car. Lieutenant Willis straightened up, sketched a cocky salute at the chief and sauntered to his own car on the street. She definitely would have preferred to ride with the lieutenant rather than his stern-faced chief. But she went where her children went, so she stepped into the car without protest and buckled up.
“I don’t suppose it would be possible to let the owner know no one is in her house?” Wendy had been a good friend. She hated to let her down.
“We can do that. Will she shorten her mission trip?” Realizing her mouth had fallen open, Maggie closed it with a click. They really had researched everything.
“Either that or she’ll have to find someone else to house-sit.”
“Good.” Chief Garraway touched her radio. “Move out, Lieutenant. We don’t have all day.”
Lieutenant Willis’s voice responded back with a pert “You got it.”
Almost as soon as they merged onto the interstate, Siobhan started to fuss. Maggie looked at the chief, expecting to see an impatient frown. Instead, she saw the other woman’s lips twitch.
She blinked, sure she had imagined it. Nope. Chief Garraway’s mouth had turned up at the corners. Amazing.
“It never fails, does it?” The chief’s voice was mild, conversational. “They can be as quiet as mice, but the moment you are trapped in a car with them, they start wailing. At least that was my experience with my own.”
Maggie had no idea how she was supposed to respond to that. It had never occurred to her that Chief Garraway might be a wife and mother. The older woman wore her authority like a cloak. It was hard to look past it.
“I’m going to see if she will calm down with a pacifier.” Maggie twisted in her seat to place a pacifier in her daughter’s mouth. As she did so, she noticed a car moving toward them. It was dodging in and out of the traffic. Unease slithered down her spine and sank into her stomach, leaving a greasy, queasy feeling.
“Chief,” she began, her voice pitched low so as not to further disturb the babies.
“I see him.” She touched the button to the radio. “Lieutenant? We have a vehicle that appears to be moving in on us.”
“I’m a little ways behind you, Chief. I will—”
They never heard what he was going to do. The car was beside them. It jackknifed, slamming into the chief’s car’s side. She yelled as the driver’s door caved in and her left arm slammed against the window. It remained limply at her side as she continued to steer with her right hand. In the backseat, the twins started screaming in terror. Desperate to see her babies and ascertain if they were hurt, Maggie started to unbuckle.
“Don’t you dare!” the chief barked.
Realizing how her being unbuckled could affect the chief’s driving, Maggie clenched her fists and remained seated. Her jaw started to ache. She had started grinding her teeth.
A siren blared as Lieutenant Willis roared up behind their attacker, a blue light flashing on the dashboard of his unmarked car.
The other vehicle sped away, zigzagging furiously through the traffic. Lieutenant Willis pursued the car, but Maggie could see the distance between the cars growing. His voice came over the radio, snapping out a description of the car, its license plate and location. Maggie could almost feel his frustration crackling through the radio.
“Lost him, Chief.” They could barely hear his voice over the howling twins.
“Understood, Lieutenant. We are pulling off. Need to have the babies checked over.”
Chief Garraway maneuvered the cruiser awkwardly off the next ramp, calling for an ambulance crew as she did so. Her face was drawn with pain, and sweat was beading on her forehead.
The car had barely stopped moving when Maggie pushed open the door and ran to the back door. After wrenching it open, she checked on the twins. Only the chief’s demand that she not remove the children from their seats or the vehicle prevented her from grabbing her babies out of the car. Worry simmered in her gut as she tried to soothe the angry twins. A couple of times she winced as Siobhan hit a piercing note.
When the ambulance crew arrived, it soon became apparent that the chief was stuck inside the vehicle. Maggie’s heart bled for Chief Garraway. The older woman was obviously in pain, wincing and muffling groans. Maggie couldn’t help but feel that this situation was somehow her fault. Stop it! You didn’t ask for any of this. Still, the knowledge that within twenty-four hours two officers had been injured trying to protect her was humbling. Maggie felt the weight of the debt she owed them. She grimaced. She didn’t like being in debt to anyone.
Two members of the crew used a set of metal cutters and set about the arduous task of extracting the chief from the damaged vehicle. The noise was horrendous. While they were doing that, another team member carefully examined Rory, Siobhan and Maggie. Lieutenant Willis pulled in as the crew was strapping Chief Garraway onto a stretcher. He leaped from his car and hurried over to his chief, an anxious expression on his face. Even injured, the woman was reluctant to hand over control.
“This is an attempted murder investigation here, Lieutenant. But we need to know what happened back in LaMar Pond that started all of this. She’s the only one who can identify the man who shot her husband. Do what you can to uncover the truth at that end. She’s the key to all of this. If our department can help you in any way, just ask.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll take care of it.”
“Your children seem to be fine, miss.” Maggie turned her attention to the young paramedic who was looking over Rory. The baby boy had stopped fussing now that he had been removed from the terrifying vehicle and had a full view of his mother. He smiled and waved his chubby arms at her. Overwhelmed with relief, Maggie’s eyes burned as tears gathered. She blinked them away, although one managed to escape down her cheek. The paramedic handed Rory to her, and she cuddled him close. When he protested and squirmed, she realized she was gripping him too close. She had almost lost them. These children were the only things that mattered in her life. She had to do everything she could to protect them.
“Mama! Mama!” Siobhan demanded her attention. Maggie bent down and made what she called the twin exchange. Rory stopped fussing as soon as he was free.
Siobhan was another story.
* * *
Dan stepped back from the ambulance as the driver closed the door, effectively cutting off his view of Chief Garraway. It was rather shocking to see the indomitable chief put out of commission. As far back as he could remember, she had never even taken a sick day. And here she was being wheeled away in an ambulance.
The sniffling noises behind him reminded him of the reason why his former chief was injured. Maggie was comforting Siobhan, bouncing the disgruntled little girl on her hip and shushing her. It wasn’t fair, but he felt an irrational surge of anger toward the woman. If it hadn’t been for her, Chief Garraway would be fine. All because she’d been too chicken to go to the police a year and a half earlier. If she was telling the truth about the corrupt cop, going to the police might have caused her to be killed herself.
Enough. He had a job to do.
“Can you get her settled down enough to move to my car?”
Maggie
