Lost in Shadows (Lost) Read online

  Jenkins gave the cabinets another blast of white foam. “Are you sure?”

  “Hell, no. I’m going to search the house.” He ran as fast as his legs and heart could take him. Upstairs. His gut said what the suspects wanted was upstairs. The bedrooms were dark and empty. At the end of the hall, he saw the light on in her office, the room directly over the kitchen.

  It was neat as a pin and empty. Neither Carolina nor the computer she’d left on her desk were where they were supposed to be. As he stood there, wisps of smoke rose along the wall. He was running out of time.

  The spit shooter Jenkins used wouldn’t tame the fire for long. Jeb still had the whole first floor and the basement to search. The bile taste of fear soured his mouth. How many times had he arrived too late to save the living? He slammed the door on doubt. There was no room for it in his crowded mind.

  He turned lights on as he ran, illuminating the dark spaces that could be hiding Carolina. Back to the foyer, he could see all of the empty living room. To the left, the front office was equally empty. Through the office to the den, his stomach dropped. An unconscious Carolina lay draped across the couch.

  “Carolina. Come on, baby, talk to me.” Jeb knelt next to her head. “I got her.” He yelled to Jenkins, hoping he heard over the roar of the fire, the propellant of the extinguisher. His hands gently examined her prone body. Blood, warm and slick, coated his hand. “Fuck.”

  A litany of curses came through the door. “Get her out. Now.” Urgency colored Jenkins’s order. Thick smoke filled the back hallway and tumbled into the den. Flames poked around the doorframe, looking for their next meal.

  He lifted her with care and hurried through the connecting office. Jenkins was backing up the hall, fighting a losing battle against a wall of flames. “Let’s go, let’s go.”

  The extinguisher gave one more valiant spit and then died.

  “There’s nothing more you can do. Move!” Jeb charged out the door, not waiting to see if Jenkins followed. He stepped onto the porch as the lights of the first fire engine turned onto the street. Jenkins leaped past him, running to the curb, arms waving over his head to guide the professionals.

  Jeb sank to the cool grass, holding Carolina close. “Come on, honey. Open those beautiful eyes for me.” She didn’t stir as he cradled her against his chest. He rocked her gently, comforting her as he comforted himself.

  The ambulance arrived, and medics attended to her. Jeb couldn’t let go; throughout the bumpy ride to the hospital, he kept hold of her hand. Oxygen fed her lungs, bringing her to the edge of consciousness. Her lashes fluttered, then lifted. Her unfocused gaze roamed the ambulance until she found him. Her eyes grew wide, filling with tears. He moved to the head of the gurney and bent, pressing his lips to her forehead. “I’m here. I’m here.”

  He sat on the blue plastic chair in the small cubicle of the emergency room. The doctor, the nurses, could have used the space…but he couldn’t leave. He had been afraid they would try to make him leave, afraid because he knew he wouldn’t go.

  Now, hours later, he sat on a slightly more comfortable chair, next to a slightly larger bed where Carolina slept fitfully. The nurse came silently into the room, going straight to the machine delivering medicine to Carolina’s lungs. She had a nasty cut on her temple, a concussion, a twisted ankle, and damage from the smoke. She had awoken once. Completely disoriented, she called out for him. He squeezed her hand and hadn’t relinquished it since. His raw throat burned painfully. The nurse looked at his smoke-stained face and gave him a slight nod of understanding. She left as silently as she came only to return a moment later with a large plastic cup filled with ice and water.

  He sipped from the straw mounted on the blue top. He’d never tasted anything so good as that icy cold water. “Thank you,” he said in a gravelly voice.

  “Can I get you anything?”

  He shook his head and the nurse took her leave. Carolina moaned in her sleep, the sound muffled by the mask delivering rich oxygen to her depleted body. She called his name again. At least he thought she did.

  “I’m here. I’m with you, Carolina.” He crawled into the little bed, curling around her until he was her pillow and her blanket. He kissed her smoky hair and whispered nonsense until she slept peacefully. He looked at the clock. In another twenty minutes, they would be waking her but, until then, he would make sure she slept.

  …

  Sip by sip, the cold water quenched the fire in Carolina’s throat. She was very aware of the people surrounding her and the thin cloth covering her body. Emmaline sat in one of the chairs, anxiously patting Carolina’s hand.

  A long, vicious bruise ran along her cheekbone. Her hair had been shaved above her ear to make way for five stitches. The whole of it throbbed, feeling nearly as ugly as it looked.

  Uncle Mitch paced the length of the small room. After three long strides, he spun on his heels, then took another three strides back to the wall. He glared at Derrick, the deputy’s face looking like a watermelon after having gone a few rounds with a sledgehammer. Derrick stood in the corner, his arms crossed over his chest. His gaze followed the little flick of Jebediah’s fingers over the ends of her hair.

  The corner of Jeb’s mouth curled up, his gaze fixed on Derrick’s.

  Mitch cleared his throat. “Tell me what happened, Carolina.”

  “Somebody was following—”

  “Good lord, child. Not this again.” Mitch slapped his hands against his thighs with a solid crack that silenced Carolina. “Ever since your mama got sick, you’ve said somebody’s been following you. And, Carolina, it’s just not true.”

  “It is.” She tried to sound stern and forceful, but her voice was too raw from the smoke. “Ask Jeb.”

  Mitch pinned Jeb with his sharp eyes. Cop to perpetrator. “I thought we’d seen the last of you. Well, you see somebody following Carolina, boyfriend?”

  A perverse smile crept onto Jeb’s face. His gaze drifted to Derrick, who turned white as paste.

  Derrick glared back, standing taller. He cleared his throat and redirected the conversation. “Carolina, what do you remember? You parked his truck in your garage. Then what happened?”

  Carolina looked between the two men, trying to decipher the unspoken conversation. “I ran across the yard to the house.”

  “Did you use your key to get in?” Derrick asked.

  “I used the key to unlock the door, but it wouldn’t open. It took a few tries before I could get in.”

  “You went into the house. Did you turn on the lights?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I ran into something hard. It was like bouncing off a wall. I…I…don’t remember.” Carolina rubbed her forehead. “Someone was in the house. Whoever followed me was in my house.”

  Mitch huffed noisily. “If we’re going to figure out who is doing this, we need you to stop living in fantasyland and join us here in reality.”

  Jeb stirred, all but snarling.

  Mitch ignored the threat and continued to berate her. “This is Bowling Green, Kentucky. You are a shut-in computer junkie with more imagination than sense. No one is following you, Carolina. Not now. Not last week. Not a year ago.”

  “Explain the break-in,” Jeb said in a voice sounding like the growl of an animal. “Explain the fire. Explain her head.”

  Mitch fisted his hands on his hips. “I can’t. Jenkins investigated her reports and found nothing. Absolutely nothing. Whoever broke into the house, whoever attacked her last night, is new.” He turned back to her. “What have you gotten yourself into?”

  She shut down. Facts did nothing to persuade her uncle. His mind was set, arguing was a waste of energy. She wanted to curl into a ball and slide down until she could pull the covers over her. She wanted them to go away. She wanted to just disappear.

  “She’s done.” Jeb sounded pissed. It wasn’t at her, she realized, but on her behalf. “Out. Everyone out.”

  “I need answers to my questions. Carolina. Stop th
is nonsense.” Uncle Mitch could yammer till he was blue in the face. She was done talking, especially when he wasn’t listening.

  “You can shove your questions up your ass. Get out.” The whip in Jeb’s voice had her eyes popping open. Nobody talked to Mitch that way. Jeb stood in front of her, his hips and back screening Derrick and Uncle Mitch.

  Emmaline, still at the bedside, cleared her throat. “Mitchell, Carolina does look worn. Maybe it would be best if she slept a bit more. I’m sure she’ll be able to think more clearly then. You can drive me home. I may still be in time for my water aerobics.” Emmaline patted Carolina’s knee again. “Call me if you want more clothes or another set of pajamas.”

  Uncle Mitch appeared long enough to offer Emmaline his arm. The woman chatted on, her voice fading with distance. Jeb hadn’t moved, which meant Derrick was still in the room. Carolina was just too tired to care. She needed to be alone. She thought better without the battering emotions that came with people crowding around her.

  Derrick cleared his throat. “McCormick. I need a few minutes with Carolina.”

  Jeb squatted down until she could see his dirty face. “You don’t have to. Just say the word and I’ll toss him.”

  Nothing anybody said was going to fix things. Nothing she said was going to get them on her side. “What’s the point?”

  Derrick stepped into her field of vision, his pained expression getting her attention. “Please, Carolina. Just five minutes.”

  She sat up. “It’s okay, Jeb.”

  “I’ll be right outside if you need me.” Jeb stared Derrick down before finally leaving the room.

  Derrick took the chair Emmaline vacated, sitting close enough to brush the smoky strands away from her face. “I remember the first time I saw you. It was my junior year of high school. Nate and I were on the football team and after practice one day, I went back home with him. I saw you the minute we turned onto your street. You had laid out a big red blanket on the grassy hill in your front yard. You were wearing a pink dress and reading a book. Your hair glowed in the sunlight.”

  Carolina looked at the man sitting next to her. Like so many times when he’d visit, he didn’t look at her but someplace far off. His fingers twisted together, something she hadn’t noticed him doing before.

  “We rode our bikes up the street, and all I could see was you. I didn’t know who you were. I didn’t even know Nate had a sister until I followed him up the drive. He teased you.”

  “He called me ‘Bookworm’.” Her voice was a deep whisper.

  Derrick nodded. “He did. You looked up and flashed a smile that blinded me. You said you were glad he was home and that you made corn bread to go with dinner. Then you leaned in and told him he smelled.”

  “He did. He always smelled when he came home from football practice.”

  “You didn’t look at me. You never saw me.”

  “I saw you. You wore number seventeen. Your socks didn’t match, and you smelled, too.”

  Derrick’s smile broadened. “I watched you. All through dinner and then after, I watched the way you moved. Graceful, like a dancer. Nate noticed. Sisters were off-limits.” Derrick looked down at his hands, stilling them. “I have a soft spot for you, Carolina. Ever since that first day, I’ve wanted to be with you, to be there for you. When I heard you moved back…that was a good day. I thought maybe it was a sign. But there was your mama and then after, well, it never seemed to be the right time…but I’ve always been there for you.”

  Prickles ran over her scalp telling her he said more than his words. “What are you saying, Derrick?”

  He took her hand. “I’ve done my best to look after you.”

  While her brain puzzled it out, she looked at his face. She saw a hint of affection but more, she saw worry and regret. “Your face. Jeb said you helped get me out of the fire, but that didn’t happen to you in the house, did it?” Understanding had her gasping sharply. “Jeb did that. Oh my God, Jeb did that last night.”

  She looked at him, hoping, begging to see a truth that was different from what she imagined. She stared at her nightmare, hidden behind the face of a friend. Her stomach turned. Carolina closed her eyes against the pain that was a pickax to her head. “You’ve been following me. The phone calls, the gifts. That vase! It’s been you.” What began as a whisper ended in a crescendo that gave release to years of doubt and shame. A boiling rage replaced it. He had made her a victim. “Get out! Out of my room, out of this hospital, out of my life!”

  “Carolina, calm down.”

  Her nightmare loomed over her. She rolled clumsily out of the bed. “Get out.” She used the bedside table to steady herself. “Get out,” she repeated, throwing the plastic cup of water at Derrick. Next went the tissue box. Her uneaten breakfast. Her cell phone. “I’ll never forgive you!”

  Derrick dodged the flying objects. “Stop, Carolina. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

  She raked her hands down her arms, tearing away the monitoring devices tying her to the bed.

  The nurse ran in. “What’s going on in here? Call security!”

  “I got her.” Jeb rushed past the nurse, capturing Carolina into his arms. “Stop it. What are you doing?”

  “I’m leaving. I’m done with this. I’m going home.” She panted out the words. Her jerky, coltish movements betrayed the emotions overloading her battered body. “My home.”

  “Jenkins, get out of here.” Jeb was everywhere, blocking her escape. “Carolina. You can’t go home.”

  The nurse backed Derrick out the door. He didn’t go willingly, but he did go. Now it was her turn. She needed to get out of this claustrophobic room and back to the sanity of her house.

  “Are you listening, Carolina? You can’t go home.”

  Panic rose, a sharp metal taste in her throat. “I’m not a prisoner. I’m not a child. I can go anytime I want, and I want to go home now. So you either take me or I’ll find someone who will. I’ll call an Uber.”

  “No, you’re not a prisoner. You’re a smart, resourceful woman,” he said simply as he ran his fingers through her hair on the uninjured side.

  She planted her palms on the flat of his chest and pushed with all her might. She didn’t want to hear the sympathy in his voice. She wanted him angry, because she was angry and she wanted to stay angry. “You are not telling me where I can and can’t go. You are not my father. You are not my brother. My uncle can go to hell. Derrick can go to hell, and you can go to hell, too. I am going home.”

  “Carolina,” he said in a whisper. “Baby, you can’t go home.”

  She tried to pull away, hearing a reality in his voice that she didn’t want to accept. She couldn’t go home because she didn’t have a home. Four generations of Walkers had been born, lived, loved, and died in that house. She rested her forehead against his sternum. “Is it completely gone?”

  He rubbed her heaving shoulders. “Your uncle said the kitchen and your office were the worst damaged. The fire got into the wall. The good news is it was contained. It’s rebuildable. I know an architect and contractor who can work magic.”

  “I want to see it.” She stood still for a moment, leaning on his strength. She caught at his hand and examined his torn knuckles. “Did you know Derrick was the one stalking me?”

  “No.” He ran his free hand up and down her back. “I caught him last night. I didn’t know who he was.”

  Her head hung down, feeling as if it weighed fifty pounds. “Why did he do that?” She looked at Jeb. “That’s not a rhetorical question. I need to understand why. Did I do something to make him hate me?”

  He pressed his forehead to hers. “I think, in his mind, he was showing affection. He likes you.”

  “It was convenient, wasn’t it? Uncle Mitch assigned Derrick to investigate his own crime. No wonder he never believed me.” She stood barefoot in a hospital gown and just wanted to go home. “Is he the one who burned my house down? Is that his way of showing he likes me?”

  “No. He was w
ith me. It may not feel like it right now, but we’re at a turning point. Up till now, I suspected the phone calls, stalking, and break-ins were related. Now we can separate the two. One mystery is solved, and we can focus all our energy on the second. We’re going to get to the bottom of this. I promise. I know I’m asking a lot, but believe in me.”

  It didn’t feel like a turning point. It felt like the bottom of a deep, dark well. She didn’t know if she had the strength to escape. Not alone. At the top, standing in the daylight was Jebediah McCormick, the wounded soldier determined to save her. If he was going to fight, she would fight next to him.

  “I believe in you, Jeb.”

  Carolina couldn’t sit still as Jeb wound his way to her home. Her head pounded and her lungs burned, but her arms and legs refused to be still. Every little movement sent jagged waves of discomfort through her body. It should have been pain, but those little pills mercifully had not yet worn off.

  Relief washed over her like a spring rain. “It’s not so bad.” Her gaze flew over the structure, taking in every detail, every nuance of her house. “You really scared me.”

  “The damage is in back.” He let the car roll slowly in front of the house.

  “What are you doing?” Her head swiveled between him and her house. “Park the car. I need to go in.”

  “We agreed we aren’t staying.”

  “I know. I’m not stupid enough to stay in a house with no kitchen. I need some things. Just park and I’ll go get them.”

  “What is it you need so badly?”

  “Well…I…my clothes. The new ones we bought. My bedroom looks fine.” She pointed to the dark windows with the summer drapes framing her room. “There’s my shampoo and conditioner.” She began speaking faster. “My computer. My daddy’s gun. My mother’s china.”

  “Did you move your computer from your desk before we left for dinner?”