Johnston - Heartbeat (31 page)

It was better to let children be remembered as they were. She was especially aware of the favor she was doing these families since Porter had forced her to allow Brian to live. Her brother had actually threatened to go to the police if she harmed her grandson! Victoria’s insides trembled and quivered—like Brian’s limbs—whenever she spent any time at all with her grandson. Was there ever such an
imperfect
child? Who could love such a creature? He was better off dead than unloved and unwanted.

Victoria frowned as Amy lifted a forefinger from where her hand lay flat on the bed and pointed. Victoria followed the little girl’s finger to the book under her arm and held out the cover for the child to see. “You like
Peter Rabbit?”
Victoria said.

Unmistakably, behind the Xs of tape that held the respirator in place, the little girl smiled.

Victoria wasn’t sure what to do. The child showed no signs of paraparesis—she had no telltale tremors and could control her finger enough to point without difficulty. Her memory apparently hadn’t suffered if she could remember
Peter Rabbit.
Victoria gripped the needle in her pocket. She had to make a decision quickly. Isabel would be back soon.

“Victoria. Don’t.”

Victoria turned and confronted the intruder. Jack Kittrick. And who else right behind him but Margaret! “I’m afraid I don’t understand, Mr. Kittrick. Don’t what?” she said with feigned innocence. One look at his face told her he wasn’t fooled. Who was he, really? Not an insurance investigator, she’d wager. No wonder she’d seen him as a predator. One recognized another of the same species.

How had he come to suspect her? How much did he really know? Victoria held out the book to him. “I was planning to read to Amy. She says she likes
Peter Rabbit.”

“She can’t talk, Victoria,” Maggie said flatly. “She’s in a coma.”

Victoria shot her a superior smile. “Not anymore.”

“What?”

“See for yourself,” Victoria said, standing back and gesturing to the child.

She watched them rush to Amy’s bedside like avenging angels ready to do battle if the child had been harmed. Amy recognized the two of them with widened eyes, smiled, and pointed with a single forefinger at them.

“Oh, Amy, you’re awake. And smiling!” Maggie said, laughing and crying. “Jack, she’s smiling!”

“I see that,” Jack said.

Margaret’s eyes were wet with tears, and she was grinning like a fool, Victoria noticed. Kittrick’s eyes glistened with emotion as well. Victoria felt her own eyes begin to prickle. Her nose began to burn.
If only it could have been like this with Woodson. If only it could have been like this with Brian.

The pain leapt up to grab at her like a ravening beast, tearing at her throat, sealing it closed so she couldn’t speak, could barely breathe. Victoria took a faltering step back.

“Are you all right, Victoria?”

Victoria looked into her daughter-in-law’s concerned eyes and saw ten years of torment reflected back at her. Her own torment. It was time to end it once and for all. It was fine to help others, but it was time to help herself. She would never be free of the pain until she was free of the final source of that pain.

Brian had to die.

“I’m fine, Margaret,” she said in a very calm voice. It was easy to be calm, now that she had made up her mind what to do. “I guess there’s no need for me to stay and keep Amy company. I suspect it’s going to be very busy around here once word gets out that she’s woken up.”

At that moment, the ICU doors banged open and Dr. Hollander came striding in, his wife by his side, his arm curved protectively around her waist. “How’s Amy? Is she all right?”

Victoria stepped aside and let the doctor and his wife pass by. They were followed immediately by Isabel and the ICU nurse. It was easy, in all the commotion, to ease through the swinging doors and disappear from the room.

Maggie stepped aside to make room for Lisa and Roman. “Amy’s awake, Lisa, and she seems to recognize us.”

Maggie saw Roman’s hands shake as he reached down to examine his daughter with an exquisitely tender touch.

Amy squirmed on the bed and struggled against the tube in her mouth.

“She wants the tube out, Roman,” Lisa said agitatedly. “Can’t you take it out?”

“Just a moment,” he said, his voice choked with emotion. “Let me make sure—”

Maggie saw Roman was trying to remove the surgical tape without causing his daughter any pain. He was fumbling so badly, Isabel took over and said, “That’s nurse’s work.”

Quickly and efficiently, she removed the tape and instructed Amy what to do as she removed the tube from her throat. “There, that’s better, isn’t it?” Isabel said with a reassuring smile.

Amy opened her mouth to speak, but nodded instead.

“Her throat’s sore,” Isabel explained to anyone who might need an explanation.

“Can I hold her?” Lisa asked Roman.

“Why don’t you sit on the bed beside her?” he instructed. When Lisa had trouble getting onto the high hospital bed, Roman lifted her from behind, helped her get settled, then picked Amy up and laid her in Lisa’s arms.

Amy didn’t say anything, just curled up against her mother, made a satisfied sound, and lay still. Roman put his arm around his wife and child, and Lisa exchanged a look with her husband that made Maggie’s heart ache with envy. Whatever had been wrong between them obviously had been mended.

Lisa brushed at Amy’s bangs, apparently unable to take her eyes off the child that had been miraculously restored to her and asked, “Does this mean she’s going to be all right, Roman? That she’s going to recover completely?”

Roman nodded, and Maggie realized he was too overcome with emotion to speak.

“She’s going to be fine, Mrs. Hollander,” Isabel said for him. “If you don’t need me anymore, Dr. Hollander, I’ll leave you two alone.”

“That’s all, Isabel. Thank you.”

Maggie heard the finality in the words and watched the glance being exchanged between the doctor and his nurse. So that, too, had been resolved, she thought. She felt a pang of sorrow, and sympathy, for Isabel’s plight. One couldn’t choose whom one loved. Isabel had fallen in love with a man who didn’t love her back. Was that what she had done? Maggie wondered. Please God, let that not be the case.

Isabel was almost to the door when Lisa said, “Isabel, wait.”

Isabel paused and turned to look back.

“Thank you for calling us tonight. And for helping with Amy.”

“You’re welcome,” Isabel said. “I’m so glad everything turned out all right.” Maggie watched Isabel give Roman one last regretful, almost wistful, look before she turned and left the room.

Maggie felt Jack’s arm slide around her waist, and she let him lead her away.

“I think the Hollanders could use some privacy,” he said. “And I want to check on Victoria.”

Maggie shot Jack a surprised look. “Check on Victoria? If she’s not in the ICU, the children are safe.”

“Brian’s not.”

Maggie’s heart did a shift sideways and began beating an off-kilter tattoo. “In all these years she’s never harmed Brian. What makes you think she’d try something now.”

“She knows I’m onto her.”

“How is that possible?”

Jack shrugged. “Intuition. I could feel it when she looked at me.”

“Why didn’t you stop her from leaving?” Maggie demanded. “What if she gets to Brian before we can stop her?”

“I’ve got somebody watching Brian,” Jack said as he pushed the elevator call button.

“What?”

“I’ve had somebody watching Brian since I first realized Victoria might be the one killing kids. But I think it might not be a bad idea to move him, Maggie.”

“Why don’t you just arrest her, and get it over with!” Maggie cried.

“You know why,” Jack said quietly.

The elevator arrived with a chime. They got on, and Jack pushed the button for the ground floor. Maggie remained silent, because the elevator was full of people, but the instant they headed down the hall for the parking garage she said, “Porter knows about her, too, Jack.”

“That makes him an accessory,” Jack said.

Maggie snorted. “Try proving that. They’re going to get away with it, Jack. Both of them. There’s nothing anyone can do to stop them.”

“Victoria isn’t going to kill another kid, Maggie.”

“Who’s going to stop her?” Maggie demanded.

“I am.”

Jack had known the instant he walked into the ICU and saw Victoria poised over Amy’s tiny body that she was the killer he’d been seeking. Her pale blue eyes had defied him to stop her. If she’d made her move then, as Mrs. Matt had, he’d have been helpless to prevent another death. And they’d both known it.

But Victoria was different from Mrs. Matt. More patient. More shrewd. More dangerous.

If he’d had probable cause, he’d have searched Victoria. He was willing to bet he’d have found a syringe on her, too. But Jack knew enough about unlawful search and seizure to know that even if he’d found a syringe, the evidence would’ve been thrown out in court. What reason did he have to suspect Victoria Wainwright of being a serial killer? Coincidence? Supposition? Intuition?

It wasn’t enough.

And yet Jack had seen the challenge in her eyes.
Catch me if you can.
How the hell was he going to do that? He had plenty of eyes on the ICU, but Jack knew she wouldn’t go back there again. Not when she knew he knew. She didn’t even have to know exactly who he was to realize he was a threat to her. And he knew that he’d been made.

Victoria would have to wait a year to kill again . . . or kill at another hospital. In which case she would undoubtedly succeed. The only chance he had of catching her was if she went after her grandson, in which case Jack intended to be waiting for her.

Jack knew that was what she would do . . . because of the challenge. And because Brian could be identified as a source of her pain—if pain was the reason she killed.

He made a stop before they left the hospital to phone the policeman who’d been assigned to guard Brian Wainwright.

“Been quiet as a mouse around here,” the cop said. “Not a creature stirring, et cetera.”

“Victoria Wainwright left San Antonio General about ten minutes ago,” Jack said. “Keep an eye peeled for her. I expect to be at Shady Oaks myself shortly.”

“What’s going on, Jack?” Maggie said as she followed him out to the garage and got into his pickup.

He gunned the engine and heard rubber screech on cement as he exited the parking garage. “I think Victoria’s planning to kill Brian.”

“Tonight?”

He nodded.

“Why haven’t you called the police?” Maggie said, her voice frantic.

He turned to look at her. “I just checked in with the policeman who’s guarding Brian.”

“I mean call
lots
of police. Surround the place.”

“Then she won’t come at all.”

“I don’t care if you catch her, Jack. I want Brian to be safe.”

“Don’t you see, Maggie? Brian will never be safe until Victoria is caught in the act. It’s the only way of proving she’s the killer.”

Jack watched Maggie stare out the window at the dark countryside along I-35, her jaw clamped tight. He reached for her hand, but she pulled it away, crossed her arms, and stuck her hands under her armpits. “You have to trust me to know what I’m doing, Maggie.”

“You let that other little girl get killed.”

Jack focused hard on the road in front of him, speeding up to pass a semi on the dark road, then slowing down again. “Sometimes the good guys don’t win, Maggie. But we keep trying.”

“All right, Jack. If you say this is the only way to catch Victoria, I’ll believe you. And I’ll put Brian’s life in your hands. Because I love you, and I trust you not to let anything happen to him.”

He met her gaze in the green light from the dash. “Aw, Maggie. That’s a hell of a load to lay on me.”

“You can handle it, Jack. I’ve got faith in you.”

She was in love with him, and it felt good hearing her say it.
Why can’t you love her, Jack? Why can’t you just let go of the past and love her?

Because the hurt little boy inside was running the show, while the grown man was standing by letting him do it. It was a question of which choice was less painful-being alone all his life, or being with someone who broke his heart every day.

Maggie won’t break your heart,
a voice said.
You can trust her with your life.

Jack wished there were a crystal ball he could look into that would tell him the future, because he was tempted, so tempted, to love her. He just didn’t want to make the same mistake twice.

He wasn’t going to make the same mistake with Victoria that he’d made with Lilly Matt. If it came to a choice, he’d save the kid first. Then, if Victoria was still alive, he’d let a judge decide her fate.

Chapter 20

It helped,
Victoria thought,
to be clever. And to think ahead.

She had known Jack Kittrick would set someone to watch for her, and she hadn’t been mistaken. She had disguised herself as an old woman, the grandmother she was, and walked right up to the front door of Shady Oaks. The stoop-shouldered, gray-headed lady wearing a K-Mart jersey dress that came to mid-calf with an oversized gray cardigan sweater, crepe-soled black shoes tied in double knots, and nylons that bagged at the ankle, was not the least bit threatening.

The policeman at the front door had been quite thorough, however, asking for her identification. Victoria had acted nervous and anxious and pitiful, pleading the lack of I.D. because she’d only intended to visit her granddaughter and didn’t know it would be needed. The wonderful thing was, she had been visiting a little girl in this disguise for nearly a month posing as the child’s grandmother.

She had first met the girl in the pediatrics ward at San Antonio General and had followed her here. It was how she had accidentally found Brian. She had come up with the disguise so there would be no questions about Victoria Wainwright’s involvement when the little girl mysteriously died.