Somewhere Along the Way (35 page)

“You do that.” The man smiled. “You tell him I’d really like to meet him too.”

Gabe walked out smiling, until he saw Denver sitting in the front seat looking like he was plotting his own death. When he climbed in, Gabe said, “I saw the lights on when we passed the Blue Moon Diner. Wanna stop in for some fried food?”

Denver looked up. “You’d actually go into a place to eat? Not takeout or drive-through, but a real sit-down meal?”

“Sure, anything to cheer you up.”

Denver nodded. “I’ll buy.” He thought for a moment. “You’re right. It might be the only thing that would help.”

“I was hoping you’d pay.” Gabe pulled away from the post office and headed down the street, wondering how it was possible that he’d picked the worst weather he’d seen in two years to go out to eat. If the fried food didn’t kill him, the icy roads would.

He was surprised how many people were in the diner. They looked to be mostly the unlucky people who had to work even when the weather was bad. He and Denver took the empty table next to a group that all wore scrubs. Denver was busy ordering the left side of the menu while Gabe tried to find one meal that wouldn’t clog his arteries.

After Denver gave his order, he excused himself, leaving Gabe still trying to decide.

“Want me to just make you something, Gabe?” Edith’s low voice asked. “I’m surprised to see you in here.”

Gabe looked up. Edith Franklin smiled down at him. He didn’t know if it was because he’d never visited with her in the daylight, or if he just took a minute to really look, but this time he saw the years of pain reflected in her eyes. There were scars on her arms: one that looked like a burn, one a cut that had been stitched up haphazardly. When she raised her hand to brush her hair back behind her ear, he saw bruises on her arm. Defensive wounds, he thought.

“How are you?” he said with no hint that he was asking a casual question.

“I’m fine,” she lied. “Had a problem getting here today. My car wouldn’t start and Lloyd fell on the steps when he got out to take me in his van.”

Gabe didn’t know how to make light conversation. “How many times did he hit you?”

She let out a breath and stared at the gray day already darkening into night. “Only twice, but it was my fault. I poured hot water on the porch ice, thinking I’d make it better, but it’s so cold outside the water froze before it could melt down to the wood.”

Gabe calmed his anger. “It wasn’t your fault, Edith.”

Edith smiled. “Lloyd got the brunt of this battle. When he swung the third time, he slipped and hurt his back. He’s over in the emergency room right now hoping they’ll give him some painkillers. The half bottle of whiskey he drank only took the edge off, he said. Hospital workers at the next table say with all the fender benders around town, he may have a four-hour wait. I told him when he dropped me off that I’m leaving him. That kid, Reagan Truman, helped me see the light.”

Gabe had thought of telling her to leave Lloyd. He’d been bad news since the day they married, but Gabe wasn’t in the habit of telling people how to run their lives. He couldn’t even run his own, but he wasn’t surprised Reagan had stepped up to help.

While Edith waited for him to decide, she added, more to herself than Gabe, “You know, funny thing is I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t married to him. It’ll take some getting used to, but I’ve made up my mind. I’m just waiting around for the new girl to get here, then Cass said I could take his truck and go pick up my things.”

Gabe nodded at Edith, silently wishing her well, then ordered a bowl of soup just as Denver returned from the restroom.

“You okay?” Gabe asked as soon as he saw Denver’s pale face.

“Yeah, I threw up the whiskey. Now I feel like I’d have to die and come back as a frog to feel better.”

Claire had clobbered Denver almost as badly as Lloyd had beaten up Edith, but his scars didn’t show. Gabe decided he should go back to life as a hermit. The only person he’d really miss if he moved to the middle of the desert would be Elizabeth.

“I should have never gone over to the Matheson Ranch.” Denver settled into the second verse of his sad song. “Having her never call would have been better than knowing that she used me. I thought she really cared for me deep down and was just acting like she didn’t. Now I know she hated me deep down and was just acting like she liked me. And that woman’s acting like she liked me would never win an Oscar. For a quarter I’d go back out there and tell her what she can do with ...”

Gabe had to stop the rant. “Was Elizabeth at the ranch?” he asked the minute Denver breathed.

Denver looked at him as if he’d interrupted a bar fight going on in his mind. He glared at nothing, then said, “Why don’t you call her Liz? Everyone else does. She even said she likes it, but you have to call her Elizabeth. Half the time I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

Gabe saw that he’d just detoured the anger, not cooled it. “I was just wondering if she was there,” he said slowly, knowing his friend was looking for a fight. “I call her Elizabeth because I like to take my time saying her name. Sorry if it confuses you. By the way, how’d you get out of college with all those defective brain cells?”

Denver rolled his eyes but seemed to realize what he’d been doing. “Okay. No, she wasn’t there. The aunts said she’s staying in town.”

Gabe closed his eyes. If he went out the back door and ran a hundred yards along the gully, he could be at the back stairs to her office without having to fight the roads. He could see her. Just for a minute. That’s all he needed. He wasn’t sure why, but he knew he needed to hold her more than he needed food.

“I’ll be back in ten minutes,” he said as he stood and tossed his keys on the table. “You’ll still be on the three appetizers you ordered when I get back.”

Denver watched as Gabe stood. “Don’t bring her back. I’m not fit company.”

“You’re telling me.” Gabe started toward the back. “Don’t worry. If I’m not back soon, I’ll call you.”

“If you take more than an hour, I’ll be across the street wasting my time drinking again.”

“Fair enough.” A moment later Gabe heard the cook yell at him as the back door slammed.

He crossed the gully and was at Elizabeth’s office before he had a chance to feel the cold. Her light was on.

He climbed the stairs but heard her voice a second before he knocked.

“I understand,” she yelled. “I could come over. I know, but my car could make it. Don’t worry, Hank, I’ll get there.”

Silence.

Gabe guessed she’d been talking on the phone. He hesitated, afraid he’d be intruding.

Just as he was about to turn around, Elizabeth opened the door.

“Gabe,” she whispered, and a moment later was in his arms.

He hugged her tightly, asking, “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Jeremiah Truman had a heart attack. Hank took him to the hospital and they operated a few hours ago. The doctor says he’s got the old guy stable, but it doesn’t look good.”

Gabe stared down at her, loving the way she cared about people. “Where’s Reagan?”

“She’s at the hospital alone. That’s why Hank called. He and Alex have been with her, but they were pulled away to a bad wreck. He said she’s there alone now. He’s afraid the old man will die and she won’t have someone to lean on.” A tear rolled over Elizabeth’s cheek. “There’s no one to call. Reagan has no other family.”

“She has us,” he whispered. “I’ll drive. You call Hank and tell him we’re on our way.”

They ran down icy stairs and climbed into Elizabeth’s tiny car. Gabe gunned the engine as he adjusted the seat to accommodate his long legs. “I agree with Hank,” he yelled at Liz. “You shouldn’t be driving this thing in weather like this. I’ve seen go-carts that look like they’d get more traction.”

She stuck her tongue out at him, and Gabe almost ran off the road wishing he could kiss her.

It took twenty minutes to get the two miles to the hospital. The place was packed with people. Gabe decided half the town must have been playing bumper cars and the other half, over sixty mostly, had tried ice skating without skates. What made it worse, every injured person had a half dozen family members circled around them.

As they moved through the crowd looking for Reagan, Gabe glanced around trying to see a man who looked like

Edith’s husband. He remembered someone saying Lloyd was big, but nothing more. Funny thing, men who beat their wives don’t always look the part.

He wasn’t sure what he’d do if he saw Lloyd. Maybe walk up and give him a little taste of what he liked to hand out. Not that it mattered any longer. By the time Lloyd worked his way through this mess and made it back to his trailer, Edith would be gone for good.

While they waited for a nurse to look up what room Truman had been taken to, Gabe leaned over to Elizabeth and whispered, “Do you know what Lloyd Franklin looks like?”

“Of course,” she answered. “Dumb, potbellied, and dead if his wife had her way.”

“I thought he was the one beating on her?”

“He is, but I think she’s plotting. And if she kills him, I’ve already decided I’ll take the case. Why are you looking for him?”

Gabe smiled. “Edith said he had an accident on the ice. Said he’s here trying to get painkillers. He claimed he hurt his back.” Gabe hesitated and added, “She also said she told him she was leaving him for good. She said he was so drunk, he didn’t even try to argue. He just stared at her and laughed.”

“Did she have anything to do with him being hurt in the first place?”

“Not that I know of,” Gabe said finding it hard to believe that kindhearted Edith would ever try to kill someone, but everyone has a breaking point, he guessed, and she did smooth out the porch with hot water.

“Miss Matheson.” A nurse caught their attention. “Mr. Truman was moved to ICU.” She pointed with her pen.

“Thanks,” Elizabeth said, and started rushing down the hallway.

“You know that nurse?” Gabe asked.

“At some point, if you live here long enough, you know everyone, or more precisely, everyone knows you.”

The intensive care unit was closed, with posted visiting hours for fifteen minutes every two hours. Liz crossed the hall. The small waiting room that served both the operating room and ICU was empty.

They traded guesses as to where Reagan might be, but everywhere they looked was a waste of time. With a hospital this size it would be hard to disappear. The cafeteria, a room surrounded by vending machines, had only eight tables. There were four bathrooms on each of the two floors, three waiting rooms total, an emergency room, four small operating rooms, and a birthing room.

After twenty minutes, Liz tried her brother’s cell. He said he’d left Reagan in the ICU waiting area. The girl had told him she planned to sleep there. A nurse had even brought her a blanket. Unless she was in with Truman, she should be where he’d left her.

While Hank tried Reagan’s cell, Gabe asked one of the passing nurses if Reagan was in with her uncle.

She shook her head and said simply, “Not allowed.”

Elizabeth’s phone rang. She answered, listened for a few seconds, then shook her head. “It’s Hank. Reagan isn’t answering her cell. He said he knows she has it, he watched her switch it to vibrate.”

Liz closed her phone. “Hank sounded worried. Reagan’s protective of the old man. She wouldn’t just leave. Not on crutches. Not without a car. Hank says he’s calling Alex. Something has to be wrong. She couldn’t have just disappeared.”

Gabe felt the same way. He stepped back into the ICU waiting room as if he’d missed something. As he lifted the hospital blanket left on a chair, Reagan’s red cell phone tumbled to the floor. Now he knew something was wrong. She wouldn’t have left it. Reagan was in trouble. He could feel it inside. “Can you call the Blue Moon and see if Denver can report here as soon as possible? He’s got my Land Rover.”

“Sure, but I don’t have to call the café, I’ve got his cell number. Claire gave me his card the other day.” She dug in her purse. “She told me to give the card back to him. Do you think he’ll be of some help?”

“I don’t know. I just sense something’s wrong and I need him here.” Gabe didn’t want to tell her his fear, but the pieces were beginning to fit together and he prayed the picture emerging wouldn’t come into focus. If it did, he might need Denver to cover his back. Reagan wouldn’t, couldn’t, walk away from her uncle. Not without her cell. Not willingly.

Gabe spoke slowly so he wouldn’t frighten Elizabeth. “Check all the women’s rooms, every stall. I’ll check the men’s, then we’ll go to hospital security. She’s got to be here somewhere. She couldn’t have left the hospital without someone seeing her.”

They moved fast, checking every room that wasn’t locked. In his mind he kept guessing. Maybe she’d found a place to sleep, or cry . . . no, she wouldn’t leave Truman, not when he was dying. Maybe friends talked her into going somewhere to eat . . . not likely. She had no car and little chance of walking away on crutches. She had to be in the hospital. She had to be!

When he and Elizabeth reached the emergency entrance, the two security guards joined them. Dividing the room, they began asking everyone if they’d seen a girl with a walking cast pass by. Most were too concerned with their own problems. At the check-in desk, they finally got lucky. One of the nurses had noticed Reagan leaving.

Gabe shot questions in rapid fire. “Did she say where she was going? Did she seem distressed? Was she alone?”

The nurse shook her head until she heard the last question. “I saw her hobbling out behind a big guy,” the nurse said. “She yelled something at him, but he didn’t stop. Maybe he didn’t hear her, or maybe he was just in a hurry. I didn’t get a good look at the man, but when the girl went through the door, she hit her cast on the facing but she didn’t slow down.”

“Did she come back inside?”

The nurse shook her head. “I got busy. I’m sorry. I couldn’t say.”

Gabe looked up and saw Sheriff Alex McAllen running toward them. She motioned them into the first empty office. Elizabeth filled her in while Gabe asked the guards questions. No, there were no cameras. No, they didn’t keep a guard outside. No, neither of them were stationed in the emergency room. One had gone upstairs to have supper and the other one had been asked by a nurse if he’d talk to a family who were making too much noise.