Hide My Memories: A Romantic Suspense Thriller Series (Hide Me Series Book 1) (6 page)

Katerina filled out all the boxes in the patient form and then wrote a short synopsis. She closed with the sentence: T
he patient climbed off the gurney and refused to sign the against medical advice form, police advised
. She penned her signature and put the form in the holding area of the clipboard.

She looked at West expectantly. They were still sitting in the ambulance in front of the house. "You didn't have to wait for me, I could have written while you were driving."

He shook his head. "That's okay, we don't have anywhere to be right now. Besides, I wanted to ask you something."

Katerina swiftly ran over her actions in her mind. Had she done something wrong? No, she'd done everything by the book. Probable opiate overdose called for a swift administration of Narcan and it was the medic’s call on whether to intubate or not. She had decided not to intubate. Was West going to give her a hard time about that?

“What?” she asked him.

“How did you know he was an overdose?” Katerina recoiled. So her actions
were
under fire. She tried to keep defensiveness out of her voice as she answered. But she didn’t quite manage it.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said.

"I know you didn't, but how did you know he was an overdose? I figured he was probably an overdose, but you’re new. Brand-new. Do you have experience working with drug addicts?"

Katerina shook her head, confusion on her face.

"I was expecting you to run protocol. Intubate him. What tipped you off that he was an overdose?"

Katerina thought hard, feeling more confused than ever. What had tipped her off? She finally spoke. "I don't know. I guess I just had a hunch."

West nodded, an amazed look on his face. “Keep listening to your hunches,” he said.

Katerina breathed a sigh of relief.

“Medic twelve,” the radio called.

“Medic twelve, standing by,” Katerina answered.

"Medic twelve, respond to 1480 Old Tetam Road, angina."

"10-4"

"Great," West muttered under his breath.

"What's wrong?"

"I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's out of our district. We have a response cooperation agreement with the Tetam fire department. If they are busy, we respond to their district. This could be a long one."

Katerina nodded. "Is that a bad thing?"

"It can be. The Tetam fire department takes patients to Kaiser Hospital in Tetam County. But that's 45 miles past our border. We don't take the patients there. We bring them back into Westwood Harbor. Sometimes they complain or get upset."

"Oh," Katerina said, thinking hard about politics and insurance companies and hospitals. She could understand why the people would be upset, but what choice did they, the paramedics, have? They couldn’t leave their own district uncovered for too long. She hadn't realized how much went into being a paramedic. It was more than just the medical side of things.

She wondered how she was ever going to learn all this. For the first time she felt relief that she was getting an additional three months training/evaluation. That meant they didn't expect her to know this kind of stuff yet.

West put the ambulance into drive and began the journey out to Tetam County.

A silence dropped over them shortly after he started driving. Katerina sensed he was struggling to say something and she felt apprehensive. Finally he spoke, and Katerina got the sense he was choosing his words carefully. "I wanted to say I was sorry for the other night. I responded poorly to your request."

Katerina tried to laugh it off. "It was a good thing you did though, or things between us might be a bit stickier now," she said.

West smiled. "I'm glad you can joke about it, but I wanted to tell you why I did. I want us to have a clean slate."

Katerina could hear the sincerity in his words and she felt touched by his thoughtfulness. But what he said next shocked her.

"I used to be married," he said. "My wife, uh, died two years ago. I, well, I mourned her pretty hard and I never cleared our house of her stuff. I thought you would think it was weird…"

Katerina eyed his profile, seeing him in a new light. "I'm sorry about your wife."

When West spoke, his voice sounded deeper, rougher. "Yeah, it was hard."

This time, the silence between them did not seem quite as awkward.

After several minutes, West spoke again. "So tell me about you. Have you ever considered being a doctor? You seem to be a natural. I've never trained anyone who was as good as you are this quickly."

Katerina sighed. She didn't like to talk about this, but she supposed they could get it out of the way.

"I was going to be a doctor. I was three years into pre-med when my mother got sick and then died. That was two years ago. I spent so much time taking care of her that I lost my scholarship and I wasn’t able to go back. The summer after she died, I paid off the last bill collector and made some hard decisions. I worked two jobs all summer so that I could pay for paramedic school, and here I am."

West stayed silent. She waited for him to ask her why she hadn’t just gotten student loans to go back to school. Instead, he sucked in a breath and then spoke excitedly. "Your last name is Holloway! Kathleen Holloway? Was your mother Kathleen Holloway?"

Katerina smiled. "You knew her?"

"I knew
of
her only," West said. “She was the most brilliant criminalist this part of the country has ever seen! I remember when she died - the news flashed her picture constantly for a week. They interviewed all the cops that had worked with her and even interviewed a few of the killers she put in jail."

Katerina nodded weakly, remembering. "She was brilliant for sure. It wore on her though.”

"Wore on her? How do you mean?"

"She had a heart attack. She was only forty-one. She had one big heart attack and then kept having small ones for months. Finally her heart just gave out for good. I'm almost positive it was the job that did it to her. She was good at it, and she felt a duty to do it, but she never loved it. In fact it freaked her out. It freaked us both out."

West nodded, his face contemplative. Katerina realized that her mother must've died right around the same time as his wife did. She decided not to mention it.

When they finally arrived at their call, West confirmed that it definitely was not in their district. He pointed out the district border as they passed it. The call itself was at a small, neat rancher-style home.

West pulled into the driveway and parked the ambulance. He turned to Katerina. "Would you like to take this one?"

"I'm all over it."

They exited the ambulance and walked to the front door. Katerina knocked. A tremulous voice called, "Come in."

Katerina turned the knob and pushed the door open. It opened onto a spacious living room where a white-haired woman sat in a rocking chair. Katerina walked over to her, assessing as she went. The woman's color was good, and she obviously felt okay enough to be watching her afternoon soap operas.

She stopped near the woman and addressed her. "Are you having chest pain, ma'am?"

The woman barely looked at them. "Oh no, I just need a refill on my angina medication."

"Are you having angina now?" Katerina asked.

"Oh no, dearie, I am fine"

Katerina looked at West, confused. He smiled encouragingly. She turned back to the woman. "When did you last get angina?"

The woman screwed up her face with concentration. "Maybe a month ago?"

"Ma'am, is there anything wrong with you right now?"

The woman patted her hand. "No dearie, I just need a refill."

Katerina looked at West again and shrugged her shoulders, not sure what to do. He stepped forward, an amused grin on his face.

"Sorry ma'am, we don't carry angina medicine."

"You were supposed to pick some up for me on the way in. I told the lady on the phone that."

"We're an ambulance, ma'am, not a medication delivery service. We don't do that. Would you like to  go to the hospital?"

The woman sighed. "Oh no, I'll just have my friend take me into the pharmacist tomorrow."

"Sounds great," West said and turned to go out the door.

Katerina watched him leave, her mouth open, then she hurried to catch up with him. As soon as the door was closed behind them she grabbed his elbow. "You were way nicer to her than she deserved," Katerina told him. "That was ridiculous!"

"It happens a lot. Besides, what good does it do to get nasty? They aren’t going to learn no matter what we do, so there is no sense ruining your own good mood."

Katerina contemplated this wisdom, her eyes passing over the empty field across the street from them. Something stirred deep in her chest at the sight of it.

Liquid brown eyes. Blonde ponytail. Red lipstick.

Katerina's knees buckled slightly and she swayed on her feet. She felt suddenly cold all over. Cold and terrified.

West took a deep breath, enjoying the smell of honeysuckle on the slight afternoon breeze. He looked to his side to see if Katerina could smell it too, but she wasn't next to him. He stopped and turned around. Katerina was standing stock-still in the driveway, her face as white as snow. Her eyes were wide and empty, her mouth open.

"Katerina?"

He walked back to her quickly, concerned. He waved a hand in front of her face but she didn't flinch. She swayed on her feet and West thought she was going to fall to the concrete below them. He moved to catch her, but suddenly she dropped the aid bag and ran, flat out, like she was being chased by a clown wielding an axe.

West watched her go for a second, completely thrown off by her behavior. When she crossed the road without even looking either way, and then climbed over a short wire fence on the other side, he shot into action.

He chased her, running as fast as he could. She pulled ahead, even though she was shorter. Somehow she was beating him. The field was open and empty, just weeds, and on the far side of it was a copse of trees. He hoped that wasn't where she was heading. He could lose her in there.

"Katerina!" he screamed, using what little breath he had. She didn't even slow. West lowered his head and pumped his arms harder, willing his legs to move faster. He didn't know what was going on, but he knew it was scaring him. A small piece of the back of his mind was worried for Katerina’s sanity. He couldn’t think of one sane reason why she would do this.

She came upon the trees, and just as he had feared, she ran head-long into them, not even looking for a trail. Once he reached the trees though, he realized that she
had
entered at a trail. He followed her into the forest as quickly as he dared, picking his way as carefully as he could on the small foot trail, probably forged by animals.

He could no longer see her, but he could hear her ahead of him, occasionally breaking a branch or taking a ragged breath.

A change in the sound ahead of him, caused him to slow down. Suddenly it sounded like an animal was pushing through the underbrush. He kept walking and looked left and right rapidly. Finally he saw her, she was about ten feet off of the trail, to the left, her chest heaving, her eyes wild, staring even farther into the woods.

He leaned against a tree and yelled to her. "Katerina, what is going on?"

She said something, but her words were so soft he couldn't understand her. He pushed his way through the underbrush until he was at her side. "What is wrong with you?"

"I'm scared," she said.

"Of what?" He asked, perplexed.

She lifted her left hand and pointed. He followed her finger and swore under his breath. "Stay right here," he told her. He pushed farther into the forest, his eyes never leaving the foot he could just barely see past the next tree.

When he reached it, he spread the foliage apart and saw what he had feared. A woman's body, naked, curled up beneath a tree.

The smell told him what he needed to know, but he inspected her closely anyway. She was dead, and had been for at least a few days. He turned to go back to Katerina but she was suddenly right there behind him.

"I have to see her face," she whispered.

"Why?" West whispered back, not knowing why he was whispering, but helpless not to.

"Please, West, I just do." Her eyes pleaded with him. He stepped back, and allowed her access. She pushed forward and walked around the body, kneeling by the woman's head. When she stood and looked at him, the pain on her face floored him.

He held out a hand to her. "Come on, we're going back to the ambulance."

She walked to him, as if in a dream, her eyes large and stricken. He pulled her back to the path and curled his fingers in hers. He thought hard, trying to figure out the implications of what had just happened.

Once they reach the field, he squeezed her hand. "How did you know that she was there?"

She didn't speak.

He asked again.

"What?" she said.

"Look Katerina, you've got to get a hold of yourself. You have to tell me what you know about that body. Once we get to the ambulance, we're going to have to call the police and they are going to want to know how you knew that body was there."
 

***

Terror spiked through Katerina’s thoughts. The woman was real. The field was real. The other women were probably real too. Katerina felt hysteria claw at the back of her brain. She bit her lip hard, trying to fend it off.

West squeezed her hand again. "Look Katerina, I'll believe you. You just have to tell me what's going on."

Katerina sucked in the deepest breath she could and eyed the distance from them to the ambulance. She had to tell him the truth. She had no other choice.

"Three days ago, I worked my last day at my old job," she began.

She finished by telling him about the dreams, just as they reached the fence they needed to climb over. He climbed over first and then helped her over. Their eyes met in the middle. She watched him closely, understanding how ludicrous it all sounded. What was she going to do when he didn't believe her? If he didn't believe her, there was no way the police were going to.

They walked across the street in silence. He climbed into the driver's seat of the ambulance. She stood and looked at him. He motioned for her to get in and she did. He started the ambulance and pulled out of the driveway. She looked at him in disbelief. They were leaving? Instead, he pulled across the street and parked in a small, gravel turnoff.

"We just had to get out of that lady’s driveway," he told her.

He pulled out his cell phone and made a phone call. Katerina looked across the field and tried to still her galloping heart. She heard someone pick up on the other end of West's phone. It was dispatch.

"Hi Lydia, it's West. We've got a bit of a situation out here. Our patient is fine, we're clear from the call, but we found a body across the street. Is there any way you could send me a police officer from Westwood Harbor?"

West listened carefully and then spoke again. "Yes, I know it's out of their district, but it's pretty important. In fact there is a certain police officer I want. I know he's working today. Do you have any friends at police dispatch that you could sweet talk into sending him?"

West listened again. Katerina turned to look at him. A small smile played on his lips. "Thanks Lydia, you're the best. His name is Blaise Cornwall. Tell him it's me and tell him to get out here as soon as possible."

West hung up but immediately made another phone call. "Yes, let me speak to Mr. Brookshire. Tell him it's West Shepherd. Hello, Pearson, it's West. I need you out in Tetam County. No, it's not for me, it's a friend of mine. I'd rather explain once you get here, but it's important that you come now. Okay, we'll see you then.”

West recited the address and hung up. Katerina asked him, "Who was that?"

"My lawyer," he said simply.

"West," she whispered. "I can't afford a lawyer."

"He's on retainer," West said, as if that explained everything.

Katerina pressed her hands to her eyes and wished this would all go away.

They sat in silence for a few moments, Katerina staring across the field, physically able to feel the weight of what was in the woods. Then West spoke. "Tell me it all again, start with the very beginning."

Katerina sighed, and then realized this would definitely not be the last time she told the story. After she had finished again, she glanced up at West. His eyes did not show any disbelief at all. She felt it was a small miracle.

"So who is the guy?" He asked.

"What guy?"

"The guy you gave the massage to. He's the killer, right?"

Katerina was struck dumb. She thought about it. The images came
from
him. Of course, it was the only thing that made any sense. Why hadn’t she thought of it before?

Because the only time you’ve been able to think straight is when you've been at work
, a small voice in her mind answered.

"I don't know who he is. I think Pam said his name was –" Katerina thought hard, remembering when she was in the bathroom kissing the toilet. "Mr. Smith, yeah, that's right, it was Mr. Smith."

West glanced at his watch. "Would Pam still be at work?"

"What time is it?"

"5:45"

"No, the office closes at five."

"Okay, we'll have to call her tomorrow and have her pull the records. We need his full name and his phone number or address or whatever she's got."

Katerina looked at West gratefully. The way he just… accepted this, was wonderful.

“So is this in the Westwood Harbor Police Department district?” she asked.

"No. This is the district of the Tetam County Sheriff Department."

"Then why did you call and ask for our police to come?"

“Because I've worked with the Sheriff out here before, he's a real jerk. I didn't want him to bully you without any other police to witness his actions."

Katerina swallowed hard. The last thing she needed to deal with right now was an asshole cop.

As she fretted and worried about it, and felt the pull of the woman in the forest, time somehow passed. Eventually, a cop car pulled up behind them. West got out and walked to the officer. Katerina got out also and watched them. They shook hands and then hugged. West spoke quietly to him for several minutes and then brought him over to meet Katerina.

"Katerina, this is my friend Blaise Cornwall. Now that he's here, I am going to call the Tetam County Sheriff. Do you mind telling him your story?"

Katerina shook her head and West squeezed her arm encouragingly. "I'll be right back," he murmured to her and then walked to the ambulance.

Katerina told the story again but she couldn't read Blaise's expression. It certainly was not the warm, believing expression that West had displayed.

Before she was even done, another car pulled up behind the police cruiser. It was the lawyer. Katerina had to tell her story all over again. Each time, she felt a little more ridiculous, if that was possible.

As the men discussed what to do and what the Sheriff would do, a 4 x 4 truck painted with police colors and with a light bar on top, approached from the other direction. It stopped in front of the ambulance and officer inside got out. Katerina took a deep breath and tried to prepare herself mentally for him.

"Don't worry, West said, "that's not the Sheriff. It's one of his deputies. He's not a bad guy."

Katerina let out the breath she'd been holding, but she couldn’t muster a smile.

Once again, Katerina had to tell her story and then the entire crew headed for the woods, West in front, Katerina lagging behind.

West showed them where the body was and the two police officers circled it, talking. Katerina and the lawyer stayed in the field, Katerina glad she wasn't alone. The deputy called out another deputy, and had him stand watch at the body.

After they made the trek back to the vehicles, the deputy took Katerina’s statement, and it became clear that he was not going to arrest her, so West's lawyer left.

As a cool, silent night fell, Katerina sat in the ambulance and watched the police procedures. It had been more than four hours. The deputy from Tetam County had said his sheriff was out of town so he called in a neighboring county’s sheriff, who came in with a team and lights and they set everything up, then began the process of extricating the woman from the woods.

Katerina was glad that nobody had asked her to make the trip back out to the woods again. She watched West talk with the police officers and wondered when they'd be able to get out of there. She just wanted this day to be over.

West broke away from the officers and strode back to her, his cell phone in his hand. "Lieutenant Masterson wants to know if we need meals sent out here,” he asked her, concern on his face.

Katerina tried to force her exhausted brain to think. Hungry? She wasn't hungry. Would she ever be hungry again?

"No thank you," she said.

West gave her a smile and turned away, talking into the phone.

When he hung up, he came back to the ambulance and slid into the driver seat. "Lieutenant Masterson wants to know if you need some time off," he said.

"No!" Katerina responded, shocked. West looked at her strangely and she bit her lip, embarrassed to say that she couldn't afford to take any time off. Sure, she was making more money now than she ever had in her life, but she wouldn't see any of it for weeks, and she had bills to pay and food to buy. Plus, she was scared if she took time off after only a few days working with the department, it wouldn’t look good on her record. She didn't want to do anything to jeopardize this job. Well, anything more than bizarrely finding a hidden body on her second day.

"The deputy said we can go,” West told her.

Katerina felt relief course through her. "Oh great," she said.