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Today was different. Someone was after Cassie. He never should have let her go to the hospital alone. He should have stayed with her, protected her. Right, and how ridiculous was that considering he had a potential murder on his hands?
He struggled to bury his concern and not let anyone see the utter panic tearing at his insides. But as he approached his truck, the bottled-up frustration got the better of him. He slammed his palm against the quarter panel.
A woman’s cry echoed back at him.
Nate froze, his heart pounding.
Leaning forward, he peered into the flatbed. Cassie blinked her bloodshot, terrified eyes.
“You’re in my truck,” he said.
“D-d-disappointed?” She broke into a round of shivers.
He grabbed a blanket from the backseat and climbed into the flatbed beside her. As he gently covered her body, a wave of calm washed over him. She was okay. For now.
“Aiden!” He motioned to his friend who’d gone to get a flashlight. “Over here!”
“I knew you’d come.”
Nate snapped his attention to Cassie. “What happened? Why did you run?”
“A guy...in the hospital...the guy with the shovel...from the cabin.”
“Is it...?” Aiden stopped short and looked at her. “What are you doing in there?”
“Aiden,” Nate warned, wanting him to soften his tone. “She’s trembling.”
“Let’s take her inside,” Aiden said.
“Nooooo.” She clamped her hand around Nate’s forearm. “Not back in there.”
“Cassie, you need medical attention,” Aiden argued.
“That man got to me in there. I can’t go back.” Her pleading blue eyes tugged at Nate’s heart.
“She’s delirious. She doesn’t know what she’s saying,” Aiden said.
“I am n-n-not!” she protested.
“Come on, I’ll help you out.” Aiden reached for her.
“Wait,” Nate said. “I’ve got another idea.”
* * *
Cassie couldn’t believe it. Nate had listened to her. He’d respected her fear of going back into the hospital and found an alternative.
Nate drove her to the urgent care, where Dr. Spencer was on duty. He was a good friend to both Nate and Aiden, and he’d done his share of triage with search and rescue. Cassie knew she wasn’t suffering from anything serious, but she did need medical attention for the gash in her arm.
Closing her eyes, she relaxed under the heated blanket in the examining room. She appreciated the warmth that finally drove the chill from her bones.
“Cassie?”
She blinked her eyes open. A frown creased Nate’s forehead.
“What’s wrong?” she said.
“I thought you passed out.”
“Why, because I stopped talking?” she joked.
Instead of smiling, he glanced down at his hands, holding his Echo Mountain PD cap. He seemed regretful, and she couldn’t understand why.
“Thanks,” she offered.
He looked at her. “For what?”
“Bringing me here. Listening to me, I guess. Not many people do that, especially not my brother.”
“I almost forgot.” He pulled her cell phone out of his jacket pocket. “Your cousin found it in the ambulance.”
“Awesome, thanks. Where is my bossy brother, anyway?”
“He went outside to call your mom.”
“Oh boy, now the whole town is going to know.”
“Maybe that’s not a bad thing,” Nate said.
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“People will be on the lookout. They’ll keep an eye on you.”
“Right, because I’m so fragile and incapable of taking care of myself. They should consider the fact that I escaped this guy—” she hesitated “—twice, and the first time with a dog in my arms.” She sat up. “Speaking of which, what happened to Dasher?”
“Relax, your sister and my sister are fighting over custody.”
She sighed and lay back down. “Thanks, I’ll pick him up after I get out of here.”
“You should worry more about yourself than some scruffy dog.”
“I have lots of people to support me, but Dasher? He’s got no one. And besides, he’s not scruffy, he’s got character.”
She thought Nate smiled but couldn’t be sure.
The door slid open and Dr. Spencer poked his head into the room. “Sorry, had an emergency. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Thanks,” Cassie said.
Dr. Spencer smiled and shut the door. Cassie glanced at Nate. “When my brother comes back, you can go. I know you should be figuring out what happened to the dead woman, instead of hanging around here.”
“Detective Vaughn is leading the investigation.”
“Why?”
“I delegate in order to keep a broader perspective on things. I hope you don’t mind me asking, but—” he pulled his stool close to Cassie’s bedside “—do you think you can identify the man carrying the shovel?”
“Absolutely, and I wanted to call you with that information, but I’d lost my phone.”
“I’ll try to get a forensic artist to come by tomorrow. Where will you be staying?”
“You know where my apartment is, over the tea shop.”
He straightened. “It would be wiser if you didn’t go back to your place for a few days. The perpetrator knows who you are.”
“I still don’t understand how.”
“Where’s your wallet?”
“Back at the cabin. Oh...so you think he went through my things?”
“It’s likely, yes.”
“But I did a good job of playing a daft property manager who runs from the sight of blood. I was pretty convincing that I didn’t see him at the cabin.”
“Cassie, he came after you in the hospital and knocked out the orderly who was supposed to take you to imaging.”
“Wait, what? Is he okay?”
“He’s fine. That’s not the point.”
“I feel so bad since it’s my fault that—”
“Cassie, stop talking, just for one minute.”
She bit back more questions she wanted to ask about the injured orderly. At least she’d like his name so she could add him to her prayer list.
“We can’t take chances with your safety,” Nate said. “You need to be in the most protected environment possible until we solve this case.”
“Well, I could always leave the country. I have enough money saved to travel for a while, not as long as I’d originally intended, but a few months should work, right?”
Nate didn’t answer at first. He clenched his jaw and his green eyes darkened. “I’d rather you not.”
“You said I’m in danger here, so the most logical choice is to—”
He stood abruptly. “You’re a witness. I need you to stay in town.”
“Oh, okay.” She glanced at her fingers in her lap. Arguing with Nate was pointless. He was the police chief, after all, and his primary concern was the murder case, nothing more, nothing like...
He actually cared about Cassie.
Nope, Nathaniel Walsh was all business. He wanted to get his man, and Cassie was a means to that end.
“You’re upset with me,” he stated, studying her.
“I want to go home.”
“To your mother’s farm. Good idea.”
She cocked her chin. “When did I say that? I never said that.”
“But you agree that it’s a good idea?” He sat back down beside her.
“No, I don’t want to stay at the farm. Mom will hover and forbid me from leaving the house.”
“It’s probably a good idea to lie low for a while, stay at your mom’s and do your blogging stuff.”
“Hey, my blogging stuff doesn’t pay the bills. I’ve made a commitment to Echo Mountain Rentals and it’s good money.”
“Right, it’s about padding your getaway fund.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing. You know what? Let’s not talk about this. What do you need?”
“Excuse me?”
“What can your primary witness do to help you solve this case?”
“You’re injured. I can conduct an interview tomorrow.”
She continued anyway. “He was about six feet tall, with thin lips and bushy eyebrows. Oh, and a bump on his nose, here.” She reached out to illustrate on Nate’s nose, but he jerked away, like she was contagious.
“Wow, okay.” She swallowed the hurt burning her throat and pointed to her own nose. “A bump right here. He’s got dark brown eyes and he smelled of something... I can’t put my finger on it, something pungent.”
“What did he say to you?” Nate pulled a small notebook out of his jacket pocket.
“I did most of the talking. Especially after I figured out who he was. I did my best flaky girl impression, and told him I ran away from the cabin because of the blood, then tripped and fell down a mountain.”
“You think he bought it?”
“He seemed to. I’m not dead.” The inappropriate comment awkwardly slipped out.
Nate’s fingers froze as he gripped the pen.
“Sorry, that was morbid,” she said.
“Is there anything else you can tell me about him?”
“No, sorry.”
