Love at First Flight (28 page)

“Have a seat. I'll be just a minute.”
She dashed upstairs and tried to be quick, knowing the last thing Michael
needed today was to be in the home she had shared with Jeremy any longer than
he had to be.

A few minutes later she went downstairs
and found him holding a framed photo of her and Jeremy taken on a cruise
several years earlier. Michael studied the picture with such intensity he
didn't hear her approach him.

“Michael?”

He seemed almost surprised to see her as
he returned the photo to the shelf next to the TV. “Ready?”

She dropped her bag and went over to put
her arms around him.

He went rigid with resistance.

“Please don't check out on me, Michael.
I need you.”

His arms encircled her, but his embrace
lacked its usual warmth. “I don't have a lot to give right now.”

“We're going to get through this
together.”

“How much more do you think we can go
through before there's nothing left of us?”

Startled, she pulled back to look at
him. “What do you mean?”

“It just seems like the deck's been
stacked against us from the very beginning.” Gesturing to the photo, he said, “Look
at you with him. Anyone could see how much you love him. Paige might be
pregnant, Rachelle's sick... Maybe we just weren't meant to be.”

Juliana crossed her arms. “So you're
giving up? Five days ago you asked me to marry you. Now you're saying we
weren't meant to be? Which is it?”

He fixated on the photo. “I don't know
how to compete with that, Juliana. I have two months. He's had ten years.”

Juliana knew his despondency over what
happened to Rachelle was fueling his despair over their relationship. Placing
both hands on his face, she drew him down to her and kissed him with all the
love and dismay she shared with him.

He whimpered and tried to pull away, but
she wouldn't let him.

When he gave up resisting, he hauled her
tight against him and poured himself into the kiss.

“I'm right here with you, Michael,” she
said, kissing his face and then his lips again. “We're going to get through
this together. I promise.”

***

Later that afternoon an unmarked police
car took them to the hospital where Rachelle's extended family had gathered.
Apparently, the media had figured out where she was being treated so Michael
and Juliana kept their sunglasses on to hide their red eyes from the cameras.

In the parking lot, several TV reporters
went into standup mode in front of cameras when they realized who was paying
the family a visit.

Rachelle's cousin greeted them in the
waiting room. “I'll let Monique and Curtis know you're here.”

When Rachelle's parents came into the
room a few minutes later, Juliana was surprised to discover that Rachelle's
father was white.

Monique's pretty face was ravaged with
fear and rage, which was directed at Michael.

“You gave me your word,” Monique said in
a barely audible whisper.
“You gave me
your word that she'd be safe.”

Michael's shoulders drooped. “I'm so
terribly sorry. I don't know what to say...” He shook his head when words
failed him.

Juliana introduced herself to Curtis. “How's
Rachelle?”

“She's been horribly sick, but
thankfully they don't think any organs were damaged,” he said. “They're keeping
her for a few days to monitor her. And she's freaking out that they actually
tried to kill her.”

“I'm going to do everything I can to
make sure whoever did this doesn't get away with it,” Michael said.

“So you catch them, what difference will
that make to us, Michael?” Monique asked, swiping furiously at tears. “Can you
tell me that? They're in jail, and they still managed to do this. She's always
going to be afraid now.”

“It might matter to her to know they
can't do this to anyone else.”

“Whatever,” Monique snorted. With one
last frosty glance at Michael, she turned and left the room.

“I'm sorry,” Curtis said. “She doesn't
really blame you, Michael. You know that.”

“She has every right to blame me. I
promised her that her daughter would be safe, and she ended up poisoned.”

“Do you think we could see her?” Juliana
asked, contending with the huge knot of anxiety that had settled in her chest. “Just
for a minute?”

“Of course,” Curtis said, gesturing for
them to follow him.

Clutching Michael's hand, Juliana forced
her legs forward down a long corridor lined with cops in the intensive care
unit.

In the room, she gasped at the sight of
Rachelle's petite body hooked to beeping machines.

As they approached the bed, Rachelle
opened her eyes. “Hey,” she said softly.

“How're you feeling?” Juliana asked.

“Like I've puked my guts up.”

“I'm so sorry, Rachelle,” Michael said.

“I can't testify, Michael.” Her eyes
flooded with tears. “I won't.”

“Let's see how you feel about it when
you get out of here,” he said.

Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I can't.”

From behind them, Monique said, “We're
taking her to St. Louis as soon as the doctors give the okay.”

“I understand,” Michael said. “I'll make
the arrange-ments to get you out of here when you're released.”

“I'm so sorry, Michael,” Rachelle said
between sobs. “I know I'm letting you down, but I can't take any more of this.
They tried to
kill
me.”

Michael reached for the girl's hand. “You
did great. I'm so proud of you, and don't worry, I'll find a way to get them
without you. You need to focus on getting better. That's all that matters.”

Michael and Juliana visited with
Rachelle until her eyes fluttered closed. They took turns kissing her fore-head
before stepping into the hallway.

“Thank you for coming.” Curtis shook
Michael's hand and hugged Juliana. “We appreciate all the time you've spent
with her. She thinks the world of you both.”

“We'll pray for you all,” Juliana said.

“Thank you.”

Michael held Juliana's hand as they
emerged from the hospital to a burst of flashbulbs and shouted questions from
reporters. They kept their heads down and followed the cops back to the car.

Michael stared out the window all the
way home.

***

At two o'clock the next morning, again
in an unmarked police car, Michael and Juliana were driven to Tom Houlihan's
oceanfront house at Dewey Beach. They arrived just after four, and though they
went right to bed in the large master bedroom, neither of them could sleep
after the emotional day. Under any other circumstances, Juliana would have been
delighted to be staying in a house like the one Tom had made available to them,
but her heart was heavy after seeing Rachelle.

She had called Mrs. Romanello to tell
her they were leaving town for a week or so, and the older woman was relieved
to hear that. Juliana had been almost startled to realize that other than her
brother, who agreed to take care of their mother, there was no one else she
needed to tell. No one else knew about her relationship with Michael.

That changed the next morning when a
photo of them holding hands as they left the hospital appeared with a picture
of the injured police officer on the front page of the Baltimore Sun.
Unfortunately, video of them was also broadcast on CNN.

Before ten o'clock, Juliana fielded
phone calls from her mother, her sister Serena in California, her brother
Vincent, her co-worker Carol, and her high school friend Pam Newman. Everyone,
except for Pam, who had seen her once before with Michael, had the same
questions— what was she doing with the prosecutor in the Benedetti trial, where
was she now, and what the hell was going on? While Michael dealt with his
frantic parents on his cell phone, she evaded the questions from her family and
friends, except to tell them she was safely out of town for the time being.

She had just hung up with Pam when the
phone rang again. Juliana's gut twisted with nerves when she saw it was Jeremy.

Ending the call with his parents,
Michael walked over to her. “Who is it?”

“Jeremy.”

“You should talk to him. He's probably
freaking out.”

“Probably.” The phone beeped to indicate
a message, which Juliana listened to.

“Juliana, it's me.” He sounded frantic. “Jesus,
babe, what's going on up there? What are you doing with that guy? Where have I
seen him before? Somewhere. I want you to call me. Right away. I'm going to
call you every fifteen minutes until I talk to you.”

She turned off the phone and wandered
over to the window to look out at the beach. Her stomach churned as it set in
that Jeremy now knew there was someone else in her life, or he at least had
strong reason to suspect it. He hadn't figured out, though, that he'd seen
Michael getting off the plane with her in Jacksonville.

Michael came up behind her and rested
his chin on the top of her head. “What are you thinking about? Or do I not want
to know?”

“I was deluding myself when I thought no
one was going to get hurt, wasn't I?”

“What do you mean?”

“When I came up with the idea for this
break from Jeremy, I thought we could lead separate lives for a few months and
no one would get hurt.”

He wrapped his arms around her
shoulders. “You couldn't have known what would happen between us. Who could've
predicted all this?”

“I need to call him.”

“Yes.”

“I'm going to have to tell him you're
just a friend.” She turned to him. “You're so much more to me. You know that,
right?”

“Of course I do.” He leaned in to kiss
her. “Maybe you could tell him the truth? Would that be so awful, Juliana?”

“Not on the phone. I'll talk to him in
three weeks when I'm due to see him.”

“You'll tell him about us?”

“I'm not sure yet what I'm going to tell
him.”

Michael's face fell with disappointment.
“That means you still haven't decided.”

“I'm not really thinking about it right
now. There've been so many other things to think about.”

He nodded in agreement.

“I'll be back in a minute.” Juliana went
upstairs to the bedroom and closed the door. She dialed Jeremy's cell phone,
and he answered right away, as if he had been praying she would call.

“Jule?”

“Yes, it's me.”

“Oh my God, what's going on? I almost
choked on my coffee when I saw the news this morning. Who's that Maguire guy?”

“A friend of mine.”

“How do you know him?”

Juliana took a deep breath. “The
prosecution hired me to cut the hair of the witness who was poisoned. She and I
became friends. Needless to say, I'm terribly upset about what happened to her.”

“But you were holding hands with him.
You looked like a couple.”

“We're friends, Jer. It was a terrible
day, and the media was all over us when we went to see her. He was just pulling
me through the crowd. You don't have to worry about anything right now. I'll
see you in three weeks, and we can talk then, okay?”

“Where have I seen him before? I know
him from somewhere.”

“I don't know.”

“Are you in danger?”

“No.”

“Jule?”

“Yeah?”

“Read my letters, will you?”

“I will.”

“I love you.”

“Bye, Jer.”

Juliana went back downstairs a few
minutes later to find Michael engaged in a heated exchange with Paige.

“They're not going to kill me. No, I'm
not coming there.” He paused. “She's my roommate. You know that. I don't care
what it looks like. I've told you, if there's a baby, we'll talk about it after
the trial. Don't you think I've got enough to think about right now? Fine. I'll
talk to you then.” He slapped the phone closed and shut it off. “That's enough
for now. How'd it go with Jeremy?”

“A lot like that, actually. But I think
he's pacified for now.”

“Paige saw the news, too. Her concerns
about my safety gave her another opportunity to remind me she's pregnant.”

“Did you check on Rachelle?”

He nodded. “They expect to release her
in the next day or two.”

Juliana sat down next to him on the sofa
and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Will you be able to secure a conviction
without her testimony?”

He put his arm around her. “We've got
her sworn testimony on videotape, and hopefully we can get it admitted. That's
going to have to be good enough. The case is strong without her testimony, but
I'm less certain of a conviction without her.”

“Could you force her to testify?”