Rude Awakening (16 page)

Both adults looked down at the small boy. Looking at Holly, Eli said, ‘He's my unca.' Then, looking at Dalton, he said, ‘A mean man took me away from John's house.' Eli pointed at Holly. ‘She took me away from the mean man.' Glancing from one to the other, he summed up with, ‘'Kay?'

Both adults nodded. Then Dalton said, ‘Who was the mean man?'

‘Mr Smith,' Holly and Eli said in unison. Holly pulled Eli close to her. ‘I'm not really sure
who
he is,' she admitted to Dalton, lowering her head. ‘He hired me in Tulsa to do an acting gig – he
said
.' She made a ladylike snort. ‘Some acting gig!'

‘You're an actress?' Dalton asked.

Holly lifted up her head proudly. ‘Yes, I am. But Mr Smith certainly is
not
a director.'

Dalton stared at Holly for a moment, then asked, ‘Are you just acting here, or are you really a woman?'

All three kids, Johnny Mac and Dalton's eleven-year-old niece Rebecca and two-year-old nephew Rodney, Jr were planted in front of the TV in the living room, a cartoon movie playing with the sound down low. Clovis Pettigrew had taken up the pacing in front of the fireplace and DeSandra was sitting in an easy chair facing the couch, where I sat holding my wife, with Anne Louise on Jean's other side.

‘What can I do to help?' DeSandra asked, leaning forward.

I shook my head. I had no idea what anyone could do. No idea what
I
could do, and I was the one who should be having the ideas.

‘I know!' DeSandra said, brightening visibly. ‘Pizza!'

Her two employers ignored her while I stared at her like she was the idiot I believed her to be. Then I looked at the kids in front of the TV. It was going to be a long night.

‘Yeah,' I said to DeSandra. ‘That's a good idea. Why don't you order some pizza? But make sure Anthony answers the door when the delivery man gets here, OK?'

‘Why? Oh!' DeSandra said and pointed a finger at my nose. ‘Got'ja!'

And with that, she headed for the phone.

I wasn't that aware of it then, but the story LeeLee told me is entirely too common in the healing professions – actually, in any profession where a person with a certain personality flaw is put in a position of authority over another person. Dentists, teachers, doctors, shrinks
–
you name it. A flawed human being finds a person like LeeLee, young, vulnerable, damaged, and takes advantage in the worst way possible.

When Jean finished telling me her story, I held her close. ‘It's not your fault, babe. None of this is your fault.'

‘That's right,' Anne Louise said. ‘I remember all this. He was scum, Jean. We both know that. You did the right thing at the time. And besides, he's in a coma. This can't be him. No matter what people want to believe, patients as damaged as Emil just don't come out of comas.'

Jean turned to Anne Louise. ‘Call, please,' she begged her. ‘Call the hospital in Chicago. See if he's still there.'

Anne Louise sighed but nodded her head and took a cell phone out of her purse.

‘Help!' Mary Ellen called. There was no answer. She sat on her little piece of earth, looking up at the stars in the sky, then down to the black pool below. She'd tried to stand up at one point, but her left ankle didn't want to cooperate. So occasionally, she'd sit up and yell ‘Help!' to no avail and then lay back down and contemplate her life as it had become.

Holly wasn't sure she trusted this big lummox of a man, but she didn't feel that she had any choice. He said he was a sheriff's deputy, but did that really mean anything? Some hick county sheriff of some hick county she'd never heard of? She'd seen movies about small-town sheriffs and what they did to people – especially good-looking young women like her.
Road Gang Babes
had been one of her ex-boyfriend's favorite videos. But she was just so damn tired. She looked at her watch, realizing it was already one o'clock in the morning. He said he was Eli's uncle, Eli said he was his uncle. If she couldn't trust Eli, who could she trust? Holly sat down on a fallen log, pulling Eli onto her lap.

‘OK, fine,' she said, looking up at the big lummox, who was actually kind of cute when you really looked at him. ‘I can't walk another step, Deputy. Can we just sit down for a while?'

Dalton sat down beside her. ‘Yeah, that sounds like a really good idea.'

Charlie had no idea that Milt had had this many cases over the years, but it beat the police department files by a mile. Everything from murder to the great canned-peach caper of 1992, when little old ladies stole canned peaches. Charlie couldn't help reading that file. Who would be able to resist? Six former members of the Longbranch Volunteer Fire Department's Ladies Auxiliary trying to beat out the new, younger members by selling more baked goods at the annual Ladies Auxiliary bake sale. They stole the peaches over a five-month period, hitting six different stores in the county before they were caught. And the women were only caught because Milt was able to tackle one old lady who tried to run away using her walker.

Charlie started laughing. It was late and both his body and his mind were tired, and he just kept laughing until tears streamed down his face.

It had taken a while at this time of night for Anne Louise to get through to the Chicago rehab center where Emil Hawthorne had been in a coma for the past eight years. But once she got through to someone on the right floor, the information was instantaneous. Anne Louise put it on speakerphone so we could all hear.

‘Oh, yes,' the floor nurse said when Anne Louise asked about Hawthorne. ‘A real success story! Dr Hawthorne just woke right up – maybe a little over eight months ago! You coulda knocked us all over with just one feather!' the nurse said, and laughed. ‘And the strangest thing, he had almost complete recall. Of his accident and everything. And in less than two months he was up and walking and talking, feeding himself. It was a real miracle!'

‘Do you know where he is now?' Anne Louise asked.

‘No. Maybe outpatient PT knows. He should be seeing them on a weekly basis, but I really don't know about that. And they're closed now. But they'll open at eight in the morning.'

‘Thank you so much,' Anne Louise said and hung up.

She and Jean just looked at each other. I rubbed Jean's neck. ‘So? What does this mean?' I asked

‘It means Emil Hawthorne is out there somewhere and he's killed Eli and he's after John!' Jean answered.

Anne Louise grabbed Jean's hands and held them tight. ‘We don't know that, Jean,' she said. ‘If it is Emil, he wouldn't . . . he couldn't . . .'

‘Kill Eli?' Jean said softly, hoping the boy's family couldn't hear her. ‘You know what he was capable of before the coma, Anne Louise. Waking up with total recall? That's unheard of. But if he did, and with that much anger all directed at me, we have no idea what he's capable of now!'

I called Charlie Smith on his cell phone and asked for an APB to be put out on Emil Hawthorne, giving him what little details I had.

‘You think this is the guy?' he asked.

‘Jean thinks so. He's our only suspect at this point,' I said.

‘Well, we'll find the bastard, Milt. Don't worry about that,' Charlie said.

‘From your mouth to God's ear,' I said, remembering my mama's favorite saying, and hung up.

It was after one o'clock in the morning when Rodney Knight came back to the house.

‘I can't find her,' he said to his mother-in-law, then burped.

Standing, hands on hips, Clovis Pettigrew said, ‘You mean she wasn't at the Dew Drop Inn?'

‘Ah—' Rodney started, and then he just stopped, as he had nothing left to say.

‘Well, while you were out drinking, the kidnapper called!' Clovis started, getting close to her son-in-law and staring up into his face.

Jean stood up. ‘Stop it, Clovis. The kids.'

Clovis sighed and moved away from Rodney. ‘Get your children in my car and I'll drive y'all home,' she said. When Rodney failed to move, Clovis shouted, ‘Now!' Rodney moved.

‘Miz O'Donnell, Chief,' DeSandra said, ‘I gotta be heading home, too. Thanks, I had a nice time.' I couldn't help staring at her. How could one person get so much wrong in a single sentence?

Anne Louise kissed Jean on the cheek and hugged me. ‘I need to get home, too,' she said. ‘If there's anything . . .'

Jean hugged her. ‘I'll call you if there is.'

Anne Louise nodded and headed out the door behind DeSandra and Clovis Pettigrew and what appeared to be left of her family.

That just left me and Jean and Johnny Mac. And Anthony Dobbins.

‘Sheriff,' Anthony said. ‘I'm staying. I'll be right here in the living room drinking coffee if you need me.'

I nodded as I led my family to the master bedroom. Johnny Mac wasn't getting out of my reach tonight. ‘Thanks, Anthony,' I said. ‘Help yourself to the pizza or anything in the fridge.'

‘'Night, Sheriff. Dr MacDonnell.'

Emil watched the car come up the long driveway. He moved toward it, tired, irritated and totally out of sorts.

When the electric window rolled down, he said, ‘Well, it's about damn time you got here.' The words had barely left his mouth when the automatic appeared in the driver's gloved hand, and one shot was fired between Emil Hawthorne's charismatic dark blue eyes.

As the sun rose on Sunday morning, it cleared the mountain top where Falls Creek crested and dropped 100 feet into the pool below, finally slowing as it became once again Falls Creek, flowing onward downstream. The flow of the upper section of Falls Creek had slowed, causing the waterfall to now trickle lazily down into the pool.

As the sun came over the mountain top, over the small precipice on which Mary Ellen lay, it shone directly onto her closed eyelids, forcing them to blink and Mary Ellen to awaken. Shielding her eyes with a hand, she sat up and looked down into the former abyss. It was no longer there. Instead, maybe half a story below lay the pool at the end of the waterfall, shining bright green in the sunlight, with Falls Creek flowing from it. Wild flowers dotted the meadow, and a pregnant doe fed on the tall grasses. Mary Ellen decided that she'd died during the night and was now watching Heaven, wondering how soon she would be admitted.

Dalton woke up with a crick in his neck. His nephew Eli was curled spoon-style against his belly, and that crazy actress girl was curled spoon-style against his back. He seemed to be the middle spoon, and he was afraid to move, lest he wake up one or the other. He had no real qualms about waking Eli – his little nephew had awakened him many an early morning when staying over at Grandma Clovis's house. But he felt a little strange waking up the girl. This was the first time he'd ever spent the night with a woman, really, even though it wasn't . . . well, you know. But still, he was a little embarrassed. About that and about the . . . well, the
tightness
, for want of a better word, around the front of his pants. That happened a lot in the mornings when he first woke up, but it seemed to be even a little tighter, and getting tighter still as he felt the warmth from the female body spooned up against his back. He scooted a little closer to Eli, away from Holly, but she just scooted right up next to him again. There was no escaping either laying there with tight pants or waking up both of them.