Embattled Minds (Military Romance) (Lost And Found Series) (19 page)

So far, the only unsavory character he had seen her with was Derek.

Chad had collected no evidence the entire time he had been watching her. She kept her head down, and watched everything warily. She hustled her daughter to and from the mini-van, and very rarely let her play outside. When she did go anywhere, it was to a nondescript house in Arvada, where she would stay for several hours then leave. Chad had been unable to find out what was in the house, only that it was owned by a corporation, and the only other person he had seen at the house had been an elderly black woman, no relation to Lora Malone.

Derek had said that he believed she had a boyfriend, and that she was partying at all hours, leaving her daughter to fend for herself. Derek’s mother had also come forward, with ‘incriminating’ evidence. Chad had a feeling now it had all been fabricated.

Chad had seen no evidence of any of it in the six weeks he’d been watching her.

“Is my mommy okay?”

Glancing down, Chad realized the little girl had come out of her own room, and was now peering into her mother’s room. Shadowed grey eyes widened when she saw the people around her at the bed.

“Mommy?” her little voice quivered in fear.

“I’m okay, honey, just had an accident. Can you go in your room please?”

Chad’s heart clenched when the woman smiled brightly for her little daughter. That had to hurt like a bitch with that split lip, but she didn’t flinch at all. He admired her for reassuring her child.

Reaching down with his good hand, he turned the little girl’s shoulders away from the doorway.

“Come on, Sweets. Why don’t you show me your room.”

Hanging her head, little Mercedes Malone trudged back into her bedroom. She dragged a raggedy stuffed animal with her, and Chad realized it was supposed to be a dog, although it had lost most of its form long ago. It was just a hanging pile of fluff now, patched in many places but obviously well-loved.

Chad knew that Mercedes was supposedly six years old, but even to his inexperienced eye, the little one seemed small for her age. Climbing onto the twin bed, the little girl sat cross-legged in her pink and purple Dora pjs, not looking at Chad.

“This is my room,” she said quietly. “Is my mom okay?”

Chad looked at her in the illumination from the nightlight, debating how much to tell her. “I think she will be, but she has to go get checked by the doctors right now.”

She blinked at him, and he frowned at the knowledge he could see in her eyes.

“She’s had accidents before. But only when my dad’s around.”

It took everything Chad had not to flinch.

“Were you in an accident?” she whispered. “Is that why your arm is like that?”

He blinked at the shift in topic and looked down at the appendage. “Yes, I was. Several years ago.”

She nodded, and laid down on her mattress, pulling the comforter over top of herself.

“Can’t the doctors fix it?”

He shook his head and looked at the bookcase beside him. “Hey, this looks good.”

He pulled out a white book with a little girl having tea with a group of stuffed animals on the front.

“Oh, that’s my favorite,” she sighed.

“Your mom must love you very much, then, because you have a bunch of these books.”

And Chad realized that was probably the truth too. He had logged many man hours watching Lora Malone, and he had never seen her raise her voice, let alone a hand, to the child. Quite the contrary actually. She seemed to have every toy a kid would need, and her room was outfitted with nice furniture. Many times he had watched her snatch the little girl up in her arms and give her big, tickling smooches, with Mercedes wiggling and giggling. He had only ever seen a mother who loved her child. Certainly not a woman endangering her daughter with her irresponsible lifestyle.

He needed to call Duncan and let him know what was going on.

Chad obligingly began reading the book. It only took a few minutes for the little girl to slip into sleep, though. Covering her with the comforter, Chad replaced the book on the shelf and left the room.

In the other bedroom, Lora was arguing with the ambulance workers.

“I’m not going to the hospital. I can’t.”

“Ma’am, you probably have a concussion. I also believe you have cracked bones in your face. Judging by the swelling in your wrist, it could be broken too.” The gray haired technician was obviously going over the same argument again. “You have to be seen by somebody.”

Lora shook her head obstinately, even though it looked like it hurt. “I can’t leave. I can’t leave my daughter.”

Chad fought with his conscience. If he had been just a few seconds quicker, she never would have been hurt at all.

“I’ll stay with her.”

He didn’t even realize he had spoken until she whipped a venomous glare on him.

“Oh, really? And snoop through my house and gather evidence on me? I heard what you guys said to each other.”

“Then you heard me quit too…” he told her quietly.

She frowned, trying to make sense of his actions. Chad gave her a hard look.

“You need to go to the hospital. If for no other reason than to have documentation when you take him to court.”

Raising a bloody hand to her head, she shielded her eyes for several long moments, obviously weighing her options. When she eventually looked up at Chad, determination lined her face. “I’ll call a neighbor to come over and sit with her. You don’t need to. I’ll go to the hospital in a bit, after the neighbor gets here.”

The gray haired paramedic immediately started shaking his head. “Ma’am, you need to go now. With the swelling on your face, you probably have a concussion under there, which can lead to swelling and bleeding and eventually death. You need to be checked out by the doctors as soon as possible.”

She seemed to understand the medic’s warnings, because her shoulders slumped in defeat. “Okay, but not until she gets here.”

Chad crossed behind the medic and picked up the cordless phone from the floor. One-handed, he pushed a button to silence the beeping and handed the receiver to her. “Call her now. I’ll wait until she gets here so you can go.”

Chad knew that the ex-Mrs. Malone was normally a beautiful woman. He had seen the professional photos and candid family shots, but right now she was a mess. Her blond hair was bedraggled and dirty, blood was streaked all across her face, and her eye was so swollen it would be weeks before it was back to normal. But she had a bearing to her that was indomitable. Her T-shirt was ripped at the collar and hanging down over one breast, but she sat on the edge of the bed as if she were wearing an evening gown. It was impressive, her courage.

Holding the cordless in front of her face awkwardly, she punched in several numbers. Whoever was on the other end of the phone answered quickly and asked very few questions, because she clicked the off button within less than a minute.

“Elaine will be here in about twenty minutes.” Pointing a chipped-nailed finger at the nightstand, she motioned to a tablet and pen on one corner. “Would you write your name, cell phone number and who you work for on that paper, please. And your boss’s contact number so I can call to confirm who you are.”

Chad bent over the nightstand and wrote the requested information down. Then he wrote Duncan’s cell phone number. What a cluster this night had turned out to be, and he still had to talk to his partner and explain what had gone down.

Duncan apparently answered on the first ring, because the woman asked him questions like she was an attorney, one right after another. His partner seemed to answer everything to her satisfaction, because she handed the receiver to him. “Okay, you check out. He wants to talk to you.”

Chad took the handset from her and motioned to the paramedic to get her on the gurney, because she looked ready to fall over on the bed.

“Yeah, Dunc?”

“What the fuck is going on over there. It was a simple surveillance op, gather info and that’s it. No contact. What the hell happened?”

Stepping out of the room to give the medics room to carry her out, Chad leaned against a wall in the hallway. Lowering his voice so he wouldn’t be overheard, he filled his partner in on the details. Duncan was quiet until he finished.

“Okay, Chad. I should have known you wouldn’t go off like that without a reason. Is she going to be all right?”

“Yea, I think so. She’s pretty beat up. I’m glad I got here when I did though, because he was about to remind her of her conjugal rights.”

“Shit,” Duncan said softly.

“Yep.” Chad stepped to the living room to watch as they hoisted Lora Malone into the waiting ambulance. Her eyes were closed and her head was tipped back against the cushion, almost as if she were asleep. Chad would almost bet she would not allow herself to pass out. That was one strong woman.

“What? Oh, yeah, I’m going to stay with the little girl until her friend gets here to watch her.”

Leaning past the doorjamb, he peeked inside the girl’s room. She was a lump under the covers, sleeping deeply. Chad nodded into the phone, following his boss’s conversation even though he studied the child. “I will. I know. I know. Okay, see you tomorrow.”

Twenty minutes later, a woman knocked softly on the front door before letting herself in. She explained she knew Lora from a support group and showed him her identification. It matched up with what Lora had said to expect, so he let himself out the door.

Lora was in a haze of pain. There was nothing on her that didn’t hurt. And it seemed like the doctors were prodding every single injury just to grade her pain. ‘So looking at this pain scale, how would you rate your pain?’ she’d finally gone off on them. “It fucking hurts,” she screamed.

The doctor had looked at her as if
she
were the one being unreasonable. After that, everything floated away on a cloud of pain medication. She didn’t feel her severely sprained wrist being wrapped, and she didn’t feel the needle in her scalp as they sewed in stitches. The light over the bed was a blinding source of aggravation, and it was a relief when they draped her face in the blue cloth in preparation of fixing her head. It shielded her eyes, and allowed her to rest for just a few minutes.

One of the nurses came in with a clipboard, asking if she had been the victim of sexual assault. Then didn’t seem to believe her when she told her no. When she asked the same question for the third time, Lora finally just rolled over on her side and ignored the woman. She seemed to get the hint.

Sometime later, a Denver Police Officer arrived to question her about the assault. Lora went through every detail she remembered, then told the woman about the voicemails she had been receiving on her phone. Mostly just hangups, but Derek had called yesterday to wish her happy anniversary, even though they had been divorced for two years. Lora had known then he would be coming after her.

No, he hadn’t raped her. This time.

The officer kept referring to the notes in her notepad, as if she already had a statement from somebody. Oh, yeah, the guy. Duh. He stayed until the squad had taken her away. He had apparently talked to the cops and told them what he had seen, too.

She didn’t know what to think about him. Relief and appreciation that he had gotten Derek off her, but she was still royally pissed too. He’d been following her for weeks. Her paranoia had served her well when she spotted him at the park one day, and recognized him later on sitting down from the house when she went home. Had he actually thought she wouldn’t see him? He followed her everywhere.

And that arm stuck out. It looked like he had been burned or something. The flesh was eaten away, and the bones looked kind of warped, like the healing skin was pulling them into unnatural shapes. It looked painful. The scars spread all the way up his neck to his hairline. There were a few scars on his face too, but they were just pale white lines, like they had happened several years ago.

It wasn’t any business of hers though. She certainly had no reason to be worrying about his pain when she had plenty of her own.

The doctor, too young to have very much experience, admitted her. Lora had expected that, and called the sitter to let her know. Truth be known, she dreaded letting her daughter see her this way. She remembered hearing loud voices during the divorce, but she’d carefully made up her face to cover any bruising she incurred. Between the shiner and the cut on her head, and the bulky wrap on her arm, she was going to have a lot of explaining to do to her little girl.

They moved her to a quiet room on the fifth floor, and finally dimmed the lights and left her alone. Lora tried to sleep, but the scene from her house kept replaying in her head. When she did doze off, she would snap awake at the slightest noise from outside her door.

When there finally was a knock at her door, it was almost a relief to have a reason to sit up and be aware. “Come in.”

The private investigator stuck his head inside and gave her a slight smile. “Mind if I step in for a minute?”

All the anger of the night came rushing back. “Why, do you need more pictures? Does he want proof of what he did?”

The tall man shook his head and held out both hands as he stepped into the room. “No camera, I promise. And your ex didn’t send me here. I came on my own.”

“Why?” she snapped.

“I just wanted to check on you. I feel guilty for letting you get hurt.”

Lora took a moment to scan his face, and all she could see was truth in his earnest blue eyes. At least she thought he was being truthful. She wasn’t a great judge of character recently. “I’m fine. It wasn’t your fault.”

He scrubbed a long hand over his short hair. “It was though. I’d been there for hours, long past when I should have been off-duty, but something didn’t feel right. I could tell you were nervous by the way you were acting and I should have been more aware.”

Lora was torn. He seemed like a nice guy, just hired to do a job, but she was royally pissed he’d been watching her like that. “Well, I’m fine. I appreciate your stepping in when you did. Don’t feel guilty about it. We’re done.”

For several long seconds, he stared at her, before glancing at the floor. When he looked back up, there was a determined look on his face. “Don’t worry about our investigation. We are officially off the case. I talked to my partner, and if there’s anything you need us to do, please let us know.” He fished a business card out of his wallet, and stepped close enough to the bed to set it on the rolling table. “I called the jail, and Derek will be kept for the night, because they smelled alcohol on his breath, but he will bond out in the morning.”