by Liz Gavin
“Hey, guys, what are you doing? Are you going to the hotel already? It’s not even seven o’clock. I thought you’d stay for a while longer.”
“We’re tired, honey. You and Declan must be exhausted, too. We’ll be back tomorrow,” her mother promised as she kissed Keira’s cheek and blew a kiss to Declan.
“You didn’t accept our offer to get a nap at the hotel room earlier today. So, I bought you this special pillow. Believe me, sis, these chairs are awful. You won’t be able to get any sleep.”
“Thanks, Megan. It was very thoughtful of you. I think,” Keira had to laugh at the strange looking thing her sister gave her. It looked like a crossover between a pyramid and a child seat. At least, it looked cozy.
“Don’t let this chatter box keep you up all night, young lady.”
“I won’t, daddy. See you tomorrow?”
“You bet.”
As her family was leaving, a nurse showed up to check on Declan’s medication chart and change one of the IV bags. Keira took that opportunity to go to the bathroom and refresh herself by splashing a little water on her face. Her mother was right. Looking at her reflection on the mirror, Keira wasn’t surprised to notice the dark circles under her eyes. She was exhausted and she knew it. It was too bad the night ahead of her promised to be a long, sleepless one.
When Keira returned to the room, the nurse had already gone, “Is everything fine, baby? What did the nurse say?”
“She said I should try to walk around the room for a bit. You know, to exercise my legs. Can you give me a hand to get out of this bed, Keira?”
Once on his feet, Declan needed a moment to recover his balance.
“I think I lay down for too long. I feel dizzy.”
Keira hugged his waist to help him stand up and he kissed her hair.
“I love the smell of your hair, love,” he pushed her away and held both hands. “You know, I had planned a completely different setting for this. I had pictured a very romantic date with my beautiful girlfriend, but this room will have to do. I can’t wait any longer.”
She gave him a lopsided smiled when he turned her palms up and kissed them tenderly.
“What the heck are you driving at, mister? This room is practically a public place with the hospital staff getting in and out of it all the time. Don’t get any naughty ideas in that thick skull of yours.”
She frowned when he didn’t respond her joke with a wisecrack of his own. He looked too serious and she felt her heart leaping inside her chest. Something was not right.
“Keira, I can’t put in words what you mean to me, or how much I love you, but I’ll give it a shot. You’re more than my better half. You’re the air that I need to breathe to survive; the sunshine that brightens my day. I know you are my soul and my heart because, these last days, I was nothing without you. And, most of all, you make me want to be a better man to deserve you and your love. I promise I’ll strive to be that man for you every day, for the rest of our lives, if you let me.”
She choked, losing her ability to breathe or think, when Declan got down on one knee in front of her, holding a blue, velvety box open. In it, an old and gorgeous Claddagh ring sparkled under the bright, cold lights of the hospital room. But there was so much warmth, so much love in the green eyes that held her blue gaze captive that Keira forgot where they were. Declan was all that mattered to her in that moment. He was all she could see or hear. There was nothing else in the world for her.
“Will you make me the happiest man on earth, Keira? Will you marry me?”
“Yes! Yes!”
She knelt in front of him, hugging and kissing Declan with the same passion he kissed her. Equal measures of laughter and tears mixed together as their mouths sought each other. Her arms snaked around his neck, her hands pulled gently at his hair, as his hands circled her tiny waist and held her tightly against his solid chest. He wanted to meld their bodies together. She wanted to lose herself in him forever.
Their idyll was soon interrupted by a riotous little crowd as the Ashes and the Slanes returned to the room. They had been waiting impatiently in the corridor while Declan proposed. Colin and her father helped Declan up as Brandon helped Keira. She realized they all knew about Declan’s intentions.
“You were all in on his plan, weren’t you?”
“Guilty as charged, sis.”
Declan took the ring out of the box and placed it on Keira’s left ring finger, with the point of the heart turned towards her fingertips. He kissed it and looked up at her.
“Now, everyone will know you’re mine.”
“That I am, baby.”
“Can I see it, honey?”
Her mother’s eyes were full of tears as she held Keiras’s hand to better examine the beautiful ring.
“It’s exquisite, Declan. And it has such an interesting design, too,” she admired the gold ring where two hands held a minuscule emerald heart, surrounded by small diamonds, and surmounted by a sparkling little crown of gold and diamonds.
“What does it mean?”
“It’s a Claddagh ring, dad. It shows the three qualities necessary in a marriage - the heart represents love; the hands symbolize friendship; and the crown stands for loyalty. Granddad Padraic used to describe his mother’s ring to me, as a child,” turning to Declan, she grinned. “I always wanted to get a Claddagh of my own, but I had never seen one as beautiful as this, baby. How did you get it? When did you get it?”
“Well, a few days ago, I told your mother I regretted not having told you I loved you when I had the chance to say it. I chickened out then and I promised her I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. I said to her that, when you returned to us, I would ask you to marry me.”
“So, you were not kidding earlier, Meg?”
Her sister just smiled and shook her head in reply, but didn’t say a word. For the first time in Keira’s life, her sister was speechless. That was a sight to see. She held her tongue, though, when she realized Megan was on the verge of crying. Keira held out her hand to Megan and squeezed her sister’s hand, mouthing ‘I love you’ to her.
“Did you ask somebody to buy it for you, then?”
“No, I brought it for Declan today,” Colin intervened. “I kept it in a safe at the bank until yesterday. Brandon and I didn’t need it because my wife, Erin, and Brandon’s wife, Kim, both had their own family rings that their mothers had given them.”
A suspicion slowly formed in Keira’s mind but she dismissed it. It couldn’t be true. Could it?
“Do you mean to say this was your mom’s ring, Colin?”
He nodded but she wasn’t convinced.
“Is that so, Declan?”
“Yes, love. Do you mind it? I mean, if you’d rather have a new one, I can get it for you.”
Keira opened her mouth to soothe his obvious anxiety but the words refused to get out as her throat went dry. She was so moved by Declan’s gesture that she had difficulty finding what to say. She just shook her head, holding her hand up and admiring the ring. She remembered the dreams she had had, when his mother had come to help her in the worst moments of her life. She felt Iris was there again, blessing them in the happiest moment of her life. It was fitting.
“I don’t know how to thank you, Colin and Brandon. It means so much to me that you’ve given me something that belonged to your mother. I’ll treasure it always.”
“Hey, hey, Keira, how come my brothers get all the credit? What about me?”
“You’ve got me, Declan.”
She leaned down to kiss him, who had returned to the bed, and ended up sitting on his lap, while their families cheered and whistled.
“I don’t need anything else, love,” he whispered in her ear, so that only Keira could hear.
CHAPTER 11
On the following day, Inspectors Heller and Dwyer paid Declan a visit, finding Keira and Declan alone, when they arrived in the hospital room.
“Good afternoon, Miss Ashe. Slane, how are feeling today?”
/> “Much better, Heller. Thank you.”
“You’re still quite pale.”
“I guess it’ll take a while for me to recover from the blood loss, Dwyer.”
“Have a sit, detectives,” Keira offered but they refused.
“We won’t be long,” Heller explained. “We just wanted to check up on both of you.”
“Inspector Heller, I haven’t had a chance to tell you how sorry I am about Katherine Murphy’s death. I liked her very much. She was a sweet girl.”
“Thank you. Fortunately, Kerry and Morris are recovering well from their wounds. Not as fast as Slane, here; but they’ll soon be out of ICU.”
“Say, I’ve been meaning to ask you – how exactly did you find Keira?”
“We crossed information about O’Hallon with information from the earlier investigations into the rapes. His name never appeared in connection to the victims, except for the truck he drove to tow their rental cars. We knew he would have to be in the same cities, maybe in the same hotels as his victims, in order to commit those crimes. Still, we couldn’t find any evidence of him being anywhere near.”
“In the beginning of our investigations, we arrested and interviewed a Mr. Kevin Riordan, a name which consistently appeared in the records of every hotel where the victims stayed. This led us to believe he was the rapist, back then. But, he had solid alibis for all the attacks. We had to let him go. What we didn’t know, at the time, was that he had lost his wallet some time before the attacks started. We know now that O’Hallon found it and used Riordan’s ID when he stalked his victims, to cover his tracks,” Dwyer added before Heller resumed talking.
“But, he used it only for registering at hotels, for example. He never left a trail which could lead to him. This time, he used the ID to get a credit card. When we found out a Mr. Kevin Riordan had rented a cottage in a remote area of Youghal, we looked into Riordan again. Even though we knew he wasn’t responsible for O’Hallon’s crimes, we thought he might shed some light on the matter and help us. We were running out of time and we started pursuing even the seemingly useless leads.”
“He moved to Los Angeles a couple of years ago, but we called him there. He said he had seen the news about Miss Ashe’s attack and kidnapping on TV. He told us that he was moved by her story and that, when he learned her case was connected to those crimes he had been accused of in the past, he racked his brain, trying to remember anything that might help with the investigation. But he had come up with nothing. Talking to us, he finally remembered having lost his wallet and ID,” Dwyer added.
“With that information, our suspicions that Paul O’Hallon might have used Riordan’s name were confirmed. I went down to Youghal to assist the local gardai and got there around the time they found the ditched car. I had the address to the rented cottage. You know the rest,” Heller concluded, shrugging.
“Why didn’t you say anything about it to us? The Ashes were distraught. I was a wreck myself.”
“For one, we didn’t want to give you any false hopes, in case the information didn’t amount to anything useful,” Dwyer replied. “Besides, it was part of an ongoing investigation. We couldn’t tell you everything.”
“Fair enough. Still, you could have said something when we were going to Youghal.”
“You mean, after you twisted my arm into taking you with me? I wasn’t in a very chatty mood, remember?”
Declan laughed wholeheartedly and Dwyer was forced to relax his stern expression.
“I’m sorry about that, old chum. I just couldn’t help it. I had to go with you.”
“Yeah, about that, Slane. Why the heck did you insist on going with me like that? You were fresh out of surgery. You were in terrible pain. Still, you wanted to risk your recovery and go on something that might well have turned to be a wild goose chase. You said you knew we would find Keira there. How could you have been so sure?”
Declan looked at her before answering Dwyer and spoke to the officer without letting his gaze stray from her blue eyes, “I don’t know how to put it into words, detective. I woke up that afternoon, feeling a little strange. I still can’t remember details of the dreams I had while they operated on me. I remember sensations and feelings, only. And when I came to, my guts told me Keira was alive, but in danger. I had to go to her.”
Eyes brimming with tears because she recognized Declan’s feelings as similar to her own, Keira smiled tenderly at him and squeezed his hand.
“You know I would do anything for you, baby. Right? I had promised to protect you but I failed you when I let O’Hallon take you away from me. Logically, I wanted to be the one to rescue you from him, Keira. Unfortunately, that psychopath had knocked me out of the way.”
“I know you would risk your own safety for me because I’d do the same, baby. You don’t need to prove anything to me, or to yourself.”
Kissing him gently, Keira forgot the two officers standing near the bed. That happened every time Declan touched her – she was transported to another dimension, forgetting everything else around her. Apparently, Declan felt the same because he eagerly returned her caresses.
“Well, Dwyer, I guess we’d better get going and leave this two lovebirds alone.”
Agreeing with Heller’s assessment, the younger detective cleared his throat and smiled when Declan gave him a dirty look, “Sorry to interrupt you, Slane. We’ve got to go.”
“See you later, Dwyer.”
“Miss Ashe, may I remind you that we’d like you to stay in Ireland for a while because you’ll testify at O’Hallon’s trial in a couple of months?”
“That won’t be a problem, Inspector Heller,” she grinned and showed him her ring. “I’ll be around for a long while.”
“Oh, congratulations, my dear. I hope you can keep this young man out of trouble.”
“I can’t promise I’ll be successful; but, I’ll try, Inspector Heller.”
“You lucky son of gun, Slane. Take good care of Miss Ashe.”
“I intend to, Dwyer.”
A little while after the police officers had left, Keira remembered something she had been willing to discuss with Declan.
“I’m curious about those dreams you said you had, sweetie. Don’t you remember anything at all?”
“No, I don’t. I’ve tried to, though. When I concentrate, I get bits and pieces of images and dialogs. Nothing makes much sense, really,” he shook his head and gave her a weak smile. “Your family told me I said some pretty weird stuff while I was unconscious, but I can’t remember a thing.”
“You may call me crazy, you may not believe me, but I’ve got to tell you something.”
As she searched for the best words to describe her dreams to him, without sounding too much like a basket case, he grew worried, “Come on, Keira. It can’t be that bad. Spill it, hon,” he nudged her.
“Okay, here goes nothing. While I was unconscious, after O’Halon hit me in the head, I had some pretty strange dreams, too. When I woke up, I didn’t remember much, just like you. I thought it was related to the amnesia. I mean, if I couldn’t remember my own name, it seemed fitting I couldn’t remember my dreams, either. However, I will never forget the last dream I had. The one which helped me remember my name and recover my identity.”
She eyed him while carefully weighing her next words. He didn’t say anything but his expression was a reassuring one. He didn’t seem to be about to commit her to the booby hatch so she felt encouraged.
“I was in a strange room where I couldn’t see well because of the bright light. I could see only a beautiful woman. She told me she was your mom and she brought you to me. She said you didn’t want to live because you thought I had died; so she had taken you to see me; to see that I was alive. When I saw you, in the dream, everything came back to me.”
Declan mulled over her words before saying, “I’ve never wondered much about what might happen after we die, Keira. I can’t honestly say I believe in the afterlife. I also can’t say I don’t simply because I’
ve never given it much thought. I guess I’ve always had so many problems going on in this life I didn’t care much for the afterlife.”
“I believe in it, Declan. I’m not sure what to expect from it but I’m convinced there’s another dimension to our material world; another realm, if you like. One we can’t ordinarily see. I like to believe it’s it exists and is filled with beings similar to us – good and bad.”
“Honestly, love, this dream you’ve described just now makes sense to me. Like I told you before, I remember only scattered scenes from my dreams, though I remember feeling desperate, desolate. I’ve got the impression I saw an angel, who talked to me and soothed me. It could have been my mom, I don’t know,” he hesitated and Keira waited while he processed his feelings about that topic. “Who knows, honey? I do know I woke up feeling hopeful, in spite of everything that was going on with us and your family thought it was the medication. I knew it in my heart that it was more complicated than that. When Dwyer said they had found the car I just knew you were there. That certainty might have come from the dreams,” he shrugged.
Keira held his hand and kissed him on the lips, “What I do know is that you, somehow, restored my memory. It was like your face and your voice were etched in my mind, even if you weren’t with me.”
A phone ringing interrupted their conversation and Keira picked it up without noticing it wasn’t hers. It was Declan’s phone.
“Hello?” Keira answered it.
“Oh, hello. Is Declan there?”
Keira frowned because she didn’t recognize the female voice on the other side of the phone line.
“He is. Who’s calling, please?”
“A friend. Jennifer Williams.”
Keira smiled widely and it was Declan’s turn to frown. He gestured for her to give him the phone but she just ignored him and moved away from him.
“Oh, hi, Jen. This is Keira. How are you? I’ve told Declan I’d love to chat with you sometime,” she laughed at something Jennifer said. “I’m sure you will.”