“Ready?”
She nodded, and they started out. She paused before she went out the door, shook herself to dispel the tension. A little was good but she needed to be looser for her “character.” She took a deep breath, deliberately relaxed and went out the door.
She drove around town, arrived from the other direction. The meeting spot was isolated, a construction site that had been halted when the builder ran out of financing. Fence was down on the back side and she pulled up and got out of the car.
Johnny pulled up a few minutes later, his car directly in front of hers, nose to nose like he always did.
“You got the money?” he greeted her.
She picked up the backpack off the hood and unzipped it enough so he could see cash, just not how much. “You got the stuff?”
“Not here. I’m to take you to them.”
Her stomach lurched. This wasn’t in the plan.
He came around the car. “Didn’t want to meet you here. Too public. I’ll take you to the spot.” He gave her a cursory pat down, even more casual than usual. “Let’s go.”
She knew the wire couldn’t be detected but she always had a faint feeling of contempt that he believed her ankle story. She got into the car, the backpack containing the money resting between her feet. As they pulled out and went out Richmond Road, she hoped her surveillance could keep up.
The uneasy feeling grew when they pulled behind an abandoned gas station. They hadn’t anticipated the switch to yet another vehicle. She hadn’t anticipated being blindfolded. The thought occurred to her she should have listened. They continued for miles and turned off the road, driving over rough ground and then came to a stop.
“We’re here.” He leaned over and took off her blindfold.
Jessie blinked, her eyes adjusting to the light as she looked around to see the wooded area. They were on an old logging road. From the growth, it hadn’t been used in a while.
“I don’t see anyone,” she said nervously as she wondered if she should have listened to the phoned in warning, should have passed on this one.
He pointed down the track through the trees. “He’ll meet you on the other side. Once the deal’s made, you come back here and I’ll take you back.”
She tried to read him, uneasy. She wondered if her surveillance had been able to keep up. Damn, she should have believed the call.
She looked around as she got out, listening but there was nothing to hear except the wind in the trees. Johnny sat still, seemed poised to wait. She pulled out the backpack, and started down the lane. As she started down it, the car pulled away.
She jerked around but the car was already gone. She circled, not liking anything about this. She was in an open space, a long drive between the trees. Something was wrong, no one was there.
“Hello?” she called, not liking the silence. Even the birds were quiet. She was out in the open, exposed.
A car pulled up at the far end of the road where it looked like it opened to a meadow. A man got out, too far away to be able to identify. “Down here,” he hollered with a wave of his arm.
With more than a little misgiving, Jessie started down the road, nervous now, wondering how this was going to go down. All she could hear was the crunch of the gravel, a light breeze through the trees. No birds. Nothing. The man was slowly walking toward her.
“Jessie!”
The scream came from behind her. Nerves taut, she jerked around into a crouching position, already reaching for her weapon. The gunshot took her from behind, where she moments before had been facing. She felt the punch in the shoulder blade, slamming her forward, sprawling across the gravel. White pain took her to the edge of consciousness. Training and duty got the gun in her hand but she was unfocused, disoriented. She could hear running, the vibrations through the ground as she struggled for some grip on consciousness.
I’m going to die,
she thought and focused in an effort not to go without a fight.
There were hands on her other shoulder, her weapon grabbed from her and then from behind her, above her, another voice, a male voice.
“What the fuck! What are you doing here?”
Then there was an explosion of sound, the gun going off right above her and she didn’t hear anything more.
She came back, into a kaleidoscope of sounds and images, foggy and unclear. Someone was leaning over her. “Damn. So much blood,” a woman was saying.
She screamed at the pressure on her shoulder.
“Jessie, Jessie!” came the demand. “Are you wired?”
What difference did it make anymore? At least the bastards would know there were witnesses.
“Yes,” but it took all her breath to say that.
“Thank God.” Her shirt was pulled up as if to see and she moaned at the jostling.
“Officer down! Officer down! Need an ambulance. Life Flight.”
You’ve called the cops?
Then everything dissolved.
She came back to feel pressure on her shoulder. Someone, she didn’t know who, was trying to help her.
“Tell—tell Julie I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Oh, fuck, tell her yourself.”
Why do you sound so angry?
“Tell Nicki I love her.”
Never see her graduate, never see her get a life.
“Don’t you die on me, Galbreath! I didn’t come all this way just to have you take the easy way out! You tell Nicki yourself! You better not abandon her, leave her with no one.”
“Not easy.”
From off in the distance, or maybe it was her imagination, she heard a siren.
“About damn time,” came the muttering from above her and then there was the roar of engine, siren, dirt being kicked up, a police radio crackling.
“Police! Put your hands up!”
“Oh, God, a county mountie.”
“Now!”
“Deputy, I take my hands off her and she’s going to bleed to death. Are you the only one here? Is the ambulance coming? Oh, shit man, I’m not going anywhere. Are you alone?”
Jessie moaned and was gone again, fading in and out. Time was telescoping and she didn’t know what was happening except breathing hurt. “Can’t breathe—breathe,” she whispered.
“Where the hell’s that ambulance? Is that the helicopter?”
There were more sirens and the next thing she knew, there were white uniforms leaning over her. She screamed as they lifted her and roughly jogged her to the copter that she didn’t remember landing. She thought she was going to vomit as it lifted and turned and that was the last thing she remembered until bright, bright lights blinded her and she was rushed somewhere.
She screamed when they lifted her and moved her to a table and there was so much activity around she couldn’t keep track. She could hear paging echoing and a lot of confusion around her but nothing that made sense. Light flashes, confused glimpses of people, machinery, an operating room and then merciful blackness.
Delusions and hallucinations followed, glimpses of reality or maybe she only thought it was reality. Nicki curled up in a chair beside the bed, Julie standing beside the bed talking to the doctors. She even thought she saw Diana leaning over her, wiping her face. Mostly she slept. Sometimes she hurt so much she could only count the minutes, the hours until the next dose of pain relief.
She didn’t even remember the first surgery, just the second where they took a tendon from her leg to repair some of the shoulder damage. Laid up with shoulder damage, leg surgery, she faced months of therapy, maybe a full year of recovery. Nothing like what you saw in the movies or on television.
“You’re damn lucky,” Captain Conrad told her, standing beside her hospital bed. “If that shot had taken you on the left side, we’d be going to your funeral.”
Lucky, she considered. Yes, she supposed so, although there was still a mess to clean up.
“What made you turn?”
She looked away and didn’t answer.
“Had to be something. Report said you were sprawled out flat on your stomach, Kaplan’s body behind you on his back. You took the bullet in the back.”
Jessie could still hear that shout of warning. “There was someone else there,” she said slowly.
“Yes, someone Kaplan recognized, a woman.” He cocked his head and looked at Jessie. “Any idea who?”
Jessie shook her head. “I turned, got hit almost immediately. Everything’s fuzzy.”
“Surprised you can remember that much.” He gave Jessie a speculative look. “She called you by name.” He paused. “She knew about you. She said you couldn’t die and leave Nicki alone.”
Jessie blinked and looked up in surprise.
“Is there something you’re not telling me, Detective Galbreath?”
Jessie gave a rueful shake of her head. “Probably a lot. I can’t remember, just bits and pieces, fragments.” She looked at Conrad directly. “I don’t know who the woman was. But I’m grateful.”
He let it go at that, but she knew there would be more questions later.
Finally weeks later, she was home, although she still faced more therapy. But not back to work. Not yet. Fragments of memories surfaced, and then the nightmares began.
***
“Jessie! Honey! Please wake up. It’s Nicki. I’m right here. You’re home. You’re safe.” Jessie came awake, her hand on the back of the couch, pulling herself up, her legs already swinging to the floor. She was breathing hard, her heart pounding as she wildly looked around.
Nicki stood there, distraught, hands clenched, as she watched her sister. “Jessie, it’s okay. It’s only a nightmare. It’s all over.”
Jessie looked around, grounding herself. Her living room. Her house. Her couch. Her coffee table with the newspaper, the TV remote. Her sister, Nicki, standing back, watching her, concern written all over her face. Jessie ran her hand through her hair, closed her eyes, reached out for Nicki to let her know she was awake. Nicki took her hand, pushed her back to a reclining position, sat at her hip. She stroked Jessie’s face, wiping away the panic sweat.
“Jesus, Jessie. Did the doctor say how long these nightmares were going to last?”
Jessie closed her eyes, going though her cycle of thoughts to calm her panic, slow down her heart rate. It was all over. She was out of the hospital. No more surgeries, just therapy. She was still on leave but that would soon be over. She could go back to work, desk work, yes, but she could get over this waiting, this suspended time. Get back into the rhythm of living, not of healing. “Don’t swear.” She drew a deep breath. “He says it’ll lessen once I get back to work. Where’s Julie?” He also said they would stop when she remembered whatever was eluding her.
“She went in to the clinic.”
Jessie drew a deep breath. That was good. Her nightmares always upset Julie, and then she had to deal with Julie as well as the nightmare.
“Was it the same thing?” Jessie nodded. “You know,” Nicki said carefully, cautiously, “you probably had this one because of the fight you and Julie had last night.”
Jessie opened her eyes, looked up at Nicki. “You heard.”
“Well, it was a little hard not to the way you two were yelling at each other.”
“We were out in the family room.”
Nicki nodded. “Yeah, you were pretty loud. Want to talk about your nightmare or the fight?”
Jessie sat up, drawing up her legs, resting her head on her knees. She was embarrassed Nicki had heard anything, not that Nicki didn’t know, but still it was not comfortable your little sister hearing your lover’s quarrels. “She wants me to quit the force.” Nicki nodded. “She thinks I can do private security, even get a PI license, anything but being a cop.”
“Your being shot really freaked her out. Didn’t help that you didn’t tell her about the undercover you were on.”
“Cops get shot occasionally.” Jessie raised her head, rested her chin on her knees. “We never like to think it’s going to happen but we all know it does, and it might. That comes with the territory.” She stared straight ahead.
“Was the nightmare the same?” Nicki put her arm around Jessie and gently transferred Jessie’s head from her knees to her shoulder.
Jessie nodded. “The drive down between the trees, the open space. Someone screaming at me. Being hit.” She shivered.
“Nothing more?”
Jessie shook her head. She had tried so hard to remember more, but everything was a blur, she had snatches of memory, bits and pieces, not enough. “There were three people there,” she said. “One survivor, one dead and one unknown.” She took a deep breath. “I know I didn’t kill him. I couldn’t—couldn’t turn over. I know I got the gun out, at least I think I did. But it was my gun that killed him.”
She knew she shouldn’t be talking about this. And if she was talking to anyone, why not to the shrink? Or her life partner? Not to her seventeen-year-old sister. She had already failed one psych evaluation. They said it was too early for her to return. Maybe it was. She had been having night terrors then. Now it was just nightmares. What would she do if she didn’t pass her evaluation? And her partner? If it was up to Julie, she wouldn’t pass. Julie, she knew, would be sympathetic and say all the right things, but she would be delighted if Jessie couldn’t go back. That left Nicki. And her longings for a lover who understood and accepted all parts of her life.
“Are you sure it was a woman?” Nicki asked. Jessie nodded. “Not him?”
“No, Kaplan was an executioner. We had him on file. Same MO. Lure the suspect to an isolated area.” She had been so stupid but they too thought they had everything covered. “One shot to take them down, then another shot at close range at the back of the head to make sure. Always the same.” She felt Nicki’s grip tighten around her.
“Then whoever the mystery woman was, she had to have killed him.” She paused. “She saved your life.”
Jessie nodded. No matter what line of reasoning she took, it always came back to that. Who and why? She had gone over and over everyone she had come in contact with, examined them one by one and discarded the idea. Except, of course, for the anonymous tip. She hadn’t told Nicki about that, certainly hadn’t told Julie or anyone else for that matter. She sat up, needed to move, suddenly felt caged. Nicki released her immediately.
“Want some iced tea?” she offered. “Why don’t you go sit on the deck? It’s a beautiful afternoon.”