She nodded and then looked down at the phone before moving her fingers over the screen to place the call.She held it in front of her and put it on speakerphone.
“911, what’s your emergency?”a woman answered.
“They killed her,” Poppy said with a sniffle.
“Who killed whom?”
I reached down and gently took the phone, giving Poppy a reassuring smile as I took it off speakerphone and pressed it to my ear.I quickly realized, in hindsight, that it was a bad idea to ask her to make the call while she was in shock.I gave all of the information I had to the woman on the phone, who assured me they would send help immediately.
We both knew that Officer Kearton was already dead; we just didn’t know who killed her.
Once she had what she needed from me, we disconnected the call, and I put my phone away as I sat by the bathroom door and waited for someone to try their luck with me.I had already let my guard down once when I opened the door to Officer Kearton; I wouldn’t make that mistake again.
I grabbed a few pillows from the bed and made a makeshift bed for Poppy in the shower.It wasn’t the best place, but it was the safest option I had.Thankfully, it was large enough for her to lie down with Travis cuddled up beside her as she fell asleep.The bathroom was the only room in the cabin that didn’t have any windows, so the only way they could get to Poppy now was to go through me, and there was no way in hell I would allow that to happen.
Twenty-Five
Poppy
Iwoke up the nextmorning in the shower with a headache that wouldn’t go away.The events of last night plagued me, making me nauseous as I struggled not to cry anymore.Knowing that Officer Kearton gave her life to try to save mine had been eating away at me all morning.
I had no idea whether Patrick got any sleep last night, but he had dark circles under his eyes as he talked with the police, who had come at some point while I was sleeping.I knew the winter storm was supposed to be bad, but apparently, it hadn’t been enough to keep Officer Kearton from coming to warn me.
Travis sat curled up beside me on the couch as I watched the officers out the living room window as they stood there talking to Patrick.He nodded, then looked inside, his eyes meeting mine as he softly smiled.A few minutes later, he came inside, closing the door behind him, but not before I caught a glimpse of the body covered under a black body bag.I swallowed hard, trying to keep from crying.
“She’s still out there?”I asked as he sat beside me and gently squeezed my knee.
He nodded, his eyes bloodshot as the exhaustion showed on his face.
“The storm was too bad last night for them to get out here.They had to wait until this morning and just got here about half an hour ago.”
“So she just laid out there in the freezing cold—” I stopped and covered my mouth with my hands as I shook my head.“She’s dead because of me.”
“She’s dead because some fucking asshole killed her, Poppy.”
“Yeah, because she found out about Dale’s business partner and tried to warn me.If she hadn’t come out here, they wouldn’t have killed her.”
