The Dark: A Collection (Point Horror) (35 page)

"You're lucky."
The police chief shook Harry's hand. "Instead of coming to arrest
you for breaking out of jail, we're here to congratulate you."

They stood talking in
the aisle as the police pushed past with Rick Roscoe and the
Brazilian pilot, Manuel, in handcuffs. Rick gave Bianca a dirty look
as he stomped by. He mumbled under his breath.

"Just wait until I
get out of jail, bitch!"

The Shipleys left
with Little Katie, assuring Bianca that they wanted to hear about her
experiences as soon as she'd rested.

Bianca collapsed
against Harry. He had to carry her down out of the plane to the
cheers of reporters and photographers who flashed their cameras in
her face. She kept searching the crowds and the runway, looking for
what she didn't really want to see. She had a responsibility to
know what had happened to Doc, even if he had turned into a red spot
on the pavement.

Harry walked with
Bianca and held her hand. The police took her into a private room at
the airport and questioned her about Doc Ernie McCollough and his
nine lives.

"Have — have you
found his body?"

Bianca sat on the
edge of her chair. She could barely get the words out of her mouth.

"We're searching
the grounds of the airport."

"What are the
chances of his surviving?" she asked.

"Was he an
experienced chutist?"

She shook her head
— no.

"I — I don't
think so. He might have done it before. He might have taken lessons
just like he took Portuguese lessons. He couldn't have done it many
times."

"Then they'd be
nil to nothing leaping at night under such bad conditions. He
probably landed in the ocean and drowned. That explains why nobody's
found his body."

Bianca closed her
eyes in pain at the very images it evoked. It reminded her of her
nightmare again — falling through the sky until you hit the sea.

"Bianca's had
enough questions for now," Harry told the police when he saw her
wince. He squeezed her hand as he whispered into her ear, "I'm
sorry you have to go through this."

Harry escorted Bianca
back to her house as the sun came up. They drove in silence and
didn't talk. He gave her a hug before they got out.

Bianca's parents
had been informed of what had happened. They had been lifted by
helicopter from their Alaska cruise ship and transported back to
Georgia by private, chartered jet at the Shipleys' expense. They
were arriving just as Bianca did. She was overwhelmed by hugs and
kisses. Her parents made her a quick breakfast with lots of hot tea.
Harry stayed to see that she drank every bit. Then she was put to
bed.

Before Bianca went to
sleep, she became conscious of something pressing against her ring
finger on her left hand. It was the diamond ring and the matching
gold wedding band that Doc had given her last night during their
wedding ceremony.

She was too numb and
stunned to feel much of anything. The grief would come later. She
slowly took the rings off her finger and placed them on the
nightstand beside the turquoise earrings that Doc had given her for
her seventeenth birthday.

She wondered about
the diamond. Why had Doc gone to so much trouble to steal it again
and again? There must be something more to the story that he hadn't
told her. That part of the story would almost certainly never be
known now. It would all become part of the mystery that had been Doc.

As Bianca fell
asleep, her eyes kept on popping open to gaze at the rings. What was
Bianca going to do with them now that she was probably not a married
lady? Without knowing the answer, she fell into an exhausted slumber.

The last thing she
heard was Doc speaking his final vow to her. "I'll be back for
you if I make it. I swear it."

***

During the next
several days the island was abuzz with the story about Doc and his
return from the grave. Newspaper reporters from other cities came to
cover the news. They wanted to interview Bianca. Her parents and the
Shipleys firmly but politely turned down all offers, even the ones
with money attached.

The island and the
waters offshore were searched for any traces of Doc. Two days after
the jumping incident a fisherman reported seeing a white parachute
floating on the surface of the ocean, being tossed about by waves.
Police went out to investigate and pulled it ashore to examine. It
was identified as Doc's parachute. There was no body anywhere
around.

Could Doc have been
eaten by sharks? The waters off coastal Georgia were full of them.
That was what the coroner concluded and wrote on Doc's second death
certificate, throwing away the certificate from two months before.

Bianca attended a
second funeral for Doc, along with her parents and the Shipleys. The
McColloughs refused to come. An empty coffin was lowered into the
same grave, the one where someone else's ashes had been buried.
Those ashes had been removed.

Bianca told herself,
"He's dead now. He's got to be." She tried to put his voice
behind her, the one that spoke to her in her dreams promising to
return someday soon.

One week later Bianca
sat with the Shipleys and her parents at Harry's graduation
ceremony. He had been calling every day, but they hadn't seen each
other alone since the morning he'd driven her back from the
Jacksonville Airport. He was getting his degree from the police
surveillance academy in Brunswick. Bianca and her family had the best
seats in the front row. Little Katie herself rested on Bianca's
lap.

Harry graduated at
the head of his class. He made a speech. He gave credit to Bianca.

"If you want to see
a real hero, don't look at me," Harry proclaimed to wild
applause. "Look at the brown-haired girl with chestnut-brown eyes
in the front row. Her name is Bianca Winters, as if everyone here
didn't already know that."

Everyone rose in a
standing ovation. Katie clapped. She had her bears clap, too. Bianca
had trouble fighting back her tears. She didn't feel like a hero.

After the ceremony,
Bianca handed Katie back to her parents. She got into her car and
drove off. She knew that Harry had seen which way she had gone. He
came right after her in his own car, a graduation present from the
Shipleys.

She stopped at the
Christ's Church Cemetery and wandered over to Doc's grave. She
stared down at it, promising herself that she would try not to feel
guilty about his death in which she'd had no part.

Soon Harry was beside
her. They turned to face each other. Now he had a grip on both of her
hands.

"Doc left me with a
problem," she tried to explain, "when he gave me that diamond
ring. I've finally decided how to solve it."

"How?"

She grabbed Harry's
arm and took him for a stroll down the main path in the cemetery.
They waited outside the church. There was a ceremony going on inside.
A minute later the double doors opened. A wedding party came out. The
guests lined the sides of the walkway, throwing rice on the young
couple.

After the
photographer took the pictures and everyone shook everybody else's
hands, after the wedding party began to get into cars to leave for
the reception, Bianca led Harry inside the church with the
stained-glass windows. They walked hand-in-hand up to the altar,
which was still decorated with flowers.

Bianca turned to
Harry. She took out a medal that she'd had made. In one corner
she'd had the jeweler place the diamond from her engagement ring
over Harry's name. She reached up and pinned the medal to Harry's
suit pocket.

Bianca read it aloud:

To Harry Fellini, My
Hero From Bianca.

Beneath her name was
the date.

"Do you really want
to give this to me?" Harry asked after a pause.

"I tried to return
the stolen diamond to its rightful owners. After they heard my story,
they said they didn't want it back. I could keep it."

He rubbed the tears
from his own eyes.

She felt for the gold
band that Doc had given her, dangling from a chain around her neck.
She would keep it in remembrance of him like the turquoise earrings.
She couldn't wear it as a wedding band when she wasn't a married
lady.

"I have something
for you, too." Harry reached down into his pocket. "I was going
to see you later, and. . . Well, now may be the best time of all."

He thrust a ring on
to her finger. It also was a diamond. It was not nearly as big as the
one that Doc had given her. Nor was it as showy. But Harry had bought
it all by himself.

"The Shipleys
didn't give it to me. I bought it with my paycheck as a chauffeur.
Now that I'm Katie's new bodyguard as well, I've gotten a
raise."

His lips found hers.
Suddenly the church got darker. She looked up startled to see a
passing thunderstorm go by.

"Still scared of
the dark?" he teased.

"How
could I be scared of anything with you around?" She smiled and
kissed him back.