Chapter 28
Tess
Uncle Mike and Aunt Ruby took Shelley home after Susan promised to keep my aunt the mayor updated on all developments. While we waited for whoever was going to come get Ace, Andy and Lizzie blocked off the pitcher’s mound/crime scene, Susan barked orders into her phone, and I was standing there wondering if there was anything I could do to help.
Or if anybody would notice if I went home, made hot tea, and vegged out on the couch for the rest of my only day off in the week.
When Susan ended her current call, I waved at her to get her attention. “Hey. I’m unnecessary here, right? I’d like to go home.”
“I bet you would. Jack told me you delivered Rose’s baby! Way to go, Tess.” She smiled and nodded at my shirt. “You probably want to put on a clean shirt.”
I glanced down and groaned. I hadn’t even realized I was a mess. There was a reason nurses and doctors wore scrubs.
But then I laughed. “Susan. I delivered a baby!”
She started to hug me but stopped, looking at my shirt again. We both laughed.
“Sure, you can go home. This is up to the professionals now. I’m trying to get a med mage in here to see what can be done. At the very least, we need to get the poor guy up and out of the dirt.”
Jack, who’d been making calls, too, walked up, shaking his head. “Nobody I know is available. What about that witch Brenda told us about? Celine?”
“If she’s not the one who did this,” I said darkly.
“I’ll call her,” Susan said. “I’ll call anybody and everybody.”
An incoming thunderous roar alerted us to a herd of Truckmans, followed closely by a Riverton police car. I was relieved to see Deputy Reynolds get out of the car instead of Lawless. And then I was shocked to see Probie step out of the passenger seat of that same car.
“He’s back?”
“Clearly, but nobody told me,” Susan said, looking grim.
“Maybe I’ll wait around to hear this,” I said.
Mutt was in one of the lead trucks in the convoy. His face lit up when he saw me, and he headed over directly behind Reynolds and Probie.
Jack leaned over to me. “You want to tell me sometime why Mutt Truckman always looks at you like you’re Christmas morning?”
“Sure. It’s not much of a story, though.”
“So, he wasn’t an Owen?” Owen was my boyfriend before Jack came home to Dead End. He was a lovely man, and we’d parted amicably.
“No, definitely not.”
The deputy, Probie, and Mutt ran up to us. Mutt knelt down and reached for his cousin, but Susan put a hand on his shoulder and gently restrained him. “Not until the crime scene folks clear him, and that won’t be until we figure out how to transport him in the safest way possible.”
“Safe for who?” Probie snarled. “Our dead cousin is beyond worrying about safety.”
“He’s not dead,” Jack said, and the two Truckmans froze.
Deputy Reynolds, in full uniform even though it was a Sunday, pushed his hat back on his head and whistled. “If you hadn’t warned me, Sheriff, I wouldn’t have believed it. He sure looks dead.”
“He’s not dead?” Mutt sidled up next to me and looked at my shirt. “Tess, what happened to you?”
“She delivered a baby right here at the softball field,” Jack said, and there was so much pride in his voice I had to grin.
“I did!”
Mutt’s eyes widened. “Wow! Where’s the baby?”
“Mom and Dad and babies got choppered to the hospital,” I said, still smiling. “I can’t wait to go see them.”
Then I realized I was being insensitive. I put a hand on Mutt’s arm (we’d been friendly in high school before my curse, and I knew he’d done goofy jock guy things like put an arm around me, tug on my hair, and punch my shoulder; anybody who I’d touched before the curse kicked in seemed to be “grandfathered” into immunity from my visions).
“I’m sorry about Ace, Mutt. I know this must be scary. Sheriff Gonzalez and Deputy Reynolds will find out what happened and how to help him.”
Mutt surprised me by putting his head down on my shoulder and bursting into tears. “You’re the first person who’s said a single nice thing to me this week, Tess. You’re a sweet girl.”
I awkwardly patted his back and ignored Jack’s raised eyebrows. “It’s okay. I’m sure people meant to be nicer. It must have been a scary time.”
He snuffled, and I gently moved back. After he pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his face, he gave me a crooked smile. “You don’t want to get dinner sometime, do you?”
Jack took a step toward us, his eyes narrowing, and I pointed at him. He stopped advancing. Lucky for him.
“No but thank you. I’m in a relationship,” I said, wondering if anybody else had ever been asked out on a date in front of her boyfriend and next to the inviter’s cousin’s almost-dead body.
My life was so weird.
Deputy Reynolds stood looking at us with open disbelief. “If you don’t mind, maybe we can get on with deciding how to help your cousin?”
Mutt ducked his head. “Sure. I mean, yeah.”
“And maybe you can tell us where you were, Probie,” Susan added.
“Sure.” Probie shrugged. “I went to see the witch.”