The Last Straw, page 23
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Wyrick said. “I’m not scary, but I am sometimes a bitch. It’s a coping mechanism. Not a criticism of you. You are my anchor, Charlie. Don’t go rocking my boat.”
And then the door opened and she strode off, leaving him to follow, because she didn’t want to see his face. She didn’t want to see shock, or rejection, or even worse, that he might be laughing at her. She’d revealed something personal to him, and that was scary.
But Charlie got it. She didn’t know what to do with emotion. He’d scared her, so it was time to back off.
“There’s the waiting room,” he said, pointing to a room off to their left, and then they walked in.
There were several groups of people scattered around the room, some talking quietly, others reading their phones and a few reading books.
The people looked up when they entered, then looked again at Wyrick’s yellow-eyed dragon, breathing fire across her bare chest. They knew who she was, and she was scary all over again.
But it was Millie who jumped to her feet when she saw them.
“Oh! I had no idea I’d see you two again! Thank you! Thank you for coming,” she said and hugged Charlie, then Wyrick. “This is my husband, Ray. Ray, this is Charlie Dodge and his partner, Wyrick.”
Ray was on his feet in seconds, shaking their hands. “It’s an honor to meet you both. Will you sit with us?” he asked.
“Sure,” Charlie said. “We came to check on Rachel. Has there been any change in her condition?”
“Some,” Millie said. “The antibiotics are working, because her fever is slowly going down, and her doctor is pleased that she’s healing from the surgery.”
“Has she shown any signs of regaining consciousness?” Wyrick asked.
Millie’s eyes welled. “No, but I still have hope.”
Wyrick reached across the space between them and took Millie’s hands.
“Would you allow me to accompany you at the next visitation?”
Millie looked a little puzzled. “Why, yes, of course, but—”
Wyrick lowered her voice. “I might be able to help.”
Millie’s fingers tightened on Wyrick’s grasp.
“You mean...?”
“I will only hold her, like I’m holding you.”
Millie looked down at Wyrick’s hands, pale skin and the long, graceful fingers, then looked up at the clock.
“You’ll have to wait about fifteen more minutes before we’re allowed to go in.”
“We’ll wait as long as it takes,” Charlie said and then saw the vending machines.
“Hey, Wyrick, there’s your Pepsi. Want one?”
“Yes, please,” Wyrick said and leaned back in her seat.
“Can I get either of you anything?” Charlie asked as he stood.
“I’ll go with you,” Ray said.
Wyrick watched in awe of how two men, total strangers to each other, could just bond over anything and walk away, talking. Or maybe everyone was like that, and she was the oddball. Life had taught her the hard way not to let down her guard. Not even for Charlie. Even though he saw more of her truth than anyone else, she held back that which mattered most, for fear of losing him.
By the time they came back, Ray and Charlie were talking about Oklahoma/Texas football rivalries and fishing. Charlie handed her the Pepsi and then pulled a Hershey out of his pocket and laid it in her lap.
“Thank you,” she said and unwrapped the candy first and took a bite.
Ray had chips and a drink for Millie so they sat quietly, having their snack, while Ray and Charlie kept talking.
Wyrick kept watch on the clock, mentally preparing for the task ahead. The minutes crept by as she finished her food, then slipped into the bathroom to wash up.
When she came out again, new people had arrived—one a couple with a crying baby. She paused without thinking that people were watching her again. She was wondering what it would be like to be a mother. She barely remembered her own, and since chemo and cancer, would never be able to be one.
The baby was screaming, and the mother looked frazzled. Wyrick had to move past them to get to her seat. It wouldn’t take a second to just stroke his head. Touching babies’ heads was permitted, she thought.
The mother looked up, her eyes widening in surprise as she recognized Wyrick on sight. Then Wyrick paused and laid her hand on the back of the baby’s head.
“He’s so beautiful,” Wyrick said and felt the softness of the baby’s curls beneath her palm.
“He’s cranky. Nothing seems to make him—” And then she realized he wasn’t crying anymore. She looked down as he settled his little cheek against her shoulder and began sucking his thumb. “Well, my goodness! I guess—”
Wyrick reluctantly let go of the curls and walked back to her seat.
This was the second time Charlie had seen her affinity with children. It wasn’t anything he would ever have expected from her, and he knew better than to comment, but it touched him in a way he could not explain.
Millie was still fascinated with Wyrick, and seeing the baby go peacefully to sleep with hardly more than a touch from Wyrick’s hand was amazing. It made her wonder what magic she might render to Rachel. Could she wake her as easily as she’d put the baby to sleep?
She’d soon find out.
Seventeen
It was 4 p.m. when people began getting up and leaving the waiting room.
“Is it time?” Wyrick asked.
Millie nodded. “Follow me,” she said.
Wyrick stood then walked out of the room, towering over Millie’s height by almost a foot.
They entered the ward in silence, moving past the other patients. There was a nurse at Rachel’s bedside as they approached.
“Is there any change?” Millie whispered.
“She’s stable. That’s a good sign,” the nurse said softly, then glanced up at Wyrick. She recognized the woman behind the mask of makeup, then eyed the fierce tattoo before walking away.
Wyrick moved to Rachel’s bedside, quickly identifying all of the machines they had hooked to her body, then gently laid a hand on Rachel’s shoulder.
“Do you talk to her?” Wyrick asked.
Millie nodded.
“Then let her know you’re here. Tell her she’s in a hospital, and that she’s safe. Keep telling her she’s safe. Tell her the man who hurt her is behind bars.”
Millie gasped. “They caught him?”
Wyrick nodded, then she put one hand on Rachel’s forehead, the other on her arm and closed her eyes.
She could hear Millie’s soft voice, but the words were fading as she moved into Rachel’s body...seeing the physical damage already in the stages of healing, and feeling the drain of the energy it was taking from her. It was the fever that was sapping her strength.
She sent all of the energy she had into Rachel, knowing when the wounds healed, the fever would abate. She put her hand over the bandage on her neck and then moved it over her heart, sending energy pulsing throughout her body, watching it seal off wounds and healing the frayed ends of tiny nerves.
And then she put a hand on Rachel’s forehead and moved deeper, slipping into Rachel’s psyche, feeling the horror trapped within her, and the pain and the terror of what she had experienced.
It was just as Wyrick had thought.
Rachel didn’t know she was safe.
Wyrick remembered she’d sent Charlie a text with her thoughts. What if she could get her thoughts beneath the dark in which Rachel was hiding? What if Rachel heard them?
There was only one way to find out.
Rachel... Rachel Dean. Come out of the shadows. You’ve been rescued. You are safe. There’s no one left to hurt you. He’s the one locked up now. You’re free, but he’ll never see freedom again. Come out, come out into the light. Don’t let him win. Millie’s here. She’s waiting to take you home. Listen for her voice. She’s here. She saved you. It’s safe to come home.
She stood for a few seconds, waiting to see if she felt any kind of response, and then slowly turned loose and stepped away.
Millie was on the other side of Rachel’s bed, whispering near her ear, patting her arm, saying things only a sister would know to say.
Wyrick was waiting. The visitation time was almost up. She didn’t want to leave without knowing if it had made a difference.
Unaware of Wyrick’s expectations, Millie paused to wipe tears from her eyes, and as she did, Wyrick saw Rachel’s chest rise as if she’d taken a deep breath, and when she exhaled the cannula in her nose shifted slightly.
It was at that moment that Millie looked back down and then gasped.
“Her eyelids are fluttering. Oh, my God, oh, my God!” She took off to get a nurse. They were back within seconds, and Millie pointed to Rachel’s eyes, seeing movement beneath the lids.
“Look,” Millie said. “I think she is trying to wake up.”
The nurse immediately began checking Rachel’s vitals and then called the RN.
Millie was beside herself. It was hard to keep her voice down, but she just kept talking to Rachel, wanting to hear her voice.
“Honey, it’s me, Millie. You’re in a hospital. You’re safe. You’re safe. You’re going to be okay.”
Rachel’s lips parted.
Millie leaned over.
At first she just felt her sister’s breath on her cheek, and then she thought she heard a word within an exhale.
“Yes, this is Millie. You’re safe, sugar. You’re safe. I’m right here.”
The word was faint, hardly more than a whisper.
“Saa...”
“She said safe,” Millie cried.
The nurses had to agree it was a cognizant response to what Millie had been saying.
“I’m sorry, ladies, but visiting time is over.”
Before they could challenge her, Wyrick spoke.
“Rachel...who hurt you?”
The RN turned and glared at Wyrick, but she wasn’t looking at the nurse. She was touching Rachel’s leg.
“Who hurt you, Rachel?”
“Time’s up,” the RN said.
“Sonnn.”
Millie gasped. “She said a name. She said Son. What does that mean?”
Wyrick felt Rachel’s triumph as if it had been her own.
“She didn’t say Son. She’s trying to say Sonny. Sonny Burch is the name of the man they’ve taken into custody,” Wyrick said and walked past nurses and patients, and out of the ICU.
The waiting room was emptying fast. Ray was standing, holding Millie’s purse, ready to take her down to the cafeteria to get some food.
Charlie was standing by the window, watching the gathering clouds. It was going to storm.
Then all of a sudden, Wyrick was at his elbow.
“She’s regaining consciousness,” Wyrick said. “She knows she’s safe, and she named him.”
Charlie grabbed her by both shoulders, gave them a squeeze and then immediately let her go.
“Have you done all you need to do here?”
“Yes. She’ll get better now.”
He pointed to the clouds. “Then we need to head home.”
Millie came running into the waiting room and threw her arms around Ray’s neck.
“She’s waking up. She’s trying to talk. I can’t explain what Wyrick did, but I witnessed it.” Then she realized they were leaving. “Wait. Please, both of you! I have to say this. You didn’t know us, and yet your generosity saved us. Giving of your skill and time without pay, nearly getting yourself killed, finding my sweet sister and now this. Wyrick, whatever you did in there helped her turn a corner. How? How can you do that?”
Wyrick shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just part of who I am. Please let us know how she progresses. I hope you take her home to heal. It’s going to be a long time before she feels safe again.”
“It’s okay. She’s alive. We’ll deal with the rest as it comes,” Millie said.
Charlie put his hand on the middle of Wyrick’s back.
It was her signal to move, and so she did—in long strides, all the way to the elevator. Once they were down, they hurried through the main lobby and out into the parking lot. The wind was already rising, and the clouds were rumbling and rolling overhead as they made a run for the Jeep. The first drops were just hitting the windshield as they got inside.
Wyrick was buckling up when she glanced at Charlie.
“Rachel said two words.”
Charlie’s eyes widened. “What did she say?”
“I asked Millie to keep telling Rachel that she was safe, because she didn’t know she’s been rescued, and right after Millie said it, Rachel got out enough of the word safe to be understood. And then right before we left, I asked, ‘Who hurt you?’ The nurse didn’t like it because she’d already told us it was time to leave, but I ignored her.”
“Of course you did,” Charlie said.
Wyrick shrugged. “Anyway, right after I asked, Rachel got out the word Son. That’s when I told Millie she’d just named her kidnapper... Sonny Burch.”
Charlie grinned. “That’s what Floyd and Mills have been waiting to hear. I’m driving. You call and let them know.”
“Okay,” Wyrick said and made the call.
Floyd was back at the precinct, writing up the report on finding the piece of map when his cell phone rang. He saw it was Wyrick and quickly answered.
“Good afternoon, lady. What have you stirred up for us now?”
As always, when they were on the job, Wyrick had the phone on speaker and told him everything that she’d just told Charlie.
“She named him. She named her abductor in front of her sister and a nurse.”
“This is wonderful!” Floyd said. “You just made a good day better. I’ll check in with Millie again soon, and remind her to let us know when Rachel is well enough to give us a full statement. Thanks for the update.”
“Welcome,” Wyrick said and disconnected.
Charlie was already out of the parking lot and back on the city streets when a bolt of lightning shot across their line of vision, quickly followed by a loud clap of thunder.
“We should have stayed inside the hospital,” Charlie said.
“We’re not going to melt. Turn on the windshield wipers and drive like hell,” Wyrick said.
Charlie laughed. And he was still laughing when they hit the beltway in a downpour, but he wasn’t driving like hell because he didn’t want to die. He was having too much fun with this woman.
And then the moment he thought that, his heart nearly stopped. Having fun! It had been so long since he’d felt like this. He and Annie used to have fun. Oh, God, they could laugh. But their fun ended a long time before she did.
Wyrick always pissed him off...or made him mad. And he’d laughed at her, and with her...but they’d never just done something reckless...just for the hell of it.
“Want to stop somewhere for dinner?” he asked.
“It’s pouring,” Wyrick said.
“So you’re afraid to get your hair wet?” he drawled.
Her lips twitched. “That’s going to cost you.”
“How much?” he asked.
“Corn dogs much.”
He frowned. “Corn dogs? As in wieners in fried cornmeal?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Where the hell do I get corn dogs?”
Wyrick grabbed her phone and began scanning locations.
“The only ones I want are from a Sonic drive-in. We can park in one of their stalls, order from the car. Eat in the car. And I don’t get my hair wet.”
He grinned. “You called my bluff. Deal. Find me a Sonic.”
She found one closest to where they were and entered it into his GPS system.
An hour later they were parked in a stall, sheltered from the downpour by the red metal roofing above them.
Wyrick was sitting sideways in the passenger seat, one leg folded up beneath her, with her back against the door. She was working on the last of her onion rings and was halfway through her second corn dog, sipping Pepsi as she went.
Charlie had already finished a SuperSONIC double bacon cheeseburger and a large order of fries, and was eyeing the ice cream treats available on the menu.
“You gonna want dessert?” he asked.
She glanced at the order board. “Mostly not,” she said.
He chuckled. “Mostly not? I don’t think I’ve ever heard that phrase come out of your mouth.”
“It’s often in my head. I’ll have to remember to voice it more often,” Wyrick said and smeared a little more mustard on the end of her corn dog. “I love these,” she said and took a big bite.
“Why haven’t you ever mentioned wanting these before?” Charlie said.
“Well, they aren’t nearly as good if you don’t eat them on site, while they’re still fresh and hot. I used to do it once in a while...before I moved to Merlin’s. But that was before UT started trying to off me.”
Charlie frowned. Couldn’t even go to a damn drive-in and eat a corn dog without wondering if she’d leave there alive? Every day some offhand remark she made was just a reminder of the hell she’d gone through to stay alive.
“So...are you getting dessert?” she asked.
He gave the ice cream choices a last, longing glance and shook his head.
“Mostly not.”
She grinned and then wiped her lips and stuffed the napkin in the bag with the other trash.
“Are you finished?” he asked.
“Yes. Stuffed. This was a good day. We caught a bad guy and solved an eleven-year-old mystery. I witnessed a young woman decide life was worth living after all, and ate at Sonic. My life, today, is just about perfect.”
“So’s mine,” Charlie said. “Sack up our trash and I’ll dump it on the way out.”
