Page 26 of Targeted in Silver Creek

Sobs that could be fake, Jesse reminded himself, and injuries that could be staged. With the flags in her financials, Jesse couldn’t just blindly trust her. However, he did have to secure the situation before the ambulance arrived.

“I need you to get out of the car,” Jesse instructed. “And keep your hands where I can see them.”

That brought on more sobs and what he thought was a yell filled with outrage. “I need to see Hanna. I have to tell her what happened.”

“You can tell me.” In contrast, Jesse kept his voice calm. “Just get out of the car, so I can help you.”

The woman didn’t budge, but he did see her pick up something. His hand tensed on his gun, but he didn’t aim. Not yet. He watched and saw that it was a phone. It was some long snail-crawling moments before his own phone rang. From Dispatch. When Marlene motioned for him to answer it, he realized she wouldn’t have had his number, but the call could have been routed to him through the emergency operator.

Without taking his attention off Marlene, Jesse hit the answer function with his left thumb and put the call on speaker.

“Please,” Marlene begged. “Let me speak to Hanna.”

Jesse wasn’t ready to do that just yet. Besides, Hanna would no doubt be able to hear what was said.

“Did Bull hurt you?” Jesse asked the woman.

“Hanna?” Marlene shouted. “Please. I need to tell you something.”

Jesse considered pressing Marlene for more info, but her crying had gotten even louder, and he could see the blood on the side of her head had started to trickle down her cheek.

“Hanna won’t be going outside,” Jesse told her so he could set the ground rules. “Tell her what you have to say and then let the EMTs help you. The ambulance will be here in a couple of minutes.”

“No,” Marlene shouted. “She’ll have them kill me if she gets the chance.”

Jesse had to mentally replay that. Marlene sure as hell had better not be talking about Hanna. “She?” he challenged.

But again, Marlene didn’t answer his question. “I can’t go to the hospital,” she insisted. “She’ll have her goons get to me. She’ll try to silence me.”

“No one will try to silence you. Detective Noah Ryland is here, and he can go in the ambulance with you to the hospital.” He paused a moment to see if Marlene would have any objections to that. She didn’t voice them if she did. “Now, tell me who thissheis that you’re so scared of.”

This time the sound was more than a sob, and Marlene wailed out her answer. “Isabel. It’s Hanna’s mother who tried to kill me.”

Chapter Eight

Hanna stood back from the window, but she was still able to see the EMTs loading Marlene into the ambulance. Noah was right there beside the woman and, judging from his body language, he was trying to keep her calm.

Trying and failing.

Marlene was crying and still going on about Isabel trying to kill her. Hanna didn’t believe her.Couldn’tbelieve her. Isabel wasn’t exactly in a position to kidnap or hurt someone, but that hadn’t stopped Hanna from calling her mother to try and get to the bottom of Marlene’s accusation.

A call that’d gone straight to voice mail.

It was the same for the one she’d then made to Dr. Warner. It was only after multiple attempts to reach both of them that Hanna remembered they might still be in the interview with Theo. If so, they’d hopefully see that she had tried to contact them and would get back to her right away.

Jesse finished his call with Grayson, but before she could ask if Theo knew about Marlene showing up at her place, his phone rang again. “It’s one of the EMTs,” Jesse informed her.

He’d yet to shut and lock the door and was keeping watch, no doubt to make sure Marlene and his cousin weren’t attacked. Even with the ten feet or so distance between Jesse and her, she had no trouble hearing the EMT when he spoke.

“I think she’s been drugged,” he told Jesse. “Can’t confirm it, of course, but they’ll run tests at the hospital.”

Drugged. That might account for Marlene’s confusion about who’d kidnapped her.

“What are her injuries?” Jesse asked.

“The most obvious one is the head wound,” the EMT immediately answered. “It looks as if someone bashed her pretty hard, and she might have a concussion. Other than that, she has bruises and abrasions on her wrists and ankles, and some of those abrasions are fairly deep.”

So, she had likely been tied up and held somewhere, if the woman’s story was to be believed. The injuries could also be self-inflicted, but that seemed extreme for a fake kidnapping. A head wound could be serious—as Hanna well knew.

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