Chapter 14
Haley awoke the next morning with a new optimism. The pain in her right arm was reduced to the point she could brush her hair mostly with her right hand and the news didn’t mention her name once on the newscast that morning. She’d heard from Cooper’s receptionist the evening before that she’d been mentioned morning and evening over the past several days. So that was a plus, right?
By eleven she was ready to escape the hotel room and go for a run, which wasn’t allowed. Sam Cooper had cautioned her to stay in the hotel room for the duration, or at least until Friday, when the DA would either have an indictment for Winters ready or they’d go on screen with her story. She wasn’t relishing getting in front of television cameras, though Sam seemed eager to do so.
Nathan joined her in her room when she made the call to Florence Delany. The DA’s voice was more congenial than it had been the evening before. “Collins is doing well, considering the fall he took. He’s in a cast for the broken leg and he had to have surgery to remove his spleen. Internal bleeding. He evidently had a dislocated shoulder, too. Guess you understand that one. Other than that, and some serious bruising, he’s doing okay. He did have a couple of things he wanted to pass on though,” Florence said as she finished.
“What was that?” Haley asked.
“One, don’t trust Winters. Evidently, Ephram met him when he was hired by the police to find you. He walked out of the station with Winters and Winters offered him fifty thousand dollars if you didn’t return. He didn’t accept or decline the offer, he said but it left a bad taste in his mouth. The other thing, he said you could refuse him, but he wanted to see you after all this was over. You and Nathan.”
Haley looked at Nathan and tilted her head. “I’ll think about it. Thank you for checking on him, Ms. Delany.”
“You’re welcome and he’s in Mission, fourth floor, room 411. I’ll be talking to Cooper soon, Haley. Don’t you worry and don’t get out of that hotel room any time soon.”
“Thank you.” Haley disconnected the call and looked at Nathan. “Fifty thousand dollars? To leave me in the mountains?”
“Not to leave you in the mountains, honey. Just not bring you back,” he said and came to sit beside her on the bed, taking her in his arms.
She leaned her head against his shoulder. “Do you think Ephram would have done it?”
“I don’t know. He has a reputation for being pretty ruthless, but I don’t know if murder is something he’d do.”
Haley sighed against his chest, “I hope not.”
They sat like that for a time, with Haley listening to the regular thud of Nathan’s heartbeat. Sam, who’d accompanied him to her room for the call, thumped his tail occasionally as he rested on the floor near the bed, watching over them.
Friday couldn’t come quickly enough. Haley sat through Thursday, the television on in the background, unnoticed. She looked up some exercises for her shoulder and did them until she made her arm sore again, then took a long hot shower to relax the muscles. She read the hotel brochures about visiting Asheville until she’d memorized every page, it seemed. And she fretted, and prayed, and fretted some more.
Nathan visited regularly with Sam, though he got to leave the hotel to walk the dog and pick up food. Haley asked to go once, but his expression told her clearly that she needn’t have bothered asking. She ate the salads he brought her, even the ice cream cone he surprised her with without an appetite.
Finally, after a night of tossing and turning, Friday morning arrived, and she awoke with the dawn. Dressing in the now familiar dark pants and pink blouse that had been laundered and pressed for her, Haley sat at the desk, waiting for the workday to start so she could wait for a call from Sam.
By ten o’clock, she was ready to scream. She picked up the hotel phone, intent on making the call to Cooper, Sanders and Cooper herself when a knock sounded on her door. She opened the door to Nathan, who was holding his phone out to her with a smile. “Ms. Delany for you, ma’am.”
She grabbed the phone, aware of him entering the room behind her. “Ms. Delany?”
“We have an indictment. The judge just signed it and we’re on the way to the police department to get them to go pick up your boss. Take a breath, honey. It’s almost over.”
“Oh, thank you.” Haley smiled at Nathan, who was seated at the desk with Sam at his side. “Thank you so much.”
“You did a lot of the work, you and your man. We’ve got the blood evidence from Detective Long, the files that you sent us, and I located a nice little bank account in the islands that could finance several people’s retirement nicely. We’re going to go looking for more on the accounts, but I’ve just gotten through talking to a Mr. Madden. You know him?”
“Mr. Madden? I’ve met him, but no more than that.” Haley didn’t want to get to know any of the bosses of Winters and Madden anymore. Not if she could help it.
“Well, he heard about Adams and started looking into some things on his end. He accessed some records no one else has power to open and found some interesting stuff for us to look at. More than enough for probable cause. Even some incriminating emails between Winters and Adams.”
“Wow.” Haley said and sat on the bed.
“Wow’s right, honey. We’re going to have a ball with this case. You might want to keep Cooper on payroll for a month or so, just to dot the I’s and cross the T’s but I think you’ll be okay in the long run.”
Haley thanked Florence, as she’d been requested to call the DA and hung up. As she handed Nathan the phone, she felt herself tear up. “I think we’re okay.”
He nodded and stood then pulled her to her feet. “So do I, honey.”
They hugged then laughed as both felt a dog’s head but at their legs, insisting on being part of the hug. Haley bent and embraced Sam. “Thanks, Sam. You did a great job, too.”
She looked up at Nathan, her eyes serious. “I love you, you know.”
“I know,” he said. When she started to back away, he pulled her into an embrace again. “I love you too.”
That evening,Sam Cooper called her. “You can go home, Haley. I don’t know what shape your apartment is in but you’re free to go home.”
She held the hotel phone receiver, unsure of what to say. “Haley?”
“Yes, Sam. Okay. Thanks,” she said quietly. “Have they found Mr. Winters?”
“Not yet, but they will, and they’ll have enough to arrest him for murder. You’re in the clear. If you want to make a statement to the media just let me know. I’ll be available whenever you need me.”
She thanked Sam and hung up, sure she’d never want to get in front of a camera. She packed the few things she had in her purse and then thought of her car, still parked on the mountain. She needed to retrieve it.
She left the room and knocked on Nathan’s door. He opened it almost immediately and eyed her suspiciously. “Aren’t you supposed to be in your room?”
She shook her head and smiled. “I’ve been released. Sam just called and said I could go back home. Except I need my car. Do you think you could take me to it?”
He nodded and called for Sam. After he closed the door, he walked beside her toward the elevator. “You relieved?”
She nodded. “I am. But I’ve been thinking about all the things I need to do, now. Sam said he didn’t know what shape my apartment was in. I guess that’ll be the first thing. If the police have messed it up, I’ll have to clean. And then I need to start looking for another job.”
“Yeah, I don’t think I’d want to stay at Madden and Winters, either.”
She shuddered, “No.”
They rode the elevator down and it opened on the second level parking garage and they started walking toward Nathan’s truck, parked down the aisle. “When did they get Winters?” he asked, and she looked up at him.
“They haven’t yet,” she said, and he stopped in his tracks. Sam, at his side began to growl.
“Sam, stop. You did that when I fell and I don’t want a repeat of it,” Haley admonished the dog, who moved in front of her, his hackles raised and his eyes toward a car backing out. “Sam?”
“Haley, get behind me,” Nathan said, his eyes on the car.
“What? Why?” she said and looked toward the beige sedan which was heading toward them. The car’s lights were blinding in the dim garage and it seemed to head straight for them.
As she took a breath to remonstrate Sam, who was barking and growling, Haley felt a hand on her then fell to the side from a shove. She grunted a shout then fell, rolling to a stop against a car’s wheel. Above her she heard a crunch and metal grating against concrete. She scrambled up and stared at Nathan as he ran toward the car, which was backing up. She started to follow, only to have Sam block her path. “Get out of the way, Sam. Move!”
The dog dodged and moved with her, effectively blocking her in. As she watched the car and Nathan, Haley realized the driver was aiming for Nathan, who stood between her and the sedan. She pulled the burner phone out of her purse and dialed 911. As the operator came on the line, the car barreled toward Nathan, who waited until the last possible moment then jumped to the side, causing the car to ram a cement barrier that had been placed in front of a parking spot. The barrier broke into two pieces and the car kept coming. Haley dodged out of the way with Sam at her heels and the car hit the SUV she’d been standing beside. As it impacted against the vehicle, Haley got a good look at the driver.
“Winters,” she said as the 911 operator came online. “What’s your emergency?”
“I’m in the Imperial Parking Garage, second level. A man is trying to run me over with his car. Me and my friend.” Haley said in a rush as she looked Mr. Winters in the eye. “My boss, Edgar Winters of Winters and Madden is trying to run me over with his car.”
She saw him back up and figured he’d try again, but he stopped and opened his door. As Haley talked to the operator, repeating her address and the color of the car, as well as his description, her boss, his nose running red from hitting the steering wheel, got out of his car and started toward her with a gun in his hand.
He lifted the pistol and Haley watched as if in slow motion, the pistol being raised and pointed at her. As she waited for the shot, she thought of Nathan. She loved him and she’d never have another day with him.
She waited for the shot but it didn’t come. Instead, Winters was tackled from the back by Nathan and the front by Sampson. As Nathan rushed forward and grabbed Winters by the throat, Sampson clamped onto the man’s ankle and started pulling him forward. Winters landed on his back and Nathan kicked the pistol out of his hand. He knelt beside the heavier, older man and lay a forearm across his throat. “You move and I’ll push, Winters. It only takes a couple of minutes before you pass out, a few more to die. And I’m about tired of you.”
Edgar Winters stared up at Nathan, his flat, cold eyes finally showing some life in them. He rasped out something that Haley couldn’t understand but apparently Nathan did.
“That’s not enough. It’d never be enough.”
The sound of sirens cut short any more conversation and Haley stepped forward, her phone still at her ear. “They’re here. Thank you.” She disconnected and started walking around the luxury sedan and toward the police. Nathan held his position until the police could cuff Winters and Sam stayed by Haley’s side as she gave her statement.
They stood, watching the police put Winters in the cruiser. As she watched her boss being lowered into the back seat, Haley asked, “How much did he offer you?”
“A hundred thousand,” Nathan draped his arm over her shoulders.
“Not enough?” she said and smiled up at him.
“Never enough,” he said, lowering his head to kiss her.
They visitedEphram on the day he was released from the hospital after a bout of sepsis delayed it by several weeks. He looked at Haley and smiled. “You’re something, you know?”
She quirked her brow at him. “What do you mean?”
“You didn’t know what I was going to do on that mountain and yet you two checked on me. If you hadn’t, I would have died there.”
“But you didn’t,” she said, and he looked down at the leg still in a cast, now balanced on a wheelchair’s support.
“No. I didn’t,” he scratched behind his ear and looked at Nathan. “You know a Hank Patterson?”
“Yeah, I do. Do some work for him every now and then,” Nathan said with a grin. “He call you?”
“Yeah. Gave me a talking to,” Ephram said and then he frowned. “Not sure I’m up to working for him. Seems to have a lot of rules.”
“Nothing you haven’t had to follow before,” Nathan said, and Haley felt his back quiver against her encircling arm as he chuckled. “He’s a good man, looking for some other good men to work for him.”
“Huh. Maybe I’ll give it a try. Spice things up a bit,” Ephram said with a grin of his own.
“Yeah? Well, be seeing ya, son,” Nathan said and held his hand out for Haley to take. “We’re heading home.”
They started down the hall and she looked up at him. “Home?”
“Yeah. I figured in a few weeks we can talk about finalizing the relationship, you know? Maybe with a ring, or something?”
“Are you asking me to marry you? After we’ve known each other for, what, a month?” She said, though she knew she’d say yes if he asked her to marry him today.
“Well, we’ll have known each other for a couple months by then,” he said and pushed the elevator button. “Besides, driving from my cabin to yours every day is getting kinda tiring.”
She laughed. “Well, if we get married some things will have to change.”
“Like what?”
“Like the satellite program will need to be moved to my cabin. It’s bigger, more room for my office to work from. I need more reliable internet than I have now, and Sam is going to need more room too, if we’re going to get him a girlfriend.”
“A girlfriend! For Sam?” Nathan’s horror sounded real enough and Haley began to laugh.
The elevator door opened and she stepped in, followed closely by Nathan, who took her in his arms. “I was thinking a standard Poodle.”
The End