Chapter 27
This time I insisted on following Tremaine to Emergency when the ambulances took him and Jessie away. Eddy Mason drove me in the passenger seat of his cruiser with Steve smiling to himself in the back. Once we got to Emergency, I sat on a plastic chair and refused to budge until I heard that Tremaine was okay. I had a burgeoning black eye, a bloody nose, the knee was ripped out of my trousers, and I was covered in dirt. A nurse approached to ask if I needed first aid, but I waved her away.
Of course, injured police and their prisoners get priority treatment in Emergency, so it was only an hour later when Steve joined me with a hot chocolate from the coffee machine.
“Here, drink this. You look like you need it.” He shoved the insulated cup into my hand and sat in the empty chair beside me.
I nodded and took a quick gulp, adding a burnt tongue to my injuries. “How is he?” I asked.
“He’ll be fine, Anna. They made him drink a lot of water to help get rid of the Temazepam, and he’s sleeping off the rest. He’ll have new bruises over his old ones, but no serious injuries.”
I let that sink in for a blessed minute before asking, “What about Jessie Wick?”
“They’ve taken her up to x-ray. It looks like she has two or three cracked ribs and a broken knee cap – courtesy of you, I understand.”
“Yup,” I replied.
“Nice work. Tremaine said it took a lot of work to bring her down, but that you were up to it.”
I snorted. “So, now what happens?”
“So now you go home and get some sleep, and tomorrow you come into the station to make your statement. Tremaine should be out of the hospital by tomorrow, and he’ll do the rest. Jessie Wick will be charged with kidnapping, attempted murder, and murder, and I don’t think we’ll have any trouble making them stick, especially since she was wearing your ex-husband’s ring and carrying the murder weapon.”
“Plus, she confessed to everything in front of Tremaine, the twit.”
Steve rose to his feet and extended a hand to me. “Come on, time to go home.”
I took it and got up wearily with aches and pains of my own. He drove me home and walked me up the driveway to the porch. I could hear poor Wendy whining on the other side of the door.
“Hey, Anna,” Steve said, resting his hand on my shoulder, “you did great work tonight. You probably saved Tremaine’s life and put Jessie Wick behind bars for a goodly number of years. Congratulations on a job well done.”
“Thanks, Steve,” I said, patting his hand.
A car came zipping down the street and veered into my driveway, nearly sideswiping Steve’s cruiser. Ben jumped out of the car.
“Oops, I forgot to tell you. I called Ben from the hospital,” Steve added. He nodded and sauntered off across the lawn while Ben raced toward me.
“Mom!” he shouted, grabbing me and crushing me in his arms. He was shaking. I patted his back and murmured, “It’s over, honey,” again and again. He took hold of my shoulders and stared into my face. “I almost lost you,” he said, the tears welling in his eyes. “Are you crazy? Don’t ever do anything like that again.”
He grabbed me again and didn’t let go. Looking over his shoulder, I saw Betty’s light go on next door. Her front door opened and she stepped outside. Poor woman; the last time I had seen her, I had been tearing out of the driveway on my way to save Tremaine. I owed her a big explanation sometime soon. I waved at her with my free arm, and she waved back and disappeared into her house.
“Come on, let’s go inside,” I said. “Poor Wendy’s going nuts.” We went into the house and I told Ben everything. An hour later, after a lot of yelling and cursing and crying, I was stretched out on the couch, half comatose, with Ben and Wendy lying on the floor beside me.
“I’m still mad at you, you know,” Ben mumbled. I sighed and opened my eyes to look at him. He looked all wrung out, but then so was I.
“I know, and you’re right. I should have called the police about Tremaine and warned them that the kidnapper was listening in on the radio, but I wasn’t thinking straight. All I knew was that I had just twenty-five minutes to get to him before he was dead.” I stretched out my hand and Ben took it. We rested our entwined fingers on top of Wendy’s fur. Wendy opened her eyes and licked my arm.
“But I promise you, my detecting days are over. We caught the murderer, so now we’re both off the hook. I’m going to call Grandma Carlene and give her an edited version of what happened to Jack. Try to give that poor woman some peace over her son’s death.”
“I can’t believe how much of this you pieced together on your own, Mom. I guess I wasn’t much help to you, especially with being so angry over the past few days.”
“And I’m still sorry about lying to your father and not telling you about it. In hindsight, I made a terrible mistake, and maybe you paid for it. We’ll never know what was going on inside your father’s head while you were growing up. If only I had talked to Jack about what he was feeling instead of arguing with him all those years.
Ben squeezed my hand. “It wasn’t only you, Mom. I could have talked to Dad instead of being angry all the time. I could have given him a chance.”
“Hey,” I said, “your father could have done some talking, too, right? You know what? Parents make mistakes, even when they have the best of intentions. Maybe one day you’ll have kids of your own, and you’ll wonder what they’re thinking about. Just remember your mistakes and try talking to your kids. As long as we love each other, that’s the best we can do.”
Ben rolled his eyes and said, “Yes, Mom,” in his best, put-upon voice. I wrenched my hand away and swatted at him. He grabbed my hand back and kissed it. “I love you, Mom.”
I squeezed his hand. “I love you, too, honey.”