Waiting for Daybreak (23 page)

“Sure. What do you need?”

“I want you to talk to Paige for me.”

“Do what?”

“Talk to her. She thinks I hired that investigator guy. Tell her that it was something you did on impulse at the beginning, just trying to cover our bases. Tell her that I haven’t been setting her up.”

“I’ll do no such thing. We didn’t just cover our bases, I found out the truth about her. She’s not at all the perfect little angel Granddad thinks she is—and apparently you’ve come to that conclusion yourself, although I’d always thought you were the one person on my side.”

“I am on your side. But she’s on your side, too. Don’t you get it? She’s not out for anything other than a job. She’s not trying to do anything to hurt you, or Dad, or anyone else for that matter. She’s trying to help people, that’s all she’s trying to do.”

“Help people? Ha!”

“When she told me that you were out to get her, I said, ‘No way, Clarissa is not like that.’ Hearing you talk right now, I wonder if I was wrong.”

“I’ve had it. No one in this family can see the big picture except me. I’m not going to talk about it anymore.” Clarissa set the phone back up on the table. They were all so blind.

Dawn waited until after midnight before she left the house. Only now, when darkness cloaked her movement, would pride allow her to do this.

Her back was still sore, so she leaned forward away from the seat, trying to forget the way Jack’s fist felt against her skin. At least he’d saved her the humiliation of leaving bruises where they showed. She supposed he’d expect her to be grateful.

She drove across town with the radio off. Noise of any kind would ruin this for her. All of her senses needed to be heightened; she needed to remember every sight, sound, and smell. It would be all she had to carry with her when she drove away.

Once on Reginald Street, she doused the headlights and pulled to the side of the road, just one house away from her parents’. The houses all sat dark—as she’d known they would. Peace and quiet. It had been one of the things she hated most about this place growing up. Now, how she longed for that tranquility.

When she turned off the engine, the car’s usual sputtering seemed so much louder tonight. She looked around at the darkened windows, hoping the sound didn’t wake the neighborhood. No lights came on. After a moment of holding her breath, she finally relaxed and allowed herself to do what she’d come here for. She looked around. And remembered.

The front porch had begun to sag badly, and the bottom step had fallen through altogether. Her father’s rusty old truck sat in the driveway while her mother’s petunias still offered the one bit of beauty from the small patch of dirt that fronted the house. And in the distance, the gentle pattering of the creek filled the quiet of the night. How many times had that very sound sung her to sleep through her open bedroom window? The smell of oil and machinery always overpowered even the thickest summer blooms. She took a deep breath and almost cried with the joy of it.

All the years she’d spent here—hating the dullness of it all, hating the constant drain of hard work, hating her parents for being poor—what she wouldn’t give to have it all back now. She’d given it all up for what she believed was a better life.

She wanted to go knock on the door right this very minute, tell her parents how wrong she’d been, tell especially her mother how sorry she was. But the choice was not hers. Her father had kicked her out, and she couldn’t come crawling back now. Her pride was all that she had left—and there was little enough of that.

Memories floated through her mind of her mother’s face, celebrating yet another straight-A report card. A heady expression would fall across her face, especially when the teachers started sending notes home about this scholarship or the other. “Oh, to think of you in college. It was a dream that was out of my reach— but for you, sweet girl, everything is possible.” Maybe at the time she’d been right. Not anymore. Now nothing seemed possible.

Dawn didn’t want to stay with Jack, but how could she get out? He spent her paycheck almost as fast as she brought it home. If she started holding money back, he’d know it, and the retribution would be horrible.

No, she was stuck. She turned on the ignition and drove home, thankful that Jack had recently switched to the night shift. Between that and his newfound “time with his family,” it at least kept him out of the house and away from her. Most of the time. And right now she needed even the smallest of victories.

chapter
thirty-one

Monday morning, Ora waited as usual beside the door. She followed Paige inside. “Looks like you’ve got yourself a new index card.”

“How do you know that?”

“Easy . . . that one’s pink. I’ve seen lavender ones, yellow ones, and green ones. If you opened a new pack of cards, something must be happening. You needing me to give you another reference?”

“Ora, I’ll take anything you’ve got.”

“All righty, what’s your verse?”

“I’ve got two. The first one is Psalm 56:3, ‘What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.’ ” Paige looked at Ora and smiled. “I didn’t even have to write that one on a card, I remembered it from Sunday school.”

“Wonders never cease. What’s the other one?”

Paige looked at the pink card. “ ‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.’ Psalm 46:1—2.”

Ora nodded and rubbed at her chin. “Sounds like you’re needing a little reassurance in a tough time, huh? Let me think now. That Psalm 46 is ringing a bell with me, but somehow I think

Paige went to the Internet, punched in the appropriate Web address, and waited for it to pull up. “Let’s see, here it is: ‘There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.’ ” She looked at Ora, as usual having no clue how these verses were supposed to apply to her. But by this point she’d learned that there usually was some sort of reasoning behind it—even if it was a bit oblique. “Are you sure this is the chapter you wanted?”

“Course it is. How much more perfect can it get than that?”

“Call me slow, but I don’t really see what a river into a city has to do with me.”

“
Listen.
That’s the problem with kids these days, they want an easy answer, but they don’t listen when it’s laid out perfectly clear.”

“On behalf of my generation, I offer humble apologies. Now, would you maybe help me out a bit here?”

“What does it
say
? It says God’s gonna help her at daybreak, right?”

“Yeah.”

“If you lived in a city back in those days, and an army was outside the walls, when do you reckon would be the scariest time?”

“When the enemy started shooting arrows?”

“No. It would be in the dead of night, when you couldn’t see a thing, but you could hear the clanking of armor as enemy soldiers surrounded your city, and the heavy footsteps of who knows how many. You’re not sure what’s out there, but it sure sounds like it’s going to be bad. It’s the time you’d want to get out of the city and quick, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“But see, this is all about staying and standing your ground. Things sound bad now and you’ve got no idea what terrible things are out there, but God’s gonna help at
break of day.
You just got to have enough faith to stand firm all night at the city wall and wait for daybreak.”

“What if day never comes?”

“It will. Says so right there in the Scriptures. You stand firm and believe.”

Someone knocked at the pharmacy door. Paige looked to see Cory standing there. Ora nodded and smiled, “I was thinking of leaving a little early this morning anyway. I’ll leave you and your young man to talk.”

“He’s not my young man.”

“Couldn’t prove that by him.”

Paige opened the door. “Hi, Cory.”

Ora nodded. “Hello there, young man. Did you come to ask Paige to lunch again?”

He grinned. “As a matter of fact I did.”

Ora turned to her. “Well, how ’bout it? You want to go to lunch with young Cory again?”

Paige had resolved to quit seeing Cory after the weekend with Rachelle. “I don’t know, I was kind of thinking—”

“I know, you probably figure you’ll be needed on the front lines today, but I figure you’re gonna be all stressed out, with your computer issues and all, and by noon you’ll be needing a little Cory cheer.”

“You’ll have to come up with a better excuse than that, because we’re not having computer issues.”

“Really? Since Jason was here, I figured your system must have crashed big time.”

“Who’s Jason?”

“The computer guy. You know, the geek who set up the computer system in here? He used to start drooling anytime Clarissa came anywhere near him.” He laughed. “It was pretty humorous. She could get him to do anything she wanted—poor kid. He never had a clue.”

“Computer guy? Not here, he must have been next door at the travel agent’s.”

“No. He was in here last night. I came in about nine o’clock to check on something, and Clarissa’s car was parked out front, right beside old Jason’s. When I came through the lobby, I could see the lights on in the pharmacy.”

Paige had worked alone on Saturday, and the computer had been working just fine. Since they were closed on Sunday, and Clarissa lived an hour away, what could possibly have brought her here? “Must have been some issue with the report end of the software, because the regular dispensing stuff is working fine.”

“No worries. I’m still willing to spread some Cory cheer.”

“I’m sure you are.”
Why not?
It wasn’t like Tony was holding her back—not anymore. Still, she would not use Cory to get her over Tony, and she knew she had no interest in Cory. “I think I’d better go it alone.”

“Well, all right then. Let me know if you change your mind.” He nodded at Ora, then walked up the stairs.

Ora snorted. “Ah, you let him down easy. Nice job. See you later, young ’un.”

When Paige went back into the pharmacy, she walked past Clarissa’s desk, letting her gaze fall on the top drawer. She noted the neat stack of papers on the right of the desk, the large black stapler just to the left of it. And she wondered what she’d find just inside that drawer. If there was something in there about her, it was her right to know. Right?

She slid the drawer open. Once again, a stack of weekly reports was at the top of the drawer. Paige reached beneath it and carefully removed the legal pad. It appeared as though a couple of top sheets had been removed. The new top page was covered from top to bottom. There was even a second page of writing.

March 15— Mrs. Harris got wrong strength Coumadin. Paige replaced the tablets but lied to the patient. Dawn witnessed.

What? Clarissa had failed to mention that the mistake had been her own. That Paige was just covering for her.

April 12— Paige misfilled Mrs. Konkel’s prescription for Naprosyn. Mrs. Konkel caught the mistake herself and brought it in. Clarissa had to replace as well as offer apologies.

March 29— Ms. Feldhouse prescription, misfilled Zetia. Apparently call-in taken by Dawn with Paige’s blessing. Current lawsuit.

That was a blatant lie. No way could Clarissa pull that off; the proof was in the computer. Paige went to the keyboard and typed Ms. Feldhouse’s name. She couldn’t believe what appeared before her on the screen. The initials
PW
. Still easy enough to disprove; the handwritten original prescription had Clarissa’s initials. Paige went to the file and removed it.

The printout initials stuck to the hard copy had been changed. It now said
PW
. There were no handwritten initials beside it—a sure sign to anyone who knew her that Paige had not touched this prescription. But what about the people who didn’t know her? How could this have happened?

She remembered Cory talking about the computer guy being here after hours last night. The computer guy who’d had a crush on Clarissa—followed her around like a puppy, he’d said.

Paige felt everything slipping away.

Even holding the prescription up to the light, it was very difficult to see the slight tear on the top layer of the paper where the first label had been removed. In fact, someone who wasn’t sure of the truth could doubt they were even seeing it. Paige dropped into the chair. She couldn’t believe Clarissa had done that. Why? Why would she do it?

Okay, Dawn had been here the day Ms. Feldhouse came in; she remembered that Clarissa had filled it. She could always back Paige up if it became necessary, but what was Clarissa hoping to prove?

She looked at the sticker on the prescription again, and at the date on it. She stood and walked to the calendar. March 29. It was marked on the wall calendar—
Paige off
. She hadn’t even been working that day. But she couldn’t confront Clarissa without telling her she’d been in her desk. How was she going to do this? There must be a way to get to the bottom of what was happening.

All through the first hour of the day she prayed.
God, I’m at
the end here. I’ve been praying all along, and things are just getting
worse. What am I supposed to do? I’m trying to stand my ground like
Ora says, but when is day going to break? It just keeps getting darker
and darker and darker.

After opening, she triple-checked everything she touched because she was so upset, and that was when she could make a mistake for real. When Clarissa came in at ten o’clock, even though it hadn’t been an overly busy morning, Paige was running behind. She didn’t let it stop her. She waited only until Clarissa came to stand at the counter before she started in. “Clarissa, is there anything you’d like to say to me about my work here?”

“What would make you ask a question like that?”

Paige tried her best to look nonchalant, but she was sure that she was not pulling it off. “Sometimes I feel an undercurrent, like you don’t like having me here. If that’s the case, I’d like to know what it is that I do wrong that makes you feel that way.”