“Mrs. Hill is in much more critical condition,” Shaffer says. “She took a few blows to the head and had quite a bit of internal bleeding. She’s not awake yet. We’re not sure when that will be.”
“But she will wake up, right?” I ask, glancing automatically over my shoulder at Madison.
“It’s hard to say at this point,” Shaffer says. “I wish I had a better answer.”
Jake and I start to follow the doctor out of the room, but I stop and look back at Maddy, reaching for Doc Shaffer to stop him, tilting my head at the girl.
“Kasper hasn’t been notified,” I tell him. “But I know he has to be. We just … are worried about Madison’s state right now. If we leave her here to sleep, will she be safe?”
“Of course,” says Doc Shaffer. “I’ll let security know everything. They’ll keep an eye on her.”
Leaving the girl to rest, Jake and I follow Shaffer down the brightly lit hallway and to the ICU, where we see Jami through a square window. She’s lying asleep–or unconscious–on the hospital bed. Her face is bandaged, as is her nose, and a few layers of gauze are wrapped around her head.
“She has three broken ribs,” Shaffer says. “We injected some anesthesia directly to ease the pain around the bones, but she’s going to be feeling it more when she wakes. The head injury bled quite a bit, but it was superficial, and we couldn’t find any signs of internal bleeding.”
“I’ll fucking kill him,” Jake says suddenly. “I’ll string the bastard up by his toes and make him beg for his fucking life for doing this to her.”
“We don’t even know who did this.” I rest the palm of one hand against the glass window leading into Jami’s room and shake my head, and Jake snarls something under his breath.
“You can bet your sweet ass that Kasper Hill has something to do with this.”
“Impossible,” I tell him. “I’d just been speaking to him at the precinct when Jami called. He didn’t have time to be in both places.” I want to say more, really because something way down in the pit of my stomach makes me think that Jake is right, that Kasper Hilldoeshave something to do with this, but without proof, the allegations are nothing at all.
“Then who in the hell was it?” Jake asks. The anger in his voice radiates through his body until his fists are clenched at his side.
“I don’t know. Jami might remember when she comes to, but she might not. For all we know, this entire thing could be nothing more than a freak event. A break-in gone wrong.”
Doc Shaffer looks at me then, as if wanting to say something, but then he closes his mouth, thinking better of it.
“Out with it,” I say. “I’ve worked around you for years, Trent, so say whatever you were about to say.”
Doc Shaffer sighs and clears his throat, then reaches out and slaps his hand on my shoulder with a light squeeze. “The last time we thought it was a break-in gone wrong, it ended up being a meticulously planned hit on your family.”
His words, although true, hit me like a ton of bricks. I pull some air into my lungs and turn away, my eyes back on Jami.
“Thanks for the update, Doc. Let us know if anything changes with Tara Hill.”
27
ELY
I stay up all night long by Jami’s bedside, holding her hand and praying for her to wake. It’s around six that morning when she finally shifts, and her eyes flutter open, just barely, but more than they had all night.
“Hi, sweetheart,” I whisper, taking her hand in mine. Her skin is cold, too cold, and she can barely turn her head to look at me.
“Did they catch him?” her voice is soft, so quiet I almost don’t hear what she’s saying. I lean into her, lips resting on her forehead, and close my eyes.
“What, baby?”
“Did they catch him?” she asks again, but her words are raw and scratchy like it hurts to speak. “The man who did this?”
I want to give her good news, tell her that, yes, they caught the bastard.
But I can’t.
“He’s running,” I tell her. “He was gone before we even arrived at the house. We have no idea who the perp even is.”
Jami closes her eyes as if trying to block out the circumstances of the issue in front of us. She coughs, and I pass her a glass of water and help her take a drink.
