Page 15 of The Deputy's Secret Double
Deputy Collins was back in the lobby in less than five minutes. He came in apologizing for the delay and holding a plastic bag, not cuffs, in his hand.
“Don’t let this make you think you’re going to be here all day or anything, but I thought, no matter how long, you probably don’t want to just be sitting in that.”
It took JJ a second to realize what he meant.
He passed the bag over. She peeked inside.
It was a set of scrubs.
His gaze went to her dress again. He pointed to the bag.
“A friend of mine works here and she seems about your size,” he added. “I figured wearing this would be more comfortable.”
JJ hadn’t expected that.
“Oh, I couldn’t accept this,” she tried. “I’m okay, really.”
Price waved his hand, and the thought, off.
“Think of it this way. This is just as much for the rest of us as it is for you,” he said. “I’m not sure I can hold a conversation without staring. I’m thinking that the rest of the hospital probably isn’t going to let you leave without doing the same.”
He was right, of course.
Her walking around covered in blood wasn’t helping the whole beneath-the-radar thing either.
JJ smiled.
“I guess you’re right. I’ll—I’ll change then. Thank you.”
There he went, waving her off again.
“Here in Seven Roads, we watch out for each other. It’s no big deal.” He dropped into a seat near the door. “Take your time. I’ll be here.”
She bowed a little, went to the bathroom and found herself slowing as she did just that. There really was a lot of blood, the more she looked at her reflection. There had been no way to get Josiah to her car and avoid it. It was a fact she had come to terms with quickly once Josiah had stopped moving. When he went limp, that had been when she had decided to completely commit to not caring about avoiding the mess. JJ had pulled him through the field, put him in her car and driven with speed to the hospital.
The attending doctor had told her the time she had saved instead of waiting for an ambulance had probably saved his life.
He hadn’t known that her reasoning behind the move had nothing to do with the man and everything to do with the simple reason that she hadn’t wanted her call to be registered at the sheriff’s department.
That was a trail she couldn’t easily cover up.
JJ looked at her hands. They were stained but clean.
It should have thrown her. It should have made her feel something like sadness or panic or worry.
Instead, she was trying to calculate the possibilities that had led Josiah from his house to that field.
There hadn’t been a lot of blood on the ground where she had first found him. Not enough to show that he’d been attacked in the immediate area but then again, she hadn’t had time to search either. His house had been a few miles away but surely he couldn’t have walked like that in the same condition. Did that mean he’d been attacked in the distance between?
And by who?
Josiah wasn’t her brother. He had an adoption record, sure, but he’d been adopted as a toddler, not a baby. That struck him from her list.
So had what happened to him been just bad timing on her part?
Her search put Josiah in the spotlight but someone else had already planned on fighting with him?
There was no way to know until she got more information. JJ removed her dress and started to put on the green scrubs. She made sure not to look in the mirror as her bare back came into view. The scar was small, but the memory tied to it was better left out of sight.