CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

 

Selene and Harriet entered the emergency room waiting area at Bluffs Bay General Hospital where Robert Leighton had been taken. Word was that his condition was serious.

Selene gently squeezed Harriet’s arm supportively.

“There she is!” Harriet practically shouted, pointing across the room.

Selene saw Ashley standing there unsteadily, seemingly caught up in her own world of grief and disbelief. They made their way to her, and the three women embraced as if their lives depended on it.

“Tell us what happened,” Selene said softly.

Ashley wiped away tears and stammered, “Robert came to the house. He refused to leave me alone. Then he hit me. I hit him back and tried to get away.” She sighed and looked away. “I got my gun from the den, but only so I could keep him at bay while I left. But Robert came at me...threatening me. I was so afraid of what he might do... Then the gun went off. I never meant to shoot him—”

“Oh, Ashley, of course you didn’t, honey,” murmured Harriet, taking her into her arms. “We never do, till they force our hand.”

“But what if he doesn’t survive?” Ashley said, sobbing. “How am I supposed to live with killing my husband?”

“You did what you had to do,” Harriet said.

“It wasn’t your fault, Ashley,” Selene added. She remembered how close she had come to attacking her abuser on more than one occasion. “If you hadn’t defended yourself, it would likely be you in the ER right now. Or worse...”

Ashley’s lips trembled. “Why couldn’t he have just left me alone? That’s all I wanted... I just didn’t want him to hurt me anymore...”

“Sometimes this is what it comes down to,” Selene said bluntly. “It’s never easy for any of us to fight the men we love and thought loved us. But he chose to violate the protection order, stalking you, till you had no other choice than to fight back—”

Fresh tears streamed down Ashley’s cheeks. She was a wreck right now, even though she was trying to be strong. There would be questions she would have to answer over and over to the police, press, and even to herself. Right now, she could only think about Robert. If he survived, then maybe he would change for the better.

But Ashley knew that even if Robert pulled through, she would not be able to live with him anymore.

“You’ll get through this, Ashley,” Selene said. “Harriet and I will be there to help any way we can.”

“Thank you,” Ashley said.

The three women huddled together while they waited to find out what Robert’s prognosis was.

* * *

An hour later, the doctor informed them that Robert had survived the surgery. He was expected to make a full recovery. Selene knew that healing his abusive soul would take much longer, whether Ashley remained in his life or not.

When Dennis Cramer entered the waiting area, Selene greeted him. Harriet stayed with Ashley.

“How is she?” he asked, looking weary in a crumpled suit.

“She’s hanging in there. Especially now that Robert’s out of the woods—no pun intended.”

Cramer knitted his brows. “Yeah, nothing funny about shooting one’s husband. I’ll need to talk to her.”

Selene nodded. “I know. Just go easy on her, Dennis. This was clearly a case of self-defense.”

He ran his hand across the length of his chin. “Guess I should’ve seen this coming. You did—”

Selene met his eyes. “That’s my job. Yours is to investigate crimes after they happen. Besides, it’s easy to dismiss the warning signs of abuse where it concerns people you work with who sometimes seem immune to the problems many of us have experienced...”

“I suppose,” Cramer muttered. “I wish she had come to me with this in the beginning. Might have made a difference.”

“And it might not have,” Selene said. “When domestic violence reaches a point of no return, nobody can predict the outcome.”

Cramer sighed. “Yeah, well I’m glad to hear that he’s on the mend, if for no other reason than to spare Ashley even more grief. But his troubles are just beginning...”

Selene assumed that Cramer was referring to pending charges against the attorney for domestic violence.

Cramer moved a little closer to her and said lowly, “Freda Gardner, the witness who apparently came face to face with the arsonist at the shelter, has come forward to say that Robert Leighton looks very much like the man she saw running away from S.A.W. House that night.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Selene said. “He certainly had reason to want to get back at me and the shelter for taking Ashley in and getting her away from him. But it’s still hard to believe he’d take it to that extreme, given everything he had to lose.”

“Maybe he should have thought about that beforehand,” Cramer said, “as well as beating the hell out of his wife and forcing her to shoot him.” Cramer sighed. “Of course, it’s still speculation right now that he’s our arsonist, but we intend to take a much closer look at Leighton. And we’ll see if Ashley can provide any information that might substantiate this.”

Selene gazed sadly at Ashley. “She’s been through a lot in a short time.”

“Don’t worry too much about her,” Cramer said. “She’s a hell of a lot tougher than she appears.”

“Yes, we all are,” Selene said knowingly.