Finding Faith (24 page)

“Faith!” She was back in the don’t bullshit me stance with her arms across her chest. “Spill it. I can see there is something you’re not telling me.”

She stormed out of the room. I had no idea what she was up to until I heard, “Damn. Please tell me you’re kidding me. He texted you?” Her voice was high pitched.

She must be scrolling through my texts because then she shouted, “Shit, Faith! Do you not have any brains at all? You spoke to that psycho? Does John know? Is that why he came with you?”

I must have looked like a deer in headlights because Grace waved a hand in front of my face, bringing me back to her.

“I may have,” I answered weakly.

“Don’t lie. It’s right here.” She turned the phone so the evidence was in front of me. “Does John know? Is that why he looked like he wanted to kill somebody? Now the comment he made as he walked away makes sense.” Grace was irate, spewing all of her thoughts out at once.

“What do you mean? What did he say?”

“He was talking to himself, not me. I heard him saying he would treat that son of a bitch how he had treated you. If he was lucky that would be getting off easy.”

“No, John doesn’t know. He wouldn’t do anything because I never told him. He wouldn’t do something stupid. He has no reason to get involved.”

Grace was still giving me the are-you-serious look.

“Stop giving me that look,” I yelled. “I didn’t tell him to go defend me. I didn’t tell him to do any of it. I don’t need his help.” My knight was back in full force.

Grace bopped me in the forehead with the palm of her hand. “Hello, of course he would defend you. He loves you, dummy. Is your denial that bad?”

“Enough of the lecture, we need to go.”

The last thing I needed was Grace telling me what I already knew but was refusing to believe. Maybe if nobody else said the words I could tell myself it wasn’t true.

Fifteen minutes later, Grace pulled into the employee lot refusing to listen to me about dropping me off at the ER entrance so I could get inside sooner.

What was it with these people ignoring everything I said? Then again, if John had listened to me I probably would have walked in on Brad vandalizing my place.

I could feel bile rise in my throat at the image of Brad laughing as he tore open the condoms and spilled the pills all over the floor. The condoms were our brand, what a coincidence. He really was nuts.

Wanting to rid my mind of the memory I said, “You should have just dropped me off at the doors.”

“You may not want to listen to John, but I sure am, and if he says I need to keep you in my sight that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” Grace said keeping her eyes straight ahead.

I rolled my eyes at her but she didn’t notice. That’s when I caught sight of the doctors’ gated lot and saw the car. Brad was here. Was he working today? Now I didn’t want to go in through the ER. What if he saw me? Sweat formed on my head and my hands got clammy.

My phone rang with a number I didn’t recognize so I turned the phone to vibrate and tucked it back into my purse. I didn’t have time to worry about anything else.

I wiped the sweat off my face. My stomach was ready to jump out of my throat. It was doing flips and twists like it had a heart of its own.

As we approached the ER doors I tucked my arm through Grace’s for support. I thought it was only for moral support but when the air from inside the vestibule hit me my legs went weak.

I could feel my phone vibrate in my purse but I wasn’t coordinated enough to answer it. I was going to pass out, I could feel it. The outer edges of my vision went black and I started to see stars. My head felt like it was floating off my shoulders. Why didn’t I listen to John?

At least Faith had one other person besides myself she could count on out here. Grace reacted the way I expected. She didn’t bat an eye when I asked her to stay with Faith.

Mike was on shift and told me he would meet me at the fire house so I could explain what happened. I texted James, Colin, and Luke asking them to meet us there, too, then I texted George and asked him to go to the hospital to keep an eye on Faith and Grace.

Not that I didn’t trust Grace to do what I asked, but I didn’t know what that prick was up to and wanted to make sure they were both safe.

When I pulled up I saw Mike’s squad car sitting there already. Make that two other people I could count on for the love of my life.

The building was deserted. The ambulance and the engine were both gone out of the bay. It was probably better that the guys from the other shift didn’t know what was going on. The only reason I called Luke, Colin, and James was because I trusted them with my life, so I knew I could trust them to help me with Faith.

Mike was sitting at our kitchen table eating a burger. “Hey, Mike. Thanks for coming to talk to me.”

“No problem, anything for Faith,” he said as he took a big bite out of his burger. How could he eat? I was ready to beat the shit out of someone since I’d seen her place.

“Dr. Price vandalized Faith’s place.”

Mike took another bite out of the burger like I’d told him it was cold outside.

“Why would you think that?”

He was chewing like a cow and it was pissing me off. Why isn’t he outraged? I wanted to do nothing else than hunt Brad down and beat the shit out of him and Mike was just sitting there eating.

“Umm, let’s see, because I just left there and saw it for myself.”

“Really? I just saw Dr. Price over at the hospital. Why do you think it’s him?”

“You saw him working?” My heart leapt in my chest, sending a jolt of energy to my fists because I sent Faith and Grace directly into his hands. Then I remembered George went over there and instantly relaxed. I decided to send him a quick text telling him to keep an eye out because Dr. Price was in the building.

Then I looked at Mike again and said, “Trust me, I know it was him. Faith was acting weird all night and then this morning. I heard her talking to someone and it wasn’t Grace no matter how much she would like me to believe that. She locked herself up in my bedroom and was arguing with him.”

“You spent the night with Faith?” A smile crept onto Mike’s face.

“Mike, not now,” I said seriously. This guy was unbelievable.

“Yeah, right, sorry.” He cleared his throat as if that would get rid of his last comment and put him back into police mode. “Tell me what happened.”

I had only gotten as far as telling Mike I thought I saw Brad leaving while we were on the elevator when I heard Colin and Luke come in from the bay.

Colin was leading as he ran a hand through his damp chocolate brown hair. “James can’t come, sorry bro. So what’s going on with Faith that’s so important?”

His grey eyes were bright with curiosity. I could see the wheels turning already. Colin was a thinker. He always had to get a game plan together before he acted, that’s why I wanted him helping me out. That brain of his could problem solve in the matter of seconds, which is one of the things that made him great at his job.

“See, Killer, I knew I should have been the one to hook up with her,” Luke added as he trailed behind Colin.

“Whatever. Sit your ass down and listen to what happened,” I said turning back to Mike, who was almost done with his lunch.

It wasn’t until Luke pulled his chair out hard and sat down making it crack that I made eye contact with him. He looked ticked. His dark blue eyes were almost black as he glared at me. Then, as if a light came on, he said, “Are you going to tell us about you getting laid?” Those eyes turned back to their sparkling sapphire blues in anticipation.

Colin’s big tanned hand smacked Luke upside the back of the head and said, “Why would he tell you about that?” He shook his head in disbelief.

Luke rubbed where Colin had just whacked him and said, “Never mind. What’s going on?”

“Keep going, John,” said Mike as he threw his trash away, completely dismissing the Three Stooges act that was happening in front of him.

I started again and went through all the details, from thinking I saw Brad leaving all the way to how I left her kneeling on the ground helpless. Nobody said a word, not even Luke. All they could do was look at me blankly.

Mike stood up, surprising me by handing out orders. “OK, I’m going to call a guy to meet me at her place so he can take pictures of the scene and I’ll talk to the front desk guy, what’s his name? Stan.”

He turned to Luke and said, “Luke, I want you to patch up the drywall, so go and buy all the stuff. While you’re doing that, we’ll get the pictures taken of the evidence and get it all bagged up.”

Then he pointed at Colin. He was totally in his element. “Colin, try to come up with a timeline and scenario on how it could have been the doctor. I don’t want to talk to him until I have all the kinks worked out.”

We were all sitting taking his commands, not speaking. Then it clicked who he had reminded me of at the bar - Barney Fife, but Barney was long gone. I had a new respect for Mike.

I don’t think any of us had ever seen Mike this way before. Sure we’ve seen him at accidents, but we’re usually to busy to pay attention to him.

I hadn’t expected Mike to take over. I had planned on doling out the duties, but I was relieved because my head wasn’t thinking clearly. It kept drifting off to Faith. I was starting to get antsy because he hadn’t told me what I should be doing.

Not able to stand it any more I texted Faith, “How are you doing? I’ll be with you as soon as I can.”

I tucked my phone away trying to tuck my agitated emotions with it. I knew not to expect an answer since she was supposed to be in the meeting, but it made me feel slightly better being able to let her know I was thinking about her.

After I sent my message I heard Mike calling my name. The guys were looking at me like he had been trying to get my attention for hours.

“John, text George and tell him to try to see what Dr. Price is doing at the hospital and make sure the girls are all right.”

That was the first time that I saw any hint of concern in Mike’s face. At least I wasn’t the only one who didn’t trust him.

We all started to get up when Mike added, “Have George find out if Dr. Dickhead was even scheduled to work today.”

The three of us stood there watching him. He said, “Oh, that’s what Grace and I call Dr. Price.”

Then he left to go make his call.

Dr. Dickhead, I liked it.

I sent the message to George making sure a second wasn’t wasted.

The smell of Faith still hung in the cab of my truck, making the stabbing feeling I had in my stomach worse. I pulled out my phone, no messages. I wasn’t completely surprised but I did wish she would have said something to me even if it was a smiley face.

As wired as I was I couldn’t sit in the parking lot any longer and play the text game with George. All the other guys had headed out to take care of their respective duties to help me and here I sat doing nothing.

After giving myself a swift kick in the ass, I headed toward Faith’s place, putting a call to George as I went. The phone only rang once before I got a clipped, “Yep.” There were loud voices in the background.

“Hey, I wanted to see if you came up with anything? Have you seen the girls?

There was silence on the other end of the line for a second. George was walking, his breathing was uneven and the phone had static. The voices that had appeared to be right behind his head became quieter. I waited. George was always cautious, it came with his training. Once his breathing was steady again and there were no other noises surrounding him he finally spoke. “There was a small issue.”

The knife that had slowly been twisting in my gut since this entire incident started suddenly plunged all the way through to the other side.

“What the hell happened?” I changed my course and headed to the hospital. “Is she all right? I hope Grace didn’t get hurt, did she?”

She was only trying to be a good friend and help me out. I would feel even worse if she was involved in anything. I should have been with her. I should have never handed her off to someone.

“Calm down, man. If it was serious don’t you think I would have called you sooner? Grace is completely fine, and Faith will be fine.”