Shadow Lake. B.J. Daniels

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СКАЧАТЬ Mrs. Collins,” Dr. Brubaker said as he forcibly ushered the cop out the door. “Let me speak to Officer Walker a moment and I will be back.”

      Before the door closed, Anna saw the brief heated exchange before the cop said something that silenced Dr. Brubaker. The doctor glanced back at her. She saw his expression as the door swung shut.

      Fear made her fingers tremble as she reached for the phone and tried her friend Gillian’s number again. She needed more than a friend now. She had a bad feeling she needed a lawyer.

      And she had no idea why.

      Or why Marc would tell the police she’d been threatening to kill someone last night.

      Gillian didn’t answer her cell phone this time, either. Anna left a message to call the Shadow Lake Hospital in Shadow Lake. “It’s urgent.”

      When she tried Gillian’s office, she was told that her friend had taken a few days off. She’d left no forwarding number. Odd. Gillian hadn’t mentioned anything about it when they’d had lunch. Nor was it like Gillian to take any time off. Anna couldn’t remember the last time her friend had gone on vacation.

      Something was terribly wrong.

      WALKER ONLY MADE IT AS far as his patrol car. He sat in the darkness, his head swimming, anger eating him up inside. All he wanted to do was storm back into the hospital and make that woman tell him the truth.

      She’d lied.

      But for the life of him, he couldn’t think of any reason she would do that.

      He ran a hand over his face.

      “You need to get control of yourself,” Dr. Brubaker had told him as he’d led him down the hallway away from Anna Collins’s hospital room.

      “You heard her in there. She’s lying.”

      “You don’t really believe that woman in there killed anyone last night, do you?” Doc had demanded.

      “Her husband seems to think she might have.”

      “Go home. Get some rest. You aren’t thinking clearly. Give her some time to get her memory back. I’m sure all of this can be sorted out.”

      Walker had seen the way Doc was with the young woman. Protective, as if she were his own daughter. Who wasn’t thinking clearly? he’d wanted to demand, but he’d had the good sense to keep his mouth shut and get out of the hospital before he did something he’d regret.

      He didn’t need Doc to tell him that he was running on emotion right now. A lot of loss of his own.

      Maybe he’d pick up a six-pack and drop by Billy’s. He went off shift over an hour ago.

      Walker dialed the police chief’s cell. It rang four times before Rob finally picked up.

      “Yeah?”

      Nash sounded funny.

      “Sorry to bother you, but I thought I should give you a heads-up on this case I got last night around midnight,” Walker said.

      “The car that went into the lake,” Chief Nash said.

      “Yeah.” He wondered how the chief had heard about it. “Anyway, I suspect it was an attempted suicide. The woman’s over at the hospital. Doc seems to think she’s going to be fine. But she swears she can’t remember a thing including an argument with her husband when she threatened to kill someone.”

      “People make threats all the time, you know that,” Nash said.

      “Yeah. I just have a gut feeling about this one,” Walker said, a little thrown by the chief’s response. Nash always had questions, convinced the answers were always in the details. “How are things over in Pilot’s Cove?”

      “Fine. I got through sooner than I thought. I’m on my way back to town now.”

      “Anything you need help on?” Walker asked, still wondering why Nash had let him believe it had something to do with the Pilot’s Cove Police Department.

      “No.”

      “We tried to get the car out, but Mac had to find a larger, newer tow truck,” Walker said, just for something to say since clearly the chief wasn’t interested. “Once we get the car out, maybe we’ll know more.”

      “Sounds like you have everything under control. So if there’s no problem…”

      He bristled at the chief’s irritation. No problem except for who she said saved her life last night. The chief was probably just tired and trying to get home to his young new wife. “I got it covered.”

      “Good.”

      Walker hung up, wondering what the hell was going on with the chief. Something, that was for damned sure. Nash had sounded like he had more important things on his mind. Like what? Walker wondered.

      The chief’s job had been all that Rob Nash had had for so many years Walker couldn’t imagine the old man giving it up. But maybe the position would be coming open. And sooner than Walker had even hoped.

      ANNA HAD NEVER FELT SO alone. Everyone in her life had abandoned her. Even Gillian, the one person she’d depended on the most since Tyler’s death. She’d finally reached rock bottom. What did it matter if the cop didn’t believe her story? Nothing mattered. It hadn’t from the moment she’d awakened to find that her son was dead.

      But Anna found herself getting angry. She was tired of just lying down and taking it. Then she picked up the phone and called Marc’s number, planning to demand to know why he had told Officer Walker all those awful things about her—and find out what she’d done last night to make him say them.

      But when Marc’s voice mail came up, she hung up and dialed Mary Ellen back.

      “Anna.” Mary Ellen sounded relieved to hear her voice. “Where are you? I tried to call you back—”

      “Tell me why Marc didn’t go through with the divorce.” Anna felt anger bubble up inside her. “He’s the one who wanted it so badly.”

      “You don’t know how hard it’s been on him,” Mary Ellen said. “For six long months he didn’t know whether or not you’d ever wake up. He’d already lost his son—”

      “I lost my son, too,” she interrupted.

      “Yes, but Marc had months of not knowing if he was going to lose you, too. Then when you came out of the coma and didn’t even know what had happened…”

      Anna couldn’t help but bristle at the words. She’d tried so hard to remember the hit-and-run accident that had taken Tyler and nearly killed her as well. The driver of the car that had hit her and her son was never apprehended because Anna couldn’t provide a description. With what little the police had to go on, they hadn’t been able to find out who had hit her car, killing her son and putting her in a coma. She’d never known if she had been somehow partly responsible.

      “Marc had to relive СКАЧАТЬ