Silent Scream (12 page)

“I’m fine,” she countered as she savagely brushed her hand across her face.  “Just peachy.”

“Why do people say that?  Is there something happy about that particular fruit?”

“What?”  Maddie stared at him, her mouth partly open as if she couldn’t believe what he’d just said.  Then she let out a mystified laugh.

“Made you laugh, didn’t I?”  He spoke in a half-whisper, his voice raw with too much understanding.  “And as long as you can still laugh, you’re going to be okay.  Maybe not right now, but one of these days.”

“I’m glad you’re here,” she said, leaning back so that her head rested atop the back of the seat.  “Your dog—Donner is it?”  She looked at him, waiting for his answer.  When he nodded, she continued.  “Well, Donner likes you, so you can’t be so bad, right?”

“Thanks, I think.”  Gabriel heard Sam chuckle, and he joined in.

Maddie closed her eyes.  “See, I can make you laugh, too.”

The two lapsed into silence during the rest of the drive to Yolanda’s, each staring out the windows toward the white flakes that seemed to speed toward them, crashing against the glass.  Sam pulled up behind the black Nissan parked in the drive.  Once Sam had thrown the gear shift into park, he cut the engine, got out, and opened Gabriel’s door, then Maddie’s.  Before Maddie even tried to step out into the thin layer of white forming on the pavement, Gabriel darted to her.  “There’s no point in trying to walk up to the door on that ankle.”  Before she could argue, which he knew she would, he reached into the car and lifted her into his arms.

Although Maddie opened her mouth, planning to argue, she felt the cold air caress that foot and shivered, not wanting to think about how the snow would feel.  “Thank you,” she finally managed, watching Yolanda scurry to the front door.

As Gabriel stepped toward the walkway, Sam touched his shoulder.  “We need to talk.”

“I’ll be out in a minute.”

Gabriel strode up the walkway and watched Yolanda swing open the door.  “Come on in.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Gabriel replied, stomping his feet on the wicker mat to shake the snow from his boots before crossing the threshold and carried Maddie inside to the living room couch.  “I need to talk to Sam, and then I’ll be back.”

Wordlessly, Maddie nodded, staring at her swollen ankle as a dull throbbing claimed her.  She reached down and touched it.  Pain ripped through her, and she yelped.  

“You want some ice for that?”

Maddie nodded.  “Yeah.  Still, I don’t think it’s going to help much.  As usual, I out-clumsied even myself.”  Stretching out across the couch, she tried not to think about things, tried not to panic as her heart sped up.  She crossed her arm over her chest as though it would hold back all the pain dying to escape, all the tears she barely forced inside.

That cop.  The blond one.  She thought about him standing there by that kid and shuddered.  He was the one, and now he knew she was talking.  Now she didn’t trust any of them.

Except maybe Gabriel, and the jury was still out on that one.

“I still don’t know why you left so quickly.”  Yolanda crossed the room, carrying a Ziplock bag filled with ice she promptly set on Maddie’s ankle before propping a pillow to the side to keep it in place.

“It didn’t feel right,” Maddie replied, staring out the window where Gabriel and Sam stood beside the patrol car.  Sam’s lips moved and Gabriel nodded affirmatively. Then they stepped from the car and headed toward the house.

“That doesn’t make any sense.”  Yolanda sat down in the recliner across from her.  “And you know it.”

“My whole life doesn’t make any sense.  Why should this be different?”  She peered at the doorway as Sam and Gabriel appeared.

“Let me take your coats,” Yolanda offered, rising to meet them as she reached out, waiting for their garments. Both shrugged out of them and handed them to her, and she slipped through the doorway, carrying the coats away.

“We’d like to ask you a few questions, Maddie,” Sam said, stepping into the room.  As he sat on the recliner where Yolanda had been, he reached up and plucked the hat from his head.

Inhaling sharply, Maddie shook her head.  “I’m done with questions.  There’s nothing else I remember.”  She clenched her eyes closed, praying,
Please make them stop.  Make them leave me alone.

“Yeah, well, that ‘nothing else’ just made you fly outside the police station.  Ten to one it wasn’t one of those kids but somebody wearing a uniform that spooked you, wasn’t it?”  Gabriel crossed the room and sat on the opposite end of the couch at Maddie’s feet.

Her eyes flew open, and her lips parted, but she couldn’t break the stunned silence that hung around her like a weight.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she finally said.

“Maddie, you don’t fly out of a police station like that unless something has terrified you about cops.”  Gabriel reached into his pocket and pulled out the picture of the ring.  “I want to show you something.”  He carefully unfolded the paper and handed it to her.

Although she grasped it, she tried not to look at it.

“Have you seen anything like this?” Sam asked, leaning forward as he clasped his hands and rested his forearms on his thighs. 

Maddie glanced at it and then shook her head.  “No, I haven’t.”  The picture wavered in her trembling fingers and slipped from her grip.  As it fluttered to the ground, Gabriel leaned over and picked it up.  “I’m really tired.  Do we have to talk about this now?”

“It’s not going to be any easier tomorrow or the day after.”  Sam frowned, scrutinizing her expression for clues he might have missed.  “Besides, no matter how much you want to hide from this, if my assumptions are correct, you won’t be able to.”

Do they know?
she wondered, shuddering as she looked at her swollen ankle and the cast encasing her arm, wondering at the miracle of her survival.  Then she thought about his words and what they might mean.  She looked from Gabriel to Sam and back again.  “What are you saying?”

“This design,” Gabriel said, waving the paper toward her, “was on a ring I found at the crime scene, which is what prompted Sam and me to go poking around where your car had been burned.  While we were there, the call came about the intruders, and we were close enough to assist.”

Maddie paled and tried to stifle a gasp, flinching as the image of the ring on the assailant’s hand danced into her mind.  The gold glowed in the moonlight.  Then she remembered him stalking toward her, his fingers closing to fists.  The sting of it slamming across her cheek.  Oh God, she knew that ring.  It belonged to that cop.  But she couldn’t talk, not if she wanted to keep breathing.  “I don’t want to talk about this,” she whispered, her voice warbling with panic.

“Then you don’t have to,” Yolanda said, walking toward her.

“Yes, she does,” Gabriel said.  “For her own good.”  Frowning, he exchanged knowing glances with his brother.  She was so close to losing her composure, and he wasn’t so sure she wouldn’t before it was all said and done.  He scooted closer to her and put the picture away.

“How can it be for her own good?” Yolanda argued, folding her arms across her chest.  “How can you even know what’s in her best interest?”

“Because I know why she doesn’t want to talk.”  Gabriel countered, nodding toward his brother, who got up and slowly approached, pulling off his ring and handing it to Maddie.  “It’s the same as what’s in Gabriel’s picture.”

Maddie flipped the ring over until the insignia faced her.  As she stared, the trembling shifted to a violent shaking, and the ring jumped from her palm to the carpet.  “Oh, God,” she whispered, reminding Gabriel of the keening sound she’d made that night.  “I want to be left alone,” she cried, slowly rocking back and forth.  “I don’t want to know.”  She shuddered violently.

“But you already do,” Sam said softly.  “We saw your reaction in the station, and we know it wasn’t either of the kids who broke into your house.  Maybe they were paid to do it, or maybe it was just stupidity.  Still, you didn’t react to either of them, which pretty well eliminates them as suspects.”  He picked up the ring from the carpet.  “But when you saw that blond cop, you panicked, confirming what we’d already suspected.  That ring belongs to a cop.  We didn’t know which cop until you wanted to run.  Now that we know, we can do what we need to do to keep you safe.”

“I don’t want to talk about this,” Maddie screeched.  Her eyes appeared luminous and wide as tears pooled there, and her chest shuddered with every shallow breath.  She jumped to her feet, forgetting that one ankle would never be strong enough to support her.

As Gabriel saw her starting to tumble, he reached out, thinking she had lost her balance. Holding her, he realized instead she had passed out.  Her head lolled against his shoulders, and long strands of dark hair fell across his chest, reminding him of that night when he’d held her, trying to keep her warm, and all he could think was
Please God let me find a way to help her.

Chapter Twelve

“Is she all right?” Yolanda rushed toward Gabriel as he laid Maddie on the couch, carefully resting her unbroken arm across her chest.  The nurse inhaled and exhaled in unsteady, shallow breaths, and she watched Maddie with large, worried eyes.

“She passed out.” Gabriel knelt at her side, wishing like hell he felt as calm as the tone he’d forced himself to use.  “Get me a damp washcloth, please.”  As he peered at Maddie, he spotted a long strand of hair falling into her eyes, and he brushed it back.  Most of the bruises and gouges had disappeared, and a faint seam of skin appeared where the big gash had rent her skin a few weeks earlier.

“Maddie?” he said.  “Can you hear me?”

No response.

“Maddie?” He spoke louder and glanced at his brother, who stood just a few feet to the left.    

“Here.”  Yolanda reappeared and handed him a cool, damp cloth.

“Thanks.”  He brushed it across Maddie’s face.  “Maddie?  Can you hear me?”  At the feel of the cold washrag, she turned her face in the opposite direction, and her shoulders tensed.  “Maddie?”  He touched the rag to her right cheek.  “Talk to me.”

Maddie squinted, and her eyelids fluttered, parting to reveal unfocused blue eyes.  “What?”  She started to sit up, but Gabriel pressed his hand on her shoulder and kept her prone. 

“Take it easy.”

Blinking rapidly, she squinted harder to focus on his face.  Her good hand pried at his where it rested on her shoulder, and she shifted from beneath its weight.  “What happened?”  She turned her gaze to his hand.

“You fainted.”  A flush colored his face, and he leaned away from her.  As he turned from her, she saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed.

“Are you all right?” Yolanda asked, peering from around Gabriel.  She frowned, and her fingers clung to each other as she clasped her hands together.

Wiping her hand across her face, Maddie forced herself to reply. “Just tired.  It’s been one hell of a day.”

“You’re right about that one,” Sam agreed, thrusting his hands into his jeans pockets.  “I know you don’t want to talk anymore today, and I’ll call and get one of my men over here to make sure nobody tries anything stupid until we get things resolved.”

“No.”  Maddie pulled herself upright and patted her head, feeling to see if her hair had gone astray.  “I’d rather not.”

“You can’t stay here unprotected,” Sam countered, leveling a smoldering gaze at her.  “There are men available, and I intend to get one out here.”

“No,” Maddie said, shaking her head.

“Why the hell not?” Gabriel exploded.

“Because I don’t want to find out the hard way if he’s part of the problem.”

“Fine,” Gabriel said, standing.  “I guess I’ll stay, then.”

“What?” Both Yolanda and Sam said in unison while Maddie kept shaking her head.

“It’s the best plan, and we all know it,” Gabriel said, folding his arms across his chest.

Sam echoed the motion and walked up to Gabriel.  “And just how do you figure that, little brother?”

Gabriel leaned close to Sam, and whispered.  “I’ve got leave coming, and I’m going to use it here.”

Sam managed to nod finally and looked at both Yolanda and Maddie.  “He’s got a point.  If he were on the take, he wouldn’t have called 911 that night.  He may not be a cop, but he’s stubborn enough to protect you just as well.”

Maddie shook her head and thrust her hand into her lap, trying to hide the trembling of her fingers.  “I don’t need–”

”Yes, you do!”  Gabriel snapped, sitting next to Maddie.  “And we both know it.  I know you don’t feel safe.”

“I don’t want to inconvenience you any more than I already have.”  She brushed the back of her hand across her cheeks before looking at him.  “You’ve done so much for me.”

Shaking his head, Gabriel patted her knee.  “You aren’t inconveniencing me.  I just wish I could have done more somehow.”

“The couch is all we have,” Yolanda said, meeting Gabriel’s gaze.  “I hope that’s all right.”

“It’s fine.”  He lightly squeezed Maddie’s knee before moving his hand.  From the corner of his eye, he saw his brother plucking the keys from his jeans pocket.  Gabriel stood and nodded toward Sam.  “I think I left my bag in your car.  I’ll walk you out.”

Together, the two brothers walked down the hall and out into the snow.  As Gabriel closed the door behind them, Sam sauntered down the path.  “Do you want me to go by your house and grab some stuff for you?”

“Yeah,” Gabriel said.  “I’d appreciate that.”  He followed Sam to his car and handed his brother the key to his house. 

“I’ll go by there, and then stop in at the office to find out just a little more about Officer Dan Morrell.  When I get done, I’ll drop your things off here.” Sam took the key.  “What’s on your mind, little brother?”

“She’s so terrified she doesn’t want to talk about this.”  Gabriel shoved his hands deep into his jeans pockets.  “What if she’s not willing to give a report about him?”

Sam shook his head, lifted his hand, and scratched his head.  “I guess we’ll do the best we can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”