The Coroner, page 25
“You killed Julie Dobson.”
“I don’t know who you are or what you’re talking about, miss. I’m just a simple farmer minding my own business. I suggest you do the same.”
Mr. Parelli inched nearer. Emily’s feet were like trunks stuck in tar. He was now only two yards from her.
“You struck a teenage girl in the back of the skull and killed her with that,” said Emily, noticing the nippers shaking.
“My son’s been riding since he was three. My wife and I have scraped together every single nickel to get him this far. He deserves that scholarship. Not some spoiled senator’s daughter.”
Mr. Parelli lunged for Emily. She tried to back up but realized she hadn’t left enough space for escape. Mr. Parelli attacked, the nippers coming down on her. Emily blocked the strike with her forearms, throwing Mr. Parelli off but sending her to a twisted heap on the ground.
In a flash, Mr. Parelli was standing over her, anger burning in his eyes. Emily’s heart thumped inside her chest. Her skin prickled and her hands began to sweat. Emily opened her mouth to scream, but her cries went unheard under another wave of applause and cheers. Mr. Parelli pounced on her, pinning Emily’s arms to the ground with his boots. His hands encircled her neck in a death grip.
Emily’s eyes grew wide. Fighting for her last breath, Emily braced herself, completely at his mercy. Her vision blurred … then the light closed in from the periphery, and in an instant everything went black.
47
Nick’s squad car peeled into the Premiere parking lot a little after five. He slammed it into park and ran to the main office. Gary Bodum had found Emily’s phone buzzing in the drain grate. It was a text from Cathy, wanting to know when Emily would be around by the house. Then Gary had noticed Emily’s car, still in the parking lot. Something was off, and he’d quickly alerted Nick.
“The text was up when I found it. But I can’t get in because she has it passcoded,” Gary said, handing Nick the phone.
Nick knew how to override the passcode on the phone. Soon, it blinked on. He immediately recognized the home screen as Emily’s because it was set to a photo of her and Brandon in front of Buckingham Fountain in downtown Chicago.
“Do you remember the last time you saw her?” Nick asked as he scrolled through the recent phone calls.
“I don’t know. I saw her in the stands earlier with Jo.”
Nick noted that no calls had been sent or received since 8:42 AM. Next, he went into the texts. The last one had been sent and failed at 1:24 PM. He clicked onto the message and saw that it was addressed to him.
Premiere. Now!
What was she trying to tell him?
“Have you searched the stable for her?”
“I did a quick walk-around.”
“Gary, I need you to close the stables immediately,” Nick told him.
“What? Why?”
“How many staff are still here?”
“Just a couple.”
“Get everyone out of the stables and send them home. Touch nothing. Lock the doors. I’m sending over an officer to secure the scene. Don’t let anyone near here or in here. Especially the press. Got it?”
“Is this about Emily? What do you think happened?” Gary’s voice trembled. But Nick didn’t answer as he fled into the stable. He had to find Emily.
* * *
When he did find Emily in crumpled heap in the back of Bodum’s locked workroom, Nick rushed to her ragdoll body and dialed 911 with one hand. He put his hand on her neck and saw bruises. Her skin was cool to the touch, and Nick feared the worst. He checked for breathing. It was shallow, but present.
“Emily? Emily? Can you hear me?”
She moaned softly.
“Are you in pain?”
She nodded.
“I have help on the way. Hang in there, okay? You’re gonna be fine.”
She didn’t answer.
“What happened? Who did this?”
Her eyes fluttered open, and he could tell she was trying to focus. Her lips parted, but no sound came out. Nick took her hand and squeezed it.
“Who? Please, Em.”
Her lips pursed and she let out a guttural sound as she voiced, “Parelli.”
48
Emily faintly remembered Nick staying at her side while the sirens approached. He held her body off the damp ground as she drifted in and out of consciousness. Emily thought she heard him say, “Just stay with me. I don’t want to lose you again.”
At one point, when the paramedics took over and Nick had to let go, she was aware that she was lucidly dreaming, because one of the EMTs looked distinctly like Brandon in a white doctor’s coat, coaxing her up the steps of their new brownstone in Chicago. Emily was standing on the sidewalk, looking down at her feet sunken into the hard cement. All she could see were the shoelaces of her running shoes. She couldn’t lift her feet, no matter how hard she tugged. Brandon kept hopping the steps, higher and higher, farther and farther, leaving her behind. At one point, he looked back and shook his head at her, his broad smile fading. And then Brandon told her, “I’m going to arrest Parelli. I’ll be back. You’re in good hands now.”
The dream grew dim, and she felt her muscles and bones settle into the gurney like weights into a soft, feather-down bed. There were voices. A lot of them. They kept asking her questions, slowly, which she couldn’t answer because her mouth felt like it was filled with chewing gum. Soon, she gave up caring and didn’t want to answer. None of it mattered.
Emily’s body started to warm from the inside out, like a cup of chamomile tea. She thought she might have even been smiling, although she wasn’t sure if the corners of her mouth were turning up. Complacency poured into her limbs. Her body grew lighter and lighter and lighter. The pain left. The fear dissipated. She drifted off to a deep, beautiful sleep.
* * *
As soon as the paramedics had Emily in their care, Nick hopped into his truck and sped off, terrified he would return and not find Emily alive. Nick prayed no serious harm had befallen her. When he’d left, the EMTs had no way of knowing the extent of her injuries or chances of survival. Nick was sick to his stomach for the entire hour-and-ten-minute drive to the Parelli farm.
Why had Emily been attacked? And how were Parellis involved? And which Parelli? Father or son? Did they have something to do with Julie’s death? What had Emily seen or heard? Questions pounded in synchronicity with his throbbing heartbeat.
On the way over, he alerted the Rock River Police Department about Emily’s text and attack. He wanted backup ready to go. He informed them of his plan to visit the Parelli home and explained how he was going to play off his visit as casual. He was hoping for a peaceful arrest, but the Rock River sheriff agreed to keep a team on standby.
Nick pulled into the Parelli driveway and noticed Mrs. Parelli peeking between the curtains at him. As he turned off the headlights, she disappeared. Nick strode to the front door, trying with everything inside him to keep a professional demeanor and lower his pulse.
Mrs. Parelli came to the door, and Nick noted that she had a dark bruise under one eye, and both were red, as if she had been crying. Had Mr. Parelli’s control crossed a line? And how many times had it happened before?
“I’m sorry to bother you so late, Mrs. Parelli,” said Nick with a false calmness. “Is your husband at home?”
“He is not,” Mrs. Parelli said. Nick tried to sneak a look into the house. Through the sliver in the door, he could make out a line of four of the Parelli children, sitting silently at a long dining room table. Their heads were bowed over plates of food in front of them, but no one was eating. An unpleasant feeling crept over Nick.
“Do you know where he is?”
“I’m not sure at the moment,” she answered slowly.
“I heard Vince ditched his big state competition. That seems odd since he was favored to win,” said Nick.
“He wasn’t feeling well,” Mrs. Parelli lied with a quivery voice.
“Is he here?”
“He’s not,” said Mrs. Parelli.
“Where is he?”
“He’s away for the night.”
“What happened at the stables today, Mrs. Parelli?” Nick asked. “I thought Vince was going to ride and win.
“It didn’t work out that way, I guess.”
Nick thought he saw a flicker of light from the barn behind the house.
“Mind if I come in and wait for your husband?”
“You have a search warrant?”
“No, ma’am. I just wanted to speak with your husband.”
“Best you leave now.” She shut the door, and he could hear her locking the dead bolt.
So that’s how they’re gonna play this, thought Nick. And he was quite certain that Mr. Parelli was still on the premises. There was a good chance one or both of the Parelli men were in that barn. Was Vince in danger as well? None of this added up.
Nick drove his squad car down the road and out of sight of the Parelli farm. Then, he pulled it off to the side of the road and hid his car behind a clump of large bushes. Cutting through the fields, he jogged back to the Parelli farm.
Nick started by searching the perimeter of the Parellis’ barn. He found the large sliding barn doors padlocked but was able to jimmy a space between them big enough for him to slip through. As he entered, the horses moved in their stalls, standing, shaking their manes, and whinnying.
Nick let his eyes adjust to the dark, instead of switching on his flashlight. After getting a quick layout of the space, he crept toward the ladder leading up to the loft that covered about half the length of the barn and contained about two dozen hay bales. He searched them and then climbed back down the ladder.
He moved slowly through the barn, checking each stall. Along the back of the barn was a long workbench. Nick strode over. His inspection soon yielded a pair of antique nippers hung beside other nippers of varying sizes and shapes. He recognized the tool immediately as the one Emily had shown him in the pictures.
Silently, Nick removed his cell phone from his pocket and texted for backup. Rock River texted back that they were en route, with an ETA of five minutes. The pressure was mounting inside of him. Nick continued his search, creeping through the barn, sifting through equipment, stacked crates, stalls, and feed bins. He was about to enter one of the horse pens when he heard a rifle cock behind him.
In a singular motion, Nick reached for his sidearm. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the shadows of three hay bales stacked near a horse’s stall. He dashed for them the moment the rifle shot exploded near him, barely missing. Crouching behind the bales, Nick knew that he had only seconds to react. The horses started to stamp and whinny, startled and panicked by the gunfire.
The rifle cocked again as Mr. Parelli moved closer.
“Don’t come any closer, Mr. Parelli. Put down your gun or I will shoot,” Nick warned.
Mr. Parelli fired at the sound of Nick’s voice. Nick ducked as a hole blew through the top of the bale. Nick had no choice now. He aimed his handgun toward the direction of fire and shot two rounds into the dark. Both missed. The shooter shuffled to the side of the barn.
“Mr. Parelli, a team of police is on its way to your home,” Nick warned. “You are under arrest for the murder of Julie Dobson and the attempted murder of Emily Hartford.”
The rifle cocked again.
“Mr. Parelli, put your weapon down!”
Nick crouched off to one side as the shell blew a second hole just below the first. He gripped his weapon, planted himself belly down across the floor along the bottom of the hay bales, and started firing, praying he wouldn’t hit any of the horses.
Nick exchanged several rounds of fire with Mr. Parelli until he realized no shots were being fired back at him.
The ringing in his ears deafened him. He waited for the gun smoke to clear, then slowly emerged in a slight daze to find Mr. Parelli’s body bleeding out on the barn floor.
49
Emily awoke in a hospital bed. She blinked her eyes open, and the overhead light immediately made her sneeze.
“Bless you,” said Nick, who sat eagerly at Emily’s side.
“How long have I been here?”
“You’ve been sleeping for about a day and a half,” he said with a smile.
“That explains why my stomach is trying to eat itself,” Emily said. “What day is it?”
“Tuesday. How does a pudding meal sound?”
“Terrible.” Her hand went to her jaw, and she realized that part of it was bandaged. “That’s why I’m talking so funny?”
“It’s badly bruised, but thankfully not broken,” said Nick. “Your shoulder was dislocated. And you have a few cracked ribs and some bruising on your neck. But otherwise, you’re in good shape considering you almost died.
“Your dad was here earlier. I promised I would call him as soon as you woke up.”
“I think I might have died if you hadn’t shown up.”
“I don’t wanna talk about ifs … I’m just grateful you’re okay.”
“I’m a little confused about one thing,” said Emily. “How did you know where to find me?
Nick pulled up a newsfeed on his phone, where he was crushing an interview with the press. In it he explained how Gary found Emily’s phone, how he discovered Dr. Emily Hartford in the workroom, and how that led to the shoot-out at the Parelli farm.
“Mr. Parelli’s dead?” Emily asked in a hushed voice. “Are you okay?”
Nick nodded. “I’m under investigation. Police procedure. Not worried. It was self-defense in the line of duty.”
Emily reached out and took Nick’s hand. “Thank you.”
“I can’t believe how close I came to losing you. Again.”
At those words, the image from her lucid dream of being stuck in the cement in front of her and Brandon’s brownstone flashed across Emily’s mind.
She knew in that instant, she wouldn’t be going back to Chicago.
Emily smiled again through the pain, then realized her head was throbbing. “Is it time yet for another pain reliever?”
Nick pushed the nurse’s button. Emily gazed around the hospital room that was overflowing with floral arrangements.
“Where did all these come from?”
“For not being here the last twelve years, you sure seem to have a lot of fans in Freeport,” he said. “Let’s see. The lilies are from your dad and Cathy. That one with the red, white, and blue carnations is from the Freeport Police. Jo and her family sent the practical philodendron. Delia brought in that huge field flower bouquet, insects and all.”
“What about that one?” Emily pointed to a vase that held two-dozen salmon-colored roses. Nick went over to retrieve the card and handed it to Emily.
She read the card aloud. “Get well soon. Love, Brandon.”
“He’s called and texted at least a dozen times.” Nick handed Emily her phone. She pulled up a string of texts.
I wanted to come up the instant I heard. But I didn’t know if that would complicate things. I will always cherish what we had. I am trying to understand. Please let me know if you need me there. I love you.
She sat with the message for a moment. Brandon was big-city born and bred. She could not hold that against him any more than he could hold Freeport against her. She realized it went deeper than geography. She still had things to work out. Things to prove. That untapped part of her she had hidden away long ago was not going to stay hidden any longer.
Emily pointed to a white, flowering orchid on the windowsill.
“It’s from Sarah,” said Nick. “She delivered it to the front desk downstairs herself.”
“Read me the note?”
Nick turned the card on the plastic stick. “Dr. Hartford, thank you for being there for me. I will never forget you. Sarah Dobson.”
She had succeeded. Satisfaction stretched across her face.
“You can’t imagine how grateful the Dobsons are. The senator wants to do something to honor you.”
“Publicity stunt. They just want to pivot the eyes of the press away from his abuse accusations.”
“I’m sure you’re right about that.” Nick moved over to her bedside.
“Make sure he doesn’t do a thing,” said Emily. “My involvement was purely happenstance. Right place. Right time.”
“Own this, Em. You’re a town heroine.”
A heroine. Writing her own story. Making choices out of instinct and passion, not practical duty. Carving her path. Not running and hiding.
“I’m glad the Dobsons have some sort of answer. Even though everything that’s happened is just awful and unnecessary.”
“I know this is going to sound weird, but you’re radiant right now,” said Nick.
She didn’t feel radiant, but she did feel more at peace than she had in a very, very long time.
“I have to admit,” she said with a lopsided smile. “I like this Emily.”
“She scares me a little. Please don’t ever try to stop a killer again.”
Emily laughed. “A heroine makes no such promises.”
She fell quiet for a moment. The silence between them was comforting.
“I suppose you’ll be going back to Chicago as soon as you’re well enough?”
“No. Actually,” she said softly, “I feel like there’s a purpose for me here. And I want to see it through.”
“You gotta get things right between you and your dad first,” Nick said.
“I’m ready.” She hoped he was too. With her father’s faltering health, she knew it was a conversation she couldn’t ignore much longer. There would be no lasting peace without forgiveness.
“It’s gonna be okay. You’re home now.”
Nick slouched back into the chair next to her bed. Emily felt there was more he wanted to divulge. But she didn’t press. For now, it was enough that he was here.
50
The next morning, Emily woke up feeling less sore and less stiff and quite eager to get out of the hospital. She was hungry for a bear claw and exhausted from staying up half the night chatting with Jo, who was coming off second shift. She wanted to get a good night’s rest in her bed at the Pennington.
