Page 97 of The Last Straw

“Have you done all you need to do here?”

“Yes. She’ll get better now.”

He pointed to the clouds. “Then we need to head home.”

Millie came running into the waiting room and threw her arms around Ray’s neck.

“She’s waking up. She’s trying to talk. I can’t explain what Wyrick did, but I witnessed it.” Then she realized they were leaving. “Wait. Please, both of you! I have to say this. You didn’t know us, and yet your generosity saved us. Giving of your skill and time without pay, nearly getting yourself killed, finding my sweet sister and now this. Wyrick, whatever you did in there helped her turn a corner. How? How can you do that?”

Wyrick shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just part of who I am. Please let us know how she progresses. I hope you take her home to heal. It’s going to be a long time before she feels safe again.”

“It’s okay. She’s alive. We’ll deal with the rest as it comes,” Millie said.

Charlie put his hand on the middle of Wyrick’s back.

It was her signal to move, and so she did—in long strides, all the way to the elevator. Once they were down, they hurried through the main lobby and out into the parking lot. The wind was already rising, and the clouds were rumbling and rolling overhead as they made a run for the Jeep. The first drops were just hitting the windshield as they got inside.

Wyrick was buckling up when she glanced at Charlie.

“Rachel said two words.”

Charlie’s eyes widened. “What did she say?”

“I asked Millie to keep telling Rachel that she was safe, because she didn’t know she’s been rescued, and right after Millie said it, Rachel got out enough of the word safe to be understood. And then right before we left, I asked, ‘Who hurt you?’ The nurse didn’t like it because she’d already told us it was time to leave, but I ignored her.”

“Of course you did,” Charlie said.

Wyrick shrugged. “Anyway, right after I asked, Rachel got out the word Son. That’s when I told Millie she’d just named her kidnapper... Sonny Burch.”

Charlie grinned. “That’s what Floyd and Mills have been waiting to hear. I’m driving. You call and let them know.”

“Okay,” Wyrick said and made the call.

Floyd was back at the precinct, writing up the report on finding the piece of map when his cell phone rang. He saw it was Wyrick and quickly answered.

“Good afternoon, lady. What have you stirred up for us now?”

As always, when they were on the job, Wyrick had the phone on speaker and told him everything that she’d just told Charlie.

“She named him. She named her abductor in front of her sister and a nurse.”

“This is wonderful!” Floyd said. “You just made a good day better. I’ll check in with Millie again soon, and remind her to let us know when Rachel is well enough to give us a full statement. Thanks for the update.”

“Welcome,” Wyrick said and disconnected.

Charlie was already out of the parking lot and back on the city streets when a bolt of lightning shot across their line of vision, quickly followed by a loud clap of thunder.

“We should have stayed inside the hospital,” Charlie said.

“We’re not going to melt. Turn on the windshield wipers and drive like hell,” Wyrick said.

Charlie laughed. And he was still laughing when they hit the beltway in a downpour, but he wasn’t driving like hell because he didn’t want to die. He was having too much fun with this woman.

And then the moment he thought that, his heart nearly stopped. Having fun! It had been so long since he’d felt like this. He and Annie used to have fun. Oh, God, they could laugh. But their fun ended a long time before she did.

Wyrick always pissed him off...or made him mad. And he’d laughed at her, and with her...but they’d never just done something reckless...just for the hell of it.

“Want to stop somewhere for dinner?” he asked.

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