Читать книгу Tell Me No Lies - Kathryn Shay - Страница 8

THE SMELL OF FRESH FLOWERS filtered in through the open windows of Tessa’s dark green SUV. The beginning of May in western New York was breathtaking. Tessa, who also liked the wintertime snow, couldn’t understand why people would reside anywhere else. Living in a town with a population of twenty thousand, Tessa had to drive to most places, but although she hated being behind the wheel of a car, she was used to it. Today, she was heading toward the girls’ school. Molly had a doctor’s appointment and Tessa didn’t have to work until the afternoon.

She passed Carlson’s Drugs, reminding herself to drop by later with Dan’s prescription. She frowned. His blood pressure was up again. She tried to banish the worry that continued to niggle at her. Nothing was going to happen to him. The condition would soon be under control.

The stoplight changed and, putting her foot on the gas, she started out into the intersection. A fleeting glimpse of red registered before she felt the impact. There was a loud crack, like a bat hitting a ball. The passenger side crumpled. The car spun out into the other lane of traffic.

She gripped the wheel. How should I turn it? What am I supposed to do? Her SUV slammed into a tree, then for a moment all was eerily still.

Finally she heard someone yell, “Call 911!”

A man yelled to her through her window. Tessa tried to look at him, to tell him she was okay, but when she moved, pain exploded in her forehead, radiating everywhere. She closed her eyes.

Sirens.

When she opened her eyes again, a red truck was in her line of vision.

“Ma’am? Are you all right?”

She tried to speak, but she couldn’t.

“Get the ram over here, the door’s stuck!”

The voices began to fade and the shouts came from farther away now. Dizziness engulfed her. She thought she might throw up.

Everything went black.

A loud pop startled her awake. The door to the SUV was ripped off.

“Ma’am. I’m Lieutenant Jacobs. I…holy hell, Tessa? I didn’t recognize your car. It’s me, Jake, from three doors down.”

Only a squeak came out of her mouth when Tessa tried to answer.

Jake turned and said to somebody, “Get me a collar and the backboard.” She felt a soothing hand on her head. “Don’t worry, Tessa, we’ll get you out of here.”

Before she faded back into unconsciousness, she heard, “Call Dan Logan at the DA’s office. Tell him to get to the hospital right away.”

COLD FEAR LODGED in his throat as Dan rushed into emergency ten minutes after his assistant found him about to begin the trial.

Please, God, please, let her be all right.

He found Janey in the waiting room, huddled in a chair, her face ashen. As he got closer, he saw her hands twisting a handkerchief.

“Oh, no, Janey, what—?”

“She’s all right. Brad saw her before her own doctor came in. He said she’s got bruises and she’s shaken, but it doesn’t look like there’s any serious damage.” Janey drew in a breath. “Her doctor told Brad to tell us to wait out here and she’d find us after she examined Tessa.” Thank God Janey’s husband was a doctor.

His body went limp. Closing his eyes, he forced himself to calm down. Dan could do this now. He could do anything so long as she was all right. “What happened?”

Janey looked over his shoulder.

Dan tracked her gaze and saw a firefighter coming toward him.

“Hey, Dan,” Jake, their neighbour, said. “I was the first responder. Tessa’s rattled and bruised, but basically fine.”

“You’re sure?”

“Her doctor’s examining her, but, yeah, I think she’s okay. Except…”

“Except what?”

“She’s really shaken. We had to pry her hands off the steering wheel. They’re black and blue from holding it so tight.”

“Is that uncommon in a car accident?”

“It happens. But she also kept saying she was sorry.”

“Poor Tessa.” She hated to drive and this would make it worse. “Was she at fault?”

“Nope. A red Mustang T-boned her when he ran a light. Luckily on the passenger side, which was empty.”

His stomach roiled. If one of the girls had been with her…

“The driver of the Mustang is okay, too. He admitted the accident was his fault.”

“It’s just like Tessa to believe she could have driven more defensively so this didn’t have to happen,” Janey said.

“She’s a sweetheart.” Jake smiled. “My kids love her. Anyway, count your blessings it wasn’t any worse.”

When Jake left, Dan turned to Janey. “I think it’s more than what you said.”

“What do you mean?”

“Tessa hates to drive. She didn’t even have her license when I met her, which is odd for someone her age.”

Her sister said nothing.

“Look, Janey, you know that accident when she was nineteen made her gun-shy. I had to coax her into learning to drive after we were married.”

Janey sank into a chair. “That would make anybody gun-shy, wouldn’t it?”

Dan dropped into an adjacent seat. “I guess.” He watched Janey fidget with her wedding ring, and his gut instinct—the one that made him a successful lawyer—kicked in. “Is there something I should know?”

“No, nothing.”

He grasped Janey’s hand. It was cold and clammy. “Honey, I’m crazy about your sister. If there’s any way I can help her, please tell me.”

“What do you want to know?”

“What was she like when she had the accident? I know so little about how you two grew up. I wish I had more information, but it upsets Tessa to talk about it.”

“You know the important details.”

Some of them, he thought. They never knew their father. Their mother drank and took off with some guy when they were little. Child protective let them live with their grandmother.

“Tessa said she worked in a diner after high school. I always wondered why she didn’t go to college. She did great at Buffalo University when she got her librarian’s degree.”

“Sometimes people aren’t ready for college right away.”

“That’s what she said.” But he always thought she was hedging. Just like Janey was doing right now.

“You’ve been so good for her, Dan. That’s all that counts.”

“Dan, is that you?”

He glanced up to see that their doctor, Lisa Benton, had come out of E.R. “How is she, Lisa?”

“Physically, she’s fine. Emotionally, she’s shaken.”

“Pretty common after an accident, right?” This from Janey.

“Yes, often it is.” Lisa looped her stethoscope around her neck and looked down at a chart. “But Tessa’s response is a bit exaggerated. She’s quiet and withdrawn. She’ll answer my questions, but there’s some kind of, I don’t know, fear in her behavior.”

“She hates driving,” Dan said.

“Maybe that’s all it is.”

“Should we do anything?” Janey asked.

“Not now. Take her home, keep her in bed the rest of the day, and call me tomorrow. If she’s still this upset, we’ll think about what to do.”

“All right.”

“I can stay with her,” Janey said after the doctor left.

Dan looked askance. “I’m not going back to work after this.”

“Okay. Could I have some time alone with her?”

An odd request. “Why?”

Janey’s lower lip trembled. “I was scared that something bad was going to happen to her, Dan.”

Janey loved Tessa unconditionally. And he knew being with Janey was good for his wife. Her mood was lighter after her visits with her sister or even after talking to Janey on the phone.

Dan touched her shoulder. “Tell you what. We’ll get her home and make sure she’s all right. The girls will need to see her, then I’ll take them to a McDonald’s restaurant and you can have an hour alone with her.”

“Thanks, Dan. For understanding our bond.”

“Janey, I want what’s best for Tessa. If being with you for a while will help, so be it.” He put his arm around her. “Now let’s go get our girl.”

TESSA BURST INTO TEARS when Dan walked through the curtains of her cubicle in the E.R.

He strode to the bed. “Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”

“It was my fault,” she said, clinging to him, burying her face in his chest. This was what she needed now. His closeness. The feel and scent of him. “I should have been more careful. I should have waited at the light longer.”

His hand in her hair was soothing. He kissed the top of her head. “Tess, the driver of the other car admitted guilt. He said he ran the signal light. He took legal responsibility. None of this was your fault.”

“It’s all my fault.”

“No, no.”

After a moment, his steady heartbeat quieted her and she drew back. She raised her hands to her cheeks and flinched. “My face hurts.”

“It’s banged up a little.”

Her gaze flew to Janey.

“The bruises will go away,” Janey said.

On the outside, maybe. Tessa fell back into the pillow. “Lisa said I can go home, right?”

“Uh-huh. As soon as you get dressed and I sign the papers.”

She took Dan’s hand. It was big, and holding it always made her feel safe. But she had to be careful here. “I’m okay. Just shaken. When I think that Molly and Sara could have been with me. The other car hit the passenger side so hard.”

Dan drew a handkerchief out of his pocket, and she wiped her eyes. “They weren’t with you. They’re safe with my mother. She picked them up after school and brought them to her condo.”

“Do they know what happened?”

“Not yet. I wanted to wait to tell them until they could see you in person.

“I’ll stay with you while he gets the girls,” Janey said.

“Oh, okay.”

Dan kissed her nose. “I’m so sorry you have to go through this, honey. I know driving is hard for you. This must be your worst nightmare.”

“I’ll be fine.” She fisted her hands in the lapels of his suit coat. “I’m sorry I’m being such a baby.”

“You’re entitled.” He stood. “Want me to help you get dressed?”

“I’ll do it.” Janey stepped closer to the bed. “Maybe you can take care of the hospital stuff.”

Dan cocked his head and looked puzzled. “Sure.” He squeezed Tessa’s shoulder, and walked out of the cubicle.

When Dan was gone, Janey sat down on the side of the bed and enfolded Tessa in her arms. “Oh, God, Janey, what did I do?”

“You did nothing. Not this time or the last.”

“Yes, yes I did.”

She could still hear the screeching tires and breaking glass. The screams and the sirens.

“Don’t associate the two accidents, honey. They’re unrelated.”

“I was driving this time.”

“I know.”

“I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt someone again.”

“The only person hurt today was you.”

Releasing her sister, Tessa lay back. When she closed her eyes, she could feel the terror creep up on her. “I can’t forget what happened fifteen years ago. This has brought it all back in Technicolor vividness.”

Before Tessa could say anything, the curtain swung back. Dan stood in the entryway.

How much had he heard?

“DOES IT HURT, MOMMY?” Molly cuddled into Tessa on their bed, and Dan watched his wife wince. Sara stood across the room in the safe circle of his arm.

“Yes, sweetie, a little bit.”

“Hey, kiddo,” Dan said to Molly, “I think your snuggling could be a little less fervent today.”

Molly glanced over at him. If it had been Sara, Dan wouldn’t have said anything and let Tessa bear the brunt of her daughter’s enthusiasm. Sara was sensitive and unsure of herself and even a gentle chiding would have made her feel bad.

But Molly was tough. Maybe too tough. “Okay, Daddy.” She drew back, and touched the purple bruises on Tessa’s face. “It looks yucky.”

“I know, Mol. But what’s most important is that nobody was hurt.”

Not today, anyway.

Dan had overheard his wife and Janey talking in the E.R. Once again, he squelched his anxiety that Tessa was keeping something from him. Something important. He’d have to deal with that sooner or later, and he would, but Tessa was at her worst right now and he wasn’t going to force the issue.

Even if secrets were abhorrent to him. Even after he’d made Tessa promise she wouldn’t lie to him, either outright or by omission, as his parents had. She was the one person he’d trusted in his life to be honest with him.

He made sure there was no concern in his voice when he said to the girls, “Are you two ready to eat yet?”

Molly catapulted off the bed. “McDonald’s!” she shouted. “They got a mad-cool slide in the playground now.”

Sara buried her face in his waist. “I don’t want to leave Mom.”

“How about if you visit alone with Mom for a few minutes, then you come with us.”

“Okay.” Letting go of him, Sara crept to the bed and perched on the side.

Molly skipped over to Dan. “Come on, Dad.”

“We’ll go keep Aunt Janey company. Sara, five minutes.”

His little girl nodded. As he left the room hand in hand with Molly, he saw Tessa wince again as Sara, albeit gently, went into her mother’s open embrace.

Janey was fixing iced tea when they came down to the kitchen. “All ready to go?” she asked Dan.

The roses sat on the table, reminding him that it had been their anniversary only a few days ago. Everything had been fine then. Now, his wife was bruised as a boxer, and he’d discovered there was something more to that accident in her past that he didn’t know about.

Molly snitched a cookie from the jar and said, “I’m goin’ outside to wait for you and slowpoke.”

“Go ahead, Mol.”

When she left, Dan watched Janey fuss with a tray filled with tea and crackers, which was all Tessa wanted to eat. Though Janey wasn’t any bigger or heavier than her sister, she always seemed sturdy and strong, whereas Tessa appeared fragile.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

He folded his arms over his chest. “I overheard you two in the hospital when you thought you were alone.”

If he wasn’t sure before that something was going on, he was now. Janey went pale.

“Don’t bother to deny it. I heard you talking about what happened fifteen years ago. I assume it was the accident that caused Tessa to hate to drive. The one you and I discussed.”

“Dan, I—”

He held up his hand. “No, I’m not asking you to betray a confidence. As soon as she’s better, I’ll get it all out in the open myself. Now, she’s too raw.”

“All right.”

“I love your sister.” He gave her a smile because she looked so sad. “Almost as much as you do.”

Janey’s return smile was weak.

“Now take the roses upstairs, too, so Tessa can enjoy them. And send my other daughter down.”

As she walked by him holding the tray, Janey stopped and kissed his cheek.

He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. I won’t upset her now.”

“Thanks, Dan.”

When Sara joined him a few minutes later and they went out to find Molly, Dan put his cause for concern out of his mind. Since he’d become an expert at repressing negative thoughts, he was able, for the time being, to forget this one.

“SO, FRANKIE, your walkaway day’s coming up next week.”

Frankie was sitting at a table in the cafeteria with Shank, sipping hot tea that tasted awful. But he’d been to the infirmary again for this damned cold, and they told him warm liquids would help. The consistently loud din in this place hurt his ears and the bright lighting made him squint. “Yep, it is.”

“How’s it feel to be getting out?”

“Feels right, Shank.”

“I’m gonna miss you.”

“Me, too.” That was a lie. Frankie couldn’t wait to be done with this place. He couldn’t wait to see Trixie again.

“She coming to get you?”

Shank had some crazy obsession where Trixie was concerned. If they were on the outside, he’d beat the crap out of any guy for thinking about her that much. Frankie was a jealous man—and proud of it. Trixie was his, and if any other guy got near her, he’d bust the jerk’s face open.

“Is she coming for you, Frank?”

“Um, no. She can’t get off… She isn’t… I’m gonna surprise her.” His vision blurred some. He blinked hard to clear it. “She don’t know the exact date.”

But he did. He’d been counting the days. It was fifteen years ago today since the stupid accident and only a week more on his sentence. During the trial, the judge had had it in for Frankie and was jonesing to put him away. In the end, they separated Frankie from Trixie because everybody hated him. But she didn’t and that’s all that counted now. He’d see her soon.

In a line of prisoners, he left the cafeteria. A guard at the front took a group of them and veered off to the library. Since he was about to be paroled, they’d started letting him use the Internet. He got right online after the assistant read him the dumb-ass rules again; he clicked into his hometown Web site, Iverton, Ohio. The Iverton Banner was posted every day.

Same old, same old. New superintendent of schools. An issue up before the city council on paving the streets. Minor break-ins and petty larceny on the police page.

He stopped short at the headline on section B. Fifteen Year Anniversary of Tragic Accident. Shit, small towns. They never forgot nothing. You couldn’t make one single mistake without it following you for life. He was going back there to get Trixie, but he planned to leave that hick town in the dust. Morbid curiosity made him read the article.

Fifteen years ago today, Franklin R. Hamilton ran a red light and drove his car into the back end of a Chevy truck, killing Mrs. Serena Summers and her daughter, Joanna, age five. Shock filled our small community when it was discovered that both Hamilton and his companion, Tessa Lawrence, had been smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol. An undisclosed amount of cocaine was also found in the trunk of the car.

Frankie stopped reading. Tessa? Who was she? For a minute he didn’t remember. Then he did—her sister called her that. Frankie had given her a nickname. To him, she was always Trixie. His Trixie.

Hamilton was sentenced to twenty years in a federal penitentiary for negligent homicide and possession of a controlled substance, and Lawrence received three years in a federal prison camp on the possession charge. Lawrence was released on probation after serving eighteen months. Hamilton is up for parole as this article is being written. He refused to talk to reporters at the prison. The husband and father of the slain family could not be reached for comment.

The reporter then went on to enumerate statistics about drunk drivers and increased penalties for DUI and drug possession, and ended with a comment about never being able to make up for such an atrocity.

Screw them, Frankie logged off the Web site. His life was gonna be just fine, as soon as he could get out of here and be with Trixie again.

Hmm. It was time for another letter from her.