Chapter Twenty-Nine
Vanessa drove as fast as she dared with tears streaming down her face.
When she saw Jackson’s truck, she pulled over to the side of the road and wiped her eyes.
He parked near her and emerged with Emily.
Vanessa got out to greet them, hoping she didn’t look too crazy.
Her daughter was smiling. She held a half-eaten chocolate chip pancake in one hand and Penelope in the other.
“Mommy!”
Vanessa wrapped her arms around her messy, sticky-fingered child. She held her tight, inhaling the smell of her hair.
“Go to the station,” Jackson said. “Nowhere else.”
She watched him transfer Emily’s car seat to her vehicle.
Then he climbed behind the wheel of his truck and was gone in a squeal of tires.
Vanessa put Emily in her car seat and secured her with extra care.
She was safe. Emily was safe. Although that mattered more than anything else in the world, her heart refused to stop pounding with panic.
Paul was in danger, and soon Jackson would join him.
“Uncle Jack is going to do his job helping people,” Emily said.
“I know.”
“Try my pancake.”
Vanessa took a dutiful bite. The sweet confection turned into a lump of dough in her mouth as she returned to the driver’s seat and drove toward the station.
Emily kicked her legs and talked about Penelope during the short trip. Jackson hadn’t told Emily anything about the trouble at the lake, which was wise. Vanessa didn’t want to answer her questions about Paul or Bennett. She couldn’t string a sentence together. Her mind was screaming.
As soon as they reached the station, she lifted Emily out of her car seat and hurried inside. The front desk clerk was expecting them. She opened the door to her father’s office, which had a large desk and several chairs.
“You need to brush your hair, Mommy.”
Vanessa ducked into the adjoining bathroom to wash up.
She studied her reflection in the mirror and found that she didn’t look as deranged as she felt.
Her hair hung in damp tangles at her shoulders and her eyes were red from crying, but she wasn’t injured.
Leaning forward, she splashed water on her face.
Then she lathered her hands with soap and scrubbed at the residue from the adhesive.
“Penelope is dying again,” Emily announced.
“Is she? How terrible.”
Vanessa removed a few bandages from her father’s first-aid kit and let Emily use them. Emily began to nurse the doll back to health. Vanessa paced the carpet, waiting for word from Jackson, imagining the worst.
Finally, a man knocked on the half-open door. “Ms. Nava?”
Vanessa gave the uniformed officer a blank stare. He looked familiar, but she couldn’t place him.
“Deputy Hendricks,” he said. “We met yesterday.”
“Of course,” she said. She’d seen him at the hospital. “Come in.”
“How are you?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’ve been better.”
A second officer appeared in the doorway. She was a young, dark-haired woman with a friendly smile.
“This is Deputy Lopez,” Wade said. “If you don’t mind, she’ll keep an eye on your daughter while we talk.”
Vanessa nodded her permission, her stomach sinking as she followed him across the hall. Wade Hendricks wanted to speak to her privately. Maybe he had bad news he couldn’t share in front of Emily.
They walked to an office that looked identical to her father’s.
He sat down behind a desk. She took the chair opposite him.
Wade was a tall, good-looking man with tawny hair and warm brown eyes.
He was the kind of man women gawked at. Vanessa went ahead and gawked at him.
She was too anxious to do anything else.
“Your father told me he’s getting released today,” Wade said.
“You spoke to him?”
“I didn’t mention this situation. He’d be storming down here in a hospital gown, dragging the IV pole behind him.”
She gave a dry laugh of agreement. “Is Jackson okay?”
“Yes.”
“What about … everyone else?”
Wade leaned back in his chair. “Bennett Brooks is still at large, along with Paul McPherson. I deployed a search team at your brother’s request. We’ve got people on the ground, on the water, and in the air.”
Vanessa’s heart lurched in dismay. Paul hadn’t returned with the boat. Something had gone wrong, very wrong. She imagined Paul and Bennett wrestling for control of the gun. Had Bennett gained the upper hand?
“As soon as we’re finished here, I’m going to drive to the scene to assist the search. I wanted to take your statement first.”
She took a deep breath and summarized the events of the morning, ending with her struggle to break free from the duct tape. She grabbed a tissue to dab her eyes. “I called Jackson for help, and here I am.”
“I’ll have an EMT come in,” Wade said. “You’re shaken up.”
“I’m an ER nurse,” she said, sniffling. “If I need medical attention, I’ll tell you.”
“Nurses always say that.”
She smiled at the comment. It was true.
Wade asked for descriptions of Bennett and Paul, which she gave. He entered the information on his computer. Then a notification sounded, and he scanned the screen. He closed the page and stood abruptly.
“Thank you,” he said. “You’ve been very helpful.”
“Have they been found?”
“Go back to your father’s office, and stay there,” Wade said.
“Wait,” she said, rising to her feet. When he tried to leave the room, she blocked the doorway. Nightmarish scenes flashed in her mind. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “Tell me what’s going on.”
Wade allowed her to detain him, probably because she was a Nava, but his mouth made a hard line of refusal.
“I’ll call my father,” she said. “I’ll bring him down here.”
His brows rose. “You’d risk his health?”
“I don’t like him that much.”
He laughed in surprise, and then covered the sound with a cough. Her father was notoriously difficult to work for. Maybe Wade Hendricks didn’t like him that much, either. “Bringing him here won’t help. He would do exactly what I’m doing.”
“Please,” she said, touching his arm. She used her best sad eyes.
Wade gave her a sympathetic look and patted her hand like a grandmother. Then he moved past her. “I’ll have Jackson call you with an update.”
Vanessa collapsed in the chair and stayed there, too drained to cry.