Silent Scream (17 page)

Sensing the weakness surging within Maddie, Gabriel hesitantly reached over and patted her hand.  He could see tears glittering in her eyes, pooling until they finally streamed down her face in twin streaks.  As he rested his fingers atop hers, he could also feel the violent trembling within her, but she refused to look at him.

“Is that it?  Can I go?”

Switching the tape player off, Sam nodded.  “Yeah, that was what I needed.”  As Maddie started to rise and hobble away, he said, “I’m sorry I have to ask you this, but I’ll need you to come back down to the station to make a positive ID from a line-up, Maddie.”  He, too, stood, the frown on his face etching hard lines across his forehead.  With his empty hand, he rubbed the back of his neck.

She stopped, and her shoulders slumped slightly as her head bowed.  Yolanda rose from the couch and bustled to her side.  “Please don’t ask me to do that.  I...I can’t face him.”

“You have to,” Sam replied, his shoulders rigid with frustration as he tapped one hand against the other in a rapid succession.  “If you don’t, he’ll be free to hurt other women.”

“It won’t be like last time,” Gabriel said, also standing.  “You’ll identify him from behind a one-way mirror so he won’t be able to see you.”

“I can’t,” she insisted.

“I’ll go with you.”  Yolanda drew her arm around Maddie. “We’ll do it together, Maddie.”  As Maddie’s shivering intensified, Yolanda tightened her embrace, trying to still the panic, wishing she could help her feel safe again.

Brushing a trembling hand across her face, Maddie finally asked, “When?  When do I have to do this?”  Her voice wavered, almost warbling in a broken song of pain.

“It’ll be sometime today.  We have to get the ball rolling down at the station first.  Once that’s taken care of, I’ll call and let you know,” Sam said, stepping toward the doorway.  He peered at the tape recorder and fumbled for the rewind button.  He pressed it, watched the tape back up, turned it off, and shoved it into his pocket.

Without another word, Maddie, leaning against Yolanda, hobbled from the room, leaving the two brothers in a silence too thick to maintain.

“I shouldn’t have snapped at you last night,” Sam said, dragging the keys from his other pocket.  “I wasn’t expecting to see Tammy, especially not in a case like this.  Had it been the rape case or running into her, I wouldn’t have lost it.  But both of them together just did me in, and I reacted without thinking.”

Although Gabriel wanted to say, “Yeah, it reminded you too much of our sister, didn’t it?” he didn’t.  Instead, he replied, “It happens.”  Gabriel raked his fingers through his hair as he puzzled over the apology his brother gave him—an apology he expected only when chipmunks learned to do the Twist.  Hell, he could count on one hand the number of times his brother had apologized.

“You think Maddie can handle this?” Sam asked, setting his hands on his hips.

Although Gabriel wished like hell he could just say, “Oh, yeah, I think she can handle anything,” he wasn’t so sure, so he replied, “God, I hope so.”  No matter how hard he tried not to think about it, he still saw her bruised and bloodied face as it had appeared the night of the assault.  No one-way mirror was ever going to make her feel safe when the man who had left that kind of a calling card was on the other side, not when he was a cop.  Nothing in this world would ever make her feel safe around him again, but at least if he was locked up, she wouldn’t be constantly looking over her shoulder, waiting for him to reappear.

They slowly walked down the hall and into the foyer where Sam slid his hat on his head and tugged on his coat.  “You going to stay here until I call for Maddie to come?” 

Nodding, Gabriel replied, “Yeah.”

“Keep her chin up,” he said, opening the door.  As he stepped onto the porch, he peered at the solid wall of slate clouds overhead.  “Looks like it might snow again—just  what we need.”

“Yeah,” Gabriel agreed.  He watched his older brother standing on the stoop, his mouth half open as though he wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words, and he wondered what thoughts remained inside.  What was it that Sam couldn’t say?

And why?

Although Gabriel started to ask, his brother shuffled away before he could utter a word, and the cruiser quickly pulled out of the drive.

Chapter Sixteen

Although Gabriel knew it would take Sam the better part of the day to prepare the line-up, he still spent the early afternoon pacing, trying not to think about the future neither he nor Maddie wanted to face.  But it was a future coming to them both. 

Besides his furious pacing, he kept looking down the hall toward Maddie’s room, expecting her to open the door and walk into the hallway.  The bedroom door, however, remained tightly closed, the hallway completely still, empty in that silence.  Turning back to the kitchen, he almost ran into Yolanda as she exited the bathroom.  One hand touched the doorjamb, and the other hung at her side.

“Is everything all right?”  Her gaze scurried anxiously about the room, searching for details out of place.

Nodding, Gabriel stepped back, his gaze drifting toward Maddie’s room.  “Fine.  How’s Maddie?”

“A nervous wreck.”  Yolanda brushed a strand of hair from her face.  “She can’t shake this fear, and I can’t help her, no matter how I try.”  She also peered down the hall at the closed door.  “What can I say that would assure her things will be okay after this?”  Tears pooled in her eyes.

Without realizing it, Gabriel touched her arm gently.  “You’re her best friend, and your presence is the best comfort you can give her.”

Yolanda’s tears spilled down her face, and the silence of her grief gave way to soft sobs.  He took her into his arms and held her, trying to comfort her.  When her sadness fell silent, he pulled away.  “You can tell her time will help even this pain.  It will not make it forgettable, but it will make accepting it easier.”  He took a step back and rubbed the back of his neck.  “I’ve never forgotten the pain of my sister’s murder, and there isn’t a day that goes by I don’t miss her with every part of me.  But the years have blunted the pain somewhat.  Perhaps one day Maddie will know the sweetness of life she should.”

“It’s getting close to four o’clock.  Do you think Sam will still call today?”

Nodding, Gabriel said, “Yeah, he’ll call.  It just takes time to set things like this up.  Do you think Maddie will be okay with this?”

Yolanda folded her arms across her chest.  “If you mean do I think she’ll do what she is supposed to, then yes, I think she’ll testify.  I don’t think it’s going to be easy, and perhaps the price will be more than she can bear in the end.  Either way, she loses.  She’s damned if she testifies, and she’s just as damned if she doesn’t.  We both know that.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Gabriel asked, shoving his hands into his jeans pockets and staring at his bare feet, his toes curling into the carpet and releasing.

“Just hang around to see this through.”  Yolanda leaned against the doorway.  “Maddie’s been brought up in a world just as sterile as the emergency room where she works.  Always before, she’s kept a tight lid on the emotional stuff.  If she couldn’t control it, it didn’t happen.  Suddenly she’s realized there’s much more of her life she can’t control than what she can.  For all that, I half expected her to tell you to take a flying leap off the Grand Canyon.”  As she noticed Gabriel’s expression harden into a frown, she said, “No insult meant to you.  I would’ve thought she would have done that with anyone, including you.  But this guy has scared her, and she feels like she’s blind.  For whatever reason, she trusts you—not that it’s bad, but for her it’s pretty amazing.  You want some coffee or lunch?”

“Coffee would be great.”  He followed her and  yanked out his wallet, rifling through the business cards until he spotted Tammy’s.  He grabbed his cell, punched the numbers, and waited until she answered.

  “This is Gabriel.”  He paused, listening.  “Yeah, I know.  I think he’s cooled down somewhat.   Listen, we’re going to be taking Maddie down to the station for a line-up this afternoon.  Maybe you should be there to help pick up the pieces.”  Another pause.  “Yeah, Sam will be there, too....No, I don’t think it’s a problem.  I’ll call you when he’s set it up.  Thanks.”  He closed the phone before setting it on the table next to the mug  Yolanda had placed next to him.  Furls of steam rose from it, and he enjoyed the scent.  Perhaps that had always been his favorite part of the drink—not the taste but the smell.  As he took his first sip, the doorbell rang.

Jumping up, Gabriel said, “I bet that’s Sam.”  He rushed to the door and peered out the peek hole.  Although he would have bet money on his brother, instead he spotted another cop, dark-haired, standing on the porch with his hands on his hips.  “What the hell?” Gabriel whispered, pulling the gun from its holster and backing toward the kitchen to get his cell as Yolanda’s phone rang.

The ringing stopped as Yolanda picked it up.  Then silence. 
Something wasn’t right
.  He should have heard her speaking into the phone.  Silence.  He leaned against the wall and peered into the kitchen.  Empty?

He lunged into the kitchen to find the phone hanging from the wall.  Sam kept saying, “Hello?  Hello?”

Gabriel picked up the receiver and punched 911, paused, 911 pause and then let the receiver dangle again.

Please figure it out, Sam,
he thought.  Gun ready, he crept from the kitchen down the hall toward Maddie’s room.  The door was open, and he could hear whispered voices.  “Where is he?” a male voice hissed.

“I don’t know,” Yolanda said in a panicked whisper.

Oh, God,
he thought and slid along the wall toward her room.

“It doesn’t matter,” the male voice said.  “My friend will take care of that soon enough while I finish things on this end.  A promise is a promise, right?”

Gabriel heard something thump, and he stepped toward the doorway to see a blond man in jeans and a black jacket reaching toward Maddie as she slept.  Morrell.  Gabriel fired one shot.  As the man fell, he fired again, hitting his upper thigh near his groin.

Screams.  Maddie flew off the bed, hysterical, darting toward the doorway.  With his left hand, Gabriel caught her and slammed the door closed.  “Closet,” he said to Yolanda as he moved Maddie toward it and shoved her inside.  “Stay there until you hear Sam’s voice.”

Turning back to Morrell, he found the man trying to rise and fired a shot at his other leg, felling him.  Although Morrell’s gun was nearby, Gabriel shoved it out of his reach and locked the bedroom door.  “Stay down or the next shot will take your head off,” Gabriel snapped, ducking behind the bed as he spotted a shadow from outside falling across the drawn blinds.  Hiding as best he could, he kept the gun trained on the perp and waited.

A minute later, he heard sirens screaming, and the shadow fell away.  As Gabriel stood, he saw Morrell lunging for the gun.  The blond turned toward Gabriel and aimed at him.  Gabriel fired.  Blood blossomed on Morrell’s forehead, and he fell over, dropping the gun.

Gabriel unlocked the door and trained the gun on it, waiting to see who would step inside.  Sam appeared, also holding his gun toward Gabriel.  “There’s another perp,” he said.

“We already got him.”  Sam leaned over Morrell and felt for a pulse.  “Looks like you took care of this one.  He’s dead.”

Gabriel lowered his gun.  “What took you so damned long?” 

“Traffic,” his brother replied.

“Let me get them out of here.”  Gabriel threw a sheet over the perp and opened the closet.  Maddie and Yolanda huddled together in the corner. “It’s all right,” he said in a soothing tone.  “He’s past causing anybody any harm.”  Although Yolanda’s face had turned pale, she appeared reasonably calm.  Maddie, however, shook violently as she clung to her friend.

Gabriel offered his hand, and Yolanda grabbed it.  Together, they rose slowly and emerged into the room where Sam stood next to the body, his feet between the dead perp and the gun.

“Is that him?” Yolanda asked.

“Yeah.”

“Is he dead?”  Maddie finally spoke in a broken whisper.

“Yeah,” Sam said.  “Looks like you won’t be having to attend a line-up after all, just give a statement about what happened.”

Maddie’s gaze flashed from the corpse to Gabriel and then back to the corpse.  “I want to see him.”  She stepped up to the body and slowly bent to pull back the sheet.  As her fingers caught the cotton fabric, she drew it back enough to see his face and staggered backward as she confirmed it was the same man who’d haunted her life for the last few weeks.  She hurriedly stepped backward and ran into Gabriel. 

“Take it easy,” he replied, gesturing to the open door.  “Perhaps you both would like some fresh air.  Nodding, Maddie hobbled down the hall and into the living room.

Gabriel watched until they’d disappeared from sight.

“She’ll be all right eventually,” Sam said, patting his brother on the shoulder.  “Better now that this scum won’t be hanging in the shadows of her life.”

Gabriel turned to face him, folding his arms across his chest.  “Define ‘eventually’ because you know it’s not a term I’ve ever understood.”

“I can’t.”  He looked down at the body.  “We both know  it means something different to everybody.  What happened?”

“One of the perps distracted me at the front door while Morrell stole in through the back, grabbed Yolanda, and then came back here to finish what he’d started.  He moved toward Maddie, and I shot him in the back.  I figured he had a vest on, and I was right. I shot him in each leg, and after I warned him to lay low, he grabbed for his gun and tried to kill me.  That’s when I put a bullet in his head.”

Looking down at the body, he said, “You did well, Gabriel.  You would have made a good cop.  Hell, the officers at the academy all said you’d rise to the top.”

He shrugged.  “I did rise, just not as a cop.  We both know I can’t deal with the win-lose ratio.  Fires I can fight.  People,” he lightly kicked the body, “I can’t.  And we both know I can’t handle the emotional baggage that comes with the aftermath.”  He closed his eyes, and Jessie’s face came to him.  Wincing, he opened them.