Accidental Eyewitness

by Michelle Karl

  She took a deep breath and slid open the door. It moved in silence and she exhaled in relief.

  Then the stairs creaked again.

  She dove inside the closet and Leo followed after her. He slid the door shut as the steps came closer, and although she hadn’t been able to see in the dark exactly what was inside of this closet, she thought she felt a pile of terrycloth towels under her left hand.

  Would Clyne remember her report about hiding in the Fosters’ closet? Had he even read the report she’d given?

  “Now who’s being unreasonable?” said Clyne. It sounded as though he stood in the hallway outside the bedroom. “Delaying the inevitable isn’t going to make it any better for either of us. We all know how this ends, so there’s no point in expending so much effort. I’m going to find you, and the angrier I am, the more it’ll hurt.”

  The steps came closer. To the doorway.

  Ellen slid her shoulders against the back of the closet, sinking to the floor. There was no way out. He was going to find them, and there was nothing she or Leo could do anymore. This whole situation was going to end the same way it had started, with her crouching alone in terror inside a closet—no, not alone.

  She had Leo. And he’d sunk down right next to her, placed his arms around her and drawn her close. She tucked into the crook of his shoulder, pressing her cheek into his sternum. He felt warm, solid and secure.

  He felt like everything she’d ever wanted, just at the wrong time. In the wrong place.

  “It’s not personal,” said Clyne. A shadow passed in front of the closet door. Ellen pressed her hands over her mouth again, trying with everything in her not to scream. Leo held her tighter, and she felt his breath grow even more silent and shallow. “But family comes first. And anyone who gets in the way of that, well...you know. One does what one must. I’m as sorry as anybody that Mr. Kroeker was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but these things happen. As they have to you. And once you’re both out of the picture, I can get back to business—legitimate and otherwise.” He chuckled at his own comment.

  His fingers curled around the edge of the closet door. As the door slid back, Leo raised her face to meet her eyes.

  “I love you, Ellen,” he said.

  A gun swung down toward them in the darkness.

  SEVENTEEN

  The front door slammed open with a bang as police sirens wailed through the air. A spotlight shone through the master bedroom window, illuminating Clyne as he stood with his weapon pointed inside the closet. He flinched and threw his hands in front of his face, momentarily blinded by the intense light.

  Leo saw the opening, and he took it.

  He burst out of the closet, knocking the gun upward. It discharged with a deafening crack, and he prayed he’d been fast enough that the bullet hadn’t hit either himself or Ellen. Clyne, surprised and half blinded by the spotlight, was easily shoved off balance with the force of Leo’s attack.

  But Clyne didn’t let go of the gun.

  Leo stomped on Clyne’s wrist. The gun fell from his grasp. The man roared in pain and leaped to his feet as Leo kicked the gun out of reach. Clyne wrapped his hands around Leo’s throat and squeezed. His adrenaline-fueled grip made sparks fly in front of Leo’s vision, and his lungs strained to take another breath.

  “Police! Don’t move!” Several voices shouted the command in near unison.

  Thunderous footsteps came up the stairs. Leo’s vision dimmed. The world became a series of bangs and loud shouts, and suddenly the pressure on his neck was gone. He fell to the ground, touching his throat and gasping for air, uncertain whether he’d ever be able to take another breath again.

  Is this it, Lord? Is this how it ends for me? Please, take care of...

  And then Ellen’s face filled his whole world, and her lips found his, and he found himself unable to breathe for a completely different reason altogether.

  * * *

  When the room came back into focus, Ellen knelt on the floor in front of him. Clyne was nowhere to be seen, and various RCMP officers were rushing in and out of the room. A paramedic arrived to check for any immediate injuries and recommended that they both make their way to the ER once given the all clear, just in case. He found that it still hurt to breathe, but the paramedic didn’t think his windpipe had been severely damaged, just bruised. Kind of like every other part of his body, and probably Ellen’s, too.

  After a long while that still seemed too brief, someone helped him and Ellen to their feet and escorted them outside the house. The early rays of morning light peeked above the treetops to the east. Had they really been on the run all night? The kiss, the truck smashing into the motel room...it all seemed so long ago.

  “We’re going to sit down for a second,” Ellen told an officer, and she led Leo to the edge of the front porch. He sat next to her. “They took Clyne,” she said. “You passed out for a few minutes, I think. I probably shouldn’t have kissed you. The paramedic thought I’d done something, and I had to convince him that you’d been choked, not that I was such a great kisser I’d made you swoon.”

  “I’d laugh if it didn’t hurt so much.” He bumped her shoulder with his own. “But don’t undersell yourself, Biers.”

  Her smile faded. “Biers? What’s up with that? You always call me by my first name.”

  “Maybe passing out impacted me more than I thought it did.” He glanced at her, but her jollity had diminished.

  She lowered her voice. “Don’t try to pull a fast one on me, Leo. I heard what you said in the closet, and I’m not going to forget it. Because I—”

  “Ellen, we were in danger. I got emotional. I shouldn’t have said it at all. It was a mistake.” Her jaw dropped as her eyes filled with tears. It stung his heart to speak the words, but after what he’d just experienced, he knew it was the right thing to do. “I meant what I said. Please don’t think I didn’t. It was the wrong time to say it, is all. And I’m not convinced there will ever be a right time.”

  She shook her head. A tear rolled down her cheek. “I don’t understand.”

  He inhaled deeply, searching for the right words. For what he could possibly say that would hurt her the least, while still conveying the depth of his affections for her. “We almost died multiple times over the past few days, but no moment came as close as it did in that closet. And it came even closer when Clyne wrapped his hands around my throat and squeezed. I was terrified, Ellen. I’ve never been that scared in my life, and do you know why?”

  She shook her head, more tears flooding her beautiful face.

  “Because I knew, in that moment, why Jamie asked me to stay away from you. Why he’d made me promise never to pursue you romantically. You’ve already lost enough people in your life, and I don’t want you to have to worry about losing another—and as an RCMP officer, that danger is a reality every single day. Every time I go to work. Every time I take a call and head to a scene. Even a routine patrol can have unexpected consequences, which you’ve personally experienced in your family. Your brother is already an RCMP officer taking those risks, and while, God willing, nothing will ever happen to him, the possibility is there.

  “There should be at least one person inside your heart who doesn’t face death every day. The man you love, and who loves you, should have a safe, stress-free career. Something where you know that when he leaves in the morning, he’ll come home at night. Where there’s no chance of a stray bullet or a drunk citizen ruining everything. I don’t want to see you hurt or in pain or scared of turning out like your mother, Ellen. I mean, I already know you’re stronger than her. But I don’t want to be the one to bring you another moment of heartache, and for that reason...”

  “No.” She shook her head a second time, each word shaky. “No, Leo. Don’t do this. Please. I should be the one who gets to make that kind of choice. Not you.”

  “If I were to ever cause yo
u an ounce of pain, Ellen, I couldn’t live with myself.”

  Her sobs turned fierce and angry. She stood, towering over him. “But you’re doing it right now. If you walk away from us, that’s exactly what you’ll be doing.”

  He shook his head and stood, too. Everything inside him screamed to take her in his arms again and tell her it would be all right. But that would be selfish. After everything he knew about her and her past, he couldn’t be the one to make it worse. “If I walk away now, it will hurt for a few minutes. If I’m gunned down during an RCMP investigation, it will be so much worse. I do love you, Ellen. And that’s why I’m letting you go.”

  He leaned forward to kiss her on the forehead one last time, but she leaned away, incredulous.

  Everything hurt, but his heart hurt the most. He prayed that someday, she’d forgive him and find true happiness with the man God intended for her.

  He prayed that someday, his own heart would heal.

  * * *

  Ellen watched in disbelief as he walked away. Shock ripped through every inch of her body, drowning out the physical pain and replacing it with a scream of utter fury and the deepest sorrow she could imagine.

  It was all so much that she didn’t know where to begin. Whether to run after him and beg him to reconsider, or whether to strike his name from her memory forever.

  Because the truth was, she loved him, too, and he’d refused to give her a chance to say it.

  She sank back down onto the porch steps, her vision growing hazy as her emotions took over and forced out every remaining drop of liquid through her tear ducts.

  “Hey, sis.” Jamie’s voice brought her back to reality. He sat next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “I, uh... Look, I probably shouldn’t have been listening just now. And there are a ton of other things that I need to be doing, and that you need to be doing, including getting to the ER to be checked over and giving your official testimony on what happened tonight. But did I just overhear Leo say that he loves you?”

  She nodded, but couldn’t bring herself to speak.

  “Hmm. And I take it that wasn’t in an ‘oh, I love you because we’ve been friends for years and we survived this ordeal together’ type of way?” When she didn’t respond, he sighed heavily and buried his head in his hands. “I thought so. This is all my fault.”

  “What?” She found her voice, and she couldn’t believe Jamie’s words. “All your fault? Why, because you asked him to stay away from me years and years ago?”

  “Well, yeah.” Jamie shrugged, looking sheepish. “I didn’t even realize you knew.”

  “I figured it out a long time ago. It’s not news to me, and Leo more or less admitted as much.”

  “And you’re not furious with me?”

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re my brother. You’ve always been overprotective—it’s what brothers do. But you’re also not heartless. You know I’m my own person and can make my own decisions.”

  “You always have.” He smiled with one side of his mouth, but it wasn’t a happy expression. “So, uh... I saw the way Leo looked at you just now. And how he’s been looking at you for a while. I mean, to quote a certain sister, I figured it out a long time ago. About what he feels for you, I mean.”

  She had no idea why Jamie was even talking to her about this. “So? It doesn’t matter anymore. He claims he loves me, but he doesn’t want anything to do with me. I guess it was all heat of the moment, emotion-driven stuff.”

  Jamie sighed again and gently kicked at her foot. “Or Leo is an honorable man, doing what he thinks is right based on all the ‘Ellen is fragile and if you hurt her I’ll end you’ garbage that I poured into his skull for years and years. I was trying to look out for you, and honestly, if we went back in time, I’d do it again. But we’re both adults now. You’re more than capable of taking care of yourself, and Leo is clearly—based on what just happened—the type of person to put others’ needs before his own. If he’s willing to make a massive sacrifice like walking away from you despite being madly in love with you, just so he doesn’t cause you harm, then he’s exactly the kind of man you deserve. I mean, I think he’s good enough for you, and that’s a hard position to be in, in my eyes. I shouldn’t have...”

  Jamie growled and tilted his head to the sky. “You know what I did? I forced my best friend to choose between friendship and love for far too long, and it was wrong. I need to speak to him and make it right. And then I’m going to smack him upside the head and tell him to make things right with you. Okay?”

  Ellen wasn’t sure it actually was okay, but she nodded, anyway. Jamie gave her a quick side-hug and hurried away, heading in the direction Leo had wandered.

  She hoped that Jamie’s words would be enough to convince Leo of the truth—that loving her was exactly what she wanted. That Jamie had been wrong, which Leo had even admitted. She hoped that hearing that confession from Jamie himself would change Leo’s mind, because she certainly didn’t know how to change his mind.

  I need to tell him I love him.

  He hadn’t given her the opportunity to say it, and she ached to speak the words aloud. Maybe it would help him see that by walking away, he was hurting her more than any risk-laden career ever could—that his choice to leave for the sake of a situation that might not even happen was, in fact, the most selfish thing he could do.

  She stood and waited for Jamie to return with Leo, but when several minutes turned into many, she began to wonder if either of them was coming back.

  Just when she’d started walking toward a waiting patrol car that had arrived to take her back to the station, Jamie came running down the driveway.

  “Hey! Is Leo with you?” he shouted as he ran.

  Alarm constricted her insides. “No,” she called back. “Why?”

  “Oh, no. I’m so sorry.” Jamie skidded to a halt, his features fallen in dismay and sadness.

  She didn’t understand. “What are you taking about?”

  Jamie’s limbs drooped with defeat. “Ellen...he’s gone.”

  EIGHTEEN

  Three weeks passed without a word from Leo. He wasn’t answering his phone calls or emails, and his brothers clammed up when she tried to get in touch with them. After the first few days, Jamie admitted that he’d spoken to Leo on official police business—of course they’d needed Leo’s full testimony against Clyne and his crew, whose motivation for organizing and committing the numerous thefts had indeed been to financially support his critically ill sister, as Leo and Jamie had suspected—but that Ellen might want to be patient.

  Ellen appreciated the heads-up, but she had an awful, sinking feeling that Jamie’s words meant that he’d tried to talk some sense into his friend and Leo hadn’t seen reason.

  The last thing Ellen wanted to do was grovel. She had her pride, and begging was out of the question. But what Leo had done wasn’t fair or respectful to either of them—he’d said his piece and walked away without giving her the chance to say hers. And she was going to make sure she was heard, even if it meant it was the last time they ever spoke to each other.

  She hoped it wouldn’t be. But her heart feared the worst.

  Still, she woke up the morning of Sam and Kara’s wedding, dressed in her favorite tawny skirt and forest green sweater, tamed her hair as much as could be reasonably expected for a public appearance, and marched down to the church where the wedding was to be held at one o’clock that day. While she had to swallow down a touch of guilt for intending to intercept Leo on his brother’s wedding day, she figured that he had it coming by not speaking to her before the day arrived.

  And he definitely wouldn’t be able to avoid her by skipping the wedding.

  She arrived an hour early, fully intending to plant herself inside the doorway so she wouldn’t miss Leo’s arrival and he wouldn’t see her until it was too late—and too awkward—to turn around and b
olt back down the church steps.

  But when she flung open the door, slipped inside and scanned the flower-draped foyer for a good place to lie in wait, she saw him. Her stomach tightened with sudden, inexplicable, nervous fear.

  Leo sat on a bench at the far end of the foyer, head buried in his hands.

  The heavy church door thudded into place behind her and she jumped, startled. At the sound, Leo looked up sharply—and saw her.

  She couldn’t breathe.

  “Ellen.” His voice was low and soothing, the way she remembered it being in every instance of danger, in every moment of stillness.

  She barely managed more than a whisper. “Hi.”

  He dropped his head again, placed his hands on his knees and stood. Her back bumped against the door as he approached her.

  “I thought I might find you here,” he said. A tiny, hopeful smile curved the corner of his mouth, but she blinked in surprise.

  “Wait, what? You thought you’d find me here?” She looked around the empty foyer. “I came here to wait for you. But shouldn’t you be with your brothers right now?”

  “Nah. Everyone’s finishing getting dressed and will head over in a bit. I just rushed the process, because...”

  She held up her hand, unfreezing her body and pushing through the nerves. “No. You don’t get to talk yet.” He frowned in confusion. “Leo, you said a whole lot of things a few weeks ago, and then you walked away. You didn’t let me give my side. And for someone who claims to love me, that was a terrible, disrespectful way to show it.”

  His face fell, but he nodded. “I know. That’s why I’m here, to apologize.”

  “Then I accept your apology. You don’t need to say anything else, because I think you’ve said quite enough.” He opened his mouth as if to speak again, but she held up one finger and he pressed his lips together instead. “Leo, you said yourself that what you and Jamie talked about was maybe necessary back when we were teenagers. I was fragile. I was in a delicate state. I should have sought medical help, but we had almost no support and no family members up here to help us navigate those waters after my mother died. Jamie tried to be my father and my mother and my brother, and I needed that for a time. But we’re adults now. He sees that as well as I do. It’s time for him to move on and live his own life instead of clinging to mine. We needed that codependency to keep each other afloat after our parents’ deaths, but we’re our own people now, with our own lives. Our own careers. Our own capacity for love outside of the safety of each other. And, Leo, I do love you. I think I always did, in a way, but these past few weeks showed me what’s been missing in my life, and it’s you. You understand my past and you accept my present. You care about my future, and you’re patient with me where my faith—and doubts—are concerned. No one else has ever come close. No one else has truly seen and accepted me, issues and all, before you. I love you and I want to be with you, but not if you’re going to contradict the very things you said to me when we were on the run. Not if you’re going to let the needs of the past cloud the possibility of the future. This is between me and you. No one else.”