Loving Again

chapter Fourteen


Amanda couldn’t believe what a rapid and massive response an “officer down” call triggered. Within minutes of Danny’s call, the first patrol car was there, then an ambulance for Sam, more patrol cars and another ambulance. Danny had waylaid Drake Vos outside Amanda’s house as he left, handing him over to one of the uniformed officers before taking charge of getting the crime scene organized. Beal Matthews was loaded into the second ambulance.

Happy to leave a familiar face to deal with her house, Amanda started out the door to follow the ambulance taking Sam to the ER. Danny took the car keys from her hand and put them on the dining room table. “Talk first. Hospital later. You shouldn’t drive right now and they won’t let you see Sam anyway. What the hell happened here?”

Amanda took a deep breath and let out a barrage of words. “Beal Matthews came here to get the money from the safe Tommy put in my basement. Drake Vos came to help. After Drake found the safe, Chihuly barked and Matthews found Sam in the backyard. Sam cut Matthews with an Ulu knife. Sam got shot while I was looking for my phone. Matthews came to shoot me. Chihuly bit him. I hit Matthews with my glass … ”

“Sorry I asked. Let’s go over that again. Why did you say Matthews was here?”

Amanda dropped her eyes and made little coughing noises before answering. “Because I told him I knew where the safe was. That I’d give him money. I thought I could get him off my back, keep him away from Sam, if I paid him off. Then you would find him, arrest him, and everything would be okay.”

“How the hell did you even know who he was? Unless … you did recognize him when I showed you his picture, didn’t you?”

Another deep breath before the last confession came out in a whisper. “Yeah, I saw him at Bullseye the night of the murders. He threatened me and Sam if I talked to you. I knew he thought there was money here from Tommy’s drug business so when I got a second threat from him, I decided to bribe him.” She ran out of explanation and stopped talking, still not looking Danny in the eyes.

Danny exploded. “What the f*ck is wrong with you, woman? How many times have we talked — three, four times? And you didn’t tell me any of this? What kind of game are you playing?”

“I’m not playing a game. I was scared he’d hurt Sam. Besides, it didn’t seem important.” She knew she sounded as feeble as her excuse did.

“You don’t get to decide what’s important and what’s not. We do. You tell us everything you know, we put it together with what we know and we figure out what happened. That’s how it works.”

“Not always.”

“I got the message. You had a bad experience last year. Props to you for getting through it.” Danny paced in front of Amanda, who was now sitting on the couch. “But that doesn’t give you a pass on this. What were you waiting for, another person to turn up dead?”

Amanda shuddered. “That’s exactly what I didn’t want. I’m sorry, Danny, I should have … ”

“Bullshit.”

Amanda hung her head for a moment then looked directly at Danny. “I was stupid. If I’d been thinking clearly I wouldn’t have even been at Bullseye that night. But the phone call I got said Eubie was about to go public with his accusations. I went to meet him. That’s when I saw Matthews. He came out into the delivery area, outside the classroom. I could see him in the security light.”

She rummaged around in her pocket, found a tissue, and blew her nose. “The next morning, I found the studio wrecked and an envelope with letters in it. From him. I have them here. I can get them … ”

Danny didn’t seem to be listening. “You lied about being at Bullseye. When we caught you at it, you still didn’t tell us the whole story. You lied about what you saw there. Then you tried to bribe a killer to … ” She stopped. “Wait. Rewind. You decided to bribe him because he threatened Sam?” She stared at Amanda. “Oh, shit, you pushed Sam away because you thought that would protect him, didn’t you? I can’t believe it.”

Amanda closed her eyes. “Last year, because of me, he was suspended for months. He could have lost his whole career. And it was happening again. Only this time it was more than his career, it was his life. I wasn’t going to put him in danger. Not after everything he’d done for me.” She opened her eyes. Danny was staring at her in disbelief.

“Did you tell him?” Danny shook her head. “What am I saying? Of course you didn’t. Jesus, did you really think you could bribe Matthews?”

“I thought all he wanted was money. And I had money. It’s never been an issue with me.”

“Aren’t you lucky?”

“Yeah, I am. I’ve always had some measure of security because I had a trust income to fall back on. This time having it didn’t help me.” She looked up at Danny. “Are we finished here? Can I go now?”

“No, we’re not finished. I have a feeling we won’t be finished for days. But we can go to the hospital. I’ll drive and we’ll talk more on the way.”

• • •

When they got to the hospital, Sam was in surgery. The ER nurse directed them to a waiting room where, she said, the doctor would come out when the surgery was over. Margo Keyes and Lt. Angel were already there, standing in a corner talking quietly.

“What are you doing here, Margo?” Amanda asked.

“Someone from the DA’s office always comes out to something like this. I was up in the rotation,” she said.

“Do you know how Sam is?”

Lt. Angel answered Amanda’s question. “ER doc said he had an entry wound in the front of his shoulder, no exit wound. Broken arm. Fair amount of bleeding. They have him in surgery now getting the bullet out, the bleeders tied off, and his arm taken care of. He was semi-conscious when they admitted him.”

“What about Matthews?” Danny asked.

“Bullet grazed his arm. He had cuts on his hands and arms and a dog bite. He was treated and released into custody. Oh, and he has quite a goose egg on his head. I understand he has you to thank for that, Ms. St. Claire. Nice hit. We’ll be watching him for a concussion in the jail.”

“And Drake Vos?” Amanda asked, ignoring the compliment.

“He’s not talking much. But I think he will. What little he’s said is to distance himself from the murders. He says Matthews was convinced you’d killed Tom Webster and he was trying to get his revenge for your ‘getting away with it’ by setting it up to look like you’d killed Eubie Kane.” He looked at his cell phone. “Third call from the press. Better go and deal with this. Keep me posted, Danny.”

The wait for the doctors seemed endless but eventually two of them came into the waiting room. “Is one of you Detective Richardson’s partner?” the first one said.

The women looked at each other. “If you mean his professional partner, I am,” Danny replied.

“We’re authorized to tell you and a woman named Amanda St. Claire what happened to Detective Richardson.”

“That’s me,” Amanda said. “And this is Deputy District Attorney Margo Keyes.”

He looked at the identification Margo pulled out of her purse. “Okay, then, I guess it’s all three of you. There’s mostly good news. By some miracle, the bullet missed every major organ and artery in Detective Richardson’s chest. It nicked his subclavian vein and maybe was diverted by his clavicle. We got the bullet out and I think we got all the bleeders but we’ll be keeping a close eye on him to make sure.” He looked from one woman to the other. “Any questions?”

“How long will he be in the hospital?” Amanda asked. “And can we see him?”

“We’ll put him in ICU overnight to observe him for concussion and then see how he recovers from the surgery. His arm will be in a cast for about six weeks and he’ll need physical therapy to make sure he has a full range of motion in his shoulder. You can see him when he gets to ICU. Why don’t you wait here and you can go with him when they transfer him.”

Knowing that Sam wouldn’t want his sons to hear what happened from a television newscast, Amanda called his former wife to alert her. By the time she was off the phone, Danny had left to go back downtown to talk to Drake Vos and begin her reports.

After a few hours, Sam was deemed stable enough to go to ICU and Amanda and Margo accompanied him there. They didn’t stay long. Sam had been sedated but the nurse assured Amanda that by the next day he’d be alert and able to talk to her. She suggested Amanda go home and get some sleep.

Yeah, like that was gonna happen.