Elaine Orr - Jolie Gentil 07 - Vague Images (19 page)

Morehouse snorted
. “Got you fooled. Where’s Everly?”

Kevin and his portable x-ray machine trundled by us, and Morehouse followed me into Lucas’ cubicle.

“How ya doin’ Lucas?  Can you talk to me for a minute?”

When Lucas gave a less-than-enthusiastic positive reply, Morehouse looked at Scoobie and me and said, “Wait in the hall a sec. I want to hear his own version.”

Lucas must have asked what he meant, because as Morehouse shut the door, he said, “Sometimes a well-meaning busybody tries to prompt a person.”

Scoobie looked down the hallway
. “I’m going to see if Kevin will let me look at the film.”  He walked away just as George walked up.

“I saw Morehouse
. He in there?”

“Yep. Shouldn’t take long
. Where were you?”

“Went back to where we found him
. Everly asked me to stand there for a minute ‘til he found someone from maintenance to put a new lock on the closet.”

This kind of amused me
. “I’m surprised you agreed to stay put.”

George gave me a quick grin
. “Now he owes me one.”

I rolled my eyes as Morehouse came out of the cubicle and shut the door behind him
. “I told him you’d be in in a minute. Step over here.”

We moved to a nearby corner
. While closer to the busy nurses’ station, we weren’t blocking the hallway.

“You came because he left you a note?”

“Because we couldn’t find him or Kim after we read Lucas’ note. Scoobie talked to some people here, and they said neither of them had been here. It sounded as if Lucas was telling us Kim was a patient, or at least being treated here.”

“I’ll need to see that note,” Morehouse said.

After a bunch of questions that walked us through the last hour, Morehouse spotted Todd coming into the ER and walked toward him. His parting comment was to George. “I thought the fire extinguisher bit was only for TV.”

George grinned at me and said, quietly
. “Me, too, but I figured, what the hell?”

“Hey, guys.”  Scoobie walked up
. He lowered his voice. “No skull fracture. When Lucas first got in here, the attending checked him for signs of a concussion. Looked to me as if they thought he might have a mild one. Headache, light sensitivity, stuff like that. They thought that cut on his head was from the corner of that metal electrical box.”

“Will they keep him, you think?” I asked.

Scoobie shrugged. “They’ll probably put a stitch or two in his head. I think they’d usually send him home, but because it happened here, I’ll bet they’ll want to roll out the red carpet.”

“They don’t do that when you find a body in the bathroom,” I said, realizing that my foot was aching a lot again.

“I’m sure you put it on a customer comment card,” George said.

Scoobie grinned, and I sensed that had we not been in the ER they would have high-fived one another
. “I’m going back in with Lucas.”  I walked away from them.
They think they’re so funny. This is not funny!

I pushed the door to his cubicle and it made a gentle swoosh
. “Can I come in?”

“Yeah, but could you turn most of the lights off?” Lucas asked.

I saw a light over the sink and turned that on, and then turned off the long overhead florescent light. “That work?”

“Better
. They gave me some medicine for this headache. It’ll work in a while. You didn’t see Kim?”

I pulled a plastic chair next to his gurney
. “It’s not likely Kim was here. I think someone just wanted to…get at you.”

He gave me an intent stare
. “I only took a minute for me to see he wasn’t helping Kim. The man wanted to know if I saw someone walk into the restroom where the hospital woman was killed. I told him no, and he said I did. I guess I shoved him in the chest. I told him I wanted Kim, and then…that’s the last thing I remember. No, wait. The guy sprayed something in my eyes. I rubbed them, and he hit me.”  He paused. “Or something. My ribs kind of hurt.”

“It’s weird that whoever attacked you had the key to that closet you were in.”  And that Todd Everly did not
. I wondered if the person who attacked Lucas was on the maintenance staff.

“You had it?” he asked
. “Of course you didn’t.”

“George broke in with a fire extinguisher.”

“Wish I could have seen that.”  He started to sit up, leaning on one elbow. “I need to get back out there.”

I pushed him down
. It wasn’t hard. I figured his meds were kicking in. “It’ll help a lot if you die because you didn’t take it easy after a head injury.”

“It’s not bad.”

“Maybe not, but overnight won’t kill you. You’d be sleeping, anyway.”

There was a light tap on the door and Scoobie stuck his head in
. He looked at Lucas. “I need to borrow Jolie for maybe half an hour. Stay here, and we’ll be back.”

I followed him into the hall, and when the door shut he whispered
. “Alicia called. She said there’s someone on the pier who looks like Kim.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

WHAT ALICIA HADN’T said, or at least Scoobie hadn’t told me, was that Kim was standing at the edge of the pier, seemingly thinking about jumping off. It was probably fifty degrees with a light wind. In the daytime that might have been fine weather for fall at the beach, but not in early evening.

Ocean Alley’s pier is a short one for fishing, not a big one with rides and stuff
. Alicia and I stood a few feet back from Kim and Scoobie, and we shivered. “I didn’t call the police,” Alicia said. “Should I?”

“I’m glad you didn’t
. It might have made her more desperate.”

Scoobie’s tone sounded as anxious as I felt
. “Kim, listen to me.”  Scoobie had tried to walk closer to her but Kim moved a few feet further down the railing, so he stopped.

“No!” This came out as a cross between a sob and a curse. “I don’t need to listen to anyone
. I need to do this.”  She was almost shaking with cold, in a short-sleeve tee shirt. The jeans I had lent her were wet at the cuffs. I wondered if she had tried to walk into the ocean to drown herself, and wasn’t able to do it.

“I was where you are,” he said, in a calming tone.

Kim didn’t look at him, but I could tell she had heard him. Her shoulders stiffened just a bit. I tried to picture the water below the end of Ocean Alley’s short pier. There were stones piled under the pier, ostensibly to protect the wood pilings. Unfortunately, they were about the size of footballs, and some of them would slide into the ocean when the waves were really rough. They’d usually wash back up in almost the same spot, but not always fully under the pier. The water was shallow. If she jumped her head would likely land on a rock.

“I was about your age. My mom was…a mess.”

“At least you had one,” she whispered.

“That’s one way of looking at it.” Scoobie lowered his voice
. “Did your mom break your arm twice?”

Alicia gasped and looked at me
. I nodded and we both looked back at Scoobie and Kim.

Kim turned her head to look at Scoobie and then back at the ocean
. “No. Did yours take pills so she didn’t have to talk to you?”

“Sometimes. Mostly it was booze and she’d sit in front of the television until she passed out
. Your parents can’t fix what they broke after they’re gone, but you can. You and Lucas.”

“Thomas Edward,” she said, again almost in a whisper.

“Did you ever call one of those suicide hotlines?”

Kim shook her head, almost imperceptibly.

I turned to Alicia and spoke just above a whisper. Kim wouldn’t be able to hear me above the sound of the surf. “I think you should go home. I’ll call you and Megan in a bit.”

Alicia looked dubious and matched my lowered voice
. “She called me. I think she maybe wanted me to talk her out of it.” 

“You
knew
that she had…issues?”

“No, but mom had shown me her picture, and I thought she’d been at Step ‘n Go a couple of times
. She’s loads thinner and her hair is a different color, but in case it was her I gave her my number last time she was there. ”

I gave Alicia a look that telegraphed my exasperation.

“If I’d told you, you would have tried to find her there. If she saw you, she’d leave. Besides, I wanted to be sure it was her.”

Scoobie kept talking to Kim
. “It did help. I called a couple of times. They kept me from doing it, but it didn’t make me feel better. Not right then, anyway.”

“So why would it help me?”  Kim asked.

“Alicia,” I almost hissed.

“I’m staying.”  She stared at Kim, not looking at me.

“Because the third time, this guy talked to me about twenty-five minutes. And then he used this one phrase. I’ve seen it since, but it was the first time I heard it. He said suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.”

When Kim didn’t say anything
, Scoobie continued. “I thought about it for a few seconds. I almost hung up, but he started talking again.”

“What did he say then?”

Yes! She’s really talking to Scoobie
. I felt almost giddy.

“He asked me how old I was
. Again. I wouldn’t tell him before that. So I told him I was almost eighteen. Which I was. He said if there was nowhere else I could go there were places that would help me.” 

Scoobie looked intently at Kim, but just a
s resolutely she stared at the ocean. “Anyway, the guy started talking about the Salvation Army and the YMCA, Saint Anthony’s here in town.”

Kim turned to look at Scoobie, and then looked down at the water.

“I don’t remember what all the guy said. I didn’t say anything, and he finally said he could talk me out of killing myself that day, but I had to decide if I wanted to get up or stay down. For some reason, it sunk in.”

Her voice was bitter. “This social worker kept telling me I was smart and had been given lots of education advantages
. She said I should pull myself together.”

Scoobie was quiet for a few seconds
. “I hate that expression. It means you have to decide not to be weak, or whatever the person thinks you are. I was a strong person. I just didn’t see any way out from where I was.”

Kim stared at the ocean some more, but it looked as if she was thinking about what Scoobie had said, not trying to figure out how to jump.

I looked back at Alicia. “I can’t thank you enough, but somebody’ll see us and call the police. Do you want to have to talk to them?”

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said, in an even, low tone.

“Of course not…”

“But you mean Scoobie can take care of her.”  Alicia looked at me and turned and walked away.

I hoped she wouldn’t be angry with me, but if Kim did jump, I didn’t want Alicia to have to see it. It registered that she had said Scoobie would take care of her.
What am I, a sand dune?

Kim asked Scoobie, “Did you have any money?”

For just a second I thought Scoobie had a smile. “Nah. There was a church that had lunch every day for people who were hungry. I finally came up with a plan, but I don’t recommend it.”

Kim looked at him
. “What did you do?”

“I joined a carnival.”

She smiled. “When I was about ten, the circus came to Atlanta. If I could have figured out how to go with them I would have.”

“Would you have been willing to shovel pony poop?”

“Eww. No!”

“That’s what I had to do the first couple of weeks. And that was the easiest job I had
. I came back to Ocean Alley after a few weeks.”

“And went back to your parents’ house?”

“Nope. Slept on a friend’s porch for a while. Then the guy’s parents helped me figure out how to apply for college financial aid. You can use some of the money for living expenses.”

“And then you were okay?”

“I did a few more dumb things, but I’m okay now.

“Like what?” Kim shivered and rubbed what had to be goose bumps on one arm.

“That would take a week,” Scoobie said.

She looked at him, tears on her cheeks
. “It’s my fault Lucas got hurt. It was the people after my dad, wasn’t it?”

“How did you?…If anyone was pissed at him, I bet it was whoever killed a woman at the hospital.”

Kim looked distracted. “My mom always said her mom would wash her mouth out with soap when she said words like that.” 

Her tone was almost dreamy. I started to wonder if she’d taken a drug of some sort
. At least she seemed to be off the Lucas topic.
How did she know he was hurt?

Scoobie sighed
. “My mom did it. It was awful. You feel like you have soap in your mouth for hours after.”

“Did she say sorry?”

“Nope.”

“My mom left me a note. She said she was sorry for everything
. But she didn’t say what.”

Kim put one foot on the railing that was just a foot off the deck of the pier.

“Don’t!”  Scoobie said.

“Wait!” I hollered.

“I’ll help you,” Scoobie said. “In a year, I’ll help you.”

If I didn’t trust Scoobie so much I’d have hit him.

She left her foot in place. “Help how? When?”

“Just give it a year. Stay here, make friends, maybe talk to a doc about some meds
. Bother Lucas some more.”

She gave a tiny smile, but left her foot on the rail.

“I’m serious. I eventually did a lot better on my own, but this doctor who would come to a men’s shelter, he gave me some anti-depressants. It took awhile, but it made a difference.”

“It never helped my mom
. She…hey!  There’s a man down there!”

Kim was so entranced by the man below her that she didn’t tell Scoobie and me to stay away when we ran up beside her.

I squinted, though why I thought that would help in the near-dark I don’t know. I could see the shape of a man. He was holding onto a piling and seemingly trying to walk from one piling to the next. Waves crashed at his waist and he staggered.

“Who is it?” I yelled.

“Who cares?”  Scoobie looked at Kim. “Do not jump until I get back!”

He ran toward the end the pier and down the short flight of steps that went from one side of the pier onto the beach
. Then he was out of sight, and I knew he would be for a brief time.

I looked at Kim, and she looked back at me
. I could almost touch her if I stretched my arm, but I knew she could elude me and jump in a matter of seconds. “Please don’t,” I said.

She looked down
. “I want to be sure Scoobie’s okay.”

For the first time I thought she might not jump.

We both leaned over. Scoobie had run into the water. It was almost at his knees, with waves sometimes going higher. He gestured at the guy, who gave an impatient sort of wave, as if telling Scoobie to get lost. I looked more closely.
Could that be George?
  The lights on the pier didn’t reach below it, so I couldn’t really tell.

There were shouts from behind us and I turned
. Two women were running down the beach toward Scoobie and the man.

Scoobie held onto the outer piling and gestured to the man to walk toward him. After a few more seconds the man seemed to be nodding that he would
. The tide was coming in and the water was higher than it had been even three minutes ago. The man stumbled and then reached for Scoobie’s hand and let himself be guided back to the beach. They were yelling at each other, but I couldn’t hear the words over the pounding of the waves on the sand.

As they moved more onto the beach
, the two women walked up to talk to them and the light from the pier fell on the four of them.

“George,” I said.

“That’s the guy who was at your house,” Kim said.

“Yeah
. What was he thinking?”  I looked at Kim. “You don’t want to end up on those rocks. Listen to Scoobie. Give it a year.”

Kim looked as if she was defeated, but she nodded and took my outstretched hand so we could walk off the pier together.

“YOU ARE INSANE.”  I directed this at George
. He was on my sofa holding a cup of hot tea, and wearing a T-shirt and sweats he borrowed from Scoobie.

George shrugged
. “It worked.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Scoobie, also in dry clothes, came back into the room from his bedroom. “If you tell me you got the idea from
It’s a Wonderful Life
I won’t believe you.”

“What life?”  Lucas had walked into the living room
. He was so pale that the bandage on the side of his head almost matched his skin. I had gone back to the hospital to tell him Kim would be okay, and he insisted on leaving. He wanted to be with Kim, whom he had just sat with as she fell asleep in my bedroom.

Scoobie pulled out a dinette chair for Lucas, but he pointed to the sofa and sat not far from George and rested his head on the back of the sofa
. Scoobie sat in the dinette chair.

“You want me to drive you back to the hospital?” I asked.

“I never want to see that place again.”  He gave me a weak smile and then looked at Scoobie. “What did you mean?”

“Did you see the movie
It’s a Wonderful Life
?” George asked.

Lucas started to shake his head but instead winced. “I think I’ve heard of it
. Really old, right?”

“Nineteen-forties,” Scoobie said. “Jimmy Stewart
. A guy jumps in a river so ol’ Jimmy has to jump in and save him. Keeps Jimmy from jumping off a bridge into the river to kill himself.”

“In the movie, Jimmy’s name was George
. George Bailey,” George said, grinning. He looked at me. “You got anything stronger?”