Читать книгу Silent Witness - Kay David - Страница 9

ANDREA’S MOTHER AND FATHER stood by the edge of Kevin’s gurney while his doctor and the hospital’s orthopedic surgeon discussed his situation. At the foot of the bed, Andrea listened, as well. The two physicians came to a consensus quickly. An operation might be necessary, but it would be simple and straightforward, a matter of aligning Kevin’s bones. Pending the outcome of the X rays, they might even be able to avoid surgery completely.

The radiation technician came to take the child for his tests and Jack leaned over his grandson. “I think I’ll come along with you, big guy,” he said. “If you don’t care, I’d like to see how they do this.”

Kevin blinked twice and his expression cleared. He couldn’t have spoken and made his relief more known.

Andrea watched them leave, her mother at her side.

“We might as well go to the cafeteria and get something to eat,” Andrea said. “He’ll be in X ray for a while. I’ll tell the nurses where we are and they can come get us.”

Taking off the mask of cheerfulness she’d put in place for Kevin’s sake, Andrea’s mother let her features collapse into the shell-shocked expression she’d worn earlier. She held up her hand at Andrea’s suggestion and shook her head. “No. No food. I don’t want anything to eat. I want a cigarette.”

Karen Hunt hadn’t smoked in ten years. Andrea opened her mouth to protest but she swallowed her words. They all needed whatever help they could get, wherever they could find it.

They walked across the street to a convenience store and bought a package of cigarettes, returning a few minutes later to the benches near the ambulance bay doors. Her mother lit up while Andrea sat in silence.

Karen Hunt smoked with determination, repeatedly drawing on the cigarette until she started to cough. After a bit, she dropped the butt, ground it beneath her heel, then looked at Andrea. There was steel in her voice. “Tell me what happened. And I want the truth.”

Andrea gave her mother as many details as she could remember. “I didn’t have time to check before we left,” she said as she finished, “but I think Vicki was probably trying to anchor the armoire to the wall and that’s when it went over. It always was unstable and top-heavy.”

Her grief segued into anger and she hit the bench with her fists. “I told Vicki it was silly to cart that damn thing all around the state. She should have left it—”

Her mother, revealing a strength that surprised Andrea, reached out and covered Andrea’s clenched hands. “Drop it, Andrea. The reason the armoire fell over isn’t important. What matters is that…” She paused and drew a shaky breath. “What matters is that Vicki is gone. What she’d want us to do now is take care of Kevin. That’s what we have to concentrate on. Kevin.”

Andrea struggled to pull herself together. The effort took the last of her energy. “You’re right,” she said. “You’re right…. In fact, Kevin’s the first thing she mentioned when I called and offered to help her unpack. She said she’d take the help, but she needed advice regarding him more than she needed anything else.”

Her mother nodded. “About his silence?”

Andrea stared at her mother in surprise. “You knew?”

“Vicki told me of the problem several months back. I advised her to talk to a therapist.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Vicki asked me not to say anything.” Her mother wrapped both hands around her package of cigarettes, then looked into the distance. “She was upset. She felt it was her fault for being a bad mother and said you’d never have a problem so lame and she didn’t want you to know. I guess her concern for Kevin finally overran her embarrassment and that’s why she told you.”

Andrea felt her mouth drop open. “But Vicki was a good mother! And I would never have said anything regardless of—”

Karen Hunt held up her hand. “I know that and you know that, but Vicki didn’t. She was very insecure, Andrea. She always looked up to you. She thought you were perfect.”

“Perfect? Me? Oh, God…” Andrea buried her face in her hands. “Why on earth would she think that?”

“Mrs. Hunt?”

A voice broke through Andrea’s anguish. She looked up to see a woman from the front office approach her mother with an outstretched hand.

“I’m Wendy from Intake. We need some information about Kevin and since his father isn’t here yet and his mother…is gone, I need your help. If you could come with me…?”

Andrea’s mother jumped up from the bench and followed the woman back inside. Feeling numb and empty, Andrea sat quietly, the thought of Vicki fretting over her so-called “perfection” too much to even comprehend. The idea was ridiculous.

Andrea was far from perfect. Very, very far.

GRANT HURRIED toward the double doors of the Courage Bay E.R., the pavement beneath his feet steaming from the sun’s steady heat. A thousand scenarios ran through his head as he walked, none of them good. They fled his consciousness, however, when a flash of motion off to one side caught his eye. He turned and looked closer, suddenly thinking Holly had been wrong.

Vicki wasn’t dead. She was right there, twenty feet away.

A millisecond passed, then he realized his mistake.

He was looking at Andrea.

She wore a pair of white shorts and a red T-shirt, her thick hair pulled back haphazardly, her face free of cosmetics. Obviously prepared for nothing more than an average day at home, she looked devastated by what had happened, her slumped posture reflecting her state of mind, her gaze directed toward the ground as if it held some cosmic secret.

As he continued to stare, she raised her head. Across the grassy slope that separated them, their gazes converged.

Nothing dramatic or heart-stopping occurred. Grant didn’t feel a jolt of awareness or a tingle down his spine. His heart didn’t leap out of his chest or even jump at all.

He merely felt empty.

Vicki Hunt had manipulated him and used him, then she’d sent him on his way. He’d known exactly what she was doing and he’d been a willing victim, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t hurt. He would have thought the old pain might surface upon seeing Andrea, but apparently it’d sliced through him cleanly, albeit all the way to the bone. He felt nothing at all.

Changing directions, he headed toward her and she stood as he came near. Up close her feelings were even more apparent, but instead of the grief he expected, Grant saw anger on her face. He wasn’t too surprised—people handled death differently.

Her voice was hoarse and throaty. “You got my message, I see.”

Grant didn’t waste any time. “How is he? Can I see him?”

“They’re still checking for internal injuries. Kevin’s in X ray right now. When he finishes there, you can probably see him, but that’s going to be a while longer.”

“Tell me what happened.”

She recited the basic facts in a dry and emotionless manner. He could tell she’d already told the story more times than she wanted.

The minute she stopped speaking, questions flooded his mind but Grant stayed silent, approaching the situation the same way he did everything in his life—as if this was an investigation he was about to undertake. He’d gather the facts, study them, then proceed.

He realized belatedly she was waiting for him to comment. “I came as quickly as I could,” he said awkwardly.

Her gaze was steady. “That’s nice. But I only called because I thought you should know what had happened. I can handle the situation.”

“I’m sure you can handle just about anything, but—”

“I can,” she reiterated. “You should have phoned first and I would have saved you the trip.”

“‘Saved me the trip’?” He repeated the words carefully. “I don’t believe I understand.”

“The way Vicki explained things, I didn’t think you’d care that much, one way or the other.”

Doubting Vicki had employed the truth in her explanation, Grant cursed under his breath. The real story could take her down as efficiently as it could him.

“Why don’t you tell me exactly what your sister said?” Grant said. “It might make things easier.”

“It might,” she conceded. “But I don’t intend to share her confidences. I think it’d be best if you left.”

“I’m not going anywhere. Kevin is my son.”

“That’s stretching it a bit, don’t you think?”

Grant put on a rigid mask, his chest going tight. “What are you implying?”

“I’m not implying anything. I’m making a point. You left Vicki and Kevin. You abandoned them. That’s not the kind of thing a loving father and husband does to his family.”

His relief outweighed the sting her words brought with them. Still, a dilemma remained. Should he go along with the assessment and look like an asshole or try to convince her that Vicki had lied? Either way, he’d lose.

He stalled. “Is that what Vicki told you? That I abandoned them?”

Andrea stared at him without answering.

“Well, I guess that answers that,” he finally said. “You’ve made up your mind. I won’t try to confuse you with the facts.”

IN THE FOUR YEARS Grant Corbin had been married to her sister, Andrea had talked to the man maybe half a dozen times. On the rare occasions when everyone managed to shake free from their busy lives and meet in Courage Bay for a family get-together, something seemed to come up at the last minute that kept Grant from attending. Each time, Vicki had excused him by saying crimes weren’t scheduled, but Andrea had always wondered.

Now she wondered even more. Accustomed to facing the unknown and dealing with whatever arose, she still felt a nameless anxiety building.

He was lying to her and she had no idea why.

“My sister gave me the facts. I know what happened.”

“I doubt you know it all….” he retorted. “There were things I did that I shouldn’t have, but the same could be said for Vicki. I love Kevin, though. Surely she didn’t say that wasn’t the case.”

Andrea started to answer, then heard her name. She turned to see her mother standing by the E.R. door.

“The doctor’s here,” she called out. “He wants to talk to us.” Seeing Grant, Karen Hunt motioned for them both to come.

They walked in uncomfortable silence to the door. Grant reached out for the handle but instead of opening it, he paused and looked at Andrea. She saw with shock that he had pain in his eyes.

“Look, before we go in, I have to ask you a question.” His whole body seemed to tense. “Can you put everything else aside for a minute and answer it?”

“What is it?” she asked stiffly.

“When you found Vicki…did it look like, well—”

Surprised he even cared, she instantly understood the question; she’d heard it asked more times than she wanted to remember.

“She didn’t suffer,” she said quietly. “I have a feeling the whole thing happened very quickly.”

Sympathy pushed past her anger as he flinched. He then nodded and opened the door and they went into the waiting room together.

To Andrea’s amazement, her mother and father both greeted Grant warmly, Karen wrapping an arm around his waist and hugging him tightly, Jack extending his hand. Vicki had obviously not told their parents what she’d told Andrea. Infidelity wasn’t a fault either of them would have brushed off.

Drawing Andrea’s attention away from her thoughts, the orthopedic surgeon began to speak. “The first X rays are back and I think we’re going to be able to avoid operating on Kevin’s foot at this point. He has a malleolar fracture but we can immobilize it with a plaster cast and that might do the trick….” His explanation continued, his words filling Andrea with relief. A broken ankle bone was a far cry from the internal injuries she’d been worried about.

Andrea’s gaze sought Grant’s. He had dark eyes, so dark they almost seemed black. She couldn’t read the emotions he hid, but she could feel them, their negativity seeking her out. He didn’t like her, she realized with a shock.

The knowledge unsettled her, but she decided swiftly it didn’t matter. The feeling was mutual.

STANDING BY ONE OF THE big windows in the emergency waiting room, Grant watched Karen and Jack Hunt leave a few minutes later. Now that they knew their grandson would be all right they had to deal with the sad details of their daughter’s death. Andrea walked beside them but she was going to return. She’d told him so and asked him to wait for her.

Grant turned away from the glass. He’d thought at first that Andrea had known everything but he decided he’d been wrong. Vicki had informed her sister of what she’d wanted to, making him sound like the jerk and her the golden princess. He didn’t really care what Andrea Hunt thought of him but he didn’t want her for an enemy. That wouldn’t be a good idea.

When she came back, she’d been crying. Her eyes were red-rimmed and wet, but she put aside her grief. “Let’s go to X ray,” she said. “You can see Kevin if they haven’t begun the cast.”

Grant wanted to say something about Vicki as they headed down the hallway, something appropriate and normal, something that ordinary people might say to one another when someone died, but he’d been out of polite society for so long, he’d lost the rule book. He didn’t know how to act around women like Andrea.

Staring at the floor as they walked, he finally said the only thing he could think of to say.

“I’m sorry about all this,” he said in a low voice. “I know you and Vic were close when you were kids. She talked about you a lot.”

He was an expert at reading reactions—if a good Vice cop wanted to live to be an old Vice cop he picked up the skill quickly. Andrea was taken off guard by his words; her voice reflected her reaction and so did her body.

“She talked about me?”

“All the time. She wanted to be more like you.”

Her response was so softly spoken he barely caught it.

“Well…shit…”

He raised an eyebrow.

Her hair shimmered as she shook her head. “Why on earth would she feel that way? I’m not hero material, believe me.”

“Vic thought so.”

“Well, she thought wrong.” Her voice sharpened and so did her look.

Raising his hands defensively, he backed off. “Fine…she thought wrong.”

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. Without a word, Andrea Hunt stepped inside and Grant entered as well. An eternity later they arrived on the next floor and they escaped, the silence between them thick and full of tension. Andrea didn’t stop until she came to a doorway that had a “Radiation” sign above it and a sliding glass window set beneath. When it rolled back following her knock, Andrea talked to someone inside, then she turned and tilted her head toward the door.

“He’s finished,” she said. “We can see him but only for a second.”

Kevin was lying on a gurney just inside the doorway, looking pale and frightened. Grant felt his heart turn over and calling the boy’s name, he hurried to the bed.

Kevin’s eyes opened slowly then widened when he saw Grant. A smile lit up his face.

Grant wanted to pick him up and whisk him away but he settled for a hug, burying his face in Kevin’s neck and breathing in deeply. The flood of emotions that followed rocked him. How could he have let this kid go? What had he been thinking?

Pulling back, Grant studied Kevin from head to toe. When he finished, he shook his head. “How’d this happen, buddy? Are you okay? Does anything hurt?”

He waited for the little boy to answer him but Kevin stayed silent. Grant looked toward the foot of the stretcher where Andrea waited. She said nothing, either.

“Kevin?” Grant asked again. “Did you hear me? What happened, son?”

When Kevin answered with only a stare, Grant turned away from the child and moved to Andrea’s side. She had a small scar beneath her right eyebrow, he noticed, a thin pale line that ran from there across her temple.

“What the hell’s wrong with him?” he whispered tightly. “Why won’t he answer me?”

“I thought you knew,” Andrea murmured, her voice so low he could barely hear it. “Didn’t Vicki tell you?”

“Vicki didn’t tell me jackshit.” He sent a confused look in Kevin’s direction, his heart tripping, then he faced Andrea again. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Kevin doesn’t talk anymore,” she said quietly. “He’s been mute since the day you left.”