Bloodlines

49

I FELT MIXED EMOTIONS AS I WATCHED THE AMBULANCE LEAVE. I WAS relieved to know Max would be getting medical attention, but I felt as if I were abandoning him, even though it was I who stayed behind.

Lefebvre and O’Connor had waited patiently on the beach, talking with me and relaying information I gave them about Max’s condition to the paramedics, while our rescuers worked to break in through the other end of the tunnel. They brought lights, water, and a stretcher for Max. I had my blouse back on, but I was still cold, so I was grateful for the blanket they gave me to wrap around my shoulders. Eventually someone found a way to bring me a cup of hot coffee.

I felt really bad about not being able to give much of a description of my assailants, but Lefebvre assured me that they would be caught whether I had seen them or not. I was starting to feel shaken, now that the main emergency was over and someone else was in charge, but Lefebvre’s steadiness reached me, kept me from giving in to an urge to fall apart.

Lefebvre was watching me and said, “O’Connor put a big dent in your car.”

“What?” Outrage snapped me out of fear into anger.

“For the Lord’s sake,” O’Connor said, “you’re as full as you can hold, Lefebvre. Making it sound as if I hit it with a sledgehammer.”

“I told you she’d be mad,” Lefebvre said, but by then I had seen that glint of amusement in his eye, and caught on to his game.

“I’ll be all right,” I said.

“Do you have any guesses who might have attacked you?” Lefebvre asked.

“Eric Yeager,” I said without hesitation. “I suppose his brother might have been the other one.”

He exchanged a look with O’Connor and asked me why. I told him about our encounter with Eric at the Cliffside.

O’Connor was outraged that I hadn’t told him about that. I had the pleasure of hearing Lefebvre tell him to lay off.

Lefebvre said some objects had been found near the basement entrance of the tunnel. “Including a long-handled flashlight that looks as if it was used to hit Max.”

“Like the flashlight that might have been used to hit Katy Ducane?” I asked.

Lefebvre said, “The thought has occurred to me that it might be a familiar method for Max’s attacker.”

“But they wore gloves today, right?” O’Connor said. “Probably no fingerprints on it.”

“Probably not,” I said, then remembered my own flashlight. “Wait-the batteries! They might have worn gloves today, but I’ll bet they touched the batteries in their flashlight with bare fingers!”

“That would be the natural thing to do,” Lefebvre conceded. He called to one of the men from the lab and asked him to check for fingerprints on the batteries in the flashlight used to strike Max.

“And on the one left in the buried car,” I said.

The lab man looked from me to Lefebvre.

“It’s worth a try,” Lefebvre said.

Eventually, I was told I could go home. O’Connor walked me to the Karmann Ghia.

“I’ll pay for any damage I did to your car,” he said.

“Don’t be an idiot. There is no damage, and besides, I owe you big time.”

“I’ll follow you home,” he said.

I didn’t object. In fact, I thanked him.