Page 14 of A Future To Remember

It was then that I noticed the distinct smell of smoke wafting off Cash.

I looked at the deputy. “You’re all right then?”

He nodded. “If I’d’ve followed protocol, I would’ve hit the truck too.”

“Ah,” I said. I didn’t really know what else to say. I finally added, “Lucky break, huh?”

Joel stepped toward my bed but didn’t come forward all the way. “How did you know?”

“Know what?”

“Know about the truck? Know that I shouldn’t chase it?”

My brow furrowed. “I dunno. Gut feeling, I guess.”

Cash and Joel exchanged a look.

It was annoying to be left out of whatever conversation was happening silently between them. “What?”

Cash turned back to me. “A gut feeling’s more like, ‘I have a bad feeling about you out on patrol tonight,’ not ‘Don’t chase the white truck with the red and blue stripes.’”

My brow furrowed a little deeper. I couldn’t really make sense of what they were asking me. Or telling me. This whole conversation was confusing as hell.

Joel said, “The Silverado had an American flag on it, but the white just blended into the color of the truck, so mostly what stood out was the red and the blue in the flag.”

I sighed. It was like they were suspicious that I’d somehow arranged for the accident to happen. “Guys, I’ve been in here for the past five weeks. I didn’t have anything to do with that pickup or what happened.”

“We know,” Cash said quickly. “It’s just…Maddy, that was freaky.”

I started to nod, but deep down, I had this feeling like it wasn’t that weird. It felt…familiar. I couldn’t explain it to myself any more than picking up on what terrible thing was going to happen to Joel if he chased a white pickup truck with red and blue stripes. It simply felt like what I’d seen in my mind’s eye was a normal reflex. I put a hand to my head where I’d sustained the skull fracture that’d put me in a coma for three weeks. “Maybe the bump on my head is making me psychic.”

Cash chuckled, and Joel did too, but there was a nervous edge to the sound.

Finally, though, Joel said, “Whatever it was, thank you, ma’am. And I mean it. I got a wife and two little kiddos at home. Next week my church is doing its big, annual Easter egg hunt, and my kids look forward to that almost as much as they look forward to Christmas.

“My dad died when I was twelve. He took his life on Christmas Eve, so I know what losing someone near a holiday is like. I started looking forward to Christmas again only once my kids were born.”

For a moment, Joel’s face had turned so boyish—and heartbroken. It moved me, and I felt tears prick my eyes.

“You’re welcome, Deputy. Glad I could help,” I said after swallowing past the lump in my throat.

He nodded to me, then to Cash, and left the room.

“What time is it?” I asked the sheriff after his deputy left.

“Six a.m. Joel, me, and my other deputy worked the crash site all night. Joel wanted to come here and thank you before he clocked off duty.”

“You about to clock off too then?”

He grinned. “Not quite yet. I got one more thing to take care of today, but we gotta wait until after the breakfast rush.”

“I’m not following.”

“I found you a place to stay, Maddy. The hospital is ready to discharge you, and I know you’ve got nowhere to go right now. Until we find out who you are, I don’t think it’s safe for you to be turned out onto the streets.”

“The mean streets of Evansville that rough, eh?”

He chuckled. “No, nothing like that.” He didn’t elaborate for a long minute, and I knew he was getting ready to tell me something that’d be hard for me to hear. I didn’t know what could be worse than overhearing that resident doctor and his intern discuss my injuries, but I braced myself all the same.