The Siren by KATHERINE JOHN (general ebook reader .txt) 📕

“You’re saying there was another person in the vehicle?”

“Yes! He was driving. Cole—” I know Iris told me not to say anything, but surely now it doesn’t matter. “Cole Power, the movie star.”

The woman raises her eyebrows. “Cole Power the movie star was driving the car.”

I nod vehemently. “Yes. He was taking my mom to the hospital. She was hurt.”

I pray that was all. That she’s at the hospital now, recovering.

The man leans in and whispers something to her. The lady nods, then turns her attention back to me. “We’re almost there. I’m gonna need you to rest till we arrive, give that brain a break. Can you do that for me?”

Seeing no other option, I lay my head back against the thinly padded stretcher.

When we get to the hospital, they wheel me into a curtained nook and hook me up to a bunch of machines that beep. The nurses and doctors ask me the same questions about my name, address, and the date over and over again, but no one will give me any information about my mom or Cole.

At some point I’m so tired that my worry can’t keep me awake anymore, and I finally fall asleep.

I awake to a nurse shaking my shoulder. “Some men are here that need to talk to you,” she says.

Two cops linger in the doorway behind her, both of them bald and bulky in their uniforms. They move to the foot of my bed as the nurse raises me up to sitting.

“Do you know where my mom is?” I ask them.

“I’m sorry. We don’t have that information,” the taller, thinner one says. My chest tightens, and tears spring to my eyes. “We need to get a statement from you about what happened last night. Are you up for it?”

I choke back a sob, picturing her bruised face. Then I picture her healing in a curtained hospital room like mine. She’s probably down the hall. “I want to know what happened to my mom.”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” he replies. “So why don’t you tell us what you remember?”

I take a deep breath and tell them the whole story, up until hiding in the back of my mom’s car while Cole drove her to the hospital. “That’s the last thing I remember,” I finish.

They’re quiet for a minute, looking at each other like they know something I don’t. “Did your mother have a problem with drugs?” the shorter one asks.

“She’s been clean for weeks,” I promise them.

“Okay,” the taller one says. “That’ll do it for today. Thank you.”

“Can someone please tell me where she is?” I beg.

They nod. “We’ll take care of it for you,” the shorter one says, and then they’re gone.

I never prayed much before, but this seems like the time to start. I hardly sleep at all that night, for praying so hard that she’s okay. It’s morning before anyone comes to talk to me. Not that there’s any windows or clocks where I am. I only know it’s morning because a nurse I haven’t seen before comes in with a tray of food and says, “Good morning.”

I’m eating my bland breakfast of oatmeal and melon off a mauve tray when another nurse comes in with a small blond lady. “This is Carol from social services,” the nurse says, then leaves.

Carol from social services pulls a chair up to my bed and sets her briefcase at her feet. “Hi, Phoenix. I’m Carol,” she says, even though the nurse literally just told me that. But she has kind eyes, so I don’t protest. “I understand you’ve been through quite an ordeal.”

“I want to know what happened to my mother. Where is she?” I say, fighting tears.

She takes my hand and bows her head. “I’m so sorry. Your mother…She didn’t make it.”

The air goes out of me. The world goes dark. Carol holds me while I sob into my pillow. My mother’s gone. I knew it in my heart. I’d known since the car, but I’d held on to hope for a miracle until she said it. She pats my back as I cry so hard I can’t catch my breath, handing me tissue after tissue. “What happened?” I ask when I can finally speak.

“She overdosed,” Carol says. “Passed out while she was driving and wrecked the car into a tree in the Everglades, with you in the back.”

I hold a tissue beneath my still flooded eyes. “But she wasn’t driving. Cole was,” I protest. “She’d already overdosed, I think, and there was something wrong with her face. He was driving her to the hospital.”

She pats my hand. “Sweetie, your mom was behind the wheel when the car crashed. You were the only other passenger in the car.”

I shake my head. “No! No, she would never drive like that with me in the car!”

“They found you under the blankets in the back. Maybe she didn’t know you were there. Do you remember why you were hiding in the back?”

“Because Cole was driving and I didn’t want him to see me. Something bad happened to her at his house, and he was taking her to the hospital. I wanted to go with her.”

“I’m sorry,” she says, her voice dripping with pity for me. “Cole Power never knew your mother. The police interviewed him this morning. He was with his wife and son at his home last night.”

My head is spinning. “But that’s not true,” I cry. “They were dating for months. He was leaving Stella for her. She saw him all the time.”

“Did you ever meet him?” she asks.

“No, but I saw him last night. I was at his house. His son was there. He saw me! Jackson. I talked to him.”

But she’s already shaking her head. “He was in his room watching a movie all night. He didn’t see you or your mother.”

“What about the text messages? Cole texted her all the time. It always made her laugh.”

“They’re looking for a phone, but they haven’t found one. It may