Countdown (12 page)

She regretted that now as she stared at the blanket-covered form on the floor by the wet bar. Could she have changed Paula’s outcome if she hadn’t been so selfish? Then she chided herself: suffering from a little delusion of grandeur, don’t you think, Doc? As if she really affected Paula’s life at all. But thinking about it, remembering the past, she was pretty sure she’d been Paula’s only female friend.
Real
friend, that is. And the males in Paula’s life rarely seemed to think of themselves as friends – whether she did or not. Did she confide in those boys? Did she tell them the secrets she never told Jean?

Jean had gone back a few years ago to her med school class reunion. There had been nearly one hundred people there, but not Paula. Her name did come up, though. She’d heard it mentioned here and there, usually followed by less than good-natured laughter. Jean had known only that, upon graduation, Paula had left for a prestigious internship at Johns-Hopkins in Baltimore. The night of the reunion she’d heard that Paula had lost that internship due to a tryst with a patient on his hospital bed. The woman who’d told her that said she’d heard that she’d ended up at Bellevue in New York. Someone else said he’d heard she’d done her residency at a small hospital in Wyoming, but had left there when the hospital chief of staff’s wife had caught her in a compromising position with her husband. Since the wife was the hospital administrator, Paula was out of there before she could pull her panties up.

If Jean had confronted her back in the day, if she’d understood what Paula was talking about when she’d said, ‘You can kiss a lot of boys and it’s OK. You just can’t sleep with all of them because then they’ll call you names,’ maybe she could have done something. What, she had no clue – then or now. How naive was I? Jean asked herself. Or did she just not want to acknowledge it? Paula had dates almost every night – very few were repeats with the same guy. She’d come home in the wee hours, often taking her panties out of her purse to put them in the hamper. Even when they walked the paths to and from classes, there would be the occasional hoot or holler from a boy or a group of boys, most of them lewd to Jean’s ears.

Jean hoped that there’d been something good in Paula’s life. Someone she’d met along the way who’d loved her and cared about her. She hadn’t been that someone for her old friend – she knew that. And if Paula had come here to Oklahoma looking for that, Jean had definitely failed her. Before Paula had been shot dead, Jean had actually been thinking about getting her a room here at the Longbranch Inn, rather than risk bringing her back to her house to torment Milt and herself. Some friend she was, Jean thought. ‘Some fucking friend I was!’ she mumbled under her breath.

Holly squeezed her hand. ‘Did you say something?’ she asked.

Jean took a deep breath and shook her head. ‘No.’ She smiled at the bride-to-be. ‘Don’t let this sour your idea of marriage, Holly,’ Jean said. ‘Bachelorette parties rarely end up like this.’

‘That’s the point,’ Holly answered. ‘Seems like an omen to me.’

‘B
aby,’ Ronnie Jacobs, the pizza guy, said as he grabbed Lucinda’s hand. ‘What are you doing here? What if somebody sees you?’

‘I don’t care, honey-bunch!’ the girl said, her big blue eyes misty, her slightly bleached blonde hair falling over her shoulders to touch Ronnie’s hand. ‘I heard you was hurt and I got here just as soon as I could slip away!’

‘I love you!’ Ronnie said.

‘I love you more!’ Lucinda said, and brushed his lips with her own.

‘Ain’t nobody gonna stop us – never!’ Ronnie said.

‘I’m so proud of you, baby. You’re my hero, Ronnie Jacobs!’ Lucinda said, her eyes about to spill tears.

Carolyn McIntosh, Cody’s mother, thought about leaving a note for her husband but couldn’t figure out where to stick it since there was nothing standing upright and she doubted he’d notice if she just left the note in the middle of the debris. ‘Anybody got a cell phone that works?’ she asked.

‘Mine went out before the storm hit,’ Bobby said.

Harmon said, ‘I tried calling Jewel Anne from the car but mine was out of service, too.’

‘Well,’ Carolyn said, crawling into the back seat of the Suburban, ‘I guess Terry will find us somehow.’ Carolyn shook her head. ‘The important thing now is to find the boys. Terry’s a grown man and we’ll find each other eventually.’

‘That’s the spirit!’ Harmon said, turning to smile at Carolyn in the back seat.

They pulled into the cul-de-sac and up to the Potters’ driveway. ‘The ladies are all inside. Why don’t you join them while we search the woods?’ Bobby said.

‘Hell, no!’ Carolyn said. ‘I’m not sitting this one out! My boy’s out there and I intend to find him. With or without you guys!’

‘Definitely with,’ Harmon said.

They all piled out of the Suburban and looked toward the woods. ‘Like you said, Harmon,’ Bobby glanced at him, ‘ain’t nothing to it but to do it.’

The dog was walking next to Johnny Mac and the two kept up a steady stream of conversation.

Johnny Mac: ‘If we make it outta here, I’m gonna get you a big ol’ steak.’

Dog: ‘Woof.’

Johnny Mac: ‘You like steak?’

Dog: ‘Woof!’

Johnny Mac: ‘I like steak too. A lot. One time my mama tried to trick me and fixed steaks for her and Daddy and fixed me this hamburger thing. I mean, I was only, like, five, but hell, I knew that wasn’t any steak! And I said so! I said, “Where’s my steak?” and my daddy laughed his butt off.’

Dog: ‘Woof!’

Johnny Mac: ‘So, you got an owner, or something? Don’t see any tags or anything.’

Dog: ‘Woof.’

Johnny Mac: ‘I bet whoever it is must be missing you.’

Dog: ‘Woof.’

Johnny Mac: ‘It wasn’t that boy that was dragging you in here, was it?’

Dog: ‘Woof.’

‘Hey, shit for brains!’

Johnny Mac stopped in his tracks, looking around, shining his flashlight hither and yon. Finally he saw his friend Matt limp out from behind some still-standing trees. Johnny Mac dropped the litter, ran to his friend and hugged him.

‘All right already!’ Matt said, laughing. ‘Boys don’t hug!’

‘Sure they do!’ Johnny Mac said, and slapped his hand on Matt’s back. ‘Like that.’

‘Ow!’ Matt said.

Johnny Mac backed away. ‘Are you hurt?’

Matt shook his head. ‘Just scrapes and bruises. Nothing serious. Who’s that?’ he asked, pointing at the litter. ‘Is that Cody?’

‘Yeah. He broke his leg and there’s a bone sticking out and everything. I wrapped it in my shirt but he passed out from the pain. Well, that and the dog jumping on him.’

‘Woof!’ said the dog.

‘Hey, is that the dog we came in here looking for?’

‘Yeah, that’s what Cody said.’

Matt leaned in and rubbed the golden retriever/Shetland’s head. ‘Jeez, he’s a big ’un.’

‘Yeah, tell me about it. I had to pull him off Cody and believe me, it wasn’t easy,’ Johnny Mac said. ‘You know which way is out?’

Matt shook his head. ‘I dunno. I’m so turned around I don’t know which way is up.’

Johnny Mac grinned and pointed at what little could be seen of the sky. ‘That’s the only direction I’m sure of.’

‘It’s darker than crap in here. If I hadn’t seen your flashlight and heard this beast bark,’ he said, again rubbing the head of the very satisfied dog, ‘we never would have found each other.’

‘So, if we can find each other I don’t see why we can’t find our way out!’ Johnny Mac said with determination.

Matt held out his hand and Johnny Mac shook it. ‘Let’s do it!’ Matt said.

The one thing that kept Jean from totally losing it was the knowledge that her son was safe at his aunt’s house in Bishop. He knew nothing about Jean’s predicament and, if all went well, never would. After being alone for forty-some odd years, finding Milt and getting pregnant had been a godsend. It had taken some adjustment to come to terms with someone in her bed, someone else suckling her breast, and both of them needing her for this or that. John, at first, for everything; Milt for as many reasons as she needed him.

She worried about what would happen to Milt if she were to die up here. She knew he’d finally found true happiness with her and John, and with one of them gone how would he cope? She knew he’d continue to be a good father – that was just in his nature. But would he grieve too much? Maybe she should just say ‘fuck you’ to the old bitch and pick up the phone and call him. Tell him it’s OK to marry again, as long as he’s sure that she really loves John. But it’s OK for Milt to find happiness. Not just OK – necessary.

She felt Holly’s hand squeeze her own, and didn’t notice until then the tears streaming down her face. Jean used her other hand to wipe them away and turned her head to smile weakly at Holly. ‘I’m OK,’ she told the girl.

Holly laughed slightly. ‘Yeah, aren’t we all?’

I was pacing. Nine minutes until the old biddy started shooting. I just couldn’t sit still any longer. Something had to give. We needed a plan but nobody seemed to be coming up with one. Finally I turned to the group of law enforcement personnel standing there with their thumbs up their butts – just like yours truly.

‘I’m going upstairs—’ I started.

‘Come on, Milt,’ Emmett said, standing up from the table.

‘Jeez, Kovak, what do you think that will accomplish?’ Charlie Smith asked, also standing up from the table.

‘I’ll go with you, Milt!’ Dalton said. He was already standing, having not sat down once since the onset of this business. I was a mite worried that if the boy did sit down he might just die of a broken heart.

‘No, thank you, Dalton, but I think it’s best if only one of us goes. I’m going to trade myself for the hostages. I need some of y’all standing by in the hall to grab the hostages as they slip out, or start shooting if the old bitch starts shooting.’ I shrugged. ‘It could go either way.’

‘It’s not just you she’s gonna be shooting, Sheriff!’ Emmett said. He never called me Sheriff – always Milt. I figured he was pissed. ‘Some if not all of the hostages will be dropping like flies!’

‘Well, what the fuck do you propose I do,
Deputy
?’ I yelled. I emphasized the ‘deputy’ because I was pissed he’d called me ‘Sheriff,’ and also because he just shot holes (excuse the pun) in my grand – if somewhat faulty – scheme.

‘OK, everybody,’ Charlie Smith said, walking toward me and putting his arm around my shoulders. ‘Let’s all calm down. We don’t need to be at each other’s throats.’

I pulled away from Charlie’s embrace. I didn’t need him being all condescending to me. I wanted a plan! Any plan! I looked at my watch. Seven minutes. Seven minutes until the old bitch shot my wife.

The two Longbranch police officers, along with the Longbranch volunteer firefighters, had just pulled the rescue van onto High Grove Lane, where the former home of Cody McIntosh and his family used to be, when the ruptured gas lines finally blew. It only took the first one to set off all the others, and in seconds the whole street was an inferno.

The blasts sent cracks through the windshield of the rescue van, but there were no injuries. The four firefighters jumped out, grabbed the one hose the rescue van carried and affixed it to the fire hydrant stationed at the corner of the street.

One of the police officers got on the walkie-talkie and called in to the mayor. ‘We got a major fire on High Grove Lane. The whole street’s gone up. I’m guessing ruptured gas lines. Got any fire engines around? Over.’

‘We got a couple on the way. I’ll send them up there. Just try to keep it from spreading, OK? Over.’

‘That’s what we’re doing,’ the police officer said, then followed up with, ‘Out,’ and stuck the walkie-talkie in his back pocket.

‘You think Cody’s gonna be all right?’ Matt asked as they pulled the litter along the debris-strewn floor of the woods.

Johnny Mac shrugged. ‘Hope so. But that bone sticking out – man.’ He shook his head. ‘That didn’t look good at all. And now he’s all, you know, out of it. I just hope he’s not dead.’

Matt stopped pulling the litter, which made Johnny Mac stop since if he just pulled his side he and his cargo would be going around in circles.

Matt walked back to where Cody lay and shone the flashlight in his face. Nary a muscle moved. ‘He’s dead,’ Matt announced. ‘Shit, are we gonna be in trouble, or what?’

Johnny Mac joined him and looked down at Cody’s face, still illuminated by the flashlight. He bent down, lifted Cody’s wrist and felt for a pulse. ‘Naw, he’s not dead. But his pulse is weaker than it was a while ago. We really need to get him out of here.’

‘Yeah, no kidding. But which way is out?’

Both boys looked around, wishing they had a clue – but one was provided at that very moment.

‘Why’d you start bawlin’ back there?’ Jasper Thorne, EMT, asked his partner, Drew Gleeson.

Drew hedged for a minute, then said, ‘The whole situation just got to me, I guess. And,’ he said, thinking fast, ‘I was in a bad tornado when I was a kid. It killed my grandpa.’

‘Ah, hell, man, I didn’t know,’ Jasper said. He slugged Drew on the arm. ‘Ain’t no shame in tears, man. Ain’t no shame.’

Drew nodded and looked off into space. They were essentially sitting in the Bishop town square, waiting for a call to pick up the injured to transport them back to Longbranch. They’d been there for ten minutes and no calls yet. Surely there were injured people out there? Drew needed there to be injured people. He needed to jump in the ambulance and rush off, administer emergency care and get people the hell back to Longbranch, sirens blazing, going as fast as the old bus would let him.

And he needed all this, of course, so he could stop thinking about Joynell. Shot dead by that no-good asshole husband of hers, the sweetest woman he’d ever known. Kind, caring and tender, and all those good things you want a woman to be. And still as sexy as hell. He’d never felt like that before. Never in his whole life. Joynell was his one true love, and that goddam Blanton asshole had taken her away from him! Just like his love for Joynell was a new experience in his life, the hatred he’d felt for her husband when he’d looked at him in his cell was something he’d never experienced before either.