They all laughed.
“I’m sorry, Doctor, I was a little busy.”
“I can see that. In fact, I heard all about it in the hallway. So, you’re in love with Merrick Flynn, is that correct?” she said, and motioned Jana to a long empty couch in the waiting room.
Jana got the gist and lay down on the couch, resting her back against the uncomfortable straight edge. “Yes, doctor, I am,” she said.
The psychologist sat on the edge of a heavy marble coffee table. She grabbed a magazine and plucked an imaginary pen out from behind her ear, then started making notes on her imaginary patient file.
“Very interesting, Bombshell, tell me more.”
Chapter Thirty One
Jana spent every minute at the hospital during Merrick’s recovery. She also got to meet and become good friends with all of Merrick’s relatives, which consisted of a huge extended fourth generation Italian family, all from his Merrick’s stepfather’s side. She moved out of the hotel’s penthouse suite and into Mama G’s spare bedroom. Holly had moved in as well, and the two of them dealt with the odd events that had brought them to Atlantic City.
Jana saw Doctor Garcia every day until the doctor returned to her practice in Florida during the sessions, she went through some hypnosis, where she’d been forced to relive some of the most horrifying moments.
Merrick needed to stay in the hospital, but that didn’t stop him from putting down his foot, when the FBI tried to get Jana to fly to Misty Falls with them to help them identify the location of the house where she’d witness the snuff film production.
Instead, Merrick use his own money to hire a plane to fly over the likely areas and produce aerial shots. The video and still shots from the pilot were forwarded to Merrick and with Tony and a nurse present, as well as Special Agent Carson and one of her tech wizards, they wheeled Merrick into a conference room and they stared at hundreds of images hoping something would pop out for Jana. After several hours, they were starting to lose hope. Jana was beginning to doubt herself as well. In the back of her mind, she wondered if she’d imagined the whole thing. Maybe she hadn’t murdered a murderer.
“Are you alright?” Merrick said from his wheelchair.
“I just need some fresh air.”
Merrick wheeled himself next to Jana as she went to an atrium.
“What is it, honey?” he asked, concerned.
Jana was feeling guilty. She hadn’t told anyone that she’d murdered the sheriff in cold blood. Tony knew it. But, somehow, she doubted that he’d told Merrick. Merrick said he loved her, but how could he, if he knew? It didn’t matter; keeping that secret from him was eating her up inside.
“I killed him,” she said, more to herself than to him.
“What?”
“He was injured and he couldn’t hurt me anymore, and the police were coming—I didn’t have to kill him, but I did. I murdered him in cold blood. I’m a killer. How can you love me?”
Merrick got out of his wheelchair. Jana could see the pain of his face and tried to stop him, but he struggled to his feet.
“Come here, you,” he said and pulled her close. She made sure not to let her body touch his injured side. “You’re not a murderer; don’t say that. He deserved to die. You had no choice. You did what you had to do.”
For the first time since it had happened, Jana actually believed what he was saying. It wasn’t like she had had a choice, not really.
She cried in his arms until the tears stopped.
“I love you, Jana,” he said.
“I love you too.”
Jana insisted that Merrick return to this wheelchair, and they went back to the conference room. Two more rolls of video to look at, then they could go back to their lives.
As she looked at the footage, something caught her eye. “Stop, go back!” she said. The FBI technician reversed the footage a few frames. “There, see that yellow? That’s a school bus. I remember walking by a house with old school busses.”
The technician used the zoom and the image got bigger. Sure enough, the outlines of a yellow school bus peeked through the pine trees.
“Get the address,” Special Agent Carson ordered her technician, “Then get a team out there right away, and take the cadaver dogs.”
Chapter Thirty Two