Page 17 of Shimmering Emeralds
“Well, isn’t that convenient?” Hank asked with doubt dripping in his tone.
“No, it wasn’t convenient at all. I wish he’d been anywhere other than jumping out in front of that bus.”
Jimmy leaned in as if he was now fully on my side. “Is there anyone that can confirm Kevin was there?”
I stared at the white linoleum floor tiles. There was one person that could confirm my story––Hannah Biggs.
The little girl had been through too much during her short life for me to send the cops to question her, though. Her experiences so far with the police couldn’t have been very good, considering her mother’s disappearance and her father being the prime suspect.
Expecting that little girl, who had hidden after our traumatizing wreck in fear that Kevin Durley was going to kidnap her, to make a testimonial to the police would be unfair. She already had too much stress in her life as she waited to hear the results of her mother’s C-section and to meet her newly born sibling––err, siblings.
As I made that correction to plural in my mind, it solidified my decision further. I couldn’t do anything that might put sweet, little Hannah through any additional scary situations.
Looking directly at Jimmy, I answered, “No, I don’t know of anyone else that saw him. Can’t you question people and search the woods to find him?”
“We’ve been doing that, but there’s no sign of him. It looks like Kevin vanished without a trace––again.”
“IF he was ever there, which is highly doubtful.” Hank made his opinion perfectly clear.
I knew better than to make the situation worse by fighting with the argumentative man. Instead, I remained silent and waited for them to decide what to do with me.
Giving a last-ditch effort to help corroborate my story, Jimmy removed the walkie-talkie from where it was hooked at his bony hip and spoke into it to ask if anyone had found any evidence of Kevin Durley’s presence at or around the scene of the accident.
“No, not a trace,” the voice on the other end squawked.
Jimmy gave me a sympathetic look as he said, “I’m sorry, Levi, but we need to place you under arrest.”
15
Meg
Ipaced the length of the small room before turning back to retrace my steps. A sweet sense of relief had surged through my veins when Dani had announced that Levi hadn’t left yet. The fact that he had chosen to stay here had to be a great sign, right?
Of course, the police being out there with him most likely wasn’t a positive thing. Perhaps they were just here to take a statement and find out what happened?
Something deep inside me knew that the vigilante justice that flourished in our tiny burg would prevail, and Levi would be found guilty by the court of public opinion before he even had a chance to make it to an actual judge or jury.
They wouldn’t arrest him, would they? They had to realize that, although it was horrific, the crash was an accident. Levi wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose. That had to count for something, right?
Deciding I needed to see for myself, I slowly turned the handle of Harper’s hospital room door and peeked out into the hallway. Two uniformed police officers had their backs to me as they put Levi in handcuffs.
Not wanting to leave my daughter alone, but unwilling to let them arrest Levi, I stepped out into the hallway and wedged my foot in the doorway to keep the door from closing and secluding me from Harper. Satisfied that I could still hear the rhythmic beeping and hissing of the machines, I glared at Jimmy Reardon’s tan uniform trousers hanging loosely from his skinny butt.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I demanded in a low hiss.
Jimmy slowly turned to face me. “Oh, hey, Meg,” he said awkwardly as his cheeks flushed bright red.
Despite his shiny new badge, I knew Jimmy had been intimidated by me ever since I had shoved him down on the playground for picking on Dani in fourth grade. I was at least a foot shorter than him, but I still straightened my spine and put my shoulders back as I glared at him, silently demanding an answer to my question.
Since Jimmy seemed to be at a loss for words, Hank jumped in to respond. “This is the man who was driving the school bus that wrecked and injured several children––including your little girl.”
I seethed as the arrogant cop mansplained to me what had happened. After forcing myself to take a deep breath to keep from lunging for his throat, I said, “I know that. I was on the bus when it wrecked. Where are you taking him?”
Hank looked at me as if I was utterly dense. “Down to the station, of course. We need to question him about what happened and will need to hold him in a cell until they can transfer him over to the state prison.”
It was all I could do to keep my jaw from hitting the floor. Not only were they assuming Levi’s guilt in the entire situation, but they were also planning to punish him for it without even giving him a fair trial.
One glance at the bereft look on Levi’s face told me that he wasn’t going to fight for himself. He obviously blamed himself for what happened and would willingly accept whatever punishment these wayward cops doled out to him.
