Free Faultlines by Barbara Taylor Sissel Page A

her heart in its unyielding fist. Please please please. The word echoed through her brain as if begging were her last and only resort.
    Her mother asked about Michelle. “Jenna said that right as they got her to the hospital, she had a stroke.”
    “Yeah. Still in a coma, last we heard.” Emmett went on, saying even more useless things that didn’t matter, like the whole situation was god-awful and it shouldn’t have happened . As if that wasn’t already apparent, Sandy thought. She didn’t really care, wasn’t even really paying attention, not until he started in repeating the totally pointless what-ifs: “What if Michelle doesn’t make it? What if Travis—”
    “Stop it!” Sandy wheeled, heedless when hot coffee sloshed over the rim of her cup, burning her fingers. “Stop awfulizing. I’m sick of it! It’s all bad enough.”
    “We’ve got to face facts, babe.” Emmett’s look was resigned, bleak. “I’m trying to think, do we even know a lawyer? Jordy’s going to need representation, a good criminal attorney.”
    Sandy stared at Emmett. If he lives. The words rose in her mind, but she pushed them down. She couldn’t say them, couldn’t let herself think them—not about Jordy, Travis, or Michelle.
    “The cops in Wyatt had it in for Jordy even before this happened. God only knows what kind of charges they’ll lay on him now.”
    “What do you mean, Emmett?” Sandy’s mother asked.
    He looked contrite. He hadn’t meant to raise the issue, to spark her curiosity, because of where it would lead. Sandy could see the regret on his face. Her mother thought the world of Len Huckabee. The whole family—the entire town did. He’d done the hardest thing a cop ever had to do when he’d gone to Jenna’s door in San Antonio to tell her that her husband, his best friend and partner, had been shot and killed in the line of duty, trying to stop a couple of bank robbers—with Huck’s own gun. Jenna had blamed the crooks, but Huck had blamed himself, and ever since, he’d devoted himself to Jenna and Trav.
    He was part of the family. That was how they thought about him. That was why Huck’s professional harassment of Jordy as a Wyatt police officer was so hard to understand. Jordy wouldn’t talk about it, and when Sandy and Emmett had questioned Huck, he’d acted as if he didn’t know what they were complaining about. Jordy broke the law, simple as that, Huck had said. You could have worse problems with him, trust me, he’d said.
    “It’s nothing, Mom,” Sandy said now. “Huck’s given Jordy a hard time lately, stopping him for the least little thing.”
    An elevator bell dinged faintly in the silence. The squeal of rubber soles approached and fell away. A voice over the PA system asked for a Dr. Van Zandt to come to the third-floor nurses’ station.
    Emmett said, “Harvey saw Trav.”
    Sandy set her coffee down untasted. “They let Daddy in?”
    “Really?” Her mother’s surprise echoed Sandy’s own.
    “Yeah, I guess because he’s Travis’s granddad. It was only for a minute. Harvey said it was hard. It shook him up.”
    Sandy thought seeing her dad shook-up had shaken Emmett.
    He took out his cell phone and held it, staring at it. “I’ve got to call Grant, see if he can cover for me.” Emmett looked up, blinking. “Man, I’m not sure I can talk about it.”
    Without breaking apart, he meant. Sandy hadn’t even thought about work. She remembered she had two consultations, one today and one on Monday, that she’d have to cancel. And the koi-pond install. That was scheduled for Wednesday. She doubted this was going to be over by then. She didn’t have anyone to cover for her, really, other than Hector and his crew. They helped her with the installation of the gardens she designed, but she met with the home owners and drew up the plans. At least it was summer; the hottest part of the year was her slow time. It was different for Emmett. There wasn’t really a slow time in the