CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
Jessie was almost back to normal.
They had watched one ambulance take Claire Hoffman away after the EMTs managed to get her conscious. She was disoriented and in pain from the blow to the head she suffered, but she was alive. A second ambulance would take Pearson to a separate hospital, where he would be treated for the gunshot to the shoulder before being processed right there in his hospital room.
His surgery would take a while, so Jessie and Susannah decided to head back to Central Station to get a head start on the paperwork. Susannah hadn’t made any more mention of Jessie, almost grabbing the letter opener. It seemed like she’d bought the story that Jessie had just gotten lost in the moment and almost made a mistake.
That was reassuring, but Jessie didn’t feel all that relieved. She was quite sure that if her partner hadn’t noticed her reaching for the letter opener, the thing would be in Pearson’s skull and Jessie would be in handcuffs. This had to stop.
She pulled out her phone as they headed back to the station, about to text Dr. Lemmon. That’s when she noticed the voicemail from Kat. She’d completely forgotten about her call. She hit play and put the phone to her ear.
“ Jessie ,” her friend said, clearly agitated, “ I know this is going to sound crazy, but I need you to believe me. Something is up with Ash Pierce. I’ve gone to all the proceedings in her case. I get that people think that’s not great for my mental health. But set that aside. I know how this woman typically acts. And she’s acting differently today. I don’t know if it’s because her trial starts next week or what, but she’s agitated. And she never gets agitated. I feel like something’s going to happen. I’d say call me back, but the hearing is supposed to resume at 4:15. That’s in ten minutes. Maybe you can reach out to people you know here at the court and give them a head’s up. Something isn’t right. ”
Jessie looked at the time. It was 4:37, meaning the hearing was likely in session right now. Normally, she’d think that Kat was overreacting because of her personal history with Pierce. But between this call and Hannah’s warning from Mark Haddonfield earlier, she wasn’t so sure.
She was tempted to call her contact at the courthouse but thought better of it. It was one thing to warn the jail administrator. Increasing Pierce’s guard contingent was no big deal for them. If needed, they could simply confine Pierce to her cell.
But the courthouse was another matter, and she just didn’t have enough information to justify putting them on even higher alert. That required moving precious resources around. The best move under the circumstances seemed to be just to go there herself.
“Hey,” she said, turning to Susannah in the driver’s seat,” do you think you could start on the paperwork without me?”
“Sure,” Susannah said without hesitation. “Why?”
“Kat’s at the courthouse,” Jessie explained. “She’s got some anxiety over the Ash Pierce case, and I’d like to be there to offer her some moral support. Would you mind dropping me off there? I’ll catch up with you after this hearing is done.”
“Not a problem,” Susannah said, pulling out the cherry light and turning on the siren. “She’s your best friend, so let’s get you to her ASAP.”
Jessie settled into her seat as the detective punched the gas. She knew Susannah was using this as an excuse to tear through traffic like a knife through butter. But she didn’t mind. The sooner she got to the courthouse, the sooner she could reassure Kat that this was all going to be okay.