“Would he enter a rival’s house, expecting to confront him, and run into the wife instead?”
“Of course not! Okay, maybe he’d go in, as I said, but he would never hurt a woman. Never.”
“He’s never hurt you?”
“No . . .” She turned away, taking a few steps toward the kitchen. The tenor of her voice had changed, however. “I don’t know why you’re blaming this on Eric,” she tossed over her shoulder, now sounding angry. “What about her husband? Phil?”
“We’re talking to him. He told his wife he was seeing you.”
“Well . . . it’s only been a few dates. He’s still married.”
“He made it sound like more.”
“You talked to him about it?” she accused.
“He told his wife he was going to marry you and that he’d already talked it over with Eric.”
She whipped her head around to look at him, clearly surprised. “Phil talked to Eric?”
“That’s what he said.”
“Well, it’s not true. Eric would never stand for that.”
There was a gold-filigreed clock atop the white fireplace mantel, the only other color in the black-and-white room. He saw it was closing in on nine p.m. He sensed he’d gotten all he could out of Meghan Volker, and though he still needed to interview her ex-husband, he thought he had a pretty good idea of what was going on between Eric and his ex-wife. Did it rise to the level of an attack on Bette Kearns? He doubted it. It wasn’t part of their game. But could she have gotten in the way between Eric and Phil? Possibly. Although this seemed like something else.
Cooper thanked Meghan for seeing him, then headed for the door.
“That’s it?” she asked, peeved.
“For now.”
On the way out, he put in a call to Howie, who said Bette was through surgery and doing okay, as far as he could tell. Phil had called his children. Alex had rushed over and was at the hospital already and Joy was being brought over by the friend’s family with whom she had been spending the night.
“I’ll come spell you,” Cooper said. He wanted to be there when Bette woke up. He wanted to be the first to hear what she had to say.
“All righty.” Howie didn’t argue.
Cooper got another call. He saw it was from Vicky Stapleton. He answered and she said thickly, “How’s Bette? Is she okay? Oh, please tell me she’s okay.”
Cooper explained that she was out of surgery and he was on his way to the hospital now.
Vicky said, “Oh, good. Good. I’ll go see her in the morning; is that all right?”
“Depends on what her doctor says.”
“I’ll call the hospital first. Thank you, Cooper.” As she was hanging up, he heard her say to someone else, “No . . . he couldn’t play . . . my head is so dull . . .”
Clearly Vicky hadn’t attended the game because Tyler wasn’t tonight’s quarterback. Maybe Coach Padilla had learned something of Tyler’s suspected illegal activities the previous weekend. Marissa hadn’t gone to the away football game either. Laura had insisted she stay close to home, but Cooper had talked to Marissa and she’d shown no signs of interest anyway. He understood she was scared about what had happened to her. He wanted her to take as much time as she needed. He just didn’t want her to pull away so far that it would be hard to come back again.
I’m gonna find that asshole.
He set his jaw. Whoever had hurt Marissa would pay.
Ten minutes later Cooper pushed through the hospital doors to the waiting area outside the OR where the Kearns kids were seated in the chairs, looking glassy-eyed. Howie was talking to one of the nurses. Upon seeing Cooper, Howie waved him over.
“This is Nurse Cargill—Angie—and she says Bette just woke up. She’s having trouble talking, but she’s coherent.”
Angie said, “We told her not to talk.”
“But she did manage to say something first, right?” Howie looked at the nurse. “Tell him,” he said.
Nurse Angie pursed her lips, seemed to want to deny him, then turned to Cooper. “She said ‘ski mask.’”
Cooper’s blood ran cold. “Anything else?”
“No. Just that.”
Cooper absorbed that in silence. Amazing how all roads led back to the ski mask.
He phoned Jamie and spoke to her briefly. “I’m going to have to postpone meeting with Ryerson. I need to be in River Glen right now.” He told her Bette was through surgery and what she’d said. As Jamie absorbed that, he added, “I’ll call you tomorrow. Maybe I can cut out a block of time and we could meet.”
“I’d like that,” she said warmly. Then, “Stay safe, Cooper.”
* * *
Saturday morning dawned gray and gloomy with a mist in the air. It was a week before Halloween, but if there was ever a day that seemed fit for that holiday, it was today.
Jamie had spent a sleepless night after talking to Cooper. She was disappointed about the cancellation of the trip to Bend, but not surprised. There was too much going on in River Glen for Cooper to chase after a cold case. Also, it would have been tricky for her to leave for an entire day as well, abandoning Emma and Harley to their own devices. That was a recipe for disaster.
Didn’t mean she didn’t want to go. She’d managed to hide her disappointment. It was way out of proportion to an unplanned trip that had just popped up. Still, it was gratifying to know Cooper wanted to take her somewhere. It just couldn’t happen in the midst of two home invasions in River Glen within six days of each other. Cooper was bound to be involved with a police department as small as theirs; it was all hands on deck.
She glanced at the oven clock. 6:11. Before she’d learned for certain the trip to Bend was scratched, she’d texted Camryn: Any chance
