The Common Thread (12 page)

*

Forcing herself to walk slowly, Katie guided the children toward the door she’d come through just a few minutes before. Ahead of her and to the right, she saw Officer Edwards. He’d taken the long way around, but with two children beside her slowing her pace, he reached the exit first. As he reached for the wall button to open the door, it opened and Simon Simms walked through. Katie gasped and both kids hesitated, sensing her fear.

His attention was directed at the police officer, and Katie took advantage of the distraction and hurriedly changed direction, pushing the children before her into another patient room. She doubted Simon would recognize her in her costume, and he didn’t know Chloe and Andre well enough to recognize them, but if the police officer spotted her, no doubt he’d point her out to Simon. The game would be over.

An elderly woman was asleep in the bed, with tubing feeding precious oxygen into her lungs and sustenance into her veins.

“Don’t stare, it’s rude!” Katie admonished her children when she caught them looking. At the moment she didn’t care so much about manners as she did about terrifying the children. The woman looked to be near death. Katie felt the same way as she pushed back the curtain and saw the police officer chatting with Simon. Their voices were inaudible from this distance, but from their body language they appeared to be on friendly terms. She watched the officer motion down the hallway toward the room Katie and her children had just vacated. With a nod and a smile, Simon began walking that way.

Katie didn’t know what to do. If the officer noticed her, he’d probably stop her, since Simon was obviously in search of Chloe and Andre. Maybe it would be best to hide in this room for a while, until they both left the ER. Then, just as she accepted that as her only option, the officer suddenly turned and followed Simon, clearing the path for Katie’s escape. Without trying to hide her sense of urgency, she pulled the children into the hallway. “Let’s go, quickly.” Katie told herself to not look over her shoulder and forged forward, and they cruised through the first set of doors with no difficulty.

Nan was arguing with a nurse as Katie and the children passed her in the lobby. “I feel so much better, now,” Katie heard her explain as they continued toward the car. Both children noticed her, but just as they’d been instructed, they remained silent.

Automatic doors opened for them as they approached the exit. “Open Sesame!” Katie whispered, and the children giggled but didn’t say a word.

It was difficult to resist the urge to run through the hospital, but once they were through the doors, Katie became Mom again, and she couldn’t control her fear a moment longer. “Simon says, run.” Even wearing high heels, she strode briskly to the car. No one had towed it, and no one was blocking it in, although a black Ford sedan had parked illegally beside it. She pulled the stickers from the hood and door on her side as she made her way around but didn’t waste time with the other two. As she climbed in the front, her kids jumped into the back. “Buckle up, guys,” she told them.

Looking up, she saw the nurse heading back to the ER, shaking her head in frustration. Nan was halfway to her car, making slow progress. She and Nan had agreed to split up if anything happened, knowing that Nan would make her way home somehow. Katie would keep the car.

She was tempted to leave without Nan, but something told her to wait, and she did, with one eye on her children in the backseat and the other watching Nan’s progress across the sidewalk. She diverted her gaze to the sliding-glass doors for signs of Simon. Just as Nan reached to car door, he materialized in the lobby. He was backlit, and she could clearly see him, but the car camouflaged her. In another few seconds, that would change. When he reached the sidewalk, he’d spot her.

“Get in, now!” Katie screamed.

And then a miracle happened. Marty Edwards ran through the ER doors and stopped Simon. He pointed over his shoulder toward the ER, and Katie watched Simon nod and begin walking back inside with the officer.

“Hello, everybody,” Nan greeted them. Before she was even seated, Katie had the car in motion. “It looks like we got our babies back.”

“Hi, Nan,” Chloe and Andre said from the backseat.

Now that the silence had been broken, they were full of questions. “Why were you at the hospital, Nan? Are you sick?”

“Why did you have to go to work at night?”

“Why are you wearing that hat, Mommy?”

And then, the one she dreaded. “Why were the police at our house, Mommy?”

Katie made a series of turns to get them out of sight of the hospital. As she pulled to a stop at a traffic light, a thought suddenly occurred to her. “Oh, no,” she exclaimed, a little too loudly.

Nan touched her arm. “What is it?”

“Where are we going? We can’t go back to your house, and we certainly can’t go back to mine.” She’d been so preoccupied with recovering her children she hadn’t even considered what she’d do once she had them back. Her house was a crime scene. The police would likely search Nan’s after they reviewed the ER security videos and saw her leaving with Katie. She might have taken them to the clinic, but since her run-in with the police there earlier, she wasn’t comfortable with that plan.

“I can always ask the reverend to take you in. But he’s a tough one. I don’t know how he’d feel about all this. Can’t you think of anyone else? Anyone at all who’d help you?”

Katie was about to say no, a reflexive, defensive answer that reflected not only the state of her life for many years, but also her state of mind. She was used to taking care of herself. Then she reconsidered. She could call Jeannie Bennett. Jeannie would help her, without questions. But perhaps she had one other person to turn to. She made a left turn at the next traffic light and pointed the car toward Jet’s house.

Janet Fox, addressed by all except her mother as Jet, sat on the top step of the stone stairs leading from the street to her apartment house. Scanning Wayne Avenue in both directions, she saw no light other than the streetlamps filtering through the leaves of huge oaks dating back to Creation. From her perch high above the street she could see the entire area, and on this early morning all was quiet. That wasn’t unusual at this hour. What was unusual was the phone call she’d received minutes earlier from her friend Katie. Katie had asked if she could come over, explaining it was an emergency and promising to provide all the details when she arrived.

Lifting a bare foot from the cool stone beneath, Jet gracefully slipped her size twelve into a sneaker and tied the laces, then repeated the process on the other foot. Standing, adrenaline surging through her veins, she stretched and scanned the road again. Still no headlights. What the hell was going on? She’d been in dreamland when her cell phone rang, startling her back to reality. Katie’s picture on the phone had filled her with dread.

She’d learned Katie’s universal truth of motherhood on a trip to Jet’s parents’ vacation home at Lake Wallenpaupack—
No matter what time the mom goes to bed, the kids will still be up early.
The two of them had stayed up late, talking in front of the fire they’d lit to warm the cold mountain night. As the clock struck one, Katie stood and, groaning, predicted the kids would be awake in five or six hours. Sure enough, Jet found Chloe and Andre quietly watching a video when she went downstairs to put on a pot of coffee early the next morning. Katie had wandered down shortly after, and Jet heard her swearing to herself as she shook the sleep from her eyes.

“We need a curfew!” Katie had teased her as she squeezed her shoulder on her way across the kitchen to retrieve a coffee mug. “No talking after ten.”

“Eleven.”

Katie had just shaken her head and sipped the coffee Jet poured as a peace offering. Later, after a busy day chasing the kids through the woods, though, both Jet and Katie were exhausted and were unconscious by ten that night. Since then, they’d been very cognizant of the time as they talked on the phone each evening. If they weren’t, they’d stay up all night talking and regret it in the morning.

The call from Katie was odd but not totally surprising. Jet knew something was going on with Katie, and she should have had the courage to ask her about it instead of tiptoeing around it. But she did what she always did with Katie—she kept quiet and allowed Katie to decide when and what to reveal. Still, the past few days since Katie’s ex-boyfriend had reappeared had been awful for Jet as she tortured herself with thoughts of Billy filling the role she’d lately taken on.

Just what was that role, though? Were they destined to be friends? Or could they be more? Katie didn’t allow many people to get close. Maybe she just looked at Jet as a best friend. Yet, they’d been slowly closing that narrow space between them, becoming more intimate in every way except a sexual one. They teased and talked and finished each other’s sentences. Working together at the clinic and at home, side by side, they moved like one, anticipating each other’s needs. They were perfect together, perfect for each other, with just one little problem. Katie had never slept with a woman.

The Saturday before, the four of them—Jet, Katie, Chloe, and Andre—had ventured to Rehoboth Beach, and that night, after the children were safely asleep in one of the rented hotel room’s double beds, Jet and Katie fell beside each other in the other one. On their sides, they lay facing each other, talking for hours, studying each other in the glow of light escaping through the crack in the bathroom door—definitely violating Katie’s rule. Yet neither wanted to stop talking, and Jet didn’t want the intimacy of that night to ever end. A dozen times she suppressed the urge to pull Katie into her arms and kiss her. She’d never wanted to kiss anyone, to touch them and hold them and make love with them as much as she desired Katie. It was frustrating and wonderful at the same time, and Jet felt paralyzed to act. Paralyzed to even speak about what she felt. When a yawn escaped Jet’s mouth, Katie had bridged the two-inch gap between them to kiss her gently, on the nose. Then, like the mother she was, she told Jet to go to sleep.

Inspired by the night they’d spent together, Jet fantasized of a room with just one bed and no children. She wanted more, and she sensed Katie did, too. Yet the next afternoon, on the ride home from the beach, Andre let it slip that his father was staying with them again. After that bomb dropped they spent the remainder of the drive in relative silence, with only the banter of the kids breaking the uneasy quiet. When they finally arrived back at Jet’s apartment, Katie pulled her aside.

“I haven’t slept with him in years, Jet, and I don’t intend to now. Nothing,
absolutely nothing
, is going on between us.”

Jet had started to ask more, but Katie silenced her. Still the questions lingered in her mind. Why the hell was he there? How long did he plan to stay? The bigger question in her mind also remained unasked—what was going on between Katie and her?

Jet had never practiced such chastity. Was she wasting her time on a straight woman? If so, why was Katie reassuring her? It could mean only one thing, right? Katie was interested in Jet. She hoped and prayed it wasn’t just wishful thinking. Katie had touched her in a way no woman ever had, and Jet wanted more. Many women had made her laugh or made her think, but Katie truly made her
feel.
She was in love—with Chloe and Andre, and most especially with their mother. And before she went totally crazy, she needed to talk to Katie about her feelings.

Headlights drew Jet’s attention to the road, and she watched the car approach and then stop in front of her house. Was this Katie? She’d been expecting Katie’s silver Toyota Camry, but this car was a boxier older model. In the near darkness the car appeared white, and Jet could discern writing on the door, although she couldn’t decipher the letters.

Hesitating a moment, she watched Katie hop out, wearing some sort of Kentucky Derby hat on her head. She briefly acknowledged Jet with a brief wave as she rushed to open the rear passenger’s door. Before Katie completed her task, Jet was halfway down the stairs. She was startled to see the word CORONER printed on the door. Without breaking stride, she met Katie on the sidewalk and took a sleeping Chloe from her arms. The passenger doors, front and back, opened in tandem, and Andre jumped from the car to the sidewalk. “Jet,” he exclaimed, looking excited. From the front, an elderly African-American woman emerged, holding onto the car for support.

“Hey, pal,” Jet said to Andre.

“Jet, this is Nan. Nan, my friend Jet.” Katie quickly made the introductions and then without delay ordered Andre to follow Jet back up the stairs to her apartment. “I’ll be back in ten minutes,” Katie explained, then hopped into the car again. The sooner she had Nan home, the less likely she was to be caught taking her there.

She dropped her off at the end of her block, pulling to a stop where the street was dark. Both of them climbed out, but Katie rushed around to meet Nan on her side. “I’ll call you as soon as I can, and I’ll try to return the car in the morning. Please, please…” Katie was going to ask for Nan’s protection if and when the police questioned her. Then she thought for a moment and smiled. After what they’d been through this night, she was sure Nan would do whatever necessary to protect her and the kids. “I guess I don’t need to say any more, do I?”

“I’ve got your back,” Nan said.

Katie laughed and hugged her. “Thank you. I’ll call when I can, okay?”

“You make sure you do. I’ll be worrying about all of you.”

She turned to walk away, but before she’d taken a step, Katie spoke again. “Nan, there’s something else.”

Nan turned and looked at her, and though the light was poor, Katie thought she saw concern on her face. “What is it, honey?”

“I’m going to need your help about Billy. A funeral. I don’t know what to do.”

“Does he have a family?”

Katie shrugged. Billy had never known his father, and his mother had died of cancer when he was fifteen. Like Katie, he’d lived on the streets until Simon Simms took him under his wing. “None that I know of. Maybe a brother somewhere.” Katie vaguely remembered Billy mentioning an older sibling who’d left town.