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Twenty-Nine
Ouch.
My knees hurt. My head hurt. My shoulder and the palms of my hands hurt.
I’d only blacked out for a few seconds, and I honestly wasn’t sure if I’d passed out or just closed my eyes and was disoriented.
I remembered landing on my knees, and then I was on the sidewalk, without anything in between. Someone pulled on my purse – hard – jerking my left shoulder painfully. My left palm scraped against concrete and ice, leaving a road-rash like scrape that felt like it matched the one already burning my right palm. My wrist ached too, and I wondered if I’d sprained it when I landed. It didn’t hurt bad enough for it to be broken, or at least that’s what I was hoping.
Time slipped again, and I was vaguely aware that someone was talking to me, helping me to my feet. I heard my voice telling them that I was okay, that I didn’t need an ambulance, but the words seemed to come from far away. Then I looked down at the woman who was holding onto my arm, and she reminded me so much of my mother that I burst into tears.
She put her arms around me, and the gesture completely undid me. I clung to her for what seemed like hours, and she never told me that she had to go or that I shouldn’t be crying. Instead, she told me that it was going to be okay and offered me a tissue. When I finally released her and took a step back, embarrassment hit me, but she simply smiled and squeezed my hand.
“You need to go to the hospital,” she said, her dark eyes warm.
I shook my head. “It’s nothing.”
“You’re bleeding, and you should get some x-rays and probably a CT scan.” The stern look she gave me made me think she either had kids or was a teacher, possibly both. “You don’t want to take risks with your health.”
The concern in her voice almost set me off again. “I’m not parked that far away,” I began, then stopped when I realized that my purse was gone.
I’d just been mugged.
I wasn’t sure why it surprised me, but it did.
“I don’t have my keys.”
“I live right here,” the stranger said. “Let me drive you, and then we can see about calling someone for you.”
I followed her but didn’t tell her that I didn’t have anyone to call. No family. No parents or siblings or spouse. I doubted I even had a boyfriend anymore. Clay was a possibility, I supposed, but I didn’t want to ask him to drive in from Denver because I didn’t have car keys. Okay, it wasn’t as if I’d lost my keys or something simple like that, but I couldn’t keep calling Clay about my problems. He was my friend, but if I kept going to him about things like this, I was afraid the line would get blurred, and I’d end up losing him too.
“My name’s Patty McBride,” she said as she got behind the wheel of a surprisingly flashy sports car.
“Rona Quick,” I said, running my fingers over the lock and window buttons in an attempt to distract myself from the way my palms were stinging. “I’m getting blood on your car.”
She laughed, and I turned to look at her. The look she gave me was pure mischief. “It’s not my car.”
I stared at her, not entirely sure what she meant by that.
“This thing is my soon-to-be-ex-husband’s baby. I used to say that he cared more about it than he did about me, and he never argued the point.” She turned down the street where my car was, but I didn’t mention it, too curious now to interrupt her. “Three days ago, he took the tickets for our Caribbean cruise and left me a note saying that his twenty-year-old yoga instructor looked better in a bikini than I did.”
“Bastard.”
“And then some,” she said with a tight smile. “He’s always underestimated me. The minute I found his note, I vowed that he’d done it a last time. While he’s on that ship, I’m taking care of business here. I called up an old friend from high school who’s a divorce attorney, and we’re going to make sure Carl’s left with nothing but those tickets and his new girlfriend.”
I wasn’t sure if she’d decided to tell me all that so I didn’t feel bad about bleeding on the upholstery, or if she needed to tell someone who didn’t have a previous stake in the relationship. Either way, her story distracted me enough that I was able to regain my composure by the time we arrived at the hospital.
Despite my protests that I could manage from there, she followed me inside and sat with me until I was called back to see a doctor. As I told her goodbye, I knew I’d never be able to fully explain to her how much it meant to have had her caring for me the way she did, but I promised myself that I’d contact her soon with an offer of my services free of charge. I’d make sure that her lawyer had all the ammunition needed to take her lousy ex to the cleaners.
With that cheery thought in my mind, I followed the nurse back to a curtained-off area where I’d be taken care of.
* * *
“When didyou first notice someone following you?” The detective taking my statement barely looked old enough to shave, but it was the nervous way he kept looking at his older, grizzled partner that made me think this was his first case, or at least the first one he was taking lead on.
“I didn’t.” My tone was patient, even if nothing else about me was. I understood that someone had to be the kid’s first, and I was trying to remember that as he fumbled his way through questions, but I really wanted to go home and take a nice, hot bath, then crawl into my bed. Then again, I supposed it was better to have him starting out on a mugging rather than a sexual assault or a murder or something like that.
“I thought you said…” He flipped back through his notes.
