She passed Carlson’s Drugs, reminding herself to drop by later with Dan’s prescription. She frowned. His blood pressure was up again. She tried to banish the worry that continued to niggle at her. Nothing was going to happen to him. The condition would soon be under control.
The stoplight changed and, putting her foot on the gas, she started out into the intersection. A fleeting glimpse of red registered before she felt the impact. There was a loud crack, like a bat hitting a ball. The passenger side crumpled. The car spun out into the other lane of traffic.
She gripped the wheel. How should I turn it? What am I supposed to do? Her SUV slammed into a tree, then for a moment all was eerily still.
Finally she heard someone yell, “Call 911!”
A man yelled to her through her window. Tessa tried to look at him, to tell him she was okay, but when she moved, pain exploded in her forehead, radiating everywhere. She closed her eyes.
Sirens.
When she opened her eyes again, a red truck was in her line of vision.
“Ma’am? Are you all right?”
She tried to speak, but she couldn’t.
“Get the ram over here, the door’s stuck!”
The voices began to fade and the shouts came from farther away now. Dizziness engulfed her. She thought she might throw up.
Everything went black.
A loud pop startled her awake. The door to the SUV was ripped off.
“Ma’am. I’m Lieutenant Jacobs. I…holy hell, Tessa? I didn’t recognize your car. It’s me, Jake, from three doors down.”
Only a squeak came out of her mouth when Tessa tried to answer.
Jake turned and said to somebody, “Get me a collar and the backboard.” She felt a soothing hand on her head. “Don’t worry, Tessa, we’ll get you out of here.”
Before she faded back into unconsciousness, she heard, “Call Dan Logan at the DA’s office. Tell him to get to the hospital right away.”
COLD FEAR LODGED in his throat as Dan rushed into emergency ten minutes after his assistant found him about to begin the trial.
Please, God, please, let her be all right.
He found Janey in the waiting room, huddled in a chair, her face ashen. As he got closer, he saw her hands twisting a handkerchief.
“Oh, no, Janey, what—?”
“She’s all right. Brad saw her before her own doctor came in. He said she’s got bruises and she’s shaken, but it doesn’t look like there’s any serious damage.” Janey drew in a breath. “Her doctor told Brad to tell us to wait out here and she’d find us after she examined Tessa.” Thank God Janey’s husband was a doctor.
His body went limp. Closing his eyes, he forced himself to calm down. Dan could do this now. He could do anything so long as she was all right. “What happened?”
Janey looked over his shoulder.
Dan tracked her gaze and saw a firefighter coming toward him.
“Hey, Dan,” Jake, their neighbour, said. “I was the first responder. Tessa’s rattled and bruised, but basically fine.”
“You’re sure?”
“Her doctor’s examining her, but, yeah, I think she’s okay. Except…”
“Except what?”
“She’s really shaken. We had to pry her hands off the steering wheel. They’re black and blue from holding it so tight.”
“Is that uncommon in a car accident?”
“It happens. But she also kept saying she was sorry.”
“Poor Tessa.” She hated to drive and this would make it worse. “Was she at fault?”
“Nope. A red Mustang T-boned her when he ran a light. Luckily on the passenger side, which was empty.”
His stomach roiled. If one of the girls had been with her…
“The driver of the Mustang is okay, too. He admitted the accident was his fault.”
“It’s just like Tessa to believe she could have driven more defensively so this didn’t have to happen,” Janey said.
“She’s a sweetheart.” Jake smiled. “My kids love her. Anyway, count your blessings it wasn’t any worse.”
When Jake left, Dan turned to Janey. “I think it’s more than what you said.”
“What do you mean?”
“Tessa hates to drive. She didn’t even have her license when I met her, which is odd for someone her age.”
Her sister said nothing.
“Look, Janey, you know that accident when she was nineteen made her gun-shy. I had to coax her into learning to drive after we were married.”
Janey sank into a chair. “That would make anybody gun-shy, wouldn’t it?”
Dan dropped into an adjacent seat. “I guess.” He watched Janey fidget with her wedding ring, and his gut instinct—the one that made him a successful lawyer—kicked in. “Is there something I should know?”
“No, nothing.”
He grasped Janey’s hand. It was cold and clammy. “Honey, I’m crazy about your sister. If there’s any way I can help her, please tell me.”
“What do you want to know?”
“What was she like when she had the accident? I know so little about how you two grew up. I wish I had more information, but it upsets Tessa to talk about it.”
“You know the important details.”
Some of them, he thought. They never knew their father. Their mother drank and took off with some guy when they were little. Child protective let them live with their grandmother.
“Tessa said she worked in a diner after high school. I always wondered why she didn’t go to college. She did great at Buffalo University when she got her librarian’s degree.”
“Sometimes people aren’t ready for college right away.”
“That’s what she said.” But he always thought she was hedging. Just like Janey was doing right now.
“You’ve been so good for her, Dan. That’s all that counts.”
“Dan, is that you?”
He glanced up to see that their doctor, Lisa Benton, had come out of E.R. “How is she, Lisa?”
“Physically, she’s fine. Emotionally, she’s shaken.”
“Pretty common after an accident, right?” This from Janey.
“Yes, often it is.” Lisa looped her stethoscope around her neck and looked down at a chart. “But Tessa’s response is a bit exaggerated. She’s quiet and withdrawn. She’ll answer my questions, but there’s some kind of, I don’t know, fear in her behavior.”
“She hates driving,” Dan said.
“Maybe that’s all it is.”
“Should