Authors: R. E. Bradshaw
RAINEY DAYS (30 page)
“He’s being questioned about the murders and your kidnapping,” Rainey said. “I just need to know if you’ve seen him around at all.”
“Not John, he’s so nice,” Katie said.
“How well do you know him?” Rainey asked.
“He was in our wedding, we’ve known John and Ann for years, JW has known him even longer,” Katie was growing agitated, the realization that she had been intimate friends with a man, who may be a killer, hitting her hard.
“Don’t get upset, Katie. We’re not positive it’s him. We have to wait for DNA to be sure.”
“How long will that take?” Katie was anxious.
“Seventy-two hours, at least,” Rainey answered.
Janet came in the door, just then, saying, “What are you two up to, her heartbeat is really rapid? Whatever it is, you need to stop.”
Rainey smiled at Janet’s attempt to lighten the mood in the room. “We’re just talking, Janet. Katie do you remember Janet, she’s your nurse?”
Katie said, “Hello.”
Janet smiled at Katie, “You look a little more with us now.”
Katie said, “Yes, I think so.”
Janet checked the monitors again, “Whatever you were talking about, let’s just leave that alone for now. I don’t want Dr. Marsden coming in here finding you all excited. He will be coming in to check on you in a few minutes. Then we’ll hand you off to the day shift.”
“Will the next nurse be as nice as you?” Rainey asked, smiling at Janet.
“Aren’t you sweet,” Janet said. “Oh, you’ll love Margie, everybody does.”
Margie was just like Ernie, direct, but loving at the same time. After Dr. Marsden saw Katie and pronounced her progress very good, better than he had expected, he introduced them to Dr. Lawrence, who was on call today. Dr. Lawrence was young, blond and handsome, with an easygoing air. He and Rainey hit it off right away and Katie seemed to like him, too. Margie was adamant Rainey take a break from the room, while she bathed Katie and cleaned her wounds. Rainey left reluctantly, at Katie’s insistence. Margie made her promise not to come back for an hour. Rainey kissed Katie’s forehead before leaving and told her she loved her.
Katie said, “I think you’re kind of cute, in that ball cap.” She tried to smile and it hurt her.
Rainey smiled down at her, “Oh yeah, I think you’re going to be just fine.”
Before leaving the ICU, Rainey spoke with the two agents outside of the doors. They were two of the guys that had been with Danny at JW’s house. She told them she would be gone for an hour, and to be alert. Even though they thought they knew who the suspect was, Rainey was cautious. Something gnawed at her. How could he have been so stupid, to use his own property? This guy had been so careful to hide his identity. Why change that now? In his devolving, he may have just made a mistake. That was usually how criminals got caught, she told herself. Still, she would not be positive it was him until they showed her the DNA results, then she would relax.
She found Mackie, just as she had predicted, passed out in a chair, in the corner of the waiting room. He was by himself, because he was snoring so loudly. Rainey woke him and they went to the cafeteria for some breakfast. They talked on the way. Danny had called Mackie and told him what was going on. It was a favor Danny thought he owed the big man. When they got in line at the buffet, they both piled their plates high with eggs, bacon and grits and sat down by one of the big windows.
They ate for a few minutes before Mackie said, “So, Katie never suspected John Taylor?”
Rainey swallowed, “No, she was shocked that it could be him.”
“What about you, what do you think?” Mackie asked.
“I couldn’t identify him. What memories I do have are blurry,” Rainey said.
“No Rainey, what do you think? Is it the right guy?”
“He fits the profile, he had the opportunity and the means, but you can’t convict him on that alone. We have to wait for DNA, before I’ll be sure,” Rainey said.
“Okay, we wait,” Mackie, said, taking another bite of eggs.
Rainey ate some more, relieved that her stomach could take it, after last night. After a few bites she said, “Have you talked to Ernie?”
“Yeah, she’s up to speed,” Mackie, said.
“I need to call her and thank her for helping last night. She really saved the day,” Rainey said.
Mackie laughed, “Oh, she knows. She reminded me several times when I spoke to her.”
Rainey smiled at Mackie, happy to see him relax a little, “I hope you thanked her sufficiently.”
“I told her you promised her a year’s worth of spa treatments, and she’s ready to collect,” Mackie said.
Rainey noticed the headlines on the newspaper being held up by a man at the next table. It read, “Senator’s Wife Kidnapped,” under that in smaller letters it said, “FBI agent risks life to rescue her.” Rainey got up and found the newspapers stacked by the cashier. She bought two and returned to the table, handing one to Mackie.
Rainey read the first article with its incorrect facts and suppositions. First, she was not an FBI agent then, and she did not rush Katie to the hospital in the back of her car. She did not possibly wound the guy. She missed. The article was accompanied by the same picture Rainey had seen when she Googled JW. Katie and JW arm and arm looking like the perfect couple. JW was quoted as saying, “The former FBI agent that you are referring to is the reason Katie was kidnapped in the first place. Rainey Bell brought that maniac into our lives.”
There was a smaller article about a local veterinarian being questioned, but no name was released. Rainey threw the paper down in disgust. Rainey was glad she did not have the business phone with her. The mailbox was probably full of messages from media wanting interviews. That was not going to happen. Rainey never talked to the press after her own brush with the killer. She certainly was not talking to them now.
Rainey grabbed the paper, in front of Mackie, pulling it down so she could see his face. “Don’t tell anybody where I am except Ernie. Tell her, if the media contacts her, my comment is, no comment.”
“Where are you going?” Mackie asked, as Rainey stood up from the table.
“I don’t want to run into one of those media shits right now,” Rainey said. “Hey, you should go home. Get out of here for a while. I got two guys upstairs watching my back.” Rainey saw that Mackie was reticent, “I could use some fresh clothes and my laptop. I could really use some help finding out what happened to my shoulder holster and where my car ended up, too.”
Once given a mission, Mackie was glad to leave the hospital. Rainey knew he wanted her to make him go. He would not do it on his own. Mackie knew the alarm code at the cottage, so he would have no trouble getting her things. She told him a new code to program in, after he was inside. Rainey did not like the idea of too many people knowing her code. She changed it frequently anyway, just to be sure. Rainey left the cafeteria, taking the elevator up to ICU. As soon as she stepped off the elevator, a microphone was thrust into her face and a bright light blinded her.
“Are you or are you not an agent with the FBI?” A pretty blonde, with too white teeth asked her. She was quite persistent, “Are you the agent who was attacked last year, are you Rainey Bell?” Rainey ducked her head and passed the reporter only to run into JW, who was again furious, maybe even more so. JW was coming unwound.
He shouted at Rainey, “I demand to see my wife.”
Against her better judgment she responded, “She doesn’t want to see you.” Rainey could feel the heat from the big white light on the camera on her back. She could see the reflection of it bouncing off the glass doors to the ICU.
JW was not taking that as an answer, “How do you know? She was drugged. Why can’t I see her?”
Rainey flashed with anger. She stepped in close to JW, so no one else could hear what she had to say. “Because she told me she why she hates you and if you don’t want all these other people knowing your little secret, you will back off now.”
JW’s face lost all its color. For a moment, he was stunned and then he slowly stepped aside, letting Rainey pass. She heard the reporter ask him what she had said, and he replied, “No comment.”
Rainey smiled and kept walking. Katie was ready to see her when she got back. She had eaten a little, coaxed by Margie, and was sitting up a little higher in the bed. Margie inquired if Rainey had eaten breakfast. Rainey assured her she had. Margie told her to feel free to use the shower in the bathroom and she could get her a toothbrush, if she needed one.
“My friend is bringing me some things from home, thank you,” Rainey said.
Margie told Rainey the plastic surgeon had been by and declared Katie’s nose set perfectly and the small cuts were not going to be permanent. Besides, he could get rid of scars, if any remained, with a couple of simple procedures. He left instructions for home care and wanted to see Katie in his office in a week.
Margie began leaving, saying as she went, “She’s just had some pain medication, so she should drop off to sleep. I’m just out here, if you need anything. Katie, you get some rest now.”
Rainey smiled at Katie, “You look a little more bright eyed.”
“A sponge bath will do that to you,” Katie said, through cracked lips. It appeared Margie had put some salve on the cracks, but it still looked extremely painful.
“How are you feeling?” Rainey asked her.
“Not too bad right now, the meds are kicking in,” Katie said, her eyes rolling a little. She was fighting to stay awake.
“Don’t fight it,” Rainey said, “Go to sleep, we can talk when you wake up.”
Katie’s eyes shut involuntarily, “Will you talk to me till I fall to sleep?”
“Sure, what do you want me to talk about?” Rainey said, leaning over the railing, stroking Katie’s hair.
“Tell me how you’re going to take me to Nags Head, fishing,” Katie whispered, she was already fading out.
Rainey began, “When I take you out of here, you are going with me to my cottage. When you are well enough, I’m taking you to Nags Head. We’ll get a cottage on the beach. I’ll hold you while we swing in a hammock, watching the sun set, listening to the waves…”
Katie’s breathing became steadily slower until she was fast asleep. Rainey sat down with the images of holding Katie, in a hammock, in her mind. She sat in the recliner and daydreamed. For the first time, in a long time, Rainey had something to look forward to. A life with Katie was definitely what she had planned. It crossed her mind that she should ask Katie, but she knew in the looks Katie gave her, that she too, had fallen madly in love. Now, all they had to do was get through this healing process, something they could help each other with, because Rainey had never healed, not by a long shot, but she thought she might be able to with Katie.
The image of her attacker flashed in her mind, interrupting her sweet dreams. She saw him there in an instant of clarity she had not experienced since the attack. The physicians who took care of her, in a room not far from this one, told her she may get some memories back, but it would take time. For one brief second, she saw him kneeling over her, his eyes close to hers. Then she remembered a scent, something familiar, but she could not place it. She had smelled it in the room where she found Katie last night, too. In the image, all she could see of him was the leather mask, his distorted mouth and nose, and his eyes. They were blue, she suddenly remembered, but his lashes were dark, like the rest of the hair she could see on his body. Dark hair, blue eyes and maybe some kind of cologne, she had to tell Danny.
Rainey did not want to go to the nurses’ station to use the phone. The reporter was probably still there and would see her through the glass. She checked the bathroom and sure enough, there was a phone by the toilet. Rainey left the door to the bathroom cracked open, so she could hear if Katie called out to her. She dialed Danny’s number, surprised that she still remembered it after years of just punching a contact button on her phone. He answered on the third ring, still talking to someone else.
“McNally,” he finally said into the phone.
“Danny, it’s Rainey. I’ve remembered something, it could be important.”
Danny was interested, “What is it?”
“The dark hairs found at my scene, match in appearance the ones found tonight, right?” Rainey asked.
“Yes, they did, but we already knew that,” Danny said.
“But I just now remembered seeing the hairs on his chest. They were black, not too thick. His eyelashes were black as well and his eyes were blue.”
“You’re sure about the eyes, they were blue?” Danny asked.
Rainey answered him emphatically, “Yes, I’m positive. What color are Taylor’s eyes?”
“Blue, they’re blue, Rainey. I’m going to send a picture to you, do you have a computer?”
“No, not here,” Rainey said, “but Mackie is trying to locate my car and the laptop is in it. He’s supposed to bring it to me, when he finds it.”
Danny talked fast, “I can help Mackie with finding the car. I’ll call him. In the meantime, I’ll shoot you an email with Taylor’s picture. I know you didn’t see much, but maybe it will ring a bell for you.”
Rainey needed to know, “Do you still have him?”
“It’s amazing. He hasn’t asked for a lawyer and keeps saying he will do anything to help find the man who did this awful thing to his friend’s wife. He’s either the nicest guy I’ve ever met or he’s getting off on the attention, throwing himself into the investigation,” Danny said.
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