Chapter 17: Here Once Again

Zach paced in the waiting room in the emergency room. No one was telling him anything and he thought he’d jump out of his skin. People hurried by, but not one of them stopped.
Grace had come in the ambulance with Dolores and now returned to him with two cups of coffee. He wasn’t sure the brew would help him, but he took it to have something in his hands. “What have you heard?”
Her long face told him everything.
“She’s alive and doing okay. She lost the baby. I’m sorry Zach.”
He sipped the black liquid his senses numbed except for the coffee searing down his throat. This changed a lot of things between him and Dolores. Guilt traipsed through him as he thought for the better. “What was it?”
“A girl. She was three months along,” Grace said settling into an orange plastic chair.
“Three months? Are you serious?”
She nodded. “Why is that significant?”
Zach shook his head. This was between him and Dolores. She’d lied once again. The baby wasn’t his. Couldn’t have been. They’d been together only a month ago. A month he’d been rethinking his life. All in vain because his suppositions were based on a lie.
The last lie she would ever tell him.
With his coffee drained, he threw his empty cup across the room. Grace stood then approached him with wide eyes. “Zach, she’ll be okay. She can still have more children.”
“Yeah?”
None of them would be his. His streak of bringing no children into the world would be intact.
He shrugged off her hand. “I’m going home. Call me with any updates.”
“You’re leaving?”
Turning he looked into her horrified face. “No reason to stay.”
He left Grace blinking at him.
***
Grace watched Zach stride out of the waiting room. Her disbelief paralyzed her. Just because Dolores had lost her baby was no reason to abandon her at this point. Anger catapulted her in his direction.
“Zach.”
He turned, his face flushed with rage. A muscle worked in his jaw.
“It isn’t her fault.”
“I didn’t say it was.” He put a hand on her arm. “Look, Grace you’re in the middle of something you don’t understand. Just let me go.”
She touched him back even though she knew it would cost her. “Explain it to me, then. Maybe it will help Dolores.”
Colors swirled and Grace’s hormones went on overdrive. She dropped her hand. The feeling died away.
“You mean that she’ll be out of danger as you seem to think she is in?” he asked.
His frown communicated his doubt.
“She is in trouble. She’s going to be killed.”
His face remained impassive and Grace wasn’t sure if her gamble would pay off. She wanted to shake him and though he’d given her a hard time, she didn’t really think he was this cold. He must care about Dolores some or he wouldn’t have slept with her.
“Killed? By whom. I’ll have him arrested.”
“Zach, I don’t know. Maybe you’re the guy. You seemed pretty pissed at her.” Most of her didn’t believe this.
He stiffened and rose to his full height. She was not going to be intimidated. “I wouldn’t lay a hand on Dolores or any other woman for that matter.”
He stalked away towards his car.
“I heard you have a temper.”
His footsteps paused, then kept going. He unlocked his vehicle.
“Yes, I do. That’s a known fact around here. So what?
“Maybe she’s pushed you too far this time?” Grace said.
“You’re being ridiculous.”
“Humor me.”
He rolled his eyes. “I have somewhere to be. In bed. Alone and asleep.”
She grabbed the car door not wanting to touch him anymore. Her casual hand on his arm had drained her. “Just listen. Besides, you need to drive me home.”
He waved his hand at his passenger’s seat. “Get in. But I’ll only listen until we get to your apartment.”
“Fine.”
She scrambled around the car then, when she had her seatbelt hooked, she looked at him. “What if Dolores were killed tomorrow. Bullet through the head. Who would you suspect?”
Zach’s gaze traveled over her as he turned the key. “You probably.”
“But why?”
“Murder seems to follow you.”
She bit her lip. He wasn’t wrong, but he didn’t know about the murders she’d prevented. “What else?”
“That’s it I guess.”
“That wouldn’t hold up in court. I could have a lawyer spring me in an hour. Especially if I had an alibi. What’s my motive?”
“The usual. Money.”
“Does Dolores have some? I don’t even know.”
Stopped at a light he turned a surprised gaze at her. “You don’t know who she is?”
“No, I’m from Pennsy remember?”
“She’s a trust fund lady. Rolling in the dough. Or was.” The last part he said quietly.
The car started moving again. “Okay, scratch that since I didn’t know that.”
“But I didn’t know that you didn’t know.”
“Say you find that out. What else would be my motive?”
“Don’t know after that. Depending on what happened could be a crime of passion.”
She turned in her seat to gaze at him. She could only see a bit of his face from the dash lights. His expression was unreadable. “I don’t have a temper. Or not much of one.”
“Then tell me what is your motive?”
“I don’t have one so you eliminate me as a suspect.”
“Then how do you know she’s going to get killed?”
Grace ran a hand over her pony tale. “Will you play this my way for a bit more, please?”
He waved his hand. “Go ahead. Whose my next suspect?”
“You.”
“Me? And what’s my motive?”
“Dolores lied to you about something important. Maybe the father of this baby.”
She’d struck home. A pained expression crossed his face. She could see it in the dashboard lights. “Wouldn’t I be relieved?”
“This could be the last straw. She’s lied to you many times before this.”
“Yes, she has, but I’m not as mad as I could be. She’s made me madder and I haven’t killed her. I walked in on her and her lover. My partner at the time.”
“Ouch.”
“Yep.”
“And you didn’t kill her then? Okay scratch you off the list. Then the father of her baby.”
“If the baby is gone, he has no motive. If he wanted to get rid of her and the baby he could have done that.”
“Does she have any enemies?”
“Besides all of her ex-lovers.”
“Can you get me a list of them?”
“You are not snooping into innocent people’s lives because of some murder that didn’t happen.”
He pulled in the driveway then pulled his emergency brake.
“What about that guy who was here. Maybe it’s one of her ex-lovers stalking her.”
“Long shot. She hasn’t mentioned anything.”
“Would she to you?”
“Yes. Look. Lock your doors and don’t come out in a robe anymore. And stop thinking that Dolores is going to get killed.”
Grace remained silent as she closed his car door. He backed out and gave her one last glance before he drove away.
“But we only have two days to stop the murder.”