In Your Dreams (Blue Heron #4)(112)

Yeah. All in all, Em was pretty sure she’d done a good job.

She washed up and changed into her uniform, brushed her hair and put it in its customary bun. Took a few deep breaths and left the locker room.

“Levi called,” Carol said. “John Holland, the old one, had a heart attack, and he’s being admitted, so he’ll be at the hospital with Faith.”

“How’s Mr. Holland doing?” Emmaline asked.

“He didn’t really say. Maybe you should ask Jack.”

“Yeah. Anything else?”

“Yep.” Carol handed her a few messages, then sat back down at her desk.

Typical stuff for a weekday. Mrs. McPhales thought she saw a trespasser. Someone saw a stray dog or possibly a coyote in their backyard. A speeder past Phyllis Nebbins’s house. The Knoxes’ free-range chickens were causing traffic danger. Dalton hadn’t shown up for school.

Em checked her phone.

Nothing from Jack.

“Okay, I’ll go out on these calls. Everett, keep an eye on Hadley, okay?”

“You bet,” he said, going back to his computer. She heard the Angry Birds music, gave him a look and left.

* * *

WHEN EMMALINE GOT back to the station a couple of hours later, Everett met her at the door. “We might have a problem,” he said. “I just checked on Hadley, and she’s not too good.”

“Shit.” She ran down the hall to the holding cell.

Hadley was sitting on the floor, practically drowning in Em’s clothes. She was rocking and whimpering, and the smell of vomit was unmistakable. “Hadley?” Em said, going into the cell. “You okay?”

“Please let me out,” she whispered, seeming completely different from before.

“Yeah, sure. You feeling all right now?”

“Can I make a phone call?” She was shaking.

“Absolutely.” Emmaline led her out of the cell and into the station proper. “We’re not charging you with anything. Not yet, anyway. I just wanted you to be safe. You were pretty...wild before. Do you remember that?”

She nodded. Em sat her at the desk and handed her the receiver. “Just dial nine to get an outside line,” she said. Then she took a few steps away so as not to eavesdrop.

This wasn’t good.

“What happened?” Carol asked.

“She threw up. I don’t know what else. She’s a lot quieter now. Everett, were you watching her?”

“Uh, yeah! Yeah, I was. I mean, when she settled down, I was kinda glad, you know?”

“When did you check on her last?”

He looked at the clock and winced. “An hour ago, maybe?”

Great. So Hadley could’ve been sitting in puke for an hour.

There was a hard pit in her stomach. This wasn’t going to end well.

“Can I get you anything?” Emmaline asked Hadley when she hung up. “Some water, maybe?”

Hadley shook her head and just folded her hands in front of her.

“Do you need the bathroom? Want to get cleaned up?”

“No, thank you.” Her voice was a whisper.

The minutes ticked by. Em tried to take care of some paperwork, but dread was settling over her like a cold, damp fog.

Then the door opened. “Jack,” Hadley whispered. She stood up and wobbled into his arms, looking more like an orphan than the irate prostitute she resembled earlier. Her feet were bare. Damn. Em should’ve given her socks. Hadley was shaking like a leaf, all of her, right down to her toes.

For once, Emmaline didn’t think she was faking.

“Emmaline, what the hell happened here?” Jack asked, his voice hard.

“She was drinking, Jack. She showed up at your house, and—”

“So you arrested her?”

As if they sensed a scene brewing, the four paid members of the Manningsport Fire Department, as well as Shannon and Kelly Murphy, who were training to become EMTs, wandered over. “Hey, Jack, how’s your grandfather?” Gerard asked.

“Not good,” Jack said. “Emmaline? You gonna explain this?”

Em glanced at the Murphy girls, who grimaced in sympathy. “I didn’t actually charge her. I just put her in the holding cell.”

“She’s claustrophobic, Emmaline!”

Shit on rye. “I didn’t know that.”

“You couldn’t tell? Take a look at her.”

Em ran a hand over her head. “No one likes going in the drunk tank, Jack.”

“She was screaming and crying,” Carol said, most unhelpfully. Sounded a lot like police brutality, the way Carol put it.

“Well, she was screaming from the time she got to your house,” Em said.

“So you arrested her,” Jack said, his mouth tight. “She said you chased her and handcuffed and locked her in a cell. Really, Em? Because she was upset?”

“No! It was because she was... I thought she was a danger to herself. And possibly others. She was very aggressive. She—”

“You probably outweigh her by forty pounds, Em. You couldn’t handle that?”

The stutter opened its skeleton eyes.

“I was acting in my capacity as a police officer,” Emmaline said stiffly.

“Sounds like you were acting like a jealous bully,” he said, his voice calm and flat, and the words actually made her head jerk back.