The Last Hour (Thompson Sisters), Sheehan-Miles, Charles [reading an ebook .txt] 📗

grey suit. I took a seat, and Alexandra sat down next to me.

“I’m Carrie Thompson-Sherman, I understand you have some questions.”

“I’m Detective Johnson. District of Columbia homicide.”

I tried not to wince. Homicide cop. Someone was already assuming that Ray wasn’t going to make it.

“What can I do for you, Detective Johnson?”

“First, I’d like you to just tell me in your own words about the accident. What do you remember?”

“We were on our way to the zoo—Ray and I, along with my two younger twin sisters, Sarah and Jessica. Traffic was pretty heavy on Connecticut Avenue, this was along the stretch just north of the zoo, and we had slowed down almost to a stop behind the car in front of us, which put us right in the middle of the intersection. I glanced over at Ray, and saw a green Jeep coming at us. And then it hit.”

“Was the jeep going fast?”

I nodded. “My car’s a late seventies Mercedes Benz, Detective, it’s as solid a vehicle as you can get. The other car must have been going at a very high speed.”

It was odd. I felt calm ... almost cold. Angry, and unwilling to let myself show any emotion at all in front of Major Smalls, or this detective.

“Mrs. Sherman…”

Alexandra interrupted. “That’s Doctor Thompson-Sherman.”

I waved a hand at Alexandra. “I could care less about that right now. Detective, call me Carrie, and let’s get this over with.”

Johnson looked back and forth between the two of us. “All right. Carrie. Do you have any reason to believe that someone might want to harm you or your husband?”

Had this guy not done any homework at all? A flash of irritation swept across me. “Over the last four months we’ve reported multiple threats to the Montgomery County Police. I’m sure if you check their files you’ll find the complaints. As far as I know, nothing was done about them.”

Smalls leaned forward, her face puzzled. “Carrie, why didn’t I know about this?”

I raised my eyebrows. “What would you have done, Major? Stopped the trial? Somehow made the media go away? We had threats from right-wingers who thought Ray was a traitor and left-wingers who thought he was a war criminal. A few of them sounded serious enough we called the police, but nothing happened.”

Alexandra grabbed my hand. I hadn’t told her about the phone calls, the anonymous emails. I hadn’t told anyone but the police.

Johnson ran his hand through his thinning hair and said, “Were there any threats from people you knew?”

I sighed. Then I nodded. “Ray said one of the guys from his platoon said some things at Alexandra’s wedding. He didn’t know what to think.”

“Who specifically?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. They were a tight-knit group. And they all swore to keep what happened a secret. Ray broke that promise.”

Detective Johnson frowned, and I leaned forward and said, my tone sharp, “Don’t judge him, Detective. Ray did the right thing. Even if it cost him everything. Even if it cost us everything.”

Shit. My eyes were watering. I had to force down the emotion. I was not going to show weakness in front of them, no matter what.

“Sorry, Carrie. Don’t misunderstand me. If what I’m hearing here is all true, then yeah, I wouldn’t judge him, I’d admire him.” He turned to Major Smalls. “So, Major, did you think there was any risk to him?”

Smalls frowned. “We considered it a remote possibility.”

I interrupted. “I’ve got a question for you. You’re not telling me anything. Who was driving the other vehicle?”

Johnson looked at Smalls, and then said, “We can’t get into that just yet.”

“Why the hell not? I want to know who tried to kill my husband and my sister!”

Smalls said, “We can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.”

Disgust flooded me. “Of course you can. The President himself commented on your investigation. There were so many misinformed leaks and unnamed sources my head was spinning. We haven’t even been able to come and go out of our apartment in months without reporters sitting on the doorstep, thanks to you.”

Smalls sighed and said, “I’m sorry about that, Carrie. It was out of my hands.”

“Well, this isn’t. I don’t have any control over whether or not Sarah makes it. I don’t have any control over whether or not Ray lives. But I damn sure want to know who it was who did this.”

“I’m sorry, we can’t get into that yet.”

I slapped my hand on the table and said, “Then I guess we’re finished here.”

I stood up and said, “Come on, Alexandra.”

I walked out of the room, and then ran for the bathroom and shoved my way into a stall and fell to my knees and threw up again, the acrid smell of acid burning my nose.

“Damn it,” I muttered, squeezing my eyes shut.

“Carrie?” Alexandra asked in a hesitant voice.

“I’ll be all right,” I said, my voice broken. “Just give me a minute.”

You can’t help Ray anyway (Carrie)

“Hello?” Alexandra said into her phone. She listened for a couple moments and said, “We’re on the fourth floor, in the ICU waiting room. You’ll need to call me when you get up here so I can let you in.”

She paused a moment, listening, then said, “All right. We’ll see you in a few minutes.”

She hung up the phone and put it back in her purse. “That was Ray’s parents. They’re almost here, they drove down from New York.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

She was silent for a few moments and then said, “I’m not sure why they didn’t just fly down with us. I offered.”

I glanced over at her. “I’m not sure….” I paused, regrouped a little, then said, “More than likely they had to scramble a little to come up with cash. Ray’s parents are proud, and I’m not sure they’d be comfortable taking money from either of us for the flight. Even for something this urgent.”

She nodded.

For reasons I never understood, Ray’s parents never warmed to me. Maybe it was because I’m a little older than him,