Page 6 of Stand By You
“He told me to tell you he’d give you a call later today to check in on you,” Simons said.
“Did you happen to mention the two muggings?” Jillian asked.
“I did and while he appreciates you not wanting to upset him right before his wedding, he’s more than a bit pissed you didn’t tell him. Obviously since the second mugging just happened yesterday, you didn’t with him gone,” Simons said. “All he wants is for your safety now.”
“But do you really think I need someone to protect me?” she asked.
“Yes, until we can figure out what is going on. These attacks have escalated from a simple mugging to mowing you down in the street within a day,” Simons said. “And in front of a police station. That takes some kind of brass to do that.”
“But you don’t know the two are connected,” she protested.
“Maybe not, but are you really willing to put your life, or Travis’ on the line to take the chance?”
“No,” she relented. It was one thing for someone to come after her, but if they hurt one hair on Travis’ head in the process, she’d never forgive herself.
“Good because he should be here soon,” Simons said. “Mr. McGinty said he can stay in the main house, so I don’t want to hear any problems come up over it.”
“As if,” she said.
“Excellent.” Simons pulled out his phone and looked at it. “Shit.” He shoved it back in his pocket and began packing his things in a binder. “I hate to leave before he gets here, but I’ve got to go. There’s been a child abduction at the zoo.”
“What?” Jillian about came off the bed, but her injuries prevented her success, instead her sudden movement set off the monitor alarms. “Travis is there with his day camp.”
“Hold up.” Simons crossed the room to shut the offense alarm off, but a nurse darted in, pushing him out of the way. She punched the monitor’s buttons, and the blaring stopped.
“What caused it to go off?” she asked.
“Miss Grant tried to get up,” he explained.
“And why did she do that?” the nurse asked, giving her a tierce look.
“I told her there had been an abduction at the zoo where the child she cares for is on a field trip,” the detective explained. “She fears for his safety.”
“Oh,” the nurse said, her ire turning to understanding. “Still, she can’t do anything about it in her condition. She can’t walk on that leg just yet. Stay put or I’ll have to enforce restraints, young lady. Is that clear?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jillian said through gritted teeth.
“I’ll be back to check on you in a few,” she said before leaving the room.
Simons shook his head. “Just because I got this notification doesn’t mean it’s Travis or his fieldtrip, regardless of what you fear.”
“But what if this was all just a ploy to get me out of the way so it would be easier to get at Travis?” she said finally feeling as if the last days events finally made sense to her even if the detective wasn’t on the same page. She’d lived in Miami all her life and not once had she been mugged until this year and within weeks it had happened twice.
Simons looked at her for a long moment. “Do you really think someone would go to these lengths just to snatch a child? When there are many children at the zoo every day?”
“Yes,” she insisted, her voice rising in volume with her increasing anger. “People are that batshit crazy.”
“Still, we can’t go jumping at conclusions and having you leaping out of your hospital bed halfcocked,” he muttered. “I don’t want nurse Ratchet coming back and putting you in restraints like she threatened. Promise me that you will let the police handle this and I will keep you informed. The probability that the abduction was with Travis’ group is slim.”
She stared at him and shook her head.
“How can you be so certain you’re right?”
“Intuition,” she said. “A gut feeling.”
He pointed his finger at her. “I’ll see you that and raise you my own feeling that you’re wrong.” And with that he was out the door.
Jillian hoped and prayed he was right and that she was just being paranoid. That Travis was with his buddy Carlos having a wonderful time at Zoo Miami today. That they were eating lunch and seeing the exotic birds and nothing bad had happened to the Playland field trip group. It was bad enough that Detective Simons had contacted Mr. McGinty about her accident on his honeymoon in the Cook Islands. She didn’t want to interrupt him again to inform him his son had been abducted while she was in the hospital.
