Silent Pledge

by Hannah Alexander

  Lukas looked at the object, then into her eyes, suspicious. “Where are you going?”

  “Hey, I’m offering you a going-away gift, here. At least have the decency to unwrap the thing and see what it is before you start grilling me.”

  Hesitantly, Lukas took the parcel from her. It was surprisingly heavy for its size. He removed the layers of white tissue paper to uncover a sparkling crystal replica of a bird with wings spread as if preparing for flight.

  He looked back at Tex.

  “It’s a dove,” she said.

  “I know what it is.” Did she know what it symbolized? Did she remember the picture and the Twenty-Third Psalm he’d had hanging on his wall in the apartment?

  “It’s Austrian crystal,” she said.

  “It’s beautiful.” He held the crystal up to the light and stared in wonder at the prism points of color that filtered through it. He couldn’t possibly accept a valuable gift like this. “This was your mom’s?”

  “She saved her money for months after she saw it in a shop at Lake of the Ozarks. I helped her pay for it when I landed my first job as a paramedic.”

  He placed the crystal bird carefully on the desk. “Tex, I can’t take this. Your mother wouldn’t want you to give this treasure away to someone you worked with less than a month.”

  “I’m going to finish my education, Dr. Bower,” she said quietly. She didn’t look at him but fixed her gaze on the dove for a long moment. “I can’t go hauling my stuff all over the country while I figure out where I’ll have my residency, and I won’t have the money to keep renting here. I don’t want to take a chance on losing this, and I got to thinking yesterday…you’ve done what I want to do. You’ve already spread your wings, and you didn’t let anyone stand in your way. You’ve helped me realize I can do the same thing. That’s what this bird represents to me.” She looked up at him then. “Please. I want you to have it.”

  “Do you know what the image of this dove represented to your mother?” he asked.

  She took an impatient breath. “Yes. You don’t have to worry, my mother read me all the Bible stories and took me to Sunday school and church for as long as I remember. I already told you about that, Dr. Bower.”

  “I’m not talking about church now. I’m talking about God. Sometimes there’s a big gap between the two subjects, and I’m sorry about that. Not every church will hurt you the way yours obviously did.”

  Tex sat and held his gaze for a moment. “That’s what Mom always told me.”

  “But what about your relationship with God? That’s the most important thing.”

  “I’ll think about it, okay?” She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Dr. Bower, it’s almost seven, and you haven’t written that recommendation for me yet. You want to sit here arguing about a piece of cut crystal, or do you want to get on the road to Knolls so you can see your lady?”

  Lukas rewrapped the gift and stood. “Thanks, Tex. I’ll hold this for you until you get your medical license. Then I’m giving it back.”

  She shrugged. “Suit yourself.” She grinned at him again, then stood up. When he stood, she reached out and grabbed him in a bear hug so hearty it threatened to squeeze the air from his lungs. Then she glanced at the clock again. “You’ve got three minutes to write that recommendation.”

  Five minutes before eight on Friday night, lights from the familiar twin water towers of Knolls greeted Mercy, Tedi and Theodore through the darkness on Highway Z. Theodore leaned back in the passenger seat and sighed. “Home,” he murmured. “For as long as I can remember, those towers have always been there to welcome me home.”

  Mercy glanced across the seat at Theo. In the lights from the dash, his skin looked pale and tightly drawn. “Are you doing okay?”

  “I’ve felt better.” He closed his eyes. “You know, last week I was feeling pretty good until Robert Simeon told me I was sick. You think this was all just the power of suggestion?”

  She returned her attention to the road. “You’ll be uncomfortable from the biopsy for a couple of days,” she said. “Give it some time to heal. You’ll start to feel better.” What she didn’t need to mention was that he was destined to be sick again.

  “Yeah, Dad, and the best place to do that is our house,” Tedi said from the backseat. “You’d better take advantage of it. We’ve got the guest room all set up and ready to pamper you, and since I’m out of school for the next couple of days, I get to do the pampering.”

  Theo smiled. “A guy couldn’t ask for a better doctor.”

  By eight o’clock Friday night, Clarence felt like a paranoid idiot. He passed Mercy’s house for the fifth time that evening to find her porch light still on. It was still dark inside. Anytime, she and Tedi and Theodore would arrive home from Cox South Medical Center in Springfield and go inside. Then, just for the sake of completeness, Clarence would go up and knock on the front door and make a fool of himself by warning Mercy about what Tedi had told him. Was he crazy to jump to the conclusion that Abner Bell had been casing their house?

  He was three blocks away when he passed an old brown car parked along the curb, away from the direct glare of the streetlights. No one was inside.

  Suddenly he didn’t feel like such an idiot. Maybe he would take one more cruise through the neighborhood, see if there was anybody out and about on the streets—or maybe in an alley somewhere nearby. He knew what to look for.

  Theodore eased from the backseat of the car with Tedi’s gentle—though unnecessary—guidance. His side was sore, and if he moved wrong it felt like a giant wasp was stinging him in the abdomen, but he was strong enough to stand on his own and walk up the sidewalk to the house without help. Still, when Tedi carefully placed her arms around him, he relished the connection with his daughter. He leaned on her shoulder for support.

  “Are you okay, Dad? Do you need the crutches?” She looked up at him with such sweet concern, he never wanted to let her go.

  “I’m fine, Tedi.” He repositioned his hold on her shoulders. “If you’ll walk with me I think I’ll make it inside.”

  She turned and strolled through the garage with him in the dim glow from the automatic garage-door opener. “I hope you like oatmeal with honey and almonds and blueberries for breakfast. Grandma makes it a lot, and she showed me her special recipe with all the right spices. I’ll make it for you in the morning.” She stopped at the steps that led into the house while Mercy opened the door and led the way inside.

  Theodore made a big show of depending on Tedi to help him up the steps, but he knew that she knew he would have no trouble making it into the house himself. This was the sweetest contact he’d had from his daughter in such a long time, and he didn’t want that contact to end. If he could only let her know through his touch, through his tone of voice, how special he thought she was. If only he could cram a whole lifetime of a father’s love and pride into the few short days…or weeks…or maybe months he had left.

  Mercy switched on the light to the pantry through which they entered, and then she stopped suddenly, causing a traffic jam behind her. She swung toward Theo as he was taking his last step into the kitchen from the garage. Her eyes were wide with shock as she reached forward and grabbed Tedi by the shoulders. “Out!” she cried.

  “No!” came a roughhewn male voice from somewhere beyond her in the darkness of the kitchen. “I’ll put a bullet through you before you can reach the garage floor!”

  Tedi cried out in fear and stumbled backward against Theo. A big, stringy-haired, wild-eyed monster stepped from the shadows holding a black .357 Magnum.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Clarence drove around the block one more time, keeping his speed below fifteen miles per hour, studying every dark spot between the houses, and the bushes, and beneath the trees. He couldn’t stop thinking about that car. He didn’t like it. Maybe he should just call the police now.

  He eased up to Mercy’s front curb and braked, saw the front porch light still on and stopped. Then he caught si
ght of another light—a dim one filtering out from the small window in the garage. He saw the telltale glow of the automatic overhead door. That was a timed light, and it hadn’t switched off yet. They must have just arrived home.

  He glanced up and down the street. Could that jerk be hovering in the shadows, watching him, or maybe watching the house? With a pricking at the back of his neck, he opened the car door and heaved his bulk up from the seat. Might as well warn Mercy before he called the police with Ivy’s cell phone. He stepped past the evergreen bushes that gently shielded the house and stepped into the glow from the porch. Funny, none of the lights came on inside. He would have thought that, by now—

  The faint sound of a deep, angry male voice reached through the darkness. He stopped walking and frowned, unable for a couple of seconds to pinpoint the source. It came again, and he caught his breath. The sound was coming from inside Mercy’s house.

  He’d better figure out how to use that cell phone, and fast.

  “You’ve got her somewhere. I know it! Where is she?” The shout reverberated through the air with an undercurrent of mania, rough and deep and spiked with fury. Mercy saw in their attacker’s eyes a blackness more deadly than the gaping end of the weapon he pointed at her.

  “Abner, I don’t know what you’re talking about. What are you doing with that gun?” Mercy’s question was instinctive and sharp, and Abner’s gaze lashed out at her, then at Theodore. His angry stare settled, like a curse, on Tedi.

  Instinctively Mercy moved to block his view. The sudden movement was another mistake.

  His grip tightened on the handle of the gun so hard his hand shook. “Stay there! Don’t move!” The aim switched from Mercy to Theo. Abner’s gaze centered on Theo’s face with a brief show of panic. He obviously hadn’t expected Theo to be with them. “Get away from that door! Now!” he shouted.

  Dread rooted Mercy to the floor, and her heart beat so hard she felt the adrenaline surge through her body. She felt Theo’s hand come to rest on her shoulder and nudge her forward. “Do what he says, Mercy.” His voice was soft and conciliatory, which helped to slow her runaway panic. As she stepped forward, the soothing tone continued.

  “Look, I don’t know who you are,” he said to Abner, “but I think you’ve come to the wrong house.” He maneuvered in a smooth motion to place Tedi behind them as he eased alongside Mercy. “My name is Theodore—”

  “Stop right there!” The aim readjusted, this time back at Mercy. She froze again, and she heard Tedi’s breath catch behind her. Behind…as long as she stayed blocked from Abner’s sight…

  “It’s okay,” Theo said, his hand still resting on Mercy’s shoulder, “we’re stopping.” There was silk in his voice, a tone Mercy remembered him using to make many a sale in real estate. Theodore had prided himself in his ability to charm people—usually it was individuals of the female persuasion, but he’d had quite a bit of success with both genders when it came to manipulation.

  Mercy prayed hard that this special talent—which she had hated for so long—would now be resurrected.

  “We might be more comfortable if we all sat down at the dining-room table to sort this thing out,” Theo said. There was a barely detectable quiver in his voice. “Or we could go into—”

  “You shut up!” Abner gestured toward Theo with the gun. “I don’t want anything from you. I just want one thing here.” The aim once more went to Mercy’s face. “I want her to tell me where she took my wife.”

  Mercy fought desperately to control another burst of panic. “I didn’t take her anywhere,” she said with total honesty, taking her cue from Theo’s calm, conciliatory voice. “I don’t know where she is, Abner.” She struggled to keep her voice steady and resist the anger that continued to build momentum within her. How dare he endanger her daughter like this!

  “Liar!” he snarled. “You’re lying. You’re the one who turned her against me. You’re the one who filled her head with ideas, made her think I was dangerous.”

  She clenched her teeth and started pointedly at the gun. He didn’t think a .357 Magnum was dangerous? Keep talking, defuse the situation, give him a chance to back down. “I’ve been so preoccupied with other patients that I haven’t had time to speak with her.” She breathed deeply in a desperate attempt to quiet the fury that boiled within her and threatened to spill over. She could not control the situation. The best she could hope for was the ability to control her own emotions, and that was proving to be enough of a challenge.

  “I don’t believe you.” He waved the gun wildly and took a lunging step toward them. “You’re the one she ran to. You’re the one who told her to leave!”

  He leaned toward Mercy until the smell of his smoker’s breath wafted toward her.

  “You trying to tell me now that you didn’t give a rip about her?” He gave a harsh burst of laughter that crackled through the kitchen.

  As if he’d reached an invisible line on the floor, he seemed to catch himself and back away, like a trapped animal coming into contact with the bars of the cage. He paced a few feet across the kitchen while Mercy desperately tried to recall a helpful de-escalation technique she had used in the past with violent patients.

  She swallowed and cleared her throat. “I care very much for my patients, Abner, and I have a lot of them right now.” She paused as he swung around and paced back the other way, always keeping his hostages in view, his eyes darting around the room, a muscle beside his right eye jerking. “You happen to be one of them, and I’m wondering if you might be in the most need of my help right now.” She hoped the insincerity wasn’t obvious in her voice.

  He narrowed his eyes and raked her with a gaze of suspicion as he continued his pacing. “You never helped me. You’d like to see me rot.”

  “I was the one who discovered you cerebellar hemorrhage last October. If I hadn’t acted quickly, you wouldn’t be alive.”

  “If you hadn’t poisoned Delphi’s mind against me, she wouldn’t’ve tried to kill me!” His voice continued to grate like a cement mixer, and he kept the gun pointed toward her.

  She noticed, however, that the aim had dropped. If he pulled the trigger now, he would hit her somewhere in the abdomen. Was he lowering his guard slightly, or just losing control? That gun looked like a small cannon. “I can’t tell you something I don’t know, Abner, but I can find help for your problems. It’s never too late—”

  “My problem’s standing in front of me!”

  His breath once more engulfed her in stale smoke—but no alcohol fumes. He hadn’t been drinking. She should have picked up on that immediately. Drugs, then. He wore a jacket, so she couldn’t tell if there were track marks on his arms. She’d tried talking to him once about drug rehab, and he had stormed from her office in a typical rage. Questioning him now wouldn’t be a good idea. Still, if she could talk him down from his anger high…

  “You obviously care about your wife,” she murmured gently. “You’ve gone to a lot of trouble to find her, and you’ve contacted me several times in your search.” Did he realize the trouble she had taken to make sure his search was not successful? “It seems to me that someone who cares that much might be willing to take the next step toward reconciliation.”

  He continued to watch her, his muddy brown eyes cold and spooky.

  “Would you be willing to talk to a counselor?”

  “No.” His trigger finger flinched as he spoke, and she held her breath, aware once again of Theo’s tightening grip on her shoulder. “You sound just like Delphi—you never know when to shut up.” He turned aside again and muttered under his breath, “Just like Delphi…just like those stupid women at work…”

  Mercy heard the continuing fear in her daughter’s audible breathing behind her, and she banked down her own anger and frustration once more. She needed to keep her thoughts clear. She wanted Tedi out of this house before he lost control. She couldn’t keep her gaze from the deadly weapon in his hand.

  He stopped and turned, like a snake coili
ng to strike. “If you didn’t help her get away, who did? I saw the fat man take her to your office that day. He was driving your car. Try explaining that!”

  She didn’t hesitate. “Abner, didn’t you know your wife was injured? And she was sick. She had a dislocated elbow and a bad bruise on her face.” It was difficult to keep the blame and accusation from bleeding through in those words. “She’d been out in the weather during that ice storm we had last week, and she didn’t have a coat. She needed medical attention.”

  “Nobody ever called me. You knew I was looking for her, but you never called me to let me know she was okay.”

  Mercy closed her eyes and bowed her head to keep from revealing the loathing she was unable to completely suppress for a moment. He’d been the one to cause his wife all that pain and suffering. The man was vile.

  Once more, she looked up at him. “I am constrained by a pledge of doctor-patient confidentiality. You surprised us the day you came in looking for her, Abner. That frightened Delphi, and she ran out the back. Were you watching the clinic for her?”

  “Yes,” he hissed. “And I’ve been watching your house.” His movements grew more agitated and his voice more coarse, and for the first time he stepped past that invisible line on the kitchen floor and towered over his hostages, holding the gun inches from Mercy’s chest. “I know what time you get home at night, and what time your lights go out after dark!”

  His voice deafened her, and she could hear the weakening of his control.

  “I know the license plate number on your Subaru.” His hand wavered as he held the gun, and he brought his other hand up to steady it as he brought his gaze into focus, first on her face, then on Theo’s, then past them. “I know where your little girl goes to school.”