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He looked at the doctor, who was now peering suspiciously at him through bifocal lenses. “Don’t worry, I won’t let her assist me anymore.”
Samantha frowned and looked at him. “But...”
“Hush,” Jake said softly, “we’ll talk about this later.”
He walked out to the waiting room to find Tad. He dropped into a seat next to him. “She’s going to be okay. She has a slight concussion, so they want to keep her overnight.”
Tad let out a sigh. “Thank heaven. I was going nuts, imagining the worst.”
Jake patted him on the shoulder. “Same here.”
“Well, I always knew my sister had a hard head.” Tad gave a mirthless chuckle.
Jake smiled back tightly, thinking of her dogged determination to help him. “She’s one strong-minded lady, all right.”
Tad nodded, cleared his throat, and added softly, “What I said back at the cabin about this being your fault? Well, I’m sorry. This wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t gotten involved in this blackmail business. I should have talked Jenny into turning the matter over to you.”
There was plenty of blame to go around. Nevertheless, he’d screwed up and let Samantha come to harm. It was a mistake he wouldn’t make again.
“Let’s go to the police station and find out what Mike Bridges, a Logan Industries janitor, was doing at the boathouse tonight.”
Jake ran an impatient hand through his hair, listening to the litany of denial Bridges was spewing.
Mike Bridges blinked his pale blue eyes and turned to snap at Kathy. “I already told you a million times. I was out doing a little boating. How did I know some dumb gorilla would take offense at me tying to his dock?”
Kathy scowled. “Right, and I’m the queen of Sheba, just taking a ride on my barge.”
Jake pinned Bridges with a relentless gaze. “You’re in this up to your ears, Bridges. If you don’t want to get charged with accessory to attempted murder, you’d better spill it.”
Bridge’s jaw dropped. “But they said I wouldn’t get in any trouble.”
“Who?” Jake asked in a deceptively calm tone of voice.
“I don’t know.”
Jake slapped his hand on the table, making Bridges jump. He leaned in, closing in for the kill. “Cut the crap, and tell me what I want to know.”
Bridges gulped and backed away. He looked at Kathy, panicked. “He can’t talk to me like that. That’s police brutality or something.”
Kathy smiled back at him. “I didn’t hear a thing.”
Bridges paled. “Okay, I’ll tell you what you want to know. Just get him to back off.”
Kathy leaned forward and switched on a tape recorder. “All right, talk.”
“What I said about this being a job was true. I was cleaning some offices one night a week ago when someone asked if I’d like to make some extra money running errands. It was good money, so I took it. But you’ve got to believe me, I didn’t know it involved any of this. I was supposed to pick up an envelope and bring it back to work on Monday.”
“Who hired you?”
“I don’t know their names. They were a couple of suits from work. A man and a woman.”
Tad leaned forward. “A woman?”
Bridges grinned. “Blonde and stacked just the way I like them. The geezer hung back and let her do all the talking. And, man, that babe could talk the birds out of the trees.”
Samantha opened her eyes, awakened by the nurse making her morning rounds.
“How are we feeling?” she asked sympathetically.
