Chapter 4
-Stephanie-
I woke up to the awful feeling of a horrible hangover, made worse by bright sunlight pouring in through the window. With a groan, I rolled over and buried my face in the pillow.
Pillow?
My eyes flew open. Somewhere between the infomercial for the Uroclub, the Kush Cushion and the Comfort Wipe, I'd passed out and it looked like Tim tucked me into his bed. Alone. There was a bottle of water and four aspirin on the nightstand, along with a note telling me that there was fresh fruit in the fridge, clean towels in the bathroom and a key on the kitchen counter.
As irritating as Tim could be, he was a pretty nice guy and now I understood what Lula saw in him. Her secret road trips to visit weren't exactly so secret, especially when she came back with a huge smile on her face.
I swallowed the aspirin and noticed that Tim had even dug my cell phone and charger out of my bag. The phone was fully charged and of course, there was no message from Givens.
Mental head slap. Why did I even care? It wasn't like we were dating. Besides, whatever happened last night was a great big fat huge mistake and it was a good thing Winona interrupted it. Probably Givens would realize that too and we could pretend the orgasms he gave me never happened.
Except they did.
I buried my face in my hands. It was true. Men and women couldn't be friends without sex getting in the way. And why was I thinking about Givens and sex? Ugh! I needed to go back to Jersey. Pronto.
Just then, my cell phone chirped with an incoming text message from Givens. He needed me to go back to Harlan for another day of aural torture with Constable Bob while I tried to track this Drew Thompson guy for him. Please.
It was the please that did it.
Givens was going to owe me for the hours of torture of having to listen to Constable Bob with a vicious hangover. Big time.
-o-o-o-o-o-
Raylan's Interlude
I paced past the nurse's station for the third time. The redhead manning the desk smiled at me over her computer. I stared at the closed door to Winona's room. Two other nurses and an orderly went in twenty minutes ago and I had no idea what was going on. As awkward as it might have been, I was beginning to regret deciding to wait in the hall while the doctor examined her.
The phone in my pocket vibrated with a text and I checked, hoping for a word from Stephanie, but it was Art. Where are you? I checked my watch. It was almost nine-thirty. Oops. I texted back a brief explanation and a promise that I'd call later with an update and I shoved the phone back into my pocket.
It rained most of the night. I had watched through the window as the streaks of winter lightning, pale and spindly, flashed across the sky while Winona slept. It was still raining this morning, and the puddles in the lowest part of the parking lot had joined together to form what looked like a small pond. As I watched a car drove through, splashing water up almost over the tires and soaking some poor sap on his way into the hospital.
I was turning heel and heading back toward Winona's room when the door opened. The knot in my stomach tightened as soon as I saw the doctor's face. I knew the news wasn't good. Before she could say anything, the orderly came down the hall, pushing a gurney.
"What's goin' on?"
The doctor stared at me for a moment. "I'm assuming you're the father?"
I nodded, getting one of those out-of-body feelings, like I was watching myself in a movie.
"She's in early labor and I don't think we can stop it. The drugs aren't working the way I'd like. Our NICU here is over-crowded with a set of quadruplets so I'm going to life-flight her to UK Medcenter in Lexington. That's where her doctor is anyway, and they have an excellent neonatologist, Dr. Mabaso. He's on alert."
Just as she finished speaking, the orderly backed out with the gurney. This time Winona was strapped in, her eyes wide and frightened.
I pushed past the doctor. Winona reached out and I grabbed hold of her hand. "I'm sorry," she said.
I had no idea what she was apologizing for. "Don't worry. I'm goin' with you."
Gayle appeared at the elevator bay as we passed, and almost broke into a run, hurrying along beside us as the orderly propelled the gurney down the hall.
The young man stopped at a different elevator. He turned a key and the doors slid open. "Sorry, Sir," he said. "You can't go any further. Only patients and hospital personnel allowed."
Winona tightened her grip on my hand and stared up at the orderly. "Why can't he come?"
"Pilot, doctor, patient. That's all allowed in the chopper. Sorry, but I gotta follow the rules."
Feeling desperate, I pulled back the tail of my flannel shirt, exposing the star. "I'm a Deputy U. S. Marshal."
The other man raised an eyebrow. "She a fugitive?"
There's always a smartass. "Of course not, but..."
"Chopper's about fifteen minutes out. It's a forty minute flight. Leave now and you should be there right after they are."
Winona's fingers dug into my hand. "I'm scared, Raylan."
"I know. Me, too." The words were reminiscent of our conversation over the sonogram picture not that long ago, but this time she didn't chide me. We shared a long look and I squeezed her hand. "I'll be there before you even land," I promised.
"We'll meet you there," Gayle said, snaking under my arm. She brushed Winona's hair off her face. "It'll be alright. We'll be there." She turned to me. "Come on, let's go."
For a moment I thought Winona wasn't going to let go of my hand, but I bent low, brushing a kiss on her temple. "It's gonna be fine," I whispered.
"You don't know that," she said, a solitary tear rolling down her cheek. "What if..."
"It's gonna be fine," I repeated, but I wasn't sure if I was saying it for her or myself.
End Interlude
Xxxxxxxxxx
- Stephanie-
"Know what's good for a hangover like you've got?" Bob asked.
A gun? I hated guns but I was ready to shoot myself or Bob. We'd been driving around Harlan County for two hours, knocking on doors and being insulted. Bob insisted on asking the questions since he was 'law enforcement, like your boyfriend' but it seemed he was the only one who considered himself to be a cop. Doors slammed in Bob's face with alarming regularity.
It explained the pile of fast food and candy bar wrappers on the floor of the Gremlin. I'd had plenty of doors slammed in my face too and I would have introduced Bob to Butterscotch Krimpets if he wasn't such a condescending jerk.
"You need the hair of the dog." Bob grinned at me and we pulled into the parking lot of a bar. "Besides, it's nearly eighty degrees today and as you probably noticed, the AC don't work as good as it could in a classic car like the Gremlin."
I gaped at him. "But you're on duty!"
"I'm the whole department," he shrugged. "What'm I gonna do? Write myself up? One beer. It's not like we're making major progress on this Thompson thing anyway."
One beer couldn't hurt, I supposed. I followed Bob inside, nearly colliding with a blond man in a suit and the oversized gorilla of a man behind him. The blond man smirked at me as if he knew who I was and then went on his way.
"We're closed, Constable Sweeney," called the man from behind the bar.
I recognized him instantly. Boyd Crowder. Givens sent me to question him about Dewey Crowe during my last visit to Harlan. "Sorry, we'll leave -"
"Is that..." Crowder leaned across the bar, his eyes boring into mine, "Stephanie Plum the bounty hunter. I regret to inform you that Dewey Crowe is currently incarcerated."
"I know. I'm...uh...just...leaving." I turned to Bob and narrowed my eyes. He knew this was Crowder's bar and I knew he was in over his head. "We're leaving. Right, Bob?"
Crowder flashed me a bright white smile. "Nonsense. Stay awhile and have that drink you came in for. I assume it is a drink and not some other business."
Bob bellied up to the bar. "And what if it is other business? What if I picked up some kids for vandalism and they were high on Oxy they bought from you? What if -?"
"Isn't that a DEA thing?" I interrupted him before Crowder had a chance to get pissed off. "Constables in Kentucky don't really have that kind of jurisdiction unless there's a warrant."
"What'd you do, look that up on Wikipedia?" Bob demanded, glowering at me.
I'd had enough of Bob. And Givens. And Kentucky. "As a matter of fact, I did. Because that's what someone who works in fugitive apprehension does. Research. Lots and lots of research. We don't go driving around and knocking on random doors asking stupid questions thinking people will be so intimidated by an overweight Gremlin-driving rent-a-cop that they'll spill their guts. And if you tell me that story about Ollie Kemp and the damn hammer one more time -"
"Rent-a-cop?"
"Overweight rent-a-cop," I corrected him.
There was a chuckle from the corner of the room and a bear of a man approached. He was tall, with shoulder length dark blond hair and sunglasses. "Boyd, mind if I buy the lady a beer?"
"I do because that beer is on the house." Boyd slid a glass in front of me. "If you'd like to part ways with Constable Sweeney, Miss Plum, my associate here will take you anywhere you need to go."
The associate extended a hand and addressed me in an accent that was decidedly not Kentucky. "Colton Rhodes."
"Stephanie Plum."
"Jersey?"
"Yeah. You?"
"Maryland."
"Oh, for Pete's sake," Constable Bob grumbled. He folded his arms over his chest and glowered at me. "I promised Raylan I'd keep his girlfriend safe. This isn't safe, Stephanie. Time to go."
"Wait." Boyd came out from behind the bar. "Raylan? You're Raylan Givens' girlfriend?"
"No!" Unh! Mental head slap. "I'm a friend. That's all. We -"
"You play tonsil hockey with all your friends?" Bob interrupted. It was payback for me calling him a rent-a-cop but he was ruining any chance I had of getting information out of Crowder.
Crowder raised an eyebrow. "So, you and my old friend, Raylan Givens..."
"It's not like that." I thought fast but the problem was, I was a lousy liar. "I'm just using him. He's got access to all those federal databases and, uh..."
"Say no more. Colton, will you escort the Constable out?" Another flash of that too-white smile told me Crowder didn't believe me for a second. "Miss Plum is welcome to stay."
"I'm telling Raylan," Bob called over his shoulder as Rhodes frog-marched him out. "He's gonna be really upset with you, Stephanie!"
I rolled my eyes.
Crowder grinned. "You don't seem like the type to use a man for his databases, right, Colt?"
Great. This was turning into an interrogation - them interrogating me. So much for me getting information from Crowder. Unless... Givens said being his girlfriend would be an advantage in Harlan. "Is it really any of your business what I do with Givens?"
"Raylan is a very old and dear friend of mine," Crowder said, his accent becoming thicker. "We dug coal together and more than once, I saved his life. Now I'm wondering, do I have to protect my friend Raylan's heart?"
Mental head slap. "Well, I guess I should be going now-"
"You haven't even touched your beer." Crowder slung an arm around my shoulders. "Or told us what brings you to Harlan to work with an overweight Gremlin driving constable when your boyfriend is based in Lexington."
Gulp.
