Read Online Nothing to Lose by Norah McClintock - Free Book Online Page B

was too soon. All they could find out was that Nick had arrived and that he was being examined.
    One of the officers led me to a corner of the waiting room while the other one went to contact Nick’s aunt. The police officer who stayed with me asked if I wanted anything to drink. When I said I didn’t, he sat down next to me and spent the next twenty minutes reviewing the accident with me. After I told him everything I could remember, he asked me more questions. He wanted to know exactly where I had been standing and exactly what I had seen. “Not what you
think
happened, Robyn, but what you saw with your own eyes.” He asked if I had any idea what made Nick leap out into traffic. I said I didn’t. Then I said, “I think he might have been pushed.”
    The officer regarded me calmly, just like my father always did when I said something unexpected.
    â€œWhat makes you say that?” he said.
    I started to say that I wasn’t sure. And it was true, I wasn’t. Except: “Nick was waiting for the light to turn,” I said. “He waved to me. He looked happy.” I had a clear picture in my mind of Nick at the edge of the curb, looking across the street at me. “Then, all of a sudden, he sort of stumbled forward. I saw a surprised look on his face. I thought someone must have bumped into him.” I remembered the tall blond guy and the cold look on his face when he saw Nick lying on the road. “But now I’m not so sure that’s what happened,” I said. “There was this guy.” I described him as best I could—which turned out to be not much of a description. All I could say for certain was that he had seemed taller than Nick, he had longish blond hair and blue eyes, and he was wearing a dark green leather jacket. In other words, just one more body in the crowd. In a city this size, he would be difficult to find, assuming the police even decided to look.
    â€œDid you recognize him?” the police officer said. “Have you seen him before?”
    I shook my head.
    â€œDo you know if your boyfriend knows him?”
    I said I didn’t.
    â€œDo you have any idea why this person—or anyone else—would push your boyfriend into traffic?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œHas your boyfriend been in any trouble that you know of?”
    I hesitated.
    â€œRobyn?” he said. “If you know anything that could be useful. . .”
    â€œHe’s been in trouble before,” I said. “But that was a long time ago.” I told him a little about Nick’s background.
    â€œWe’ll have to talk to him,” he said. “Would you recognize this person again if you saw him?”
    â€œI’m not sure,” I said. “I think so.”
    The police officer closed his notebook and said he was going to check on Nick’s condition. He had just returned to tell me that there was no news when I spotted Nick’s Aunt Beverly outside the ER entrance with two other officers. One was the police officer who had gone to telephone her. The other was Glen Ross, her boyfriend. They talked together for a few minutes before they came inside. The officer who was with me went to join them.
    While they talked, the police officer who had been with me took out his notebook and started writing again. He glanced at me. The look on his face told me that good old Glen was filling them in on Nick’s past—and that what he was saying was different from what I had said. That’s when Nick’s aunt noticed me. She left Glen with the other two officers and came to sit beside me.
    â€œThey told me Nick was hit by a car.” Her voice was shaky and her eyes were red. “They say there’s no news yet.”
    I almost started crying again but forced myself to stay calm.
    â€œThey said he might have been pushed,” she said. “Was he in a fight?”
    â€œNo,” I said. “It wasn’t his fault. He