CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
K
ATE DROVE the Navigator. Arnold sat beside her silently, his eyes focused on the window beside him. Ten minutes later Kate pulled off the road under a grove of naked oaks. A deteriorating picnic table with attached benches canted sideways a few feet in front of them. “This is where Jason said he parked,” Kate said.
“We’ve been all over this place,” Arnold said, “So have the police.”
A hundred yards down the road she pulled off again to the side of the road. “Look,” she said, and pointed across Arnold’s chest.
Although they were still four or five miles away from Long Pond by road, it sat, as it had the first day when David showed it to her, across a single large soybean field. “Less than a mile if you don’t mind walking through a muddy field.”
At night with lights on the wide front porch, the house would be a beacon. Kate slipped out of the car and walked over to the field. Arnold followed. Running along the edge of the field was a strip of unplowed land perhaps five feet wide. Probaby muddy since October, the path led straight as a ruler to the front lawn of Long Pond.
“She was out here alone,” Kate said. “Mad as a hornet, probably crying. Where else would she go to get a ride home?”
“But did she make it, or did something or someone stop her before she got there?”
“I’m very much afraid she made it,” Kate said.
“Was Jason there?”
Kate shook her head. “He was off looking for David, remember? Neva Hardin goes home at dusk. There was only one person at home.”
“But Dub never said a word about seeing her that night.”
“Come on,” Kate said. “We’ve got one more thing to check before we talk to Dub.”
Five minutes later they pulled up in front of Long Pond. As they started to climb out of the car, Neva Hardin ran down the front steps. She looked frantic.
“Oh, Miz Mulholland! Do you have any idea where Jason is?”
“I think he said he was going over to Jimmy Viccolla’s to help replace his father’s flywheel.”
“I can’t get anybody to answer the phone over there.”
“What’s happened?” Arnold asked.
Neva turned a stricken face to him. “It’s Dub! He’s had a stroke or a heart attack or something! They took him off to Jackson Memorial in an ambulance thirty minutes ago.” She began to shake. “Somebody’s got to find Jason. That boy’ll die if anything happens to Dub.”
“Where’s David?” Kate said. She took hold of Neva’s shoulders and stooped so that she looked into the woman’s eyes. “Neva?”
“He was here when it happened. Thank God he knows CPR.” She looked terrified. “Oh, Lord, don’t let anything happen to Dub.”
“How was he when they left?” Arnold asked.
“I don’t know!” Neva wailed. “David’s following the ambulance. I got to go too, but I got to pick up Jason at Jimmy’s first.”
“You go on, Neva,” Kate said, glancing at Arnold. “We’ll lock up the house and go by Jimmy’s for Jason. If he’s not there, Jimmy will know where he is.”
“Could you?”
“Go. Don’t worry.”
Neva pulled her keys from the pocket of her apron, and ran over to her Honda. A moment later they watched her spew gravel down the driveway.
“She forgot her purse and coat,” Kate said.
“Then we’d better find them and take them to her,” Arnold said grimly. “We did say we’d lock up. Come on, Kate, no time like the present.”
“Arnold, this just makes it worse.” She followed him up the porch stairs and into the front hall. They stopped and stared up the foot of the pink marble staircase. Arnold knelt and sat on one of the treads, then ran his hand over the edge.
“Not really sharp,” he said.
“Sharp enough,” Kate said. “Waneath must have been carrying her shoes. Her feet would have been wet.”
“I wouldn’t want to fall down this thing,” Arnold said. He pulled his hand away. A pinkish streak ran faintly across his palm. “I’d have thought the way Neva keeps these stairs...”
“Marble sheds dust no matter what you do—unless you varnish it, God forbid. And it’s like glass when it’s wet. With her shoes in her hands, Waneath wouldn’t have been able to catch herself.”
“But did she fall or was she pushed?” Arnold asked.
“That is the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question.”
Ten minutes later as they drove into Jimmy Viccolla’s yard, Arnold said, “I say we don’t mention our suspicion to Jason or David until we’re sure,”
“I disagree. I think we have to tell David. Not Jason. He’s got enough on his plate. What on earth are we going to do if Dub dies?”
“Might be better for him if he did,” Arnold said.
“Arnold!”
“Well, it might.”
“And leave us with nobody to confirm or deny anything? We need him alive and in his right mind if we’re going to get the D.A. to drop the charges against Jason.”
“Jason won’t thank you.”
“I warned him the first day that my only job was to get him off, and that if he got in the way I’d run right over him. I don’t think he believed me.”
“He’ll believe you now. What does this do to your relationship with David?”
“I can’t think about that now.” She climbed out of the Navigator and picked her way through the mud puddles to the side door of Jimmy’s garage.
She found Jason and Jimmy elbow deep in the innards of David’s truck. Rock music blared from a pair of speakers mounted under the eaves. No wonder they couldn’t hear the telephone. Apparently, they communicated by sign language, since there was no way either of them could hear the other at any level below a bellow.
Arnold went directly to the tuner and hit the power switch. The resulting silence was stunning.
“Hey!” Jimmy raised his head from the engine compartment.
“Jason?” Kate said.
“Yeah?” He stared at her a moment. “Something’s happened.”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Is it my dad?”
Arnold stepped in. “Your grandfather’s in the hospital.”
“What?” Jason looked stunned, young and suddenly very frightened.
“Maybe a heart attack,” Arnold continued. “We’ve come to take you to the hospital.”
“Oh, man!” Jimmy said. “You want me to drive you?” Jason shook his head, grabbed the rag at Jimmy’s waist, wiped his hands and ran them through his hair. “Come on!” he said, and ran for the Navigator. “I’ll drive.”
“No way!” Kate said, following him.
He gave her a look, then slid into the back seat. In a moment they were off.
“What happened?” Jason said. He leaned over the back of Arnold’s seat. “Is he gonna be all right? Oh, man! This is all my fault! He’s worried about me.”
“Nonsense,” Arnold said. “Sit back and put on your seat belt. Kate, you have any tissues?”
“In my purse.”
Arnold reached between them, found her purse, opened it, pulled out a packet of tissues and handed it over the back seat to Jason. “You have oil on the end of your nose. Wipe your face. And do you by any chance have a clean T-shirt under that filthy shirt you’re wearing?”
Jason took the tissues and began to scrub at his face. Again, Kate marveled at Arnold’s ability to hit the right note.
“Yeah, but I didn’t stop to get my jacket,” Jason said. Kate reached over to turn up the heat. “The hospital has seen worse,” she said.
“Man, can’t you drive any faster?”
“You want to wind up in the emergency room beside your grandfather? Cool it, Jason, we’ll get there.”
“Is he gonna die?”
“Neva said he’d had a heart attack or a stroke. That’s all I know. Your father did CPR on him until the ambulance got there.”
“Dad was there?” Jason sighed and leaned back. “It’ll be all right, then. Dad’ll save him.”
Kate glanced at Arnold. Fathers did carry incredible burdens. Whatever else David was to his son, he could obviously perform miracles.
“Listen,” Jason said. “He know about you and my dad?”
“Dub?” Kate asked.
“No. Him!” She glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Jason point to the back of Arnold’s head.
“He has a pretty good idea. Why?”
“’Cause I’m sorry about this morning when I mouthed off. I’ve been thinking, and my dad’s right. I mean, I’m outa here once this trial thing is over, and my dad’s always been lonely, even with me. I mean, I kept trying, but I never could fill him up, you know? It’s like he had this empty place inside him. But, I mean, he wouldn’t want to leave Long Pond and you can’t leave Atlanta.”
“We’re a long way from that.”
“Keep it that way,” Arnold said softly. “For all our sakes.”
“So you and my dad do your thing, okay? I mean, you’ve been pretty nice to me, and you were really great with Coral Anne.”
“I hope you continue to feel that way,” Kate said with a sinking feeling. “And don’t worry, Jason. You’re going to beat this thing.”
“At what cost?” Arnold whispered.
Kate shook her head. This Christmas looked worse and worse. She had to get to David. She wanted to take him in her arms, hold him against her and tell him that everything was going to be all right.
But it wasn’t. Whoever she saved—Dub or Jason—David would never be able to forgive her for condemning the other.
JASON LOPED DOWN the hospital hall toward his father. “Is Granddaddy all right?” Behind him David saw Kate walking toward them with Arnold following three paces behind.
“The doctors think it’s a mild attack.” His eyes sought hers. He needed to feel her against him, the warmth of her body flooding into him. But not with Jason standing there.
“A heart attack?” Jason wailed. “It’s all this with Waneath. It’s killing him.”
David knew that was probably true, but not in the way Jason meant. Over Jason’s shoulder he said to Kate. “Thanks for bringing Jason,” he said. He raised his hands in a gesture of futility.
She nodded and kept her voice even. She knew, bless her. But then she’d always known when he needed her. “No problem,” she said. “Jimmy’s not quite through with your truck.”
“Can I see him?” Jason asked.
David shook his head. “He’s in surgery.”
“Surgery? But I thought...”
David put a hand on Jason’s shoulder. “Sit down, son,” he said, and led the boy to one of the couches along the wall. Kate leaned against the door frame and watched them. “You know how Dub’s been having those spells lately?”
“Yeah?”
“He’s got some blockage. They’re doing an emergency angioplasty to clear it out. And he’s got blockage in one of the arteries in his neck. He’ll have to go back into surgery to fix that too.” He looked at Jason’s stricken face. “Both relatively simple procedures, they tell me. His heart muscle’s strong. He should be better than ever.”
“You telling the truth?” Jason said.
David nodded. “I’m telling you what they told me.”
“He’s not going to die?”
“His chances are very good. I should have made him go to the doctor months ago, the old fool.” He shook his head. “I let it slide because I didn’t want to fight with him. I know how he feels about doctors.”
“When can I see him?” Jason asked.
David shook his head. “I don’t know. Why don’t you go find Neva in the cafeteria? I sent her there because she looked ready to pass out when she got here. Get yourself something to eat, and make sure she at least has a cup of hot chocolate. Then the two of you settle down in the waiting room, okay?”
“I want to stay here.”
Kate touched his shoulder. “I need to speak to your father. You can come back up in a few minutes.”
David was struck by the gentleness of her tone and by the concern in her eyes. Then he was even more struck when Jason covered her hand with his and smiled up at her. “Yeah, okay.”
David watched Jason wander off toward the elevator with his hands in his pockets. Suddenly he had no idea what to say to Kate. He felt trapped. He’d have to betray Dub to save Jason, or sacrifice Jason to save Dub. Unless he could come up with a new solution.
If he told Kate now what he knew, she was duty bound to use it on behalf of her client. He had to keep his mouth shut until he was certain of the best way to handle the situation.
Kate slipped into the seat beside him and took his hand. “I’m so sorry about Dub,” she said.
He felt strength flow from the simple touch of her fingers. “Me, too.”
Gently she pulled her hand away. “I got the results of the autopsy today,” she said quietly. “I think I can clear Jason.”
David felt his heart turn over. He closed his eyes for a moment. “Thank God.”