The Chase (15 page)

“Mommy, I’m starving,” Samantha yelled up the stairs.

“Coming,” Anne called back, giving the ring one final twist.

Anne let Samantha make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for her camp lunch while she cooked bacon and eggs for their breakfast. She turned on the morning news and kept an eye out for the weather forecast. Just as she put their plates on the table, she saw Kendall’s Jeep pull around the house to the back door.

“Uh-oh, Kendall’s here, Samantha. You’d better eat in a hurry.” Anne waved out the window at Kendall as she unlocked the back door.

“Come on in,” she called to Kendall as she rushed to retrieve the bread from the toaster.

She was standing at the counter buttering the toast when she heard Kendall slam the door.

“Oh my God, Anne, what happened?”

Anne turned around and saw Kendall leaning against the door with her hand over her nose.

“What do you mean?”

“The deer. How did it get there?” Kendall motioned towards the back porch.

Anne frowned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Kendall.”

Samantha jumped up. “Where’s a deer? I want to see it.”

Kendall shot a glance at Anne and shook her head.

“No, young lady, you sit right back down and finish your breakfast so you can go to camp,” Anne said, steering Samantha back to her chair. “You can watch cartoons while you finish eating.” She reached for the remote and tuned the TV to the Disney Channel, turning up the volume.

Anne walked over to Kendall. “What’s going on?” she asked quietly.

“There’s a dead deer. It’s been gutted and its intestines are all over the back porch.”

“
What?”
Anne reached for the door.

Kendall grabbed her arm. “Don’t go out there, Anne. Believe me, you don’t want to see it.”

Anne hesitated, her hand on the door handle. “How do you think it got there? Do you think it was shot?”

“I have no idea. I didn’t look at it that closely. I suppose it’s possible it was shot and wandered up here to die.”

“Did you say it was
gutted?”

Kendall nodded. “Maybe some other animals chewed on it after it was dead.”

Anne shuddered. “But it’s not deer-hunting season. And, even if it were, no one’s allowed to hunt on our property.”

D
oug had already been moved out of ICU by the time Anne arrived at the hospital, and Robin directed her to his room on the Medical/Surgical floor.

“I know you’re going to be surprised by how much progress your husband has made over the last twenty-four hours,” Robin said. “He’s amazing.”

Anne smiled. “Yes, he is.”

As she waited for the elevator to take her to the second floor, Anne was haunted once again by the thought of the dead deer. She should have followed Kendall’s advice and not gone outside to look, but she’d gone anyway, and now she couldn’t get the image out of her mind.

Most disturbing was their farm manager John’s certainty that the deer had been deliberately placed on the porch. He said it looked like the doe was roadkill; that it had been moved to the porch once it was already dead, then sliced down the middle and its guts pulled out.

“What kind of person would do such a gruesome thing, Mrs. Cummings?” John had asked. Anne hadn’t answered him, but she shivered now as she thought of the obvious answer: the same person who had tampered with Doug’s brakes.

Doug was sitting on the edge of the bed when she entered his room. A young nurse stood next to him.

He held his arms out to her. “Look at me. I’m almost as good as new.” His voice was still raspy from the ventilator tube.

Anne settled into his embrace. “You look wonderful.”

“Mr. Cummings was just getting ready to take a walk,” the nurse said. “Would you like to go with him?”

“Of course.”

Doug rose slowly to his feet. “If I prove I can walk down the hall without passing out, maybe they’ll let me go home.”

The nurse smiled. “You’re not ready to go home quite yet, Mr. Cummings. But if you keep progressing this well, you’ll probably be able to go home in a couple of days.”

Anne stepped to the side and held Doug’s arm to help steady him as they walked into the hallway.

“How’s Samantha doing?” Doug asked.

“She’s all right. She misses you.”

“God, I miss her, too. Now that I’m out of ICU, she can come and visit. That is, if you think it won’t scare her to see me looking like this.”

“No. I think it would be good for her to see you. She’s at riding camp today, but I’ll call Kendall and see if she wouldn’t mind bringing her by after camp.”

“That sounds great.”

Doug was winded, and when they reached the end of the hallway, they paused to rest for a moment before starting back towards his room.

“Did Samantha sleep through the night?”

Anne shook her head. “No, she had a bad dream, and …”

Doug frowned at her. “What?”

“She
did
hear something,” Anne murmured.

“What are you talking about?”

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. “Nothing. Come on, let’s head back to your room.”

“It’s not
nothing.”
Doug reached for the handrail as they started back down the hall. “Tell me what you were thinking about.”

Anne lowered her eyes. “Samantha had a bad dream, that’s all. And then I let her sleep with me, because I was too tired to stay up with her. I know that’s not a good idea, but I was just so exhausted, I did it anyway.”

Doug stopped walking. “Anne.”

“What?”

“You said Samantha heard something. Tell me what you meant by that.”

She had sworn to herself she wouldn’t tell Doug about the deer until he was home from the hospital, but now she felt guilty keeping it from him.

When she didn’t answer, Doug cupped his hand under her chin and forced her to look at him. “Tell me what’s bothering you.”

Anne took a deep breath and glanced down the hallway. “Can we go back in your room? I’d rather talk in private.”

He nodded and they walked back to his room in silence.

“Okay,” Doug said once he was settled in the bed. “Tell me what’s going on.”

Anne reached for his hand and felt her throat close up. “Someone put a dead deer outside our back door last night.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “How do you know someone
put
it there?”

“Because I had John look at it. He said it looked like roadkill, and that it was definitely dead before it got to our back porch. And that’s not all.”

“Go on.”

Anne closed her eyes for a brief moment, trying to clear the haunting image. “The deer was sliced open and its intestines were strewn around the porch.”

“Oh Christ. Did you call the Sheriff’s Office?”

“No. I guess I should have. What worries me now is that when Samantha woke up last night, she said she had heard a noise outside her window. Of course, I didn’t know anything about the deer at the time, and I just assumed she’d had a bad dream. Now I realize she must have heard whoever was out there with the deer, since her window overlooks that side of the house.”

“
Damn it.”
Doug gripped her hand. “I can’t believe I let you go home alone last night and didn’t even think about getting security for you. You and Samantha were all alone in that house while some psycho was outside spreading deer guts all over our porch.”

He threw the sheet back. “I’m going home.”

Anne tried to cover him again. “Don’t be silly, Doug. You’re in no shape to leave the hospital.”

“The hell I’m not.” Doug pushed her hand away and eased out of bed. “I just need a few days to rest, and I can do that at home just as well as I can here. Better, in fact.”

He headed towards the small bathroom. “I need my clothes. Will you call the nurse and ask for them?”

“Oh, Doug, come on, don’t be ridiculous. You can’t just walk out of the hospital.”

“Watch me.” He disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door.

K
endall sat in the shade of a willow tree next to the outdoor arena, eating lunch with Elizabeth and the kids. It was an exceptionally humid day and the temperature was forecasted to rise to near one hundred degrees, so she had cut the morning riding session short and let the girls spray themselves with the hose before taking their lunch break.

Jake had just finished riding Margaret’s three-year-old horse, Casanova, and he stood in the arena, talking with Margaret and two of her boarders. Kendall couldn’t hear what they were saying, but there was a lot of laughter, and the women were flirting shamelessly with Jake.

“He’s sure cute, isn’t he?” Elizabeth said.

Kendall looked at her. “Who?”

“
Who?
Jake, of course.”

“Elizabeth, Jake’s almost old enough to be your father.”

“I know that. But that doesn’t mean I have to stop looking, does it?”

Kendall laughed. “No, I guess not.”

“He’s such an incredible rider. He makes everything look effortless.”

Kendall watched Jake roll up the stirrups and pat Casanova on the neck. She had to admit he did seem to have a way with horses. Casanova could be a handful, but Jake had ridden him beautifully.

Elizabeth smiled dreamily. “I wouldn’t mind marrying a cowboy like Jake when I get older. We’d have our own barn. He’d train the horses, and I’d show hunters and teach riding.”

“Would that be before or after you go to Harvard Law, as your dad thinks you’re going to do?”

Elizabeth groaned. “Please, don’t remind me. I was eight when I told Dad I wanted to be the first female chief justice of the Supreme Court, and even though I’m long over that, he’s never forgotten it.”

“He just wants what’s best for you.”

“I know. Ever since Mom died, Dad has been trying so hard to be involved with my life, but sometimes he overdoes it.”

“I’m sure it’s aggravating at times, but you know he’s doing it because he loves you.”

“Yeah, I guess. Was it the same way with your father?”

Kendall’s smile faded.

“Was your dad like that, too, Miss Waters?”

“That’s a tough question for me to answer,” Kendall said quietly. “My relationship with my father has changed over the years. When I was your age, we were very close, and I thought I wanted to follow in his footsteps and be an investment banker. We lived in Los Angeles and we often talked about my going east to Princeton undergraduate and then returning to California and getting my MBA at Stanford, just like my father had.”

“Did you do that?”

Kendall shook her head. “No. At least not all of it. I did go to Princeton, but then I met Peter and fell in love, and I decided to drop out of school after my junior year and get married.”

“Uh-oh. I’ll bet that ticked your dad off.”

“That’s putting it mildly.” Kendall took a deep breath. “He basically disowned me.”

“No way!”

“Yes. He told me I had to choose between Peter and my family. I think he believed that he could force me to go back to school by giving me an ultimatum. But I was in love and I thought he’d eventually come around, so I went ahead and married Peter, against my father’s wishes.”

“Did he forgive you?”

“Nope.”

“
Still?”

“Still. And that was over eight years ago.”

“Was he happy that you got divorced from Mr. Baxter?”

“He doesn’t know. My father and I haven’t spoken since the day I eloped.”

“Oh my gosh, that is so sad.”

“Yes, it is.” Kendall forced a smile. “Which is why you should be happy that you have a father who cares so much about you, and you should listen to him.”

“I will, Miss Waters. I promise.”

“How did we get on such a depressing subject, anyway?” Kendall asked, standing up and brushing the crumbs from her sandwich off her lap. “Let’s gather the girls and get them started on their arts and crafts project. And by the way, Elizabeth, please call me Kendall. You make me feel old when you call me Miss Waters.”

“Okay.” Elizabeth stood and crumpled her lunch bag into a ball, tossing it like a basketball into the trash can by the ring.

“Hey, nice shot,” Jake called.