Page 10 of I Know She Was There

“No,” I barked. I had nobody to tend to Emmy. “I’m fine.” I said the second part much softer.

“I’ll bring you home. We can put the carriage in the trunk of my Jeep. Does it fold up?”

“Yes,” I said, my mind clearing with the need to get Emmy back to her nursery. “Let me just wrap up the baby so I don’t get her wet. The latch is below.” I pointed to a spot at the apex of the metal legs, above the wheels and just under the carriage bed, while plucking the baby’s blanket out of the storage bin under the handle.

As the man kneeled and peered at the latch, I scooped up Emmy and swaddled her.

“My name’s Jeffrey,” he said, looking up and around the carriage like he was hiding underneath it. I heard a click and watched him stand.

“I’m Caroline. Caroline Case.” I stepped back as the carriage collapsed between our feet. “I can’t thank you enough for your help.” I wrapped the blanket over Emmy’s face to keep my wet hair from dripping into her eyes and waking her.

“Climb into the front seat and I’ll get this thing in my trunk,” said Jeffrey.

As we drove along the extended stretch of darkened streets between Deer Crossing and my house, Jeffrey glanced at me clutching Emmy. “How did you end up outside in the middle of the night with your baby?”

“She’s colicky. Walking settles her.” I looked down at my arms. “This swaddling should keep her from screaming her head off.”

“My little sister had colic as a baby,” said Jeffrey. “My parents used to drive her around town in our car. The steady motion soothed her.”

I nodded. “It does, especially since she doesn’t sleep well. I don’t either.”

“I see,” he said, his voice turning hesitant. “But aren’t you kinda far from home?”

I studied his profile in the glow emanating from the Jeep’s dashboard. He sounded just like Tim. Another clueless man adept at judging. I looked forward and squeezed my eyes shut against the blinding pain shooting from nape to forehead.

“As I said, I have a hard time sleeping,” I said tightly. “The more we walk, the easier it eventually becomes to fall asleep.” I opened my eyes and studied the road. “Take a right up ahead.”

“But you don’t know how you ended up in the pond?” He rotated the steering wheel toward me, taking the corner smoothly.

Something unbidden fluttered in my chest.Focus,Caroline. Picturing myself in the pond turned my mouth dry. “I was in the neighborhood, walking, and I saw something...” I croaked from a suddenly tight throat.

“Was it in the pond?”

“No, I’m not sure...” I tried to picture it, but the image was just out of reach. “My driveway’s there, on the left.”

“Okay.” Jeffrey pulled in and turned the engine off. “So what was it that you saw?”

I stared at the dashboard, a flash of something sparking in my brain: my flashlight beam revealing the tidy interior of a car. Tim’s car.Tim’s car parked by the pond, next to Muzzy’s house.

“Oh God,” I mumbled. “Her lights turned on and I ran.” I looked at Jeffrey.

“Who? Whose lights?”

“I stopped at the corner of Pine Hill, and I saw...”What did I see?“I couldn’t remember with all the water around me—so much water—but now I... I need to concentrate.”

Jeffrey’s brows furrowed over his narrowed eyes in the ambient light from his radio display. “You ran from lights, and you saw something?”

Memories flashed in my mind: a bright fingernail, wide eyes, blood.Melanie.

“The woman in the house, the upstairs window. She was bleeding.” I patted my pockets. Where was my cell phone? I must have left it at home. “We have to call the police.”

“What?” Jeffrey’s voice boomed in the confined space.

“Do you have a cell phone?” When he produced it from his pocket, I added, “Call 911.”

His hand shook. “What am I telling them?”

“There’s a woman, she’s hurt.”

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