Tumble

"Lucy!" I say with my hand flying up to my chest, "You startled me!"

She takes a step back and from her wide eyes, I can tell I startled her too.

"I could say the same. No one ever comes up these stairs, I thought I heard a ghost," she says with a light laugh. I glance down to her side and see the antique golf clubs nestled inside an old leather golf bag. Her eyes flit to them too and she says, "Thought I'd just toss these."

I suddenly see her face glow pink and her hand on the clubs is starting to shake. She is avoiding eye contact and everything is falling into place. My eyes run over each of the clubs and then back to her.

"Yeah, it isn't even a full set. Looks like a nine iron is missing." She still has a polite smile but her sudden frantic demeanor is giving her away. I can't believe sweet Lucy Breeland is involved in all of this. She swats her hand out and says, "Exactly. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll just take these down to the garbage and then meet y'all out back."

I have a split second to make a decision. I can pretend everything is fine and let her trot on down the steps or I can stop her from attempting to destroy evidence.

I don't move away from the door and my choice is made. Her smile falters as I stare at her and reply, "I can't let you do that, Mrs. Lucy. I'm sorry."

She shakes her head in confusion.

"Why not?"

She is still looking to me with her eyebrows furrowed on her pink face. I slowly reply, "I think you know why. I think you know that the police are interested in those clubs."

"These clubs? What for?" She shrieks. I can tell she's not genuinely confused. I can tell that she is flustered and panicking that I won't let her by me. I'm not going to let her play dumb when I know Lucy Breeland is anything but dumb.

"Lucy, Poppy was hit in the head with a golf club. My guess is it came from that set. But I am thinking you already knew that," I tell her and I watch as her eyes bulge from her head. She frantically shakes her head against my accusation.

"What are you implying, Sawyer? I had no idea that that's how Poppy died."

I know she's lying. She's shrill and I can see the sweat at her dark hairline.

"Why are you helping him, Mrs. Lucy? Let Arthur take the fall," I tell her and she stops shaking her head and looks to me. I watch another flicker of confusion cross her face before she asks, "Take the fall for what, Sawyer?"

"I know he was embezzling from the society; I know Poppy found out and I know he killed her to keep quiet. What I don't know, is why you are helping him?" I ask her and she purses her thin red lips together. She seems to have aged ten years just standing here in front of me. I can see the stress written all over her face. She doesn't answer me, she just says, "I need to get these downstairs Sawyer, please move out of my way."

"I'm not moving Lucy. Those clubs need to be handed over to the police. They already know they are here; they already saw you move them upstairs it's over. I caught you red-handed."

I watch as something dark washes over her face and suddenly her kind eyes are evil. She grins a wicked grin and then says, "The cameras may have seen me move them upstairs. But they didn't see who stole them."

"I did, I saw you," I snap at her and the way she is looking at me now makes me feel sick. Her panic has subsided and she's figured out something. I put my hand on the door frame to block her but I don't have a solid grip. I go to push past her when she says, "No you didn't."

Suddenly she shoves me hard with all of her weight. I wasn't prepared to be thrown backward so I don't have anything to grip on to. My feet stumble behind the threshold and I wait for the impact of the stairs. I watch my feet go up and into the air as my arms flail out trying to grab onto something.

I'm midair and my brain is telling me to brace for impact. I am about to sore headfirst down the ancient, wooden steps.

I see Lucy's silhouette standing in the door frame. I hear my name being called out behind me but my focus is on the top of the staircase. The middle of my back hits the wooden stairs but something stops me from sliding further down. My body crumbles into a ball and I throw my hands out to the sides of the wall to keep from sliding down further. The sun is illuminating the bottom of the staircase and I feel hands lifting me by my armpits. The wind has been knocked out of me but I see Ryan's face as he picks me up into his arms.

Austin shoots up the staircase with his gun out and I hear noises at the top of the stairs. Ryan carries me into the kitchen and as he drops me onto the kitchen table, he says, "Breathe baby girl. Breathe."

I choke out, "Lucy....golf clubs..."

He nods.

"I know. I know. We got her though, don't worry."

He's visibly upset and I clutch onto his hand. He shakes his head.

"I was thirty seconds too late. I'm so sorry Sawyer."

He's still cradling my upper-half in his arms and I hear heavy footsteps upstairs. More officers are piling into the kitchen and it seems there were about five on standby with Austin and Ryan at the top of the command chain. He rubs my back as I catch my breath and I am afraid I am going to pass out. I become light-headed and Ryan keeps my focus on him.

"Just breathe alright. You're okay. Can you move every limb? Do you want me to call an ambulance?"

I furiously shake my head no. I check in with my toes and work my way up to my neck.

"Please don't call anyone. I just need to catch my breath."

His tense shoulders finally relax.

"Thank god. If you would have hit your neck you could be paralyzed. Or worse."

I know he's the one that broke my fall and saved me from a nastier tumble. I could have flipped several more times if he hadn't caught me.

When I finally have air back in my lungs, I look to him and ask, "Lucy? Lucy Breeland was involved in all of this?"

He nods as he strokes the hair away from my face.

"She was. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you, but she was a flight risk. I couldn't risk her knowing we were on to her. We knew as soon as she got the clubs out of the house she was going to take off. Leave all of the blame on Arthur."

"How'd you figure out it was Lucy? She was never even on my radar." He isn't able to answer me because Detective Connor comes around the corner. He sees Ryan cradling me and says, "I hear you had a nasty fall, Ms. Sweeney."

It could have been much worse if it weren't for Ryan here."

"Luckily we were all right down the road. We had a team on stand-by today in case she tried to pull anything, but we were expecting the action to happen tomorrow. We were able to catch Lucy and find the clubs earlier than we thought," he says and I glance between them. I feel like my questions can be answered now.

"The nine iron was missing, was that the club that was used to hit Poppy?" I ask.

Ryan nods.

"We found the club at the bottom of the lake near the putting green. There were no fingerprints but we could tell it came from an antique set."

He's interrupted again when three police officers come into the kitchen. The first one looks to Ryan and says, "Breeland is in the squad car. Marco is on his way to pick up Huxley."

Mason replies, "I'm going to handle Huxley. You got this Hart?"

Ryan nods and we watch as Mason follows behind the other officers. Ryan looks back to me and then holds me closer to him. His hand cradles my face as he says, "I knew you were going to go investigate. I knew you weren't going to leave it alone."

"I wasn't expecting Lucy to be there though. I really just went to see if my theory was true about the staircase," I confess and he shakes his head, "You're lucky she didn't smack you with a club."

Momma comes rushing into the kitchen and when she sees Ryan holding me, she dramatically throws her hands into the air and shrills, "Oh no! Please tell me you're alright!"

I sit up on the table and Ryan drops his hands to his side.

"They made me wait in the garden! Austin told them to forbid me from coming inside! Can you believe that? My son and daughter are inside with a murderer and they want me to twiddle my thumbs in the garden," she shrieks at Ryan. I hear Austin's voice behind me and I spin to face him as he says, "We couldn't have you interfere with a police investigation, mother."

"My daughter nearly died!" She shrieks again and she's the only one being hysterical.

"Well lucky for Ryan's impeccable timing here, she didn't," Austin says and then my momma finally acknowledges Ryan standing beside me. She calms herself before saying, "You saved Sawyer's life?"

He begins shaking his head but I quickly interrupt whatever he was about to say.

"If it weren't for Ryan, I would be dead or paralyzed." Ryan glances to me and I stare at him, "Isn't that right Ryan?"

Austin looks to him too and even though we are hyping this up way too much, I add, "He practically threw himself into the face of danger, risked his own life to save mine." She can't dislike Ryan after that statement.

"Just keeping her safe."

He shrugs and I know he is too modest to exaggerate like Austin and me. Momma takes another step towards Ryan and puts her hand on his arm.

"Thank you. She's lucky to have you lookin' out for her."

"She means the world to me too," Ryan says and I am sitting here stunned. Did my mother and Ryan just have a moment? Did Momma actually thank someone? I glance to Austin and he is stunned too. He clears his throat and says, "Well Sawyer, you know how this goes. We gotta get a statement from you."

I nod and then look to my mother, "You heard em. Can you finish the patio? It's only a few ribbons."

"I can manage I suppose. We'll finish the rest tomorrow," she says and from her tone, I can tell she isn't thrilled that we are all leaving her. Austin catches it too and adds, "Why don't I help mother and meet you at the station. Ryan, you can handle this."

"Sounds good. Let's go," he says to me. I go to swing my legs off the table and a sharp shooting pain immediately spreads down my back. I yelp out as my hands clutch onto my back and everyone freezes. I release the breath I had pent up and look to Ryan.

"I'm fine. I'm just going to be incredibly sore."

He slides his arms underneath me and lifts me off the table. I wrap my arms around his neck and he gives a curt nod goodbye to Austin and my momma. He carries me out to his truck and says, "I want the paramedics to look you over. I'll have them come to the station."

I know better than to argue so I nod. He slides me into the passenger seat but before he closes the door, he looks to me and says, "I'm sorry I didn't get to you sooner."

I reach out and stroke the side of his face.

"Ryan, you can't possibly feel you're to blame here. I could have slammed into you and we both could have tumbled down the stairs, but that didn't stop you. I'm alive and walking and I might not have been if you weren't there. Do not be hard on yourself."

"It's my job to protect you. This is why I try to keep you out of my job," he says softly. I can tell he's devastated that I got hurt but he can't blame himself. I pull his face toward me so he can meet my eyes and say, "Ryan, this time it had nothing to do with your job. You remember what started all of this right? I made you trespass onto a golf course where we stumbled upon Poppy's body. My connection to the club raised my suspicions of Arthur and my stubbornness led to the discovery of the staircase. It was my fault I went looking for clues and my fault that I confronted Lucy in front of a steep staircase. This is all on me."

I try and reassure him the best I can and I finally see a hint of a smile creep onto his face. He sighs and then says, "What am I going to do with you?"