to rape her. ‘Stop it,’ she cried. She held on to the waistband of her pants and with her bloody hands.
Harris reached inside his jacket and pulled something out. Suddenly, in the fold of still-exposed skin above her hip, Shelby felt a pinprick, and then everything went black.
Vivian Kendricks carefully raised the footrest on her son’s chair and Rob lowered his slippered feet gingerly on to it, wincing as they touched down.
‘How’s that?’ Vivian said.
‘Good. Much better,’ said Rob.
Jeremy started to clamber up on to his father’s chair.
‘No, Jeremy, don’t do that,’ said Vivian. ‘Your Dad’s hurting too much.’
Jeremy’s expression was crestfallen.
‘Oh, it’s OK,’ said Rob. ‘Come on, slugger. You can sit with me. Just not the lap. Not yet.’
Jeremy cautiously wriggled into the seat beside Rob. Rob did his best not to let the pain in his ribs show on his face. He draped his arm around his son’s shoulders. ‘There we go,’ she said. ‘Now we’re comfortable.’
Vivian smiled in spite of herself. ‘All right you two. But no jumping around.’
‘We’re just gonna watch a movie,’ said Rob. ‘Right?’ Jeremy’s eyes were wide. ‘Right. How about Pirates of the Caribbean?’
‘How did I know you were going to pick that one?’ Rob said.
‘I’ll get it,’ the child crowed. He crawled down from the chair and began to sort through the DVDs in a rack beside the set.
‘So, I understand that Jeremy’s teacher in preschool is Darcie Fallon,’ said Vivian.
Rob nodded, watching fondly as his son expertly navigated his video collection. ‘She’s a great teacher. She really loves the kids.’
‘She always had a crush on you,’ said Vivian.
‘Mother,’ Rob cautioned her, nodding at Jeremy who was too busy with his DVDs to be listening to their conversation.
‘I’m just saying,’ said Vivian. ‘You were the only one who didn’t know it.’
‘That’s not true,’ said Rob. ‘Is it?’
Vivian rolled her eyes and smiled. ‘All right. I’m going to set the table for lunch in the kitchen. When Dad gets back from church, we’ll eat.’ She started for the kitchen, and called back, as she reached the door, ‘I made egg salad.’
Jeremy grimaced in distaste, but Rob said, ‘Your grandmother makes the best egg salad in the world. Wait till you try it. You’re gonna love it.’
Jeremy shrugged, noncommittal. He was forcing open a DVD case and pulling out the disc. He inserted it into the DVD player, and pressed the play button on the remote, as Rob put his head back and let the relief of being home with his son and his parents wash over him. For a moment he pondered what his mother had said about Darcie. Was she right? To him, Darcie was always that little kid, hanging around the edges of what the bigger kids were doing. He had just never thought of her any other way. Although she had turned into a pretty young woman.
Rob felt his eyes drifting shut. As often happened, when he closed his eyes, he relived his accident. The fear he felt, as that jalopy-load of delinquents chased him on the expressway, ramming the side of his truck with their car while he tried to maintain control of the wheel, coursed through him again. Other drivers had whizzed by, not knowing or not caring what was happening to Rob as his truck began hydroplaning and heading for a tumble down the embankment along the highway.
Rob took a deep breath and forced himself to think about something else. He found himself picturing Darcie again, in a new light, and the thought of her gentle face was strangely soothing. Jeremy was getting ready to climb back up on to Rob’s chair. Suddenly, the doorbell rang.
‘Hey buddy, can you answer that?’ Rob asked. ‘I can’t get up that fast.’
‘Sure,’ said Jeremy eagerly. He turned and raced toward the front door. Vivian, hearing the bell, came out of the kitchen wiping her hands as Jeremy led a pair of men into the living room.
‘Cops,’ Jeremy whispered to his father.
The two officers tried not to grin. ‘I’m Detective Ortega,’ said the dark-haired man. This is my partner, Detective McMillen.’
Rob nodded to them both. ‘Is this about my accident?’ he asked.
The two men frowned at one another.
‘OK,’ said Rob. ‘So this is not about my accident.’
‘What happened to you?’ said Detective Ortega.
‘I got into an argument with a couple of kids who were drugged up,’ said Rob. ‘They followed me and ran me off the road. Your guys collared them. I thought that’s why you were here.’
‘No. We didn’t know