Requiem for the Bone Man (23 page)

“As for you, Mr. Thornton, as a federal official, you have perjured yourself in my court. Appropriate charges will be filed against you, and we will notify your superiors of your attempt to subvert justice. I will also demand an investigation into any connections you may have with this criminal bounty scam.

“The children are to be released to Dr. Crowley forthwith and all charges against the doctor dropped.

“Dr. Galen, the court thanks you. You may step down. Case dismissed.”

Galen stepped down from the witness chair. Peggy was hugging Bill as Nancy and Bob stood nearby holding hands like teenagers. Media types fled the room scrambling to hit the airwaves and meet newsprint deadlines.

Then she walked up to him. Time had been kind to her, sparing her face the age lines that affected most women. Her silver-gray hair gave dignity to the classical aquiline features she had been blessed with. She also seemed more self-assured in maturity.

“It’s been a long time, Bob. I can’t believe how much time has passed.”

“It looks like time forgot you, June. You look the same as you did back in school.”

“Smooth line! The Bear would never have come up with that back then.”

He sighed.

“That’s what life does to you. Are you married?”

“Widowed. Tom died two years ago suddenly. He was a good man. You?”

“Married twice, made a widower both times. Guess I’m just a Jonah with the ladies.”

He continued to look at her, seeing once again The Model of his youth.

“Any kids, Bob?”

He shook his head no and asked her the same question.

“One. Tom Eastman Jr. He’s an emergency room doc in Lakeland, Florida.”

Just then a voice interrupted.

“Dr. Galen would you and the Edisons and the Crowleys join me in my chambers?”

Judge Samantha Todwell had walked up to them unnoticed. The others heard her as well and shifted their focus to the late-middle-aged woman in judicial robe. She recognized their concern and smiled.

“My clerk has done some research you might find useful. I’d like to discuss the status of the children from a legal perspective.”

All except June followed her through the door behind the bench. Comer had asked permission to accompany them and the judge agreed.

“Please sit down, folks.”

Todwell removed her robe and sat down behind her desk. She loosened the top button on her white blouse and fanned herself with a folder then stopped and grinned sheepishly.

“Air conditioner isn’t working too well.”

“Sam, you’ve got something in mind. What’s your idea?”

Comer and Todwell went back a long way.

“Still trying to second guess me, Ed? Well, you’re right. Here’s the story. Right now those kids have changed status from undocumented aliens to asylees.”

Comer looked at the group.

“What’s she saying is if the three kids had been adults, since they’re from Cuba, then they would have been allowed to go about their business in the United States. The problem is they’re just kids.”

Todwell nodded.

“I’m going to need to pass this through Social Services, which means you three will have to undergo investigations for fitness, but I’m going to use all the connections I have to convince INS to allow the three of you to become the official guardians of these children. After what their man did, I think they owe it to you folks.”

“That’s my Sam!” Comer exclaimed.

Bill and Peggy walked with the four of them to the elevator. Edison was the last one in as Thornton came down the hall. He called out to them to hold the elevator. Edison pressed the “Close” button and called out.

“Sorry, Thornton, this elevator is for underclassmen!”

As they exited the elevator in the courthouse lobby they were surprised to see Judge Todwell again, now standing there ahead of them.

Comer turned to Galen.

“Sam sure loves taking that special elevator! Only judges can use it to beat me down here after a case.”

Todwell stepped forward, eyes twinkling, broad smile splitting her face as she turned and motioned to the clerk.

“Jake, bring ‘em out.”

Three familiar young faces suddenly appeared from behind a doorway obscured by the bulk of the man and made a beeline for the Crowleys, the Edisons, and Galen. As they leaped and jumped into the arms of the adults like three unleashed puppies, Comer raised an eyebrow, which Todwell noticed.

“Oh, hush, Ed Comer,” she said before he could speak. “You know I’m a softy for kids and pets. I just thought—and my friends at Social Services agreed—that the children would be better off back with the Crowleys and their friends.”

As Comer took Todwell in his arms and hugged her, Galen whispered to Edison:

“I’ll bet ol’ Comer has ridden down that private elevator himself—and not alone, either.”

The other three laughed and laughed at the happy ending.

“June, why don’t you stop by my place in Virginia? I can show you Washington like you’ve never seen it.”

“I’d like to do that someday, Bob. How would you like to join Bill, Peggy and me next year? We’re going to do a medical missionary flight to Colombia. I’d love to have you come with me.”

Welcome words, but they caused the hairs on Galen’s neck to rise once more as Aunt Hattie’s voice stirred in his mind.

Bone Man’ll bite yeh and it’ll sting real bad!

She had kept her promise, stopping by Galen’s Virginia home/office after returning from a visit to her son in Florida and a stopover at the clinic to see the Crowleys and the children.

After a day of sightseeing, the two of them sat in the tiny booth of the out-of-the-way Thai restaurant, slowly sipping tea and getting reintroduced. He kept looking at her and remembering the young woman he once had loved briefly but so intensely that he even lost track of the conversation of the moment.

The years notwithstanding, June was still The Model to him. Time had just added a patina of wisdom to her classical good looks. Even more, she still had the intelligence and wit that had made working ward duty with her a pleasure.

But her next remark snapped him back to attention.

“Bob, I’m worried about Peggy. Last time I was visiting, she looked tired. I’m going to go down this weekend and help Bill out at the clinic. Want to come with me? The four of us would be unstoppable.”

The four of us. Once it had been the Unstoppable Six, the A Team.

Dave, the Country Boy, was dead and Connie had never really recovered from his tragic death. She had withdrawn into an isolated existence that none of her friends could break. So, now there were four, and that fourth had left him with self-induced scars on his soul. Could things really be picked up and started over again after all these years?

He felt like a schoolboy asking the prom queen for a date. Hell, he hadn’t felt this awkward since when? He didn’t want to lose her a second time. He had had his share of loss.

“So, wanna come with me?”

He smiled and nodded.

They got up before dawn the next day.

“Old training habits never die,” he quipped and she laughed as they both remembered the many times they would be awakened in the middle of the night for sick patients.

He had loaded his old Jeep with medical supplies for the clinic and they drove down to Bill and Peggy’s North Carolina mission and clinic. Each wondered if this would be a new beginning for them. They didn’t call ahead. They wanted to savor each other’s company as long as possible.

When they arrived in the late afternoon, they went directly to the residence next door to the clinic. It seemed a long time before the door was opened. Bill stood in the hallway and looked at them without seeming to see them. He stared into emptiness.

June moved first. She slid past Bill into the house and went back to the bedroom area. Galen took his friend by the arm, guided him to the living room sofa, and made him sit down.

“Bill, what’s wrong?”

“Bob, get back here!” June’s voice quavered.

He ran back to the bedroom where June was examining her friend. She was crying softly even as she stroked Peggy’s face.

“She’s dead, Bob. It looks like a sudden massive stroke.”

“
Madre de Dios!
”

Galen and June turned at the sudden exclamation and saw Mrs. Canales the housekeeper standing in the doorway. Clutching her apron, the three Hidalgo children stared wide-eyed at the bed and the woman they had grown to love as Tia Peggy.

“Is Tia sick?”

Carmelita looked up at the giant who had rescued her and her brothers, but he remained silent.

“No, little one,” Mrs. Canales said quietly, choking out the words, “your Tia is with the angels now.”

“Will she be with mama and papa?” asked Federico, who went to touch the dead woman’s hand.

“Yes, she will,” said Galen, who bit his lip to maintain control of his emotions.

“Is Tio Bill going with Tia Peggy?” Little Antonio moved toward Galen.

“No, Tonio, not yet.”

June tried to appear strong in front of the children.

“Consuela, we’ll need to make arrangements and help the Padre. Will you look after the children for us until we can straighten things out?”

“
Si, senora
.”

She opened her arms to gather the three and led them slowly from the room. Each looked back and waved good-bye at Peggy.

A few moments later, Galen and June exited the room as well, leaving her there in the bed she and Bill had shared those many years. They returned to where Bill was still sitting now rocking himself back and forth ever so slightly. They had to help the living. All their training cried out for that. All of their humanity demanded it.

Galen called the local funeral home to make arrangements then he and June sat with Bill through the night.

Finally they were able to coax from him the tragic chain of events. Peggy had never quite recovered from the stress of Bill’s arrest. She had worked the clinic alone the day before that terrifying court hearing. And both, in a frenzied attempt to ward off the attack on their very reason for being, had worked twice as hard afterwards.

She worked, even though fatigue and headaches began to overtake her, but she wouldn’t stop, until earlier that day when she told Bill she just had to lie down for awhile. When he went to check on her a little later, he found his whole life gone. He had sat there with her, not able to move or think rationally until, like Pavlov’s dog, he responded reflexively to the sound of the doorbell.

The ceremonies were quiet. Edison and Nancy had flown in to be with their friends. They were amazed at the large crowd standing silently in the early morning Carolina fog just to pay their respects to Padre Bill’s wife.

Then came the hard part: going back to the house that echoed with the memories and vibrations of a fruitful life and the recent happy commotion of the children. Galen and June could sense the palpable emptiness, so they stayed a week with their friend, working the clinic and keeping a close eye on Bill, while he sat silently most of the time regardless of their attempts at encouragement.

Before he left for home, Galen contacted the regional medical school and arranged for the directors of the graduate programs to circulate their interns and residents through the clinic. Then he bundled Bill and some personal basics into the Jeep and June and he drove the distance back to Northern Virginia. He knew the agony of being alone and vowed not to let that crushing despair permanently overwhelm his friend.

Slowly Bill did emerge from his depression. The loss still weighed on him, but he began to eat and talk more freely, particularly of returning to his clinic to continue his and Peggy’s life work. But Galen recognized that pattern, too, and so did June.

“Bill, let’s make that Colombia trip,” she told him. “Peggy would have wanted it. It will do you some good to get away for awhile.”

June could be very persuasive when she was younger, and Galen saw something else that had endured over the years as she talked with Bill, who at last agreed.

The three worked over the arrangements. June and Bill would fly down to the takeoff point in Colombia to check on the supplies and itinerary for the various stops through the outlying villages. Galen would join them later for the actual embarkation to the countryside.

The effort brought purpose back into Bill’s life and renewed determination into Galen’s. The night before she was going to leave, they strolled along the bike path near Galen’s home. He knew it was his second, and last, chance with her.

“June, remember that day when I made a fool of myself at your apartment?”

She laughed then stopped and looked into his glistening eyes.

“You weren’t a fool, Bob. I just wasn’t ready for that big a step in my life.”

“What about now?”

Dear God, what a stupid way to propose!

He waited that fraction of a second, expecting the same reply to echo over the years again.

“I’m ready now, Bob.”

He waved to them as they left the security area to board their plane then returned home quickly. He had a lot to do before his own flight in two days. He had arranged for coverage of his patients, but Nancy and Edison would keep watch over the office and stay at his place to catch the mail and important calls. He kept checking off the items on his inventory list—including that special small box, ring size, he would carry in his shirt pocket.

He sat at his desk, looking over his passport, vaccination records, and all of the other papers he would need. The classical music from WBJC filled the room with Schubert’s beautiful “Quintet in C.”

Then the music stopped.

“This is a bulletin from the WBJC news room,” a monotone male voice interrupted. “In what is being called a tragic accident, the Colombian government has announced that a plane carrying medical missionaries and supplies from the United States was fired upon by U.S. and Colombian drug-taskforce helicopters that had been tracking narcotics smuggling operations over the central highlands. There are no reported survivors. Stay tuned for further reports.”