Five Minutes Late (29 page)

About fifteen miles past Highway 92, the traffic started slowing down. A couple of minutes later, their bus was completely stopped on the freeway. Nobody was moving, not even an inch.
 

“Not good.” The driver grabbed the microphone to talk over the PA system to the passengers. “Looks like we’re going to be delayed. I was told there would be roadwork today, but it wasn’t supposed to start until this evening. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

Ellie heard a siren in the distance getting closer. “It sounds like it may be an accident.”

A California highway patrol car drove by on the shoulder of the road, followed by another. Many of the passengers were lifting their butts out of their seats to try to see what was going on.

The driver grabbed the microphone again. “Okay, looks like it’s an accident, so we may be here for a bit. We do have free Wi-Fi. The information is in the seat-back pocket. And we’ll be serving Jell-o shots and tequila in just a few minutes.”

Ellie laughed along with the passengers as many of them began pulling out their laptops and iPads to connect to the Internet. That wasn’t even an option for Ellie since her computer was in her suitcase that was stored below. Oh well.
 

They continued to creep along the freeway. Ellie could have walked faster than the bus. Two agonizing hours later, Ellie saw the scene of the accident. Off the road, to the right, there were at least ten fire trucks, just as many highway patrol cars, and several ambulances. Then Ellie spotted an overturned bus.
 

“Jesus Christ,” said the driver. “That’s our other bus.”
 

Police, firemen, and emergency workers were on the scene, treating injured passengers. Ladders were used to extract passengers from the emergency exits of the bus; some were wheeled on stretchers to the ambulances. Two medical helicopters were on the ground, and another just took off, obviously with someone who was more critically injured. Television news reporters were on the scene as well.

This did not look good.

The mood in the bus was somber. Ellie could hear a few people mentioning they knew someone on the other bus. Many of the passengers were on their phones, calling loved ones to let them know they were okay.
 

But Ellie lost her phone.

“Pickles,” she muttered.

She glanced to her left and noticed the woman across from her disconnected a call.

“Excuse me. I lost my phone back at the hotel and was hoping I could borrow yours to let my grandpa know I’m okay. If you don’t mind.”

“Of course.” The woman handed Ellie the phone. “Make as many calls as you need to.”

“Thank you so much.”

Ellie dialed Grandpa Frank.

“Hello,” he answered.

Just the sound of his voice made her want to cry, but she needed to hold it together.

“Hi, Grandpa, it’s me.”

“Princess! How was the conference?”

“Good, but I only have a minute. There was an accident with one of the buses and …” She felt her eyes starting to burn and took a deep breath. “I’m just calling to let you know I’m okay, just in case they talked about it on the news. I wasn’t on the bus that crashed.”

“Good heavens, thank God. I had no idea. Where are you?”

“We’re still stuck on the freeway in Palo Alto. I think I need to stay with you tonight. I’m a bit shaken up, emotionally, as you can probably imagine.”

“Of course. Do you want me to come pick you up?”

“No, no. Once I get home, I’ll grab some things and be right over.”

“Okay then, see you soon.”

Ellie disconnected and called Peggy. She knew she was on vacation and out of cell phone range, but just wanted to leave her a message. She let her know she was okay and to pass the message on to Julio as well.

She handed the phone back to the woman, thanked her, and sent private thoughts of well wishes to the people on that bus.
 

Even to the two selfish women who were in the front row.
 

The bus driver glanced over to Ellie. His face said it all.
 

You could have been on that bus
.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Cedric paced back and forth in his living room. He felt like crap again.
 

Ellie had texted him earlier in the week, saying he didn’t have the balls to talk with her, and she was absolutely right. He was torn and it was killing him. What kind of cruel universe made you choose between your family history and the girl of his dreams? It wasn’t fair.

He grabbed the picture frame from the mantel over the fireplace and admired the photo of him with his mom from their Catalina Island cruise. He smiled and kissed the picture, then wiped the smudge marks off the glass with the bottom of his T-shirt.

“What should I do mom? Michael said most likely I’m going to get some sort of a sign from you, so let it rip. I’m waiting.”

He stared at the photo and waited.

“Any sign.” He listened for noises in the house. Nothing.

He let out a deep breath. “You told me more than a few times you only wanted me to be happy. Well, Ellie makes me happy. So … did you factor that in when you told me nothing would mean more to you than me getting the property back? Speak to me.”

“Arf.”

“Nice try, Tofu. You stay out of this.”

“Arf.”

Cedric turned around and eyed Tofu, who had something in his mouth.

“What do you have there?”

Cedric reached down and pulled a bookmark from the dog’s mouth. The bookmark Ellie gave him in the library.

Cedric blinked.

He stared at the bookmark for a moment and then looked back down at Tofu.

“Holy crap.”

“Arf.”

“No, not you. Please don’t crap in the house.”

He wiped Tofu’s slobber from the bookmark.

“Okay, was that the sign I was waiting for?”

Tofu just stared at Cedric and wagged his tail.

“No way, I don’t believe it.”

Cedric paced again, back and forth, and then stopped and stared at the bookmark again.

“That was just a coincidence, not a sign. Now if I had
another
coincidence, that would be more convincing. Two coincidences in a row would not be a coincidence. I wouldn’t be able to ignore that.”

Cedric’s cell phone rang from the kitchen and he ran to pick up the call, Tofu following so closely he almost tripped over him.
 

“Hello?”

“Cedric, it’s me, Julio.”

Cedric didn’t reply.
 

Was this a sign? A second coincidence?

“Cedric?”

“Yeah, I’m here. What’s up, Julio.”

“I’m going crazy over here, that’s what’s up. Have you heard from Ellie?”

“No. I—”

“Did you know she went to the librarian conference in San Francisco?”

“No. We haven’t—”

“Okay, I need to calm down. Calm down, I’m just going to take a few deep breaths.”

Cedric could hear Julio breathing in and out over the phone.

“What’s going on, Julio?” asked Cedric, now worried. “Talk to me.”

“Ellie took a shuttle bus to the conference and—” Julio let out a loud sigh. “Turn on the television. Channel seven.”

“Okay.”

Cedric walked to the family room, clicked on the television, and changed it to channel seven. There was a reporter on the scene of an accident. Cedric took a sip of his coffee and watched. “Yeah, it’s an accident. And?”

“Turn
the volume up.”

Cedric turned up the volume to listen to the news report. A graphic appeared on the screen:
Fatal Bus Crash in Palo Alto
.
Two Dead.

“That’s right,” said the television reporter. “Police report the bus veered out of control and overturned at nine-thirty this morning here on the southbound side of Highway 280, near Page Mill Road in Palo Alto. It is confirmed there were sixty-one passengers on board, mostly librarians, returning from a weeklong library conference in San Francisco.”
 

Cedric moved closer to the television. “Holy hell.”

The reporter looked down at his notes. “Fifty-nine people were injured, five of those critically, and there are two known fatalities. All of the injured are being transported to Stanford Hospital where—”
 

Cedric clicked the television off and threw the remote down on the couch. “I’m going to the hospital, Julio. Gotta run.”

“If you find out anything, please let me know.”

“Of course.”

Cedric disconnected and two minutes later was in the car with Tofu, driving toward Stanford Hospital. He called Ellie on her cell phone, but it went straight to voicemail. It took all of his efforts to concentrate on the road. He let off of the gas when he noticed he was going eighty-five miles per hour in a sixty-five zone. The last thing he needed was another accident.
 

Cedric’s thoughts were all over the place. How could this be happening again? It wasn’t possible. Not seeing or talking to Ellie over the last few days had been torture enough. Now, the possibility of her being hurt or of losing her completely was almost too much to bear. He gripped the steering wheel so tight, he wondered if it was going to snap off. This was a sign. It had to be a sign.

Calm down. She’s okay. Everything’s okay. She’s an angel.

“My angel,” said Cedric. “Ellie, you’re an amazing woman. You’re going to be okay.”

“Arf.”

Cedric glanced at Tofu in the rearview mirror. “You agree, buddy?”

“Arf.”

“Of course you do. And you know what, Tofu? I love her. God. I fucking love her so much it hurts.”

“Arf.”

“Of course, I know you love her too. Well, she’s going to be okay, buddy. And then you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives with her. You have a problem with that?”

“Arf.”

“I didn’t think so.”

Cedric pulled up to the hospital, left the engine and the air conditioning on for Tofu, and ran inside. The place was a madhouse; people were everywhere, talking, crying, and yelling. Reporters too.
 

Cedric worked his way through the people to the woman at the reception desk, a woman who looked completely frazzled. “I’m looking for Ellie Fontaine.”

“Was she on the bus?” asked the nurse.

“Yes.”

The nurse checked her admissions list and seemed to have a hard time finding Ellie’s name. She went to the second page. “I don’t see her here.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. She was on the bus. Is that a list of everyone?”

“As far as I know, and it was just updated about thirty minutes ago. Fifty-nine people. The only two names it does not show are those of … the two people who didn’t make it.”

No. Was she one of the two who died? Cedric’s heart couldn’t take another death, but he had to know.

“How do I find out the names of the two?”

“They haven’t released them yet, so I can’t help you there. If you want to check back later …”

Forty minutes later, Cedric was back in Willow Glen and sprinting to the front door of the library. Peggy had to know something. He came to a halt when the automatic door didn’t open.

“What the hell.”
 

Cedric looked through the glass. Nobody. He obviously wasn’t thinking, it was Sunday. The library was closed Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays.

He left another message for Peggy on her cell phone and then drove to Ellie’s house. He sat on the front step, waiting with Tofu. Pure torture.
 

Cedric ended up waiting for over six hours before finally giving up. He was getting tired and obviously Tofu was tired and hungry.

He finally went home and fed Tofu.
 

He loved so many things about Ellie, the way she grinned after she said something amusing, the feel of her mouth, her flirty nature, her hair, her smarts. He loved that she was a walking Wikipedia.
 

Cedric’s cell phone rang and he jumped. “Hello?”

“Hi, Cedric, it’s Peggy. Sorry it took so long to return your phone call, but I was up in the Sierras with no cell phone coverage and I just got—”
 

“Please tell me Ellie is okay.”

“Yes, yes. She’s okay. She’s perfectly fine. She was on the second bus.”

“Thank God.” Cedric’s eyes tightened and burned, and he let out a deep breath. It was all he wanted to know. Nothing else mattered at the moment. Not even Papa George’s old property. She was okay and alive.
 

It was the best news in the world.
 

“Cedric?”

“Yeah.” He tried to regain his composure. “I’m here. That’s … good. Great news. The best.”

“I’m so sorry you had to worry like that. I just got off the phone with Julio, who was also worried sick. In fact, he told me to make sure I called you.”

Cedric let out another big breath. “Do you know where she’s been? I’ve left so many messages and stopped by her house, I don’t know how many times.”

“She’s been staying with her grandfather. She got spooked after seeing the crash … understandably. And she lost her phone at the conference so nobody was able to get a hold of her.”

“That explains that. I left her so many messages.”

“Go to the library on Wednesday, I know she’d love to see you.”

“I’d love to see her too.”

That was an understatement.

“And thanks again for your generous donation, and please tell your friends thank you too.”

“Will do.” He disconnected and knew there was something he had to do, before anything else.

Cedric drove to the Oak Hill Memorial Park and walked to his mother’s tomb. He hadn’t visited her site since the service. He kneeled down, pulled a tiny weed that was sprouting up next to the tombstone, set it aside, and smiled.
 

“Hi, Mom. I’ve missed you.”
 

He cleared away another tiny weed and set it aside. “I met a girl I know you’d approve of her. Hell, maybe you can even see her. I don’t know how this death thing works.” He shrugged and continued, “Anyway, I’m not going to buy Papa George’s property. This girl is more important to me than the property. She’s amazing.”
 

He stood up and brushed off his pants.