Poison Read online

  “Isn’t it your duty to take the child in? You found God, as they say,” Lucent challenged.

  An overwhelming peace consumed her sense of flight. Keelyn felt a calm ease through her like ripples on a lake; each wave steadied her frayed nerves. Her own will battled against the tranquility. Trust was a hard-earned commodity, and the wealth of her faith was poor.

  “What is it you want?” She clipped her words sternly.

  “Raven is no longer able to care for her daughter. I’ve left her here for you. Thought I’d be generous and spare her life. I think you owe Raven this much . . . for what you did.”

  Keelyn wanted to break free from this man, but his words sank like hooks into her flesh and her resolve wilted under his glare, his accusations a confirmation of her own internal condemnation.

  “Why aren’t you up out of your seat looking for her?” Lucent asked.

  She held his gaze.

  “Is it because you wouldn’t recognize your niece? Last time you saw Raven, she was pregnant. Two years is a long time.”

  “What kind of trouble is my sister in?”

  Lucent slid the edge of his jacket open. The grip of a gun glinted from the waistband of his black denims.

  He pulled her chin up and locked his eyes on hers.

  “You need to take what I say very seriously.” She tried to pull away, but his fingers squeezed at her jaw like a vise. He leaned closer and lowered his voice. “If you look for Raven, I’ll come back and kill you and the child.”

  Keelyn eased his hand from her face with shaky fingers. The violent churning in her stomach released a flood of saliva into her mouth, and she swallowed several times to clear it. Was it the greasy smell or his threat that caused her stomach to flip?

  “How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”

  “In the end, it’s all about truth, isn’t it? And ultimately, the choice you make about your belief in truth. But no matter how heartfelt your belief is, the truth doesn’t change. That’s what is so fun about humans. They believe they can change truth.”

  Keelyn scanned the diner. “Where exactly is the child?”

  Lucent leaned back and secured his toes under the metal bar upon which he had been resting his feet. “I’m just curious how much you buy into your faith.”

  “We’re done.”

  “I’m sad we didn’t get along.” Lucent stood and patted her on the shoulder as though she were a child. “I guess it’s to be expected.”

  Keelyn watched as Lucent left. Her mind begged her body to detain him until Lee came. How could he leave and not tell her exactly where the child was?

  As Keelyn sat motionless with indecision, Lee entered the diner. She caught his attention with a quick wave and turned back toward the counter as he approached. His uniform drew every eye like a magnet, and a quiet pause settled over the diner. Lee placed one arm around her, giving her a gentle hug, his service weapon a wedge between them. He pulled back her hair and kissed her cheek. Keelyn raked her fingers through his short blond hair and focused in on the comfort of his sapphire eyes. Could he feel the tremble in her fingers?

  “Sorry I’m late. Got a call about someone barricaded in their home, threatening suicide. I hate it when we don’t get there in time. Such a horrible day for that family.” He scooted onto the barstool Lucent had vacated and looked at her expectantly. “What’s wrong? Did I say too much?”

  Keelyn placed her hands in her lap.

  “Not feeling well?” Lee pursued.

  “Can you be sure it wasn’t a homicide?”

  “Are you questioning my astute deductive reasoning?” Lee waved the waitress off and grabbed the water in front of him.

  “Don’t drink that.” Keelyn shoved the glass away. Water splashed over and onto her hand, stinging like acid.

  “What is up with you?”

  “I had a visitor while I was waiting.”

  “Sounds cryptic.”

  “He called himself Lucent.”

  The dread in Lee’s eyes caused Keelyn’s pulse to double. “Lucent? You actually saw him as a person?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “He was sitting right where you are.”

  “You’re sure he was real.” The last word was seeded with doubt.

  A slow heat built in her cheeks. “Lee, I wasn’t hallucinating.”

  “He hurt you?”

  “No.”

  “Where is he?”

  “He just left.”

  “Is this some kind of joke? If so, it’s not funny.”

  Keelyn inhaled deeply, shaking her head. “It’s not a joke.”

  “What did Lucent want?”

  “He said he’s left Raven’s daughter here for me.”

  Lee settled his hand on his thigh near his weapon. With his other hand, he eased his fingers around her neck and slid his hand under tendrils of her long brown hair and pulled her close into his shoulder. Her skin tingled under his touch. Patrons would observe an embrace between lovers. A seasoned officer could scan a room for threats subversively, and Keelyn knew this was the reason for his public affection.

  Cover.

  After several seconds, he pulled back and placed his lips against hers in a soft kiss, the warmth dispelling the chill in her bones left from Lucent’s visit. His palm cupped her cheek as he broke away to look into her eyes. One of her tears slid down his thumb and over the inked cross tattoo on his inner wrist. She wiped the tear away from the symbol of their shared faith, and she prayed for this gripping horror to pass.

  “Keelyn, it’s going to be all right. I think this is some freak playing you.”

  She leaned her cheek into his hand, wanting to melt into his strength. With his free hand, he tugged her open cardigan closed. His insistence didn’t ease her nausea. “He knew you were going to be late.”

  “Sweetheart, he could get that from a police scanner.”

  Keelyn reached up, placed her hand over his, and held his softened eyes with hers. “He knew about us meeting here.”

  The dimples disappeared from his easy smile as his jaw muscles tensed. Lee dropped his hand from her face and grabbed a small notebook and pen from his breast pocket.

  “I’ll need to know everything. What he looked like. We’ll need to get Nathan in on this, just to be safe.”

  “He had blond hair. He was pale, sickly looking . . .”

  A woman approached and tapped Lee on the shoulder. “Officer?”

  Lee turned, a hint of annoyance in his voice. “What can I do for you?”

  “Someone’s passed out in their car. There’s a child in the backseat. She appears to be sleeping, but I’m worried about her getting too hot.”

  Keelyn leapt off her stool and took two steps before Lee reached out to stop her.

  “I’ll go first.” He stood and positioned Keelyn behind him. To the woman, he said, “Can you show me which vehicle?”

  They walked single file to the parking lot. Gray clouds hovered low in the sky, and the air was thick and musty with the smell of threatened rain. Keelyn huddled herself into her arms, the cool ground further numbing her feet.

  The woman pointed to a pearlescent white Highlander parked in a distant corner of the lot.

  “Ma’am, can you wait by the building, please.” Lee edged the concerned citizen back onto the stoop.

  Keelyn wanted to reach out and hold his hand as they approached the car but knew he’d switched into active police persona and stayed three steps behind. The SUV’s windows were tinted.

  They approached the driver’s side. He glanced at her. “Stay back.”

  Chapter 2

  LEE GRABBED A FLASHLIGHT from his duty belt as his other hand unsnapped the leather retention strap that held his weapon in the holster, his palm now firm on the pistol grip. He thumbed the weapon’s safety off but, without an obvious threat, didn’t draw it.

  Through the smoked glass, his flashlight revealed a woman slumped in the front passenger seat, her arms li
mp at her sides. He watched for movement. After several moments, there was a slight lift in her back. Lee stepped closer and placed his flashlight against the window to better penetrate the tinting, the light now bright against the body showed more detail.

  Thick red fluid seeped through the left side of her shirt, trails of life flowing over the white leather seat onto the dark floor space.

  A cool breeze evaporating the sweat through his military cropped hair caused his scalp to tingle. He inhaled and held his breath to ease the flow of adrenaline. Keelyn’s worried gaze mirrored in the glass and burrowed into his back.

  He brought his light up and tapped on the window.

  “Ma’am, can you hear me?” The door was locked. Seeing no threats, Lee reset the safety on his weapon and snapped the retention strap back into place. No movement from the woman inside the vehicle. The child began to whimper in the backseat.

  At least one of them was alive.

  He glanced back at Keelyn. She held her position as he’d asked; a look of expectation crossed her hazel eyes.

  Thunder boomed and she jumped.

  He keyed his police radio.

  “SWAT One, copy a medical emergency.”

  The dispatcher came back. “SWAT One, go ahead.”

  “SWAT One, I’m in the parking lot of Ruby’s Diner. I have a citizen report of an adult female passed out in her vehicle.”

  “SWAT One, what is the primary medical concern, and do you have a vehicle description?”

  “SWAT One, I’m with a white SUV in the northeast corner of the parking lot. I have an unresponsive adult female in the passenger’s seat who appears to be bleeding from an unknown source . . . Break.”

  Training dictated short transmissions so fellow officers in potential danger could get through.

  “SWAT One, continuing. I also have a toddler in the backseat, conscious and breathing, unknown further. I’m requesting fire and two ambulances to my location, emergent.”

  “SWAT One, dispatch copies one adult female bleeding and unresponsive, plus one toddler condition unknown. Fire and medical are en route Code Three.”

  The dispatcher’s stern voice echoed the urgency of Lee’s situation.

  His resolve came quick.

  Lee filled his right hand with the heavy, expandable baton he carried on his duty belt. He raised the device to shoulder level and brought his fist down to his outer thigh in a heavy, forward sweeping motion, with a snap of his wrist at the end. Three sections of the steel escaped the baton’s internal retention spring and popped into place. The sound of the steel ball at the end of the ASP baton against the front driver’s window was equivalent to a large rock hitting the windshield at highway speeds.

  A small pit formed as tiny cracks raced to the edges of the frame.

  One more hit and the safety glass shattered and fell like crystal beads onto the pavement and into the car.

  Lee eased his grip on the baton and let the weight of it reverse its position in his hand. Dropping to one knee, he stabbed the steel ball into the pavement, the sound an echo of the thunder that came in increasing waves. Lee looked to the sky and watched for a moment as the sheets of black lines closed in from the horizon.

  Lightning flashed.

  In his peripheral vision he could see Keelyn with fisted hands over her ears. The wind tangled her long brown hair.

  He stood up, reached in through the shattered window to release the electric locks on the Highlander, and opened it. Stepping onto the runner with his right foot, he ducked down and crawled onto the driver’s seat with his left knee and reached for the woman’s shoulder.

  The cup holder collected her congealed blood.

  “Ma’am, can you open your eyes? Can you hear me?”

  She flopped as he shook. He glanced to the backseat. Dark brown eyes stared as lips quivered around a fully inserted thumb. The adult harness was loose around the child’s small body.

  “It’s okay, sweetheart. You’re safe.”

  He pushed the button to release the unconscious woman’s seat belt and eased it up over her body. Exiting the vehicle, he rounded to the passenger’s side and motioned to Keelyn for help. With the door open, he stepped up and grabbed the woman under her arms, pulled her from the vehicle, and eased her onto the pavement.

  The woman’s skin was translucent. As he kneeled, Lee was mesmerized by the spiderweb of veins that laced her face and neck. A crowd of spectators gathered. Sirens whispered tunnel-like in the distance. From a weatherproof pouch on his belt, he pulled two pairs of purple nitrile gloves and gave a set to Keelyn.

  “Put these on.”

  The material was hard to pull over his moistened hands. He missed the powdered latex gloves. Once the barrier was in place, he pulled up the woman’s shirt and discovered three holes, two in her abdomen, one in her chest.

  His teeth ached from being clenched.

  Gunshot wounds?

  All three oozed blood. At her neck, he slid two fingers into the shallow groove between the trachea and strap muscles and felt for a pulse. Her skin was cool.

  Lee tucked his chin to his shoulder. “SWAT One, copy additional information.”

  “SWAT One, go ahead.”

  “SWAT One, I’ve made entry into the vehicle. Inform medical the adult female has what appears to be three gunshot wounds to her torso. No pulse. Starting CPR.”

  “SWAT One, I copy. CPR in progress. I’ll notify medical. Be advised a patrol supervisor and a district car are en route to your location.”

  “SWAT One copies. Thank you.”

  He dropped his hand from the radio and pointed to Keelyn. “I need you to hold pressure on these holes.” He stacked his hands and centered them on the woman’s chest, pumping hard and fast.

  Keelyn knelt beside him and pulled wadded tissues from her pocket, putting them on the wounds to stem the bleeding. Bloodied paper stuck to her gloved hands as she tried to smooth and arrange them in a stack.

  “This isn’t working.” Her words were tight, her breath coming in ragged gasps.

  He could hear it in her voice, the resigned despair as this life slipped from their fingers. “Use your hands. Rescue’s close. Can you hear the sirens? Babe, stay calm. You’re doing great. I’m so proud of you.”

  Keelyn’s fingers stuttered through the tacky crimson layer until the heel of her hand rested on one of the wounds. Small circles of clear fluid diluted the dried red field.

  Lee looked skyward. Rain?

  A sharp inhalation drew his eyes back to his fiancée. “I can’t do this.”

  No. It was Keelyn’s tears.

  “Okay, I know.”

  “I just keep seeing my mother . . .”

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.” He nodded toward the vehicle. “Get the child from the back.”

  Keelyn rose but did not immediately go for the young girl. Muscles ached along Lee’s shoulders as he attempted to push the woman’s soul back into her cooling body. Sweat trickled into his eyes as he looked up at Keelyn, her gaze anchored on the dying woman’s face.

  Sirens cut the stormy day. A fire truck and ambulance pulled into the lot and parked between the crowd gathered at the front of the diner and their position in the corner of the lot. Two police cars blocked the entrance to the highway to control both the scene and potential witnesses. Medics jumped from the EMS vehicles and grabbed bright orange trauma packs.

  Why is she just standing there?

  “Keelyn!”

  She shook her head and started to sway. “I know this woman.”

  “How?”

  “She was my stepfather’s psychiatrist. Lucy Freeman.”

  Chapter 3

  LEE RUBBED HIS HAND over his jaw and felt the stubble scrape his palm. Through a door in the ER, he watched the medical team give up their resuscitative efforts, and then place a dingy, blood-soaked sheet over the woman’s face. A nurse moved away from the bedside, the cap of a needle remaining between her lips as she began to clean the room.
/>   The little girl, in a room to his right, had already been declared in good health by Dr. Lilly Reeves and sat in the arms of a volunteer, her thumb in her mouth as she shuddered at the exhalation of each breath. Her eyes were heavy as the last jags of a crying spell drained her energy.

  He looked for Keelyn. She stood in the hall a few paces away, her clothes splattered with blood. He remembered her in the same condition, not so long ago, sitting on the bench in the back of an ambulance, knife wounds inflicted by her stepfather a road map of psychosis on her skin. Eventually, justice had been done, and her stepfather was currently on death row, convicted of the brutal slaying of her mother and two half-siblings. Her eyes met his gaze, and she gave him an unconvincing wave of reassurance.

  Violence had brought them together.

  But now it seemed to be pursuing them. Would they ever be rid of it?

  He tapped his hand over his heart, and she placed two fingers over her lips. A smile played on his face as he walked the short gap between them. But her eyes had already slid away from him to the glass in front of her.

  As he watched the young girl, Lee put his arms around Keelyn. He couldn’t help thinking about her half siblings who’d died that day, and as she settled her head into his shoulder, he knew she was thinking about them, too.

  He saw Detective Nathan Long walking their way from the end of the hall, his hands buried deep into the pockets of his trench coat. Determination set his jaw. Years of police work creased a constant look of worry into his forehead. Heavy blue eyes full of a sense of responsibility. His wife, Lilly, stopped him in the hall, and he pulled her into a quick embrace. Her lips grazed his cheek as she pulled back and then thumbed the lipstick mark from his face.

  Their relationship had been born from violence, as well.

  Lilly’s fingers combed Nathan’s dark brown hair, ruffled from the wind outside, before she turned away. Nathan let his touch linger at her spine until she was out of reach. The love evident between them.

  Lee eased away from Keelyn and beckoned Nathan to follow him. Nathan straightened his coat and walked to Lee. They shook hands briefly.