What Echoes Render Page 11

“Did you see that crazy driver?”

  The voices all came to her slowly, filtering through her rattled mind before settling in her brain and registering. Hesitantly, she lifted her head from the deflating airbag.

  “Don’t move. The police are on their way,” someone said to her. She ignored whoever had issued the order and continued to raise her head. Confusion was swirling through mind and body as she struggled to take in the situation. After a few moments, she figured out that her car was face down in the ditch beside the road. The windshield and driver’s side window were shattered and little shards of safety glass were everywhere. She had a blinding headache and her neck hurt, but other than that, she seemed to be able to feel and, after a quick test, move everything. She noticed her hands were still clutching the steering wheel and so with great effort, she uncurled and stretched her fingers in an attempt to loosen the joints.

  “I’m okay.” Her voice wasn’t exactly steady, but it was strong enough for the person nearest her to hear.

  “Still, I don’t think you should move until the paramedics get here.”

  She turned and looked into the blue eyes of an elderly man, somewhere in his seventies, she’d guess. His face wore a look of concern. Behind the elderly man was a younger man, maybe late forties, and beside him was a young teenage girl. They were all watching her.

  Jesse braced her feet against the floorboard and pressed herself back into the seat. “No, I’m okay. I’m just going to get myself out.”

  The older man mumbled some sort of protest but then insisted on helping her. He called the younger man forward and together they pried open the damaged driver’s door. Once it was open, Jesse tried to unbuckle her seatbelt, but her weight pressing against it made it almost impossible to get the latch down. Or maybe it was her shaking hands.

  Feeling more and more helpless with each passing moment, she found herself battling an unexpected rush of tears. Probably sensing her frustration and shock, the younger man leaned inside the car and held onto her, easing some of the tension off of the seatbelt as he reached around and unbuckled it. She was glad his body was braced somewhat against hers because, with the angle of the car, she would have pitched forward when the belt released if he hadn’t been there.

  “Do you think you can stand?” the man asked, still holding her steady in her seat.

  She nodded and he called over his shoulder to someone. Jesse watched as the teenage girl scrambled forward to help them.

  And with the assistance of her three Good Samaritans, a dazed Jesse climbed out of her car. Bit by bit, the events of the accident were coming back to her as was her strength. She wasn’t about to hike out of the ditch yet, but she could stand.

  “I don’t suppose anyone saw what happened,” she said, to no one in particular, as she noticed two more people standing up on the road staring down at her.

  “That crazy driver in the blue SUV,” someone started.

  “It’s as if he wanted to drive you off the road,” another offered.

  “Didn’t get his license plate . . .”

  “Didn’t have one . . .”

  She heard the words and phrases, but she soon realized that in her current state, she wasn’t going to make any sense of what they meant. Thankfully, she heard sirens approaching and knew that, because they were in an unincorporated part of the county and thus sheriff territory, Ian’s people would handle things for now. Having spent enough time in hospitals, she knew she wasn’t at her best just then. When her mind was clearer, and her heart rate back to normal, she’d work through it herself.

  Almost as if she was reliving the events of the Saturday before, the EMTs arrived, then the fire department. Eventually, Ian showed up. It seemed like a lot of hoopla to her; she just needed to get her car out of the ditch and to the mechanic. She knew Ian would be taking statements and getting all the information he needed from the people who’d stopped to help. Once she was feeling a little more under control, she’d learn what she wanted to know from him.

  Sitting on the back of the ambulance having her eyes checked for the third time in forty minutes, Jesse heard her phone ring. Some nice person, probably one of the first firefighters on the scene, had brought her purse up. Ignoring the scowl of the EMT working on her, she answered.

  “Hello?”

  “Jesse?” David’s voice came through the line. “Is everything okay? I’m at the restaurant and I’m pretty sure it’s the right one.”

  She’d completely forgotten. “I’m so sorry, David. I should have called you earlier. I’m not going to make it today.”

  He paused before answering. “Okay,” he drew out. “Are you alright?”

  “I’m, well, I’ll be fine. There was a little accident on my way back into Riverside,” she explained.

  “What kind of accident?” She didn’t need to see his face to know he’d snapped to attention.

  “A crazy driver tried to pass me on a two-lane road. A truck came along in the other direction, I ended up in a ditch and the crazy driver is long gone. But I’m—”

  “Where are you?” he cut her off.

  “What?”

  “Where are you? On the road? Are you far?”

  She frowned. “No, I’m less than a mile after you turn onto Route 23 toward the bridge. Maybe ten minutes from town.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  “You don’t need to come . . .” She hadn’t finished her sentence before she realized it would be fruitless. He’d hung up.

  Even though she’d told him he didn’t need to come, the idea of having him there appealed to her. And so she knew that exactly eight minutes had passed since David had hung up. She’d watched the clock.

  “Jesse,” he said, jogging up to her. “Are you okay?” He put his hands on her shoulders and searched her eyes. Probably looking for signs of a concussion, she told herself.

  “I told you, I’m fine. If it weren’t for Ian barking orders, these poor guys probably would have left me twenty minutes ago.”

  David either wasn’t listening or didn’t agree because he turned around and barked his own orders. “She’s shaking, why doesn’t she have a blanket? Someone get me a blanket.”

  “I’m fine. It was just still raining when the accident happened so I got a little wet. Now, I’m a little chilled,” she said, knowing he wasn’t really listening.

  “You’re a little stunned is what you are,” he responded. “Not full blown shock, but close.” A blanket appeared in his hands and he wrapped it around her. Then, tucking it around her body, he pulled her close to him and rubbed his hands gently up and down her arms. She hadn’t realized how cold she’d actually been and she leaned into him, drawing warmth from his body.

  “Hathaway, what are you doing here?” Her head came up slightly at Ian’s voice. David lightly, but firmly, pressed it back against his chest.

  “Jesse and I were supposed to meet for lunch. When she didn’t show, I called. I just got here,” he answered.

  She was tempted to look up in the ensuing silence, but instead she closed her eyes.

  “Are you a little better now?” It took her a moment to grasp that David was talking to her and though she was feeling tired, she was definitely feeling better—warmer, stronger, more normal. She nodded.

  “I want to talk to Ian for minute, get an idea of what happened. Do you mind?” he asked, pulling back just enough to see her face.

  She glanced at Ian, who was watching the byplay. It shouldn’t have mattered, but she knew this little scene would be the first thing he’d tell Vivi about when he got home that evening.

  “Of course, I’m fine.” She managed to make her voice sound professional. David gave her a curious look but didn’t say anything. A minute later, she watched his head disappear down the side of the embankment.

  ***

  “You don’t really need to see this,” Ian said to David as they scrambled down toward the car.

  “Yeah, I kind of do. I may be an arson specialist, but I am an investig
ator,” he managed to say through the fear and anger that had been clawing at him since he’d learned about the accident. When they reached the bottom of the ditch, he paused and took in the scene. Jesse’s car was nose down in the bottom of the ditch. He could see the deflated airbag and pieces of glass everywhere. The front left corner of the vehicle was crumpled and the front axle was also visibly broken.

  “It’s a miracle she wasn’t injured more with all the broken windows,” David said, attempting to ignore the churning in his gut.

  Ian made some sort of murmur of agreement.

  David turned to Ian, looking him squarely in the eyes.

  “Tell me what happened.” It was just shy of an order, but Ian, being gracious enough to overlook his tone, responded, recounting, presumably, what the witnesses had told him.

  When Ian got to the part about the SUV bumping Jesse’s car, David’s eyes went back to the front panel of the vehicle. Wanting a closer view, he stepped toward it and went down on his haunches. He could see streaks of blue embedded in the black paint of her car.

  He was studying the pattern when Ian spoke again. “Is there something going on between you and Jesse? Not that it’s any of my business, but she is a good friend.”

  David didn’t take his eyes off the car. He wasn’t really sure how to answer that question. Yes, there was definitely something going on. But it wasn’t anything he felt ready to talk about or could even explain without sounding like an idiot. Especially since, by the standards of the day, most people would say nothing was going on. They had never kissed, the only time he’d touched her beyond purely professional confines was just moments ago when he’d wrapped her up in the blanket and rubbed her arms. Hell, they hadn’t even been out on a date.

  Opting to ignore the question, he pointed to the blue paint and asked, “Are you going to get a sample of that?” Ian might take offence, but he figured the guy probably knew a thing or two about strategic silence.

  “And do what? Spend time and resources looking for someone because they might have committed a crime? Maybe it was just an oblivious driver.”

  At Ian’s almost flippant tone, David straightened and fixed him with a glare. “I hear your wife and Dr. Buckley at the lab in Albany are good friends. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind doing it as a favor to her. Seeing as how you’re all friends and everything.”

  Ian’s lips lifted into a smile and David knew he’d been “had,” if only subtly so. The sheriff knew exactly how David felt about Jesse.

  “I’ve already got a sample and a complete set of pictures on the way up to the lab. Knowing Sam, he’ll probably have something for us tomorrow or the day after,” Ian answered with a knowing grin.

  David gave a snort. “Anyone ever tell you you’re kind of a bastard?”

  Ian shrugged and his grin widened. “Devious maybe, but not usually a bastard.”

  “Yeah, that fits, too,” he said. But Ian was good people. So far, David hadn’t met anyone in Jesse’s life that wasn’t.

  The thought of her brought his gaze back around to the car. He frowned.

  “What are you thinking, Hathaway?” Ian asked.

  Not taking his eyes from the car, David answered with his own questions. “Does Jesse have any enemies? People who don’t like her? An ex-boyfriend, maybe? Or even any patients who’ve felt they didn’t get the care they should have?”

  When Ian didn’t answer immediately, David turned his way. The sheriff stood steady, feet apart, arms crossed over his chest, and stared at him with his unusual, light green eyes.

  “No,” Ian drew out. “Not that I know of. She’s a regular mom with two good kids. There are people she is close with and those she isn’t, but as far as I know, no one really dislikes her or has a reason to consider her an enemy. I don’t think she’s dated anyone since Mark died, and as for the hospital, I wouldn’t know. She’s never mentioned anything and definitely never reported anything to me, but it’s possible that even if she’d received a threat I wouldn’t have heard about it. She’s compassionate by nature so she’d be more likely to try to make things better for the person who’d sent the threat than turn it over to the authorities.”

  David grunted. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” He turned his gaze to the clearing clouds and tried to calm the turmoil building inside him.

  “What else are you thinking?” Ian demanded.

  “I’m thinking we might need to have a little chat with her,” he answered as he watched a hawk soar above them.

  “About?”

  David lowered his eyes to meet Ian’s gaze. “About why she’s been the victim of three violent attacks in less than two weeks.”

  Ian stared at him. Hard. But in his gut, David knew there was something wrong, something involving Jesse, so he met the man’s scrutiny and didn’t back down.

  “Explain.” It was the most authoritarian David had heard Ian’s voice.

  “Her tires last week, the explosive at Spin-A-Yarn, and this,” he said, gesturing with his head to her totaled car.

  “Her tires could have been some kid. Spin-A-Yarn isn’t even her shop, how would someone know she’d be there? And as for this, it could have just been an accident.” Ian shifted his arms and jammed his hands onto hips.

  David took a deep breath. The air was still damp with the rain and he could smell the wet asphalt and fresh-cut grass in the field beside them.

  “If it were kids, why two tires and not just one? Someone had to be pretty confident they could slice two tires without getting caught. A nervous kid doesn’t really fit that bill, unless you have some regular delinquents in Windsor?” He didn’t wait for Ian to answer before continuing. “As for the explosion. Jesse was supposed to be there. She’d made an appointment with Julie to meet her there at ten. Even I knew about it. She was making the appointment on the phone when she met me at the hospital last week. If she hadn’t been running late, both she and Julie probably would have been standing right at the cash register when the device went off. And finally,” he held up a hand when Ian opened his mouth. “This. You know as well as I do that this was no accident. That’s why you sent evidence up to the lab.”

  Ian gave him another long, hard look. “She was supposed to be at Spin-A-Yarn?”

  David nodded. “At ten, to pick up a quilt for her parents’ anniversary. I heard her on the phone—who knows who else might have heard or who else she might have mentioned it to?”

  He could tell Ian was thinking, putting the pieces together. The sheriff’s eyes strayed to the field, but he was looking into the middle distance, his mind clearly focused on this new information.

  Finally, Ian shoved a hand through his hair and dropped his head. “Shit.”

  “Yeah, my thoughts exactly.”

  Crossing his arms again, Ian remained silent for a while. Finally he spoke. “I think Vivienne should talk to her.” That seemed like passing the buck to David and he said so.

  “It isn’t though,” Ian insisted. “I know you know Vivienne is an ME—”

  “And an FBI consultant,” David interjected.

  Ian nodded and continued. “She is, and while she prefers to work cold cases, she also does a lot of work with the behavioral science unit.”

  “Profilers?”

  “Yeah. I know, not my favorite either, but Vivienne is good. Really good.” From the tone of his voice, he couldn’t tell whether Ian thought this was a good thing or not. “Anyway, if she talked to Jesse, Vivienne would probably see things—hear things—we wouldn’t.”

  “But why not tell her now and then have your wife talk to her this afternoon?” He didn’t want Jesse going about her daily life with no idea that maybe, just maybe, she needed to be more vigilant.

  “Because I don’t want to scare her.” Ian held up a hand to ward off the protest on David’s lips. “Look, I know you think something is probably going on here. And I have to admit, when you string it all together, I don’t like the looks of it either. But we don’t really have any proof that someo
ne is targeting her, or even any reason why they might be. Are you free for an hour or so?” Ian ended his reasoning with the question.

  David nodded.

  “Good. Stick with her. Vivienne will be back from Boston in about an hour. I’m sure she’ll be more than interested in heading straight over to talk with Jesse.”

  “And what about tonight or tomorrow?” David asked.

  “Nothing has happened at her home. It’s all been in other places. She has an alarm and her farm is in my jurisdiction so I can be sure to have someone nearby until we have a better sense of what’s going on. Or even if something is going on,” he added.

  David thought about Ian’s plan, and though he didn’t like it, though he would have rather taken Jesse and tucked her away at his place, it made some sense. Not to mention the fact that, instinctively, he knew she wouldn’t allow herself to be coddled anyway. He didn’t think she’d take unnecessary risks, but she wasn’t a shrinking violet. Still . . .

  “She may be tiny, but she’s tough, Hathaway.”

  He looked at Ian, whose expression bore something akin to sympathy. David nodded.

  “Let’s go, then,” Ian said and together they headed back up the embankment.

  Jesse was now perched on the fender of David’s truck, the paramedics having left while he and Ian were talking.

  “I’m not sure if I need to call a tow truck or what the standard operating procedure here is,” she said to Ian as they approached.

  Ian waved his hand. “I took care of it. Richie should be here soon. He’s got the equipment to pull it out of the ditch and he’s a good mechanic. He’ll be able to work with your insurance to sort things out.”

  “Thanks.” Her voice was soft but strong and she looked like she was coming back to herself more and more with each minute.

  “You have the afternoon off, right?” David asked, remembering what she’d told him earlier.

  She nodded. “Yes, I do. Thankfully. But the track team is headed up to Ithaca tonight for an off-season weekend track meet. They’re taking the bus there, but I told the boys I’d come by the school to see them off before they leave at three thirty.” She looked at her watch, then back at both David and Ian.