Cross My Heart (Ty & Hunter #1)(58)
Author: Carly Phillips

The only constant in his life had been the woman whose frail hand he clasped in his.

“Ty?” He glanced up.

Dr. Sanford walked over to him, another man he’d never seen before by his side. “Ty, this is Dr.

Miller. He’s our newest cardiologist. He has some things he’d like to explain to you.”

Ty listened as the young doctor who was also a surgeon explained that an angiogram showed his mother needed immediate surgery to reopen arteries that had closed off. More technical terms followed but the next thing he knew, he was signing a consent form and his mother was being wheeled out of the room.

Lilly placed her hand on Ty’s shoulder. “She’s going to be okay. The doctor said so himself.”

He glanced up and into her comforting eyes. “Did he? I barely remember the conversation.”

She smiled. “That’s why I listened carefully to every word. The surgery shouldn’t take more than an hour and she’ll be brought in to recovery where you can see her.” Lilly wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her cheek against his. “Then you’ll see for yourself, okay?”

He covered her hand with his. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“I felt the same way when you opened that closet door and found me. How did you know where I’d be?”

He leaned backwards, against her. “Because I showed you that hiding space myself and I couldn’t think of anyplace else you’d go that was safe.” And he’d refused to believe she was anything other than okay, despite her uncle’s bloody body lying at the front door.

Silence surrounded them until he couldn’t stand it another minute. He needed a distraction from waiting for the surgery to begin, let alone end.

He glanced at the clock. “We have time to kill. We should check on your uncle and see what, if anything, the police have found.”

Lilly straightened. “Now that sounds like a plan.”

Except the guard dog nurse at the desk had no new info rmation on Dumont . Not even the fact that Lilly was a blood relative uncovered any more news. So, along with Molly, they settled in to wait.

Fifteen

T wenty-four hours later, Flo was recovering from successful surgery. Lilly’s uncle was still unconscious, the bullet having punctured his lung. The doctors expected him to recover, but they wouldn’t allow visitors for a while.

Lilly, Ty, Hunter and Molly sat in the waiting area of the hospital, having moved out of the emergency room wing. The police were on their way to talk with them. They had new info rmation and the hospital was as good a place as any to bring together all interested parties and fill them in.

Molly looked pale and she hadn’t had much to say to Lacey or Ty since they’d met up here.

Hunter had his intern doing research and he’d taken the day off to be with Molly, but she wasn’t talking to him, either. Lacey didn’t know if the other woman was upset over Marc’s condition or the fact that Marc was obviously involved in something bad enough to have ended up with him being shot on Ty’s mother’s doorstep.

Lacey was grateful when Don Otter, the chief of police, walked in the door and broke the silent tension.

“I’m glad you’re all here,” the chief said.

“Hey, Don.” Ty rose to greet the man and shake his hand.

The big man nodded.

“What brings you out so early in the morning?” Ty asked.

Don settled his large body into a seat and leaned forward, stretching the buttons over his shirt.

“My men have been all over the site of the shooting. The footprints outside definitely belonged to a man. Some matched Marc Dumont’s shoe we confiscated from the hospital, the other prints are unknown. No fingerprints beyond the obvious, Flo, Lilly, Ty, etc. The bullet taken out of Dumont during surgery was sent to forensics and we should have answers soon.”

Lacey gagged.

Molly grabbed her hand.

How odd that the two women who felt so drastically different about Marc Dumont had formed such an unlikely bond, Lacey thought.

“Then we started interviewing the neighbors,” the chief said.

“Did anyone give you anything more on the car or the shooter beyond what we saw?” Ty asked.

“Which amounted to nothing useful,” Lacey said in frustration.

“You were running for your life. Nobody’s holding lack of detail against you,” Hunter said.

“Besides, we have a car color. I wouldn’t call that nothing.” Hunter shifted his gaze to the chief of police.

The man nodded his agreement. “And one of the neighbors reported the same car color you did, along with some new info rmation.”

“What did they see?” everyone asked at the same time.

The chief chuckled. “Ty, your mother’s best friend and the neighbor across the street—”

“Mrs. Donelly?” Ty asked.

The other man nodded.

“Viola Donelly said she was sitting in her study that overlooks the street reading the latest John Grisham novel when a tan car pulled up in front of her house.”

“Did she see the man get out of the car? Did she see who shot Marc?” Molly asked.

“Unfortunately no,” the chief said. “But Viola managed to catch the first few numbers of the license plate,” he said, obviously pleased. “We traced it back to Anna Marie Costanza, of all people.”

Molly’s gaze jerked toward Hunter.

Lacey knew what the other woman was thinking. Hunter believed Anna Marie had told her brother about Hunter’s court case, and her brother, the trustee, had talked the judge into moving the date, keeping Hunter too busy to get involved with Lacey. Then her brother, the trustee, had paid Dumont a visit soon after he’d met with Lilly. And not long after that, Marc Dumont was shot while paying Lacey an unwelcome house call.

Lacey doubted she could explain it all to the police, but somehow, Ty summed it up for the chief in a clear, concise manner.

The big man scratched his head. “You’re saying you think Paul Dunne’s involved in the shooting?” the chief asked, surprised.

“And the attempts on Lilly’s life,” Ty said.

Molly jumped up from her seat, more animated than she’d been all morning. “Did Anna Marie ever say she lent her car to her brother, Paul?”

The chief shoved his hands into his front pants pocket. “Why?”

“Because she does that often. Anna Marie doesn’t drive the car much except to work. She says she likes to keep the engine running smoothly, so she has Paul drive it about once a week.”