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Authors: Fern Michaels

Sara's Song (28 page)

BOOK: Sara's Song
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“Let's just say you're pleasantly sloshed. Were you really going to shoot me?”
“Yes.”
“I like honesty.”
“Criminals and crooks always say that to throw the other person off guard. I like this dog. He loves me.”
“Don't get attached. They're mine.” His voice was too defensive-sounding even to his own ears when he said, “They love me, too. I feed them and take care of them just the way I took care of Dallas. Just the way you take care of your sister. You were going to tell me about Dr. Sara Killian.”
Sara shrugged. “Carly and I grew up in a small town called Hastings in Pennsylvania. We lived in a brown shingle house on Bridge Street. We had a big backyard with lots and lots of plum trees. We had best friends the way kids do. My father never quite accepted that we were girls. He wanted a son so bad, he tried to turn us into boys. We weren't very good at it. We wanted to play with dolls and do girl things. We didn't want to go fishing and hunting and hike in the woods. It seems now that there was always friction in the house. Mom didn't like what he was doing to us. For some reason it didn't matter what she wanted or what we wanted. Carly was more malleable than me which is strange because she's really her own person. Later on I conformed. I don't know why. I guess children always seek parental approval no matter how old they are.”
“I never had parents, so I wouldn't know,” Adam said. “At least you grew up with a set of parents who loved you. Dallas and I only had each other.”
“It wasn't all that wonderful. It wasn't like Mom and Dad were pals. They were parents. Our friends were what made us want to get up in the morning. The McDermotts lived next door. They were a big family, lots of kids. There was Gene, Anna, Eleanor, Margie, Dootsie, Clarence, and Paul, and, of course, my best friend Barbara. Margie was Carly's best friend. I had a crush on Paul. They even had a dog named Cappy. He bit me once on the hip. Just jumped up and bit me. I howled my head off, and my dad gave me a swat because he said I must have done something. I didn't. I was just standing there, and the dog bit me for no reason. Barbara is married now and has a son who is a CPA. They live in Detroit. We write every so often. She has a family and a high-pressure job, so that doesn't leave much personal time. She's sentimental like me, and, like me, she's family oriented. They have family picnics and reunions. Someday I'm going to go to one of them. Barbara invites me. The only thing is Barb has the family and I don't. Their dad was the sheriff. I thought that was just great. I think when I was little I lived in fear that if I didn't do what my dad wanted, he would have Mr. McDermott arrest me.” Sara stopped talking long enough to take a deep breath. Her vision was clearing a little, and she didn't feel quite so nauseous.
“Was it a big town or was it little?”
“Very little. About twelve hundred people. Everyone knew everyone else. The telephones were party lines. Our phone was two short and one long ring. We could walk everywhere. There was a creek behind the house. We'd go wading and make little pools where the water was up to your knees. At night we'd play Red Light, Green Light. Carly and I cried for weeks when we moved to California. We both hated it. Now that I don't have a job, I might go back to Pennsylvania. I like small towns. I hate the politics of a big hospital. I might even set up private practice. It occurs to me, Mr. Lord, that you are soaking this all up like some big sponge. Are you going to use it against me in some way at some point?”
“No. I think you can call me Adam. I also think in your heart you know I am not guilty of the things you accused me of. If you were, you wouldn't be sitting here talking to me.”
“I don't want to believe Dallas's brother would harm me. Who? I need to know who it is that's terrorizing me. Were you telling me the truth when you said you didn't care about the song?”
“I was telling you the truth. I care, but I don't care. It has to be your decision. There's something I want to tell you. I went to see Harry Heinrick at Benton Memorial Hospital. I want you to listen very carefully to what I'm going to tell you. You can verfiy this anytime you want.”
A long time later, Sara stirred. If she had been truly drunk before, she was stone-cold sober now. “Dallas did that?”
“Yes, he did. I had a hard time with it. Mr. Heinrick said you were the best doctor ever to work at Benton. Dallas must have loved you very much to do something like that.”
“Are you going to go through with what Dallas promised?”
“No. Heinrick understands the reasons why I won't honor Dallas's promise. I believe he's going to offer you your job back. Will you take it?”
“Not in this lifetime. I think I'm okay to drive now. I guess we should say good-bye. I want to make sure we understand something. I'm not paying for that gate and I'm not giving you the song.”
“Understood.”
Sara smiled.
“You should do that more often. You're very pretty when you smile.”
“Dallas always said you were a handsome dude. I think he was right.”
Adam threw back his head and laughed. “It would appear we have our own mutual admiration society here. Now, tell me, is there anything I can do to help you?”
“Find the person responsible. I think I'm sorry about the gun. I feel out of sorts, and I'm worried about my sister. Plus, I hate meandering down Memory Lane. Good-bye, Mr. . . . Adam.”
Adam reached for Sara's outstretched hand. Suddenly he didn't want her to leave. He didn't want to accept the knowledge that he was never going to see her again. Something was happening here he didn't understand. Maybe it started happening when Dallas Six jumped into her lap. Maybe a lot of things.
Her hand was soft, the nails short and buffed. Good strong hands. Capable hands. He wondered how they would feel on his face and chest. Women always like to massage a man's chest. And back. Other places, too. He seemed to be having trouble with his breathing, so he took hard little puffs of air and coughed to cover what he was feeling. He was still holding her hand.
Maybe it wouldn't have happened if the pups hadn't barreled out of the house to beeline to the spot where they were standing. Later he told himself it was purely reflexive. Whatever it was, he pulled Sara to him, his lips found hers in a matter of seconds. The world as he knew it, changed in the time it took his heart to beat twice. And then the world exploded around him as his head threatened to rock right off his shoulders.
Unaware of the pain Adam was experiencing, Sara murmured, “I
liked
that. Do it again.” Still, it wasn't the same as the time Dallas kissed her and her head almost blew off her neck.
“Before or after I die of the pain. Look! That little monster bit me and kept right on biting me. He must have thought I was hurting you.”
“How sweet,” Sara cooed. “I'm a doctor. I can fix this right up. My goodness, it does look nasty. You're going to need a tetanus shot after I dress the wounds.”
“Wounds as in plural? Jesus, how many times did he bite me?”
“Looks like three marks. He's trying out his second teeth. You're a pretty good kisser. Dallas was good, too. Guess it runs in the family,” she said brazenly.
Adam hopped around on one foot. “You didn't do so bad yourself. When I'm healed maybe we could do it again.”
Sara reached in her bag and pulled out a small brown bottle and a syringe. “Stand still. This is going to sting.”
“Do you always come prepared like this?”
“Aren't you glad I am so prepared? Now, drop your pants.”
“Here? Out in the open like this. Tom can see from the window.”
“Does he have something different than you have?”
“That's not the point.”
“What is the point?” Sara said tapping the syringe. A spurt of liquid shot out of the needle.
“I hardly know you.”
“That didn't stop you from kissing me. As my sister would say, we swapped spit. Drop them.”
Adam inched his pants down midway on his right buttock. Sara snatched the fabric and gave a yank. The needle shot home before Adam could bellow his outrage. “Nice buns.” She stifled a giggle. Carly would be so proud of her.
Adam felt like a ring of fire curled around his neck. He didn't know where to look, so he picked up Dallas Six and cuddled him close to his cheek.
“I'll send you my bill.”
“I have insurance,” Adam said smartly.
“So do I. I hate those forms. I'll have to charge extra if you expect me to fill them out. Good night, Adam. I stand by my original statement. You're a pretty good kisser.”
“Brazen hussy,” Adam hissed.
“That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me.”
“Let me know how your sister is.”
“Okay. Change the dressing tomorrow morning and put more peroxide on the bites. Relax, you're going to live.”
Adam watched until the monster truck's taillights were pinpoints of red light in the distance.
“I saw that. I saw that,” Tom chortled from the open doorway. “You really sweeped, or is that swept, her off her feet? She comes in here, blows down your gate, almost shoots your toes off, and you end up kissing her and dropping your pants all in five minutes.”
“Shut up!” Adam said as he stomped his way into the house.
Tom laughed. Arid laughed.
The dogs barked and howled.
Adam tripped over the doorstep, his face as red as his neck.
Chapter Fourteen
Sara tiptoed down the corridor to Carly's private room. Her gaze missed nothing in the quiet corridor hospital. The charge nurse and the floor nurse were filling out paperwork and sipping coffee. The charge nurse raised her eyes, spotted Sara, and nodded. Nellie, with a sixth sense that was unequaled and the eyes of a hawk, poked her head out the door, her finger to her lips in silence.
“You . . . ah, you look . . .”
“You can say it, Nellie. I look like . . . hell. This has been some night. Is Carly okay?”
“She's sleeping like a baby. I expect she'll milk this for all it's worth, but then so would I. Now, tell me what happened.”
Sara sighed. “Everything and nothing. I think I banged up your truck a little, Nellie. I crashed through Dallas's gates. I'm surprised I wasn't electrocuted. I didn't even think about
that
till later. I'll pay for any damages. He didn't do it, Nellie. He's got all these dogs, and they just love him to death and he loves them. I was so sure. Then I wasn't sure. I shot at him and almost nipped his toes. I wanted him to know I meant business. You should have heard me swear. I felt like some deranged person. I'm going to send Carly to my aunt Florence's house in Nevada, so she'll be safe. This is a lot to ask, Nellie, but will you go with her?”
“What a silly question. Of course I'll go with her. Will she want to go is the big question.”
“She has to go. I'll make up some story about going to New York to interview. She won't want to be alone at the house with everything that's been going on. I'm not sure what the story is with her and Hank. They'on. They're off. Between the two of us, I think we can convince her.”
“What else happened? I know there is more. I want to hear everything.”
“They got me drunk. Maybe it was my own fault. When I calmed down, they said I needed coffee and I said I liked Irish Cream. I meant the flavored kind from Gloria Jean's. They didn't have any so Tom, and don't ask me who Tom is, added Irish whiskey to the coffee. I slurped it down like it was a milk shake. Three cups, Nellie. Adam said I was sloshed. I sobered up really quick. Shock will do that to a person. He kissed me. Nobody, Nellie, ever kissed me like that before. Except Dallas that one time,” she said sadly. God, Nellie, listen to me.”
“I am, and I like what I'm hearing. You're sure now he's not responsible for what's happening.”
“I'm sure. My head, my heart, and my gut tell me I'm right. I saw his face when I told him about Carly. Among other things I spilled my guts about my childhood. I don't understand what happened to me tonight, Nellie. That person who did all those things was me but it wasn't me.”
Nellie smiled. “That was the real Sara. This other Sara we all know who is so proper and aloof is a myth. She's not real. It's like you read a book and copied the character and said, ‘This is who I'm going to be.' Your father is responsible for that, Sara. To this day you are still trying to be the person he wanted you to be in your professional as well as your personal life. That's wrong. Tonight you severed the tie. So, is he a good kisser? How do you think he'll be in bed? Do you think he'll be better than Dallas?”
“Nellie! I'll never know, will I?”
“You're dying to talk about this. So, let's get to it.”
Sara giggled and realized she liked the sound. “The best. I think, and this is just my opinion, but I think he's going to be ... magnificent in bed. He's sort of a thinker, slow and steady. People like that . . . you know. Underneath his facade I think he's a very caring person, but you wouldn't think so until you got to know him. I told him I wasn't paying for his gate and I wasn't giving him the song. He said it was okay with him. He's selling Dallas's house and donating the money to a retired musicians' fund or something like that. He's coming to terms with Dallas's death. He's also going to leave in a few days to go back to Charleston. Maybe it isn't meant to be, Nellie. Every time I look at him, I see Dallas. It breaks my heart. Why did he have to die, Nellie?”
“Ours is not to reason why. Make it happen, Sara. You only walk through this life once. Make that walk count.”
“I won't chase him. He knows where I live. He has my phone number. This is stupid. It's rebound stuff, and in the end that never works. I don't want or need another affair.”
“What if he's shy when it comes to women? What if he's afraid of you and what you can do to him professionally?”
“That's just too much to think about right now. I'm going home, Nellie. I'll get a few hours' sleep and come back. Perhaps we can have breakfast together. I'll call my aunt Florence and pack Carly's things. I want you both to leave right from the hospital. I don't want Carly going back to the house. We'll talk later, okay. Thanks, Nellie, for everything, but most of all for being my friend. I have a story to tell you about the Hawk when I get back.”
“I have one to tell you, too. Go home, Sara, and get some sleep.”
“I want to see Carly first. I'll just peek in the door.”
“Thirty seconds, Sara. Carly needs her rest.”
“I know. I need to see her, Nellie. I promise not to make a sound.” Satisfied that her sister was indeed sleeping, Sara stayed an extra moment to stare at the cumbersome cast on her sister's shoulder. Carly would be fine once she adjusted to the discomfort.
 
 
The phone in the kitchen started to ring the moment she entered the house. She armed the security system before she grappled for the portable phone. Thinking it might be Nellie, she answered the phone, her eye on the clock.
The voice was stern, almost unrecognizable, but she would have known it any where. A smile tugged at the corners of Sara's lips as she listened. “Dr. Killian . . . Sara . . . I am not a complainer by nature, but don't you think you should have given me some pain pills?”
“You could take some aspirin and call me in the morning.” She was flirting and enjoying every second.
“It is morning, Sara.”
“So it is. A nice cup of hot tea relaxes a person. You could try it.”
“What will that do for my rear end? I can't sit down, because there is a lump the size of a lemon on my rump.”
“I see. Are we flirting with each other, Adam?”
“I am. How about you?”
Sara smiled at Adam's confession. “Yes, but I'm not very good at it.”
“Neither am I. Why don't we cut right to the chase and have a real date. I call you up, you say yes, I bring flowers and ring your doorbell. I have to tell you I'm pretty rusty at the dating thing.”
“I am, too. When do you think you'll call me?”
“Hang up, and I'll call you right back. You're going to say yes, right?”
“Yes, I'm going to say yes.” Sara laughed aloud when the dial tone hummed in her ear. She replaced the phone in the cradle. It rang a second later. “Yes,” she blurted.
“I didn't ask you yet. You're fouling me all up. Will you have dinner with me this evening, Dr. Killian? Someplace casual. No primping and no fussing.”
“I will if you promise to stop calling me Dr. Killian.”
She had a date. With a man who could make her head spin.
“Do you want to hang up now?”
“Do you?”
“No. What should we talk about?”
“I guess the thing that's foremost on my mind, the person who is after me. Do you have any idea who it could be?” She almost blurted out she was sending Carly to her aunt Florence, but bit down her lip instead. Nellie always said never tell everybody everything. It was probably very good advice.
“Do you have an alarm system?”
“Yes. It was on the day my house was broken into. I've locked all the dead bolts.”
“Not many people have the smarts to disarm an alarm system. Be careful. I have a couple of ideas, plus a lot of suspicions I plan to follow up on today. I'll report any progress this evening. Is seven good for you?”
“Seven is fine. How's the pain?”
“I lied.”
“I know.”
Adam laughed. “I'll see you at seven.”
“I'm looking forward to it.”
“I am, too.”
The smile stayed on Sara's face during her shower and while she turned down the bed. It went into hiding when she brushed her teeth, but surfaced again when she snuggled with her pillow. And then the tears flowed. “Oh, Dallas, I miss you. It should be you and not your brother who is going to take me to dinner. It's just a silly little dinner date. It doesn't mean anything. Really it doesn't.” Seconds later she was sound asleep, her pillow soggy with her tears.
 
 
Sara knew there was a smile on her face when she woke even though her pillow was still damp. She didn't need a mirror to verify that today was going to be a wonderful day. Nellie would take Carly to Nevada where she would be safe. She was going to deliver the song Dallas wrote for her to Judge Iverson for safekeeping, so she could get on with her life. She hoped that life would include Adam Lord's friendship in some small way.
The clock on the nightstand said it was seven o'clock. She'd had little more than three hours of sleep, and yet she felt on top of the world. In less than an hour she showered, washed her hair, styled it, made coffee, changed the sheets on her bed—just in case—and packed Carly's bag. The undecorated Christmas tree gave her a bad moment. She decided she could fit decorating it into her schedule as long as she remembered to pick up several strings of lights. And a bottle of very good wine. Just in case. If she was in luck, she might be able to find a new outfit for her casual date with Adam. Then it would be back to the hospital to see that Nellie and Carly got off on their trip. After that she would return to the house, take a bubble bath, and wait for her date. Or, she could juggle things and visit the hospital first. One jam-packed day coming up. She knew she was going to love every single minute of the hustle and bustle she was creating for herself. Maybe she wouldn't have time to think about Dallas and what she was doing by dating his brother. It's just a silly little dinner date, she told herself over and over. The sheets and the wine didn't mean anything.
First things first. She had to go to the bank to get the tape and the sheet music. Did she need an appointment to see Judge Iverson? If she said it was an emergency, she was certain her father's old friend would somehow manage to fit her in for a brief appointiment. If things went awry, she could always package up the tape with a letter and leave it with the judge's clerk. She knew she was doing the right thing by giving the judge the tapes for safekeeping. If anything happened to her or Carly, the judge would be the one to handle their affairs. Carly had convinced her not to leave the tapes in the safe deposit box, reminding her of the time she'd pretended to be Carly and even forged her signature to get her sister's passport out of the box at the last second before a trip to Europe. Judge Iverson was a sworn officer of the court and would keep the tape safe.
In the garage, Carly's keys in her hand, Sara remembered her sister saying her Jeep was out of gas. Damn. Was it literally out of gas or had Carly just said that? She fit the key into the ignition, her eye on the gas gauge. Take a chance or not? There was too much on her agenda today not to chance it. She made it to the gas station six blocks away just as the Jeep started to sputter and cough. She hopped out, pumped her own gas, paid the bill, and was back on the road heading for the bank within minutes.
Midway between the bank and the courthouse, the fine hairs on the back of Sara's neck started to prickle. She risked a glance into the rearview mirror. The same dark blue Taurus that had been behind her on the way to the bank was still with her. Was it a coincidence, or was it something else? At the last second she swerved hard right without turning on her blinker. The Taurus kept on going but picked her up a block away. She fumbled in her black bag. The gun was probably at the bottom of the bag. Adam Lord had taken out the clip and hadn't given it back. The extra clip was in her jacket back at the house. So was the Taser gun she usually carried with her late at night.
Her heart pounding, Sara executed another right, then a left, and headed back the way she'd come. Her next stop would be Benton Memorial so she could alert the security guard, who in turn would call the police. Now her whole day's schedule was screwed up.
The guard listened carefully as Sara rattled off her story. “Look, Mr. Phelps, I didn't see the person, the windshield was tinted, and the sun was glaring on the glass. All I know is the car was with me all morning. I'm not sure about this either, but I think there was a car behind the Ford that was tailing me. Whoever it was stayed with us. I realize it isn't in the parking lot right now, but when I leave here it will be following me. There was no license plate on the front of the car so I couldn't get a number. I know I don't work here anymore, Mr. Phelps, but I would appreciate it if you would help me. I don't think Mr. Heinrick will mind your donating a few minutes of your time. If you need me, I'll be on the fourth floor visiting my sister.”
BOOK: Sara's Song
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