Green Lake (23 page)

He knew what he would do. He would bypass the guy in the ball cap entirely and go directly to the owner of that Jag. Without knowing it, the owner of the Jag would pay for all Ronnie had lost. For Kayla, for Sheila and the girls, and for the aggravation, jail time, and the thirty-second report on television that Eris Renard was responsible for about the hoax perpetrated by Ronnie. Ronnie's mother couldn't show her face in public because of him. Even the lowlifes at the bingo hall were shunning her. And unless Ronnie changed his name or stumbled across someone who hadn't seen the telecast or a newspaper, no one was going to give him a job doing anything but picking fruit or hauling furniture.

But maybe, Ronnie thought, just maybe, the owner of the Jaguar could see his way free to help Ronnie out. Then Ronnie wouldn't need a job. He could just skip the state altogether and say a fond farewell to everyone he knew in
Kansas. Including his good friend the judge.

And he would deal with Sheila later, when and if he ever found her.

Ronnie rummaged around in the car until he found a pen. He used a white hamburger wrapper to write on. He wrote down the rifle make and the cartridge he found and added that he had watched the man in the baseball cap jump out of his SUV to shoot conservation officer Eris Renard in the back. A woman in the cab was hit in the head.

He finished by writing that he would take one hundred thousand dollars not to tell anyone what he had seen.

Ronnie was sure he had misspelled conservation, and maybe a few other words as well, but he wasn't worried. He idled up to the mailbox and saw the name Beckworth, and was about to put the note inside when he changed his mind. He drove instead the rest of the way to the house and then left his car to stick the note in the storm door. The minute he made a step toward the door a security light came on, and as he snatched at the handle to open the door and shove the note through the crack, an alarm sounded somewhere.

Breathing hard, Ronnie jumped away from the door and raced for his car. He crawled behind the wheel and was speeding down the drive before the front door of the house opened.

Tomorrow he would give Beckworth a call.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Eris slept badly in the hospital. He had many hours to lie awake and wonder who had shot him and for what reason. There were so many possibilities he could not begin to narrow it down. Every man who walked in the woods with a firearm disliked and distrusted a conservation officer. It might have been someone Eris nailed for killing game out of season the year before, afraid to get caught again or still pissed off about the first time. It was impossible to say whether the person meant only to wound or to kill, but the placement of the shots suggested the latter and further suggested to Eris it was someone serious with intent, or a drunk who was otherwise a damned good shot.

When he tired of thinking about it his mind wandered to other areas of his life and to the changes that had occurred and were still occurring so rapidly. He tried to think when it had all begun, when things started changing, and he found himself remembering a night when he stood in his yard eating a sandwich and watching a woman take off her clothes in the bedroom of the log cabin above him. That was it, he told himself. The first time he had seen Madeleine.

It worried him that she hadn't come by to see him again. He sensed she was troubled by his decision to return to
New Mexico with his mother, but he had no choice. He felt responsible for what had happened to Sara, who had remained unconscious for many hours after surgery before finally coming around. The eyesight in her left eye was damaged, as well as the hearing in her left ear, and there were miniscule pieces of floating bone fragments the surgeons had been unable to reach, but all agreed the prospects for recovery were good.

Eris saw
her first thing the next morning. He was taken to her in a wheelchair by a nurse's aide. She cried to see him and asked how he was feeling.

He had asked the hospital to call Clint after Sara was out of surgery, and they had complied. Eris called the number for her while in her room, so she could talk to her other son herself and tell him she was all right.

When he ended his visit with his mother and returned to his room he found Jacqueline just leaving. Her eyes were swollen and her face was pale, but she gave him a brief smile and asked how he was feeling.

“Good,” he told her.

“How is your mother?”

“She'll be all right.”

“I'm glad. I was shocked to hear what had happened. Do you have any ideas about who was responsible?”

“Could've been anyone,” said Eris. Then he asked if she had seen Madeleine.

“No, uh, actually, I thought she might be in here. It surprised me to find her at the hospital yesterday. I had no idea she'd become so friendly with your mother. My sister doesn't make friends easily.”

Eris looked away from her. It was obvious Jacqueline knew nothing about Eris's relationship with Madeleine.

“If you see her,” Jacqueline continued, “please tell her I need to speak with her.”

“Did she stay with you last night?” Eris asked, and Jacqueline shook her head.

“I stayed here. Will you please tell her?”

He nodded. “If I see her.” He was beginning to doubt he would, and a tightening sensation in his chest caused him sudden discomfort.

“Are you all right?” she asked before leaving.

He nodded again and looked at her. “Are you?”

“No,” she replied then left the room.

Eris picked up the phone and called the cabin. He let it ring twelve times before hanging up. As he put the phone down, his superior entered the room, and Eris spent the next hour listening to how these disastrous consequences could have been avoided if he had obeyed the rules of common sense and left his mother at home. Eris answered the questions he was asked, but he didn't volunteer any information, and his superior shook his head in disappointment. ‘‘You're a damned fine CO, Renard, but if she had been anybody but your mother, we'd be getting sued right now. I'm going to suspend you without pay for three weeks.”

“On top of my disability?” asked Eris.

“You want Russell handling things that long?”

“No,” said Eris.

“Me either. Take what time you need, then get back to work as soon as possible.” He started out and then stopped. “The shell casings found in the road were .270s. Make copies of all your reports and give the police a list of everyone you've offended for the last two years.”

With that, the man left. Eris stared after him and silently thanked him for coming in person instead of simply calling. Then he got out of bed.

He was still weak. And dizzy. Everything on his left side ached, and it hurt to move his head.

He got back into bed and went to sleep.

The ringing phone woke him, and he picked up the receiver. “Hello?”

“How are you?” asked Madeleine.”

“Better. Where are you?”

“At the cabin. Sorry I didn't make it back last night.”

“Run into trouble?”

“No, I just…didn't make it back. How's your mother today?”

He told her all he knew, and then he paused.

“That's good news,” she said. “You must be very relieved.”

There was a brief silence between them. Finally he said, “I want to leave here tomorrow. Can you drive over and pick me up?”

She was surprised. “Surely they're not ready to release you.”

“I can't stay here.”

“What about your mother?”

“She'll be all right. I'll drive back in a few days. Will you come and get me?”

“Your legs wouldn't fit in my Audi. I guess I can take it back to Jacqueline's house and get the truck again.”

Eris told her about Jacqueline's visit to him that morning, and her request.

Madeleine's voice lowered. “Okay. I'll call her. What time should I come tomorrow?”

“Around
noon.”

“All right. See you then.”

He hung up confused and disappointed. Something had changed again. Something in her voice was different. He figured it was the impending trip to New Mexico. He thought briefly of asking her to go with him, maybe settling her with her folks while he stayed with his mother, but they would still be apart.

Eris didn't know what to do. He knew how he would feel were she to leave him, but it wasn't the same. He was coming back.

Late that afternoon he went to see his mother again, and he sat quietly in her room looking at her face until she awakened. They talked awhile, and he told her he would be going home the next day, because staying in the hospital made him crazy. She said she understood. She didn't mind. He was coming back to New Mexico with her and that was all that mattered.

When he returned to his room, Madeleine was waiting. She ran to him, sliding her arms around him and pressing her face against his chest. Eris closed his eyes and held on to her with his good arm. After a moment he sat and pulled her down next to him, on his good side.

“I hate talking to you on the phone,” she mumbled into his hospital gown. “It makes me miss you so much.”

He kissed her forehead. “I was worried when you didn't come last night.”

“I couldn't,” she said. “I was such a mess.”

She went on to tell him about Manuel and Jacqueline. She had just come from seeing Jacqueline, who had forgiven her after a screaming confrontation with Manuel, who denied nothing, said it was his right as a male and he assumed it was something Jacqueline understood. Jacqueline didn't. When Manuel said women in his country understood, Jacqueline told him to go back to his country. She would take the house and the car
. he could have the Jeep, the cabin, and his precious boat. Manuel had said fine. He would need a week to vacate the house, but he wanted the troublemaking Madeleine out of the cabin immediately.

Madeleine was to go back that evening and pack all her things. Jacqueline had moved to a hotel in the city in the meantime and said Madeleine was free to come and stay with her.

“It's time to get serious about finding a job,” Madeleine concluded. “I haven't heard a word about any of the grants I applied for.”

Eris thought a moment, opened his mouth, shut it, opened it again, then took a deep breath and said, “Come and stay with me.”

“Now that you have furniture?” said Madeleine, the corners of her eyes crinkling.

He smiled and looked at his bandages. “I'm going to need some help for a day or two.”

“Just a day or two?”

“After that you may be the one who needs help. I'm off work, remember.”

Madeleine smiled and then glanced away. “What happens when you go to New Mexico?”

“You stay.”

“Until you come back?”

“For as long as you want.”

She looked at him, and her hesitancy matched his.

“Do I take it you like my cooking?”

Eris squeezed her waist in reply, his hand warm and even a little moist. Madeleine put her arms around his neck and kissed him.

As if on cue, an aide stepped into the room and asked Eris if he was ready for a bath.

Madeleine circumspectly lowered her arms and moved aside.

“I'm sure you have other things to do,” she said to the aide. “I can help him with the bath.”

The woman eyed them in disapproval, but she apparently did have other things to do, because she left the pan, the sponge, the towels, and a fresh gown behind her as she turned and exited the room.

“Jacqueline says this hospital is incredibly understaffed when it comes to nurses and aides,” Madeleine explained as she moved to close the door.

“Lucky me,” said Eris, and he reached behind himself to untie his gown.

Madeleine filled up the pan in the bathroom with warm sudsy water and brought it to him. Then she proceeded to give him his first sponge bath ever, slow and unhurried, taking her time with each limb and massaging as she soaped, being careful to avoid any areas that were painful to him.

Her lips and fingers followed the sponge across the marks on his back and chest and Eris found himself stirring just watching her.

The aide ducked in once, just to see how the bath was coming, and Madeleine threw a towel over Eris's middle to hide his state of arousal. When she was gone they looked at each other and grinned like naughty children.

She gently toweled his skin dry and helped him into a fresh gown. Then she took a small brush from her purse and loosened the band on his long black hair. She began to brush slowly, moving upward with each stroke, until she was brushing from the scalp down. Eris's entire body goose pimpled as she went on brushing and brushing, causing his scalp to tingle.

He smiled as he felt her pick up his hair and band it again without braiding it. When she was finished, she moved in front of him and looked into his face.

Eris matched her gaze for a long moment before placing a hand on the back of her neck and pulling her close. She put her arms around him and met his lips, opening her mouth to him and making a noise low in her throat as their breathing slowed and the kiss deepened. Eris heard the whisper of the door opening again and he ignored it, hoping the aide would go away, but a throat being loudly cleared caused them to draw slowly apart.

A start went through him, and he felt Madeleine flinch when they looked and saw Dale Russell standing in the room, his handsome mouth twisted in disgust.

“You've got nerve,” Madeleine said, low and angry.

Russell lifted a hand. “I didn't shoot anybody. I came to let you know that. You can believe it or not, but I'm telling you it wasn't me.”

Eris only looked at him.

Russell shifted his feet, put his hands on his waist and shook his head. “Madeleine, I can't get over this. You and him.”

“Get out,” she said.

“I'm going. Just wanted to come by and proclaim my innocence, in case either one of you were thinking of tattling on me for anything.” Eris and Madeleine remained silent. Russell smirked and left the room, shaking his head again as he went.

“I think I'll stay with Jacqueline tonight,” said Madeleine when he was gone. “I'll come tomorrow to pick you up and we'll go back to the cabin together.”

Eris nodded. He thought it was a good idea.

Dale Russell walked through the hospital in search of the elevator. What he really wanted to find was a place to throw up. Seeing Madeleine kissing Renard had actually made him sick to his stomach.

A group of student nurses passed him in the hall, and he felt them all stop and gape at him. Females often did that, stopped whatever they were doing to stare admiringly at him. It didn't happen as often as it used to, him being stuck out at the lake all day, and he missed it in a way, because he knew something inside him fed off the attention. He didn't do anything about it, of course, but that wasn't the point.

He was beginning to think his problems stemmed from all the time he was spending alone. It hadn't been as bad the year before, but that was the first year, when the job was new and he was concerned about doing everything right. This year he pretty much knew what he was doing, so his mind grew idle during all the long boring hours and he found himself thinking about things he hadn't thought about in years. Like little girls.