Sneaking Suspicions (The Tharon Trace Mysteries Book 1) (14 page)

CHAPTER 20

Simon waited outside of the ER with an orderly and an intern.  Max pulled up to the entrance and Simon’s face blanched when he saw Dana.  He opened the door and lifted her out of Tom’s arms, ignored the orderly with the wheelchair, and carried her straight past reception into the ER suite.  “I’ve got the hypothermia case here, which room does she go in?” he barked.

“In here, Sheriff.” A tall thin nurse, with a long strawberry blond ponytail and a badge emblazoned with the name
Gretchen
, ushered him into an ER room.  She was joined by another nurse who immediately started to cut Dana’s clothes off of her.  Simon lingered by the doorway, his focus locked on Dana, in that instant he acknowledged what he’d refused to recognize before: he loved her.  He deeply and completely loved her.  The thought of losing her twisted his gut into knots.

Dana flailed at the hands with scissors cutting up her pant legs.  She took a deep breath and with all the energy she could muster choked out, “Simon!”

Simon muscled the nurses aside and rushed to Dana as the nurses tucked warm blankets around her.  “Dana, honey, I’m here.  What do you need?”

Dana squirmed beneath the blanket.  With a quivering voice and quirky grin she said, “Simon, honey—” she pulled her hands from beneath the blankets and held her side arms in front of him. “Could you hold onto my guns for me?”

Simon took the guns and tucked them in his pockets.  His face turned a deep shade of crimson.

Dana took his face in her trembling hands, pulled him close and gently kissed his lips.  Color flooded back into her face.  She held up her shivering index finger. “One more thing.” Her hands dove back under the blankets and squirmed around again.  When she brought them back out she handed him four clips of bullets and her shield.  She shoved them into his coat pockets.

Simon leaned close to her lips again and said, “Have you got any idea how incredibly hot you are?”

Gretchen said with a smirk, “Do you two want us to leave and give you some privacy?”

Simon gave Dana a lingering kiss and backed away smiling at her.  “Sorry, ladies.  I’ll be in the waiting room.”  His eyes remained locked on Dana.  He backed into the door frame.  “We’ll talk later.”  He walked backwards out the door and when he turned he bumped into a cart knocking a tray of instruments to the floor.  His blush deepened.  “Sorry,” he said again.

After Simon left, Gretchen took Dana’s temperature again.  “You’re a cute couple.  How long have you two been together?”

Through chattering teeth, Dana said, “About two minutes now.”  She couldn’t stop smiling.

Gretchen grinned wide.  “Well, I think you two have found the perfect cure for hypothermia.  Another two minutes with him and your core temperature will be back to normal.  We do need to get you out of those wet clothes though.”

Dana stuttered, “Okay, but can we not cut off my tops, one of the sweaters isn’t mine and the tactical shirt is my favorite holster.”

Gretchen shook her head and laughed.  “Well, that’s a sentence I’d never thought I’d hear, let alone understand.”

CHAPTER 21

Tom spoke to Doc before he found Lista’s room.  He took a moment to compose himself before entering.  He shook his head in embarrassment at how he’d let his emotions run amuck all day.  Lista didn’t need that.  She needed him to be strong.

He had no delusions about where the strength in their family resided.  Every child they lost seemed to break his heart to pieces, while it turned Lista into a boulder.  Not that she was in any way hard-hearted.  She was as tender-hearted and compassionate as the day he’d met her.  But she had a rock hard strength in her core.

He knew she drew part of it from her faith, which was so much stronger than his own—but she also harbored an innate sense of survival—something he only acquired after years of training—a drive that no matter how bad things got they’d get through them.  He hoped and prayed that Tharon got that quality from her mother.  She’d need it if she was going to survive this night.

He sighed and pushed the door to his wife’s room open.  Lista lay asleep on the bed.  Her hair spilled onto the pillow in a tangled nest of blond curls.  Maisy sat by the window watching the snow.  She turned to him with hopeful excitement.  Her face fell when he shook his head no.

She slumped back in the chair, and then she got a good look at him.  She whispered, “Come sit down, I’m going to find some scrubs for you and get your clothes dried.  Then I’ll find something hot for you to eat even if I have to make it myself.”

Tom was too tired to argue.  “Can I borrow your phone?  My battery died.”

She handed it to him as he sank into the chair next to Lista.  Maisy touched his shoulder and he reached up to hold her hand for a moment.  Then she left to find some scrubs.

Lista stirred and opened her eyes.  “Where’s Tharon?  Is she all right?”

Tom leaned forward and took her hand.  “Tharon and the boys escaped this afternoon.  She left a marked trail for me to follow and I thought I knew where to find her but she wasn’t there.”  He kissed her hand. “Dana, Deputy Donovan, was with me and she developed hypothermia so we had to bring her to the hospital.”  He rubbed his thumb gently over her knuckles. “Max told me about the baby.  So here I am.”

He smoothed her hair back from her forehead.  “Do you understand what happened?”

Her face scrunched up in sadness, “Our baby died.  I don’t remember anything since the time we got to the hospital.  What happened?”

He kept stroking her knuckle, “Doc had to do a C-section and when he did he found a tumor.  He thinks he got it all and he thinks it was benign.  He’s pretty sure that was why you’ve had so many miscarriages.”

“You mean we still might be able to have children?” her voice betrayed the depth of her pain.

He touched her face and with a sad smile said, “I’m sure we will.”

Lista emerged from her anesthesia fog and wrinkled her brow.  “When are you going back out?”

“I’m going to call Matt Harris to go with me.  I’ll leave as soon as he gets here.”  He pulled out Maisy’s phone but stopped and shook his head.  “I don’t know his number and our phone has a dead battery.”

With no small measure of irritation, Lista said, “Angela’s number is on there.  Use it.”

Tom bristled at her tone.  He tried not to let his hurt sound in his voice on the phone.

After he finished talking to Matt, Maisy reentered the room holding a steaming mug and carried a set of blue scrubs under her arm.  “It’s chicken noodle soup.  Sorry that’s all I could find.  Here, slip into these and I’ll take your clothes to get them dry.”

He stood up.  “No, I don’t have time.  Matt will be here soon.  Give the soup to Lista.  I have to go.”

Lista pleaded, “Tom, wait!  I’m sorry I was abrupt.  I’m just so worried about Tharon.”

He rounded on her, even as he spoke he knew he shouldn’t, but her edgy comment dug at him like a thorn in his side.  “Do you think I’m not worried about her?  I know exactly the elements she’s facing.  I saw them almost kill an adult woman.  Our little girl is out there with wet feet, wet clothes, and no hot food and still she’s marking a trail for me.  For
me
!  No one else on earth could read her markings.”

He caught himself before he accused her of being to blame for the children being abducted.  “So no, I’m not going to sit here in this warm room and sip hot soup and wait for my clothes to dry.  I wanted to keep looking for her on my own and the only reason I came back was because...”

Maisy’s face was filled with sadness.  She touched his arm and said, “Because you love your wife and thought she might need you.”

Lista held her arms out to him, an IV line dangling from her left hand.  “Tom, I love you.  I’m so sorry I can’t be there with you.  Please don’t be angry with me.”

He moved back to her side, sighed and gently kissed her lips.  “I’m not angry.  I had to see that you were all right.  I couldn’t be out there worrying about both of you.  But now I’m going to check in on Deputy Donovan and then I’m going to find Tharon.  I won’t come home without her.”

CHAPTER 22

November 10, 2056

Tharon lamented that her beating at the hands of Everett Edwards no longer ranked as her most terrifying experience.  She fell into a restless sleep.  In her dreams spiders and centipedes crawled across the floor, beneath the silver blanket and up her legs.  She kicked and screamed, “Get them off me!  Get them off me!”

Helm grabbed her in his arms and pulled her to a sitting position.  He locked his arms and around her cradled her as he had done in the dark room. “Shh.  You’re safe.  See?  Open your eyes.  See?  Breathe with me.  We’re safe.”

She blinked and looked at the security light filtering through the narrow slits in the blinds.  She closed her eyes and sank into Helm’s arms and felt his breathing, listened to his heartbeat.  She slowed her breathing to match his and opened her eyes again to look at the blinds.  “Isn’t the security light triggered by movement?”

The beam of a flashlight flickered in through the window at the far end of the room and started moving toward them, one window at a time.  Avoiding the flashlight’s beam, they rushed to gather their belongings as quickly as they could; to don their hats and gloves as rapidly as they could; to hug the wall as tightly as they could.  They scrambled ahead of the light and headed for the back door through the kitchen.  Tharon grabbed the poncho and the emergency blankets and stuffed them into Helm’s pack as she ran.

“Come on, you brats!  You’re only making this harder on yourself.  I will find you—best to get it over with now—no place else for you to run.”  Burt’s voice bellowed as he neared the door with the broken window.  “Listen, I only need the girl.  Let me have her and you boys can leave.”

Kaid unlocked the kitchen door and eased out first, Tharon next and then Helm.  Helm took the back pack from her as she passed in front of him and slung it over his shoulder.

She hit the ground running as the entry door crashed open and Burt’s angry roar split the quiet night.

Though the rain and snow had stopped, the night was long from over.  Clinging to Helm’s hand, she plunged across O’Day Road, over the narrow wooded corner and across Yellow River Road.  Speeding through a small woodlot, they ran until they came to the railroad tracks and then turned west, or whatever direction it was, away from where they’d been.

Burt stumbled through the woods, his flashlight flailed through the darkness searching for them.

On the other side of the railroad tracks they slid down a steep bank.  At the bottom a tall dense hedge bordered a large yard whose security lights were too far away to cast even a shadow on them.

Tharon pulled the boys to the hedge.  They tucked themselves deep between the dense crowded columns of the evergreen.  She pressed snugly in its branches and breathed in the scent which reminded her of the arborvitae bush by the back corner of her house.  The familiar scent filled her with a pang of longing for home: for Dad, Mom, Maisy and Shep.  Her chest tightened at the thought of poor Shep, killed trying to protect her.  Against her will, she let out a quiet strangled sob.

Helm pushed all the way through the shrub and pressed into the other side of the bush she was hiding in.  She heard the rustle of the soft flat leaves as he pressed into the tight space behind her.  He wrapped one arm around her waist and gripped her arm.  She crossed her arms to cover his hands with hers and sank back into him standing perfectly still. 

Burt stomped along the tracks above them.  He slipped on the gravel and the flashlight hit metal and skittered along the rail.

Tharon turned her head and buried her face in Helm’s chest.  She prayed silently that Burt wouldn’t find them.

Burt let loose a flurry of curses that made Tharon blush; she didn’t understand most of them, but, from his tone, she knew they were things she didn’t want to understand.

A man’s deep voice boomed from far away in the yard.  “You out there with the flashlight.  I’ve called the Sheriff and I’ve got a rifle so get the hell out of here or I’m going to shoot you.”

Burt dug his pistol out and fired three shots at the man.

The man shot three times towards Burt’s flashlight.

Tharon felt Helm lose his balance for a moment and then right himself as he squeezed tighter on her hand.

Burt’s flashlight shattered and he dove for the other side of the tracks cursing with greater fury.  He wrapped his hand in a white handkerchief and muttered, “Forget this.  All I gotta do is wait where the track crosses the next road.  That’s what I’ll do.  Then I’ll put an end to them brats.”

Tharon heard him stumble back through the woods toward the memorial.  She stayed still for a long time and the boys didn’t say anything.  Tharon had a horrible thought, what if the bullets hit Kaid or Helm?  She whispered, “Are you guys hurt?”

Kaid’s voice hissed from her right, “Shh.  Listen.”

The engine of Burt’s car rumbled to life and faded away down Yellow River Road.  Kaid whispered, “I think we can go now.” He reached in and pulled her free of the shrub.

Helm didn’t emerge from the bush behind her.  She frowned. “Helm?  Are you hurt?”  When he pushed through the bush she sighed with relief.

Helm took her hand. “Come on, we need to find a place to hide before daybreak.  We need to find some nice big woods.”  He walked slowly, and she thought how kind he was to make sure she didn’t get left behind in the dark.

She clung to his hand, unwilling to let go of him.  For some reason when he held her hand, she felt less afraid.  Together they walked side by side as Kaid led them along the tracks in the darkness.

She felt like they’d walked twice the distance between her farm and the Walker farm when Kaid said, “Look, there’s some woods to the left.  We can hide there and rest till the sun comes up.”

Tharon continued to hold Helm’s hand but something was different.  His grip on her hand seemed weaker and the rhythm of his footsteps was off.  He dragged his right foot and slowed down.  She could no longer make out Kaid’s shape ahead of them.  “Helm, what’s wrong?”

“I think one of that man’s bullets hit me—the man from the house.”  He started to sag next to her.

She cried out, “Kaid!  Helm’s hurt!”