by M. E. Logan
Julie nodded again.
“He’s in a scary, uncertain position, isn’t he?’
Julie nodded, calmer now.
“Well, this is going to be somewhat like the ER, only in this case, you’re the patient. I get to be the doctor, and Margaret there, she’s my able assistant. And you have to trust us, that our goal is to get you safely out of here. Can you do that?”
Julie’s glance went to Jessie and back to Diana, clearly a question.
Diana gave a small smile. “Jessie’s quite used to being the doctor, but in this case she’s the patient. And you know how doctors are as patients.”
Julie gave a small identifying chuckle and Diana breathed a sigh of relief.
“Now, you think that you can control your panic enough that I can remove the gag?” Slowly, uncertainly, Julie nodded. “Good girl.”
Diana got to her feet and when she reached out to touch Julie, the woman didn’t draw away. She moved and flexed her jaw after Diana removed the gag, took some deep breaths. “One question,” she said in a strained voice.
“What’s that?”
“Are you going to let us go?”
Diana tipped Julie’s face up, brushed back her hair. She was an attractive woman, on that she couldn’t fault Jessie’s taste. “That’s the goal of every doctor, isn’t it? To restore the patient to how they were before? Sometimes things happen that the doctor can’t control, but I don’t think you’ll have any grounds to sue me for malpractice.”
Julie accepted this with some evidence of doubt but then she nodded.
“Will you feel better if you’re over by Jessie?” When Julie nodded, Diana brought her to her feet. She saw Jessie’s relief as she escorted Julie to a spot on the bed beside Jessie. “Margaret, get her something to drink. She’s had that gag on too long.”
***
They heard the strides down the hallway before the door even opened.
“I’m taking them back!” Waldo announced.
“I don’t think so,” Diana said mildly. She eyed the men behind Waldo, decided that while they might go against her, they would never go against Papa.
“No little prima donna is going to deprive me.” He made a signal and his men did take a step forward only to stop when Margaret stepped in front of Jessie. Even cuffed, Jessie moved to place her body in front of Julie.
Diana gave a grimace of disgust. “Don’t even bother, Waldo.” She even half turned away from him.
That only invited him to reach for her and as soon as he grabbed her arm, she exploded. It was easy enough to grab his arm and twist. His forward movement only propelled him into the angle that would easily snap a bone or at least dislocate it. She brought him down low enough that she could look into his face. “Don’t touch me,” she said in a cold voice. “Prima donnas don’t like to be touched by scum.”
Margaret kept the others at bay and Waldo’s past history made it unlikely he would be difficult by himself. “Now, I said I’m taking the cop. And since the other is a witness, I’m taking her too. Maybe the next time, if our paths ever cross, you’ll remember my rules.” She twisted again and he yelled.
“Diana,” Margaret said in a quiet rebuking voice.
“But he’s such a slimebag,” Diana protested.
“This is a favor to your papa.”
Diana breathed a heavy sigh of acceptance. “I suppose so.” She released him and stepped clear. “Get out, before I forget why I’m here,” she snarled at him.
Waldo held his arm, swearing, but retreating. Margaret and Diana exchanged small smiles.
“You know he’ll call your papa.”
“Oh, I’m banking on it,” Diana replied. She turned to Jessie and Julie. “You two okay?”
Both uncertainly nodded, Julie looked even more scared, and Jessie looked at her with some disbelief. Diana looked at them both and realized they were looking at her a little differently now. That was all right too.
“Now,” she said, “we’ll be leaving in a little while. And Jessie, I don’t mean to be offensive, but you need to shower.” Jessie’s chin came up. “I know, it’s not your fault. Let’s get it done. I’ve got a change of clothes that’ll fit you.” She took Jessie by the arm and pulled her to her feet, catching her when she swayed.
“I’ll help her,” Julie immediately said.
“I don’t think so. I’m not ready to leave the two of you alone together. Maybe later, but not now.” She glanced around the room, found the overnight bag by the bathroom door. “I’ll take care of the shower bit. Margaret, you stick with Julie. If Papa calls, tell him I’m in the shower.”
She turned back to Julie. “You behave. Margaret’s not as patient as I am, and I will be unhappy if I come back out and find she had to hogtie you.”
As if she thought it would happen, Julie pulled back, giving Margaret a fearful glance. Simply to reinforce it, Diana looked at Margaret. “Be nice,” she warned and Margaret appropriately glowered.
Chapter Fifteen
Diana let out a sigh of relief when she got Jessie in the bathroom and the door closed. “Now you, are you going to be nice or be difficult? If you get by me, you’ve got Margaret. And if you get by her, you’ve got Waldo and his men. I don’t think he likes you. Is that enough for a truce?”
Jessie was unsteady enough that she leaned against the wall. It took a minute for her to reassess the situation but she reluctantly nodded.
“Very good, Jessie. I appreciate that.” Diana turned Jessie around enough to unlock the cuffs and remove them. Jessie’s arms fell forward and she swayed, almost going down before Diana caught her. “Sit down.” Diana positioned her firmly on the toilet. The bathroom was so small there was nowhere for her to fall without hitting something. Toilet, sink, shower.
“Now let’s get all this crud off you and see what’s underneath.” The thought did occur to Diana that Jessie might be shamming but she didn’t think so. She turned on the shower, adjusted it to as fine a spray as she could get, adjusted the temperature. Jessie unbuttoned her torn shirt but winced as she tried to slide it off her shoulders. “Ribs?” Jessie nodded. “Let me.” What she discovered when she slid the shirt off Jessie’s shoulders was not a pretty sight, bruises and cuts all over.
As she stripped off the rest of Jessie’s clothing and tossed it in the corner, Diana realized Jessie would never manage the shower by herself. “Well, babe, it’s been a long time since we showered together. Any problem with me in there with you?”
“Julie?”
“Not a chance. I’ll send in Margaret.”
Jessie shook her head. “You’ll do.”
Diana quickly undressed, tossing her clothing where it wouldn’t get wet. She pulled Jessie to her feet, and then, maneuvering Jessie within her arms, they stepped together into the shower. “Lean over me. I’ll take care of everything else.”
Jessie braced her arms on the shower walls, the water running over her as Diana maneuvered in front of her. The shower was so small they couldn’t move without brushing against each other.
“Too warm?”
“A little,” Jessie said with a nod, and Diana reached around her to adjust the temperature. When Jessie nodded, Diana pulled down the washcloth, the soap and began to lather her.
“Is she your lover?” Jessie finally asked. She stood with her arms on the wall over Diana’s shoulders. She closed her eyes and bit her lip as Diana touched her. Diana tried hard to be gentle on the bruised flesh.
“Who? Margaret? No, hard to be lovers with someone who’s changed your diapers. Not impossible I understand but wasn’t anything I was able to do. Margaret went from my nursemaid to my nanny to my tutor to my bodyguard. Never a lover.”
Jessie held her breath as Diana moved down her torso. Diana lathered and soaped and very gently washed away dirt and dried blood from so many small cuts and scrapes. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Jessie asked finally when she started breathing again.
“About my family? Well, at first it was immaterial.
One-night stands don’t need that kind of information. Then, it just didn’t matter.”
“It mattered,” Jessie said. “But now I understand why you freaked out when you discovered I was a cop.”
“Freak? Did I freak?” Diana gave an exaggerated response. She wanted to distract Jessie from what must certainly be painful. “And here I thought I passed it off rather well, calm, cool, collected. Just honest surprise.”
“No.” Jessie was able to smile a little. “You freaked.”
“Damn.” Diana frowned at the memory of her shock. “Another failure.”
“Enough that I went back to work and ran a check,” Jessie confessed.
Diana shook her head in amusement. “Knew it. Always figured whatever you did, you’d be good at it. A cop? You’d check out those suspicions. Didn’t find anything, did you?”
“No, of course I didn’t know if you were using your real name. When I added up all I really knew about you, I realized it wasn’t much.”
“Yep, we definitely did the here and now bit,” Diana quipped. “The name is real, at least it’s the one on my birth certificate.” She pulled down another cloth and lathered it well. “Here. I don’t suppose you want me to do your privates, and I said I wouldn’t presume on our past relationship. You manage or want some help?”
“I’ll manage.”
“Thought so.” Diana knelt down, taking care of Jessie’s legs, ignoring what was happening at her shoulder level. Finished there, she moved around to stand behind Jessie, adjusting the spray to go over Jessie’s back. “Ready to turn around?”
Jessie carefully turned with Diana’s hands supporting her. Diana angled the shower to flow over Jessie, rinsed her well.
“I appreciate,” Jessie stumbled over the words a bit. “I appreciate you taking care of Julie, her panic.”
“No problem. Don’t need Waldo in front of me and a hysterical woman behind me.”
“You read her real good, but then you always were good at reading people.”
“Helps. Here, bend down, stick your head under, let’s get your hair washed.” She helped Jessie move around. “Gotta say though, she surprised me. Thought a cop’s wife would be of tougher stuff.”
Jessie shook her head. “Always a problem with violence. Was an issue for years.” Then she stopped as if she’d said too much.
“Jessie,” Diana said carefully as she gently lathered Jessie’s short, dark, thick hair. “You’re a good cop.”
“Some good cop. Let myself get ambushed, lost my gun, badge.”
“They’re secure and it’s not like you just walked into something. Someone laid a trap for you.”
“Got my partner shot up.”
“Still Peterson?” Jessie nodded. “I can check on him for you. I do have some contacts.” Diana carefully rinsed Jessie’s hair. “You know, Jessie. You are a good cop, so I’m going to have to treat you like one.”
“Lock down,” Jessie supplied.
“’Fraid so.”
“If I gave my word?”
“Positions reversed would you believe me?” After a longer hesitation than Diana expected, Jessie shook her head.
“What are you going to do with us?”
“Well, I’m not going to kill you,” Diana said with a laugh. Then she sobered as Jessie turned away. “You didn’t think I might, did you?”
“I don’t know. Have you killed before?”
“Only to protect someone I cared about,” Diana protested. “Don’t hold that against me.”
Jessie shook her head. “I don’t understand you.” She leaned over, her head against Diana’s shoulder. “I loved you, but I don’t understand you.”
Diana blinked, caught off guard. In all the times they had slept together, Jessie had never said that. If she had. If she had, how differently things might have turned out. Diana snapped back to the present. She gently rinsed Jessie off. “Need to get you out and dried before you’re chilled.”
When they came out of the bathroom, both Margaret and Julie looked at them strangely, Jessie dressed in loose pants and buttoned shirt, Diana still wet from the shower. Jessie was cuffed again, this time with her hands in front of her.
“Your papa called,” Margaret reported. “I told him you were in the shower, and would call back.”
Diana nodded. She settled Jessie back on the bed. “You stay put,” she ordered gently. “Lie down if you want but don’t get off the bed.”
She checked on Julie, glanced at Margaret. Then she paced around the room, psyching herself up to call her papa. She loved him, had a special place for him, but he had a deserved reputation for volatility.
She finally went over to sit at the table, at an angle so she could see Julie and Jessie. She could feel the curiosity, the wariness, the apprehension from the three women.
“Hello, Papa.” Diana moved to the settee in the corner, glancing at Jessie and Julie on the bed, Margaret pacing the room. “Yes, Margaret said you called.” This was going to be a hard conversation she knew, and it was a gamble. “Oh, Waldo. Yes, he was not happy.
“Now, Papa, you know when I got into this, I told you I wasn’t happy about everything you did. You let me pick and choose. I told you then I didn’t want to have anything to do with cops, didn’t want them on my turf, didn’t want to deal with them, certainly didn’t want to be involved doing anything to them. And you agreed. Waldo broke those rules.” She paused, listening, laughed.
“Oh, Papa. He said what?…Now I’ve never said anything about your lovers. What makes you say anything about mine?…Oh he did? And you’re going to believe that lowlife? Papa, I’ve never understood why you let that slime bag in, but I certainly wouldn’t let him lay a hand on anyone I loved.” She listened, wondered if she would be able to pull this off. Margaret’s pacing indicated how nervous she was. Jessie was listening intently.
“Papa, bottom line. I said no cops, didn’t want any part of it. Waldo brought one in. Now I’m still willing to transport him, but I’m not transporting any cop. I don’t care what he says. I’ll walk first and he can do his time in his little cage…No, I haven’t decided what I’m going to do but if I go to jail, it’s going to be for something I do, not something I’m accessory to. Now if you won’t back me on that, then I can close up shop and put my feet up…I thought you might see it that way, Papa.” Okay, first hurdle taken care of.
“Yes, Papa, there’s another woman here. Yes, I took her too…No, Papa, she’s not a cop…No, nothing to do with police work as far as I know…no, Papa, I’ve never spoken to her before…No, Papa, I have no claim on her.”
From the corner of her eye, she watched Margaret groan and turn away. She heard Jessie groan and Julie looked from one to the other, start to wail as she understood what Diana meant. Margaret was immediately there to silence her.
Diana forced herself to chuckle. “Yes, Papa, I know it’s a pain. I hate that he called you. He’s such a helpless prick. I never did like him. I’m only transporting him as a favor to you. After all, you’re my papa…yes, Papa, I know. You value loyalty and you pay all your favors back. I understand, Papa. Good values. You’ve drilled that into me since I was six. Today they call it networking.” She laughed. “I know, what goes around, comes around. Each generation discovers old values all over again. I know, Papa.”
She glanced around the room. Julie had her head buried on Jessie’s shoulder, Margaret was standing in front of Jessie and Jessie was glaring at her with murderous rage. “No, no, your calling is fine. If you hadn’t called, I was going to have to call you anyway…yeah, this thing with the cop. Really came out of left field, wasn’t prepared for this, screws up my plans. I’m going to have to take care of her…No, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ll figure it out. Don’t worry it. I’ll do you proud…yeah, Papa, something is bothering me. I’m not going to make it back to say goodbye…No, Papa, I really won’t, and I’m sorry.”
This was going to be the hard part, she realized, maybe harder than she thought.
“Papa. I know…I know about Wednesday afternoons. And I know about Julie.” She didn’t dare turn to look at anyone. She listened to his protests. “No, Papa, I didn’t follow you, and I haven’t mentioned it to anyone. I was out on one of my excursions, and I went by the hospital. I saw you there without Jimmy so I waited. You looked so bad when you came out that I was curious.” She hesitated on some of the words. “No, I didn’t say anything, not even to Margaret. I know when it started, and I know when you stopped.”
There was a long pause and she listened to an open line. “And Papa,” she said with a sigh, “I know the truth about Julie.” She paused for a minute, trying to find the proper words. “She was sweet, Papa, wasn’t she? Kind to the distinguished elderly gentleman who came in every week without any family there to support him. She made something so difficult a little easier, didn’t she?”
She hated putting him through this. But she was hurt that he had not told her, not trusted her. For that, she didn’t mind using him, but at the same time, she would have been there for him.
“Yes, Papa, I know she was very nice to you. So, don’t you think you owe her something, payback the favor, payback the kindness…of course, Papa, I can do that for you. You know I would do anything for you. Yes, Papa, I know this is important, but I know something that you don’t know.
“You see, Papa, the police detective I have here, who I said I’d take care of, has a female lover. And that is the woman Waldo picked up and planned to torture to punish the cop. Yes, I know you’ve heard the rumors…yes, I know you didn’t like it but you would still permit it…what you don’t know is that her lover is Dr. Julie Carlton, Julie who was so kind to you at the clinic.”