Lost and Found (3 page)

“What the hell are you still doing here
?
Get
your asses out there and find that murdering coward who hit my little girl.”

Sam stepped in and took Maggie from the trooper. She collapsed in his arms, clutching his shirt. “Marcie!” Sam yelled at her
but
she didn’t know where to look.

So many people hurried around as the ambulance sped away
,
lights flashing
and
siren blaring, just as a SUV raced in
,
slamming its brakes, dust flying. Whoever was driving
,
Marcie couldn’t see, but an angry
deputy
stormed toward the person
who
jumped out.

“Sam, Richard.” Diane flashed and waved her badge, and pushed past the Deputy. Marcie took a step
and
then stopped as Richard punched one of the deputies
and was
then tackled by the
sheriff
and other deputy
.
One
pinned his knee in Richard
’
s back laying him face down on the car’s trunk as the other cuffed him.

Marcie touched her head
.
She
didn’t know what to do as Diane and Sam hurried over
.
Everyone
was yelling. But the
sheriff
didn’t care
.
He
shook his head and stuffed Richard in the back of his car.

Marcie watched Maggie standing alone sobbing. The spot she stared
at
was coated in blood
,
and one fuzzy slipper
lay there alone
. She needed to go to her, but was stopped when a hand
touched her sleeve
.

“
Ma’am,
you need to sit down. Are you family?” One of the local fireman, his kind hazel eyes appeared through a film of
her
tears.

“Ryley, I left Ryley at the house.”

“Who’s Ryley?”

Her vision blurred even more, when she looked up at him
,
unable to make out any of his features. Her nose was plugged
,
and she swiped her hands over her eyes
and
wiped her nose with
a
sleeve.

“He’s their son. Lily’s brother. He watched this
;
he saw Lily hit.” She couldn’t hear him
reply as
he led her over to the fire truck and helped her sit on the back bumper.

“We asked him his name, but he won’t talk. One of the volunteers found him on the road watching the ambulance leave.”

Marcie nodded. “Keep him away. How bad is it?”

She knew
by
the way he grimaced he didn’t want to say.

“You don’t think she’ll pull through.”

The volunteer had an honest face. “You best be getting the parents to the hospital. Prepare them for the worst.”

“What hospital?”

“She’s being airlifted to Seattle.”

Marcie didn’t know how she did it. But she stood up and hurried to Maggie and pulled her into her arms.

Crime scene technicians arrived and taped off the area.

“Maggie
,
we need to go.”

Maggie pushed her away and swept her trembling hands through her hair as tears fell. “Where are they taking her? Is she all right? She was still breathing
,
Marcie.”

“Marcie.” Sam approached at a jog
;
the lines around his eyes had deepened. His face
was
pale.

Marcie wanted to fall into his arms, but Maggie was there first, her arms around Sam.

He stared at Marcie and rubbed Maggie’s back. “They’re airlifting her from the fire hall to Harborview Trauma
.
She’s
still alive, but its touch and go. Diane arranged for another chopper, it’s waiting for us in Sequim. Sam hurried Maggie along
.
Marcie fell in
step
beside
them
and stopped after a few steps.

“Ryley, I forgot about Ryley
.
We
can’t leave him. And Richard
,
where is he?”

As the sheriff
pulled away with Richard in the back, Diane jogged over. The
sheriff
could be a hard ass and didn’t take kindly to his officers being hit—even by a distraught parent.

“Diane
,
bring Marcie and Ryley with you.” Sam hustled Maggie to his SUV
and
h
elped her in.

Marcie stood at the side of the road
,
alone,
and watched as Sam drove away
while Diane hurried off to find Ryley.

Hearing those words no parent should ever hear, “your daughter didn’t make it,” played over and over in Maggie’s head as the cold wet drizzle deepened the sorrow in
her
bones.
Gray skies
battled for space within the puffy clouds.

Black, everyone conformed, shrouded in this drab
dress
code, which of course only emphasized the emptiness
infiltrating
every part of her. For the moment
,
she had no tears left, but make no mistake
,
nothing could wipe away the searing pain
churning
inside, knotting her stomach one moment,
twisting the muscles in her neck and back and turning them into blocks of ice the next.

She sighed and tilted her head. The white and gold etched coffin
her daughter lay in
really was beautiful. Pink roses cascaded over the sides like a shrine. A moment of clarity swooped in and intensified the
agony
. Lily would have loved pink.

Five, she was only five years old, a baby still. That number was etched into
her
every waking thought. The unseen cruelty of God
.
The
hand of fate
.
 
How
she hated God at this moment
.
What did I do to you?
She’d screamed those words over and over with her fist raised in damming condemnation. She hated everyone at this moment,
even the damn minister who went on and on preaching his sanctimonious bullshit,
but no more than she loathed herself.

“We must trust in God, it’s God’s will.”

Screw you, you self-righteous prick.

Her mind was disconnected, even the strong squeeze on her left arm didn’t process right away. She looked down, her heavy head swam from the tranquilizer the emergency room doctor had
prescribed
. Who was touching her? Ah yes, her brother John
.
The
one she rarely saw, had nothing in common
with
, but here he stood, concern for her etched
in his face and
his
stare. Or maybe it was malevolence, after all
,
what kind of mother allowed her child to wander out
into the
road. She looked away
,
unable to take any
more blame. She’d heard enough from Richard.

Every motion she made was reactive, numb
,
and drugged. Her mind felt plugged, each one of her senses
grated
like a rusty piston,
catching and then starting again. Her
nerves
were
all over the map, shaking her thin grip on reality. Did she say something? She couldn't remember. John was blocking her view
.
She
couldn’t see Lily and was rocked by a lofty wave,
igniting
her panic. She couldn’t remember how to breathe, so she fought for air.
What was that sound?

Grief was screaming, but who was making that sound? People crowded around her, she couldn’t see Lily. Only Richard on the ground weeping beside the coffin. John put his face in front of her, his mouth moved like a marionette
,
but no sound came forth. Then
,
in the blink of an eye
,
she swayed when the darkness surrounded her
.
Did
someone turned out the lights
?

One Year Later

Maggie
stood i
n
the hallway of Westwood Elementary School behind Mrs. Johnson, the special education teacher
,
listening as the woman
reprimanded two mothers, Angie and Jean
,
on their choice of therapy for their special needs children. Maggie scrunched her nose and gazed upward
.
Give us a break.

How dare this woman publicly humiliate her friends, fellow parents
?
Angie was slim, with curves in all the right places, and could be quite the knockout if she’d put some effort into it. But she chose to play it down, tie her long hair back
,
and throw on a pair of glasses instead of contacts on
her
big blue eyes. Jean was older, plump
,
short
,
and always stood as if she had a hunch in her back. And both women remained silent as Mrs. Johnson
continued to
criticize
.

Angie glanced at Maggie
, her lips twitched as if struggling to hide her
smile. Maggie couldn’t help herself
.
She needed
to lighten the moment
so
she tossed her head side to side mimicking the woman’s tirade
.
She knew it
was so unlike
herself
to
pull these childish pranks. She’d do it on a whim, but Mrs. Johnson had pushed Maggie’s buttons one too many times.

They
stood ten feet from the open door of Ryley’s
fifth
grade classroom. Jean’s brown eyes widened
,
and her mouth opened
,
but nothing came
out
.
When
Angie’s eyes went from amazement to horror
,
Maggie stopped and slowly turned until she was face to face with Jacob Peterman, the tall hunky principal. His
gray
blue eyes narrowed, and Maggie felt her face burn. How long had he been there? And how much of the entertaining display did he see? Maggie cleared her throat and swallowed hard. She tried to say something, but closed her mouth when no reasonable words came to mind
.
She was aware of
an awkward
,
old feeling, one she’d last felt in high school
,
the kind
of moment you never wanted to relive again. “Oops, caught red handed.” She giggled.
Where in the hell did that come from?

Even Jacob Peterman couldn’t keep a straight face
;
his stern lips twitched.

Maggie
knew she
had changed. Not overnight, but gradually to the point everyone around her commented
on it
. She used to be quiet and reserved. Pausing first before speaking careless words. Now, she felt as if all she
said was,
“I’m sorry,” over and over.
She wondered if
that’s what happens when life dumps all its crap on your plate and says
,
“Deal,
baby.
”
And maybe that’s what gave her
the
courage to grin brightly now.
Well what’s the worst that can happen? I
can get banned from the school.
Jacob’s eyes
appeared to
soften as he took
in everyone with a steadfast glance
,
and that’s when Maggie realized no one was talking.

Mrs. Johnson filled more space than a lot of woman, tall and wide,
and
her righteous expression spurred anger inside Maggie. She silently prayed Jacob heard Mrs. Johnson’s tirade.
She
blinked as her mind fogged again
.

What
started this?
Ah yes
…
The
school didn’t have the funding needed to support all these kids with neurological disorders. Children could no longer be tagged “learning disabled”
.
And Mrs. Johnson’s tirade
…
“
If I give to you
,
I have to take away from another child.
”