Claire just stared. She must be having a narcoleptic nightmare.
“Claire, I said are you okay?” Darcy asked, looking closer into her face and squeezing her arm.
This was true, really happening. She wanted to burst into tears, scream and dance. Wanted to hug Darcy—but it was Darcy who was not okay.
Her eyes were dilated. She wore not a bit of her usual makeup and looked pale. Alive, but something was so terribly wrong—with her—with all this.
Claire hugged her hard. Had to feel her, know this was real. So thankful. Answer to prayer, fear over. Or was it?
“Is it something with Jilly?” Darcy asked, pulling back. “I should have called but I lost my phone.”
Lost eight days, Claire almost blurted, but she led her into the library. Either she or Darcy had lost her mind.
“No, Jilly’s fine, and Steve’s here. I’ll call them.”
“Steve! Oh, he came to surprise me for our anniversary, after all!” she cried as tears filled her eyes. “And he came here to get Jilly, but you probably said she had to wait for me, or I’d think something was wrong.”
“Yes. Yes, that’s it.”
Darcy was articulate, thinking straight for the world she knew. The world of eight days ago when she disappeared. Someone or something had wiped out those days.
Call Jensen first? Get Steve and Jilly? Then Darcy would think they’d all lost their minds when—evidently—she had.
“Okay,” Claire said, trying to sound normal and upbeat, but her voice kept breaking. “How about you stay here a sec, and I’ll bring Steve in so you guys can have a little reunion before I get Jilly?”
“Oh, boy, I don’t want to ruin his surprise. I know I’m a little late. I’ll bet you were worried and Steve, too. All right, I’ll stay here while you get him—don’t tell him it’s me!”
This was insane. Or was Darcy insane—or the entire world? Claire hugged her again—yes, solid flesh—and went to find Nick before telling Steve. But Jilly would give it all away, let Darcy know she was crazy. Who or what had done this to her?
Nick was outside helping Bronco sweep up the mess on the patio. They’d thrown some plants in the trash can and put back some in the ground and watered them heavily. The area was still a dirty, muddy mess.
“Nick!” Claire called, gesturing with her hand. “I need to see you for a minute.”
He left his broom and came in, clapping dirt off his hands.
“What’s the matter?” he demanded when he got close and saw her face. “Are you ill?”
“Stunned. You aren’t going to believe this, but Darcy’s here, in one piece and—”
He gasped. “Ken brought her here?”
“She brought herself—drove up. She has no clue she’s been gone. She says she came to pick up Jilly. When I told her Steve’s here—”
“She’s really here?” he interrupted. “But is she all right?”
“She thinks everything’s normal, but she’s not. Really weird. She believes it’s eight days ago.”
“We need to get her to a doctor, tell Ken Jensen.”
“Go ahead with Jensen, but we’ve got to warn Steve so he doesn’t say she’s crazy and set her off. Something horrible must have happened to her, so bad she has amnesia or was drugged or—”
“Thank God she’s back, but—but... Whew!”
He pinched his nose with his thumb and index finger, leaving what looked like dirty tear marks. She could see him try to steady himself. Yes, she had to find Steve, warn Steve.
She saw him with the girls watching TV in the den with that damned doll.
“Steve, I need to see you for a second,” she said, gesturing to him.
“They say the storm is worse?” he asked as he followed her into the kitchen.
“Brace yourself for some good but strange news. Darcy just showed up, and she thinks it’s the day she was taken. She’s lost over a week, and I’m afraid if we tell her anything of the big search for her, it might make it worse. I told her you’re here, and she thinks it’s a surprise for your anniversary. I don’t think she recalls anything of being gone. Steve?”
His eyes had widened, then narrowed. His jaw hung open. He just stared at Claire.
“Where—where is she? I have to see her, hold her.”
“The library, but be careful what you say so—”
He rushed away. Claire wilted against the wall. Maybe she’d let Steve break it to Jilly. She was starting to shake, felt cold, but how would Darcy feel?
She exploded in tears, shoulders shaking, sobbing into the palms of her hands. Finally, she calmed herself, grabbed a tissue so the girls wouldn’t see her and think the worst. She ducked into their master bedroom where Nick sat on their bed talking on the phone.
“No, only Claire has seen her and now Steve. She says Darcy’s out of it, thinks it’s the day she was lost. But you can’t just start to interrogate her, or she might flip out.”
Still shaking, Claire sank onto the bed beside him and gestured for Nick to give her the phone.
“Ken, it’s Claire. Maybe she’s been drugged or has a concussion. She doesn’t know she’s been gone. I understand you need to talk to her, but she’s with Steve, and we need to prepare Jilly and Lexi.”
She listened to his rush of words, then dared to interrupt him. “Yes, I realize she needs a checkup and care, but what will taking her away from us do to her right now?”
“Claire, if she was imprisoned—mistreated by someone—we have to examine her right away, find out who, hopefully why. Keep her—and Steve—calm because I’m coming over, and we’ll have to have her treated, but I promise you, you can stay with her.”
“Me? Why not Steve?”
“I’ll explain. Try to keep her calm—Steve, too—until I get there. We won’t let this hit the media cycle until we have her safely off-limits from them.”
“But we can get her a doctor.”
It annoyed her that Nick was not only leaning close to listen, but was shaking his head to that question and mouthing, “No.”
“Listen to me,” Ken said. “You’ve been around crimes and victims enough to know we need to take her into medical custody right now. She may well have been abducted, abused, violated. It’s a police matter, the law. Ask Nick and keep an eye on Steve because he’s volatile. Keep calm, and I’ll see you soon.”
She ended the call and handed the phone to Nick. “It’s like—like she has to be committed. He said I could stay with her if I wanted to.”
“Stay where?”
“I don’t know. Where she’s treated, taken. A hospital, I guess.”
“Not Steve with her?”
“No—I don’t know why. But we’ve got to go tell Jilly, unless Steve wants to. I’ll go find out—see how they are doing. Nick, thank God she’s back, but in a way, she’s not really back at all.”
Nick held her tight, hopefully just the way Steve was holding Darcy.
Steve had whispered to Claire that she should tell Jilly. Claire took her niece off by herself while Nita stayed with Lexi. Darcy and Steve were still in the library.
“Honey,” Claire told her, “I have some really happy news, but you are going to have to help your daddy. Your mommy has come back but—”
“Yay! Where is she? Is she okay? I have to hug her right now!”
“You will, but the thing is, she doesn’t remember anything about being away. Maybe she hit her head or something—I mean, she is fine—but she somehow forgot she was away for over a week. Can you try not to tell her she’s wrong until we can get a doctor to help her?”
“You mean, tell her lies?”
“No. Just agree with her, pretend everything is just like usual and okay.”
“But isn’t that like telling lies?”
“We need to have her see a doctor to get straightened out bit by bit.”
“But where was she? And where is she now?”
“Right now, in the library, sweetheart, with your daddy. How about you join them there and hug them and celebrate quietly in your own mind and heart. But just agree with things right now until we get her some help. Then, when she’s better, you can tell her everything, and she’ll tell you where she’s been, because I don’t think she even knows right now. Can you do all that to help her and your daddy, too?”
“I can do anything to help her. It will just be pretend for a while, not a lie, right?”
“Right,” Claire assured her, and walked her to the library door, hoping to heaven Steve had not ruined Darcy’s fragile facade already.
To Claire’s surprise and annoyance, not only did Ken arrive in a squad car wearing a Collier County police uniform instead of his usual detective civilian look, but he’d brought an ambulance and two other uniformed officers with him.
“Do you need all this?” she asked him as the three men entered. “She’s hardly going to resist a short hospital stay, and I’ll take you up on your offer to go with her. Nita just went to pack a duffel bag for both of us with my clothes.”
“How is Steve taking this?” he asked as Nick joined them in the front hall. He, too, frowned at Ken when he saw the officers.
“He insists he can handle things,” Claire said. “He says he should go with Darcy instead of me. Nick advised him I should go with her, but he’s protesting, says he wants another lawyer.”
“He’s going to need one. Claire and Nick, sorry to rain on your parade on this happiest of days. I’m ecstatic you have her back physically well, but she will need to be deposed and treated.”
“We understand that,” Nick said. “Claire will go with her. We appreciate that. But what do you mean Steve needs a lawyer? If he wants one for his own reasons, that’s one thing, but needs?”
“Just brace yourselves—again. I’m here to arrest Steven Stanley for suspicion of the aggravated murder of Lawrence Ralston. I’ll be able to protect Darcy’s privacy for a few days, but not Steve’s when this gets out. I wanted to warn you in case he protests. There’s been corroborating DNA evidence he was in a physical struggle with Ralston on his boat just before the victim was found drowned.”
Claire wavered on her feet. Too much. Too much!
“You can’t—cannot arrest him in front of Darcy,” she insisted. “She knows nothing of this. She’s been through too much—through something.”
“Then clear the way for me. Get her, and their daughter—if she’s still with them—away from him. It would be best. It’s why I’m telling you all this. Claire, that will mean you will temporarily be legally in charge of your sister, at least until Steve makes bail or is—”
“I’ll go with him until he gets his own representation,” Nick insisted.
“Fine by me. Now, I’ll have these officers step aside so you can prepare Darcy to be taken to the North Naples Hospital where a psychiatrist is waiting. She’ll have a thorough checkup there before being interviewed. Your psych background will help, too, I’m sure, Claire.”
At first, she just stared at Ken, then at Nick. He gave a terse nod and put his arm around her waist. They were both shaking.
“I need to read Steve his rights,” Ken said. “I hope you’ll continue to help me—help them—as you have these last eight days, for everyone’s sake.”
Claire wiped tears from under her eyes and whispered, “Yes.”
While Nick and Ken waited in the hall and the officers stepped into the kitchen to not be seen at first, Claire squared her shoulders and knocked on the library door.
“Come in!” Steve called.
She went in and closed the door behind her, leaning against it as if she could shut out Ken and everything awful that had happened.
“So, I think Darcy looks a little thin and tired and could use a visit to a doctor just to be sure everything’s okay,” she said, trying to sound upbeat but her voice quavered.
“I understand, but can’t we wait until tomorrow?” Steve asked. “Thanks for all you’ve done, Claire. Nick, too.”
“Steve, you need to step out in the hall a moment to talk to Nick first.”
“He decide to represent me?”
“For what, Steve?” Darcy asked. “Do we need a lawyer? Did something happen on your job site?”
She was sitting tight against him on the leather couch with Jilly pinned to her other side. For one moment that wistful, puzzled look on her sister’s face reminded Claire of Will’s painting of his grandmother with her butterfly net...
“Steve, please,” Claire said, and came closer to him, praying he would not see her sending him out into the hall without warning him as a betrayal. “I promise you, I will stay with Darcy.”
He heaved a huge sigh and got up to go to the door. Claire bit her lower lip, feeling she’d been a traitor just now, but they didn’t need uniformed officers near Darcy or Jilly, or Steve putting up another fight. Dear God, what if he was guilty of what they were accusing him of?
He looked back at his family, then went out into the hall and closed the door behind him. Claire put her arm around Darcy, and they hugged again, even as Jilly squeezed into their embrace, too.
Through the door, Claire could barely hear the muffled words, but she knew what to expect. Steve’s protest and then Nick’s calming tones. Finally, even more distant, Ken Jensen’s voice, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney...”
“Darcy,” Claire said, “you do look like you’re coming down with something, so I’m going to go with you to have you checked out.”
“But Steve and I are going to plan our private anniversary dinner, so that will have to wait. I’m fine, just fine.”