Where the Forest Meets the Stars(74)

31

The next morning someone knocked on her door. “Come in,” she said, pulling her hospital gown over her bandaged leg. She was expecting Gabe and Tabby. They’d spent the night at a nearby hotel. Instead, her research advisor walked in. “So . . . when were you going to tell me you were shot and nearly died?” Shaw asked.
“Never, if possible. I figured you were tired of my endless doom and gloom.”
“I’m not, and if I’d known, I’d have been here in a heartbeat.” He folded his long body into the chair in front of hers. “Is your brother here?”
“I talked to him last night. He wanted to come, but I told him I was perfectly fine and I’d be pissed if he came.”
“Perfectly fine?” Shaw said, looking at her propped leg.
“I am. How did you find out?”
“From George Kinney. The police had to contact him because it happened on his property.”
“That must have been surprising news—a shoot-out and two guys dead on his property.”
“The timing was bad. His wife died earlier the same night.”
“Lynne died?”
Shaw’s white brows arched in confusion. “You knew Lynne?”
“No . . . not really.”
He studied her for a few seconds. “George told me you brought someone he knows to campus that same day—Gabriel Nash?”
Jo nodded. “He helped me move my stuff into the new house.”
“George said he lives on the property next to his. His family and George’s go way back.” He waited for Jo to explain how she knew Gabe, but she stayed silent. “George told me Gabe may have saved your life.”
“I had a gun pointing straight at me, and he took out the guy before he fired.”
“My god!” Shaw said, thrusting his fingers into his silky white hair. “I have to meet this guy and thank him.”
“You may get your wish. He’s supposed to be here any minute.”
“Should I leave?”
“No, visitors are all that make a hospital bearable.”
“I thought good drugs did that?”
“I’ve had it with the drugs. I’m already weaning off.”
“Why am I not surprised to hear that?” He relaxed against the back of his chair. “I hear the little girl is doing well.”
“Is she?”
“They didn’t tell you?”
“No. They won’t tell me anything.”
“She’s in intensive care, but she’s out of danger. They expect her to make it.”
If her advisor weren’t sitting in front of her, she’d have blubbered in relief. “Did the police tell Dr. Kinney why those men were after her?”
Shaw sat erect. “She didn’t get hit by accident?”
“I’m pretty sure they came there to kill her.”
“Have you told the police?”
“I’ve told them everything.”
“They told George it was probably a robbery.”
“I think they’re saying that because it’s a criminal investigation and they can’t leak anything. It’s all linked to something that happened in Effingham. A detective from there asked me a lot of questions.”
Shaw’s blue gaze was penetrating. “George said the police asked him if he’d been aware that the little girl was living on his property.”
Jo couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Was she?”
“Yes.”
He rumpled his hair again.
“I think I’m in pretty big trouble.”
“What the hell were you doing?”
“I felt sorry for her. One night she showed up hungry and wearing dirty pajamas. She didn’t even have shoes.”
“I remember—you’d given her your sandals.”
“I called the sheriff the next day, but she ran into the woods when he got there.”
“But that was . . . what, more than a month ago?”
“I know.”
He waited for more explanation.
“I hated for her to go to foster parents. You hear all those bad stories . . .”
“Were you sure her parents weren’t looking for her?”
“If they were, they never told the police. I checked the internet every day for the first few weeks. And by then . . . I know this will sound crazy, but I really cared about her. I was even thinking of trying to be her foster parent.”
“My god, Jo, your heart is just too big for this mean world.”
“If I’m charged with something, will it cause trouble at the university?”
“It might.”
“Could I get kicked out of grad school?”
“You never know with our current butt-brain of a department head.” He saw how devastated she was. “You know I’ll fight for you. And I know what you’ve been through—how it could have . . . influenced what you did.”
Why did everyone think that? She kept her mouth shut, but she wanted to say that she wouldn’t have done anything different if she still had her mother and her breasts and her ovaries. She would love Ursa just as much.
Shaw saw he’d perturbed her and changed the subject. “Do you need help wrapping up your research?”
“To tell the truth, I can’t stop worrying about my nest logs and computer and everything sitting in that house.”
“I’d be the same way. If my head was blown off my body, my brain would still be worrying about my data.”
“No doubt about that.”
“I’ll go straight to Kinney’s when I leave Saint Louis. I have a key to get in.”