by Diane Hester
Her eyes widened. ‘To a hospital? No.’
‘Shyler, listen to me. I didn’t get a chance to say this before but I’m afraid Jesse is very sick.’
‘Well, of course, he’s got a fever but –’
‘It’s more than a fever. He may be developing septicaemia.’
Fear raked her heart as she turned to stare down at the boy.
‘If the infection reaches that stage he’ll need to be hospitalised. I don’t have the facilities here to care for him properly.’
‘But he was getting better. Back at the cabin, his temperature went down when he started the antibiotics.’
‘It’s certainly an encouraging sign, yes. Unfortunately he missed two doses and his fever’s up again. I can’t guarantee it’ll work a second time.’
Shyler stood weighing all the factors – the chance of infection, the risk of people asking more questions, the possibility they might be followed.
‘We’ll stay,’ she said.
‘Shyler, please –’
‘You’ll treat him here. If he doesn’t get better we can take him then.’
‘But why take a chance when –’
‘You don’t know what could happen to him there!’
Chase paused, lowered his voice. ‘No, I don’t. Can’t you tell me?’
When she didn’t respond he took a step closer. ‘Shyler, I know you have no one. Your father’s dead, you’re estranged from your mother, your husband’s gone. Wouldn’t you feel better facing whatever this is with someone helping you?’
His words brought the sting of tears to her eyes. That he should know such things about her – let alone that they were true – seemed an absurd humiliation.
She looked up and met his gaze defiantly. ‘I’m not alone. I have Jesse.’
Chapter 51
The bed of dead leaves crunched beneath Vanessa’s boots as she kicked it apart. Judging from the still warm remains of the fire, Zack and the woman had been here only a few hours ago. If Tragg had listened to her and come straight here they would have been in time. They could have caught them! But she’d put out her eye with a rusty screwdriver before mentioning that fact to him just at the moment.
She slid a cautious glance at the man as he stood, shoulders stiff, expression grim, inspecting the camp. He hadn’t said a word since leaving the car. She almost pitied the two runaways when he finally caught up to them. She turned away.
At the edge of the pond directly below them lay a red canoe. It had to belong to the woman from the cabin because there were no other buildings or people in sight. No fisherman would abandon their only means of transport. Plus there were the tracks. Two sets of footprints – one adult, one child – leading up from the water’s edge.
Consulting the map, she faced the direction the pair would have headed after leaving the area. ‘This is the closest they could get to town. Just over that hill is the general store, a few houses, the offices of the logging company and the local GP.’
Her thoughts trailed away, diverted by a sudden connection. She reached in her pocket, pulled out the bottle she’d found at the cabin and stared at its label. ‘Maybe we should pay the doctor a visit.’
‘You feeling sick?’
‘No, but I think one of them might be.’ She tossed him the bottle. ‘I found that at the cabin. They’re antibiotics. Bottle holds thirty and there’s twenty-seven left. I counted them.’
‘So, one of them’s got a cold.’
‘You don’t take that stuff for a cold. It’s powerful. I had it for an impacted wisdom tooth once.’
He sent her a glare – get to the point.
‘I saw bloody bandages in the trash at the cabin. And there was gauze and a tube of antiseptic cream lying near the couch.’
Tragg returned his gaze to the bottle. ‘You think the kid’s hurt.’
‘Whichever one it is, they’ll be feeling sick again fairly soon. Three doses wouldn’t have been enough to cure anything.’
He thought a moment. ‘It’s Sunday. Doc’s office won’t be open.’
‘There might be a contact number on the door, maybe an address. If they’re desperate enough they might try to see the doctor at home.’
Tragg clenched the bottle in his fist. ‘Let’s go.’
Chapter 52
The light in the room was more golden than before. He must have been asleep for quite a while. Shyler still sat at the sick room window, peering out between the partly drawn curtains.
‘What’s happening?’ he said.
She looked around at him, then pulled her chair up beside the bed. ‘We’re just waiting for the last of the loggers to leave. How are you feeling?’
‘Okay,’ he lied. ‘Still kinda hot.’
‘That’s the fever. Don’t worry, the doctor’s taking good care of you.’
Zack shook his head. ‘He gives me medicine. You take care of me.’
She leaned down and stroked his face. ‘You bet.’
For a moment he let himself drift on the feeling. She had more than a couple of marbles missing, yet he trusted her totally. The knot that had tied up his guts for so long almost unravelled. But as always a shadow passed over the sun. ‘What’s going to happen to us?’
Her smile dimmed. She didn’t answer.
‘We don’t have any money. We don’t have a car. We don’t even have any other clothes.’
She laced her fingers through his hair and tugged gently. ‘Now you listen to me. I don’t want you to worry about those sorts of things. That’s my job. You just concentrate on getting better. Okay?’
He didn’t know what made him do it but suddenly his arms were around her neck. It wouldn’t last, he knew it wouldn’t; it never did. Maybe that was why he was trying to hold on.
Chase pressed the last strip of tape in place, securing the cardboard over the window. The hole was now sealed against the weather. Tomorrow he would get the glass replaced.
He’d already swept up all the shards and plucked the slivers from the cabinet door. If he was going to abide by Shyler’s wishes – something he had vast misgivings about – he had to convince Elaine he had been responsible for the office breakages. Otherwise the first thing she’d do when she came in tomorrow would be call the police. With the matter now sorted he stepped to the sick room door and opened it.
Shyler sat bending over the bed holding Jesse in a tight embrace. Though her gaze flicked across to see who had entered she made no move to pull away.
Chase waited. After a moment she laid the boy back and he took a step closer. ‘Everyone’s gone.’
The pair stared up at him, Shyler with her arm still draped protectively over her son’s chest while holding the rifle in her other hand. By the red-rimmed look of Jesse’s eyes Chase sensed he’d interrupted something.
‘I’m sorry it took me so long. After the second ambulance left I still had the minor injuries to deal with. Then I had to wait for the last man’s wife to come and pick him up.’
Again no answer. With the rigid wariness of prey for the hunter they simply watched him.
He stood a moment tugging his earlobe then threw up a hand. ‘Well, I don’t know about you two but I’m famished.’
Their wariness dropped a notch to uncertainty.
‘We’ve got a kitchen here, but there’s not much in it besides tea and coffee, and the general store’s closed. So you have your choice – you can either let me run home and bring you back something –’
‘You’re not going anywhere,’ Shyler whispered.
‘Or,’ he continued, ignoring her words, ‘you can come there with me.’
She blinked at him as though he’d gone mad. He couldn’t blame her. An hour ago, when he’d first had the thought, he’d felt the same way. But further contemplation had changed his mind.
After seeing how agitated she’d become just from having the loggers here, and knowing that tomorrow the office would be open . . . Well, he couldn’t imagine she’d cope any better with patients coming and
going all day. Armed with a rifle and in an agitated state she might injure someone, if only accidentally.
But at home, in a quieter, safer environment, she might relax. Perhaps even enough to let him call the police. And since there was little chance the pair had been followed he wouldn’t be placing his father at risk.
‘Jesse needs to eat if he’s going to recover,’ he reasoned softly. The last thing he wanted was to make her feel pressured.
Shyler turned to the bleary-eyed boy.
‘I am kinda hungry,’ Zack confessed.
‘That’s a good sign.’ Chase looked at Shyler. ‘What do you say? You can even stay there. I’ve got two spare rooms, both with beds, and I can bring everything with me I need to treat him.’
‘Do you live with anyone?’
‘Just my father. But he’s in a wheelchair and never comes upstairs, which is where you’ll be. He’ll never even see you.’
She reached out again and cupped the boy’s face. As though gaining courage and strength from the contact, she finally nodded.
Chapter 53
A cold front had moved in since they’d left the pond. Rain glazed the windshield, reducing their view of the doctor’s office to a house-sized blur. In the waning light the place looked deserted, but the sign near the gate gave the doctor’s name, address and phone number.
Vanessa knew his name already, of course, but saw no reason to mention that to Tragg. In fact she saw one very good reason not to tell him that Corey had been treated here or that she’d come here herself in order to learn where they’d sent the boy. The man’s mood was black enough at the moment.
She located the address on the map and felt her heart sink. ‘Well, so much for my idea.’
Tight-lipped and glaring, Tragg waited for the explanation.
‘The doctor’s house is a good six miles from here. If one of them’s as sick as I think they are, it’s doubtful they could’ve walked that far.’
She slapped the map down as though disappointed. In truth she wished only to hide her unease. Tragg’s silences were every bit as frightening as his outbursts.
‘There’s always the chance they called someone,’ she reasoned, nervousness making her blurt her thoughts. ‘But the bitch didn’t even have a phone at her house. What are the odds she’s carrying a mobile?’
She turned to stare out at the deserted building. Anything to avoid Tragg’s unrelenting gaze. She felt it boring into the back of her head and gave a shudder.
‘I think they’re nearby, though,’ she offered hopefully. ‘They must be. They’ll keep out of sight and wait for the office to open in the morning.’
Tragg reached down with a black-gloved hand and shifted the car into drive. ‘Which leaves us with nothing better to do than stake out the doctor’s house till then.’
‘Stop right here!’
Startled by Shyler’s anxious words, Chase hit the brakes, stopping the Land Rover twenty yards short of the foot of his driveway.
‘I thought you said you only lived with your father,’ she accused.
‘I do.’
‘Then who are all these other people?’ She pointed at the six cars parked in front of and across from his house.
‘I’m sorry, I forgot. It’s my father’s book club. They meet every Sunday afternoon.’
‘And what else have you forgotten to tell me?’
He angled the rear-view mirror to better see her face. ‘There’s nothing to worry about. They’ll all be in the living room. We’ll go in the back and I’ll take you up the kitchen stairs. No one will see you.’
‘You can’t be sure of that.’
‘All right, I can’t. But even if they do –’
‘No. No way. Take us back to your office.’
Chase turned around. ‘And what then? Are you going to let me leave again?’
‘No, Jesse needs you.’
‘Well, then you don’t eat. And what’s more, what do you think my father will do when I don’t come home tonight?’
Shyler hesitated. The man seemed sincere, but had he planned all this? ‘You’ll just have to call him and give him some excuse.’
‘I could. But wouldn’t it be easier to just stay here?’
The simple statement silenced her for a moment. She looked down at Jesse, cradled against her, then closed her eyes. She almost wished the enemy would come. There could be no end to this short of that ultimate confrontation. And as stressful as all this was on her, it had to be ten times worse for a child.
‘Think about it,’ Chase said. ‘If someone’s after you, wouldn’t it be better to have people around?’
‘If someone’s after us? You think I’m imagining there are men trying to kill us?’
His expression grew earnest. ‘Shyler, I was at your cabin, remember? I have no doubts at all that the threat against you is absolutely real. I also think you shouldn’t have to face it alone.’
Chapter 54
Wrapped in the blanket from the sick room bed, Zack found himself bundled from the car towards the doctor’s house, up a ramp and through the back door. Without pause he was ushered through a cluttered kitchen – dishes in the sink, counters strewn with utensils and plates – and up a narrow staircase off the eating area.
He held his breath as long as he could but by the time they reached the second floor he just had to inhale. And there it was. Nothing bad. Nothing even anyone else would notice. Just the smell of strangeness. Another strange smell from another strange house.
As they walked along the hallway the scents of coffee and food from downstairs mixed with the woodsy smell of the floor, the faint drift of soap and men’s deodorant. Why did these things always hit him so hard? He knew without doubt that if he ever went blindfolded into one of his old foster homes he’d be able to tell which one it was just from the smell.
Of all of them, Shyler’s cabin had been the best. That remote but soul-warming little cottage had smelled of homemade soup, pine, wood smoke and . . . her. And though he’d spent the least amount of time there of anywhere he’d lived in the last three years, somehow that was the smell he missed now.
At the end of the passage the doctor opened a door on the left. ‘This is one of the spare rooms. The other is just across the hall. Make yourselves comfortable. I’ll be right back.’
Zack stood with Shyler’s arms wrapped around him in the middle of the room. There wasn’t much in it besides a bed, a night stand, some drawers and a chair. Before they’d even moved from the spot, the doctor returned, setting some clothes and towels on the bed.
‘The bathroom’s next door if you want a shower. I’m sorry, I know these clothes won’t fit either of you but they’re all I have. If you give me yours I can wash and dry them in an hour or so.’
They stood staring back at him.
‘Well, I’ll leave you to it, then.’
‘Where are you going?’ Shyler said, not quite masking the fear in her voice.
‘Downstairs to get some food. I’ll just be a minute.’ His words didn’t alter her worried expression. ‘Did I lie to you about the men at my office? Did I tell anyone you were hiding there? Did I call the police?’
She looked away.
‘I didn’t then and I won’t now. Even though I think the best thing would be to call the police, I won’t because you don’t want me to. Obviously you have your reasons. I trust that they’re good ones.’
His voice was a whisper, his tone earnest. Arms around her waist, Zack felt Shyler’s body relax.
‘Go ahead,’ she answered.
The door closed gently and they were alone.
Zack stood unmoving. He didn’t want to do anything else, just stand there with his cheek against her chest. In the sudden silence he could hear her heart beating. He closed his eyes to block out everything else.
‘Well, how about we get you freshened up?’ she said after a moment.
He didn’t answer.
She cupped his cheek. ‘You okay?’
‘Yeah.�
� Zack stepped back, knowing in that instant the spell was broken. ‘Come on, then. You’ll feel better once you’re clean. And a cool bath might help bring your temperature down.’
She led him next door and settled him onto the edge of the tub. In silence he watched her put in the plug, turn on the water and adjust the temperature. It was strange having someone look after him again. He hadn’t really thought about it up to that moment – probably because he’d been too sick and scared.
Suddenly he wasn’t that sure he liked it. It had been all right when he was little but he was almost eleven now. And for much of the last three months at the Learys’ he’d been left in charge of Reece and Corey. Why would he need anyone to take care of him?
Shyler left the room and returned with the items the doctor had given them. He watched her go through them and set aside things for him to wear. Remembering how he’d thrown his arms around her neck back in the sick room suddenly made him cringe. What a baby! He never should have done that. And he wouldn’t have if he hadn’t been sick!
He pushed to his feet. ‘I can do that.’
‘I know you can, sweetie. It’s all right, you rest.’
‘I don’t want to rest.’ He snatched the sweatshirt out of her hand. ‘I said I can do it.’
Shyler blinked at him. ‘Jesse, what is it? Are you –’
‘Yes, I’m all right! I just want to do it myself, okay?’
‘Sure, honey, if that’s what you want.’ She managed a smile and backed from the room. ‘I’ll be next door in case you need me.’
Uncertain what Shyler and Jesse might like, Chase prepared a variety of sandwiches – two ham and cheese, one egg salad, a tuna and lettuce and a peanut butter and jelly. What they didn’t eat he surely would. He was just slicing them all into wedges when his father glided into the kitchen.
‘Hey there, I was wondering where you’d got to. Haven’t seen you since breakfast. Did you find your friend?’