Blind Spot (36 page)

Please, don’t let her die.

“I love you.”

His torture was endless, internal. Heyward had tried to save her, too.

She had to live!

And then, in the darkest moment of his soul, he felt something. Movement beneath his hand. Trembling fingers.

Slowly Lang raised his head, his blue eyes capturing her brown ones, dulled by pain, full of recognition. Joy sang through his veins. Impossible to believe. A miracle!

She opened her mouth but he put his own finger to her lips.

“Shhh.”

Her fingers squeezed his. He squeezed back.

“I love you,” he said brokenly.
“I love you…”

“…the Tillamook, the Trask, the Miami, the Wilson, and the Kilchis.”

Lang sat at the end of Claire’s couch, smiling down at her as she cradled a cup of herbal tea. Dinah, carrying Bea close to her chest in a blue-and-white paisley sling, had brought over a hot carafe and had just finished sharing a cup with Claire when Lang got off work. She left them, then, saying she and Bea would be right next door, sensing their need to be alone together.

“Someone’s been searching the Internet,” Claire said. Her voice was faint, more a case of being careful and easing around sore muscles than actual damage to her vocal center.

“Harder than you might think, given the age of my laptop,” he assured her. “But if I can name all five rivers, O’Halloran seems to think I can do the job.”

“That’s the only reason?”

“The only one.”

“Nothing to do with finding out who killed Rafe.”

He reached under the covers and grabbed one of her bare feet. “Not a thing.”

“Don’t you dare tickle me,” she warned.

“I was thinking more of a massage.”

“Sure.”

Lang grinned. “I called Will Tanninger at Winslow County, brought him up to date with all the little pieces he missed about the investigation. He was really interested in all the information about the Colony. Said he thought his girlfriend would want to talk to Catherine.”

“Well, maybe…”

Lang gave her a speculative look and added, “She did come to the station, you know. Catherine. She wants to be Bea’s guardian.”

Claire would have shaken her head vigorously but knew better. Though she was healing well, the cut and subsequent surgery on her neck muscles and tendons damn well hurt! “Maybe Siren Song isn’t the torture chamber Tasha imagined, but I don’t want Bea there. I want her with Dinah.”

“It’ll be an uphill battle for Catherine if she wants to fight it.”

“No change in Tasha?” Claire asked.

Lang shook his head.

Like Rita, Tasha had initially been taken to the county jail, but she’d fallen deep into one of her unconscious states and her breathing and pulse rate had plummeted to a dangerously low level. She’d been taken back to the hospital and was currently stabilized, but her health was uncertain.

“What’ll happen to her?” Claire asked.

“If she recovers enough, a mental hospital for the criminally insane?” Lang suggested. “Locked up on Side B?”

Claire closed her eyes for a moment. Tasha would probably be confined to a single room, living her own personal hell. She said softly, “I’d love to have Bea, too.”

“If something happens to Tasha, we’ll adopt her,” he told her seriously.

“Really?”

He nodded.

“You sound so positive.”

“I’m not letting you go,” he said. “And I’ll do everything I know to make Bea ours. We can make it happen.”

“We’ll have to fight Dinah and the courts.”

He shook his head, smiling gently. “She’d want us to be a family.”

Claire felt tears sting behind her eyes and cursed her weakness. “Is that some kind of proposal, or am I hearing something I just want to hear?”

“I think Dr. Norris-Stone sounds great. Or just Dr. Stone. Whatever you prefer.”

He leaned down and kissed her lightly, but Claire held him close, pressing her lips to his. Finally, they broke apart, grinning at each other.

“The answer’s yes,” she said.

“Good!” He kissed her again. A loud, smacking one this time. “I already asked my buddy, Trey, to be best man. Did I ever tell you our deal about buying each other a beer?” Claire shook her head, amused, as he told her how the day before he’d met up with Detective Curtis at Dooley’s, a bar near the Portland Police Department, and as soon as Curtis walked through the door, the waitress thrust a beer in his hand, at seven
A.M
. “He said he’d stand up with me, but it took some convincing,” Lang finished. “He, uh, remembers a few things I said about Halo Valley and Dr. Claire Norris.”

“Ahh…”

“He then said some things about me being a jackass, and karma, and how things sometimes were meant to be. Kinda thought I was talking to Dinah for a moment.”

Claire laughed. “Be careful what you wish for?”

“Something like that.”

Sobering some, she asked, “Is Heyward doing okay?”

“Still at Ocean Park. Still recovering from his stomach surgery. They say he should be okay. Of course, the Marsdons are squawking about neglect at Halo Valley, blaming everybody, threatening to pull their funding and maybe sue.”

“You’re kidding.”

“They’re a fun bunch, aren’t they?” He began massaging her feet again, but when he slid a light finger over one of her soles, she yanked her foot back and gave him a warning look.

“Okay, okay.” He tucked both feet back under the covers. “I put in a call to Pauline Kirby. Told her about Heyward the Third being moved from Side B to Side A at the Marsdons’ insistence. Suggested maybe that wasn’t what the courts had really decreed.”

“Stirring up the hornets’ nest.”

“Heyward tried to save you,” he said seriously. “He and my sister were both sick, and it was a tragedy for everyone.”

Claire realized what a great admission that was. “Freeson won’t like any of it, and neither will Radke,” she said lightly.

“Or anyone else there, probably. The Marsdons will probably pull funding regardless.”

“They’ve always wanted something we couldn’t give them, and they held the hospital for ransom over it.”

“Well, it’s a whole new world order now,” he said.

“Yes.”

“By the way, Pauline told me she was going to kiss me the next time we met,” Lang revealed.

“That woman sure is begging for a bitch slapping,” Claire murmured and they both broke into laughter.

At Ocean Park hospital, Tasha opened her eyes to see herself strapped to whirring, blinking, and flashing monitors. She had no strength. It had been pulled from her by the dark forces warring within her. If she could just get up, just muster some energy, then she could leave. Get away!

The door to the room was open, but a guard in a uniform stood just outside.

Horror filled her. There was no way out. They’d blocked her escape.

No…!
she cried violently inside.
No, no, no!

She was caught. Trapped.

And then the black curtain moved into her peripheral vision, smothering her, taking her down. Further and further. Lower than she’d ever gone before.

She sank beneath the darkness and didn’t hear the droning buzz of the flat line or see it moving inexorably straight across the heart monitor’s screen.