by Laura Scott
She was so lost in her thoughts that she almost went right past the ice cream parlor. Even though she hadn’t eaten dinner yet, she decided there was no reason she couldn’t start with dessert. When she pushed open the door, a tiny bell jangled, announcing her arrival.
“Hi, Dr. Katy.” The young girl across the counter greeted her with familiarity, and she stared for a minute, trying to place the dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. Oh, yes, she was the young girl who’d come in a few months ago with that nasty flu bug. “Hi, Claire, how are you?”
“I heard you pulled Jacob out of the lake,” Claire said, her eyes wide with awe. “Timmy’s parents said he would have died if you hadn’t been there.”
“Well, I’m just glad he’s okay,” Katy said, trying to focus on the various flavors of ice cream. “What’s the special today?”
“You just missed Mr. Webster and his dog,” Claire went on as if she hadn’t heard the question. “Mr. Webster wouldn’t buy anything for Duke, though. He said people food would make him sick.”
Good grief, had the rumor mill been so busy that even a high school kid thought they were dating? “I’m sure Mr. Webster knows what’s best for his dog, but I think I’d like a dish of the mint chocolate chip, please.”
This time, Claire heard the order and busied herself with scooping the ice cream into a small plastic dish. The way Claire looked at her expectantly made her think the girl figured she wanted to catch up with Reese and Duke.
Irrationally, that’s exactly what she wanted to do.
Stop it!
She pulled her wallet out of her purse and paid Claire before taking her ice cream. When she left the parlor, she decided to head away from the central part of town where the band was playing, assuming that’s where Reese and Duke had been headed. She didn’t think having Duke would slow him down, not after the way he’d trained the dog to listen.
The cool ice cream tasted wonderful, and she savored the minty flavor as she meandered away from the congestion of tourists. She headed toward the hilly area where the hiking trail began. Not that she intended to hike, but there was a small bench near the base of the hill.
The moment she sat down, she heard voices and tried not to show her disappointment. So much for having a brief moment of peace and quiet.
“Yeah, you’re right, I should just forget about it.”
The deep male voice sounded familiar, but she was sure that it was nothing more than her imagination.
A moment later, Reese and Duke emerged from the hiking trail. When he saw her sitting there, he looked guilty about something.
“Hi,” Reese greeted her awkwardly.
She hid her smile behind a spoon of ice cream. “Were you really talking to your dog?” she asked.
He lifted a shoulder and nodded. “Why not? Duke is a good listener, aren’t you, boy?”
Duke perked up his ears and wagged his tail but didn’t come over to sniff at her. Instead, he stayed right beside Reese, almost as if guarding his owner from some potential threat. She had the odd thought that it might be nice to have a pet to keep the loneliness at bay.
But even if she did break down to get a pet, it wouldn’t be a dog with huge teeth like Duke.
She pushed the idea away, knowing that having a pet with her crazy schedule was out of the question. “So, how come you’re not in town, enjoying the band? I figured you’d make the most of your time here.” Every weekend a band set up outside, weather permitting, to play for the tourists.
“Nah, too crowded.” He stood for a minute, his hand tucked into the pockets of his cargo shorts. He had nice, tanned legs and was wearing a T-shirt that clung to his broad, muscular shoulders. And why was she noticing that, anyway?
“Why aren’t you listening to the band?” he asked, turning her question back on her.
Since she could hardly tell him how she’d come this way to avoid running into him, she shrugged. “Country music isn’t my thing.”
“I thought I heard a rock-and-roll song a few minutes ago,” Reese said with a puzzled frown.
“Oh, country rock, whatever.” She concentrated on scraping the last bit of ice cream from the dish. “I hope it didn’t take you too long to clean off the boat,” she said, rising to her feet.
He waved it off. “No worries. I made sure the boat was cleaner than when Hank loaned it to me. And he thinks he’ll have a car available by tomorrow afternoon, too.”
For some reason, the thought of Reese leaving town to return to his isolated home tucked into the woods made her feel depressed. Which was completely ridiculous. She should be glad that she wouldn’t be tripping over him every time she walked down Main Street.
“Good news for both of you,” she said, nodding toward Duke. “I’m sure he misses being able to run around in your backyard.”
“Trust me, he does. When I call him into the motel room, I swear he gives me a look full of doggy reproach.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “I bet.” She hated the fact that she was still intimidated by the massive beast. Even though he was an extremely well-behaved massive beast. “Well, I should really head home. Nice chatting with you.”
“Sure. Take care,” Reese said, matching her offhand tone.
She turned to leave and didn’t think it was an accident that Reese stayed right where he was, with Duke by his side. Was the thought of walking with her too abhorrent? She mentally rolled her eyes. No, she was being stupid. Most likely he was trying to give her space. Plus, he seemed to know she was more than a little afraid of Duke.
Okay, so Reese allowing her to walk home alone was his way of being polite. So why was she feeling so upset and disconcerted?
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. But even as she walked away, it took every ounce of will she possessed not to turn around to see him one last time.
Reese kept his hand by his side, wordlessly telling Duke to stay right beside him since he sensed the dog wanted to follow Katy.
Or maybe Duke was just picking up on his desire to follow Katy.
Reminding himself over and over again that this was for the best didn’t make him feel any better. He hadn’t gone too far up the hiking trail, mostly because dusk was falling and he didn’t want to risk losing his footing on unfamiliar terrain.
Having a gunshot wound in his arm was one thing. Being stupid enough to sprain an ankle would be far worse. His boss was already chomping at the bit for him to get back to work.
So far, Gavin hadn’t found the dead cougar, either. They’d had no trouble finding the kill site—there had been plenty of blood marking the spot, so that wasn’t the problem. Granted, it was possible a scavenger had dragged it away, but there should be signs of that, too. According to Gavin, he and George had been combing the woods all day but still hadn’t found so much as a tuft of fur.
Reese knew with sick certainty that they would never find the cougar because the blond dude had already scooped it up. There was no other explanation for how the carcass had disappeared without a trace.
Taking the bullet evidence with it.
After waiting a good fifteen minutes, he began to walk back toward town. He was extremely grateful that he would only need to stay one more night at the motel. And not just because of the added expense. The noise from people going up and down Main Street at all hours of the night was driving him crazy.
Thinking about the lost evidence from the cougar made him even more anxious to talk to the sheriff’s deputies again. They’d get the bullet from Boyle’s chest and match it to his gun, but so far, he didn’t have as much evidence against Boyle as he would have liked. He had his eyewitness account, sure. And the photos of the boot prints he’d found, along with the bullet from the bear.
Would that be enough? He sincerely hoped so.
Without conscious thought, he ended up outside the sheriff’s department headquarters, located a little outside of town. But, of course, the place was shut down to the public this late on a Sunday night.
He c
onsidered banging on the door to get the dispatcher’s attention but figured the deputies would be busy.
As he turned to leave, a deputy vehicle pulled up and stopped beside him. The deputy rolled down his window, and he recognized Armbruster. “Webster, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Your dog should be on a leash,” Armbruster said with a frown.
“He’s trained as a police dog. He won’t do anything without a command from me.” Reese kept his voice even, but he was getting annoyed with this deputy.
“He still needs to be on a leash,” Armbruster repeated. “What are you doing here, anyway? Did you need something?”
“Just wanted to check up on where you’re at with the investigation.” Reese wished he hadn’t come this way since he suspected Armbruster wouldn’t tell him anything, even if he had some news.
“No news yet, but we’re working on it.”
“Okay, thanks.” Reese moved as if to leave.
“Heard you and Dr. Katy saved that boy this afternoon,” Armbruster said. “Nice work.”
He shouldn’t have been surprised at how fast news traveled through Crystal Lake, but he was. “Thanks, but Dr. Katy is the one who did the work. I just helped.”
“We’re lucky to have Dr. Katy working here. She’s a very talented lady,” Armbruster agreed.
Reese nodded, understanding the unspoken warning. Armbruster didn’t want him doing anything to hurt their beloved doctor. And he understood; he would feel the same way. “See you later, Deputy.” He lifted his hand in a wave and then turned around to head back toward the motel. Duke, thankfully, behaved himself by walking directly at his side the entire way.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said to Duke as he unlocked the door. “I don’t like it here anymore than you do.”
Duke huffed and crossed the threshold, leaving Reese to do the same. A group of giggling kids walked by, their shrill voices piercing the night air.
Reese sighed and shut the door behind him. This was going to be a long night, in more ways than one.
Katy stared at the ceiling fan swirling over her bed, trying to figure out why she couldn’t fall asleep.
As much as she wanted to blame Reese, she was more tuned in to every little creak and groan of the house. Normal sounds that, for some reason, had never bothered her before.
She closed her eyes and prayed, seeking peace. The church services she’d attended earlier that morning seemed like days ago rather than hours. But instead of remembering Pastor John’s sermon, the image of Jacob’s still features flashed in her memory.
For a moment, he’d reminded her painfully of Steffie. The young girl had been several years older than Jacob, but her pale, lifeless face had haunted Katy for the past year.
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to find comfort in the fact that Jacob hadn’t died. God had spared his life today.
Why hadn’t he spared Steffie’s?
To teach her a lesson. To make her realize that she needed to pay more attention to her patients’ signs and symptoms. To remind her that patients were people who needed care, not just to be shuffled through the revolving door that the Baltimore General ED had become.
Her chest tightened with guilt, and she blinked back the tears. If she could take back that night she’d discharged Steffie without requesting a surgical consult, she would. But Steffie’s pain had gone away after she’d given a fluid bolus, so she hadn’t considered appendicitis as a probable cause of the pain, especially since she’d had a waiting room full of patients still to be seen.
And when Steffie’s parents had brought her back to the ER four days later, after her appendix had burst, it had been too late. Steffie had died of massive sepsis.
I’m sorry. I’m so sorry! Dear Lord, please forgive me. Please!
Somehow, she must have dozed because a muffled thud woke her up. For a moment, she peered through the darkness, wondering if her mind was playing tricks on her again. Was probably nothing, just someone slamming a car door.
A creak from a floorboard made her sit bolt upright in bed. She recognized that creak from the center of her living room.
Someone was in her house!
Chapter Seven
Katy grabbed her cell phone that she thankfully kept on the bedside table next to her—just in case the hospital needed to get ahold of her—and disconnected it from the charger. Then she slipped out of bed, down onto the floor, hiding behind the bed as she quickly considered her options. The bed was between her and the doorway, and the bathroom was also near the doorway, far too close to the living room.
She had no intention of going anywhere near where the intruder was. Which meant she was trapped.
What should she do? The only thing on this side of the bedroom was a small, barely-able-to-walk-in closet and a window that led to the back of the house.
She could maybe hide in the closet at least long enough to call 911.
The better answer was to go out the window, but she was afraid she’d make too much noise. What if the intruder heard her leave? If he had a gun, he could shoot her from the doorway. The image made her shudder.
No, she should probably call the authorities first and plot her escape later.
Staying low, she crawled on her hands and knees toward the closet. The door was ajar, so she soundlessly opened it farther and eased inside before carefully closing it behind her.
Not the best hiding spot—it wouldn’t take long for the intruder to find her—so she needed to act quickly. Slipping a heavy sweater off one of the hangers, she cupped it around her head and the phone in an effort to muffle the noise as she dialed 911.
The phone rang five times on the other end, making her want to scream in frustration before a dispatcher answered. “Please state the nature of your emergency,” the woman said in what seemed like an unnecessarily loud voice.
Was the sweater enough to muffle the sound? Or could the intruder hear her? Sweat beaded on her forehead, and she tried not to shake.
“This is Dr. Katy,” she whispered. “Someone’s in my house.”
That got the dispatcher’s attention as her voice went quiet. “I have a deputy nearby,” the dispatcher said softly. “Stay on the line with me while I send him over.”
One good thing about small towns: everyone knew where everyone else lived, so she didn’t have to risk telling the dispatcher what her address was. She was already afraid she’d been too loud. Tucking the phone in the folds of the sweater, she leaned forward and placed her ear near the closet door, straining to listen.
There was nothing but silence.
Did that mean the intruder was gone? Was this her chance to escape? Should she make a run for the window? Or stay put? And if the person was still in her house, why was it suddenly so quiet?
An insidious frisson of doubt crept in as she stayed huddled in the closet. Had she imagined the creaking floorboard? Would the deputy get here and find nothing amiss? She’d feel ridiculous if that was the case, but she was too frightened to open the closet door to look.
Better to be considered a hysterical female than to risk being attacked by a would-be rapist.
Now she was letting her imagination run wild. Rapists didn’t run around in small towns like Crystal Lake. Did they?
She reached up to open the closet door when she heard the floorboard creak again. The sound was so loud she knew it hadn’t been her imagination. Her heart raced as she thought about what she had in her closet that might be used as a weapon. A coat hanger? Maybe, but the intruder would have to get close for that to be effective, and if he had a gun, she’d be toast.
Too bad she didn’t have a baseball bat or some other heavy object.
A book? Hope filled her chest as she remembered storing some of her heavy medical textbooks on the shelf that stretched across the rack of clothes. Throwing a pathophysiology book at him could potentially buy her the few seconds necessary to escape.
Maybe.
Maybe not. Who was she
kidding?
Since she couldn’t think of another plan, she pushed the sweater-wrapped phone aside, knowing that it would be useless if the intruder found her anyway. Feeling her way in the pitch-black closet wasn’t easy, but she forced herself to remember what the items in her closet looked like as she carefully stood. Avoiding the hangers so they wouldn’t clang together wasn’t easy. Still, she stretched up to feel along the top edge of the shelf.
Inch by inch, she moved her hands until she felt the cardboard box of books. Reaching up, she felt the box’s dimensions, making sure it was the right one. She remembered just how heavy the box had been when she’d placed it up there after moving in.
Still, she needed to do something. Imagining the intruder coming into the bedroom was enough to make her lift the box so it wouldn’t scrape along the shelf, the muscles in her arms straining with the effort. She pulled it down and swallowed a grunt as she nearly staggered under the weight. She set the box on the floor, grateful for the carpeting, and quickly pulled out one of the heavy textbooks.
Holding it to her chest, she melted back in the corner, wincing as the clothes rustled a bit. She held her breath for another long moment, trying to gauge where the intruder might be. Still in her living room? Or was he making his way through her bedroom?
The wail of sirens split the air, and there was a loud crash as something hit the floor. Katy sucked in a harsh breath, her heart pounding so hard she could barely hear.
She had no idea how long she sat in the closet clutching her textbook, but it seemed like forever before she heard a deep male voice calling her name.
“Katy? Katy! Where are you?”
Maybe her ears were playing more tricks on her because she could have sworn that the voice belonged to Reese. She pushed open the closet door at the same moment that lights flooded her bedroom.
“I’m here,” she said, inwardly wincing at her weak voice. It took a minute for her eyes to adjust to the bright lights, but she squinted enough to see Reese and Duke standing just inside her bedroom. She cleared her throat and rose to her feet. “I’m fine.”