Creatures of the Storm (4 page)

He and Lisa hadn’t
exchanged more than twenty words in a row since the day he’d left.
All he knew about what she was going through was what Lisa told
him, and that only came in dribs and drabs. He knew about her
realtor business, of course, and he had a sense of how bad things
were.
Why won’t you take any money?
He wanted to ask.
Why
not let me –

Lisa pressed her lips together and scowled.
“Don’t be an ass,” she said and gestured at the chair. “Sit down.”
Lisa caught a glimpse of a khaki uniform moving in the hallway.

“Is that a policeman at the door?” she
asked.

“Yeah,” Ken told her. “He’s been guarding you
since we got here.”

The officer stirred as if he knew they were
talking about him. He turned and stuck his head in the door, a
handsome, dark-haired head with thick black brows and piercing
eyes.

“You’re awake!” he said, smiling.

“Yup,” Lisa said, pushing her hair back. She
hated the feel of the IV in her wrist.

“I’ll get the doc, then. By the way, I’m Bo
Cameron, Deputy Sheriff. We wanted to make sure you were okay.” He
flashed a smile and ducked away.

“What is that about?” Lisa asked.

“They want to get your statement about the
accident as quickly as they can, I think,” he said, glancing at the
empty doorway. “About that ATV.”

Lisa let her eyes fall shut. She was already
tired. “I didn’t see much,” she said. “You probably know more than
I do.”

“Yeah, I told the EMTs what I saw on the way
here. Guess they passed it along to the Sheriff.”

“Sheriff? God, this
is
a one-horse
town.”

“Actually, we’re saving up to buy our horse.
Give it another couple of years.”

Ken couldn’t stop looking
at her. He felt like a starving man in front of a three-course
meal. He wanted to her to look at him,
him,
so he could tell her about
dragging them from the wreck while it was still steaming in the
downpour, about the wild ride to the Borrego Clinic in the ’57
Chevy ambulance, about the argument in the ER when he refused to
leave them. But he couldn’t open his mouth. He couldn’t even bring
himself to take her hand.

God,
he thought.
I’m an idiot. I’m such a
fucking idiot.

Lisa turned her head and opened her eyes,
looking with great concern at her daughter. “What about you? Any
injuries?”

“I’m fine,” Rose assured
her mother. “Clean bill of health, as if I’d let these guys
touch
me to find
out.”

The bizarre storm rumbled and hissed outside
the hospital room’s picture window. Lisa’s eyes flickered to the
glass, then back to Ken. “I thought you said it never rains
here.”

He would have sworn he heard something almost
accusatory in her tone. “It doesn’t,” he said. “Usually. This whole
thing seems to be some bizarre mountain-shadow effect. That’s…”

He could see the flatness in her eyes. She
didn’t care. It didn’t matter. The word died in his mouth.

This isn’t what we should
be talking about,
he told
himself
.
He knew
they should be talking about important things:
Rose's recovery, Ken's dead brother, his problems with the
contract, or Lisa's own money troubles. But he couldn’t get any of
it out. He didn’t even know where to start.

“Hey there,” a new voice said from the
doorway. They all turned towards it with palpable relief. Things
had suddenly become very complicated. “Hey….”

He was far too young; in his late twenties,
blond and handsome in a weary, unconscious way, with a very short
haircut and an open, unguarded smile. He looked more like a frat
boy than an ER physician. He took Lisa’s free hand in his own.

“I’m Geoff Chamberlain,” he said. “We’ve met
before, but you were unconscious at the time.”

“How many women have you
swept off your feet with
that
line?” Lisa asked.

The doctor grinned. “Maybe I do need some
fresh material,” he said. “Anyway, I don’t want you to worry. We
did every test we could think of, and you passed ‘em all. Looks
like you’ve got a mild concussion, a dandy little contusion right
above your hairline, and a badly strained right wrist.” He looked
up from his notes. “Let me guess, the Mommy Sweep?” He threw his
right arm out to the side and kept it there, as if holding back an
invisible attacker.

“Guilty,” Lisa said,
smiling at him. Rose had to admit it: he
was
cute.

“It defies all the laws of physics, you
know,” he said. “But I don’t blame you one bit.” He glanced at Rose
who was standing to one side, arms folded, looking him up and down
very skeptically. “I mean, look who you were trying to
protect.”

Ken gave him a killing
look. “She’s
sixteen
,” he said.

Rose wanted to die.

Dr. Chamberlain held up a hand as he went
back to his notes. “Just being understanding,” he said, grinning
again. “Part of the bedside manner.” He looked back at Lisa, a
little more seriously this time. “Head injuries can be tricky, Ms.
Mackie…”

Rose could see her starting
to correct him, to say “Corman,” … but she let it go.
And what is
that
all about? s
he asked
herself.

“… and since we’ve got the space, like we
usually do, I’d like to keep you here overnight for observation.
Insurance will cover it. I already checked.”

Lisa frowned. “Really, Doctor, I’d like to
get out of here.”

“I’m sure you would,” Dr. Chamberlain said
gently. “So would I. I’m off duty in about half an hour, and under
normal circumstances, I’d be happy to take you all out for a drin…”
he looked at the pretty sixteen-year-old again, then at her
glowering father. “…for dinner. At Denny’s. The one with the kids
menus.” Then, back to Lisa: “But seriously: let’s not mess with it.
You got a pretty mean bump, and there’s no reason not to get a good
night’s sleep right here. We’ll release you in the morning, and
then none of us have to worry.”

Lisa looked at Ken and Rose. They both nodded
severely. “Okay,” she relented. “One night.”

There was a knock at the door and they all
looked up to see an impressive-looking blond man in a crisp khaki
uniform. He was standinginside the doorframe with his peaked hat in
his hand. Bo Cameron was standing a respectful distance behind him
with the oddest expression on his face: he looked wary, almost
afraid.

“Ma’am?” the crew cut blond cop said, his
voice a pleasant and carefully modulated bass. “I’m Sheriff Donald
Peck. I was wondering if I could speak to you for a moment?”

“Only for a second, Sheriff, okay?” Dr.
Chamberlain said. “She needs the rest.”

Peck shot the doctor a hard
look, a look that Lisa read as
Who the
hell do you think YOU are, boy.
I
t was hidden by a smile in an
instant. “Of course,” the Sheriff said. “Only a minute or
two.”

He stood at the end of the bed and asked her
a series of questions about the crash. How fast had she been going?
How bad was the rain? What made her turn like that? Lisa described
what had happened, Ken and Rose filled in with their own
observations, and Peck took it all in without comment or a change
in his serious, thoughtful expression. He didn’t take notes; he
obviously didn’t need to.

He was particularly interested in the red ATV
and the person driving it. “So,” he said, talking to them all now,
“no look at the face. Just a black helmet, black leather jacket…
nothing else? No second person riding behind? No large bundles or
boxes attached?”

They looked at each other and agreed, no,
nothing like that, and only one person.

“I wish like hell I could give you more,” Ken
said.

Peck smiled tightly. “Not a problem,” he
said. “I have a couple of ideas already. It’s not that big a town,
after all.” He put on his hat and shook hands all around. “I’ll be
getting back to you soon as I can,” he said.

Thunder rumbled outside. It made the picture
window’s glass buzz like an angry bee.

“Sheriff, what’s going on?” Ken asked. “I
mean, this is a normal hit and run, isn’t it? What’s with the
police protection?”

Peck smiled again, thinner than ever. “It’s
nothing like that, Mr. Mackie. Things are a little tense around
here right now. You know about the missing girls?”

Ken nodded. “Sure, I’ve heard.”

“Another one today. So anything out of the
ordinary, we’re looking at pretty hard. And believe it or not,
speeding ATVs running people off the road, that’s out of the
ordinary.”

“Got it.”

“The officer,” he shot another look at Bo,
who almost flinched, “will be going with me now. Plenty of other
things to do with the storm and all.” He looked closely at Ken as
he shook his hand. “Your daughter staying with you at the house up
on West Ridge?”

Ken glanced at his daughter who made an
unhappy face. He nodded. “Yes, she’ll be with me. And her Mom will
be here at the clinic overnight.”

“Good. Good all around.” He
made his goodbyes, gave the doctor one last
don’t you screw with me, asshole
look, and stepped out. When he left, a pretty young nurse
came in with a cup of pills for Lisa. She swallowed them without
objection.

“Lovely fellow,” Ken said. “Can’t imagine how
I’ve avoided him for a whole year.”

“Cream of the Gestapo,” the doctor muttered.
He checked his watch. “Oops, look at that, I have to get out of
here.”

“Big date?”

He shrugged. “Worse.
Birthday party.
Mine
.”

“Congratulations,” Lisa said.

“Please. It’s my thirtieth,
and I
begged
my
roomies to leave it alone. No such luck.” He leaned forward as if
telling a secret. “I hear there’s going to be a girl jumping out of
a cake and everything.”

“Unsanitary, maybe,” Lisa
said, “but
fun
.”

He frowned. “We’ll see. Anyway, I’ll check
with you in the morning, Ms. Mackie.”

“Lisa,” she said.

“Lisa.” He shook hands with Ken. “Are you
okay with this?” he asked.

Ken nodded. “Thanks. I appreciate
everything.”

“All part of the service.”
He put his hand out to Rose, who accepted it with grown-up, serious
grace. He smiled at her. “If that back
really
starts to bother you, let me
know, okay?”

Rose gaped.

He grinned. “See you tomorrow,” he said. He
shot one last line over his shoulder as he left: “And let the lady
get some sleep soon, okay?”

They stayed with Lisa for another twenty
minutes, but there was less and less that needed to be said, and
the new round of medications were starting to affect her. Ken put a
hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “I think I’ll take her to dinner,”
he told Lisa, “then go up to the house.”

“Stop at the mall for something to wear,
too,” Lisa said sleepily. Rose started to groan. “Oh, come on, now.
All your clothes were in the car; I’m sure they’re ruined.”

Ken nodded. “Will do. And if you need
anything…”

“I have a phone right here,” she said,
nodding at her bedside table. “I’m sure it will be fine.”

“Yes, but if you
need
any
–”

“
Kenny
,” she said, a hint of the old
edginess creeping back into her voice. “I’ve been taking care of
myself for quite a while now. Don’t get carried away.”

He looked away. “Got it,” he said. Then, with
a false heartiness; “Okay, Rosie, let’s go.”

Five minutes later, she was alone. Ten
minutes later, she was drifting into sleep.

The careful
truce between Ken and his daughter that had held firm in Lisa’s
hospital room began to fray the moment they hit the elevator. As
Rose and Ken stood side-by-side, staring at the inside of the
sliding door, Ken had a nearly irresistible urge to reach out and
take his daughter’s hand, but something stopped him.

“She looks pretty good,” he said, not looking
at her.

“Oh, yeah,” Rose agreed. “Nearly perfect for
somebody who’s been slammed headfirst into a stone wall.”

Ken scowled. “I mean it could have been a
whole lot worse, Rosie. She–”

“I know
what you meant,” she said. “And please don’t call me that.
Please.”

The elevator doors opened on a damp concrete
cavern filled with dimly lit cars. Water was dripping from the
overhead pipes, and cascading down the upslope to the street like
the spillway off an aqueduct. It had only been raining for a few
hours, and the water had already overwhelmed Dos Hermanos’
rudimentary drainage system.

“Do you at least remember where you left the
car?” she asked.

“God, Rose,” he said
quietly, “will you give it a rest?” She was right, of course. At
that particular moment, Ken had no idea where he had parked the
Range Rover. He let his hand steal into his pocket, where his
fingertips found the rubber-and-plastic key ring.
Thank God I remember where I put
that, he thought, and pinched it with a vicious
cut of his thumbnail. There was a sudden
blip
of a horn and a flash of lights
off to their right. “There,” he said. “That way.”

Rose snorted. “Saved by the car alarm,” she
said. “Again.”