In Your Dreams (Blue Heron #4)(111)

Jack didn’t need this. Not with Mr. Holland in the hospital, very, very sick...or even dead. “Hadley. Please stop.”

She turned around and gave Emmaline the finger.

Nice. A branch slapped Em across the forehead and tangled in her hair, and she growled with irritation.

She caught up to Hadley as the smaller woman tried to climb over a rock wall. Hadley saw her coming, bent over and picked up a handful of something, then turned and shoved it in Em’s face.

Dirt and snow. Gross.

Em grabbed her hand, twisted it behind her back and yanked her back against her. “Knock it off,” she said, spitting out some frozen moss. “Or I’m arresting you for drunk and disorderly.”

“Jack! Jack!” Hadley shrieked, struggling.

So. Getting a drunken, surprisingly strong woman out of the woods wasn’t easy. “Can you just walk, please?” she said as Hadley writhed. “I really don’t want to have to carry you.” She got kicked in the shin as an answer. Branches snapped underfoot, and a squirrel followed them from the tree branches, laughing at the idiocy. Some of the snow Hadley had shoved at her had slid down Em’s shirt (of course), and there was a cold, wet lump sitting on her chest like a third breast.

Five minutes later, Emmaline had Hadley handcuffed and locked in the back of the cruiser, where Hadley was sobbing. At least she couldn’t hurt herself (or the car) if she was cuffed, and she’d done more than enough to earn it. There were a few leaves in Hadley’s tangled hair and raccoon eyes from where her mascara had melted.

Em leaned against the cruiser, breathing hard. She wasn’t much better off than her passenger. Her forehead stung, and her shin throbbed.

Okay, first things first. “I’ll be right back,” she told her passenger.

Emmaline went inside to the bedroom with the broken window and picked up the glass, then closed the door so too much heat (and the cat) wouldn’t get out. Debated on calling Levi, and then decided he didn’t need to hear about this just yet. He had other things on his mind.

She went back outside, opened the door of the cruiser for Sarge and got behind the wheel. “Is your sister still in town?” she asked.

“No! I’ve got no one and nowhere to go!”

“Have you always depended on the kindness of strangers?”

“As a matter of fact, yes!”

Okay, Blanche DuBois. Em stifled an eye roll.

She’d take Hadley to the station, because she didn’t have time to babysit her at her apartment. She was the officer on call today. Hadley could just sit tight in the holding cell and sober up.

Em rubbed a spot on her jaw where Hadley’s head had slammed into her.

It was going to be a long day.

Ten minutes later, they were at the station.

“You must be freezing! Isn’t she freezing?” Carol Robinson asked when Emmaline brought Hadley in. Though Emmaline had tied Hadley’s coat closed, it barely cleared her ass. Also, Hadley had refused to put on her shoes. “Isn’t that Jack Holland’s wife?”

“Ex-wife,” Emmaline said tightly. “Everett, unlock the cell for me.”

Hadley arched her back as they walked down the hall, still trying to get away. “Don’t! Not in there! Please! Not that! I can’t stand that!”

“It’s not exactly a pit in the ground, Hadley,” she said as Everett opened the holding cell door. “You’ll just stay here for a little while. There’s a blanket on the bed. Get warmed up, okay?” She uncuffed her, gave her a gentle push in and closed the cell door. “I’ll bring you something to wear.”

“Please! Please don’t lock me up!” Hadley pressed a fist to her mouth and sobbed like she’d just seen The Notebook for the first time. Ev was staring at Hadley’s outfit (or lack thereof), his mouth hanging open. Em smacked him on the head. “Ev. Come on!”

“Right, right, sorry,” Everett said. “What happened to you? You look awful. You’re all dirty.”

“Emmaline, you’re filthy,” Carol pointed out.

“Yes, I know.” Em went to her locker, where she kept a clean uniform as well as a pair of yoga pants and a MPD sweatshirt. She pulled the latter two out and handed them to Carol. “Bring these to Meryl Streep, okay? And ask her if she’s hungry.”

“Is Meryl Streep here?” Everett asked.

Emmaline closed her eyes. “No, Ev. I meant Hadley. The woman in the cell.”

Carol went back down the hall, and a second later, Hadley bellowed, “These are way! Too! Big!” followed by more sobbing. When Carol returned, she was trying hard not to giggle. “She wants to know if she gets a phone call,” she said.

“She can have one when she sobers up a little.” Em tried to be professional; Hadley was in custody and a guest of the town now, not just Jack’s ex-wife.

But it was hard to know if she was treating Hadley like she’d treat anyone else, because maybe she was being too nice. Hadley had driven under the influence; somewhere during her rant on the way to the station, she’d admitted that, and her car was parked half on Blue Heron’s lawn, half on the driveway. She’d thrown a rock through a window, which constituted criminal mischief. Drunk and disorderly. Menacing a police officer, more or less.

What would Levi do?

Em thought he’d do pretty much what she’d already done. Give her time to cool down, then deliver a stern lecture, name-drop some of the charges that could be leveled against her and tell her to grow up.