by Terri Reed
Not that he disagrees, Mel thought. Oh, she doubted the Lieutenant was the type to resort to vigilante justice, but it was clear he thought prison was exactly where she belonged. Despair welled up inside her. She clamped down on her emotions. No way was she going to show any hint of vulnerability. Not in front of these vultures. Her face a stoic mask, she let herself into the passenger’s side of the police cruiser. Her hands gripped together in her lap as she waited for Lieutenant Tucker to join her.
He slammed the driver’s side door and started the car, muttering to himself. She waited until he had driven away from the crowd before taking her inhaler out and using it. She almost cried with relief as her inflamed air passages opened, allowing her to breathe freely. Lieutenant Tucker darted wary glances her way.
“Are you all right?” he asked her, his tone of voice suggesting he was only asking because he felt obligated to do so.
“I’m fine. Thank you for agreeing to drive me home.”
He threw a furious scowl her way. “Yeah,” he retorted, sarcasm heavy in his voice, “this is exactly what I wanted to be doing today.”
“I’m sor—” She halted. No way would she apologize for any of this. Whether he believed it or not, she was the victim, and had been for a long time. Fueled by indignation, she found her anger and became bold. “Why are you even here? It’s obvious you agree with those nuts out there.”
His eyes widened, but were just as quickly shuttered.
Had she surprised him with her candor?
“It’s my job. My boss felt you were in danger. Whether or not I agree, the chief wanted someone here. I drew the short straw. So here I am…a glorified babysitter for an ex-con.”
That hurt. Melanie looked out the window as frustration clawed at her throat, making her voice tight when she spoke.
“I am not a criminal.”
“A jury of your peers disagreed.”
“I don’t care.” Her voice was low and husky. “I never sold drugs to anyone, especially not to teenagers.”
He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Sure, sure. You were just a victim of circumstances.”
“I was!”
“Look, lady…”
“My name is Melanie, not Lady.”
“Whatever. The point is, Melanie, no matter how innocent you claim to be, all the evidence implicated you. I collected it myself.”
“I know,” Melanie responded bitterly. “But it was all circumstantial. What absolute proof was there?”
The lieutenant made a disgusted sound. “If you were so innocent, why the suicide attempt?”
Distress filled Melanie. An inarticulate sound of pain escaped from her throat, almost like that of a wounded animal. “I didn’t… I wouldn’t…” she choked out, and turned to face the window. This time, the tears would not be held back. They trickled in a slow stream down her cheek.
She heard him sigh again but was determined to ignore him. Awful man. How dare he treat her this way? Even if she had been guilty, she had served her sentence and paid her debt to society. She knew in her heart, though, that she was not guilty. Proving it, however, had been beyond her power. Maybe if she could have remembered the night in question…she shook her head. She needed to move on.
“Melanie.”
She refused to acknowledge him.
“Melanie, I’m sorry.” The words sounded somewhat strangled.
She turned around from the window and glared at him. “Don’t choke on your apology.”
Unexpectedly, he chuckled. A shiver went down her spine at the pleasant sound. Under different circumstances, she might have been attracted to him. As it was, she couldn’t help but view him as an adversary.
“I won’t say that I don’t think you’re guilty, because I do.” Melanie turned away from him. “I will apologize for my unprofessional behavior.”
She nodded in acknowledgment. What else could she say?
The remainder of the thirty-minute drive from Erie to LaMar Pond was silent. Uncomfortable. Melanie kept her gaze fixed on the passing scenery outside her window. Only a few more minutes, she told herself when she saw the sign for LaMar Pond. The car slowed as the lieutenant maneuvered past two Amish buggies. Lieutenant Tucker and Melanie both sighed in relief when her aunt’s house came into view. It would have been humorous if the circumstances had been different.
Dear Aunt Sarah. Even with all the supposed “evidence,” she had refused to believe her only niece could have committed the vile acts of which she was accused. Everyone else abandoned Mel. Her friends, her coworkers at the restaurant, even her fiancé. But not Aunt Sarah. For that alone, Melanie would be forever grateful.
The cruiser turned onto the gravel path that led up to the small cottage Sarah Swanson had built with her husband thirty years earlier. The area remained remarkably untouched in the years that followed. The closest neighbor was half a mile away. Melanie had always loved the peacefulness. The lack of people around appealed to her. Especially now. Impatience grabbed her. She tried to open her door. Locked. Throwing Lieutenant Tucker a scowl, she gestured toward the door. He rolled his eyes as he unlocked it. Ignoring him, she pushed the door open and ran up the front steps.
She stopped. Uneasiness shivered through her. The front door was open. Aunt Sarah never left doors open.
“What’s the holdup?”
She whirled to face the grim-faced man stalking toward her.
“Lieutenant,” she started. Stopped. If she shared her suspicions, he would think she was playing games. Her aunt had probably felt tired and left the door open so her niece wouldn’t have to wait for her to maneuver through the house in her wheelchair. Mel remembered how drama wore her aunt out.
Melanie flattened her mouth into a determined line. Straightening her shoulders, she pushed the door open and entered. And screamed.
*
Melanie’s scream pushed Jace into action. He bolted up the stairs. He found Melanie kneeling on the floor beside her aunt’s unconscious body. Tears streamed down her face. She was shaking her aunt’s shoulder and calling her name. No response. Jace glanced around, his eyes alert. Sarah’s chair was still where it had been when she fell out of it. A shattered mug was on the floor. Sarah herself was lying in a puddle of what looked like hot chocolate. Her wispy white curls were matted with the liquid.
Instinctively, Jace fell back on his first-aid training. He glanced around the room, making sure no other dangers lurked before falling to his knees beside Melanie. He could hear the elderly woman’s labored breathing. Together, they carefully turned her onto her back. Melanie gasped at the sight, and Jace could hardly blame her. Sarah Swanson’s eyelids and lips were swollen to three times their normal size.
“Anaphylactic shock?” Jace queried.
Mel nodded in agreement. She raced to the desk against the wall and tore open her aunt’s purse, desperately riffling through its contents.
“Yes!” Triumphantly, Mel held up the object she had been searching for. An EpiPen. Jace made room for her as she rushed back. Throwing herself on her knees next to the prone woman, she jabbed the needle into her aunt’s thigh. Then she sat back on her heels. Jace watched the desperation leave her face as her aunt’s breathing became more natural. Holding Melanie’s eyes, he flipped open his phone and called for an ambulance. Releasing her gaze, he stood. He needed to call the chief and give him an update.
Smash!
Mel screamed again. The brick that had been flung through the window landed with a thud beside her. Glass shards glistened in her hair. In the midmorning sunlight, they resembled diamonds.
Jace barked a request for backup into the radio clipped to his shoulder. He raced to the window. His gun seemed to jump into his hand. He peered outside, squinting as he examined the thick line of trees surrounding the cottage. Nothing moved. A quick glance down, though, showed fresh footprints in the flower bed below the window. Large footprints. Whoever had thrown that rock was probably around six feet tall. Jace figured the person was in shape given how
fast they escaped the scene. In the distance, an engine roared to life. Jace let out a frustrated sigh as he realized pursuit would be pointless.
A gasp behind him caused him to whirl. Melanie was staring at a crinkled piece of paper. She was trying to keep it steady, but her hands shook violently. Her face was ashen. She looked as though she might faint. Alarmed, Jace went to her and snatched the paper out of her grasp. She didn’t even flinch.
MURDERER! YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE. LEAVE WHILE YOU CAN.
The large block letters had been cut out of magazines and newspapers. Whoever had thrown that rock made sure their handwriting couldn’t be traced. That amount of effort pointed to premeditation. The person had probably been outside the window waiting for Melanie’s return.
Jace scowled. What kind of lowlife threatened women? Sarah Swanson was about as harmless as you could get. And as for Melanie… He narrowed his eyes as he gazed at the young woman. Her face was pale, and her lips seemed bloodless. The dark curls framing her face emphasized the pallor. The haunted look in her velvet brown eyes tore at him. Even knowing her past as he did, Jace disliked seeing her slender frame tremble with fear.
He hated himself for feeling drawn to her. He thought he had banished the attraction four years ago. A flare of resentment surged as he looked at the young woman kneeling on the floor. Hadn’t he learned his lesson? He had let affection cloud his judgment once before, with disastrous results. Never again.
Melanie raised her head. Her eyes met his. His hair stood on end as electricity zapped between them. Then, as if a light had been switched off, Melanie’s eyes became guarded. He could see her exercising every bit of control she had to master her fear and appear calm. She was brave. He’d give her that. He would have expected tears or outright panic. He wasn’t about to complain, though. Having a hysterical woman on his hands would only make a bad situation worse.
To distract himself, he turned his attention to Sarah Swanson. She was still unconscious, but the swelling around her mouth and eyes was noticeably diminished. He could see that her chest was moving now as she breathed, a sure sign that she was improved.
Jace cleared his throat. “I need to look around outside. Stay by your aunt. Yell if you see any changes.”
“Should I clean up the glass? So the paramedics don’t step in it?”
“Leave it. I called for another cruiser. We need to process the scene first. I’ll make sure it’s cleaned up afterward.”
Zipping his coat, he strode toward the door, noticing they had left it wide-open in the excitement. He spent the next ten minutes searching for evidence. Other than footprints that led off into the woods, he found nothing. A horn honked. He lifted a hand in greeting as another cruiser pulled in, followed by the paramedics. A third cruiser pulled in and parked in the yard. Jace raised his eyebrows. A third cruiser was unusual, to say the least.
He led the paramedics into the house and set the two officers about evaluating the scene. One of the officers approached Melanie. Jace stiffened. It was natural to question her, but the look of attraction on the officer’s face was unsettling. They were cops. It was their duty to remain focused. Letting an ex-con, no matter how pretty, distract them was not going to happen. Jace made his voice stern.
“Olsen, go help Jacobs. I’ll want your report ASAP.”
“Yes, sir.” The young policeman cast one last regretful glance at Melanie and returned outside.
“On three…” The paramedics lifted Sarah Swanson onto a stretcher and loaded her into the ambulance.
*
Mel looked around the room, feeling lost. Her aunt was on her way to the hospital, and no one would talk to her or tell her what she should do. It was disconcerting enough being out of jail, away from the routines that had, for better or for worse, been her life for the past four years. She’d been told that she’d have to adjust to life on the “outside,” but no one had explained how to deal with something like this. How was she going to get to the hospital? Was she supposed to go in the ambulance? Would someone drive her? Should she get a taxi? Unthinkingly, her eyes sought out the lieutenant. He might not like her, but he was the only steadying presence in the house.
Melanie glanced at him again. He had just flipped his phone shut and was talking with the officers as the ambulance roared to life and headed back to town toward the hospital. Well, that answered one question. Since no one was paying attention to her, Melanie made her way to her old bedroom.
Melanie stood in the doorway, breathing deeply. The room was the same as it had been nine years ago when she moved out. The blue-and-lavender color scheme, the ruffled curtains. Even the Bible her aunt had given her on her seventeenth birthday was there, sitting on the little end table beside the bed. Waiting for her. Mel walked over and picked the Bible up. Tears clogged her throat.
She had sneered at that Bible when she had received it, she remembered now with pain. What would she need that for? she had scoffed. Her aunt had merely smiled sadly.
“Someday, Melly,” Aunt Sarah had replied softly, “someday you’ll need a friend. Someone strong to carry you. This is where you’ll find Him.”
Her younger self had rolled her eyes at her aunt’s “preaching.” Thinking about it now, Mel was pretty sure she had never opened it. She didn’t even know why she had kept it. It wasn’t that she’d wanted to protect her aunt’s feelings. If that had been the case, she wouldn’t have walked out the moment she graduated from high school nine years ago.
But she had never gotten rid of it. And when she moved out, her aunt had left it here as if she had known that someday her wayward niece would come back for it. Although neither of them could ever have guessed that it would take a prison sentence to bring Mel to God.
Sitting on the bed, she opened the Bible to the book of Psalms. She read slowly, until she felt peace seep into her soul. Feeling calm again, she closed the Bible and stood. She startled when she saw Lieutenant Tucker standing in the doorway. He watched her, his brow furrowed and the corners of his lips pulled down.
She walked over to him and waited.
He stared back for several seconds. Then he straightened and nodded.
“Right,” he said briskly. “Let’s go. I’ll take you to the hospital.”
Mel hesitated. She didn’t relish the idea of remaining in his presence any longer than she needed to. He had made his disdain known. He was a man who viewed her as a criminal, and always would. Even if she could find a way to prove her innocence, would he believe it? Or was he too hardened against her?
Lieutenant Tucker frowned at her hesitation. “Come on, Melanie. I really don’t have all day.”
Melanie shivered at the chill in Lieutenant Tucker’s deep voice. His contempt for her was almost tangible. The last thing she wanted to do was get back into the cruiser with him. She needed to go to Aunt Sarah, though, so she followed him to the car.
As he backed down the driveway, she caught one last glance of the house. A shudder ran through her as the sunlight glinted off the broken window. She had been released from the horrors of prison only to walk into a new nightmare.
TWO
The scenery sped past as Jace drove to the hospital. Melanie tried to ask a question or two. He only grunted in reply. He couldn’t talk now. His mind was busy analyzing what had happened. The scene at the house made him uneasy.
She seemed to get the message. The silence settled around them like a cloak.
Jace couldn’t accept that the events of the day were all coincidental. Too much had happened in less than two hours.
Melanie had been released from prison.
She had been verbally threatened by the man in front of the courthouse.
Sarah Swanson had been found comatose.
Someone had thrown a rock through the window.
Jace had found Melanie reading her Bible.
That had really thrown him for a loop. Against his better judgment, he found himself feeling sympathy for the pretty brunette. The distress in her brown eyes ove
r her aunt’s condition was real, he was sure of it. He had gone searching for her, knowing she would need a ride to the hospital. He watched in disbelief as she leafed through the Bible. Not idly. Purposefully, as though she knew what she was looking for. When she had finally noticed him, the expression of peace on her face shook him.
“I don’t understand what happened to Aunt Sarah.” Melanie’s voice interrupted his musings. He threw her a confused frown.
“I assumed she was stung by a bee.”
She shook her head. “The only thing she’s allergic to is peanuts. She’s always been extremely careful. She would never eat or drink anything without reading its ingredient list.” Mel shifted her position and narrowed her eyes, looking as though she was speaking out loud to help her think. “She was so careful I used to tell her she went overboard. Nothing was ever in her house that had even been processed in the same factory with peanuts. If she needed to special-order items she would. No. I just can’t imagine her accidentally eating something with peanuts or peanut oil in it.”
He wasn’t sure why, but Jace believed her. Jace had learned long ago to trust his instincts. He was uneasy. If Sarah had not ingested something tainted by accident, then it had been placed there deliberately. The question reverberating around his mind was who would do such a thing.
He parked the car, and they strode into the hospital. Jace caught Melanie’s elbow as they crossed the wet parking lot. She gave him a startled glance.
“It’s slippery out here,” he explained defensively. Yeah, right.
She quirked her eyebrow but said nothing.
They hadn’t gone more than a dozen steps when a voice called out to them. Jace tried to ignore the speaker, but it was too late. Of course he would have to run into Senator Travis now. He shouldn’t have been surprised. Mrs. Travis had been in the hospital for over a week now. It was only natural that her husband would visit her. Still, the timing was lousy. Not that any time would be convenient. Senator Travis had rubbed him the wrong way since he had been elected to the state senate. He was rude and arrogant, and Jace had noted that he had broken many of his campaign promises within months of getting elected. In Jace’s mind, that showed a lack of integrity.