Ripped From the Pages

“Do you know what else happened?” I asked. “Did you talk to Trudy?”

 

 

“We’re piecing it together,” he said. I reached out to rest my hand on his knee and felt calmer. “Trudy is still unconscious, but when she wakes up, we hope she’ll be able to tell us exactly what occurred.” He frowned and stood up, grabbed another pillow from one of the chairs, and shoved it behind my back so I could sit up a little straighter. He pulled my blanket up to my waist and tucked it under me. Charlie waited patiently until Derek was finished, then gingerly climbed on top of my stomach again.

 

“Is she too heavy for you?” Derek asked.

 

“No, she’s perfect.”

 

Derek adjusted the pillows again. He was nervous, I realized, fiddling with things while he figured out the best way to give me the bad news.

 

“Please, Derek. Just tell me what happened.”

 

He sat on the heavy mission-style coffee table inches away from me and leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “The best we can guess is that someone else was in the house with Trudy. They pulled a gun out and shot her, or tried to. We don’t know why. Amelia ran over and pushed Trudy aside. The bullet grazed Trudy’s shoulder and entered Amelia’s chest, piercing her heart.”

 

“Oh God.” I pressed my hand to my own heart, appreciating its reassuring beat. It was painful to hear his words.

 

“When Trudy was pushed,” he continued, “she hit her head against the tile fireplace and lost consciousness. Since you were close enough to hear the gunshot, I’m assuming the assailant was nearby as you ran inside. The minute you knelt down to help Trudy, he or she hit you with a vase filled with flowers that Trudy kept on the table by the front door.”

 

“Are you kidding?” Now I realized why my hands and shirt had been so damp earlier. From the water in the vase. I hoped it wasn’t something like a Ming vase. Of course, it would just figure that Trudy would own a Ming vase. But I was going off on another tangent and had to drag my brain back to the subject. “Poor Amelia. Poor Trudy. What did Robson say?”

 

“He’s devastated.” Derek shook his head. “It’s too close to home for him. Nothing like this has ever happened here.”

 

I nodded and felt the same disappointment and sorrow Robson must be feeling. It was as if Dharma had been living a charmed life since its beginning and now some of that innocence had been stripped away and would never come back. “That’s true. Even the discovery of the body in the cave wasn’t as shocking as this. Nobody knew Mr. Renaud, and he’s been gone for seventy years. But Amelia . . . I just saw her the other day. She was scowling at me.” I swallowed around the sudden lump in my throat. “Heck, when wasn’t she scowling at me?”

 

Derek moved to the couch, picked up Charlie and set her down on my other side, and put his arms around me. Neither of us spoke for a while. It was enough for me to feel his solid warmth and the steady beat of his heart beneath my cheek.

 

A minute later, I suddenly sat up straight. “Wait. Where’s Elizabeth? Is she okay?”

 

“We don’t know,” he said, his jaw tightening again. “She wasn’t in the house when the police arrived, and we haven’t heard from her.”

 

“Oh my God. Do you think the killer took her?”

 

“We don’t know, love. There was no sign of another struggle. As soon as Trudy wakes up, we hope she might know something.”

 

I frowned. “Maybe she was out shopping. I hope she’s okay.”

 

“I do, too.” He took my hand in his. “Can you tell me what happened when you arrived?”

 

“Oh yeah.” I closed my eyes to organize my thoughts, then looked at him. “I was on the front porch when I heard the gunshot. I didn’t even think twice, just pushed the door open and went inside. I saw Trudy in front of the fireplace, and Amelia passed out on the chair. I thought she was asleep or drunk or something. It never occurred to me that . . .”

 

“Why would it?” Derek said quietly. “Why would anyone expect this sort of violence to occur inside Trudy’s home?”

 

“I feel so bad, though, because I sort of ignored Amelia and went straight to Trudy. I knelt down to check her pulse and grabbed my cell phone to call nine-one-one, and that was when I got hit from behind.”

 

“Did you see or hear anything?” he asked. “Smell anything?”

 

I put myself back in the scene. “I did, but it won’t help anything. All I heard was the floorboard creaking behind me. I thought maybe it was Amelia. Maybe she woke up. Stupid.” I rubbed my eyes and inched down on the couch, exhausted from the recital.

 

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