In the Heart of the Wind Book 1 in the WindTorn Trilogy (26 page)

“His job begins when we get our boy back here,” Thais said. “Once Gabe’s under Iowa jurisdiction, Sadler can do a lot more legally than he can while we’re doing our thing in Louisiana.”

“Anybody have anything else we need to discuss?” Kyle asked. At the shaking of heads, he shrugged. “Then let’s call it a night.”

“Here’s to a successful hunting trip!” Jake said as he held his beer can aloft.

“Happy hunting,”  the others chimed in.

Annie James dried
her hand on the dishtowel and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Annie James?”

Her voice became fearful. “Yes. Who’s this?”

“You’ll find him at The Chancel. In Metarie, Louisiana.”

Annie’s world skidded to a stop and her breath caught. “What?” She could feel her heart moving up in her chest. “What did you say?”

“James Tremayne. You’ll find him at The Chancel in Metarie, Louisiana.”

“Who is this?” Annie asked, but the line was already buzzing, the connection broken. “Hello?” she shouted, knowing it was futile. “Hello?”

Slowly the knowledge of what the man had said sank into her brain. The Chancel, owned by a Doctor Bruce Lassiter, was one of the three on the list Annie had obtained from Virgil without his knowing it. She had gone over the list and knew it by heart—where it was, who owned it, what it cost for inpatient care. Of them all, The Chancel was the last clinic on the list and the one they had considered the least likely for Gabe to be in.

Annie wavered, her legs threatening to buckle beneath her as she began to realize the person who had called her had sounded a lot like Gabe. She stared at the phone, hoping it would ring again. When it didn’t, she put out a trembling hand and began to dial Kyle’s number.

Everyone was
getting ready to leave. Ellen had brought in their coats from the spare bedroom, and Kyle was helping distribute hats and scarves. When the headlights flashed on the window, those at the front door looked out and were surprised and alarmed to see Annie James hurrying from her car.

“Uh, oh,” Jake commented as the young woman headed their way. “She’s found out.”

“Let me handle it,” Kyle said.

Kyle opened the door as Annie came rushing up the stoop. He barely had time to step back before she collapsed into his arms.

“I’ve found him, Kyle,” she sobbed into the dark brown fabric of his shirt. “I’ve found Gabe!”

There was
quality of strength in the face that looked back at him. Dr. Lassiter could see the change that had taken place inside his patient. The dark eyes were glazed with a powerful tranquilizer that he had been given just as he had awakened, but Lassiter could make out the keen intelligence behind those eyes. There was purpose and commitment in those bleak eyes.

“Why have you come, Jamie?” the doctor asked as he drew up a chair to sit beside James Tremayne.

Even the voice possessed strength. It was quiet, soft, but filled with resolution.

“Gabe came here to kill James.”

Lassiter nodded. “We know that.”

The gentle, mild voice was very low. “Jimmy came to keep Gabe from doing that.”

“And you came to do what?”

A soft, dreamy smile appeared on the relaxed face. “To keep peace among them all.”

James Tremayne, Lassiter thought, had been a peace officer. He would want to see no harm came to anyone.

“What happens to James when the rest of you appear, Jamie?”

The soft smile faded. “He goes away.” The dark eyes narrowed with pity. “Far away.”

“Where he can’t be hurt?”

Jamie nodded. “He won’t be back.”

Dr. Lassiter’s left brow arched. “Why is that?”

“Jimmy took him where Gabe can’t find him. Where no one will ever find him again.” A sly look came over the calm face. “And Gabe has gone after them.”

“Will he find them?”

Jamie shook his head. “Not ever. Jimmy will see to that.”

“And so you’re left here all alone.” Lassiter watched the face flicker with fear before the black eyes lowered.

“All alone.”

“As you’ve always been.”

The dark eyes lifted and fused with the doctor’s. “As I’ve always been.” Sadness filled the voice.

Sitting forward in his chair, Lassiter took Jamie’s hand in his own. “If I keep you sedated, will others come here to help you?”

Jamie shook his head. “I’m all by myself from now on, Doctor. There won’t be anyone to help me.” The eyes were calm, accepting of their fate, but tragically sad.

“Your sister wants to continue with the shock treatments until Gabe is forced away. How will this effect you, Jamie?”

There was a brief, eloquent shrug. “I’ll endure.”

“But Gabe won’t be back. Perhaps there’ll be no more need for the treatments.”

The most sorrowful and melancholy look the doctor had ever seen crossed over the face before him. It was a pitiful sight that wrenched at Bruce Lassiter’s heart.

“It won’t matter,” the trembling voice said. “It’s too late.” The dark eyes shifted to the barred window. “I have to be the strong one. I have to be the example for the others. The one to whom the others turn for solace.” He looked back at Lassiter. “They trust me, although Gabe doesn’t like me. As long as I’m here, no harm will ever come to James again.”

Lassiter watched as tears formed in the dark eyes. His eyes held such a devastating look of utter loneliness and helplessness. In a voice breaking with pain, Lassiter heard the young man pronounce his own fate.

“My mind feels numb, Dr. Lassiter. From all the years of running and hiding James from his father. Now he’s been captured at last and all my defenses are down. My freedom is gone, too. I can’t fight him anymore. I have to live with the despair that’ll be my life from this moment on.” A tear slid down his face. “I can do that as long as James is safe.”

For the first time in his life, Bruce Lassiter felt another human being’s pain and it struck him to the very core of his being. He covered Jamie’s hand with his own. “I’ll do whatever I can to keep her from bothering you, Jamie.”

The sad, fatalistic smile wavered, the dark eyes lowered, and the soft voice went lower still. “It’s all right, Dr. Lassiter. Everything will be all right.” The wounded eyes lifted. “Don’t worry about James. He’s where no one will ever hurt him again.”

“But what about you?” Lassiter asked quietly.

There was a slight lifting of Jamie’s shoulders. “I don’t matter.”

Edna Mae looked
out over the ocean waves as they crashed onto the shore. Far out in the water, she could make out a lone sailboat, its multi-colored sails full in the brisk wind. Looking up at the gunmetal sky, she wondered why the Coast Guard hadn’t called the little boat in. She watched as it tacked south, keeping an eye on it until it was out of view beyond the sweep of the condominium’s window. Vaguely, she was listening to the doctor speaking to Kyle, quietly telling him all the symptoms he should exhibit, going over in detail what Kyle would need to know once he was taken to The Chancel.

“I’ll order a light sedative, Kyle. They’d be suspicious if I didn’t. Try not to ingest it if you can. Hide it under your tongue until the nurse is out of the room. I’ve brought some placebos with me for you to practice with.”

Edna Mae turned away from the window and sat on the cheerful West Indian print loveseat flanking the window. She watched as Kyle placed a small pill in his mouth and tried to move it under his tongue without being caught.

“You’re going to have to practice with that,” Doc Remington said and laughed. “I could see you doing it from way over here.” He poured himself a cup of coffee and lifted an eyebrow at Edna.

“No, thank you,” Edna Mae replied. Coffee would only make her more nervous. She plucked at the braided cord that ran along the sofa pillow.

“It’s going to work, Miss Edna,” Doc told her as he took a chair. “We won’t send Kyle in until everything is in place.”

She tried to smile, but found she couldn’t. Now that they were here and the plans underway, her nerves were churning like the waves along the shoreline.

“I worry about him,” she told Kyle as the young state trooper came to sit beside her on the loveseat. “I just worry what they’ve done to him.”

“We all do,” Kyle said as he took her hand in his and patted the frail, vein-ridged flesh.

“I’ll help anyway I can,” the psychiatrist told her as he hunched down before her. “I’ve never liked Bridget Casey. I’ve never trusted her.” He looked at Doc Remington. “I never understood why I didn’t.” His eyes hardened. “Now, I do.”

Edna Mae looked at Dr. Alec Gardner and admired the way his neat white mustache and sincere brown eyes shone. She had liked this elderly man and had instantly trusted him the minute she’d met him. He was Doc’s oldest daughter’s godfather and Doc trusted him implicitly.

“He’s one of the top men in his field, Miss Edna,” Doc had explained. “His reputation will get us into The Chancel without the slightest hitch. The man in charge down there will be so awed at having Alec Gardner send him a patient, he’ll wet his knickers!”

And that had been exactly the reaction Edna Mae had heard over the speaker phone when Dr. Gardner had called to speak with Bruce Lassiter.

“Dr. Alec Gardner calling for Dr. Bruce Lassiter,” Doc’s wife had announced to The Chancel secretary.

It hadn’t taken a heartbeat until Lassiter was on the phone.

“Dr. Gardner, this is indeed a pleasure! I’ve heard such wonderful things about your programs for treating manic depressives.” There had been an ingratiating tone in the man’s soft, Southern voice. “How may I be of help to you, Dr. Gardner?”

Alec Gardner had rolled his eyes at the effusive tone. “I, too, have heard good things about you, Dr. Lassiter. I understand your clinic is perhaps the best kept secret in the psychiatric community.” He had let his voice drop to a conspiratorial level. “I’ve also been told your security is top notch.”

“Oh, absolutely, Dr. Gardner,” Lassiter had gushed. “We are very security-conscious with our patients.” Lassiter’s own voice had dropped. “Our client’s value their privacy.”

“Of course,” Gardner said. “I’m hoping you might be able to provide such—shall we say— ‘privacy,’ for one of my patients.”

There had been a short moment of shocked elation at the other end, then Lassiter’s hurried: “All you need do is ask, Dr. Gardner!”

Alec Gardner had smiled a nasty little smirk which told the people watching him what he thought of the supercilious man to whom he was speaking. “Please, call me Alec. May I call you Bruce?”

Another short, stunned moment of breathlessness at the other end before Lassiter had sighed with pleasure. “Oh, please, by all means.”

“Well, Bruce,” Alec had began in a too-friendly, condescending way. “As you’re aware, I have quite a few clients who are well-known in entertainment and political circles. Most of them I send to my own private clinic in the Catskills, but there are some, like the patient we’ll be discussing, whose family doesn’t want the media to bother him while he is recuperating.”

“Naturally not,” Lassiter had agreed.

“My patient is from an extremely wealthy and affluent old Georgia family. Old money, shall we say? He’s gotten himself mixed up in a rather embarrassing position and his mother—the woman is a veritable saint...” Gardner winked at Edna Mae.

Edna Mae smiled.

“And, of course, this has been a source of worry for her,” Lassiter commiserated.

Alec crossed his eyes. “Your perception is very astute, Bruce.”

“I try.”

“What I’d like to do is bring David down to Metarie myself—”

“You’re coming down?” Lassiter gasped such intense joy in his tone, those listening had to cover their mouths to keep from laughing.

“Well, I’ve long wanted to meet you, of course, Bruce,” Alec gushed, “and since David’s family is one of my main contributors, I think it best I accompany him there personally.”

“This is such an honor,” Lassiter breathed. “Such an
honor!
I’ll have my wife set up a little party...”

“I won’t be able to stay, Bruce, much as I would love to, but you know how tight our schedules are,” Alec was quick to say. “I’m sure yours is as hectic as my own.”

“Well, yes,” Lassiter said. It was evident to everyone the man was keenly disappointed that his illustrious guest would not be there to enhance Lassiter’s reputation among the locals. “I understand perfectly. Perhaps some other time?”

“Most definitely! I look forward to it. Will tomorrow, at three, be too soon for me to bring David to The Chancel?”

“That would be fine, Alec. I’ll have a room prepared.” There was a slight hint of pride in Lassiter’s voice. “You’re in luck that we have any rooms left, but one of our ladies went home just this morning.”

“Fine, then. I’ll see you tomorrow at three. By the way, the patient’s name is David Boudreaux. I’m sure you’re familiar with the family?”