The Hermit (7 page)

“I’m…I
was an RN.  I specialized in hospice care.”

“That’s
a very unusual field for a young woman to choose.  What made you select hospice
care?”  Ryan asked her softly.

“My
father…he died of cancer when I was ten.  I…I loved the nurse who took care of
him.  She was so good with him.  With me, too.  She was always honest, told me
things like she cared.  My mother, she took her life a few weeks after I was
born so I went to live with my great aunt.  Janice lived next door.  Became
like a sister to me.  Aunt Glenda passed when I was seventeen, complications
from a stroke.  She was very old and she’d been so kind to me.  I lived with
Janice and her family until I went away to college.  She was the maid of honor
at…at my wedding.” 

She
struggled to keep herself from flying apart with the doctor’s hands on her…
in
her.  She was shaking so hard now her skull was vibrating against the table.

Dr.
Billings glanced up from between Daphne’s legs.  In a voice barely above a
whisper, the older man said, “Dr. Wallace?”  Ryan looked at him and knew immediately,
sickeningly, what he’d found evidence of.  “They…the men who held her…they
aborted a fetus.  Merciful Jesus.  What has this woman been
subjected
to?”

Ryan
looked back at Daphne and she was sobbing openly now, her forearm over her
eyes.  He leaned over her, pulling her arm away.  “Oh, Daphne…Daphne, I’m so
sorry.  So sorry.”  He stroked her hair and hadn’t felt such a desire to do
violence, to take vengeance, in many years.

“It
wasn’t my husband’s.  It was from…one of them.  I knew.  I don’t know how but I
knew almost immediately.  When they realized, figured out, I was pregnant, they…tied
me down.  I don’t remember much.  I passed out when they put some sort of…a pipe
inside me.  When I woke up, I was…not pregnant anymore.  That was a few weeks
ago, I think.  I’ll have to have my uterus removed.  The pain is almost constant
now.  Just one more thing they took from me.” 

She
cried as the doctor finished removing the small pieces of metal pipe that had
lodged in the soft tissues of her vaginal wall.  He placed the splinters in an
evidence jar.  Ryan held her hand and felt the tears on his own face, the fury
growing hot inside him for this sweet young woman who’d been through so much. 

Dr.
Billings said, “We need to move her to a real hospital.  There’s too much
damage for us to handle here.  She needs more thorough care.” 

Kate,
the young woman tasked with taking photos, was crying and wiping her face with
the sleeve of her shirt.  Ryan pulled Daphne’s gown closed and helped her sit
up the moment Dr. Billings removed the clamp and stepped away.  “She needs
clothes that fit her…” he started to say.

“
No
,
I’ll wear the ones you gave me,” Daphne said forcefully.

“Okay,
undergarments that fit her then,” he said without looking away from her face. 

“We
look like we’re about the same size,” Kate whispered, “I’ll go get her some
things to wear.”  She rushed from the room.  Daphne leaned her forehead against
Ryan’s chest and seemed to drift in and out of sleep.  He kept his arms around
her loosely.  When Kate returned ten minutes later, she was carrying a small
bag.  “A package of new underwear, a bra, and some toiletries…a couple of
things I thought of fast.  I wish I could think of more to do.”

Daphne
lifted her head from Ryan and took the bag carefully, “Thank you.  Really. 
Thank you.”  He set her on her feet and she went to get dressed while Ryan
waited outside the screen.  When she came out, she looked calmer.  “I’m…okay
now.  Thank you for staying with me, Ryan.”  He nodded and tugged her to his
side, wrapping his arm around her small shoulders.

They
were shown back to the first room and he sat with her on the small couch.  He
wasn’t surprised when she fell into an exhausted sleep leaning against him.  He
must have dozed off himself because when he opened his eyes, a pretty blonde
was crouched in front of Daphne, her hand on her knee, eyes sparkling with
tears she was fighting not to shed.  “Daphne, oh sweet girl, please open your
eyes for me.  It’s Janice.”

Daphne’s
eyes fluttered open and she rubbed them hard, as if Janice was an illusion. 
“Janice…?”

“Yes,
baby, it’s me.  I’m here, Daphne.  I’m so…so
happy
to see you.”  Daphne
burst into wracking sobs and propelled herself into Janice’s arms.  Ryan
watched as they gripped one another tightly.  “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry for
everything you’ve gone through.  It’s going to be okay now.  Ssh, it’s okay. 
You’re safe and we’re going to get you home, get you well.”  She stroked her friend’s
dark hair, tears streaming down her face.  Glancing at Ryan, she mouthed,
“Thank you,” and he nodded. 

After
a long time, Ryan and Janice realized Daphne had fallen asleep on her friend,
had cried herself into complete exhaustion.  He carefully lifted her back,
laying her on the small couch and covering her with the jacket he’d given her. 
He went to the small desk and wrote down his contact information, giving it to
Janice to give her when she woke up. 

Speaking
quietly at the door of the small room, he told the young woman, “I’m going to
go.  She’s becoming attached to me because I helped her.  If I don’t go now, it
will get harder and harder.  For both of us.”  He cleared his throat.  “You’re
here now and I know you’re ready to be there for whatever she needs.  If you
ever need medical advice, money, anything…I’ve written my number and email down
for you.  Anything that isn’t covered, I’m happy to pay for.  Send me an email
and I’ll wire whatever you need.  I mean it.”

As he
turned to go she placed her hand on his arm, “Dr. Wallace…I looked you up on
the plane.  I’m so sorry for everything that drove you into the Alaskan
wilderness…but I’m so grateful you were there to find her, to save her.  If
there is ever anything
you
need, here is all my contact information. 
Daphne is likely going to be hospitalized for a while.  After that, she’ll be
staying with me and my family.  I hope you’ll consider coming to visit in a few
months when she’s back on her feet.  I know that would mean a lot to her.” 

He
smiled, “Just take care of her.  Please.”  She nodded and he left her to watch
over her friend. 

On his
way out of the station, he stopped to speak to Noel Quincy.  Pulling the Ziploc
bag from his coat, he told her, “These are the clothes she was wearing when I
found her as well as the clippings I took from her nails.  I’ve done some
calculations and mapped out a grid where I think she was being held, based on
how long she’d been walking when she escaped.  I plan on scouting the area.” 
He leaned closer to the older woman, “If I find the other two men, I will shoot
them on sight and let you know where to find their bodies.  I hope you
understand.”

Ms.
Quincy’s eyes went cold, “Oh, I understand completely, Dr. Wallace.  Happy
hunting.  You can guarantee our people will be looking as well and I don’t have
the funding to deal with lodging them for an extended time as they await trial. 
Nor would I want that poor woman having to face her attackers ever again.  We’re
in the wilds of Alaska.  She’ll get a different kind of justice.” 

They
nodded at one another and Ryan spared one last look at the office before
heading for the helicopter waiting a block away.  Every step cost him.  Leaving
her without saying goodbye seemed cowardly but he wasn’t sure he could leave if
he had to look into her brown eyes. 

Within
minutes he was buckled in his seat and the door to the chopper was closing when
he saw Daphne running toward him.  She was exhausted and wearing boots five
sizes too big.  “Wait.”  He called out as he unstrapped the seatbelt and jumped
from the chopper. 

He
walked toward her and could see the relief in her eyes that she’d made it in
time.  She jumped at him and he caught her easily, wrapping the flaps of his
coat around her.  “Daphne, what are you doing out here?  You’re not wearing a
coat, honey.  It’s too cold.”  He saw Janice jogging from the station, Daphne’s
coat in her hands.

“Ryan,
I couldn’t let you leave without telling you something,” she whispered in his
ear.  Her arms were tight around his neck and he held her snugly, her feet
dangling a foot from the hard packed dirt.  “Thank you…for everything you did
for me.  Thank you for saving my life.  For making me feel like I can
have
a life again someday.  For holding my hand and crying for me.  For not letting
them hurt me or scare me more than necessary.” 

She
took a gasping breath, “I know you think I have a hero complex and maybe I do. 
But you have to really
be
a hero for someone to feel that way.  I will
never, ever, be able to repay all that you’ve done for me.”  She pulled back to
look at him. 

“I know
something bad happened to you.  It’s the only way a man like you would withdraw
from the world.  You are such a good person, a good man, and the world wouldn’t
be the same without you in it.  Right now, I’m broken and ruined and ugly. 
I’ll never be the person I used to be again.  I’ll always be scarred, always be
damaged.  I may never be able to…to be with a man again, I don’t know.  But if
I could, I’d pick you, Ryan.  You’re everything good and kind and beautiful.  I
hope one day, you see yourself as the hero.  See yourself the way I see you. 
Because no one will ever compare to you in my mind.” 

She
kissed his lips and his arms tightened on her.  “Please be safe, Ryan.  It
would kill me if anything happened to you.  With all I’ve lost, that would be
more than I could bear.”  Another kiss and she loosened her arms from his neck,
allowing him to lower her to the ground.    

She
put her hand on his face and he instinctively leaned into her palm.  Janice
came forward and wrapped his big coat around her shoulders.  He pulled it
closed and leaned in to whisper in her ear, “You aren’t ugly or ruined,
Daphne.  You’re a survivor and though I wish the circumstances were different,
I’m so proud to know you.  Take care of yourself, sweet Daphne…I’m not the hero
here.  You are.”  He kissed her face in front of her ear, the scar along her
jaw beneath his lips.  He leaned back and stroked her hair back from her face
with a smile.  Then he turned to go.  Daphne stood with Janice, watching as he
got in the helicopter and it lifted off.  He kept his hand on the window,
staring at her until she disappeared from sight. 

Then
he sat back and waited to be transported back to his cabin.  The one place on
earth he’d ever felt able to seal his heart from the gaping wounds that covered
it.  Waving at the pilot as the chopper lifted out of the meadow, he walked up
the hill. 

He’d
once considered this home his one chance at finding peace…he now just considered
it lonely.

The
day after leaving Daphne in McArthur, Ryan cleaned his guns.  Bringing them
from the gun case one by one, he sighted them in and made adjustments.  He made
sure they were loaded and packed extra magazines. 

Not
that he would need much ammo.  He was a very good shot.  He pulled out his gear,
loading his pack with survival supplies and food packets that took up very
little space and would feed him for more than a month if necessary.  Layering
himself in thermal wear, he secured his cabin and headed out to hunt.

He hiked
back to where he’d found Daphne, went up high enough to determine the most
likely range of mountains.  His decision made, he hiked for ten hours before
making camp.  He had to adjust for the weakened condition she’d been in when
she got away, as well as her unfamiliarity with the land.  With every step, he
got further from his cabin and closer to where he believed Daphne had been held
captive for almost two years. 

On the
morning of the second day, he found an empty bag that once held beef jerky and
knew he was on the right track.  Marking the trees, he continued on.  Every two
hours, he removed the binoculars and scanned the face of the mountains.  By his
fourth day, he’d explored half a dozen caves that didn’t hold what he was
looking for.

He
wouldn’t give up.  He knew he was in the right general area. 

And so
it was that almost a month after Daphne’s escape, he found her prison.  Donning
night vision goggles, he entered the semi-concealed cave after he’d determined no
one alive was inside.