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Then she noticed the car he’d been driving. It was the brown one that had cut off the damned hoodie-guy follower the last time he’d been tailing her. Had Brewer been watching her? How could he have known? Didn’t matter right now.
“Matt’s hit.”Please, please let him be okay.
“I thought he got one of you before I could reach him,” Brewer said. “That’s why I called an ambulance.”
Suddenly cops were all around them. Two paramedics rushed through the array of cops and vehicles and took care of Matt.
Finley somehow managed to stay upright during the next few minutes, which were a blur of activity. She got in a hug and a kiss before the paramedics whisked Matt away to the hospital. They had the blood loss under control, and he was stable, but it was essential to get him to the hospital quickly since the bullet would need to be removed.
The shooter was not dead, but he was injured. Another ambulance had arrived to take care of him. An officer accompanied him to ensure he didn’t attempt an escape.
Finley and Brewer stayed behind to give their statements.
Brewer claimed to have just been driving along when he spotted the trouble and tried to help. He lost control of his car and ended up hitting the shooter.
Finley knew the man was lying through his teeth, but she was so grateful to him she didn’t care what kind of story he gave. She was just glad he’d shown up.
They were both permitted to go. Since all the vehicles involved were being towed for further investigation, one of the officers offered to give them a ride. Brewer was going home, and Finley needed to get to the hospital.
As the cruiser rushed through the cold December night, she turned to the custodian. “Thank you. I’m certain you saved our lives.”
He glanced at her, his face unreadable. “I didn’t want to make the same mistake twice.” Then he stared at his clasped hands. “Not long before Lucy died, I thought I spotted someone following her. I told her about it and that she needed to be careful, but I guess she didn’t listen. I’ve always regretted that I didn’t do something more. Keep an eye on her for a while. Call her mother. Something. But I didn’t. And then it was too late. After the funeral I talked to Louise, told her what I knew, and she insisted that I’d done all I could ... but I never stopped feeling like it wasn’t enough.”
He fell silent for a few moments.
“I wasn’t going to let that happen again.” He lifted his gaze to Finley’s. “I saw that guy at the cemetery. I’ve been watching you ever since.”
Finley reached across the seat and squeezed his hand. “I owe you.” She thought of how he’d run the guy down. “I like your style, Mr.Brewer.” She grinned. “You’d make a good private detective.”
“You know”—his face turned somber—“I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what happened to Lucy. I even found some of her mother’s notes and started my own timeline—like the cops on TV—over at the homeplace.”
So he was the one who created the case board. “In Louise’s home office?”
He hummed a confirmation. “When I found out you were going over there, I was worried Ms.Downey would fire me for touching Louise’s things, so I took it down.” He looked a little sheepish. “I guess you’d already seen it.”
“I did. It was great work, by the way.”
He sighed. “I wanted to help in some way, but I never could figure it all out.”
“Only because you didn’t have enough facts,” Finley allowed. “You did your best, and that’s what matters.”
He nodded. “Sometimes I guess that’s all we can do.”
“And then we have to move on,” she said, the words echoing deep inside her.
It was time to move on. She couldn’t keep looking back. Not even a little bit. She’d started the process of moving forward a few months ago. Allowing herself to get past that awful night and to put all the hurt that came with it behind her.
But it was time she did more.
Hope swelled in her chest. Time to move out of the house formerly known as the murder house. To enjoy her life with Matt. Time to fullyown the fact that she wanted to be Davidson County’s next district attorney.
Time to do more. To make change, as Houser and Jack had suggested.
Feeling more determined than ever, she relaxed into the seat as best as one could in the back of a police cruiser. She glanced at the man beside her and felt immensely grateful for the people like him who made this damned world worth fighting for.
She liked this new level of moving on.
Vanderbilt Medical Center
