44 Book Five (12 page)

“Abby, I’m so tired. I don’t know what’s happening.”

She started sobbing quietly as the paramedics placed her on a gurney.

“You’ll be okay, Paloma,” I said, holding her hand. “You’ll be okay.”

“We’re taking her to St. Charles, miss,” the driver told me before they pulled away.

“Crazy shit, what that guy did, man,” one teenager said. “Even for a crazy hot babe like that, I wouldn’t have done that.”

“He saved her,” I heard a girl say. “He totally saved her.”

CHAPTER 29

A paramedic checked Ty over and gave him a blanket. He seemed okay, but looked completely exhausted. He was drinking from a small water bottle when I went back over to him.

“How are you doing?” I asked, hugging him. “Are you really okay?”

He shrugged.

“Yeah,” he said. “But I’ll sleep well tonight. That’s for sure.”

“I was so worried, Ty,” I said, my shaky voice betraying my intention to be strong for him.

“Worried?” he said. “Come on, with these guns?”

I smiled weakly.

“You saved her. She would have died if you hadn’t gone in and pulled her out of the river.”

“I guess. You know, she fought me at first,” he said. “When I was out there swimming over to her, she was screaming at me to get away. I was just going to take her over to that rock, get her out of the current. I figured the rescue team would have ropes and it would be better to wait for them. But she was so weird. She kept saying that I wasn’t in time. We were near the boulder and she looked at me with these insane eyes and then, like that, went out cold. Maybe it was the water temperature. I had to get her back.”

He suddenly started shivering and I wrapped the blanket tighter around him.

“We should get you home and into a hot shower,” I said.

“Let’s wait a few more minutes,” he said. “The cops will probably want a statement. I saw you talking to Paloma before they took her. What did she say?”

“She said she couldn’t remember anything. She didn’t even know what happened and was confused about where she was.”

We watched as a police car pulled into the lot.

“Listen, Abby,” Ty said. “Let’s meet up later. Go get lost in the crowd. There’s no reason you need to be here for this. You don’t need any more publicity. Okay? I’ll call you when I’m done.”

I started to argue. I didn’t want to leave him, but he insisted.

“Go,” he whispered. “Before it’s too late.”

I kissed him hard and then walked away slowly. There were still a lot of people around, some talking to Ty and calling him a hero.

***

I saw a news van from the television station drive up. I waited in the dark for a little while before I left. A couple almost bumped into me as they stared at the flashing lights.

“Do you know what happened?” the woman said to me.

“No,” I said. “No idea.”

I walked over to Galveston, then up to Ten Barrel and ordered a beer. I found an empty chair outside and tried to make sense of the evening.

Paloma was burning up, that much I knew. She had a fever and seemed delirious. But what kind of illness would make her veins crawl around like that in her arms?

It was good that she was going to the hospital. Maybe the doctors would be able to come up with a logical, medical explanation.

I texted Ty, hoping he hadn’t jumped into the river with his phone, and told him where I was. Then I called Kate and told her what happened.

“She would have gone over the spillway if Ty hadn’t gone in after her. I’m sure of it,” I said. “I think she’s okay now. They took her to St. Charles.”

“That’s terrible,” Kate said. “Do you think she tried to kill herself?”

“I dunno. She had a pretty high fever. I think she was out of her mind with it. Maybe it’s something like the plague.”

I wouldn’t normally have come up with a theory like that, but I remembered hearing some customers talk about a few cases of it in a neighboring county.

“Or maybe it’s drugs,” Kate said. “I’m sure they’ll do a tox screen at the hospital.”

Somehow I didn’t think it was drugs.

“I’m glad Ty told you to stay out of sight. Do you need anything? I’m coming down to get you guys.”

“No,” I said. “I’m okay.”

“What are you thinking?” Kate said, after I was quiet for a minute.

“I’m wondering if something else happened to her tonight. Something worse.”

“Worse, how?”

“The ghost that was haunting her. I’m wondering if he tried to kill her.”

CHAPTER 30

In about half an hour, Kate and Ty arrived. I ran up to the car.

“How are you doing?” I asked, getting into the back seat.

He turned and nodded, but his eyes looked a little vacant.

“I need a hot shower and a pillow,” he said yawning. “I talked to the cops but they still want me to come down to the station. I told them I would stop by in the morning. I don’t know what else I can say. I already told them what happened.”

“At least they didn’t have you go in tonight,” I said. “Did the press talk to you?”

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “The guy was a real deep thinker. He seemed more interested in finding out how old I was than what happened. But it was no big deal. I just told him I swam out and brought her back. I kept it vague.”

He eased his head back and closed his eyes while we drove. When we got to his house, I helped him out of the car, my arm around his waist as we walked slowly up to the door.

“She really flipped out, Abby. I keep thinking about it, remembering more. The things she was saying when I got to her. She was calling me all sorts of names. Things a crazy person would say.”

“Like what?”

“I’d rather not repeat it, Abby. It was really ugly stuff.”

An avalanche of dread rolled down inside me.

“And then she, I don’t know. I guess she fainted. But the more I think about it, the more I’m not sure. I mean, it’s all starting to feel like a dream.”

I reached up and hugged him again, taking the keys from his hand and opening the door.

“It’s been a long night,” I said. “You need to get some rest.”

But Ty seemed like he was still thinking about it.

“I think she was dead, Abby,” he said. “She was dead in my arms as I swam with her back to shore. She was dead.”

I had never seen him so shaken up before.

I took his hand and kissed it, my heart full and grateful that he was still here.

“Do you want me to stay with you tonight?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“No,” he said. “I’m fine. Really. I’ll call you in the morning.”

“No,” I said. “I’m staying. I’ll just go tell Kate and I’ll be right back.”

He smiled and shuffled inside.

I helped him into the shower and went out to the kitchen. I looked in the refrigerator. There wasn’t too much to work with. Beer and some empty take-out cartons. What used to be a hunk of cheese inside some foil. Some more beer. Three eggs. Just enough for an omelet I thought.

I found the salt and pepper in the cupboard along with some garlic powder and got down to work.

It was ready just as Ty came out of the shower. He was wearing some Hawaiian-style shorts and his hair was still wet.

“Better?” I said.

“Yeah.” He sighed.

“Sit down. You must be starving.”

He wolfed the omelet down in seconds without speaking like it was the best thing he had ever had.

I stared at his shirtless chest.

“Go ahead, get a good eyeful,” he said. “Take a picture even, because it might be the last time you see me this way. You keep taking care of me like this and pretty soon there’ll be a lot more of me to love.”

He slapped his stomach and smiled wearily.

“Come on,” I said. “Let’s get you to bed.”

***

He fell asleep almost before his head hit the pillow.

I lay there next to him, watching him breathe.

I thought about Paloma. I hadn’t seen the ghost at the club or around her tonight. But I couldn’t deny what I saw in her arms, inside her. There was a darkness there. A black energy, dark and thick and malevolent.

Paloma wasn’t crazy. I was somehow sure of it now. But I didn’t know what to do to help her.

It was 4:35 and I was still awake, the sky already lighting up, and the black feeling inside me grew with every passing minute. My mind jumped from Paloma to dark bodies of water waiting for victims. I thought about Ty in that water, how he could have just gone over the falls and could have been sucked away from me forever. I had come close to losing him, just like I had lost Jesse.

I thought about how it’s easy to feel like everything in front of you will always be there, rock solid, but how in reality it’s all just a terrible moment away from turning into dust.

I thought about Ty some more as I watched him sleep, about how brave he was to rescue someone he didn’t even know. And that was just the point. Someone needed help, and without thinking, he was there.

That was Ty.

I would love him as hard and as strong and for as long as fate would allow. Before we disappeared into that darkness Bruce Springsteen sang about.

I love you, Ty. I love you.

CHAPTER 31

Ty’s face was all over the local morning news. The TV report mainly focused on his daring rescue and didn’t say much about Paloma, other than she was an unidentified woman in the river who fell in the water above the spillway.

He looked good on the screen. Even tired and wet, he was poised and confident as he spoke to the reporter, telling him what happened. They looped the footage all morning.
The Bugler
even offered their coverage for free on their online edition.

I went out before Ty woke up and brought back some donuts.

“Hey, hero,” I said when he finally got up. “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “I got some good sleep. I feel a lot better.”

He smiled and seemed back to his usual self, his energy light and happy.

I handed him the white bag.

“You’re trying to corrupt me,” he said, as he inhaled the first one, powdered sugar flying in the air and on his shirt.

“I’m trying to keep you alive. You need to carb up after last night.”

He put the last bite in his mouth as he grabbed his phone and keys.

“I’m walking over to get my car and then driving over to give my statement,” he said.

I told him that I was going to try and see Paloma at the hospital.

“Wait for me,” he said. “I want to come too.”

“Okay, I’ll just meet you back here.”

Just over an hour later I drove us over to the hospital in his truck, placing the bouquet of sunflowers I had bought on Ty’s lap.

“These are nice,” he said. “Cheery.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I hope they help. How was it talking to the police?”

“Fine.Told them the same thing again. They say they’re treating it like a suicide attempt. That’s what all the witnesses are calling it. They asked me, but I said I didn’t really know. I was just focused on getting her out of the river.”

We crossed the highway, turned down Eighth, and weaved through the back streets over to the hospital.

Ty sighed.

“I just can’t stop thinking about it, Abby,” he said. “I keep seeing her desperate eyes and angry face in my mind.”

I accelerated, making the light, and turning into the lot.

“She’s messed up,” I said. “I have to find a way to help her somehow.”

“Maybe you can’t. I don’t know. This isn’t up my alley, but she seemed so unstable out there. She needs professional help.”

“Maybe,” I said, not quite believing it.

I parked and we walked through the double doors of the hospital. I fought off the memories of the long nights I had spent there after my drowning. I just wanted to think about Paloma now.

But they didn’t let us see her. The nurse at the desk just shook her head.

“Sorry,” she said. “No visitors.”

“But this is the guy who saved her,” I said.

She didn’t look at Ty and kept her eyes on the chart.

“She’s under observation. Only family can go in. But I can take those to her if you like.”

I handed her the sunflowers.

“Tell her Abby and Ty were here,” I said.

“Got it,” she said, finally looking up. “I’m sure she appreciates everything you did for her.”

We turned and walked back down the long corridor to the elevators, that hospital smell hanging in the air round us, almost making me gag.

“Wait,” a voice said from behind us. “Wait!”

A woman ran up, dressed in scrubs and holding our flowers.

“Hi,” she said, looking flustered and nervous. “I’m Paloma’s sister, Rosie.”

She looked a little like her but older, with small wrinkles around her puffy eyes.

“I’m Abby. Paloma told me you were a nurse. Nice to meet you. And this is Ty.”

“Ty,” she whispered.

Then she gave him a long hug, crushing the sunflowers between them.

“Thank you so much,” she said, crying softly. “For pulling her from the river last night. I don’t even know what else to say. Thank you seems so small compared to what you did.”

She took his hand and held it.

“I’m so grateful that you were there. It was a miracle.”

He smiled shyly and seemed a little embarrassed.

“I’m just glad she’s okay,” he said, looking over at me.

“How is she doing?” I asked.

She took a deep breath.

“She’s okay,” she said, lowering her voice. “She’s very tired. She’s been sleeping most of the time. She doesn’t remember anything about last night. She doesn’t even understand why she’s in here. It just breaks my heart.”

She started crying again.

“She’ll be okay,” Ty said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “She just needs a little time.”

“I hope so,” Rosie said. “She’s been acting so crazy this last week. Not at all like herself. When they called me last night, I have to admit, part of me wasn’t even surprised.”

“Crazy?” I asked. “How?”

“Moody. Angry sometimes. Paloma’s not like that. She’s always been very outgoing and friendly. A lively spirit. Lots of friends and always out, having fun.”