That was never happening. Nuh uh, I didn’t do doctors. Not after
Oppidum. Last doctor I had seen told me he was setting my jaw. What he didn’t
say was when I woke up, I’d be drinking through a straw.
“You got folks who need you more right now. You know like the guy
. . .”
I was pretty sure he was gonna tell me where to stick my nosey
beak but he didn’t. “Bullets are out and he’s stable.” He smiled. “Your couple
had a baby girl last night too.”
“They did?”
He smiled wider. “They named her Serena Aeron.”
A big ball of goop seemed to lodge itself in my throat. Renee
would be as much of a mush ball about the news as I was. I made the decision
that when I saw her, I’d make sure she knew. They named their kid after us,
both of us.
I knew I was grinning like a fool. “I . . . wow . . . they all
doing okay?”
The doctor nodded, he seemed to enjoy my reaction. “The mother has
multiple fractures in her leg but they’re all set in place. It will need a pin
when the road is opened though. The husband has whiplash, some broken ribs but
nothing serious compared to how bad it could have been.”
“And the baby?” I asked, still trying to take in the fact that a
little purple prune now had mine and Renee’s names.
“Perfect.”
I gripped the napkin tight. The news gave me the lift that I
needed to head to the sofa and try to see Hal’s memories.
“Wait,” Martha said as I got up from my stool. “That’s Hal’s.” She
pointed to a gold pen on the counter. “He uses it all the time.”
I smiled, it had to be as good as jewelry. I nodded to the doctor,
took my leave, and paused at the door with the pen-in-a-napkin in my hand.
Another vision, another fit. I sighed. “May as well get on with it.”
RONNY CAME AND took Zack into the back yard after I’d been hugged
half to death. The house out back smelled of cooking and I wandered to a
picture on the mantle. It was of three guys with skis in hand and a load of
rescue equipment on the floor. There it was, the hammer and ski crossed over in
front of them. The middle guy looked like Martha but the photo was real old so
I guessed he was her father or something. I turned from it, trying to find the
courage to do what I’d come back there for. The walls were neatly painted,
cream with some kind of a dado-rail splitting it from a dark yellow wallpaper
with striped patterns. Hung in pride of place were some paintings of landscapes
and many photographs of Ronny at various ages. Over by Earl’s chair was a
framed football jersey and I walked over to look at it closer. Turned out Ronny
got his football genes from his father.
It was strange to think of Earl playing any kind of sport but the
jersey was for a college team so he must have been pretty good at it. Inset was
a medal. It looked military which explained why he watched the parades.
Unlike the house I had grown up in, Martha and Earl’s home was
lived in. Magazines on the battered-looking coffee table, ring marks on the
side tables. It felt warm and comforting. It felt full of love. A place where
people who cared about each other sat in companionable harmony after their day.
It’s how any place felt with Renee to me. Funny how a person could make you feel
a sense of comfort and belonging.
Somehow I had to get her back so I sat on the sofa and looked at
the pen. It was heavy for a pen. I guessed it was more gold plated than the
real stuff. Judging by what Hal had said about schooling, I guessed he didn’t
have the funding to buy expensive pens.
Martha caught my eye as she hovered in the doorway so I shooed her
away. She had customers to serve and folks to feed and standing around gawking
at me weren’t gonna help nobody. When I was alone, I unfolded the napkin, slunk
back into the squishy leather, and rubbed my thumb over my necklace.
My hands were clammy, the dread hummed through me, burning a hole
in my stomach. Seeing things, touching things, using my burdens was a real
energy sucking process and I wasn’t sure how much of it, energy I mean, I had.
“For Renee,” I mumbled, trying to shake off the nagging worry
wrapping its tentacles through my gut.
Not much use for me with all this damn snow. Not like McKinley
will trust me with no good jobs neither. There ain’t no real policing for a
dumb Louisiana boy, well . . . I ain’t dumb and just ’cause I ain’t all proper
schooled don’t mean I can’t be a good cop.
Where’s my burger? Wait, Ronny is fixing up another order, where’s
Martha? Wish I could thank her in some way for taking pity on me. Wish I could
do something for her . . . but what?
Who is that guy?
“Hey, buddy!” What does he think he’s doing charging round like
that, he coulda hurt somebody . . . he coulda hurt Martha. I’m gonna haul his
ass in, that’s what I’m gonna do.
“Hey, Martha!”
“I’ll get it for you, hun, just wait a second.”
What? No, forget the damn burger, I’m more worried about you. Wish
I could just say it.
Oh back off, buddy. Earl is looking at me like he wants to skew me
like a skillet. I ain’t after her you dumb oaf . . . I just wanna make sure
she’s okay. Guess it ain’t my place anyhow.
“Thanks, Martha . . . I just got to hurry.”
“No problem.”
She’s always looking after everybody else. Mamma was the same.
Man, I miss her.
Bill Hick in a hurricane! Marie . . . She looks as hot as ever. I
love her eyes, I love her somethin’ terrible. Got to make somethin’ of myself .
. . that way, maybe she’d look at me?
“Hey, Doctor.” She got a bee in her bonnet this morning that one.
What is with her mood? Why do women get like that? It ain’t like it helps
nobody. “Doc?”
She just damn walked straight past me . . . some mood she got.
Who is that guy?
“Hey, Ice Queen, where’s your knight?”
Oh, if it ain’t the jackass of the century. “Hey, Brad . . . How’s
your paw. Heard Ice Queen showed you her moves.”
“You want me to fix that face of yours, hillbilly?”
“You want me to slam your ass in a cell?”
Whoa! He’s got a—
BAM.
BAM.
Whoa, you got a shot on you, lady . . . can’t get my damn gun out
. . .
“Out the way, Hal.”
Yeah sure, Charlie, don’t pay no mind to me. You wear the same
badge, you son-of-a—
“Told you she was a lunatic. Screw loose.”
“Shut your hole, Jewel.”
Great, Charlie. Now your loopy woman is crowding the scene.
“Joyce, step aside.”
That’s blood? Lord, I hate blood. Where’s the gun? Did he have
one? “Joyce . . . You can’t help him . . . step away.”
Great, now Aeron’s lurking over him. He ain’t got no chance
against her.
“Will he be okay?”
Does she really care? Where’s the gun? There was a gun. I know
there was.
“Will . . . I mean . . . did she?”
Maybe I should move the doctor away. The guy could still be
packing. “He has a good chance if I can get him in
the hospital .
. . with a little help?”
Where’s the damn gun? I swear he had a gun. What, Doc? What you
looking at? Oh, you want me to move him? “Right.”
I hate blood, I hate blood. There ain’t no gun, no holster . . .
maybe I just saw it . . . ah, shoot . . . What kind of a deputy can’t even tell
if there was a gun. I shoulda stayed home like the rest of them.
“Up the steps, quickly.”
Oh, yeah, you just walk on up, don’t mind me. I’ll just haul this
guy up on my own.
“Let me help.”
“Thanks, Mark.” Least one guy has a soul in this place.
“And me.”
Evan, well, you would help. If anything needs to be sorted in
this town, it’s you two. I swear, there ain’t a
better pair. “Thanks .
. . just watch the blood . . . you ain’t sure
what he got.”
“Right.” Evan’s got a good soul. Hope he gets somewhere. Kid
deserves a good future.
I sat for a moment rerunning what Hal had seen. A flash in the
man’s waistband, his arm reaching back. Martha and Earl had thought they saw
the same thing but I had watched Hal search through the snow around the body,
there was nothing there. So maybe it was just the light?
“Anything?” I heard Earl ask and I opened my eyes.
I was surprised to see that I was still on the sofa and I looked
like I hadn’t flailed about like salmon in a stream.
“You thought you saw a gun,” I said. “So did Martha . . . and so
did Hal.”
“But there wasn’t one when he was on the ground.”
I rubbed my hand over my eyes. “No, but the three of you thought
the same thing. That’s got to mean something.”
“It could just mean that Renee saw it too and that’s why she
fired?”
I looked down at the pen. “I need to get this back to him and I
need to see her . . . I need to touch her.”
“You think McKinley will go for it?”
Shaking my head, I stared at the pen. “No, but maybe Hal will.” I
got to my feet and thanked him, hugged Zack in the yard, and headed on over to
the station.
Damn slippery steps . . . what . . . No!—
“Hal!”
I hurtled across the street. People turned to gawp at me as I sped
past. Hal’s foot slid on the top step and I charged into him, sending him
hurtling forward. We clattered to the ground. He grunted at the impact. At
least he didn’t bounce backward on his head like I’d seen.
“You okay?”
Hal looked up at me with wide eyes. “How . . . I . . . how did you
do that?”
“It’s easy,” I said, hoping to cover his real question. “Just got
to tackle you in the right place.”
He blinked at me. “You were calling, you
knew
.”
I tried to look as innocent as I could. “What?”
Hal took my offered hand and I pulled him up. “You
knew
I
was gonna fall.”
I laughed, it sounded shrill. “Like that could happen . . . I was
calling you . . . for your pen . . . I have your pen.”
I pulled out the golden pen and handed it to him. “Saw you sliding
as I got to the step.”
“Your voice,” he said. “Your tone . . . you were warning me.”
“Nuh uh,” I said. “I’d have to be psychic or something for that,
right?”
He nodded. He wasn’t convinced by my dismissal but I wouldn’t dare
say a word. I followed him into the station, feeling his eyes tracking me,
looking for some indication that I would reveal my secrets.
“I just was on my way to see Serena. Can I see her?”
Martha and Earl had to know because I needed them, but Renee’s
warning about the truth putting people in danger rattled around in my brain. I
couldn’t take a chance, especially with a guy like Hal who would go looking for
answers and end up getting hurt.
He glanced around and then nodded. “Sure, I’ll take you.”
The station was staffed by the rescue team today. They were deep
in conversation about how to fix the cell tower that could help them to reach
the outside world. It didn’t sound all that promising and it buoyed me. I
needed more time to get Renee out.
“She’s through there,” he said as we got to the cells. “She ain’t
eating nothing. She won’t drink nothing either.”
“Open it up.”
It sounded like an order and Hal opened the cell door. I walked in
and knelt down in front of Renee. She was pale. She was giving up.
“Hey,” I whispered. I put my hands on her face. She was clammy. I
brushed the hair away. “I’m here now. I’m here, you ain’t alone.” I took some
slop from the plate and put it on a spoon. “You need to eat, okay?”
She stared out at nothing and my heart ached like I was having
some kind of attack. If we’d been back in the institution, she would have been
in observation on a drip and constant care.
I placed the spoon to her lips, and she took the food and ate it.
No one was in there, but at least the body still remembered that it needed to
feed itself. I got her to drink a load too, but I was worried as to how well
they were looking after her. My hands trembled as I fought to keep the tears
back. I couldn’t bear seeing her like this.
“Can you get the sheriff, Hal?”
He nodded, and the second he was out of the door, I placed my
hands on top of hers. Like I expected, there was no memory to find as her mind
was off someplace I couldn’t reach. Still I pulled her to me, wrapped her up in
my arms, and prayed that somehow she could take energy off me. I couldn’t do
this without her.