by Dana R. Lynn
“Good, you’re here.” It was about time. He could use some reinforcements.
“Hey, Parker. No problem. Always glad to help.” Miles nodded, and his floppy blond bangs bounced on his forehead. Miles always looked like an overgrown Boy Scout. Until he got into serious police mode. Then his demeanor could be as fierce as any other officer’s.
“What’s going on?” Elise’s soft, husky voice was rife with suspicion.
“Nothing to get worked up about.” He walked back to her side so he could look down at her. Man, she was pretty. Wait, where had that come from? That thought did not belong in his head right now. “This is Sergeant Miles Olsen, and his wife, Rebecca.”
Her eyes focused in on the couple. He was surprised to note that she didn’t gawk when Miles started signing to his wife. Rebecca was deaf, and Miles often served as her interpreter with the hearing community. Some people had a problem with it and found it embarrassing to be around her. Others reacted like it was the most fascinating sight they’d ever encountered. Elise didn’t seem to be bothered at all. Good for her.
“Okay. It’s nice to meet you both. So why are you here?”
Miles smiled at her. He signed while he spoke. “Ryan said that your nephew was probably with Leah Byler. We know her. Or at least Rebecca does.”
Rebecca nodded and started signing, her slim hands flashing too fast for Ryan to catch every movement. Fortunately, Miles was far more experienced at this, and interpreted. “Yes, I know Leah. She moved here recently from New Wilmington and is staying with her cousin. I talked with the bishop of the community. Normally, no pictures are allowed—either photographs or drawings. However, since a child is at risk, he made an exception this once and gave me permission to do this.”
Rebecca reached deep inside the bag she had slung over her shoulder. Elise gasped when the blonde woman pulled out a hand-drawn image of an Amish teenager with brown hair. It was a profile picture, not a full image. But Elise recognized the subject instantly, which gave her hope that maybe it would be good enough for a stranger to recognize her. And if she had a toddler with her, it would make her all the more memorable.
“That’s Leah! Did you just draw that, from memory?” Elise leaned forward, squinting as she took in the image on the paper.
“Yes. I am not sure if I got the eyes right.”
Elise beckoned with her left hand, the one not hampered by the IV. Rebecca moved in closer to the bed. Ryan edged away to let them have room.
“I think the eyes are pretty close. At least it will give the police a good idea of who they are looking for.”
Ryan peered at Elise. There was a faint flush in her cheeks, dispelling the sickly appearance she’d had at first. Her voice was livelier, too. He knew what he was seeing. Hope. A sudden dread clenched his heart. He did not want to fail this woman, to watch the hope fade into anguish. He’d disappointed far too many people in his life.
Stop it! He mentally shook himself out of his morose thoughts, like a dog shaking off the water after a swim, sending his doubts flying. He had no room for them. Those insecurities—that was his father speaking. The father who never talked with him without expressing his disappointment that Ryan hadn’t followed both his parents and his older brother into the field of medicine.
You could have made something of yourself, Ryan. That was his father’s favorite refrain.
It didn’t matter, though. Medicine was not his calling. He had known since high school what he was meant to do with his life. And if God approved, well, his family was just going to have to learn to accept it.
Which didn’t make his father’s disappointment any easier to bear. He shrugged his shoulders, mentally pulling himself back to the crisis at hand. Now wasn’t the time for nostalgia.
Now was the time for action.
“If the picture is accurate, then I will send it out. It will be easier to search if we know who we are searching for. I will also use the pictures you’ve given me of Mikey and circulate them. We have already put out an Amber Alert on him.” After pulling his phone from his pocket, he scanned the drawing with an app, then forwarded it. He thought of something. “I will also pull up your brother-in-law’s photo from the DMV and send that out.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Okay. But I already told you, it won’t do you any good. He doesn’t look the same now. I wouldn’t have recognized him if I hadn’t heard him speak.”
“So noted.”
Ryan thought for a moment. She needed to speak with a photographic artist. Unfortunately, the woman the department normally hired was out of town for a few days. They didn’t have the time to wait. He excused himself from the room and went to call his chief.
“Chief Kennedy here.” His deep drawl might have sounded casual, but that was deceptive. Ryan knew that the chief was solid and would give his all to see justice done.
“It’s Parker, sir. I am at the hospital with Miss St. Clair. She says the man who attacked her is her brother-in-law. He was reported to have died in an accident a few years back, but no body was ever found. Apparently, he was changed by the accident, but his voice is the same—and he spoke about things only her brother-in-law would know. So if it’s not him, someone has worked very hard to put on a convincing act.”
There was a pause. “Well, most people know their own relatives. Therefore, I will assume for the moment that the man in question is not dead, but is in fact here in LaMar Pond. What do you need, Sergeant?”
“Sir, she says that his appearance has been altered drastically. I have Olsen and his wife here with me—”
“And you’d like Rebecca to draw a current image since our sketch artist is unavailable, am I correct?”
Ryan let out a breath. “Yes, sir.”
“I don’t have a problem with that, Parker. If anyone says anything about it not being official, I’ll accept the blame.”
“Thanks.”
Ryan popped back into the room. Elise was exhausted, he could tell. This couldn’t wait, however. Besides, even if he left her alone to rest, he very much doubted that she’d be able to sleep. Not with her nephew and Leah missing.
The moment he entered the room, the quiet conversation the others had been having ceased. Elise speared him with her hazel eyes so full of hope it caught him off guard. The weight of the trust she had in him pressed down on him. What if he failed her? Lord, let me be Your instrument. Help me to bring the child back to her and keep all of them safe.
In a few quick words, he explained his plan. They all agreed. Ryan pulled up Langor’s image from the DMV database and sent it to Rebecca’s phone. Using that as a starting point, Rebecca began to gather the information about what changes needed to be made for an accurate sketch while Miles acted as her interpreter. Half an hour later, Rebecca handed him the updated image of Hudson Langor. Glancing between the two, he whistled. Elise was right. He would have walked right past him and not even known.
A few minutes later, Miles and Rebecca left. Ryan took a few minutes to get the sketches sent out. Better get the search started now. Who knew how far away the girl was with the child. Or if the pyscho brother-in-law had made any progress in his quest. He hoped not. There wasn’t much more he could do tonight.
His other concern was that the man seemed to feel Elise was a loose end that needed to be eradicated.
Ah, well. At least she was in the hospital for the night. There were nurses and doctors coming to check on her throughout the night. He’d have a chat with security, before he left, to put them on alert. She should be safe. Maybe she’d be able to get enough rest so that she could remember something more, anything more, that might help them figure out where her nephew and the Amish girl had headed.
* * *
It had long since gone dark outside. The faint glow of the moon splashed over the floor now. Even though she knew it wasn’t, it looked warm, as if touching it would chase away some of
the chill she was feeling in her heart. It was a comforting glow, reminding her that the Creator of everything was near. A twinge of guilt pricked her conscience. She hadn’t given God much attention lately.
Elise sighed. She was stuck here, in this narrow, uncomfortable hospital bed with a needle in her arm. The doctor who’d checked her out had declared she was dehydrated from her illness earlier that week. Sergeant Parker had left. Was he coming back? He hadn’t really said. It surprised her to realize that she was kind of hoping the handsome officer would return.
She needed something to distract her thoughts. Thinking about what could be happening out there with Mikey was driving her crazy. Even though she wasn’t his mother, he was her baby. Her whole world had revolved around the adorable boy with the dark brown eyes and curly brown hair for over two years. The ache inside her intensified as her imagination pictured him cold or sick or scared. Phantom whimpers filled her ears.
Squeezing her eyes closed, she forced her thoughts to focus on something else.
Sergeant Parker’s face flashed through her mind. The warmth in his chocolate-brown eyes. She especially liked his smile. It was unusual. Quirky. Kind of lopsided. He had a nice square jaw, too. When he had left, he had been sporting a slight five-o’clock shadow. She wondered what that roughness would feel like if she lifted her hand to his face. Her eyes popped open. That wasn’t helping. Frankly, she was surprised her mind had even gone there. After everything that had happened with Brady, she’d been against even the idea of entering a relationship. Besides, taking care of Mikey had been her priority—he was the only male she had time for her in her life.
The door opened and the man himself entered the room. She flushed, embarrassed to have been thinking of him in such a way. She didn’t even really know the man! True, she’d met him a time or two, and had been talking to him for two years on the radio, but that wasn’t the same as actually spending time with a person.
“Hey, Elise. How ya doing?” He smiled slightly. Wow. He really did have a great smile, with the slightest hint of dimples appearing in his cheeks. She hadn’t noticed that before.
Oh, wait. She needed to answer him.
“Been better. But I’m okay. Sergeant Parker—”
He cut her off. “Ryan. Please. What’s on your mind?”
“I want to know what’s happening. While you search, I mean. I don’t want to be kept out of the loop.” She held her breath. Would he brush her off? Tell her that police business was just that?
“I understand,” he responded in his velvet voice. Her breath left her in a whoosh, she was so relieved. “I will give you all the details I can. In the meantime, I am going to leave for the night. First thing tomorrow morning, as soon as you are released, we have some planning to do.”
“So no one will be looking for Mikey tonight?” She didn’t like the sound of that.
“That’s not what I said. The Amber Alert has gone out, along with the sketch of your brother-in-law, and back at the station several people are still looking into it. Checking on leads. But I need to get some sleep if I want to be able to function, and so do you.” He turned to the door. “Good night. I will see you in the morning.”
And he was gone.
She couldn’t believe it. She was so worried she was ready to tear out her hair. And he’d just left! In all fairness, she didn’t know what else he could do. The man wasn’t a machine. He did say people were still searching. There really wasn’t anything more that she could ask him to do.
Sighing, she lay against the pillows, trying to shift this way and that to find a comfortable position. She’d shut her eyes, then open them five minutes later. Her nerves started to get to her.
Her door was shut, but every once in a while she thought she heard footsteps stop at her door.
Was Hudson in the hall?
She strained to listen, trying to separate the different sounds outside the door. Her doorknob seemed to rattle slightly. Then it stopped. Goose bumps formed on her arms. A scream crawled up and lodged in her throat.
The footsteps moved away from the door.
Her night nurse entered to check her vitals. The woman was coolly professional, her voice soothing as she checked the IV and the monitors and made notes on the chart attached to the clipboard.
Feeling ridiculous for her fears, Elise forced herself to ask the woman the question that was screaming inside her mind. “Was there someone hanging around outside my door?”
The pitying glance the nurse gave her made her want to shrink down inside the blankets and hide.
“Honey, no one has been outside your door. You’re completely safe here.”
Elise grimaced. Well, at least she knew.
She thanked the woman and watched her leave.
At some point, she drifted off into an uneasy sleep. She woke up at one point when she dreamed that she heard Mikey crying out for her. There were tears on her lashes when she lifted them. Her head jerked around when her door opened. A male nurse entered wheeling a medicine cart in front of him. She glanced at the clock. Two thirty in the morning. Sighing, she gave the man a tired smile.
He didn’t smile back.
Actually, he didn’t even make eye contact. Feeling uneasy, she watched him look at her chart. Maybe he was just shy. Or not a social person. Whatever. She was not impressed with the bedside manners of the staff in this hospital. Owning to herself that she was being ridiculous, she shut her eyes again, listening to the sound of him moving around her room.
She opened one eye. He was watching her. The moment he caught her glance, he looked away and continued with his work.
Now she was frustrated—and annoyed with herself for her own frustration. The man was just here to do a job. He wasn’t Hudson. Even with his changed appearance there was no way Hudson had shrunk five inches. She was starting to get paranoid.
Pressing her lips together, she closed her eyes again, determined to sleep. She could hear nurses talking right outside her door and did her best to block them. Finally, the voices drifted away.
A minute later, she felt the hairs on her arms stand on end. Her lids flew open.
The nurse was standing directly in front of her, a pillow held in both hands. He smiled. A grim, ugly little smile that made her blood curdle.
“Good night, lady. Nothing personal, you understand, but it appears someone doesn’t like you.”
The last thing she saw before he pushed the pillow down over her face was his horrific smirk. Then she gasped as the white linen pillowcase pressed against her nose. Her gasp was cut off as the ability to suck in air left her. Thrusting her arms upward, she pushed and shoved at the man smothering her. A twinge in her arm...her IV had pulled free.
She barely noticed the pain, instead focused on the screaming in her lungs as her last bit of air vanished in a silent scream. She was going to die.
FOUR
She could feel herself fading. Her burning lungs strained to grasp at air. Air that was barricaded by the hospital pillow held in place with grim, brutal strength. Desperate, she flailed her arms and twisted on the bed. He was so much stronger than she was. Her left hand banged against the bedside table. Her fingers brushed over something long and smooth.
And pointed at one end.
Grabbing on to it, she thrust it upward with all her remaining strength. Her wrist and forearm were jarred by the impact. That didn’t matter. What was important was that her attacker yelled and the tension against her face eased. Pushing away the pillow, she scrambled over the opposite edge of the bed and stood on shaking legs that threatened not to hold her up. She sucked huge gulps of air into her aching lungs while keeping an eye on the man glaring at her. Small dark splotches dotted the side of his scrubs. Blood. The fork she’d plunged into his side was still hanging by one tine off the shirt. It looked bent.
His eyes, though, were what held her attention. They
were full of murderous rage.
She backed away from the bed. There was nowhere to go. She was blocked in by the wall and machinery on her left. And on her right... He was between her and the door.
And he was coming to finish the job. As he rounded the bed, he pulled the mangled fork off his clothes and tossed it away from him. It clattered against the wall and fell to the floor. He came at her, hands raised and curved to grab her by the throat.
That was how her sister had died. She would not let it happen to her.
Elise leaped on top of the bed she’d just vacated and scooted across it. If she could get to the door...
Before she could move, he was around the bed again and coming at her.
Elise screamed as loud as she could.
It was choked off when two large hands circled her throat.
The door crashed open. Two nurses stood there. For a second, they gaped at the man with the bloody stains on his shirt before one of them yelled and they charged into the room. Elise couldn’t keep track of who was yelling what while they attempted to subdue him. He shoved them aside and dashed out the open door, tripping over his own feet as he darted into the hallway. Elise heard more yelling and crashing, but couldn’t tell what was happening from where she was. The nurses were bearing down on her, trying to coax her back to bed and to check on her condition. A young doctor scurried in, gave her a cursory exam, pronounced she was fine and instructed her to try to sleep and not to worry.
“Just try to relax,” he said over his shoulder as he hurried out of the room.
Was he trying to be funny? Like that was even a possibility.
The two nurses beckoned her to lie down. She didn’t want to, but complied, mostly because she felt bad that they looked so rattled. Like she wasn’t? Still, she slipped under the thin blanket. But she drew the line at the IV.
“Absolutely not,” she stated firmly. “Nor do I want any more pain meds messing with my mind, making me feel all fuzzy and confused.”