Death and Deceit (28 page)

“You’ve got a long memory, little sister. All right. Rick and
I weren’t close friends. He used to hang out with Marcy sometimes. He started bugging me about you. How he wanted to date you. Personally I thought he was nuts.” He grinned at Jessie.

Jessie made a face and stuck her tongue out. “Thanks, Bro.”

“Finally I gave in and set up the blind date. You know the rest.”

“Did you know that Ricardo married Marcy?” Jessie asked.

“No, but I’m not surprised.”

“They’re not together now though,” Jessie added.

“That doesn’t surprise me either.” He looked wistful. “I wonder where she is now.”

Liz shivered. Did he still have feelings for that old girlfriend? She tested him
out. “Are you going to search for her, Alan?”

He reached across and took her hands. “I’m over her, long ago.” He smiled at Liz and she believed him.

When they reached the house, Liz and Alan went into the kitchen to make coffee. Kent walked into the living room and sat down. Jessie had gone straight upstairs and he could hear the shower running.

He was lying back on the sofa sort of dozing, when Jessie came downstairs and into the living room.
She was wearing a short, yellow skirt and top to match.

He sat up quickly and Jessie
sat on the sofa beside him. Kent reclaimed her by snuggling his arm around her
shoulder and drawing her close to him, as if to protect her from all the bad stuff that had been going on.

“Mmm, you smell good.” He nudged her ear with his tongue, but she didn’t respond as he thought she might. “How are you
doing?” he asked, while feeling the tenseness in her shoulders.

Her eyes flooded with tears. “I’m sorry, Kent. I’m just so worried. What if he dies? I don’t know if I can live knowing I killed someone.”

Kent kissed her on the forehead and looked into her eyes. “I thought I was going to lose you out there in the woods. I tried to be brave for Liz, but I was desperate and I felt so helpless.”

“You weren’t helpless.” She looked into his eyes. “That foot work when you
knocked the gun away — if Ricardo had reached it… I wonder what he would have done. He didn’t want to hurt me, he kept saying. He said he was in love with me.”

“And that surprises you? Why wouldn’t he be? I am.”

Kent’s eyes still held the warmth she had felt when she’d first met him
,
and it gave her a good feeling. She smiled at him. “I’m
so glad you stayed,” she said.

“I told you before, I wouldn’t be anywhere else. As long as you need me, I’ll be here. And I hope that’s forever.”

Jessie kissed him. “I love you, Kent. I, too, thought I’d never see you
again. And when you got shot at in the motel, I was terrified. That long ride with Ricardo, I worried more about you than my own well being. Without you, Kent, I didn’t care anymore.”

He thought about how he had almost lost her. It had been an incredible forty-eight hours. The night he had sat helplessly on the hilltop looking down into the valley with despair, unable to reach her but knowing she was in deep trouble, had been so frustrating and he had been incapable of knowing what to do next.

He had wanted to storm into the cabin and save her from harm, but Ricardo
Alvarez had a gun, and he was no doubt an excellent marksman. Kent had his karate, but he was afraid to put Jessie in further jeopardy. After all, a bullet can be more powerful than a chop, even though both could be deadly at the right time and place. But, he had been afraid to challenge Alvarez. Not because of his own life, but because he’d put Jessie in the middle. So he’d waited and let Jessie suffer. It almost turned his stomach to think of Alvarez touching her.

He pulled back and gazed at her now. She had taken care of Alvarez all by
herself. At that moment he couldn’t have been more proud of her. “You're a brave one, Jessica Albright.”

Jessie sighed. “
I gotta tell you, I was not
acting brave out there with Ricardo. I still can’t figure out how I managed to shoot
that gun.”

Kent took no notice that Liz and Alan had just entered the room. He leaned closer and kissed Jessie softly on the lips.

When she noticed Liz and Alan come in,
Jessie broke free from Kent’s hold and left the living room. She nervously paced the kitchen floor.

Kent followed her, as did Liz and Alan. He wondered why she’d left the living room so quickly and confronted her. “Jessie, what’s wrong? Did I say something I shouldn’t have?”

Jessie had her back to him. “I need to know what’s going on at the hospital.”

“So, you want to go there now?” Kent asked her.

She spun round and looked desperately into Kent’s eyes. “I have to. I have to see him for myself. See if he’s okay.”

“After what he did to you?” Alan asked incredulously.

“It’s more like what I’ve done to
him
,” Jessie said weakly.

“What?” Kent said. “He actually planned to take you out of town. He called the police station and told them he was leaving town, because he needed to help a girl that was in trouble with a stalker.”

Jessie felt bewildered. She now realized that Ricardo had planned the kidnapping all along. It had not been a spur of the moment thing that happened in her apartment,
if he had called the police station earlier, because he never made any calls while in her company.

“So he planned it.” Jessie stood in a daze.

Kent reached one arm around her. “Well…do you still want to go to the hospital?”

She turned and looked up at him. “Of course.”

“How do you know they’ll let you see him?” Liz asked.

Jessie turned her eyes on Liz, as if she had to defend herself. “Why wouldn’t they?”

“They probably won’t,” Kent replied, “since you did shoot him. But we’ll go there anyway, if it’ll make you feel any better. I don’t know why you would want to see him, Jessie. And I don’t know if he would want to see you.”

Jessie sat on a kitchen chair. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” She looked up at Kent. “But I have to try. If I can just look at him, see that he’s going to be all right. My heart would lighten tenfold.”

Alan pushed back his chair and carried his cup to the cupboard. He couldn’t
see Jessie’s point, but he decided to keep his opinion to himself this time.

****

Arriving at the nurses’ station, Jessie spotted Dr. Farley walking up the hallway in her direction.

“Doctor, could you give me some news on Ricardo Alvarez, please,” she
called to him.

The doctor stopped in his tracks and gazed at her. “Who are you?”

“Jessica Albright. My mother died here not long ago,” Jessie said.

“Oh yes, the cancer patient. I thought I recognized you. I’m sorry, what did you just ask me?” He looked tired as he
pushed back a lose strand of thin brown hair that had fallen on his forehead. He adjusted his glasses on his short nose. By then Kent had caught up with Jessie. Liz and Alan remained in the background observing.

“I’m wondering,” Jessie repeated, “if you can give me some news on Ricardo Alvarez.”

Dr. Farley paused a minute as if thinking, then replied, “The young man you inquire about is finally conscious.”

“So...that’s good I guess.” Jessie fumbled for words, wishing the doctor
would expand on his statement. But Dr. Farley was apparently a man of few words, or there was something else keeping him from explaining Ricardo’s condition to her.

He looked at the expression of hope in the young woman’s eyes and wished he hadn’t been silenced by the chief. “Yes,” he finally said, “it’s a good sign, but he’s extremely vulnerable to infections. We’re monitoring him very closely right now.”

“Could I see him...I mean, just for a minute. I’ll be —”

“That’s not a good idea, young lady. For one thing, he needs to be kept isolated as much as possible. I just told you about infect —”

“For another thing,” a voice broke through the air, “you shot him, Ms Albright. Why would you want to see him? And why should we trust you near him?”

Both Kent and Jessie wheeled around and stared into the screwed-up face
of Chief Davis. He seemed to have come out of nowhere, but Liz had seen him coming from one of the rooms just to the right of them.

It was Kent who answered the chief’s accusing questions to Jessie. “You know it was self defence, Davis. Why are you still harassing her?”

Davis stepped into the circle of people, and Dr. Farley took leave of the group,
silently stealing away to get on with the mountain of duties the hospital had placed on his tired shoulders.

“The girl’s only out because her brother has connections. No charges have been dropped and other charges haven’t been ruled out yet, so proceedings will take place as usual,” Davis said.

“So, have you talked to Alvarez? Did you question him as to what happened out there?”

“That’s none of your business, young man.”

“I have a citizen’s right to ask.” Kent said.

“Was that Alvarez’s room you just came from?” Liz put in.

They all looked at Davis, whose stubborn face looked inclined not to reply.

“Well?” Kent asked. “Was it?”

“You are bold people,” Davis said. “What are you all doing here anyway?”

“I just wanted to see Ricardo,” Jessie spoke up loud and clear. “I hear that
he’s conscious, and I’d like to tell him I’m sorry about the shooting.”

Davis gave her a doubtful look. “You claim he kidnapped you and tried to
rape you — not once, but twice. Now you want me to believe you’re sorry you shot him?”

“Yes. That’s exactly right.” Jessie’s voice was strong and sincere, but Davis just shook his head and walked away down the corridor and towards the elevator. Then he stopped and turned to face Jessie. “If I hear of any instance of you near Ricardo Alvarez, you’ll be back in that jail cell so fast you won’t even remember that you were out.”

Kent sighed and placed a hand on Jessie’s shoulder. “We might as well
leave, Jess. Nobody’s gonna let you see Alvarez.”

Jessie looked up into his warm reliable eyes, but said nothing. She walked with him towards the elevator, while Liz and Alan tagged along behind. The foursome reached the outside door just in time to see Davis drive away in his cruiser.

****

The day had grown increasingly dark and a heavy mist now filled the air. A
chill had also invaded the month, as can sometimes happen in the latter part of June in Nova Scotia. The weather can go from steaming hot to cool and damp overnight. And like the weather, the earlier revived spirits of the day had dampened for the people in the Cape Cod house.

Jessie and Liz sat at the kitchen table while Kent made coffee. Alan had
gone outside to put the lawnmower away. He had planned to mow the lawn, but
the rain was now pouring straight down in sheets. Jessie got up to turn on the kitchen light. The fan whirled lazily, but she shut it off and returned to slump in her chair again. “I just don’t know what to do.” She sighed.
“And what did Davis mean about
other
charges not being ruled out?”

Kent poured coffee in three blue mugs and brought two to the table. “He’s
talking through his hat, Jessie. I wish we could finish up here and go back to Harbourside. We all need to get back to work and put this behind us.”

“But, you know I can’t leave,” Jessie said.

“You can leave if you want, Kent,” Alan yelled from the doorway. His red hair was soaked and clinging to his forehead. He walked over to a cupboard drawer and pulled out a hand towel, then gave his hair a good wipe and finished off by brushing the towel across the dampness of his arms. He tossed the towel on the cupboard top. “That is, if you want to leave Jessie alone here with Liz. I have to head back right away. I’ve got a custody case beginning tomorrow.” He poured himself a coffee and reached into the bag of cookies resting on the table.

“Hey, I wouldn’t leave Jessie,” Kent said, giving Alan an angry look. “I just said it would be nice if we could.”

Jessie looked at her brother. “So, you’re not going to be with me tomorrow when I go to court?”

“You’ll be fine. There’s nothing I could do anyway. Sam will be with you and he’s your lawyer.”

Jessie sighed. “You’re right,” she said finally, when the silence had only been broken
by the sound of the beating rain. “I’ll call Sandra later. I’m sure she’ll keep me informed on Ricardo’s condition.”

Liz still wondered why Jessie really cared. If someone had tried to rape her,
it wouldn’t be high on her agenda to care if he lived or died. But Jessie was that kind of person. She found the good in people.

Later, Jessie was giving Alan a hug
goodbye in the hallway, when someone banged on the front door.