Amber Eyes (32 page)

“Now you won’t feel any more pain,” the paramedic said, “but you may feel a little groggy or even sleepy. Okay?”

I nodded.

“I’ll be right back. The sheriff wants a word with you in private before we leave.”

“Wait!” For one second, I feared Yago could still be around and panic seized me.

The paramedic turned. “Yes?”

“The man who shot us,” my voice trembled, “is he alive?”

“If you’re talking about the guy who fell out the back window, he’s dead.” Relief filled me, but at the same time, I felt terribly sad.

He jumped out of the ambulance through the open rear double doors and I started feeling groggy almost immediately, like I was floating some two or three inches above the gurney—a nice feeling actually, mainly because the pain in my leg was vanishing like sand flowing out of a closed fist. I also felt like I wanted to burst into laughter for no reason at all, feeling stupidly happy.

Some minutes later—or had it only been a moment later?—I heard voices outside the ambulance. A male voice was saying, “Old Tommy Cromwell insists that he opened the gates for Laura Zimmerman earlier this evening.”

“Poor Tommy is out of his mind,” another male voice answered, a deep one. “Laura Zimmerman has never,
and will never
come back here. He opened the gates to somebody else. Keep questioning him until he says something that makes sense. Now, what about the girl? She is in here, isn’t she?” He knocked on the ambulance. “Can I talk to her now?”

“Don’t you prefer to follow Edward’s ambulance, Sheriff?”

“No, we need to investigate what the hell happened here. Duty comes first, self goes second. Is the girl conscious?”

My paramedic’s voice said, “Yes but don’t take long, please. The girl was in shock so I sedated her a bit, and I want the folks at the hospital to check her as soon as possible.”

“Is she injured?” The sheriff’s matter-of-fact tone again.

“Broken right fibula, most likely. I’ve splinted the leg and—”

“Anything else?”

“No other injuries, Sheriff.” My paramedic sounded pissed. “But as I said, the girl’s shocked and scared. Limit your questioning, please. You’ll have all the time in the world afterwards. She still needs to be taken to the hospital for a full check-up.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll keep it short,” the sheriff said. “We’ve got a dead man, Edward’s injured and this girl’s our only conscious witness. I need to learn what happened here.”

The sheriff’s figure appeared at the ambulance’s rear open door and he jumped inside.

“Hello, girl, I’m—” The sheriff froze for several seconds, staring at me. His face turned white and then even whiter until it was white like a sheet of paper. “Laura?”

He stood speechless for some more seconds. “Of course not, that’s impossible.” Nailed on the spot, he took a hand to his chest and grimaced, like his heart was aching. “Alexandra? Are you Alexandra Zimmerman?”

So this guy was my father. This tall, muscular and even good looking man—it was easy to guess why Edward looked so hot. Being in front of him felt weird. He was a perfect stranger and the little I knew about him was not exactly nice—I mean all that stuff about being Laura’s lover and covering her after the murder. I had longed so much for my father and now that he was in front of me I was clueless and didn’t know what to say or what to do. The only thing that came to my mind was waiving, and so I did. “Hi dad.”

The sheriff backed off like he was scared of me and hit his head against the ambulance’s ceiling. “Ouch!”

He tried to put a hand to his head but hit with his arm a shelf on the ambulance’s wall instead, knocking down everything on it. He tried to prevent the rain of medicines and equipment falling from the shelf and ended up backing off even more. Suddenly, he tumbled back out of the ambulance through the open rear door and disappeared.

I sat up on the gurney to see what was happening outside. A cop approached running. “Sir, are you okay?”

The sheriff hastily got to his feet. “I’m okay, thanks. I tripped.”

Both of them stood silent for some moments while the sheriff dusted his clothes. He had been so freakin’ funny falling out of the ambulance that I guffawed and then took a hand to my mouth covering it.

“Any news?” the sheriff asked. He could have asked whether it was going to rain. I bet he only wanted to drive the other cop’s attention away from his ‘tripping’.

“Yes, sir,” the other cop informed him. “We’ve just finish tracing the dead guy’s ID. Full name Iago C. Morrison. Iago with a Y and the C stands for Cawdor.”

“And?”

“There’s a report from the Somerset folks that he might have been involved in a child abuse situation. No charges yet, only a suspicion. The local guys are still investigating. He’s also linked to a missing-child report, a one Alexandra Zimmerman, female, 14 years old, missing since 4 days ago, suspected to have run away from home and traveled here, but nobody sent us a heads-up. Sanders is trying to contact the Somerset folks to get more info.”

The sheriff didn’t answered but sat on the ambulance’s rear bumper and massaged his head.

“Are you okay, sir?” the other cop asked.

The sheriff remained silent.

“Sir?”

“I’m okay.” Exasperation lingered in his voice.

“So, sir?”

“So what?” the sheriff blurted.

“The info about this Morrison guy.”

The sheriff wiped his face with an open palm. “Sorry, Fox. I was not paying attention.”

Fox repeated his report, remaining silent after he was done. Then he asked, “Sir? Are you okay?”

“Of course I’m okay!” The sheriff stood up and paced the ground by the ambulance. His voice trembled. “It’s…I’m just worried about Edward.”

He was lying. I could tell even in my inebriated state.

“Of course, sir. It’s understandable. If you wish, sheriff, I can radio the ambulance and check whether they have arrived at the hospital.”

“Do so and inform me.”

Fox left and the sheriff stood motionless for a large moment. He finally climbed in the ambulance again, standing still for some moments, contemplating me as I laid on the gurney. He licked his lips and wiped his hands on his trousers. “Laura told you, didn’t she?”

The idea that Laura had spilled the truth made him both angry and concerned—the tone of his voice betrayed him. He looked around and found a stool. He sat by my gurney and sighed. A deep, long sigh. He picked a box of medicines from the floor and fidgeted with it, not daring to make eye contact with me.

“No she didn’t,” I answered. “I sorta figured it out.”

He frowned, just like Edward always did. “You… what?”

“I said that I sorta figured it out.”

He almost chocked. “Are you saying that you figured out that I’m your father and so you came here looking for me?”

I suddenly felt angry. Was he supposing he was that important that I would come all the way here looking for him? “I came looking for my grandmother. Well, for Amanda Zimmerman, but she’s my grandmother anyway. I had no idea you were my father before I arrived here.”

The sheriff frowned even more and his face turned ashen. “Who told you then? Somebody you met here in Abbeville?”

This was not the I-missed-you-daughter conversation I had expected. The sheriff was more interested in learning how I found out he was my father than in anything else. The thought made me even angrier. Where had Edward’s duty-comes-first famous father gone?

I sat up again, leaning on my elbows and fixing my eyes on his. I felt suddenly fed up. “Do you really wanna know how I figured it out?” I placed my hand on his and he retrieved it in a hurry like my contact was contagious. His bulging eyes, his lack of blinking, his tense muscles, hinted that he was about to run away screaming in panic. “Wanna know who told me,
Dad
? Do you really wanna know? Well, I’ll tell you.” I pointed at the house with an arm. “They told me! Laura and Aaron, and all the ghosts that live there told me.”

With an effort, he yanked his head and looked sideways, breaking our eye contact and shutting his eyes. “Your eyes… They’re like Laura’s, but worse. I can’t stand them.”

Worse because he could see in them everything he and Laura had done wrong? Each of them played a different role in Aaron Zimmerman’s murder, either active or passive. In the end, they both killed him. I collapsed on the gurney, staring at the ambulance’s ceiling. I was breathing fast and a constant buzz rang in my ears.

All this was stupid and I wanted it to end right now and be left alone. The words blurted out of my mouth and I couldn’t help it. “I hate you and I hate Laura.”

The sheriff pulled a hand to his neck and unbuttoned his shirt’s first button, losing his tie. Still with his eyes closed and squeezing the bridge of this nose between his thumb and index finger, he asked, “What the hell happened here? Who was this Yago Morrison?”

“Laura’s boyfriend.” My tone was as dry as a desert in the dry season. I was feeling very strange, like I was high because of smoking weed, except that I’d never smoked weed in my life before. I wanted to leave the ambulance and run through the forest until I found a place where I could cry and cry until I ran out of tears. “I ran away from Yago’s trailer because he tried to have sex with me. I came here and all I wanted was to find my grandma and live with her, but my grandma was not in town and Yago followed me.”

The Sheriff opened his eyes and turned his head towards me, slower than a snail would, and I wondered if he was afraid. I sat up once again, resting on my elbows and once again our eyes locked. He shivered and gulped, but he held my gaze. It was due time for the truth. I wanted not to be like Laura, but I’d started the wrong way. I stated point blank. “Laura killed him. Or her ghost, or whatever it was back in the mansion. She pushed him out of the window.”

“That’s impossible. Laura is not here,” he suddenly turned even whiter, “is she?”

I shook my head. “She’s not… well, better see for yourself.”

I bet he rarely came across a girl like me whose eyes could show him the entire story if he was brave enough to look. I concentrated on what had happened tonight drilling into his eyes with mine. The sheriff stood mesmerized not blinking at all—just like Daniel had. I only hoped he could watch another ‘movie in my eyes’. After a while, he took a large gulp of air.

Still without breaking our eye contact, his trembling hand caressed my hair. “I’m so sorry, Alexandra.” His voice almost broke. “You’re life has been a nightmare. It was all Laura’s and my fault. I tried to save my butt and I never thought how much I’d harm you. I failed you. I am not a good cop, not even a good man. Covering up for Laura was so wrong.”

I couldn’t tell what movie he’d just watched in my eyes. I breathed in a large puff of air. Were his apologies what I’d been looking for? Did I want him to crawl before me begging forgiveness? No. That was not my way. I almost made Edward go mad last night when he thought he’d kissed another boy. Moreover, Edward had left in an ambulance tonight because he’d tried to help me. I was not gonna allow another Torrent to suffer because of me. My mother had already caused them enough trouble. I put my hand on his and squeezed it hard. This time, he didn’t withdraw it. I needed to end this nightmare for once and for all—I knew I was the only one who could.

I talked in a whisper. “Let’s do the following. We’ll keep our little secret between you and me and nobody will know you’re my dad. The only others who’d know are the ghosts and Laura, but I’m pretty sure the ghosts are gone forever after tonight, and Laura will never dare to come down here. You told her not to, remember?”

The sheriff’s face turned ashen again. “Did she tell you?”

“No, for God’s sake!” I pointed at the mansion again, or at least in the general direction I though the mansion stood. “It was the damned ghosts!” I opened my eyes wider and even tilted my body forward. I wanted him to see the movie as clearly as possible.

The sheriff stood silent for a long while, staring at my eyes, concentrated. “God, how can all this be true? Where did all those ghosts came from?” He stared for another while. “That man went mad!”

“My life has been shit.” I’d never gather the courage again to face the sheriff—or anybody else to be honest—like I was facing him now. “I wished things would have been different. I wish you guys had solved it in a different way so Mom didn’t have to leave our home.”

He broke our eye contact without requiring my slapping of fingers and bearing the saddest expression in the world painted on his face. He sighed so deep I thought his soul had just abandoned him. He stood up, this time being so careful. “Now I know what happened tonight.” His shaky hand took mine and it was him the one who squeezed me. “You’re very brave. Edward would have died hadn’t it been for you, but I have to warn you—you guys cannot fall in love.”

The damned movie in my eyes! I’d never planned to disclose that part of the story. Was there something I could keep to myself without my eyes broadcasting it to everybody?

“I can’t be sure if you’re my daughter or not. Laura claimed you were. Truth is, I wasn’t Laura’s only lover. She was so frustrated with Aaron, she started to date more guys than you would imagine. She and I developed a strong connection and we even talked about fleeing town together…” He buried his face in his hands. “I’m not sure if I should tell you all this. We did wrong, very wrong. Later, I learned there were other men she dated in parallel. There’s also a good chance that you are actually Aaron Zimmerman’s daughter. Just in case, don’t fall in love with Edward.”

He was right. He shouldn’t be telling me all that. Mom had not been a good person, but I didn’t want to judge her. What interested me the most was the possibility that he wasn’t my father and that Aaron Zimmerman, or somebody else, would be. In that case, I’d be free to fall in love with Edward.

To fall in love… Had I really fallen in love with Edward, with my possible brother? I enjoyed the way he kissed me, the way he held me, the way he touched me, and even the way I which he’d tried to protect me, not only tonight but since the very beginning when we met. I’d love to fall in love with him, only I couldn’t.