we could all be together again.”
The plea squeezed Ellis’s chest. A vise around his lungs.
He had come here about the letter, to find out if it held other clues and when it had arrived. Could she pass the note along? Had she overheard anything at the house?
But now, face-to-face with her, he found himself at a crossroads. Samuel’s sickness had exhibited the resiliency of children, sure. But also their vulnerabilities, their reliance on those who care in order to survive.
Ruby waited for his reply.
He had to decide how much to share. Beyond that, just how far he was willing to go.
A shrill whistle cut in. It came from a chisel-faced man standing beside the teacher. A cop. He must have been passing on his beat. Or hell, maybe the Packard driver had sent him over.
“You!” the cop yelled. “Stay right there!”
The command was definitely for Ellis. Yeah, he might have been trespassing, but he could explain himself if given a chance. Unfortunately, the man’s aggressive strides, paired with the billy club in his clutches, made clear a diplomatic chat wasn’t in the cards.
“I’ll come back when I can,” Ellis told Ruby. Her expression reflected his alarm, but there was no time to say more, only to take off in a sprint.
“Halt!”
Ellis aimed to reach his car. Halfway into the street, he noted that cranking his old engine wouldn’t be an option for a fast getaway. He’d have to lose the guy through the city blocks.
“I said halt!”
A glance backward confirmed that the officer was right on his heels. Then a honk blared and a car swerved. Ellis stumbled, narrowly avoiding a collision. As he scrambled to his feet, a tug to his collar whipped him around, causing his elbow to strike something hard.
The cop’s face.
Christ.
Quicker than a blink, Ellis was flattened to the ground. Both arms were yanked behind him. His cheek scraped against the pavement, hard.
“Stay down,” the cop ordered, his bony knee in Ellis’s back. “You’re under arrest, you damn fool.”
Chapter 30
Lily hadn’t wanted to leave him. From a mere change of perspective, however, she had gained a profound sense of comfort that Samuel would be safe. That, as his mother, she could protect her child without a perpetual fear of the worst.
Geraldine Dillard deserved no less. If only Lily could find a way to help.
“Miss Palmer!” The chief’s hollering tugged her mind back to the newsroom.
She rose from her chair, grabbing her steno pad and pencil, just as Clayton caught her eye. From his typewriter, he shot her a wink, reminding her of their date this afternoon, and returned to his draft.
He had invited her to lunch when he checked on her earlier, concerned over her absence the previous day. She made but brief mention of Samuel’s fever—not wanting to dwell, she had reasoned to herself.
In truth, after the kiss she’d shared with Ellis—a reckless mistake, the culmination of an emotional day—her feelings were jumbled enough. Adding sympathy from Clayton would only tangle them more, creating knots impossible to undo.
The chief shouted again, and Lily resisted plugging her ears while entering his office.
Planted at his desk, he peered over his spectacles. “Shut the door. Take a seat.”
“Yes, Chief.” She complied without question, as the letters and memos he dictated to her were occasionally confidential.
“Miss Palmer,” he said then, “I assume you know how I feel about honesty.” It was a daunting start if ever there was one. The greater cause apprehension, though, was the shifting of his bearded jaw.
“I do.”
“Good. ’Cause I’ve got a question about your need for time off yesterday. The excuse you gave was pretty vague. And now I think I know why.”
Lily held her pencil and pad snugly on her lap. In the wake of her maternal fretting and sleeplessness, she should have been resigned to any turn of events. Particularly the inevitable. After two years of working for the chief, this confrontation was just that.
Still, she shrank inside from his disapproving tone.
“There’s a woman just called. Wanted to confirm that a Lillian Palmer worked here at the Examiner. Evidently, you two became acquainted while you were pinning down some sort of…interview.”
Lily blinked. It took her a moment to jump from Samuel to Sylvia, and the implication that Lily would peddle lies for her own vanity.
“Chief, I assure you,” she said, “I never specified that I was—”
He held up a stubby pointer finger, halting her defense. After all, he hadn’t reached his question yet. Very possibly a variant of How fast can you