“Get an ambulance!” she shouted over her shoulder.
Serena stripped off a glove and tried to take a pulse, but her fingers were too numb to find it. She put her cheek down next to Aimee’s mouth, and as she did, she felt the one thing that made her heart leap. Even in the frigid air, she could feel the steamy puff of a breath as Aimee exhaled.
She was alive.
28
In the middle of the night, Stride finally made it back home to the cottage. He went into Cat’s room and found the girl still awake, sitting up in the darkness in her T-shirt and sweatpants. One of the front windows was cracked an inch open, letting in icy air. She’d adopted that habit from him.
“Aimee’s alive?” Cat asked. “She’s okay?”
Stride sat down next to her and turned on a nightstand lamp to give the room a soft glow. “Yes, she’s in the hospital now. Serena’s with her. It looks like she’ll be fine.”
“Thank God. I was so scared.”
Cat stared at him with wide, vulnerable eyes. She shoved an index finger between her teeth and chewed on a nail, and that made her look younger than she was. He knew part of it was an act. When she was in trouble, when she felt guilty, she tried to look like a little girl.
He didn’t know what to say to her this time. He’d seen Cat do bad things in their two years together. She’d stolen. She’d lied. She’d protected people who didn’t deserve protection. This was different. It wasn’t about herself; it was about someone else. He wanted to ground her for her recklessness, but at the same time he was proud of her.
“That was a brave thing you did tonight,” Stride told her.
Cat looked down, embarrassed. “Thanks.”
“It was also very, very foolish.”
“Well, Aimee said I would do something like that. I guess she was right.”
He noticed that she didn’t apologize, and he wasn’t going to make her do that.
“Tell me why you did it,” he said.
“I don’t know. I was so angry about that article about you. I wanted to help. I thought if I saw something, if I could spy on Dean Casperson for you, I could help you prove what kind of person he really is.”
“Another girl tried to do the same thing, Cat,” Stride said, “and she wound up dead. This is dangerous business. You don’t belong anywhere near it. Climbing that wall tonight wasn’t just trespassing. You were putting yourself at risk. Anything could have happened to you at that house.”
“Yeah, I know. I was glad Curt was there to pull me over that wall.”
Stride rolled his eyes. “As much as I hate to say it, I’m glad Curt was there, too, but I wish he’d stopped you from going over it in the first place.”
“That’s not his fault. Nothing was going to stop me.”
Stride knew that was true. When Cat set her mind to something, she was as relentless as a runaway train. “Why was it so important to get inside?”
“Because when I saw Aimee getting out of the limousine, I could feel her reaching out to me from across the street. It was just like she said. Save me. She needed my help. I knew I had to do something.”
“Doing something didn’t mean going in there yourself. You could have called me. You could have called Serena.”
“And told you what?” Cat protested. “That I saw Aimee going into Dean Casperson’s house? There’s nothing you could have done about that. That’s why I had to find out what was really going on.”
Stride hesitated before saying anything, because on one level she was right. If Cat hadn’t been there, he didn’t know what would have happened to Aimee Bowe. Maybe she would have been fine. Or maybe she would have awakened to find herself being assaulted. Whatever Dean Casperson’s plans had been, Cat had interrupted them.
“So what happens next?” Cat asked him.
He hated to tell her the truth. “Nothing.”
“Nothing? What do you mean?”
“I mean there was no crime committed, Cat,” Stride said.
“Why, just because he didn’t get a chance to rape her? That’s crazy! I saw what he was going to do to her.”
Stride took hold of Cat’s hand. “Okay, tell me exactly what you saw.”
Cat sniffled and squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to remember. Then she opened them, and her face was serious. “I saw what Aimee looked like. She was drugged; I’m sure of it. She looked completely out of it, like she didn’t even know what was going on.”
“Did you see Casperson give her anything? Did you see him tamper with her drink?”
Cat shook her head in frustration. “No. They were already drinking by the time I got on the roof.”
“So you didn’t see anything that couldn’t be written off with an innocent explanation.”
“This wasn’t innocent, Stride.”
“How can you be sure?” he asked.
“Because I saw his face. It was scary as hell. Aimee got all disoriented and dropped her glass. Casperson didn’t do anything. He didn’t look surprised or concerned. It was like he was expecting it, you know? He got up, calm as anything, and he walked over and sat right down next to her. He didn’t get help. He didn’t freak out. He just sat there and reached over and started touching her.”
“Touching how?”
“Her face. He was caressing her cheek. Real slow, real smooth, like she was some kind of robot. And his eyes? Look, you know some of the things I’ve done. I know what men look like when they want sex and they’re with a girl who can’t tell them no. That was Casperson.”
Stride’s mouth was a thin, angry line. Those were the details that made him crazy.
“And then what?” he asked.
“Then I fell,” Cat said. “He heard me and alerted the guards. That’s when everybody started chasing me. If that hadn’t happened, Casperson would have raped her. I know it. I’m sure of it.”
“Between you and me, I think you’re right.”
“You believe me?” Cat asked.
“Of course I do.”
“Then let me tell people what I saw.”
He shook his head. “Absolutely not.”
“But why not?”
“I’m sorry, Cat. You were there illegally, and as far Serena and I are concerned, you were never there. The tip we got was anonymous. Serena didn’t use your name, and we’re going to keep you out of it. That’s it. It’s not up for discussion.”
Cat leaped out of bed. She paced angrily back and forth across the slanting wooden floor of the old bedroom. “That’s just wrong. So Casperson gets away with it? We don’t do anything?”
“I’m sorry, Cat.”
“Look, I know I was trespassing. Fine. I’ll admit it. If I have to get punished for that, I will. But why can’t I just tell the truth?”
Stride got off the bed, too. He held on to Cat’s shoulders to keep her in place and bent down until they were eye to eye. “Because if you say anything in public—anything—these people will destroy you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You saw what they did to me. They were just getting started. They didn’t leave you out of it to be nice. They left you out to make sure I knew what would happen if we kept going after Dean Casperson. If you stand up and make any kind of accusation, they will rip open your whole life, Cat. They will dredge up every mistake you ever made, every lie you ever told, every law you broke. They’ll print every rumor, every innuendo, everything, to humiliate you and obliterate you. They will make sure no one ever believes a word you say.”
“Let them try,” Cat said, with her forehead crinkled in determination. “I can take it. I’m strong now.”
“It’s not about being strong. Strong people break, too. I’ve seen lives ruined this way. Do you remember what I told you about Mort Greeley? He was an innocent man who lost his whole life to false accusations. You can’t imagine what the pressure is like when the media and the public turn on you. I won’t let you go through that.”
“You didn’t break,” Cat said.
“I’m a cop. It’s my job to take the heat. You’re a teenager with your whole future ahead of you.”