Truths Unveiled - By Kimberly Alan Page 0,88

Tom caught sight of Bill Houser’s face in one of the photographs on the wall. The guy had hardly aged at all. Tom reached out to take the folder Wilkens held, then stopped. Something about Houser’s face drew him back to the photograph. What was that on the guy’s forehead? It looked like a bandage.

Tom’s heart started to pound. At the same time, his blood raced icy hot through his veins. He looked down at the bronze plate affixed to the picture frame. The date, June 28, 1994, shouted back at him. Three days after Pam’s accident!

“Looks like the officer involved was…”

“Bill Houser,” Tom finished.

“Yeah. How did you know?”

“Thanks,” he called out, already halfway to the door. Where’s Pam? his thoughts demanded. He grabbed his cell phone and dialed the hospital.

Truths Unveiled

Truths Unveiled

Chapter Fifty-Three

“Hi Tom. It’s Marcia. What do you need?”

“Is Pam around?”

“She left about fifteen minutes ago.”

Tom checked his watch. “Thanks, Marcia.” He started to close the phone when he heard the nurse ask, “Did she get you on the phone?”

“No. Why?” His ears rang with premonition. “What happened?”

“No big deal. Her car died.”

“What? Why didn’t she call me?”

“She knew you were on-call. But it turned out fine. Deputy Houser stopped by to chat. He gave her a lift home.”

****

“I really appreciate this, Bill.”

“Glad I could help,” the deputy chief told Pam, driving out of the parking lot. I just need to make one stop on the way to your place. Why don’t you settle back and catch a few winks.”

Grateful for Houser’s assistance, Pam took him up on the offer and sank down into the passenger seat. The drone of the engine added to her drowsiness. She stared out the window, catching glimpses of landmarks she’d grown accustomed to passing each day on her way to the medical center.

To her right stood a pharmacy. Next came a grocery store and a popular coffee shop. When the cruiser approached the veterinarian’s office, she couldn’t help a smile. The sign contained a grinning mouse with a bandage on its finger, sitting on an elephant’s head. The elephant wore a sling on its front foot. Underneath, the sign read, “No animal is too big or too small for us.”

Closing her eyes, Pam thought of Tom. Thanksgiving was next week. Her parents planned to arrive on Tuesday to meet Tom’s family and help Katie prepare Thursday’s feast. They would stay through the weekend and confirm wedding plans.

How different this year would be compared to others, she thought, feeling extremely grateful.

“Ouch!” Pam screeched, bolting upright. A sharp stab, followed by a fiery burn, raced up and down her right leg. Where was she? Oh. With Bill Houser. He was taking her home. Why weren’t they moving? A flash of lightning revealed Houser fiddling with a hypodermic needle.

“What are you doing!” she tried to shout. But no words formed. It felt like she was moving in slow motion.

“You know it’s all your fault,” Houser accused, in a conversational tone. “I told you so at the time. If you’d kept him happy, he would have stayed away from Susan. And then she would have married me.”

Another flash showed his features, twisted and tortured with desperation.

“You shouldn’t have come back here. I tried to warn you.”

Pam heard his words but she couldn’t react. Her panicked reaction only served to help the drug he’d injected soar through her veins and paralyze her system. She caught another flash of light. He stared at her, deadly and determined. Then everything faded to black.

Truths Unveiled

Unlocking her hotel door, Pam relived the past few hours.

With everything else being equal, Tom Jarrod could tip the scales either way. On one hand, if she moved back here, and the past caught up with her, she could lose everything. On the other, if she just left and didn’t return, she could be giving up the best thing that ever happened to her.

For the most part, Pam never gave much consideration to a social life. Sure, in recent years there hadn’t been much free time. But now she realized that had been her excuse. More accurately, she didn’t believe she deserved a serious relationship. Yet, in these past twenty-four hours, Tom changed that.

Getting undressed, Pam wondered, Can it work, God? Is Aunt Carolyn right? Is this why you sent me here? So I could learn to forgive myself, and for Tom and me to start over?

The exuberance Pam began experiencing last night while with Tom doubled its strength. Smiling and feeling like a giddy teenage,