Sherri choked up, the sound of the firefighter’s power tools echoing through her mind. “A few seconds later, the little girl shouted, ‘I see her. I see Mommy.’ We were still under the blanket. She couldn’t see anything and I felt horrible for giving her false hope.”
Cole murmured something, but all she could hear was the phantom whir of a power saw.
“The next moment the little girl was gone, too.”
Cole’s arms tightened around her. “You made those final moments happy for her, instead of terrifying.”
“That’s what Luke said when I told him the next day I was quitting. That I couldn’t handle watching another child die. He told me I’d made a difference. That I had a gift, and God wouldn’t want me to throw it away. No one had ever told me that before. He made me promise I wouldn’t quit.”
“It sounds like he was a special man.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “His death was so senseless.”
Cole smoothed her hair. “I don’t pretend to know God’s reasons, but I do believe that somehow He can bring good out of the tragedy.”
She nodded, bumping her forehead against his chin. “I do believe that.” She swiped at the last of her blasted tears. “I do.” It was why she kept getting up every morning and not quitting. She had to believe that God had let her live for a reason. That he wanted her out there helping people.
Cole cradled her face in his palms and brushed the dampness from her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. “You okay?”
She squirmed at the empathy in his voice. “Yes, thank you.” And surprisingly, it was the truth. He’d witnessed her grieving the loss of a friend. That’s all. Nothing worrisome about that. Nothing that would raise red flags about her fitness to return to work. Self-consciously she patted his damp shirt. Grief was natural. He’d said so himself.
He even sounded as if he might understand why she was so desperate to work every shift she could get. His thumb grazed her bottom lip and her gaze shifted to his lips, her heart galloping. Did he feel more than—?
“Sherri?” a high-pitched voice squealed. “Is this the young man your mother was telling me about?”
Cole’s hands dropped to his sides, amusement dancing in his eyes. But he must’ve noticed her mortification, because he instantly sobered and turned to the elderly woman, hand extended. “Good morning, I’m Deputy Cole Donovan. I’m investigating the dog attack on Sherri.”
“Oh.” Mrs. Spiece shook his hand, her gaze bouncing from Luke’s dog to Sherri’s cheeks, which had to be flaming if the giddy smile that returned to Mrs. Spiece’s lips was anything to go by. “Of course you are.”
Sherri cringed at her lilt. Mrs. Spiece was the sweetest woman, but she was also the biggest storyteller in town.
“Nice to meet you. I must run. Tootle-loo.” The woman waggled her fingers and headed back to her car, still carrying the flowers she’d arrived with.
“I’m sorry,” Sherri blurted. “I’m afraid your innocent consoling hug will take on a life of its own by lunchtime.”
He chuckled. “As long as they don’t send a lynching party after me, no harm done.”
“Are you kidding me? My mom adores you. But—” she tugged her bottom lip uncertainly between her teeth “—your girlfriend might not if she catches wind of their tall tales.”
The grin that lit Cole’s eyes said she hadn’t fooled him by slipping in that little aside. He clearly knew she was fishing, and actually seemed flattered. “No girlfriend.” The slam of a car door yanked their attention to the driveway. “Uh-oh.”
Sherri’s stomach bottomed out. Luke’s father.
The sun disappeared behind a cloud as Mr. Atkins drilled Cole with a caustic glare. “What are you doing bringing her here?”
“She misses your son, too, sir.”
He stalked toward them, glaring at her. “It should’ve been you.”
Her knees buckled.
Cole’s arm clamped securely around her waist, but he couldn’t shield her from the image streaming across her brain. A vision of Luke’s blood seeping over her hands.
Luke’s father snapped a lead on the dog’s collar and tugged him toward the car.
Cole curled his fist, looking as if he wanted to hurt the man. “He’s wrong.”
Her breaths were coming too fast and shallow. She forced herself to breathe slow and deep, already regretting how far she’d let Cole inside her head. “He’s grieving,” she rationalized, almost managing to sound unaffected by the man’s appearance.
“That’s no excuse.”
Cole’s palm came to rest comfortingly at the small of her back. “For the record, Atkins is still on my suspect list. He may not have pulled any of the stunts against you, but he could have masterminded them.”
Sherri drew in a fortifying breath. If they were going to work together to figure out what was really going on, she needed to tell him everything. “You should know that my colleagues blame me for Luke’s death, too. Not as overtly as Mr. Atkins. But I hear them whispering. That’s the real reason I’ve always figured they were behind the pranks. To goad me into quitting. And that’s why I was determined not to let the incidents ruffle me. I promised Luke I wouldn’t quit.”
“We’re way past pranks, Sherri. And trust me, your colleagues are on my radar.” He prodded her toward his truck.
“So what do we do now?”
“We pull in every piece of data we can get our hands on. We’ll cross-reference the date and time of each incident with the schedules of every potential person who could’ve helped orchestrate them, starting with your colleagues, 9-1-1 operators and dispatch. And every person you can think of who could have the slightest motive—ex-boyfriends, wannabe boyfriends, patients or family members of patients who didn’t like your treatment.”
“I already told you—”
He cut her off with a wave of his hand and motioned for her to climb in. “You’ll be surprised how many names we can come up with after we’re through brainstorming.”
Her gaze snapped to rustling in the bushes on the far side of the cemetery. Across the street, a man sat behind the wheel of an idling car.
This was crazy. Cole was making her paranoid.
“We need to look at anyone you might’ve crossed some time before the incidents started, from the guy you cut off on your way to work to the fellow tenant whose parking spot you usurped.”
“What?” Her attention snapped back to Cole. “I never took anyone’s parking spot.”
“It was just an example. Nutcases have killed for less.”
“Killed?” The word came out scarcely above a whisper. She suddenly felt lightheaded. Sure, that drug guy blew up the house they’d been called to, but...
As if Cole had read her thoughts, he said, “I suspect the house explosion was as much a surprise to our man as it was to us. If he wanted you dead, he would’ve ordered the dog to go for your throat.”
She flinched, and Cole winced. “Sorry. You didn’t need to hear that, but if my theory’s right, he’s trying to terrorize you. Except the escalation in attacks has me worried, he’s growing impatient with the game.”
Game? Cole honestly thought some psycho was toying with her like a cat with a mouse? Could Luke’s father be that sick? Could her colleagues?
Cole could’ve died in that house explosion. That dog could’ve torn Dan and the guy with the stick to pieces. How could she go back to work and put others in danger?
Except...
The image of Luke filled her vision, his last breath seeping from his lungs with his plea—Don’t forget your promise.
She couldn’t not go back.
* * *
Cole parked in front of Sherri’s parents’ house early the next morning. Masses of purple, pink and white overflowed the front flowerbeds, a colorful welcome banner against the backdrop of the yellow bungalow. The scent of fresh-cut grass and children’s laughter drifted through the truck windows. Across the street a husband kissed his wife goodbye, next to a ca
r packed with kids, triggering a twinge of longing that tightened Cole’s chest.
Comforting Sherri yesterday morning, holding her close to his heart as if he had the right, as if she belonged in his arms, had turned his world upside down. For the past seven years he’d tried to convince himself that their youthful embrace hadn’t been a world-tilting experience.
He’d been deluded.
But he couldn’t let it happen again. She was a victim in a case he was investigating. He needed to adhere to professional boundaries.
Never mind that everything in him wanted to soothe away her pain. Still wanted to. He had no business entertaining romantic thoughts about her. She was still grieving for Luke. She’d clearly cared deeply for him. No doubt he’d been worthy of her affection. Cole glanced at his father’s barren yard next door. Far more worthy than he could ever be.
The truck’s passenger door suddenly burst open, and Sherri climbed in. “Have you been waiting long? I didn’t hear you drive up.”
“No, just got here. I’d intended to come in.”
She reached for the folder in his hand. “It’s probably better if we work somewhere else today. Are these the pictures of the frontline workers we narrowed in on?”
At the graze of her fingers, his insides jumped. He jerked back his hand and cleared his throat. “Yeah, the six likeliest are on top.” For the better part of yesterday, they’d pored over staffing schedules of firefighters, paramedics and sheriff’s deputies. They were the people most likely to know when Sherri would be in the next ambulance to be called to a scene and would know how best to manipulate paramedic protocol to their advantage.
After going back two months to try to find a pattern that fit with the timing of the attacks, they’d only found one definitive common factor—a woman, Bev Lucey, who’d been on dispatch at the time of every incident.
Sherri picked up the picture on the top of the stack. “This is Bev?”
“Yeah, you recognize her face?” Sherri hadn’t recognized the name last night and they hadn’t been able to find a picture of her online or find out much else about her even from her social media accounts, except that she’d moved to Stalwart and had started the job only a few months ago.
Sherri stared at the picture, cocking her head one way, then the other. “No, I don’t recognize her at all.”
“Maybe we’ll find a connection between her and one of the patients you’ve tended.” Reviewing patients’ names was on the top of today’s to-do list after they finished with the pictures of the frontline workers. “Take a look at the rest of the photos. The next two are guys who were on duty at the same time as eighty percent of the incidents.” Cole figured that one or two of the incidents could have been coincidences, accounting for the less than 100 percent.
Sherri leafed through the next three photos, shaking her head. “These are the three who were off duty when most of the incidents happened?”
“Yeah.” He was leaning toward them since they would’ve been freer to make the bogus 9-1-1 calls. Cole glanced up at her parents’ house. Her father stood at the window looking out at them. Then the curtain dropped back, shielding him from Cole’s view. Yeah, Cole couldn’t blame him for being watchful. If he had a daughter like Sherri, he wouldn’t have even let her climb in his truck. Maybe she hadn’t told them about his brother holding a knife to her throat.
He admired how she didn’t seem to hold a grudge against Eddie, only wanted him to get well. Without thinking, he swept back the silky hair that cascaded off her shoulder as she bent over a photo. Snatching back his hand, he glanced back at the house and reminded himself not to admire anything else about her, because clearly her father wouldn’t approve.
“Did Eddie recognize any of these guys?”
“No. I showed him the stack last night, but he said none of them looked like the guy who told him to raid your ambulance.” Although, he wasn’t 100 percent confident his brother had been telling the truth. When he’d first arrived at the house last night, Eddie wouldn’t let him in because he’d still been steamed that Cole had turned in his phone. Dad had shown up as he’d searched under rocks for the spare key they used to keep in the flowerbed—when there’d actually been flowers in it.
Cole cringed at the memory of the “yeah” he’d choked out in response to Dad’s “good to see you.” He’d managed to avoid getting into anything deeper by saying, “I have photos Eddie needs to look at, and he’s refusing to open the door.”
To Cole’s surprise, Dad had unlocked the door, snapped off the TV and ordered Eddie to look at the photos. Even more surprising had been his “Your brother was doing his job turning in your phone, and you should be helping him find this jerk any way you can.”
With that Dad had left. But five minutes later, he’d come back and handed Cole a mug of coffee and asked if Eddie had recognized anyone.
Cole had accepted the coffee, feeling like a traitor to Mom. But at least he’d stopped short of engaging in small talk by rushing out the second Eddie had exhausted the stack of photos.
Sherri continued flipping through photos, pausing only momentarily on each until she reached the middle of the stack. “I ticked off this guy one time a couple of months back.” She turned the picture of a lanky firefighter Cole’s way. “He was first on the scene, and I criticized him in front of his captain for unnecessarily moving a patient with possible spine injuries.”
Cole took the picture and looked at the name on the back. Ned Blum. “Okay, we’ll check on his connection with Bev and see what we can dig up on him.”
“Shouldn’t we show the picture to your brother again?”
“He’s at school by now. Besides, he said the drug guy had a goatee and beer belly.”
“It could’ve been a disguise.”
“Yeah, but unfortunately Eddie probably wasn’t in great mental condition to recognize that. I’ll try to get a voice recording for him to listen to.”
Sherri let out a sigh. “That would be easy enough to disguise, too.”
His heart pinched at the resignation in her voice, the dark circles under her eyes. “I could be off base with my theory that the guy manipulating Eddie was behind the attacks on you. His raid on your ambulance might not be connected to the other incidents.”
“Then his appearance at the drug house the next night seems like a pretty big coincidence, don’t you think?”
Yeah, never mind finding Eddie’s phone in the woods at the site of the dog attack. He’d hesitated to mention that, afraid it would be the tipping point between her trusting him and not. He rammed his truck into Reverse and backed out of her driveway. “Let’s ask your cousin Jake what he can tell us about Ned. He should know if he’s the kind of guy who’d carry a grudge.”
When they reached the fire station, Jake was outside polishing the fire engine, and Sherri jumped out of the truck before Cole could stop her.
Hopefully anyone noticing her arrival would think she was just paying her cousin a visit, not asking about suspects. Thankfully the rest of the crew appeared to be working inside the bay. Cole reached Sherri’s side as Jake said, “No, Ned’s pretty laid-back.” He glanced at Cole and nodded. “We ribbed him about it, but he seemed more interested in scoring a date than getting even.”
The hair on the back of Cole’s neck prickled at that news. “Did he ask you out?” If Sherri had rebuffed him after dressing him down, that could’ve provoked him.
Sherri looked stunned. “No. He’s never talked to me.”
Jake chuckled. “I’m not surprised. You don’t exactly put out welcoming vibes where guys are concerned, if you know what I mean.”
Sherri rolled her eyes as if she’d heard it all before, but that only worried Cole more. She could’ve rejected some screw-loose guy without even realizing it, and unrequited love was high on the list of triggers for stalkers.
Jake flicked a spray of water in Cole’s face, pulling his attention away from the guys he’d been eyeballing in the bay. “Ned isn’t behind the attacks
, at least not the recent ones.”
Cole narrowed his eyes at Jake. “How do you know?”
“He flew to Virginia last week. His father died. He’s not due back for three more days. Have you considered unsatisfied customers? Sherri’s bedside manner isn’t the sweetest.”
Sherri jabbed his arm.
Jake balked. “See what I mean!”
“Yeah.” Cole laughed. “We’re reviewing that massive list of names today.”
Sherri planted her hands on her hips with an unamused huff. “While you two do the male bonding thing at my expense, I’m going next door to grab a coffee.”
“Good idea. I’ll grab the list and we can go over it there.”
As Cole reached inside his truck and pulled out his laptop bag, Jake lowered his voice and leaned in close. “I asked my dad to keep an eye on Luke’s father. Check out who might be doing him any favors. But from the intel he’s been able to gather, he says it doesn’t look like Atkins is behind the attacks.”
Cole nodded his thanks. Jake’s father was the retired sheriff, and what he’d been able to learn unofficially in twenty-four hours was probably more than Cole could’ve learned in a week, with nothing but a hunch and a grieving father’s misplaced blame to justify a warrant for phone and banking records. And without any concept of Bev Lucey’s motivation, Cole wasn’t likely to convince a judge to sign a warrant for her phone records simply because she happened to be on dispatch at the time of every incident involving Sherri.
Cole hurried across the parking lot to the coffee shop and spotted Sherri through the front window sitting at a booth. A good-looking guy stood beside her table, smiling down at her and nodding in response to something she said. By the time Cole stepped inside, the guy had slipped into the seat across from her and had her laughing. The sweet sound made Cole smile, and he couldn’t help wishing he’d been the one to draw it out.
Her gaze lifted and connected with his. “Here he is now.”
The guy shifted in his seat. “Morning, deputy.” He touched the brim of his baseball cap.
“Morning.” Cole wasn’t wearing his uniform, which meant Sherri must’ve filled this guy in on why Cole was meeting her here. That surprised him, considering she’d been reluctant to even accept that she’d been a target. Was it to avoid a misunderstanding that they might be a couple? Was she attracted to this guy?
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