Charmed

“We’re on it!” Brad signed off and hurriedly paged his deputy. “Get the patrol boat ready to go out, Bill. We’ve got a lead.”

He’d forgotten all about Ashley, until he swung around and saw her standing behind him with a face as white as an Easter lily.

“Is it—?”

“Maybe. Let’s go!”

He grabbed her hand as they raced to the pier.

Chapter Three

Brad was at the wheel of the police cruiser, and Ashley and the deputy at the bow of the boat when they headed down the western coast of the island and out into the open waters of the Atlantic.

Stocky, round-faced Bill Hunskut kept a pair of binoculars focused on the water ahead as he firmly planted his thick, muscular legs on the rolling deck. Ashley guessed him to be a little older than Brad.

Ashley was oblivious to the cold mist of water spraying her face as she clutched the railing with both hands. Her body was rigid and her pulse rapid as they searched the rising and falling waves for a drifting rowboat.

The sky was clearing after last night’s storm. Patches of glistening sunlight reflected in the rising and falling gray-blue water were creating illusions. Her heart leaped into her throat when she saw a floating object in the water.

She pointed and cried excitedly, “There! There!”

Deputy Bill gently touched her arm. “It’s only a floating porpoise, miss.”

Sometimes it was floating debris or a weathered log that made her chest tighten. With every tortured minute, the hopelessness of finding a tiny boat in a vast sea grew greater and greater.

Lorrie. Lorrie. Her sister’s name was a mantra on her moist lips when the deputy suddenly yelled.

“Starboard! Starboard!”

As Brad quickly swung the boat in that direction, Ashley squinted but couldn’t see anything.

“Where? Where?”

Bill pointed, and her breath caught as a rolling wave brought the floating object into view.

“There it is!” Brad quickly slowed the cruiser’s speed. “Get the hook ready.” With exacting patience, he began to maneuver the cruiser close enough for Bill to try to snag the rowboat.

Ashley clenched the railing with white-knuckled hands. The motion of the police boat kept moving the floating boat away.

Finally, after several frustrating tries, Brad succeeded in bringing the old boat alongside.

Ashley hung over the railing. When she saw her sister’s crumpled, still body lying in the bottom of the rowboat, knife-like pains shot through her.

No, no! She can’t be dead.

Both men moved with quiet competence. They lowered a rope ladder so that Brad could descend into the rocking boat. With his strong arms, he put the inert body into a carrier sling fastened to a pulley from above. Ashley realized what a well-trained team they were to handle such an emergency.

At Brad’s signal, Deputy Bill raised the sling to deck level. Once it had been lowered onto deck, both men instantly knelt beside the litter. Blond hair was matted with blood from a swelling at the back of the young woman’s head, and her arms and legs were motionless.

“Is she…?” Ashley choked.

Brad checked for vital signs, searching for a pulse in the limp wrist and laying his head on her chest to detect any faint movement.

“She’s alive. Get the oxygen ready, Bill. Only a very faint pulse, but we may have a chance.”

He carried her into the cabin, which had been equipped with first aid emergency supplies, and quickly laid her on a stretcher-like cot.

“We’ve got to get her warm.” He turned to Ashley. “Get some blankets out of that cupboard. Bill, set up the oxygen tent. I’ll radio the Portland stationmaster to have an ambulance ready. We can get her to the mainland quicker than returning to Greystone and summoning a helicopter to pick her up.”

The trip was the longest one Ashley had ever made. The minutes crept by as she kept her eyes glued on Lorrie, watching for any sign of consciousness. Almost imperceptibly, Lorrie’s deathly color began to change in the oxygen tent. The feeble sound of air moving in and out of her chest told Ashley she was breathing deeper.

“Reckon we found her in time,” Deputy Bill encouraged in his calm, homespun way. “She’ll be fit as a fiddle, you wait and see.”

An ambulance was waiting on the wharf when Brad eased the patrol cruiser into its assigned berth on the mainland. Immediately, two male paramedics came aboard, took charge, and transferred Lorrie to the ambulance.

“We’ll follow in my car,” Brad told Ashley. “I keep one in a nearby parking area for use when I’m on the mainland.” He told Bill to arrange for the rowboat to be examined for forensic evidence. “You catch the afternoon ferry back to the island, Bill, and I’ll call in as soon as we know something.”

ASHLEY SANK BACK in the seat of Brad’s compact car and stared ahead as he drove in silence to the community hospital. She was grateful he didn’t try to engage her in conversation. Apprehensive and emotionally drained, she was functioning at a precarious level. His firm, solid and unruffled manner helped steady a hurricane of feelings whirling within her.

When they reached the hospital, they hurried into the emergency room. Brad used his official status to gain assurances that as soon as any news was available, he would be immediately advised.

“I’m afraid there’s nothing to do but wait,” he told Ashley as they turned away from the desk. “I need to make some calls. I’ll be as quick as I can. Would you like to have me bring you back some coffee?”

She shook her head and swallowed hard. For a moment, she had the absurd urge to insist that he didn’t leave her.

As if reading her thoughts, he said, “I’ll only be a few minutes, I promise.” He gave her a quick squeeze on the shoulder, turned and disappeared down a nearby hall.

She found an empty chair in the crowded room and sank down into it.

AS BRAD made his way to a small office he’d used before when conducting business from the hospital, he was puzzled why he felt so personally involved in this investigation. He’d handled plenty of traumatic situations when he had been an investigator in the State Enforcement Bureau. Plenty of heart-rending tragedies. Plenty of attractive, appealing women. What was it about Ashley Davis that made everything about this one different? Was it because she’d stood up to him and openly questioned his competence? Just this morning in the café, she’d even been trying to do his job.

“Dammed if I know why she gets to me,” he muttered to himself.

He called his superior in Portland and brought him up to date. “I don’t know how soon I’ll be able to question the victim. She’s in emergency now, and we’re waiting to hear if she makes it.” They talked for a few more minutes.

When Brad returned to the emergency room, he waited with Ashley. It was nearly noon when a young doctor gave them the news.

“She’s conscious and her condition is stable.” He told them she’d been moved to a private room. “You can see her for a few minutes.”

LORRIE’S EYES were open when they entered her room, and her lips curved in a weak smile as Ashley bent over and kissed her cheek.

“You had me scared, Loribelle,” she said, using a pet name.

“Sorry, Sis,” she whispered weakly.

“You’re going to be all right. The doctor says so.” She motioned Brad to come closer to the bed. “This is Officer Brad Taylor.”

“Nice to meet you, Lorrie.” He bent over the bed and smiled down at her.