Close To Home (Westen Series) (6 page)

He hurried out the door and down the front steps, his heart in his throat. He reached the car just as the deputy climbed out the driver’s side.

“Hey there, Doc. Got some company here to see ya.”

“What did they hurt this time?” Clint whipped open the passenger-side door and squatted between it and the seat, feeling Brian’s arms, legs and chest, then looking in his eyes. Finding nothing, he repeated the process with Ben.

“No, Doc. They’re okay.” Cleetus laughed as he came around the car. “I drove by and the boys were walking with Miss Isabelle out on Highway 64. Thought I’d best get them off the road afore somethin’ bad happened. They asked me to bring them over to see you.”

Clint sat back on his heels, relieved, but a little confused, too. “You guys are okay?”

Brian and Ben nodded.

“You tickled us, Doc Clint.” Ben hopped out, followed closely by his brother, who had a softball clasped in his unencumbered hand.

“Thanks for lettin’ us play the lights, Cleetus.” Brian grinned at the Sheriff’s deputy.

“Anytime there, Ben. You guys have fun visitin’ with the Doc, okay?”

Both boys giggled and elbowed each other when the deputy called Brian the wrong name.

Cleetus opened the back door and helped Emma’s mother out. “Now Miss Isabelle you visit here with the Doc and Emma’ll be over to take you home.”

“Thank you for the ride home, sir.” Isabelle patted his arm then handed him a wad of dollar bills from her purse. “I hope this will cover the fare.”

Cleetus closed her hand over the money and bent down to speak to the tiny woman. “Miss Isabelle, did you forget again? I’m not the taxi driver. I’m Cleetus, the deputy sheriff.”

Confusion filled Isabelle’s eyes, quickly followed by recognition, then embarrassment. “Of course I know you, Cleetus. I’ve known you since the first day you walked into my second grade Sunday school class. Thank you for bringing the boys and me home.”

She patted his arm, straightened her shoulders and walked across the street to her house.

Once she was safely on her porch, the deputy shook his head and turned back to Clint. “She’s getting a little forgetful. I guess it’s to be expected at her age.”

“Does it happen often?” Clint wondered just how confused she got, and if there was some other underlying cause.

“Well, Doc, can’t say as I know.” He opened the door and climbed in. “You take care, boys.”

“Bye Cleetus!” The boys yelled as the deputy pulled out of the drive.

Clint folded his arms across his chest and eyed the twins when they turned to face him. “You two want to tell me what you’re doing here? Why you left Miz Violet’s? And why you had the deputy drive you here with the lights on in his cruiser, scaring half the town?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.”

Clint glanced up to see their mother hurrying across the street, her hands struggling to put her hair in a ponytail. He sucked in his breath as she jogged toward them. Her breasts bounced lightly beneath her sweatshirt, her hips swayed in the faded blue jeans. To top it off, she was barefoot. Obviously, she’d just crawled out of bed, probably awakened by the Miller sisters just after he’d talked to them.

He resisted the urge to gawk at her longer, returning his gaze to the two redheads standing in front of them.

“Aw, Mommy, we just couldn’t let...” Ben started, all humor gone from his countenance.

“...Mama walk down the road by herself.” Brian looked as serious as his brother.

Emma’s eyebrows drew together, confusion clouding her features. “You left Miz Violet’s house because Mama wanted to?”

Both boys nodded solemnly.

Emma looked at Clint for an explanation.

“Apparently Cleetus found the three of them walking down the highway.”

Her hand flew to her lips and all the color drained from her face. “Oh, my God.”

Clint gripped her by the elbow, then wrapped his arm around her as she started to sink to the ground. “Here, you’d better sit down a minute.”

He helped her sit on the clinic’s porch stairs.

“What could she have been thinking, taking them away from the Miller’s and walking on the highway. Semis roll through there going at least seventy miles per hour.”

She leaned down and put her head between her knees.

“Emma?”

She sat back up. Tears filled her eyes. She blinked them away fast as she shook her head. “They could’ve all been killed.” Her words were barely above a whisper.

“But they weren’t.” He sat down next to her and took her hand in his. “They’re all here, safe and sound.”

“Why would she take the boys on the highway?”

The pain in her eyes tore through him. He wanted to gather her in his arms and promise her everything would be all right. That scared him. He wasn’t planning on getting involved with anyone, and especially not with a woman who had more problems than solutions. But he could help her understand her mother’s actions.

“Cleetus said she was confused, and when he dropped her off here, she seemed to believe he was the local taxi driver. Apparently the boys recognized her disorientation and decided to keep her company.”

“We didn’t want her gettin’ losted.” Benjamin said.

Brian nodded.

“Has she done this often?” Clint asked.

“Ever since my dad died last spring, she’s been a little off. Sometimes it’s as if she’s in her own little world. But it never lasts long, and she’s never, ever done anything this dangerous.” Emma shook her head. A fine shower of dust dropped off her hair. She mopped it off her jeans.

Before he could ask her any more questions, she suddenly stood and put her hands on both boys’ shoulders. “Boys, I know you were just trying to take care of Mama, but you shouldn’t have left Miss Violet’s home without telling one of those ladies where you were going. You’ve scared them both to death. Not to mention worrying the doctor and myself.”

“We’re sorry, Mommy.” Brian lowered his eyes, scuffing his shoes in the gravel near the drive.

Ben nodded alongside his brother.

“You need to take more responsibility for your actions. Next time you tell an adult before leaving their care, and please let me know if Mama isn’t acting right, okay?”

“But, Mommy we was resp...” Brian glanced to his brother.

“...onsible. We asked Cleetus to bring us so we wouldn’t cross no streets without you.”

“Any streets. And that is not what I mean by responsible.” She lifted her eyes heavenward, and Clint imagined she prayed for patience. He bet she had to do that almost daily.

Disappointment spread across both boys’ faces. For an instant he felt like taking their side. Then he remembered how fast his heart raced when he thought they were missing, or that the deputy had brought them to him because of an injury. He could only imagine how upset and angry their mother must be.

Emma let out her breath in one big huff. “You two are going to go to your room until dinner. I want you to think about how dangerous what you did was. And no TV until then. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Mommy,” they both said. Their heads hanging low, they turned to cross the street.

“Wait a minute.” Emma stopped them before they got two steps away. “You will apologize to Doctor Preston for causing a commotion in his busy day.”

“Sorry, Doc Clint.”

“Sorry, Doc Clint.”

“I’m sorry, Doctor. We’ll have a long talk about disturbing other people without permission. Rest assured they won’t be bothering you again.” She turned, grabbed both boys by the elbow and marched them across the street.

Clint tried to focus on the hurt sadness in the boys’ faces, but he couldn’t take his gaze away from the wiggle of Emma’s blue-jeans-clad bottom. Suddenly, the idea of the Lewis twins or their mother not bothering him didn’t sit well with him.

Things weren’t as cut and dried as he’d first thought when he met Emma and her boys. He rubbed the back of his neck. Perhaps he needed to find out a little bit more about their family. And he knew just the person to ask.

“Harriet!”

* * *

“Emma moved to Columbus just after high school to go to the University there.”

“Ohio State?” Clint listened patiently to his nurse, who stood restocking the supply cabinet in the exam room. Getting any more than cursory information from her felt like pulling teeth. “What did she study? Did she graduate or drop out?”

“No, she graduated.”

“With what kind of a degree?”

“Psychology.”

“Well that accounts for what, four years?”

“Three.”

Clint tapped his fingers on the counter. “She graduated in three years? She would have been, what, twenty-one?”

“Twenty. She graduated high school a year early, too.”

“What is a smart girl like her doing waitressing at the Peaches ’N Cream?”

“Raising her sons the best she can. There aren’t many jobs for a girl with a degree in Psych, Doc. You know that.”

Clint nodded his head in agreement. “Most Psych majors are pre-med students.”

Harriet just smiled at him.

“You mean…?”

“Emma was accepted to the school of medicine there at OSU. In the first ten percent chosen, to be exact.”

Clint whistled. “So what happened?”

“She fell in love.”

“And?” Now Emma’s life puzzled him more than when he began this grueling quiz session with his nurse.

“He was a medical student, too. Convinced her to marry him, drop out and support him while he went to school. With the promise he’d put her through school when he finished.”

“Only he didn’t.” He knew more than one jerk who’d done the same over the years. The contempt on Harriet’s face mirrored what he felt about the guy. “So then what happened?”

“The rest Emma will have to tell you, if she wants.”

Great! The enigma of Emma Lewis kept getting more complex the more—or less—he learned. He rubbed the back of his neck again. Okay. Maybe another trail would lead him to some answers.

“How long has her mother had periods of mental confusion?”

“Isabelle’s spells started just after her husband died last spring.”

This he already knew. “Did my uncle know about it?”

“Well now, Doc Ray wasn’t one to jump to conclusions. He thought Emma needed some time to adjust to things.”

“Emma or her mother?” Just who was Harriett trying to protect? His uncle, Emma or Isabelle?

Harriet stopped in the middle of counting suture packets to peer over her shoulder at him. “Doc, things don’t always appear as they look.”

With that cryptic statement she returned to stocking.

Clint clenched his jaw tight, grinding his teeth in frustration. How had Uncle Ray kept from killing his nurse all these years?

“Harriet, if I don’t turn into a blithering idiot or a homeless drunk by the end of this six months, it certainly won’t be from your lack of effort.”

He marched to the front door. The whole situation and lack of information churned in his head as he stared across the street at Emma’s house. Today proved the boys needed more supervision—and her mother clearly couldn’t handle the situation.

Memories flooded his mind. Johnny Wilson, emaciated and dressed only in a T-shirt and shorts, sitting in the ER staff lounge eating pizza late one winter night, while his mother played pool for drinks two blocks away. Johnny’s mama promising to get the boy a warmer coat and stay home with him every night. Flashing lights. The ER door opening. The stretcher carrying Johnny’s inert body on it coming through the door, almost in slow motion.

Clint blinked away the images.

Dammit! It wouldn’t happen again. Not with him.

He slammed the door open, heading across the street to make sure little Miss Emma knew he meant business. If she couldn’t be bothered to assure herself of her sons’ safety, then he’d just do it for her.

At her front door, his hand raised to knock, he heard Emma’s voice. Clint froze mid-knock, peering through the screen door down the corridor. She passed the kitchen door at the rear of the house, her back to him, her phone to her ear, the long cord stretching behind her.

“No, Suzie, I don’t want you or James to talk to the doctor. He’s so busy jumping to conclusions, he wouldn’t listen to anyone anyways... No, I won’t ask Uncle Lloyd to talk to him either...I know he’s the sheriff, but he’s Mama’s younger brother, and I don’t want to needlessly worry him.”

She walked farther away, her next words lost to him. He knew he’d sunk to a new low by eavesdropping, but maybe if he could hear more of what she had to say, he’d find some answers to his questions.

Carefully, he stepped off the front porch and made his way around the side of the house, dodging over-propagated purple peony bushes and late blossoming roses of pink, red and white. The downstairs windows stood open to let in the late afternoon breeze, but he couldn’t make out any of her conversation, so he moved further along the side of the house.

At the back porch, he stopped. Miss Isabelle sat on the porch swing crocheting and staring out into the backyard. The last thing he needed right now was to explain to Emma’s mother why he was skulking about in their yard. Deciding it was more prudent not to disturb the elderly woman he stepped back to the side of the house beneath the open kitchen window and inhaled slowly.

What was he doing? Sneaking around in a woman’s yard, listening in to a private conversation? That’s it! He’d finally lost it. He’d return to his office and get himself under control.

Her laughter slipped out through the screened window. “Oh, I know he’s handsome, Suzie...”

So she thought he was handsome? Clint waited to hear more.

“But so egotistical. Just like all doctors…”

She paced the kitchen again and he only caught pieces of her conversation. And why did she have such bad opinions of all doctors? Just because her husband was a louse, didn’t mean the rest of them were. Like his uncle. Now there was a doctor people looked up to.

“…except for Doc Ray, of course...I know the boys need a male influence in their lives...”

She laughed again, and something warm stirred inside Clint, traveling low, straight to his groin. “Yes, the doctor would be preferable to Cleetus—barely. Although Cleetus does have a kind heart.”