Sandra Robbins - Trail of Secrets

She grasped the handle, pulled it back and shoved her shoulder against the door, but it wouldn’t budge. “Help!” she screamed. “Somebody, please help us!”

The sound of raised voices reached her ears, and relief flowed through her. Just as quickly it turned to fear. What if the shooter was coming to finish them off? With them trapped in the car, they were perfect targets. Panicked, she shoved on the door again.

A man’s face appeared at the shattered driver’s-side window, and he peered inside. “Are you all right?”

In the darkness she couldn’t make out his face, but the man’s voice had a soothing quality. “Yes, but my uncle is hurt.”

“I’ve called 911,” he said. “Help will be here any minute to get you out of there.” The man reached through the window and touched her uncle’s chest. “He’s breathing. Now you just take it easy until we get some help.”

Callie leaned back in her seat and breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you for helping us.”

“I’m glad I saw your car run off the road. I thought that car passing you got too close. Then I heard a loud noise like a gunshot. Whoever was driving that car meant to hurt you.”

Callie nodded. “Yes, it looked that way to me, too.”

“Now don’t you worry. I’ll stay right here with you until help arrives. It shouldn’t be too long.”

Convinced they were safe for the moment from the person who’d tried to kill them, she closed her eyes. This wasn’t the homecoming she’d expected. She’d been looking forward to Uncle Dan’s retirement celebration for weeks. He’d worked so hard for years, first as a Memphis police officer while enrolled in law classes at night, then as a Memphis attorney and finally as a federal judge. He had spent the better part of his life bringing criminals to justice. If anyone deserved a peaceful retirement, he did.

Callie had opted out of teaching summer classes at the University of Virginia where she was a professor in the School of Business so she could spend the entire summer with him. They were set to celebrate his retirement the way he’d planned for years—in a Maui beach house they’d rented for six weeks.

She clenched her fists and rubbed her temples. It wasn’t fair. He was the best man she’d ever known, and he’d dedicated his life to raising her when she was left with no one. In just a few days he’d be able to leave the stress of his job behind and enjoy life for a change. He wasn’t supposed to wind up wounded and bleeding for reasons she didn’t understand while his attacker got away.

The sound of sirens pierced the air. Callie opened her eyes and looked toward the road. “They’re here,” the man beside the car said.

He’d hardly finished speaking before she saw the flashlight beams of the first responders bobbing in the darkness as their rescuers came down the embankment. The man who’d been talking to her moved out of the way as one of the rescuers stopped beside the car. He glanced at her uncle, then at her. “Don’t you worry, ma’am, we’ll have you out of there in no time and on your way to the hospital.”

Thirty minutes later an EMT carried her up the embankment to the ambulance with its flashing lights. She eased over to the gurney where her uncle lay and grasped his hand. He hadn’t responded to anyone since he was pulled from the wreck.

She glanced up at the EMT who had just finished checking his pulse. Even though she feared the answer, she had to ask the question burning in her thoughts. “Is he going to be all right?”

The EMT adjusted the oxygen cannula in her uncle’s nose and frowned. “It’s still too early to say, ma’am. The doctor can tell you more when we get both of you to the hospital. Even though you appear to be unhurt you need to be checked out, too. You can ride in the back with your uncle.”

Before they could load the gurney into the ambulance, her uncle stirred, and his eyelids fluttered open. She clutched his hand tighter and leaned closer. “Uncle Dan, it’s Callie. Can you hear me?”

“Callie.” The hoarse whisper seemed to exhaust him.

“Yes, I’m here. We were in a car wreck. We’re going to the hospital. Everything is going to be all right.”

He frowned and licked his lips. “Call Seth.”

Callie clutched her uncle’s hand tighter and shook her head. “Uncle Dan, don’t talk. Just lie still.”

His eyes grew wide, and he struggled to push up. “No!” he wheezed. “Need Seth. Something to tell him about the case.”

She glanced up at the EMT who placed his hands on her uncle’s shoulders and eased him back down to the gurney. “All right, Uncle Dan. I’ll call Seth.”

“Tell him it’s important,” he mumbled before he closed his eyes again.

New tears poured down Callie’s cheeks as she watched her uncle being loaded into the ambulance. One of the EMTs grasped her arm to help her up, but she paused when a car skidded to a stop next to the police car blocking the highway, and a man jumped from inside.

She wouldn’t have to call Seth after all—he was already here.

She braced herself for her first encounter with Seth Dawtry since the night when she’d turned down his marriage proposal. For years her uncle had said that she and the young policeman he’d mentored would make a perfect couple. He’d tried matchmaking every time she came back to Memphis to visit. It had almost worked two years ago.

Seth only hesitated a moment when he saw her standing at the back of the ambulance before he raced toward her.

“Is he alive?” His voice shook with each word.

She nodded. “Yes, but he’s seriously injured. How did you know he’d been hurt?”

“One of the first responders is a friend of mine. He called as soon as he saw who it was. I got here as fast as I could.” He glanced at the EMT inside the ambulance. “Is he conscious?”

The man shook his head. “He was for a moment but not now.”

She took a deep breath and turned toward Seth. “He asked me to call you. If he regains consciousness, I’ll tell him you arrived.”

Seth’s eyes narrowed, then his stare settled on her and turned cold. Even after two years she could see he still harbored anger toward her. He gave a curt nod. “Thanks.”

She tried to smile but her lips trembled. “We need to go.”

Seth backed away. “I’ll follow the ambulance to the hospital and see you there.”

Callie wanted to tell him there was no need for him to go to the hospital, but she knew he would never listen to her. His relationship with Dan had been forged years ago when Seth was a recruit at the Memphis Police Academy where Dan was an instructor. They’d bonded right away, and in Dan, Seth had finally found a father to replace his own who had abandoned their family. Dan also regarded Seth as the son he’d never had.

She nodded and climbed in beside Dan’s gurney. Before they could close the door, one of the men who’d pulled her from the car ran up to the ambulance. “I found your purse in the backseat,” he said. “I thought you might need it.”

Callie took her purse and smiled. “Thank you. I appreciate everything that all of you have done for us tonight.”

He touched the front of his helmet in a small salute. “It’s part of the job, ma’am. I’ll be praying for you and your uncle.”

The ambulance door closed before she had a chance to respond, to tell him how those words from a man she’d met only minutes ago had comforted her. She glanced down at her uncle lying so still on the gurney and wrapped her fingers around his big hand. One of the EMTs grabbed the rear doors to close them, and Callie glanced over her shoulder. Seth had already disappeared from view.

Still holding his hand, she dropped down in the seat across from her uncle. When she’d arrived at the Memphis airport an hour ago, she hadn’t expected this turn of events. The memory of a roaring car and a gunshot blast flashed in her mind, and she closed her eyes and groaned.