The Babbling Brook Naked Poker Club - Book One (28 page)

Shortly after that, Josephine called and
asked me to come to the community room. I arrived there to find
Josephine along with Lillian, Myrtle, Mac, Mr. Souter, and
Eddie.

The sight of Eddie made me hesitate until
Josephine came over, took me by the hand, and whispered, “It’s all
right. After all, I’m here, and so are Lill and Mac.”

After we sat down, Josephine nodded at
Eddie, who stood and cleared his throat before turning to me and
delivering an apology, not only for the times he’d accosted me but
also for suing me. Then he turned to Josephine and apologized for
drugging her and for removing her picture. Finally, he apologized
to Lill for also drugging her. He topped off the apologies by
saying he intended to do better.

As Eddie spoke, I glanced at Mac and Myrtle.
Myrtle was chewing on her lip with an avid expression while Mac
leaned against the wall, arms folded, looking thoughtful.

“You still owe Myrtle an apology,” Josephine
said when Eddie started to sit down.

His expression turned to one of
puzzlement.

“She worked very hard raising money for
Sara.”

Incomprehension morphed into sheepishness.
“I made it all up about Sara. I’m sorry.”

“Well,” Myrtle said. “I must say I am most
disappointed, young man, with what I’ve heard here this
morning.”

Eddie swallowed but said nothing.

Mr. Souter cleared his throat. “I’ve
accepted Eddie’s resignation. Effective immediately.”

Throughout these exchanges, I no longer
detected any of the arrogance Eddie had displayed in the past.
Instead, I was certain if he’d had a tail, it would have been
tucked firmly between his legs.

But still I wondered. Was he truly sorry and
did he intend to reform, or would he revert to his old ways as soon
as he left the room? Of course, since he’d resigned, it would no
longer matter to me personally.

I let out a breath, relieved that my Eddie
nightmare had come to an end.

Mr. Souter stood and gestured for Eddie to
follow him. With a last glance around, Eddie nodded, and the two
left the room.

“That’s certainly a relief,” Josephine said.
“And now, Myrtle, Lill, I have another matter to discuss with you
both.”

The three walked out, leaving Mac and me
looking uneasily at each other.

He pushed away from the wall and cleared his
throat. “Congratulations on getting the suit dropped.”

“Yes, that is good news, isn’t it? Well, I
. . . ah . . . need to get going. I have a
group ready to go to the mall.”

I followed up on those words by walking out
without looking back, even though I knew with all the Brookside
matters settled so satisfactorily, it might be the last time I
would see Mac.

But it was the safest way forward, even if
it made my heart hurt.

Mac

As Devi walked out, I sighed. I’d once again proven to myself that
although I might look mature, fast approaching middle age even,
inside I was still a quivering mass of adolescent jelly.

Josephine had set up the perfect opportunity
for Devi and me to talk, free of any conflict of interest, and what
did we do? We mumbled a few inane platitudes at each other and went
our separate ways. For the last time. Unless one of us managed a
breakthrough and reached out to the other.

I no longer doubted there was something
between us. An attraction, a pull, and yet Devi seemed even more
determined than I was to avoid responding to it. And that was a
puzzle. I knew my own reasons for resisting, even though I’d
finally admitted the having-a-child issue was bogus, but I was
curious about hers.

I wondered, as I had previously, if she
could be here illegally. I’d learned from her presence at
Josephine’s table at Thanksgiving that, like me, she didn’t have
family nearby. Were they as distant as India, then?

My own family was scattered around northern
Ohio, not all that distant. If I hadn’t needed to stick around for
the ransom call, and dinner with Kate and Teddy, I could have
easily made the drive to Toledo for Thanksgiving dinner with my
parents and sibs.

Devi had never mentioned her family. In
fact, whenever our conversations turned to personal histories, the
information she offered appeared to be carefully edited.

For the first time in my career, I was
tempted to run a background check on someone for personal reasons.
An urge I intended to try very hard to resist.

~ ~ ~

The days that followed my letting my last chance with Devi slip
through my fingers seemed to crawl by. On Friday, there was a
serious accident on the interstate with one fatality. A young
woman. Dillingham and I did the notification later that evening. A
husband and three kids.

I hadn’t done a notification since my days
on the Cincinnati police force, and I’d forgotten how emotionally
draining it was. How it always left me wanting nothing more than to
go home to someone I cared about and give them a hug.

Saturday morning, I was still feeling that
family’s pain, like a bad hangover aspirin couldn’t touch. To
counteract it, I went next door and offered to take Teddy and Bruno
for a walk.

Kate squeezed my arm, thanking me. While I
put the leash on Bruno and stuffed plastic bags in my coat pocket,
she got Teddy into his winter gear. I helped her finish up with the
mittens, a neat trick since Teddy was dancing with
anticipation.

As usual, we headed for the memorial,
walking briskly. Once there, we did the full circle, encountering
only one other person, a woman in a navy sweat suit who jogged past
us, head down. People living in the Cincinnati area are friendly
and most of the time will greet each other under these
circumstances, although it isn’t unheard of for someone to give
this basic courtesy a pass. Usually a new arrival.

“Why didn’t she say hello?” Teddy loves
everyone and doesn’t understand when they don’t reciprocate. For
that matter, I don’t understand it either.

When Bruno lurched toward the woman to take
a sniff, she picked up her pace, moving away, her arms pumping, her
breath escaping in white puffs.

We were experiencing intermittent skiffs of
snow, and the temperature was in the twenties, cold enough to turn
Teddy’s nose red. After another circuit of the memorial park, I
hustled us across the street to the shopping center, where there’s
a bakery. Teddy is partial to doughnuts and hot chocolate, and I
had Kate’s permission to treat him occasionally.

The bakery didn’t allow Bruno inside, but
there was a short post by their door where I hooked his leash.
Although he could easily nudge the leash free of the post, Bruno
seemed to understand that he needed to stay put.

Inside, I got Teddy’s coat and mittens off
and placed our order. Then while Teddy carefully ate around the
edges of his doughnut, I sipped coffee and watched the action in
the parking lot. There wasn’t much. Only a half dozen widely spaced
cars, employees probably, since it was still too early for most of
the stores to be open.

A Toyota, similar to Devi’s, pulled into a
spot in front of the bakery, and I felt a flash of hope that was
fulfilled when Devi climbed out.

I was watching her, so I didn’t immediately
notice that a car had pulled in behind hers, blocking her in. A man
jumped out, his hand fumbling for something in his pocket. Clearly
he’d startled Devi because she whirled around to face him, then she
backed away.

Bruno had spotted Devi as well and, although
he’d never met her, was clearly interested in an introduction. He
pushed between her and the man, and then he did something I’d never
seen him do before. He lunged at Devi, knocking her to the
ground.

I’d seen something in the way Devi reacted
to the man that had pulled me to my feet. Now I began running for
the door, yelling at the woman behind the counter to call 911 and
keep an eye on Teddy.

I shoved the door open. The man was kicking
at Bruno, who was lying on top of Devi. The hand that had been in
his pocket now brandished a gun.

As I cleared the door, the man’s foot swung
toward Bruno yet again, connecting with a solid thunk, and then the
arm with the gun at the end of it came up. The thunderous sound of
two nearly simultaneous gunshots left my ears ringing.

Although I’d aimed at the man’s middle mass,
the bullet punched him in the upper thigh, and he fell to his knees
clutching his leg. I kicked his gun away and turned to Devi and
Bruno.

There was blood, lots of blood, and neither
of them was moving.

I reached a finger to Devi’s neck, feeling
for a pulse, my ears still ringing from the gunshots and then
ringing even more as patrol cars and EMT units pulled into the
parking lot, sirens going and lights flashing.

I set aside my gun and showed my hands to
the officer who had leaped out of the nearest car and was now
pointing his weapon at me.

“I’m Detective Darren McElroy, Montgomery
police. He shot her, and I shot him.” I nodded toward the man in
the gray jacket who was now lying on the ground, moaning.

“ID?”

“Not necessary.” It was one of the EMTs
speaking. “I know Detective McElroy. May I check the victims,
Officer?”

The Blue Ash officer put his weapon away and
nodded. I continued to kneel beside Devi, taking her hand in mine,
a mantra filling my mind.

Please, God. Please, God. Please, God.

The EMT came and helped me lift Bruno off
Devi. He was bleeding from a wound in his side and he whimpered
when we moved him. I considered that a good sign, but Devi didn’t
move or make a sound, and there was so damn much blood. The EMT
bent her legs toward her torso and pressed on her abdomen, which
was pulsing blood.

Another EMT joined us and elbowed me gently
out of the way, and the two worked quickly to get Devi lifted on to
a stretcher.

Within a half minute, they had her loaded
and were heading out. The hospital was less than ten minutes away
and had an excellent emergency room. If Devi made it there.

Please, God. Please, God
.

A Blue Ash cop was kneeling next to the man
I’d shot, and his partner came over to check on Bruno, who
continued to whimper.

“If she lives, it will be because of him,” I
told the officer.

I’d had enough time to figure out that
without Bruno’s interference, the man would have had a clear
killing shot before I’d even moved out of my chair.

As I tried to comfort Bruno, another EMT
unit pulled in.

“Let’s see if we can’t get this fellow taken
care of,” the cop said, standing. He walked over to the EMTs
gathering around as the man I’d shot was loaded into a second
ambulance. I didn’t know what the officer told them, but two EMTs
came over and lifted Bruno on to a stretcher.

With all the wounded on their way to receive
medical treatment, I shut off panicked thoughts of Devi and turned
my attention to Teddy, who I found in the bakery’s kitchen being
shown how doughnuts are made.

I could have kissed the clerk. She’d not
only had the presence of mind to call 911, she’d also made sure
Teddy was safe, and she kept him from seeing most of what had
happened.

I called Kate to come get Teddy, and the
clerk agreed to watch him until she arrived. Throughout I was
managing to act calm, but I suspected that calm was a result of
shock. Or perhaps it was my training kicking in. Although I’d never
shot anyone, I had been involved in shooting scenes during my time
on the Cincinnati police force. Just not one where someone I knew
and cared about had been shot.

Another patrol unit arrived on the scene,
and they offered me a ride to the hospital, and I accepted.
Arriving there, we found the ambulance that had transported Devi
was parked in front of the emergency entrance with the back door
open. There was no sign of the second ambulance.

I stepped into the waiting room, wanting to
bypass the woman at the desk and go directly into the treatment
area. But the doors would be locked, and since I wasn’t wearing a
uniform, I’d get nowhere without speaking to her.

I slowed, took a breath, and pulled my ID
from my pocket. “The young woman who was just brought in, the
gunshot victim, I need to talk to her.”

“I’m sorry, Officer. I believe she was taken
directly into surgery.”

“Is there someone I can speak to?”

“Certainly. Right through there.”

She pointed, the lock release buzzed, and I
was in. The central nursing station was ominously quiet, with no
personnel loitering about.

“Can I help you, sir?”

I turned to find either a doctor or a nurse
standing there. These days it’s tough to tell as they all wear
scrubs and white coats. I showed her my badge.

“I expect you’re here to ask about the
shooting victims?”

“Yes.”

“The man was stable enough, we sent him on
to University Hospital. But the woman was too critical to
transport. She’s lost a lot of blood. It’ll be touch and go. Good
that she got here so quickly. Well within the golden hour.”

I knew she was referring to what emergency
types call those precious early minutes after someone is grievously
wounded, but I doubted she would have spoken as candidly if she’d
known I had a personal connection to Devi.

She must have seen evidence of that in my
expression, however, because she stopped speaking abruptly.

“Are you all right, Officer?”

“I . . . I was there. When she got
shot.”

“Here, take a seat.”

She had a strong grip on my arm and was
rolling a chair toward me with her leg. I sat because I could no
longer stand. She pushed my head down, and after a minute or so,
the darkness blanking my vision receded.

“You’re not injured, are you?”

That was the first I noticed my jacket was
bloody, as were my jeans. Bruno’s blood, and maybe Devi’s as
well.