About a block from Bridget’s apartment, Zach pulled his truck over. He reached into the back seat and grabbed a Buffalo Bills baseball cap and offered it to her. “Do you think you can stuff your hair into this?”
She began twisting her ponytail into a high bun. “Can’t be harder than fitting it under a bonnet, right?”
“Yeah,” Zach said distractedly. He craned his neck to check his surroundings, it seemed. “Got it?” His attention landed on Bridget stuffing the last bit of hair up into the baseball cap. His steely gaze made a chill run up her spine.
“I’m all set.” She pulled the bill of the hat low on her forehead.
“Maybe I should run up to your apartment and leave you in the truck.”
Disappointment edged out her apprehension. “Please, I want to go in. I need to search for a few things, if that’s okay with you.”
His eyes stared, unseeing. His shoulders sagged a fraction, and she knew he’d relented. “We have to hurry.” The seriousness of his tone set her teeth on edge. Did he really think someone was waiting for her?
Bridget gave him a quick nod. With that, Zach drove to a parking lot across the street from her apartment complex, and they got out and walked the long way around to her unit. They both wore ball caps, looking like they were ready to go to the team’s home opener, not that she’d know from experience.
They strode through the courtyard. Her eye was drawn to the emergency-closure boards nailed to the frame of her bedroom window. In the middle of the day, the area was deserted. Most of her neighbors were at work, making it easier for her and Zach to sneak in and out unnoticed. Bridget jogged up the stairs, and Zach followed close behind. With key in hand, Bridget approached her apartment door. Her mind flashed back to the first time she had gotten the keys to her very own place. Her very first tangible evidence of freedom.
Poof. Gone.
The key slipped in her sweaty fingers.
You can do this.
The key slid into the lock, and she heard the solid click of the dead bolt retracting. She pushed open the door, and the dank air hung thick with smoke and dampness. It was a far cry from the scent of the lavender air freshener she loved.
Zach entered the room behind her. “Get what you need. I’ll wait here. And hurry.”
A lump of emotion made it impossible to speak. Bridget walked through the untouched family room to her bedroom. She opened the door and slid her hand along the wall, reaching for the light switch and flicked it back and forth. Nothing. The only source of light was from the hallway since boards covered the windows, leaving the room cast in heavy shadows and making it seem smaller. The cloying scent didn’t help.
“The electricity has probably been shut off because of the fire,” Zach called from the living room. “Do you have your phone on you? Use the flashlight app.”
Bridget directed the beam around the bedroom. Gingerly she fingered her pink comforter, now charred and damp from the fire and subsequent firefighting efforts. Suddenly she felt very tired. Exhausted. Had all the challenges she had faced to get here been for nothing? Tonight, she’d be back in her bed in Hickory Lane with no real timeline for returning to Buffalo.
“Did you find what you needed?” Zach hollered from the other room. “We should get going.”
Zach’s impatience made her nervous. She scanned the beam of light around the room. She peeled back the closet doors and found her backpack. It seemed to be mostly untouched by the flames, and the nylon had protected it from the water. She hoisted it onto her shoulder. She grabbed a couple textbooks from the top shelf of the closet. Then she found her notebook and favorite pens in her desk drawer. The pages of the notebook were a little wavy from the dampness. She shook her head to try to dispel the constant unease that made her skin buzz. She had her laptop and books. She’d be able to keep up with two online classes.
She backed out and scanned the room one last time, the light from her smartphone touching on the life she had made here for the past couple years after she moved off campus. The life that clearly no longer existed. Even if—no when—she returned permanently, this wouldn’t be her home. She’d never be able to live here again without reliving the explosive crash and fire.
She turned off the flashlight and balanced the phone on the textbooks in her arms. She pulled her bedroom door closed out of habit.
“Got everything?” Zach opened the outside door a fraction.
“Almost.” Bridget ducked into the kitchen to grab her migraine meds. Just then, a commotion sounded in the next room. She poked her head out of the kitchen to find Dr. Ryan pointing a gun at Zach and forcing him back into her apartment. Her heart dropped.
Instinctively, she backed up while clutching her things. Zach lifted his hands and seemed to be trying to tell her something with his keen gaze.
Her boss pushed the door closed with his foot. “Why did you have to do this?”
Bridget’s gaze moved from Dr. Ryan to Zach and back. Zach shook his head slightly. Taking his cue, she stayed quiet.
“Dr. Ryan, it’s over,” Zach said.
The physician scoffed. “For who? I’m the one holding the gun.”
“Killing isn’t in your nature. You’re a healer.”
Her boss seemed to blanch.
Zach held out his palm. “Hand me your weapon. This ends here.”
The physician seemed to consider this for a moment before shaking his head. He glared at Bridget. She had never seen him this angry. He always had a wonderful bedside manner, and only once had she heard him get upset with one of his employees. The nighttime janitor had accidentally left the alley door unlocked. Anything could have been stolen. Yet the doctor himself had been the biggest threat to the clinic.
“It should never have gone this far,” the physician said ruefully. “Why didn’t you mind your own business?” Dr. Ryan scrubbed a hand over his face and shuddered. “You and Ashley should have minded your own business.”
“Ashley...” The single word slipped out of Bridget’s lips. Her mouth felt dry. “You killed Ashley.”
“Bridget...” Zach warned.
Something flashed in the doctor’s eyes. “I didn’t mean... She wouldn’t listen.”
“You don’t want this to go any further,” Zach said, his voice calm yet authoritative.
Bridget’s boss turned, and in one swift motion, Zach disarmed him and had the man’s face pressed against the wall.
Bridget slid down the wall to the floor, sagging with relief and finally letting the tears fall.
“You okay?” Zach asked, pressing his knee into Seth Ryan’s back and yanking his arm up in the most uncomfortable position.
Bridget nodded and set her things on the floor next to her. She swiped at a tear running down her cheek.
“Any chance you have a zip tie in that kitchen of yours?”
“Yeah.” Bridget got to her feet and ran to the kitchen. He could hear her opening and closing drawers until she returned with a black zip tie. “This?”
“Perfect.” He took the plastic zip tie and wrapped it around the doctor’s wrists and cranked it tight. The doctor grunted. The fasteners should hold, because the doctor didn’t have much fight left in him. Zach grabbed the doctor’s arm and dragged him a few feet, letting him sit with his back against the wall. “Who’s down in Philly?” The DEA had tracked his credit card to a hotel down there.
Seth’s eyes narrowed, and he shook his head. It seemed the doctor wasn’t going to talk. Instead, he bowed his head and sobbed, loudly and with little dignity.
Zach joined Bridget, who was sitting on the edge of the couch shaking. She looked up at him, and he reached out and took her hand.
“Is it over?”
He wanted more than anything to say yes, but he knew that wasn’t true. In his experience, each of these guys was just a cog in the wheel. “Hang tight. I’m going to call this in.”
She exhaled a long, shaky breath. “Okay.”
It didn’t take long for a Buffalo police officer to come pick up Seth Ryan, then Zach turned to Bridget. “Let me get you home.”
“Home?” she asked when they were alone again. She straightened the footstool that had been jostled in the skirmish.
“Not here. You need to go back to Hickory Lane until we finish our investigation. It shouldn’t be long.” He wasn’t sure if the last bit was a white lie or not. Either way, he needed to reassure her.
“Are you going to drop me off and leave? I overheard you talking to your supervisor.”
The protest died on his lips. Bridget shrugged, seeming so frail and thin. “I get it.” She sniffed. “With Dr. Ryan in custody, the case should be over soon, right? Besides, you have better things to do than babysit me.”
Inwardly he winced at her choice of words. The same ones his supervisor had used in the office. They lacked respect. “Come on.” He held out his hand, and she accepted it, coming to her feet. How could he explain to her that these cases were never cut-and-dried? “We don’t know who else is in involved, but this is a huge start. Huge. Okay?”
“Okay...”
“I want you to go back to Hickory Lane for a few more days, at least.”
“Alone, right?” Her dejected tone suggested she already knew the answer.
“I’ll make sure you get settled.”
Bridget hoisted her backpack on her shoulder and picked up the items she had set on the floor. “Let’s go.”
Shortly after they got into the truck, his cell phone rang. His mother’s name flashed on the caller ID on his dash. He hit Ignore. A moment later, it rang again.
“Go ahead and answer it,” Bridget said.
His thumb hovered over Ignore before curiosity got the best of him. “Hello.” He hadn’t taken a call from his mother in over two years. The last time she’d been slurring her words and berated him. He hadn’t stayed on the phone long enough to find out why she had been all bent out of shape.
“Zachary, it’s your mother.” Her voice cracked over the line, filling the inside of the cab. She sounded tired but clear. Sober. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“How can I help you?” Realizing how formal he sounded, he was acutely aware of Bridget’s presence.
Her mother sniffed. “I heard about Ashley. Poor, sweet girl...” She went quiet before finding her voice again. “I saw her not that long ago. I gave her your business card. Did she call you?”
Zach rested his elbow on the door and rubbed his forehead. “She called me.” He cleared his throat. “Did you read about her death in the paper?”
“You know I don’t get the newspaper.”
Actually, he didn’t know. He had moved out of his mother’s house when he was eighteen for college. From there, he’d enlisted. He’d avoided his childhood at all costs, including his baby sister.
“Ashley’s parents told me. They said she was murdered.” His mother emphasized the word murdered as if it were offensive solely to her. “Her poor mother. I did what I could to comfort her, you know, one mother to another who lost a child. Only another mother could understand that.”
Growing anger bubbled in his gut. His mother loved the martyr card. What she failed to acknowledge was that she’d been too strung out to recognize the same symptoms in her own daughter. He gritted his teeth to avoid saying something he’d later regret. “Is there anything else? I have work to do.”
“Always work...”
He checked the traffic before turning right. “Well, there’s a lot of drugs out there.” He couldn’t help the dig.
“If you took the time to visit me, you’d know I’ve changed,” his mother said, her voice growing soft.
Not soon enough. Bridget stared out the passenger window. “I have to go. Please express my condolences to the Meadows family.”
“Goodbye, Zachary.” His mother’s tone was resigned. “It’s obvious that you don’t have time for me.”
Zach ended the call. Silence hung thick and heavy in the air.
Bridget shifted in her seat. “You’re estranged from your family, too.”
He hitched a shoulder. “My mother always chose drugs over us.”
“Now you’re doing the same.” Bridget sounded faraway.
“I’m on the right side of the law.” A hard edge sharpened his words. Zach turned on his directional and took the on-ramp to the Thruway.
“How do you suppose Dr. Ryan found us so quickly?” Bridget’s abrupt change in conversation caught Zach off guard. He checked the rearview mirror. He had been careful to take a circuitous route before he got on the Thruway, and he planned to get off an exit or two after the one to Hickory Lane and then double back. He couldn’t be too careful.
“They’ll look into that. My guess, someone close by was watching the apartment.” He cleared his throat. “That’s why I was reluctant to take you there.” He sensed Bridget was about to apologize, so he held up his hand. “In the end, going back there was a great way to flush him out. Ideally, I would have had an agent go in with me, not a civilian. Thankfully it all worked out. Now we have him in custody.”
“Why do you think he did it?” Bridget asked. “I thought he was a good man.”
“I’m sure we’ll find out now that he’s in custody.”
Bridget let out a long breath. “How long will it take before I can come back to Buffalo for good?”
“Analysts are going through the records and the videos of people coming and going from the clinic. The Buffalo Police Department is investigating Ashley’s death. With more than one crime scene, the pieces will come together. Quickly.” Zach reached out to pat her on the knee, then thought better of it. “And now they have the doctor in custody. It shouldn’t be long.”
The protective shield he had built around his heart was crumbling. His heart ached for Bridget. The pain on her face made it evident that his confident reassurances meant little to her.
His mind flashed to the good doctor sobbing in the apartment. The compassion that he might have felt for a life ruined was replaced by hot anger at the lives destroyed in greed’s wake.