"Double Action Deputy" by B.J. Daniels

[tirepanted3]

Scene from a recent paperback novel, part of the "Cardwell Ranch: Montana Legacy" series.



Brick studied the woman a few moments longer. She had her slim back to him now, her head held high, radiating self-confidence and righteousness. He remembered what the deputy outside Natalie’s hospital room door had said about the blonde. At the hospital, he hadn’t had the time to get a really good look at her. She was definitely attractive from her thick blond hair that fell over one sea-blue eye before dropping in an asymmetrical cut to her shoulders to her slim, clearly physically fit body. He hadn’t known what to expect on actually meeting her, but it was clear to him that she was sharp. She didn’t come across as some crackpot on a mission.

Yet while her original intention seemed perfectly clear to him, something had changed when Natalie Berkshire had spoken to her. That intrigued him. Mo hadn’t made any bones about her belief that Natalie was guilty. What could the nanny have said to her that would keep her from doing something that she said she was still committed to finishing?

He thought of the pillow on the floor, convinced that his walking into the room wasn’t what had stopped her. But he also couldn’t imagine what Natalie could have said.

He’d seen the conviction still in Mo’s eyes. She wouldn’t stop until she found the woman and ended this—one way or another. And like Natalie, soon this woman, too, would be free to do just that.

And that was what had him worried as he left and drove toward the hospital. Mo Mortensen’s certainty that Natalie would kill again had him rattled. He was even more anxious to see Natalie Berkshire after talking to the cop. He needed to decide for himself if she was a monster or a victim.

Also, he wanted know exactly what Natalie had said to her, because he no longer believed the woman was catatonic. He could even understand why she was faking it. She was running scared. It was why she’d bailed out of Billings—only to get caught by someone he suspected had been seeking his own kind of justice. Natalie had to know the person would come after her again—or someone like him—not to mention the law now looking for her.

The woman had to know that her house of cards was about to come crashing down on her at any moment—whether she was guilty or not. Wasn’t there still the chance, though, that she wasn’t?

As he walked down the hall toward Natalie’s room, he noticed the deputy leaning back in his chair outside her door, legs outstretched. The deputy appeared to be asleep. As he got closer, he saw that the man’s hat was pulled down low over his eyes. His heart began to race. Things might be dull on the floor, but there was no way a deputy would fall asleep on the job.

He rushed to him, touched his shoulder. The deputy keeled over onto the floor. Brick felt his chest constrict as the man’s hat fell away and he saw the blood and the large goose egg on the deputy’s forehead. He quickly checked the man’s pulse in his neck—strong—before rushing into Natalie Berkshire’s room.

Just as he’d known, the bed was empty. He swore. Hadn’t he known she wasn’t catatonic? Just as he’d known that she’d spoken to Mo. He quickly looked around. The bathroom door was closed. “Natalie?” He stepped to the door and grabbed the knob. “Natalie?” No answer.

He opened the door. Of course the room was empty.

Because Natalie Berkshire was gone.

He started to pull out his phone when he heard a moan coming from somewhere in the room. The sound froze his blood. He wasn’t alone in here after all?

Brick spun around. The room was still empty. Another moan. He caught movement under the bed and rushed to push the bed aside. The nurse lay on the floor, gagged and bound with IV tubing. She was attired in nothing but panties and a hospital gown.

As he pulled off the gag and began to untie her, she said, “She jumped me. She took my uniform, my bra, my socks and shoes. She...” The nurse began to cry. “She threatened me. Said if I made a sound...”

“How long ago did she leave?” Brick asked as he freed her.

“Five minutes, maybe more.”

At the sound of the deputy regaining consciousness out in the hall, Brick rushed out. “Take care of the nurse and call this in.”

“The nurse?” The deputy touched the bump on his head gingerly. His eyes widened as if he realized at last what had happened. “The patient. Is she...?”

“Gone.”

“I don’t know what happened.”

“Say that to my father,” Brick called as he ran down the hall.

He told himself that the woman might not have gotten out of the building yet. She was wearing scrubs—just like every other nurse.

Brick took the stairs three at a time and burst out on the lower floor to race for the front door. After pushing out through it, he stopped to glance around the parking lot. He didn’t see her.

At the growl of a motorcycle, he spun around and saw a woman in scrubs roar past. Her hair was a dark wave behind her as Natalie Berkshire sailed away.

Brick ran to his pickup and went after her. But he hadn’t gone two blocks when he realized he’d lost her. He called it in, but didn’t hold out any hope that she would be caught. The dispatcher told him that a young man who’d been in the hospital parking lot was calling to say that a nurse had shoved him off his motorcycle and taken it.