On Shadow Beach (28 page)

Shane swallowed hard, then did as Charlotte requested.

Now that Charlotte had taken charge, Lauren felt confident that everything would be all right.

Kara held out her hand to Shane. “I need you to be strong for me. I can’t concentrate on Colin and the baby at the same time.”

“Just concentrate on getting this baby out,” Shane said, taking his sister’s hand.

She gave him a pained smile. “Push me as close to Colin as you can. I want to hold his hand, too.”

Shane moved the gurney next to the bed while Charlotte laid a sheet over Kara’s lower half and checked her cervix. When another contraction hit, Kara hung on to Shane and Colin, gasping through the pain. Lauren hovered nearby, not knowing what to do except pray. Kara was fighting for her family, for her love, for her future, and Lauren had never admired anyone more.

Time passed in a blur of chaos. A doctor from the facility stopped in to offer help. Then it was
time for Kara to push. Shane moved behind his sister, holding her shoulders as she sat up and leaned against his chest. His strong, calm voice seemed to keep her panic down. She clung to her brother, to her husband, to her belief that everything would be all right.

Charlotte coached Kara through the contractions with a calmness that impressed Lauren, and she watched in amazement as a tiny head finally appeared, followed by shoulders and a body, squirming arms and legs. Then she heard the baby’s first cry.

Kara collapsed on the gurney, breathing hard, as Charlotte told her she had a perfect baby girl, with ten fingers and ten toes. The nurse wrapped the baby in a blanket, and Charlotte placed the child on Kara’s chest. “Here’s your daughter,” she said with a smile.

Kara’s mouth trembled. “I can’t believe it. She’s really here.”

Shane moved next to Lauren, his hand slipping into hers as they stared at the baby. She had red hair and her brown eyes were filled with wonder, as if she couldn’t believe what had happened.

Kara turned to look at her husband. “Colin, we have a daughter. Our baby is here. She wants to see you. She wants you to hold her, to talk to her, to be her father.” She waited, long seconds ticking by, the silence in the room growing louder.

Lauren squeezed Shane’s hand, her heart about to break. Kara’s face began to crumple, then she broke. “God dammit, Colin, wake up! Wake up. Wake up,” she cried.

Charlotte took the baby out of Kara’s flailing arms and Shane rushed to his sister’s side, trying to take her hand, but she jerked away, her attention only on Colin.

“I can’t bear this anymore. I can’t do it,” Kara said, choking on her sobs. “I need you, Colin. I
need
you. You have to come back to me.” She started to shake, the agony of her loss ripping through her. Shane put his arms around her, and she finally collapsed against him, the grief pouring out of her.

Tears slid down Lauren’s cheeks. Why couldn’t Colin come back? They were good people. They loved each other. And they had a child who needed two parents. Sometimes life was unbearably cruel.

Charlotte moved next to her, the baby in her arms. “Can you hold her for a minute? I want to get Kara ready to go to the hospital.”

Lauren took the baby and gazed down at the tiny, angelic face. She could see Kara’s features in the shape of her daughter’s nose, the curve of her lips, the downy red hair on her head. The baby’s mouth turned down and she began to whimper and squirm, obviously not happy about the situation. She wanted her mother, but Kara was lost in her own pain right now.

“It’s okay, sweetie,” Lauren whispered, trying to comfort the child in her arms. “Your mommy will be back. She just needs a little time. But you are going
to be loved like no other child, because your mother has more heart than anyone I know. Your daddy, too.” Lauren blinked back the tears. “He loved your mommy from the first second he saw her, and he’s going to love you when he wakes up.” Kara couldn’t fight for Colin anymore, but Lauren could—and that’s what Kara would want her to do.

Fifteen minutes later, Colin’s room had been cleaned up and an ambulance had taken Kara and her baby to the hospital, with Charlotte following close behind. Lauren had stayed with Shane to gather up Kara’s things. Now that everyone was gone, the room seemed unbearably quiet.

Shane’s hair stood on end, and there were beads of sweat on his forehead. There was also frustration and disappointment in his eyes. “This should have been the happiest day of Kara’s life,” he said.

“I know. But she did it the way she wanted—with Colin by her side.”

Shane glanced over at the man who slept on. “Kara has loved him since she was a kid. I don’t think there was ever anyone else. She had such hope that the baby would wake him up. If this didn’t do it, I don’t know what will.”

“I don’t, either. I kept praying he’d open his eyes.”

Shane pulled her into his arms, then rested his chin on the top of her head. “I’ve never believed in miracles, but for a while there I thought Kara might
get one. She had such faith.”

“Maybe she still will,” Lauren said, unwilling to give up completely.

“Right now she’s so devastated she couldn’t even look at her baby. I don’t know how she’s going to be a mother all by herself.”

“She’ll figure it out. She’s a tough, stubborn Murray. We certainly saw that today.” She gazed up at him. “You were great, Shane. She couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Or without you. Thanks for coming when I called.”

“Thanks for asking me. I think it was the first time you ever have,” she said, realizing how much it meant to have Shane need her for anything. How pathetic was that? She stepped out of his arms. “You should get to the hospital.”

“In a minute.” He gave her a long, thoughtful look. “It might have been the first time I said it, Lauren, but not the first time I felt it.”

She didn’t know how to respond to that. The more they were together, the more confused she became. Shane was the king of cryptic comments that were close to being what she wanted to hear, but not exactly. He was like a dancer on hot coals. He could never put his foot all the way down, never commit fully to the heat. But maybe that was good—because, in all honesty, she no longer knew what she wanted him to commit to.

“You should call your parents and siblings,” she said, changing the subject. “The Murray clan will
want to meet their newest member. I wonder if the ladies at the quilt shop have Kara’s baby quilt ready yet.”

He didn’t reply, his gaze on her unnerving.

“I should go home, check on my dad.”

“You’re not coming with me to the hospital?”

“No. I need to spend some time with my dad.” She walked over to the bed, pressed her fingers to her lips, and then to Colin’s forehead. “We’re still counting on you to come back,” she said, then headed toward the door.

As they walked out of the facility, Lauren said, “In all the excitement, I forgot to ask if you heard about Mark Devlin’s accident.”

“Yes,” Shane replied. “The marina was buzzing about it. I also had a message from Chief Silveira to give him a call. I must be on his list of suspects.”

“I already spoke to him. I told him you don’t have a car.”

“That probably won’t matter. I could have borrowed one.”

“Well, if you are under suspicion, I am, too, because Jason Marlow saw us together last night. Anyway, the chief said he’s worried that Abby’s killer might be getting nervous—which means he believes that her killer is still here in town.”

“It certainly looks that way.”

A chill ran down Lauren’s spine. “I wonder what Mark Devlin knows that we don’t.”

“Let’s hope he gets a chance to tell someone, before something else happens.”

Joe spent the better part of the afternoon rereading the notes Devlin had compiled on Abby’s case. He also sent officers door to door in the vicinity of the accident to locate possible witnesses. Every body shop and mechanic within a hundred miles had been alerted to be on the lookout for any cars brought in with front bumper damage.

He checked in with Tim Sorensen, Lisa Delaney, Kendra Holt, Lauren Jamison, and a number of others who were featured in Mark Devlin’s notes. He left another message for Shane Murray and had a long conversation with Jason Marlow about his relationship with Abby and Lisa while in high school. He very much wanted to believe that Jason wasn’t involved in the case, but for now he asked Jason to step aside from the hit-and-run investigation. He couldn’t afford a potential conflict of interest.

As Joe pulled into the hospital parking lot, he automatically scanned for anything out of the ordinary. He’d asked hospital security to place a guard outside
of Devlin’s room—not just for Devlin’s sake, but for Rachel’s as well. She hadn’t left Mark’s side, and he didn’t want her in the line of fire.

He sighed, remembering the way Rachel had looked at Mark when she’d first seen him after surgery. He wanted to believe that his marriage would survive this bumpy patch, but how long could he tell himself they were just having growing pains?

He didn’t believe in quitting just because things were tough. He could fight for Rachel’s love. But he didn’t know how to fight this deep friendship she had with another man. Was he being ridiculous not to want his wife to be so emotionally connected to Devlin? Or was he a blind fool not to see what was happening right in front of his face?

He shook his head as he got out of his squad car. First things first—he needed to get Rachel to come home with him.

When he got to the room, Rachel was sitting next to Mark’s bed, watching television with the sound turned down low. Mark was dozing. She clicked off the TV and met Joe at the door, putting a finger to her lips as he started to speak. She walked into the hall with him and down the corridor, out of earshot of the security guard.

“Have you found out who did this?” she asked.

He saw the dark shadows under her eyes. She was exhausted, but also angry. She wanted someone to pay for hurting Mark. She expected him to deliver that person to her, and he really wanted to.

“Not yet.” He felt like he was letting her down
again.

“Someone must have seen something.”

“Everyone in the department is working on the case. In the meantime, I’ve asked the hospital to make sure Mark has twenty-four-hour security.”

“You think someone would still try to hurt him?”

“I just want to be careful. How is Mark doing? Has he said anything to you? Did he see the car that hit him?”

“The last thing he remembers is walking out of the bar. He talked to some people there, but no one he hadn’t spoken to before. He’s going to have a long recovery. He needs to go back to Los Angeles and recuperate there.”

“That sounds wise,” he said, trying to keep a neutral tone.

“Don’t even try to pretend you’re not happy,” Rachel said crossly. “You’ve been wanting Mark to leave since the minute he got here.”

“Not like this. Let me take you home, Rachel. You’ve been here for hours. We can pick up some dinner, some wine, and relax. You can come back first thing in the morning.”

She stared at him like he’d just suggested they fly to the moon. “I’m going to stay until Mark goes to sleep.”

“He’s asleep now.”

“I mean later tonight. He’s my friend, Joe. He doesn’t have anyone else. I don’t want him to be here alone.”

He hesitated, about to take a step he probably
shouldn’t take, but he was damn tired of hearing about her
friend.
“Mark is more than a friend, Rachel, isn’t he? The way you look at him—it’s the way you used to look at me.”

She swallowed hard. “Don’t be ridiculous. Nothing has ever happened between Mark and me.”

“Nothing yet. I want you to come home with me now.”

A few seconds ticked by. “I can’t.”

He let out the breath he’d been holding. He didn’t know if she was talking about now or ever, and he couldn’t bring himself to ask.

Shane was on his way to Kara’s hospital room when he saw his mother standing outside the nursery window. She’d gotten to the hospital in record time. Her gaze was focused on the first bassinet, and she appeared mesmerized by her granddaughter. He couldn’t blame her. The baby was beautiful, an angel face with gorgeous red hair, just like Kara.

When Moira turned to him, she had tears in her eyes. “I heard that you helped deliver this little beauty.”

“Kara did all the work.”

“I can’t believe she had the baby at Colin’s bedside. Or maybe I can. She’s stubbornly refusing to move on without him. I told her that she should come home with me when she’s released, but she threw me out of her room.”

Shane would have liked to see that. If any one of
his siblings was a match for his mother, it was Kara.

“I don’t know where she gets her faith,” Moira added, her expression bewildered and sad. “It’s not like I don’t want Colin to wake up. But I’m a realist, and Kara needs to be, too. She has a baby now. Eventually she’ll have to return to work. Your father and I will help, of course, but she has a long road ahead of her, and it won’t be easy if she doesn’t face facts. Talk to her, Shane. She listens to you.”

“She’s never going to quit on Colin while he’s still breathing. She loves him. And she wants to have her family together.” As he gazed through the window at his niece, he realized that while he’d always thought love was a pretty illusion and mostly for suckers, this little girl embodied the love of her parents. “Did Kara give her a name yet?”

“Not yet—another thing she wants to wait on until Colin wakes up.”

“Well, there’s no hurry. She can take her time.”

“I’m surprised she didn’t want the baby with her. She said she just wanted to be alone.”

“Kara is exhausted,” he said, knowing that it was more than that. He’d seen Kara turn away from her child when she realized Colin was still comatose. But she’d come around; Kara was innately nurturing. She just needed to catch her breath.

“I think it’s more than that. Kara seemed very upset, very unlike herself. I do want the best for her, for all of them. Colin is like a son to me. I adore him.”

“Just give Kara a little space. She has to figure
out how to deal with reality in her own way.”