2 Big Apple Hunter (23 page)

That seemed to be the general consensus right now. I was stupid. I turned my head away from him.

“You can thank your friend Samantha for saving your life,” he said.

I turned my head back to him. That didn’t make any sense at all. Samantha obviously hadn’t talked to Dick in time to have roadblocks set up.

Detective Bentley continued, “You two botched everything by taking
this investigation
into your own hands. Samantha was in a real bind when Dick wasn’t at the station but was out patrolling. She lost valuable time trying to get someone to understand what you two had done. The
only
thing that saved you was Samantha turning on the GPS in your phone. We could see you
r movement toward the airport, so w
e were able to move police cars into the area and surround the
barn. We arrested the
crew from New York and recovered the necklace, but we couldn’t enter a burning building. It took several minutes to get fire crews here from the airport. You’re only alive now because they were so close.”

I turned my head away from him again. I didn’t
want to hear anything more
he had to say. I would thank Samantha later. I knew it had taken her a long time to put Dick’s direct line into my phone. Now I knew why; she had been activating my GPS.

The firemen loaded me into the EMT truck. I was barely aware
of the ride to the hospital. If
the EMTs did
anything to me, I was too numb to notice,
and I didn’t care.

As I was wheeled through the emergency room, Sam
antha
rushed
to my side. She was crying. Neither of us spoke to each other, but she squeezed my hand. I returned the squeeze. I quickly caught a glimpse of Larry, Husky, and Ron. Something caught my eye on the other side of the gurney. I turned my head. Mick was walking alongside. I looked at him, and for the first time since meeting him, I felt nothing. He was stopped at the emergency r
oom doors by a nurse and wasn’t
permitted to go any f
a
rther. He didn’t touch me, and I couldn’t gauge his emotions. He simply said, “I’m sorry.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I slept hard that night. I had probably been given sedatives, and I had a hard time shaking them off in the morning. I was still in the hospital and had been moved to a private room. Ron was sleeping in a chair in the corner. A nurse came into the room.

“I see you’re finally awake,” she said cheerfully. “Dr. Maxim said you can go home at any time when you feel like it. You might have some scratchiness in your throat, and your nose might feel dry for a while. He has a prescription here for you for a nose spray. You
might not
need it, but fill it anyway
,
just in case. Eye drops will help, too.
”

“Do I have to worry about any prob
lems with my lungs?” I asked
. I didn’t know what to expect.

“No
,” she said
.
“The detective who
was in here last night told Dr. Maxim that because of the stacked hay bales, the fire burned upward and through the roof
quickly
. The opening in the roof allowed
most
of the smoke to escape. You
r smoke inhalation was
quite minor. Plus, there were no fumes from synthetic items like you find in an office building or a home, and that was on your side, too. You were very fortunate the firemen arrived before the flames reached you.” She handed a clipboard to me with papers to sign, and she showed me where my clothes were hanging.

I glanced over
at Ron. He was still sleeping. I took my clothes out of the small closet and sat down on the bed. I was surprised at how weak I felt. It had to be stress. I pulled on my corduroys. I took off the hospital gown
and slipped my pink sweater
over my head. My corduroys and the front of my sweater were filthy with dried mud and
all of my clothing
smelled like smoke. I hated putting them on again. I slipped into my Nikes and tied them. I was shocked to see the condition my jacket was in, but I had to wear it home. My
apartment
keys and my phone were still in the pocket.

I walked over to the chair and nudged
the
still sleeping
Ron. “Come on Prince Charming,” I said. “I
t’s your job to get me home safely.”

Ron and I didn’t talk on the ride home. When he dropped me at my apartment, he reached ov
er and grasped my hand. H
e leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “I’m glad you’re ok, Susan
,” he said
.
“
We were really scared there for a while.”

I gave him a dull smile. “Thanks, Ron.”

He wanted to see me to my apartment, but I told him I could manage just fine, and I did. I trudged up the stairs, opened
the door, and went right in to
the kitchen. I put my keys and my phone on the counter and grabbed a garbage bag from under the sink. I stripped off everything I was wearing from top to bottom. I put everything in the garbage bag and tied it off. I o
pened the door to the apartment,
reached out with the bag
,
and plopped it down beside the door. I didn’
t want to look at or smell the
clothes any longer. They could go to the cleaners on Monday. I went back to the kitchen and opened my phone. It was dead. I tossed it back on the counter.

I was
in a hot shower for at least forty-five
minutes. I scrubbed and scrubbed until it hurt. I was washing off dirt, the smell of smoke, and regret. I sat on the floor of the bathtub and
sobbed
for the last twenty
minutes of the shower. It wasn’t enough crying, but I simply couldn’t cry any more. I felt as though my world had been shattered.

I took
time to blow-dry my hair, and I looked myself over. My knees were bruised
,
and my palms still had slightly scabbed scratches. My cheek had a faint bruise from where Mrs. Ross had slap
ped me. Other than that, I simply
looked
tired, and my eyes were puffy from crying.

I dressed only as far as a matching bra and panties
set
. I stood staring at my closet. I wasn’t going anywhere, and I didn’t want to put on any of my clothes. I grabbed a satiny, floor-length, mint green robe and tied it loosely at my waist.

I padded in bare feet out to the living
room
with the intention of crashing on the sofa, but before I could sit down, there was a knock at the door. It was probably Detective Bentley. He was pretty mad at me and Samantha and had left word with the nurses
at the hospital to tell me
he would be by today to talk with me. I debated about not opening the door.

The knock came again. I resigned myself to getting it over with. I pulled my robe tighter around me and opened the door.

“Hi beautiful. How are you feeling?”

My mouth hung open all the way to the floor. Like cartoon all the way to the floor. It was Darby! He was all smiles and leaning in through the doorway. Tears started streaming down my face. I couldn’t
speak
. My breath started coming in gulps.

“Susan, ho
ney, what’s wrong?” he asked
with bewilderment in his voice.

I threw my arms around his neck and sobbed. “Darby, I thought you were dead. I thought you died beside me in the barn last night.
Nobody told me
you were alive.”

He held me close and tried to comfort me. “Oh, Susan, honey, that’s ho
rrible. I’m
sorry.” He hugged me
especially
hard
,
and then stepped back saying with a goofy grin on his face, “Look at me. I’m fine. And believe it or not, I think I came through it
all
better than you did.”

I
looked
at him through tears and asked with disbelief, “How? How could you have? You
were
so weak, and you could barely walk or help yourself.”

“I know,” he said in amazement. “They didn’t hurt me, but they wou
ldn’t give me any food, and I
had very little water since Tuesday morning. The doctor told me that prior to the fire and smoke
, my breathing was already
shallow. I took in less smoke than you did. Somewhere along the way, I simply passed out. After a night of IV fluids at the hospital, and a good breakfast this morning, I’m as good as new.”

I was gaining control over my emotions, and I sat down on the sofa. Darby went looking for a box of tissues and brought one back for me. I blew my nose and wiped my eyes.

He sat down beside me
. “Detective Bentley thinks
you and Samantha interfered in an
F.B.I. investigation, and
your plan was a hare-brained idea. But because they caught all of th
e
people involved with the jewelry theft ring, and they found the microchip in the necklace with a ton of information on it, they aren’t going to press any charges. Detective Bentley is going to stop by today to talk to you, but I don’t want you to worry about it. If he tries to scare you, he’s just playing games.”

I blew my nose again, nodded at him
,
and said, “Thanks.”

“Susan,” he said putting his arm
around me and pulling me close
to him
again
, “I think you were really brave. There
aren’t any words
to tell you how grateful I am that you tried
so hard to save me. I’m
sorry all of this happened. If I wouldn’t have made you come with me to New York, none of this would have happened.”

“Maybe,” I told him. “But I really did have a blast in New York, and if none of this would have happened now, something worse might have happened down the road as the Angelo Brothers got more deeply involved with the jewel thieves.”

He
looked down
, giving that some thought. His head snapped up, and
he said with a big grin,
“I’ll tell you what. I’m going to run down to the market. You just stay put in your comfy robe and sexy underwear, and I’ll go get stuff to make us dinner this eve
ning. I’ll make something
special to celebrate
that
we’re both alive and well and ready for our next adventure.”

Oh my gosh! I was never going anywhere with Darby again. It was simply too dangerous. I look
ed down
and saw my robe
had come open from all of the hugging, and Darby could easily see my underwear. This satin robe never did stay tied. For a change, I didn’t blush. At least I had underwear on, and it was Darby after all. I pulled my robe closed, laughed, and told him, “Dinner sounds wonderful, and I’m sure I’ll be dressed by then.”

He gave me a kiss on the nose and let himself out with a cheerful, “I’ll be back in a little bit. Don’t go anywhere.”

I leaned back
against
the sofa and closed my eyes. I couldn’t believe the roller coaster ride I had just been on. I had been in the depths of despair one minute, not wanting to face life at all, and on a high the next, my best friend come back to life. I was absolutely drained.

There was a knock at the door. Darby had either forgotten to tell me something or it was Detective Bentley. I
stood
up and opened the door.

There stood Mick with an armful of flowers. He
was smiling
with a smile that sent a warm
sensation throughout my
body. “Can I come in?” he asked hesitantly.

Not trusting my voice, I simply nodded and stepped back.

He came through the doorway and asked, “
How are you feeling
? Dr. Max
im said you’re going to be
fine.” He handed the flowers to me. Not only were they beautiful, but there were Black-eyed Susans throughout
. He knew they were
m
y
favorite flower.

I set the flowers on the dining room table. I
wasn’t sure what to say to him as
I didn’t quite know why he was here. When I saw him at the hospital
,
and all he said was “I’m sorry,”
and
I thought he might be pulling away even mor
e. I took his sorry to mean
he simply couldn’t do this any longer.

I was still turned away from him and facing the dining room table. He gently took me by the shoulders and turned me
to face him
. He was smiling at me, but there was sadness in his eyes, too. He reached his hand up to gently stroke my cheek where it had been bruised. I could tell it grieved him to see it.