And There He Kept Her (Ben Packard #1)(92)

“I’m sure I hit him at least twice,” Packard said, coming off the dock. “I don’t know if there’s anything we could have done to save him,” he said.

Thielen stared at the water like she dared Emmett to come out. “You haven’t been inside yet and seen what I’ve seen. The sonofabitch responsible for that”—she hiked a thumb over her shoulder—“gets to save himself.”

Packard went inside Emmett’s house and sat with Jenny in a pink room that smelled like cigarettes and urine while they waited for the firemen with the bolt cutters. She was barely conscious. He stepped out when the EMTs arrived, but watched as one of them checked her blood and shook his head at the numbers.

They rolled Jenny on a gurney out the back door. Packard called Susan from Emmett’s landline and stretched the cord outside so he could watch them push Jenny up the hill to the ambulance.

Susan was still at the hospital waiting for the doctor to discharge her.

“Stay there,” Packard said. “We found Jenny. They’re bringing her in now.”





Chapter Thirty-One


Packard wasn’t able to leave the scene at Emmett’s until well after dark. It was late evening by the time he made it to the hospital.

The door to Jenny’s room was open, the lights dimmed. Jenny was asleep with Susan in the chair by her bed, reading a book. Susan had two black eyes and a splint over her nose from the car accident. “How’s she doing?” he whispered.

“Okay, all things considered. They gave her something to help her sleep. She’s getting lots of fluids to get her blood sugar back in line. And antibiotics for the infection in her hand. She’s going to need surgery on it when she’s stronger.”

Packard had a lump in his throat, looking at Jenny asleep in the bed, knowing how close they’d come to a different outcome. Another hour would have changed everything.

Susan was reading his mind. “You said you’d find her. You did.”

Packard shook his head. He didn’t know what to say so he told her some of the details from earlier in the day. About finding Jesse and Carl in the quarry, and Carl’s connection to Emmett.

“When she was coherent, she talked about Carl and that there are bodies buried at Emmett’s.”

“We figured as much when we saw his basement. We’ve got people searching the property.” He didn’t tell her about the pink room or the hole Emmett had dug for Jenny or that the cadaver dogs had already picked up the scent of two, maybe three sites. She would know it all eventually, then wish she didn’t.

“You might still be questioning your decision to move to Sandy Lake, but I’m glad you did,” Susan said. It clearly embarrassed her to say so. It was probably the closest he’d get to a thank-you. He was fine with that.

“I’m here to stay. There’s work to be done. And you have to let me help with whatever the two of you need. I don’t want this to be like it was after Tom died. I call. You don’t call me back. We shouldn’t live in the same town and only see each other at the family reunion.”

“We don’t have family reunions.”

“Exactly.”

“I’ll do better,” Susan promised.

There was no other place to sit, and Packard was dead on his feet so he said good night. He was almost out the door when he turned around.

“I almost forgot. I stopped at the station and got her phone from the techs. I’m sure she’ll be wanting it.”

Susan closed her book and took the phone he’d had in his pocket. “Thank you,” she said.





Chapter Thirty-Two


A week later, Packard had a date.

He knocked and stared at his shoes while he waited. After a minute the door opened, and Olivia McDonald stood there in purple pants and a short-sleeved yellow blouse. She had a white sweater over her shoulders and a beaded clutch in her hand.

“Mrs. McDonald, you’re as pretty as a spring flower.”

“Pishh,” she said. “I’m older than oil, but thank you for the compliment. My granddaughter helped me pick the outfit.”

“It’s very nice. Shall we go?”

She let the door close behind her. He stuck out his elbow and she put her hand through it. “Still not locking your door, I see,” he chided.

“Still got nothing worth stealing,” she said.

They walked slowly down the hallway. The attendant at the reception desk was waiting for them with the front door held open. “Have a nice time, Mrs. McDonald. Please have her home before dark, Deputy.”

“No promises.”

It was the perfect summer day. Low eighties and sunshine. Standing next to the department vehicle, he put her clutch on the dash, then held her hand and her elbow while she got both feet on the step up, then eased herself into the passenger seat. He helped her with her seat belt, then closed the door and went around the front and got behind the wheel. Mrs. McDonald took a pair of oversized sunglasses out of her purse.

“My granddaughter said I had to wear the sunglasses to complete the outfit. She said all the celebrities nowadays wear sunglasses this big.”

“You look very sophisticated.”

Mrs. McDonald lowered the visor on her side and looked at herself in the mirror. “I look like Jackie Onassis, the nursing home years,” she joked.