “Okay, well, I’m sure the police will want to ask you questions and take your statement.” Macey needed to move on to the other potential patients. She felt rain hit her face.

  “Macey?”

  Macey looked up to find Chelsea standing next to the ambulance, a piece of paper in her gloved hand. “Yeah?”

  “Come here.”

  Macey skittered down the hill and over to the ambulance. Law enforcement, fire trucks, EMTs, and paramedics were everywhere. It looked like the scene that had been outside her house in the wee hours of the morning.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “It was on the front seat of the ambulance. It has your name on it.”

  Macey frowned, pulled on the glove she’d removed, and took the envelope. With her other hand, she slid a fingernail under the flap and opened it. She gently grasped the very edge of the card and pulled it out. We do not remember days, we remember moments, she read. Fear drummed inside her and she sucked in a deep breath.

  “Mace? Why are you being so cautious? What is it?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Something. What’s going on?”

  “I’m not really sure, Chels.”

  “Well, how did it get there?”

  She looked at the traffic backed up for miles and then the cars slowly passing on the left. The driver’s side window was down. Anyone could have tossed the envelope onto the seat. “I don’t know that either.”

  “What do you know?”

  “That I really need help.”

  She slid the card back in the envelope and closed her eyes. Someone was watching her, following her. She drew in a steadying breath. Smelled the rain, gasoline, all of the lingering scents left by the wreck.

  She had to move, had to get away. The gunshot echoed through the air and the pain took her breath. Or was it the bullet? She looked down to see the blood spreading across her chest, over her fingers . . .

  “Macey?”

  Chelsea shook her and Macey blinked. “What?”

  “Where were you?”

  “I’m here. I’m here.” She had to think. To do her job. “Sorry, I just . . . sorry. I’m all right.” She slid the envelope and the letter into her portfolio. Had it been Tyler who’d left it? “What else do you need me to do?”

  “We’re transporting to the hospital. Get in.”

  “Your guy from the Chevy?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ll drive. You stay with him.”

  Chad scrolled through the information on the screen in front of him while he considered taking a couple more Ibuprofen. Lilly sat across from him, talking on the phone. When she hung up, she turned to face him.

  “Anything?” he asked.

  “Just that Tyler Norwood was released like Macey said. He’s living with his mother and working at a gas station off of Woodruff. He used a credit card at the Walmart and Ace Hardware on Woodruff Road.”

  “Could have bought the Molotov cocktail stuff there. What about his father?”

  “He died of a heart attack two weeks before Tyler got out of prison.”

  “No way.”

  “Way.”

  Chad rubbed his head and let his brain process. “That might be enough to send someone over the edge. So do you think his mother could be behind the attacks on Macey?”

  “I don’t know. She’s still working at the hospital on a full-time basis.”

  “Was she there last night?”

  Lilly looked at him from beneath her lashes. “No.”

  “Interesting.”

  “Could be. But get this, I also checked Tyler’s phone records while he was in prison. Someone called him three or four times a week while he was there.”

  “Who? A family member? His mother?”

  “No. I can’t trace the number. It’s a throwaway phone, apparently.”

  Chad frowned. “That’s kind of weird.”

  “I know.”

  Chad thought for a moment then shrugged. “You get anything from his mother?”

  “No, she didn’t answer.” His partner tilted her head and studied him like she had something to say.

  Sometimes he could read her, sometimes not. “You got an address?” He’d let her bring it up if she wanted to talk about something else.

  She focused back on her notes. “Yes, it’s in a rather sketchy part of town.”

  “Wanna pay him a visit?”

  “Love to. If he’s there.” But she didn’t move.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “She’s the one, isn’t she?”

  He lifted a brow. “Huh?”

  “You remember that night we went out for dinner and you told me you were interested in getting to know someone, asking her out on a date, but she wasn’t interested in you?”

  He felt the heat burn his cheeks. “I said that?”

  “You did.”

  “I don’t remember.”

  “Liar.”

  He gave her a small smile. “Okay. Yeah, I remember. And yes, she’s the one.”

  Lilly nodded. “Thought so. You ready?”

  He was rather shocked she’d decided not to razz him about it any further. Shocked, but grateful. “Yeah. Macey texted and said Tyler showed up at her work.”

  Lilly frowned. “Is she all right?”

  “Yes, he’s gone now, but I don’t like the fact that he tracked her down. We need to find this guy.”

  “Then let’s do it.”

  His phone rang and he held up a finger. “Hold that thought. Hello?” He looked at Lilly. “It’s one of the police officers who cased the neighborhood last night.” Into the phone, he said, “Go ahead.”

  “We found someone who remembers seeing a figure run across Ms. Adams’ yard into the street and climb into a white four-door sedan, a Kia or something. He wasn’t sure of the make and model of the vehicle. The neighbor said he was driving home from his second-shift job and had to slam on his brakes to avoid the person.”

  “He get a look at him?”

  “No, he said the guy had on a hoodie with a heavy coat over that.”

  “Of course he did. What is it with thugs and hoodies?” Chad muttered. “But at least we know it was a white Kia. Maybe. We can work with that. Also a maybe.”

  “Good luck.”

  “Thanks.” He hung up and nodded to his partner. “Let’s go.”

  They gathered their coats and headed out the door. Chad sent a text to Macey. You okay?

  Not really. Something strange happened today. Other than Tyler, I mean. I’ll explain later. I’m at the hospital right this second.

  Adrenaline shot through him. Hospital?? You hurt? I’m calling you.

  No, don’t call. Can’t talk yet. Worked a car wreck, dropped off patient, and now doing paperwork.

  His pulse slowed. What happened?

  Will explain later.

  I’m coming over. Which hospital?

  Greenville Memorial.

  “You coming?” Lilly called. She stood with the driver’s door open, waiting.

  “Yeah. Let’s run by Greenville Memorial first, okay?”

  “Sure. What’s going on?”

  He passed her the phone so she could read the conversation.

  When she finished, she handed it back. “All right, let’s go see what she’s got for us.”

  Lilly drove, windshield wipers whipping back and forth, and Chad realized Macey had been all he’d thought of all day. He had other cases that needed his attention, but he had to chase this one while it was hot.

  Fifteen minutes later, Lilly pulled into the reserved police parking area and they walked into the hospital. The rain was letting up, and he left his umbrella in the car. Chad flashed his badge to the woman at the desk. The doors that led from the lobby to the waiting area of the Emergency Department opened, and he found Macey sta
nding just inside. “Hey.”

  She turned. “Hey.”

  “What happened?”

  She opened her portfolio and pulled out a white envelope with her name on the front. “I’ve already touched it and so has Chelsea, my partner, but we had gloves on. I kept the letter inside the envelope so I didn’t have to handle it any more than necessary. Maybe your lab person can get some prints off of it.”

  He took it by the corner and handed it to Lilly. “Can you get a bag to put this in? I’m sure it’s related.”

  Lilly took it as carefully as her partner. “Sure.”

  “What does the letter say?” Chad asked.

  “‘We do not remember days, we remember moments,’” Macey said.

  “Another reference to memories.”

  “I can’t figure out if someone wants me to remember or not.”

  “It kind of sounds like they do.” He tilted his head and studied her. “So who would actually want you to remember?”

  She sighed. “Tyler. He wants the stuff from the safe. I’m the only one who might have an inkling where it is, according to him.”

  He nodded. “All right. We’re getting ready to go talk to him and see what he has to say.”

  “Thanks.” Macey looked at Lilly. “Did they get anything off the letter that was wrapped around my phone?”

  Lilly shook her head. “Haven’t heard yet, but I’ll call once I get this taken care of.” She held up the envelope and the letter now safely ensconced in the evidence bag.

  Macey nodded. “That would be great. Thank you.”

  Lilly left.

  “Tyler Norwood called my sister,” Macey said.

  “What? When?”

  She shared everything Valerie had told her earlier at the station, and Chad’s eyes narrowed as she talked. “Sounds like he could be our guy.”

  “It does, doesn’t it?” She rubbed her eyes. “But we won’t know for sure unless he succeeds in killing me or I remember what happened.”

  “You don’t remember anything about him giving you the bag with the stolen goods in it?”

  “No. Of course not.” She bit her lip then gave a firm nod. “I think I know what I need to do.”

  Chad tilted his head. “All right, what’s that?”