Where There's Smoke (38 page)

"Good Lord!
 
I could have been chewed to pieces."

"All's clear now.
 
Hurry."
 
He pushed open the screen door.

Tentatively Lara placed one foot on the ground.
 
Out of the darkness came a menacing growl, but when Key ordered, "Hush!"
 
the dog fell silent.

She picked her way up to the porch.
 
"Whose house is this?
 
Why am I here?"

"Helen lost the baby."

She stopped dead in her tracks and looked at him meaningfully.

He motioned her inside with a brusque movement of his head.
 
By the light of the Berrys' homey living room, he noticed that Lara's face was free of makeup.
 
She hadn't taken time to brush her hair.
 
It was still pillow-tousled, reminding him of the first time he'd seen her.
 
That night, she hadn't known his name.
 
She'd smiled at him a couple of times, even when threatening to notify the sheriff of his gunshot wound.
 
She wasn't smiling tonight.
 
Her expression said she wouldn't waste spit on him if he was on fire.

"Where is she?"

"Back here."

"When did the spotting start?"

"Spotting?"
 
he repeated.
 
"She was goddamn near bleeding to death when I got here."

He led her through a long, narrow hallway.
 
The walls were decorated with framed photographs that chronicled the growth of a family.

Time had yellowed some of them.
 
The most recent one was of Helen in her graduation cap and gown.

Key stood aside and let Lara precede him into the bedroom where Helen lay in a single bed, clutching a teddy bear to her chest and quietly weeping.

"Helen?
 
The doctor's here."
 
He moved to the side of the bed and took her hand.
 
It was flaccid and cold.
 
He pressed it between his own, trying to restore animation and warmth.

He didn't know which was worse, her abject despondency now or her previous hysteria.
 
She had called him at The Palm.
 
"It's a woman,"

Hap had said as he passed him the telephone receiver.

"Says your sister told her to try and catch you here.
 
She sounds stressed out."

That had been an understatement.
 
He'd hardly been able to hear her above the din inside the bar, but her alarm came through loud and clear.
 
When he reached her house and rushed into the bedroom, he saw a copious amount of dark, clotted blood on her sheets.
 
He'd immediately called Lara Mallory.

"Hello, Helen," she said now, bending down and laying a gentle hand on Helen's brow.
 
"Everything's going to be all right.
 
I'll take care of it, okay?"

Her bedside manner was flawless, but Helen didn't buy it.
 
"I lost my baby."

"You're sure?"

Helen nodded and glanced across the room.
 
Lara followed her gaze to the soiled sheets which Key had stripped from the bed and piled up in the corner.
 
Lara looked at him.
 
"Will you excuse us, please?"

He gave Helen's hand a hard squeeze.
 
"Hang in there, sweetheart.

I'll be in the living room if you need me."

"Thanks, Key."

He backed out of the room.
 
Lara was placing a blood pressure cuff around Helen's arm as he closed the door.
 
In the living room he posted himself at the wide picture window and stared out into the night.
 
Away from the lights of town, the stars were brilliant.
 
It never failed to astonish him how many there were.
 
That was one of the reasons he loved night flying.
 
Only then could he fully appreciate the vastness of the sky and know peace.

He wished like hell he were up there now.

A hound dog loped up onto the porch, slurped water from a bowl, yawned broadly, then dropped its head onto its front paws and went back to sleep.
 
A night bird called plaintively.
 
Occasionally the old lumber inside the walls would shift with a groan and a creak.
 
Other than that, the house was quiet.

He wondered what was going on in the bedroom.
 
How long would it take for Dr.
 
Mallory to do whatever she was doing?
 
Time crawled.

When the bedroom door finally opened, he turned away from the window and rushed to meet her halfway down the hall.
 
She was wearing surgical gloves and carrying the bloody sheets.

"Seeing these is upsetting her.
 
They need to soak," He led her to a screened-in back porch that ran the width of the house.
 
It was equipped with a deep utility sink, into which she put the sheets, and then turned on the cold water.
 
"You know your way around the house very well."

"Her daddy's about the best hunter in East Texas.
 
I've gone with him lots of times, ever since I was a kid."

"That's why you know how to call off the dogs."

"Yes.
 
This is where we cleaned up after dressing our kills."
 
He nodded down to the sink now filling with pink water.

The sight of blood had never bothered him.
 
He'd seen ghastly war injuries, men whose flesh was melting off their skeletons following oil well fires, even the severed head of a Moslem woman caught in adultery.

He'd thought he had a cast-iron stomach where violence was concerned, that nothing could make him queasy.

He was wrong.
 
This blood bothered him tremendously.
 
He ran his hand down his face and looked away from the sink.

"I examined the expulsion," Lara said as though reading his mind.

"She miscarried the embryo."

He nodded.

"Where are her parents?"

"They took the younger kids to Astroworld today," he answered mechanically as he watched Lara peel off her surgical gloves.
 
"Helen wasn't feeling well and begged off.
 
It's a good thing, too.
 
She hadn't told them about the baby yet.
 
Imagine if this hadn't happened at home, in bed.
 
jesus," he added grimly, "it doesn't bear thinking about."

"Besides, the fewer people who know about this, the better, right?

Especially for you.
 
Look at it this way, you're off the hook now.

Although it took all the willpower he possessed, he let the insult pass.

When the sink was full, she turned off the faucet.
 
"I've given Helen an injection to retard the bleeding and a sedative to help her sleep.

In the morning she can come to the clinic and I'll do a D and "Good.

Her folks aren't supposed to be back until late tomorrow night."

"By then she'll be home, although I recommend a few days of bed rest.

She can tell them she's got a severe case of cramps, which, unfortunately, is true."
 
After a significant pause, she added, "I also highly recommend that sexual intercourse be suspended for several weeks.
 
You'll have to take your fun with someone else."

His eyes homed in on hers.
 
Matching her scorn measure for measure, he said, "Any suggestions?"

They didn't break eye contact until the dogs set up another howl.

A car door slammed.
 
There were running footsteps on the porch.

"Helen?"

Key moved around Lara and went through to the living room.

Jimmy Bradley was standing there, frantically glancing around.

"Key?"
 
he exclaimed.
 
"What are you doing here?
 
Me and some of the guys went to Longview to knock around tonight.
 
When I got home my brother said you'd called.
 
Said for me to haul ass over here.

What's happened?
 
Where is everybody?
 
Where's Helen?"

"She's in her bedroom."

Jimmy noticed Lara, who had just entered the room, gave her a puzzled glance, then cut his eyes back to Key.
 
"What's going on?"

"This is Dr.
 
Mallory."

"A doctor?
 
For Helen?"
 
he asked with mounting alarm.

Key laid a hand on the young man's broad shoulder.
 
"She had a miscarriage tonight, Jimmy."

"A mis-?"
 
He gulped hard, darted another look at Lara, then at Key.

"Jesus."
 
He broke away from Key, ran down the hall, and burst into the bedroom.
 
"Helen?"

"Jimmy?
 
Oh, Jimmy!
 
I'm sorry!"

Key looked at Lara.
 
She was staring at him, whey-faced, her lips parted in surprise.
 
"I hate to disappoint you," he said dryly, "but the baby wasn't mine.
 
Helen came to me for help because she knew she could trust me."

He allowed himself only a moment of self-righteous indignation before turning abruptly and following Jimmy to the bedroom.
 
Jimmy was seated on the edge of the bed, clutching Helen to him, running his hands over her back and shoulders.
 
Both were crying.

"Why didn't you tell me, Helen?
 
Why?"

"Because I was afraid you'd give up your scholarship.
 
I didn't want you to be stuck with me and a baby."

"Honey, as long as I can carry a damn football, I can go to school.

That college doesn't care if I've got three wives and six kids.
 
You should have told me.
 
You went through hell all by yourself."

"Key helped."
 
She sniffed.
 
"I knew how much you respected him, so, when I didn't know where else to turn or what to do, I asked him for advice.
 
He begged me to tell you, but he also promised to keep my secret."

"I didn't think I should keep the secret any longer, Helen," Key told her from the open doorway.
 
"I felt Jimmy had a right to know, so I called him tonight."

"I'm glad you did," Jimmy said &rvently.

"So am I. Now," Helen added softly as she nuzzled his chest.
 
"I've missed you so much."

"Me, too.
 
When you broke up with me, I got mad for a few days.

Then the hurt set in.
 
I couldn't figure why you'd stopped lovin' me all of a sudden like that."

"1 didn't stop loving you.
 
I never will.
 
It's because I love you so much that I didn't want to be a burden to you, to hold you back or keep you from taking this opportunity."

"As if you could ever be a burden.
 
You're my second half, Helen.

Don't you know that?"
 
Jimmy bent his head and kissed her softly on the lips, then pulled back and whispered, "I'm sorry about our baby."

When Helen began crying again, Key knew it was time to leave the young lovers to work through their reconciliation and regret alone.
 
He stepped into the bedroom only long enough to retrieve Lara's black bag.

"Sometime before her folks come home, see to things on the back porch," he told Jimmy.
 
"Take her to Dr. Mallory's office in the morning.
 
No one else will ever know."