Page 49 of Justice Denied

He agreed, then shut her door. He stood on the curb watching her drive away and take another little piece of his heart. He should be worried at giving her so much of that vital organ, but somehow, he couldn’t be bothered. As he climbed into his SUV and drove towardTheHerald, he reflected how much he had grown to care for this intriguing woman. He only prayed their digging into the past would bring closure to her family—and not the end of their lives.

ChapterEighteen

Jetta’s phone rang as she chirped the car locks outside the rehab facility. A smile stretched across her face, thinking it was Seth. She swiped to answer. “Miss me already?”

Silence.

She frowned. Wrong number or spam call. But before she could disconnect, a voice said, “Next time, the bullets won’t miss.”

The cold, arrogant tone sent a chill down her spine. “Why are you doing this?”

A soft chuckle from the caller. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is you and that muscleman stop sticking your noses into where they don’t belong.”

“But—” The caller hung up before Jetta could formulate the rest of her thought. Anxiety made her shoulders slump, but Seth’s words about God being in control strengthened her. She would not be cowed by these circumstances. After sending Seth a text outlining what the caller had said, she squared her shoulders and marched into the rehab center.

She signed in at the front desk, then made her way to her mother’s room, only to find it empty. Maybe she was in PT. She returned to the nurse’s station and waited until for a nurse to finish a phone call.

“May I help you?” The older woman wore impatience like a shawl, her tone indicating she hoped she could send Jetta on her way fast.

“I’m looking for Emily Ainsley.”

The nurse huffed and pointed to the room. “That’s her room.”

“She’s not there. I wondered if she might be in physical therapy?” Jetta kept her tone light and friendly, though she was a bit put out by the woman’s unhelpful attitude.

The nurse frowned and tapped the computer keyboard. “She’s not scheduled for anything else today and should be in her room.” She craned her neck to look past Jetta. “Nurse Chara, do you know where Mrs. Ainsley is?”

“In her room.”

“Not there.” The concern Jetta had been wrestling with broke out of her hold and filled her body. “I didn’t see her wheelchair either. She’s not able to get around herself, so someone must have helped her.”

The panic climbing in her voice must have transferred to the seated nurse because she stood. “Right. I’m calling security, and we’ll do a search of the hospital.”

“I’ll check her room again.” Nurse Chara headed into Mom’s room and Jetta followed.

While the nurse did a cursory sweep of the room, then left, Jetta decided to do a more thorough search. The nurse was looking for Mom. Jetta was looking for clues as to where her mother might have gone. Initially, she spotted nothing out of the ordinary until she got on her hands and knees to peer under the bed. There, one slipper lay on its side. She plucked it out to examine it. The right slipper, the one Mom wore on her good leg, rested in her hand. She got down on all fours and used her phone’s flashlight to see if the left slipper had been pushed farther under the bed. Nothing but a few dust bunnies.

Jetta frowned. Mom wouldn’t have put the wrong slipper on her bare foot. Even though the difference between the right and left slipper wasn’t that noticeable to the eye, Emily insisted she could tell when the left slipper was on her right foot. Having helped Mom to wear the slipper during her rehab stay, Jetta could attest to the fact Mom would never have put on the wrong slipper. While she couldn’t wear the left one because of her cast, she’d insisted on having it with her for when the cast came off.

“Ms. Ainsley?”

Still holding the lone slipper, Jetta sat back on her heels to see a tall, angular woman standing in the doorway. “Yes?”

“I’m Holly MacNamara, head of security.” The woman come into the room, bright from the sunlight spilling into it from the two large windows. “We’re conducting a search of the hospital and grounds for your mother.”

Jetta held up the slipper and explained its significance. “She would never deliberately put on the wrong one.”

Holly furrowed her forehead, but before she replied, her radio squawked something Jetta couldn’t understand. “Repeat please.” The woman put the radio closer to her ear but this time, Jetta heard the words loud and clear. “We found a woman’s bedroom slipper near the hedges at the east end of the property.”

“I’m on my way.” Holly turned to Jetta. “You stay here.”

Shaking her head, Jetta followed the security guard out of the room. “I’m coming with you. It’s my mother who’s missing.”

Holly didn’t reply but powerwalked to the closest exit and pushed open the door. Jetta kept up as the other woman veered to the left on one of the many paths crisscrossing the open expanse of the outer lawn. The facility was essentially a rectangle with an inner courtyard of flower beds, shrubs, and small trees with concrete walkways and benches for the patients to use. Manicured lawns surrounded the building with woods along one side, residential homes on the opposite side, and thick hedges where it backed up to farmland. Jetta tried to pray for her mother’s safety as she jogged after Holly, but the words jumbled together in her mind. Three people wearing similar uniforms to Holly stood in a clump near a gap in the hedge.

“What did you find?” Holly barked the question as she approached the group.

“A woman’s slipper.” A chubby man with a bald head hitched his duty belt, then pointed to the slipper lying on the ground.

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