She Can Scream (12 page)

“We don’t have to talk.” Brooke patted her forearm. “Why don’t you close your eyes?”

“I don’t want to.” Maddie studied her fingers. The nails were ragged, torn below the quick. “Did you sleep last night?”

Brooke thought of her own restless slumber, full of wooden creaks and shifting shadows. “No.”

“I know I’m safe here in the hospital, but every time I hear a noise, every time I close my eyes, he’s there.” Maddie’s voice
trembled. “He’s going to come after me. I know it. What if the police don’t find him? What will I do?”

Brooke wanted to make everything right, but she was powerless and almost as frightened as Maddie. “I don’t know.”

“Are you afraid he’ll come after you?”

Brooke was tempted to lie. She’d been denying her fears for a long time, but Maddie deserved better. She needed to know she wasn’t alone. Brooke looked her straight in the eye. “Yes, Maddie. I’m scared. I’m going to be extra careful, but I’m not going to feel safe again until this man is caught. Until then, all I can do is face one day at a time.”

Maddie sniffed. “The policeman said you teach self-defense classes. When I’m better, I’d like to take some.”

“That’s a great idea.”

Maddie crumpled the sheet in a tight fist. “He kept telling me to be quiet and stop fighting, but I couldn’t. It was like I didn’t have any control over that. The screaming, the struggling, I couldn’t stop.” She paused, sniffed, and braced herself. “Do you think he wouldn’t have hurt me as much if I’d been quiet, if I’d cooperated like he said?”

Good God. She thought she’d caused her own injuries.

Brooke held the girl’s hand in both of hers. “No, Maddie. You did exactly the right thing. If you hadn’t screamed, I wouldn’t have heard you. All that fighting bought you time. Time for me and the janitor to find you.”

A relieved Maddie dozed off a few minutes later. While she waited for Mr. Thorpe to return, Brooke slid down in the chair and rested her head. Her phone buzzed. Officer Kent’s number showed on the screen. She answered it with a whispered, “Hello,” fumbling with the button and hobbling to the doorway so she didn’t wake Maddie. She explained what Maddie had remembered
to Kent, who promised to come to the hospital immediately. Brooke returned to the chair.

Ten minutes or so passed. Then rolling carts full of dinner trays clanked down the hall. A green uniformed woman brought Maddie’s dinner and set it on the wheeled tray by her bed. Maddie stirred and opened her eyes.

“Your dinner’s here.”

Footsteps in the doorway caught Brooke’s attention. Mr. and Mrs. Thorpe walked in.

“I’m going to leave.” Brooke gave Maddie’s hand a last squeeze. “When Officer Kent gets here, tell him exactly what you told me.”

Mrs. Thorpe hugged Brooke hard. Moisture glistened in her eyes. “I can’t thank you enough.”

“I’m just glad I was there.” With a last glance at the battered young woman, Brooke left the room. Brooke shuddered as she walked toward the elevator. Without that snafu in event scheduling, the class would have ended on time last night, and Maddie would be dead.

Maddie watched Brooke leave with a fleeting surge of panic. She sipped some water and swallowed the salty clog in her throat. Brooke could hardly stay with Maddie 24-7.

She closed her eyes and repeated her new mantra.
I am safe. I am safe. I am safe.

How many times would she have to say it to feel secure?

When Brooke had been here, Maddie had stopped staring at the door, waiting for a dark shadow. Waiting for
him
. Brooke had saved her once. Maddie had no doubt she would do it again.

Would he really give up so easily?

Her dad eased back down into the chair next to the bed, while her mom fussed with the rolling tray, adjusting the height so she could push it across Maddie’s lap. She wanted to tell her mom not to bother. The scents coming from the covered dishes weren’t all that appetizing. But Mom needed to stay busy.

Her father hadn’t left her bedside for more than five minutes since the attack. He would protect her with his life. But Maddie still didn’t feel safe.

Brooke was smaller than Dad, but there was something in her eyes: ferocity.

Maddie eased forward and let her mom stack the bed pillows behind her. The back of her neck prickled, and she glanced at the doorway. Of course no one was there, but a quiver of panic slid through her. Gooseflesh rippled along the bare skin of her arms.

“Do you want another blanket?” Mom shook out the napkin and draped it across Maddie’s lap.

“No. I’m OK.” A blanket couldn’t cure her paranoia, not as long as he was still out there.

Mom lifted the insulated cover from the dinner plate.

Maddie stared down at her mashed potatoes.

No.

It couldn’t be. Not here.

A scream ripped through Maddie’s swollen throat, along with the certainty that she would never be safe again.

A scream, high-pitched and frantic with terror, echoed in the hallway.

Brooke stuck a hand between the elevator doors. They
bounced back and separated. Ignoring her knee, she rushed back toward Maddie’s hall. Medical personnel gathered outside the doorway. Through the open door, Mr. and Mrs. Thorpe clutched their daughter. A security guard talked on his radio just inside the door.

Maddie was sobbing, a hysterical hitch in her voice that cracked Brooke’s heart.

Mr. Thorpe met Brooke’s gaze. He kissed the top of Maddie’s head and left her in her mother’s arms. He pulled Brooke outside the hospital room.

He exhaled and pressed his lips together, as if composing himself enough to speak. “
He
was here.”

Brooke tracked Mr. Thorpe’s gaze to the dinner tray. The rolling cart had been pushed away from the bed. A lump of mashed potatoes sat on the plate. Standing in the well of gravy like a conquering flag was one of Maddie’s missing earrings.

Luke tossed the newspaper back onto the chair next to him. He sat forward and rested his forearms on his thighs to take the pressure off his back. Leaning on it for too long irritated the sensitive scar tissue.

A security guard ran across the lobby. Agitated people were moving and making calls at the front desk. Alarm buzzed in Luke’s gut. Something was up. He got up and strode across the lobby. He pushed the elevator call button. He fished his buzzing phone out of his pocket and opened a text from Brooke.

C
OME TO
3
RD FLOOR
.

He waited. One elevator was on three, the other on four.

Luke bolted into the stairwell. No one stopped him. He took the steps two at a time. On the third floor, he followed the sounds of commotion. Two security guards talked into radios. Nurses and other staff milled in the hall.

Someone was crying softly.

He spotted Brooke in a doorway. She saw him and hobbled over. Her face was pale as skim milk, her eyes a composite of fear and fury.

“What happened?”

“
He
was here.”

“You don’t mean…?”

“Yes. Last night, he ripped her earrings off and took them. Maddie said they got in his way as he was choking her.” Brooke glanced over her shoulder at Maddie. “One of them was on her dinner tray.”

“Jesus.” Luke’s exclamation took the air from his lungs. He followed her gaze to the room’s occupants. A parent sat on each side of the hospital bed. A young woman was sandwiched between them, the left side of her face battered, bruised, and bloody. Her quiet sobs were wretched and beyond distraught. They were the sounds of a soul breaking, of someone suffering beyond comprehension.

Her despair radiated to Luke, like a palpable current in the air. Pity and anger welled up in his throat.

Luke turned back to Brooke. She was watching Maddie break down.

Brooke’s chin lifted and her jaw tightened as fury beat back fear with a stick.

Luke whipped out his phone. “I’ll call my grandmother and make sure everything is all right there.”

“I already checked with the kids. They’re fine.”

“Did you tell them what happened?”

Brooke shook her head. “Not over the phone. It might upset them too much.”

Footsteps clomped in the hall. Two uniformed police officers conferred with the security guards. Luke recognized Ethan, the young black-haired cop who’d responded to the vandalism call that afternoon. The middle-aged cop with him was clearly senior. “I’m Lieutenant Winters. I’d like everyone except Mr. and Mrs. Thorpe to clear out of the room, but please don’t leave. Officer Hale will be taking a statement from each and every one of you.”

Twenty minutes later, Brooke was ushered into a small waiting area at the end of the hall. “Hi, Ethan.” Grimacing, she lowered herself into a chair.

“What can you tell me, Brooke?” Ethan’s pen hovered over a notebook.

“I didn’t see anything.” Brooke summed up her visit with Maddie.

The cop took notes. “We have your personal information. Give us a call if you think of anything else.”

“I will.” Brooke pushed to her feet. Pain lined the corners of her eyes and mouth. “In the meantime, are you going to make sure Maddie is protected? He’s obviously fixated on her.”

“That’ll be the chief’s decision, but you know how he is. He’ll look after her.” The cop’s assurance seemed to satisfy Brooke, but all Luke could think was, what about Brooke?

Luke escorted her to the elevator. The doors slid open and Officer Kent from Coopersfield walked off. Brooke filled him in.

The cop swept a frustrated hand across his short blond hair. “There was a girl raped three weeks ago in Hillside. She was also attacked while jogging. DNA was collected in that case, so we’re
hoping for a match. The victim survived and got a good look at her attacker. The Hillside PD has some leads on the composite sketch.” Kent took a step toward Maddie’s hall. “I’ll let you know when I have more news.”

Luke and Brooke rode the elevator down in silence. Brooke’s jaw was shifting back and forth. He watched her sift through the information the cop had given them.

Outside, dark had fallen. The parking lot was well-lit, but rows of cars provided too many places to hide.

Luke debated getting the car so Brooke wouldn’t have to walk through the parking lot, but he didn’t want to leave her alone. Not for a second. The hospital had already proved to be a vulnerable location.

“You OK with walking to the car?”

“Yes.” She answered quickly, stepping off the cement curb and onto the asphalt.

He kept her close, scanning the lot for any sign of movement or shadows that didn’t belong. As they approached each row of cars, Luke bent over and glanced under the vehicles. A car drove up the row, slowed, and pulled into an empty spot. Luke circled Brooke so he was between her and the man climbing out of the sedan. He kept one eye on the guy’s progress through the lot and into the entrance of the hospital.

In the fourth row, he let out a tight breath as he helped Brooke into the car. He slid into the driver’s seat. But he didn’t breath easily until the car was locked, the engine started, and they were pulling out of the lot onto the rural highway. He drove toward his grandmother’s house.

“Do you know all the local cops?”

“Just the Westbury Police Department. They help me with my self-defense classes. In the last class of each unit, I bring in a
padded attacker and let the girls practice the techniques they’ve learned. The Westbury cops take turns. Ethan’s helped out quite a few times.”