Cop by Her Side. Janice Johnson Kay

      CHAPTER FIVE

      STEAMING FROM HAVING to run a gauntlet of reporters outside, Jane held on tight to Alexis’s hand. Couldn’t they see they were scaring a little girl? Thank God the hospital administration was refusing to let them inside even as far as the lobby.

      She hated thinking that the two of them might appear on the evening news. Thank God she’d taken Alexis by her house so she could change clothes and pack. Viewers would have really loved the sight of her in yesterday’s wrinkled clothes.

      A day or two and the vultures will lose interest, she told herself. No, better yet, they’d lose interest as soon as Bree was found. It was the missing child that had them all thinking this was a gripping, front-page, top-of-the-hour story.

      Walking down the broad hospital corridor, her steps shortened to accommodate her niece’s, Jane was startled to see Drew sitting on one of the chairs clustered in the open alcove in front of ICU. Even from a distance, she saw despair in his posture. He was bent over, both of his hands fisted in his hair.

      Fear shot through her like an electric shock. Oh, dear God—had Lissa died?

      “There’s Daddy!” Alexis cried. “Daddy!” she called.

      For an instant, he didn’t respond at all. At last he slowly, painfully straightened and Jane saw his face. He’d aged yet another ten years. Oh, no.

      “Drew?” She didn’t realize she was whispering until Alexis looked up at her.

      “What’s wrong, Auntie Jane?”

      “I... Nothing.”

      Drew had risen to his feet. “Lexie.”

      She ran to her daddy, and he swung her up into his arms and held her as if she was a glimpse of heaven. Eyes closed, he laid his cheek against her head.

      Jane walked as slowly as she dared, fighting the desperate desire to turn and run away. She didn’t want to know. Her chest ached. My sister.

      But Drew was looking at her now and holding out an arm. Jane walked into the circle of it and, for a moment, laid her head on his chest, feeling the comfort of an embrace that also contained Alexis’s small bony body.

      But finally, she had to know. She straightened and stepped back, and his arm dropped away. “What’s happened?” Jane was horribly conscious of the way Alexis’s head came up and her alarmed stare, but how could she not ask?

      He only shook his head. “Nothing’s changed. It’s just...getting to me. Here, sweetheart.” He bent to set his daughter down. “Look, they have some toys over in the corner.”

      She hesitated, obviously reluctant to leave her father, but temptation sent her trotting to the play corner, where there was a child-size plastic table and pair of chairs, coloring books and crayons, and toys that looked designed to keep little hands busy. She took the seat that allowed her to keep an eye on her father and aunt, however.

      “Something’s wrong,” Jane said with certainty, keeping her voice low.

      “That cop.” The kindest, most easy-going of men, he snarled the two words. “He thinks I did something to hurt Lissa, and God knows what he thinks I did to Bree. He asked if we have life insurance on each other or the kids.”

      Despite herself, Jane was shocked. “Sergeant Renner?”

      “Who the hell else?” Drew never swore, either.

      “Do you?” she blurted.

      He stared at her without comprehension for a moment. “Life insurance? Oh, I had some through my job, but it’s probably expired now. I guess Liss might have it as part of her benefits at work. I don’t know. But on the kids? Why would we buy something like that?”

      Jane decided she had to divert him. “What else did Sergeant Renner say?”

      Nearly black with despair, Drew’s eyes met hers. “He didn’t say anything. He asked questions. He kept finding more to ask. Did Lissa and I sleep together? Have sex? Have we been fighting? Why do I think she didn’t want to take Bree with her? Why did I want her to take Bree? He thinks—” Looking shattered, he stopped and pinched the bridge of his nose. His knuckles turned white. Jane watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed. At last he was able to look at her again, and this time tears glazed his eyes. “He thinks I wanted to hurt her. And Bree!” His voice held even more horror. “You know how much I love her!”