Dee Henderson - The Witness

He got in and started the car. He had to find Amy. He would have another death to deal with if she stayed out there on her own; he couldn’t handle it. Marie couldn’t handle it. Where did you go, Amy? Where did you decide was safe?

Marsh wasn’t moving much, just sitting watching ducks land on the water and bundled-up joggers traverse the paths around the park. Amy sat down on the ground beside him and pulled up her knees to rest her chin on her folded arms and thick coat sleeves.

“You hung back long enough I wasn’t sure you would come over,” Marsh said.

“Connor is looking for you.”

“I know,” Marsh said tiredly, stripping another twig of leaves. “You called. I’m here. How can I help you, Amy?”

“Don’t feel so sad. Tracey was happy until that last moment she died. How many people get to be so lucky in life? She slipped into heaven laughing with you about Christmas gifts.”

He wiped away a tear but said nothing.

“I can’t come to the funeral,” she whispered. “Someone has to break that news to Marie. Someone has to be with her.”

“She’s staying with Daniel.”

“I guessed that when she didn’t return to the gallery last night.”

“You okay for cash?”

“Yes. It’s just easier to do what I need to do without company.”

“You can’t find this guy on your own, Amy. The entire police force wants him-let them find him first.”

“Someone sent him, and after him there will be another. The shadows are going to be safer for a while. Will you take care of Marie for me? really make sure she gets through this okay?”

“Connor will do that for you; he’s falling in love with her, I think, even though he hasn’t said it in so many words.”

She picked up a blade of grass from the cold ground and shredded it. “And you? What are you going to do?”

He shrugged.

“Caroline could use some help getting back on her feet. She’s been a good friend to me. She didn’t deserve to get clipped just because she was helping me out.”

“I thought she looked so cute as she left the restaurant ahead of us: bold red hat, long black coat, those twirly earrings she loved. She gets shot, and the only people pacing the hall to make sure she’s pulling through are cops, an uncle, and a few friends. It didn’t seem right.”

“I thought the same thing. Go see her for me, Marsh; she needs a friend around. And go see Marie. There wasn’t anything you could have done to prevent this. Tracey was in God’s hands, and He decided it was time.”

He wiped at tears that turned the lake into a washed-out pool of color.

“You can’t wish for it to have been you,” Amy said softly. “You can’t carry that wish around with you for the next decade of your life, letting yourself die slowly because you didn’t die quickly on a sidewalk instead of Tracey.”

“Let up, okay? It’s my right to have wanted to be the one to protect her, and I failed her that. The most important thing I needed to do, and I failed at it.”

Amy leaned her head against his shoulder and then took a deep breath. “I know. I brought the trouble her way to begin with.” She got to her feet. “Tell Connor I said hi.”

“And the chief?”

Amy dropped the blade of grass she had shredded. “It’s not that big a town; he’ll find me before long. I just wanted to say how sorry I am, Marsh. Tracey loved you a lot.”

He nodded.

Amy rested her hand on his shoulder for a hard moment and then was gone.

“You want to stop for something to eat?” Connor asked, feeling out what Marsh was thinking behind the silence. Marsh had shown up at Daniel’s to see Marie shortly after 4 p.m., and Connor had driven over to meet him there.

“Maybe a sandwich after we see Caroline,” he replied.

Connor didn’t like the quiet or the grief. His friend had changed from cop to someone more focused on his own thoughts of the past than caring about the case that had to be solved. Connor needed him focused, despite the loss, despite the pain, because there was no one better at putting the pieces together than Marsh, and Connor needed that help right now. Too many threads of the murders and the shooting were piling up, and he was drowning in the details knowing he wasn’t putting them together as quickly as he should to see the big picture.

“I could use you at the office for a few minutes to take a look at the phone-call reports coming in. The sketch Caroline gave us went out to the public shortly after 10 a.m.”

“Tomorrow, after the funeral arrangements are made.”

“You heard from the chief, that your hunch about Henry’s having a son was right?”

“Not now, Connor. Right now it just doesn’t matter.”

Connor racked his memory for some clue Marsh might have said in the past about where he kept his backup piece. The man wasn’t ready to go through another midnight on his own. It didn’t matter if this was tiredness or grief; it was simply the fact Marsh was no longer acting in predictable ways. He’d disappeared for over twelve hours and never said where he had been. Connor couldn’t take another slice of the worry. Not about Marsh. He pulled into the hospital parking lot. “I’m coming up with you.”

Marsh nodded. “How was she, Caroline, when you saw her earlier?”

“Tired beyond words, pretty weak. But you wouldn’t know it for her eyes and the way she wanted to know answers to her questions.”

Marsh gave a small smile. “That’s true to form.”

“Hold on.” Connor stopped his partner and opened the back door. He lifted out a big bunch of flowers. “They’re from you. I already stuffed another dozen roses into the vases around her room earlier. She got a kick out of them.”

“Thanks, Connor.”

He squeezed his partner’s shoulder. “Rag on me, get angry, even sweat a few tears, but just don’t go disappearing again, okay? I’ve been around you too long-I don’t know what to do when you’re not there to bug me.”

Marsh blinked, then smiled. “Yeah, that would be a bummer. Tomorrow afternoon, Connor. I’ll look at everything you’ve been able to tug together.”

“I’m holding you to it.”

Connor knew the way to Caroline’s room and punched buttons on the elevator. “Watch out if she offers to let you taste what Scott brought her. Whatever he smuggled in would put a guy back into the hospital. Some mint sugar thing that would make your eyes roll back it’s so sweet.”

Marsh chuckled and shifted the flowers to straighten his jacket and turn back the collar on his shirt.

“You look okay, like you slept in the clothes, but okay.”

“Thanks a lot, buddy; they were clean and from the closet this morning.”

“Then you don’t look so good.”

Marsh snorted and pointedly waited for Connor to exit the elevator first. “I hate hospitals.”

“I seem to remember,” Connor replied, relieved to hear the complaint return.

Marsh leaned over the bed to kiss Caroline’s cheek. “You look like paste, friend. What are they doing to you in here?”

She smiled up at him. “You should look in the mirror. Thanks for coming; I ordered Connor to bring you by.”

“He did. These are for you.” He rested the stack of flowers on her chest so she could enjoy them without moving her head. “Amy’s worried about you, but I told her you had steel in your insides and the bullet kind of bounced back out.”

She giggled and groaned. “You’re as bad for me as you ever were. You doing okay?”