Someone to Trust

by Aiken, Ginny

  But before she could take a step, wooziness hit her. She grabbed the table.

  “Are you okay?” Rand rushed back to her side and slid an arm around her waist. “Let me get you a chair.”

  As always, Cate welcomed his warmth and support. She gave him a smile. “No, no. I’ll be fine.”

  But as the minutes passed, her heartbeat sped up and a sense of restlessness overtook her. She waved away her friends’ concern and tried to head toward the door, but with each step, she felt as though gravity had begun to fail her.

  She stumbled into a lady with blue hair. “Oh, no! I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  “What is wrong with you?” Zoe said.

  Abby placed cool fingers on Cate’s forehead. “You feel a little warm. Are you coming down with something?”

  Cate shook her head, but had to grab hold of it. Choppy sensations made her feel…weird. A wave of nausea hit her and she had the sensation of a growing distance from those around her, although she could see they weren’t particularly far away.

  As the seconds—hours?—passed, she felt a greater detachment from the world around her. Echo-like visual effects overtook her sight. People surrounded her, but she couldn’t recognize them, no matter how hard she stared or tried to remember names. She heard voices, but they, too, struck her as incomprehensible. Odd items, a spoon, a tree, a pumpkin pie, danced before her, but when she reached out, her hand got there seconds after they’d waltzed right out of her grasp.

  “Where…am…I…?” Confusion filled her.

  As she floated in an indistinct, flimsy world, sleep overtook her, even though her chest hurt from the pounding of her heart. Everything went a lush, rich, velvety black, the sound of unearthly music—loud, crisp, clear and vibrant—ringing in her head.

  Rand watched doctors and nurses work on Cate. They chased him out of the ER cubicle while they pumped her stomach, but he wouldn’t let them keep him away once they’d finished their more invasive treatments. The good news: She would be fine once the effects of the drugs dissipated.

  The bad news: Cate had overdosed.

  His sense of betrayal overwhelmed him. How could he have let down his defenses to such a degree? How had he let himself care so much that this…this nightmare hurt so bad? He’d known her past. He’d known how easy it was for drug users to backslide.

  How could he have fallen in love with a user?

  Anger and disappointment joined his sense of betrayal. He didn’t want to feel so much, but he did. For the woman fighting for her life.

  How? How could Cate have been so deceitful? After all those nice speeches she’d made about poor choices and sin and repentance.

  Still, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t make himself not care, no matter how angry he was, no matter what she’d done. It mattered to him that she recover, that she get clean again. Not just for the sake of the investigation, but also for her sake. She needed to start over for real.

  Even though he couldn’t see their relationship going any further now. Not knowing the beast that ruled her life.

  Her past had been hard enough to set aside for the sake of a future. He couldn’t be sure exactly where they might have been headed, but he knew he’d felt more than just a passing attraction for Cate Caldwell. He hadn’t admitted it even to himself, but thoughts of rings and weddings had begun to pop up.

  Now?

  He shuddered. So much for her so-called faith.

  The kids…at least they’d been with Miss Tabitha when Cate collapsed. They hadn’t had to witness their aunt’s intoxicated condition.

  Rand propped his elbows on his knees and buried his face in his hands. What a nightmare! As he sat there, listening to the beep of the monitors, a whirring caught his attention.

  When he looked up, Joe had rolled his brand-new wheelchair into the room. “How is she, son?”

  “She’s going to be fine, physically.”

  Joe nodded. “Yep. Physical’s one thing. I worry what this is going to do to her head. Poor kid. D’you know yet who did this to her?”

  Rand gaped. “What are you talking about, Joe? Cate overdosed. She started using again.”

  Joe turned his gaze from his motionless daughter and fixed it on Rand. “Never in a million years. She might have joined in with the drinking back in high school, but Catey never did drugs. Someone deliberately drugged my daughter.”

  A spark of hope sprang up in Rand. He forced it back down.

  Joe continued. “I haven’t seen firsthand what she’s been going through lately, but I do know her. And I know how she’s changed over the years, how she lives her life and what really matters to her. I also know the God she serves.”

  “How can you even talk about God?” Rand said. “What has God done for you? He didn’t prevent Mandy’s death and he hasn’t kept Cate clean.”

  “It’s not about God stepping in and plucking Mandy from a blazing car, nor is it about God jumping into Cate’s life. It’s about faith. And I know Cate’s living her life based on that faith.”

  “Faith…” Rand shook his head. “It doesn’t mean a thing.”

  “It means everything. God made His children a bookful of promises and if you let yourself trust Him and those promises, then you’ll reap the blessings He has for you. I don’t have my daughter Mandy at my side these days, but before she died, I didn’t have my daughter Cate. The way she was going, we were losing her.”

  “So you let God take one to keep the other. That seems like a lousy bargain.”

  “It’s not a bargain, Rand. And that’s not what I meant at all. It’s the consequences of a series of actions. We’ll never know until we’re at His side the full impact of Mandy and Ross’s deaths. Those deaths turned Cate around, but we don’t know how many other kids might have thought twice about getting high. We also don’t know how many lives Cate will impact with her ministry.”

  Rand found himself wanting to believe what Joe said about Cate. But…dare he? Dare he believe in the change father and daughter ascribed to a God Rand couldn’t touch or see or hear?

  “Trust me, Rand. She’s not doing drugs and there’s no way she’s selling. She joined Alec Hollinger in leading the church’s youth group to reach out and keep kids from heading down that path. That’s her ministry.”

  “For your sake—” and Rand’s, if he were totally honest “—I hope you’re right.”

  Cate’s weak voice pierced his argument. “I…don’t…”

  He ran to her side. “How are you?”

  “I’d be better…if you didn’t think…such stupid things…”

  “You were tripping on dextromethorphan. And it was a bad trip. I’m not ‘stupid’ enough to think you chugged bottles of cold medicine by mistake.”

  Cate sighed, sounding exhausted. “I was fine until I drank that punch. Someone…someone spiked it.”

  “Really? You’re trying to tell me three teachers and your best friend got together to drug you?”

  Cate cranked up her bed. “No conspiracies, Rand…and Zoe’s had nothing to do with it. One of the teachers…one of them’s selling drugs to kids. Just think about it. Look at the access they have.”

  Rand narrowed his eyes. “That’s quite an accusation.”

  “Think, Rand.” Cate’s voice grew stronger by the minute. “Teachers are in constant contact with teens, the biggest customer base for a dealer. J.J.’s soccer players…Alec’s youth group…Abby’s Future Homemakers…”

  “Your youth group, your babysitter.”

  She held up a hand and ticked off fingers. “A student at the school as your primary witness…a melted school ID…three teachers with ties to the kids serving the punch I drank.”

  Rand tried to get his head around what she was saying.

  Her smile struck him with its sadness. “My past history’s just that, the past. I turned my life over to God and have never looked back.” She tipped up her chin. “Tell me this. How carefully have you looked into their lives? Scour
their pasts as thoroughly as you have mine. Who knows what you might find.”

  “Why would they have drugged you in a public place?”

  “Why would the dealer attack me at the theater? Why would he follow me to Marly’s house? Why would he grab me at the bonfire? Why would he try to gas me to death and smother me? I think it’s pretty clear I’ve come close to whoever’s dealing, maybe by befriending Marly. I’ve threatened them without even knowing it.”

  “So who’re you accusing?”

  “I don’t know—yet.”

  “Then how can you suggest your punch was drugged?”

  “Because it’s the only thing I had since breakfast. Besides, you’ve been with me the whole time. Think about it. When did I have a chance to take any drug?”

  “You hadn’t eaten all day?”

  She shook her head.

  “No wonder that stuff hit you so hard.”

  “Test my cup, Rand. I’m sure it’ll come back positive.”

  For a moment, Rand wavered. “Okay, how am I supposed to identify which cup was yours?”

  She seemed to concentrate, try to remember. “You know what? I was still holding the cup in my hand when I started to feel bad. Maybe the EMTs know where it went.”

  “That’s not much help—”

  “It’s all the help I can give you. You might just have to trust me. Find whoever spiked my drink, Rand. That’s when you’ll figure out who killed Marly and Sam.”

  “She’s right,” Joe said, breaking his silence. “Go track down the cup. They might still have it in the ER.” The older man sighed. “I know you’ve had your sights on Cate from the start. You’ve wasted a lot of time, son, so get rid of that old, old chip on your shoulder. She’s not the one.”

  Rand couldn’t deny he wanted to prove Cate innocent. He also couldn’t deny how much he wanted Joe and Cate to be right. But he refused to accept anything on faith. “I don’t do blind faith. I’ll let the evidence lead me to the truth.”

  “It seems to me, son, you don’t do faith at all anymore. And that weakens you as an investigator. It may make you blind to the truth.”

  “How? How would a belief—faith—make me do a better job?”

  Joe laid a hand on Rand’s shoulder. “God’s wisdom leaves ours in the dust. So does His strength. A man could do much worse than having the Lord as his partner on the job.”

  Rand stood. “I’ll trust my training, if you don’t mind.”

  Joe sighed again. “Just do your job. I’ll do the praying.”

  “So will I, Dad,” Cate added. “So will I.”

  Rand didn’t answer. He opened the hospital room door and headed down the hall, his boss’s words echoing in his head.

  Could Cate be innocent after all?

  In spite of what he feared, of the evidence—circumstantial, true, but evidence nonetheless—he hoped she was.

  To Rand’s relief, the EMTs had turned over all of Cate’s belongings to the ER staff, including the paper cup she’d crushed in her hand. Rand bagged it and took it to Ethan, who arranged to have it tested right away.

  “I believe Cate,” the police chief said. “And something tells me that melted ID badge holds the key to the perp.”

  Once again, Rand played the devil’s advocate. In truth, he no longer knew what he believed. He did, however, know what he wanted to believe. “But anyone could have left it at the theater at any point in time. It didn’t have to be the night of the fire.”

  “True. But think about it. It was left by someone who hasn’t reported a missing ID. What does that tell you?”

  Rand had let that detail slide. He shouldn’t have. Had he really been as biased as Joe and Cate felt? It looked like he could have been. “It might not tell us much…but then again, it might tell us the person hasn’t needed the ID.”

  Ethan looked hard at Rand. “I’d be careful before I point a finger in Cate’s direction.”

  “Too late,” Rand said.

  Ethan shook his head. “Then just make sure you get it right in the end.”

  Rand left the police station and went right to the high school. He agreed with Cate on at least one thing: Zoe Donovan had not drugged her drink. If Cate—and Ethan and Joe—were right, then one of the three teachers was their man. Or woman.

  But after a frustrating three hours, Rand found himself right back where he’d started. Alec, J.J. and Abby were all concerned for Cate’s welfare and none of them had hesitated to answer his questions. None had given answers that raised any flags.

  He asked the sheriff for help researching the three teachers’ backgrounds. The chief had already promised to call in a few favors, helpful because he’d worked with the DEA for so long.

  Now Rand was stuck waiting for answers he hoped would help. Answers that could very well determine his future—with or without the woman he loved.

  Cate convinced the doctor to release her well before he’d wanted to set her loose. She couldn’t stand the thought of being stuck in the hospital one minute longer than necessary. Her throat still burned from whatever it was they’d used to pump her stomach and she still felt the effects of whatever she’d been given. But she could function and that would have to do.

  She had a drug dealer to catch.

  Before she started sleuthing, however, she’d decided to walk the short distance to Miss Tabitha’s to see Lindsay and the twins. She hoped to catch them before they left for school. As she walked past the theater, she thought back on all that had happened since the night of the fire. Sam would never have the chance to straighten out his life, and Marly…it was too painful to think about.

  A few blocks down from the theater, she walked past Rand’s late father’s bookstore. Brown paper still covered the wide windowpanes and she didn’t think he’d done much work there since the fire.

  Would he get back to it once he figured out the truth?

  His suspicions hurt. And they shouldn’t. She should never have let him matter so much.

  But the reality was, she’d been falling in love with him almost from the start. She knew the attraction she felt wasn’t one-sided—the kisses they’d shared had told her that. But a man who didn’t trust her…one who rejected her Lord, rejected her. Unless Rand accepted the change God had made in her life, they could never grow any closer.

  How could he even think to point the finger at her? He couldn’t really think her capable of killing Sam and Marly? Could he?

  Surely he wasn’t that blinded by his work.

  Or his lack of faith.

  Cate took a deep breath and continued her walk. She’d never felt so lonely. She missed the kids. Of course, she’d spent time with them each day, visits that always felt too short, but leaving them with Zoe at night had been tough. She missed tucking them in, hearing their prayers—she even missed their early morning bickering. They would never think for even one minute that she’d take drugs, much less sell them to anyone else.

  She prayed Rand would come to his senses, that he would somehow see the true her. And Lord willing, that he would see the truth of Christ shine through her. Maybe then he’d find a way to return to the faith he’d once had.

  Ten minutes later, she reached Miss Tabitha’s boarding house. Cate took the front steps with caution. She still felt a certain level of detachment, a sensation she assumed came from the drug she’d been given. It threw off her depth perception, and combined with her residual lightheadedness, left her less stable than she wished.

  The sun had just begun to peek over the horizon as she rang the doorbell and she could smell winter in the air. She’d loved this time of year before the accident and in the years since, she’d prayed for God’s peace to carry her through a season now filled with hard memories.

  “Well, hello, there,” Miss Tabitha said when she opened the door. “I heard you’d had another unfortunate incident, so I didn’t expect to see you at all today.”

  “Couldn’t stand to stay in that hospital bed another minute. I don’t know how Dad’s
done it for so long. I—I just need to see the kids.”

  Miss Tabitha opened her arms to welcome Cate. The hug went a long way toward helping her feel better.

  “Come on, honey,” Miss Tabitha said. “Your three are in the kitchen, finishing their breakfast. Are you hungry?”

  Cate sniffed and the scent of good food lured her deeper into the genteel home. “I’m not sure whether I can eat or not. They pumped my stomach, and even though I’m sort of hungry—maybe empty’s the right word—I feel sort of queasy, too.”

  “Take your time. You can spend the day here with me. You don’t look so hot and I’d much rather be able to keep an eye on your color. Maybe your breathing, too.”

  Cate smiled. “You’re just what I needed, Miss Tabitha. Let’s see how I’m doing in a little while. Right now, I want to see the kids.”

  Miss Tabitha opened the swinging kitchen door. “Here they are.”

  “Aunt Catey!” Tommy yelled.

  Robby stared. “Wow! You look rotten, Aunt Catey. You gonna puke or what?”

  Both boys rushed to her, hugging her with all their strength. “Thanks for the welcome, guys.”

  “Have a biscuit, then,” Robby said. “They’re awesome.”

  Miss Tabitha winked. “How about I make you a cup of chamomile tea, Cate? That might make a much better landing than any kind of food.”

  “Sounds great.” She looked around the bright, cheerful room. “Where’s Lindsay, guys?”

  “Oh, she went to feed the cats,” Tommy said around a bite of ham. “She’s always on the back porch with them.”

  “Go ahead, Cate,” Miss Tabitha said. “Go see Lindsay. That girl’s got a real gift with animals. I’ll call you when your tea’s ready.”

  Cate squeezed Tommy’s shoulder and rumpled Robby’s hair on her way to the back door. When she stepped outside, the crisp, spicy air soothed like a balm on her skin and for the first time in a long time, she felt something resembling normalcy.