Free Beyond Reach by Karin Slaughter Page A

to focus on Sara. “Are you stupid? I said get the fuck out of here! Go!”
    Sara’s mouth opened in surprise. Jeffrey felt a white-hot fury spark inside him, and he spoke through clenched teeth when he ordered, “Lena, back off.”
    “Get out!” she screamed, jerking against the restraints. “Get her out of here!” she begged the sheriff. “I’ll tell you whatever you want. Just get her
out
!”
    Valentine seemed at a loss. He indicated the door with a nod of his head. “Maybe she should—”
    “No,” Sara insisted. She spoke so quietly that Jeffrey wasn’t sure she’d actually said the word until she turned to the two men, asking, “Could you give us a moment alone?” She asked Jeffrey, “Please?”
    Sara did not wait for an answer. She slipped Lena’s chart out of the holder at the foot of the bed and studied it as she waited for them to leave. Jeffrey could tell she was forcing herself to do this, that if she could snap her fingers, she would’ve been anywhere but here. He just wasn’t sure why she wanted to stay.
    For the first time since he’d entered the room, Lena spoke directly to Jeffrey. “Get your fucking wife out of my face. I don’t want her here.”
    He locked eyes with her, willing the young woman to understand that there would be lasting consequences for her words. Jeffrey could put up with a lot of bullshit, but he would be damned if an officer on his force would get away with trashing his wife.
    Sara looked up from Lena’s chart. “It’s okay. Just give us a few minutes.”
    Despite his better judgment, Jeffrey managed, “We’ll wait in the hall.” He went to the door and held it open for the sheriff. Valentine stared at Lena for a few seconds, undecided. Finally, he shook his head, making it clear he wasn’t happy with his choice, and walked out of the room.
    In the hallway, Jeffrey let the door close behind him, then stood in front of it—not exactly blocking the way but close enough.
    “So.” Valentine rested his hand on the butt of his gun. He obviously was itching to go back into the room. “That what you expected to happen?”
    Of all the scenarios Jeffrey had considered, this had not been one of them. He asked Valentine, “Where’s Lena’s uncle? Hank Norton?”
    Valentine was staring at the door as if he wanted to bust through it.
    Jeffrey pressed, “He’s Lena’s next of kin. Didn’t you contact him?”
    Valentine nodded. “Wasn’t there.”
    There were muffled sounds through the door, but no yelling that Jeffrey could hear. He indicated to the sheriff that they should walk up the hallway a bit. “You went by Hank’s house?”
    Valentine stayed where he was. “I can’t find him anywhere. I went to his house last night, then again this morning. His bar’s been closed. There was something happened a few weeks ago—”
    “Cook told me about that.”
    “Yeah,” Valentine said, a suspicious look crossing his face. The man obviously did not trust his deputy. Jeffrey wondered how they got any work done. The force had to be a small one, with probably no more than five deputies in all. Parking Donald Cook at the hospital was one way of keeping his enemy at arm’s length, but Jeffrey was going to take a wild guess and say that the old-timer had a lot more friends in uniform than his young boss.
    Jeffrey asked, “Any idea who it might be in the Caddy?”
    “There are no missing persons that we know of. No reports on any suspicious characters hanging around. No Escalades reported missing. It’s a puzzle.”
    At least he hadn’t been sitting on his hands all night. “What about Hank Norton?”
    “He drives a Mercedes that’s probably older than I am.”
    “No.” Jeffrey shook his head. “Do you think maybe it’s his body in the car?”
    Valentine shrugged. “All’s I know is a DNA test is gonna blow half my wad for the quarter.”
    His budgetary concerns were valid, but Jeffrey wondered again why Valentine wasn’t more eager to nail down the