Rocky knelt on the linoleum floor and put one hand under the stricken woman. “I’m going to pull up, Tess, and get you out of the bathroom.” An odd part of her brain demanded to change the variables, change the location of Tess, to fight off death and disaster. As soon as she put an arm around Tess’s ribs, the woman shrieked, and Rocky knew a hot orange bolt of pain shot through the older woman. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but you are not dying in the bathroom. We’re going to get you out of here. I’ll call Isaiah and he’ll get the water ambulance.” She dragged Tess to the hardwood floor in front of the couch.
Rocky punched in Isaiah’s number. Her hands shook. The dog barked.
“Cooper, stop. I won’t be able to hear.”
After six rings, the answering machine came on and Rocky said, “Tess is sick and needs to get to the hospital in Portland. I’m calling nine-one-one right now.”
She hoped that the volunteer squad was home. “We need the water ambulance immediately. Isaiah’s rental house.” She hung up without offering details. She had seen the small fire truck go out on other calls. It was affectionately known as the Tonka Truck. Now, she prayed to see it drive up. She wanted to be ready for Peter if he tried to get in.
More than anything she wanted a weapon, and despite the dog’s unrelenting barking, she slipped out the front door, did not turn on the outside light, and pulled her bow and arrows from the truck. She left the terror of the unseen behind; this was not the terror of going into a basement at night or having a car go dead in a dim parking garage. This fear was about Tess and the dog and losing what she had left. She wanted to see Peter, and she was convinced that he was there in the darkness. She wanted to run over him and flatten him like a can. The adrenaline reservoir poured out and flooded her body. Rocky slipped back in the house.
Cooper had barked so hard that foam pooled at the corners of his black mouth and his body exploded with electricity. He emitted a musky scent and his challenge of attack filled the house.
Rocky grabbed her bow and notched an arrow. She held the bow in her left hand with the arrow pointing to the floor. The dog stopped barking for a moment and she watched him. He tilted his head to one side and listened with heightened awareness. He turned his head slowly from the ocean side of the house to the front side. He growled again and faced the door. Headlights bounced into the windows.
“Take it easy, must be the fire crew. We’re going to get Tess out of here.” Rocky turned her head to yell back into the house. “Tess, they’re here!”
She pulled aside the curtains of the front door and saw a familiar outline of a man. And there were no flashing lights. It was Hill, getting out of his truck. She immediately felt a twinge of relief. At the same moment Cooper went ballistic. Hill had parked at the far side of the drive fifty yards from the house. The dog threw himself at the door, claws digging at the wood, leaving jagged streams of exposed wood. Yes, it was Hill. She recognized the outline of his thick hair, his coat. What was he doing here?
“Down boy, it’s a friend,” she said.
She opened the door a few inches with her right hand, blocking the opening with her body so Cooper couldn’t get out. Then she grabbed him by the collar and opened the door the rest of the way. The bow in her other hand clattered awkwardly against the doorframe as she stepped onto the deck.
Hill stopped when he saw Rocky and the dog. And at the same moment Rocky realized that Cooper had never seen Hill before. So why was the dog acting like this? Then the torrent of facts hit her. Hill was the one who knew everything because she had told him. He knew about the dog being saved, about the house in Orono, about Cooper staying so often with Tess, about her friend Isaiah, oh God, Isaiah, he hadn’t answered his phone.
“Stop! Stay there or I’ll let him go,” she shouted. Cooper strained against her like a bull.
Hill took another step and said, “Rocky, get inside, don’t let the dog go!”
She didn’t have time to pause. If he got closer, and if he had a weapon, neither of them could take him down. Everything was at stake. She had to do it quickly. She turned off all extraneous power routes in her body and nothing was left except the path from her brain to her arms, connected with a fiber optic line to her eyes. In one elongated moment she let the dog loose with her right hand, pulled the bow up with her left and pulled back with her right. She saw Hill jog to the right and her eye followed him like a missile. Breath exhaled and released. Hill dropped to the ground with a howl.
Cooper spent one moment barking on the deck, then burst off the planks. He was nearly even with Hill when the man fell to the ground. But the dog didn’t stop. His muscled body lowered several inches as he ran. Rocky had seen other dogs run like this when they were in competition, either with themselves or with other dogs. They streamlined themselves, like jaguars or leopards in the final moments of running down prey. But Hill wasn’t the prey. Cooper ran past Hill as if he were a tree stump and ran straight through the thicket of brush.
Rocky leapt off the deck, bow in hand, and came closer to Hill, keeping her legs flexed, not getting close enough to him that he could reach her. Hill lay in the dim light that ribboned out from the house. An arrow was embedded in his thigh and he grabbed his leg with both hands.
“Peter is out there,” he said with a grimaced face. “Get the hell in the house. You don’t know what you’re dealing with. I found where he’s been watching you.”
Rocky turned and looked at the place where Cooper had entered the brush. She still heard him.
She cupped her hands around her mouth. “Cooper!”
She knew what she had to do. She took one step closer to Hill. “I was wrong. I’m sorry and I do know what I’m dealing with. You’re not going to die.” She reached into Hill’s truck and saw what she prayed was there, his quiver of arrows. Thank God this man traveled with arrows. She hooked the bag around her left shoulder and ran into the brush, following the sound of the dog.
The darkness in the trail hummed with Cooper’s scent. Rocky reached for the primitive part of her brain that operated on smell. She ran as if she could see in the tangle of dark and branches. Her lungs opened wide with the call of urgency from her legs to pound faster.
Two high shrieks, and a dog’s scream cracked open the blackness. Then silence. Peter had hurt Cooper! He might have killed him. The sound came from the part of the trail closer to the ocean. Rocky stopped, notched an arrow, and let her body lead the way to the last sound that Cooper made. She no longer thundered through the brush; now she walked with soft steps, right hand on the string, arrow pulled halfway back, crouching, deadly. The wind was above her, unable to dip down into the dense tangle. She would not have to contend with the wind when she took her shot. There was nothing else but her heightened senses; she was no longer woman, but eyes, ears, nose…hunter. A dark coil of hair fell across her eye and she flicked her head to move it.
The scent of Cooper hit her first, the musk, his oily skin, and now another smell mixed in, urine, and a new scent carried to her by a tendril of moist air. Peter, he was close.
A voice from her right side said, “Drop what you’re carrying or I’ll give him a blast of this. And I don’t think the combination of this Taser gun will mix well with the tranquilizer dart.”
Rocky spun around and to her horror saw the dark outline of Cooper on the ground and Peter holding a Taser inches from the dog.
“I told you this dog was mine,” he said.
Rocky considered her options, with Cooper’s ability to withstand an assault from the Taser being her primary concern. She lowered the bow.
“Drop your little bow and arrow on the ground,” he said and Rocky heard a hint of pleasure in his voice, a sort of satisfaction. The bow dropped to the ground and she measured its distance from her. She reached for the satisfaction that he got from bagging his prey. He would want to be noticed.
“How did you know I had him?” she started. She didn’t care what the answer was; she only wanted him to talk.
; “Are you kidding? I knew the day I talked with you. You were just like Liz. You thought I was stupid, didn’t you? I saw it in your eyes. You were going to say anything to get rid of me. Didn’t turn out so well for Liz either.”
He stepped closer to her and kicked the bow to the edge of the trail. Rocky chanced a look at the dog. He was still. She prayed that Peter had not overdosed Cooper.
“He’s alive. I want him alive. You and Liz aren’t the only ones with silent weapons; a Taser gun is such a nice weapon. Do you know how it works? It shoots two little darts that deliver a wonderful bolt of electricity. I think it will work nicely on Cooper. This is one dog that needs to be trained. Liz wouldn’t let me train him. If it wasn’t for him, I’d still be with Liz.”
Rocky had not moved, but she willed her body to relax; she and Cooper could not afford for her to freeze into fear. “She loved you. What happened?” she asked.
Come on, she thought, I know you can’t think of anything else but Liz, talk to me.
“She was never going to find someone better than me, I told her that. And I had gotten her completely off that medicine she was taking. I was taking care of her. She was off all that junk for six months.”
Rocky pictured Liz without her medication for six months: moods skyrocketing and plummeting, hallucinating if she had spiraled out far enough. An angry bile rose in her throat. She saw Cooper’s front feet begin to twitch. She didn’t have as much time as she had hoped.
“But she died from an overdose of meds. I thought you took all her medications away,” she said.
Peter grabbed her arm securely and pulled her to the far edge of the small clearing. She judged his strength from the sharp points of pain where his fingers pressed flesh against bone. He tossed her a roll of duck tape.
“Here, take this and bind up his feet. Tight. I don’t want anymore trouble from him.”
“Where are you taking him?” Rocky knew if she kept him talking long enough, the island fire truck would arrive and Hill would tell them that she was in trouble. Then what? What would a crew of volunteer medics do?
“You think I’m leaving here on the ferry? I told you, I’m way ahead of you. Start wrapping his legs.”
Rocky took the roll of tape and pulled out a two foot long strip. She held it up for Peter to cut it with the pocket knife that he took out of his jacket. She prayed for Cooper to stay dazed a bit longer. She wrapped his front legs together just above his feet.
“But how did she overdose?” Rocky asked again.
Peter snapped open what looked like a boat bag, the kind that kayakers use to keep their gear dry. He held the stun gun beneath one arm. “I had saved all of her medicine, kept it locked up in my truck. After she went nuts on me, after I brought her back from this island…that’s when I said, ‘Here, take all this shit. You want it, then take it!’ And I dumped all her medicine at her house. We all make choices and Liz made hers.”
Rocky wrapped Cooper’s legs with as much care as she dared. Peter had not noticed the quiver that she carried. She let it fall quietly beside her. With one hand, she slipped out one of the arrows.
“She was in a manic phase and you gave her six months’ worth of meds and then left her? Did you give up on her? No, wait, did she give up on you?” she asked.
Peter stood over her. “I’m telling you, if she had done everything I told her to do, she’d be here right now. ‘Get rid of the damn dog,’ I told her. No, she keeps the dog, treats him better than she treats me. When I found her on this island, she was fucking crazy, she thought I was the devil. She ran from me. Me! I ran after her and she had her archery stuff, pointing at me. I told her, ‘Liz, it’s me for Christ’s sake!’ Then I hear the dog coming at me. The dog leaps at me. She shoots and hits the dog instead of me. Suppose I should be grateful to the dog.”
Rocky slid the arrow part way up her jacket sleeve. She knew Peter hadn’t told this saga to anyone, and it had been fermenting with acidic vapors since the fall and now he let his aggressive posture fall momentarily away as he talked.
“Here’s what you’re going to help me do. We’re going to drag this dog down to the beach where I’ve got a boat,” he said. “I’ve been slipping in and out of this island for weeks.”
No, thought Rocky. This is all wrong; I needed someone to see us trying to leave on the ferry. I needed someone to help me. I can’t do this alone; he’s too strong. That’s when she remembered Bob, when they first met, Bob sitting serenely at the bottom of the pool, waiting to be saved by her, trusting her with his life. He had smiled at her and blew out the remaining air in his lungs.
She felt her feet push off from the slick bottom of the pool, carrying the full weight of a man.
“And what about me?” she asked Peter. “I’m not coming with you.”
He pulled the tranquilizer dart out of the dog’s back leg and slipped the bag under Cooper’s hindquarters. “Here, grab one side of this bag. We don’t want our doggie to get wet on the crossing, do we? And you’re coming with me, at least part way. Look like a good night for a swim?”
He crouched down and set the Taser beside him to stuff the dog into the bag. Rocky suddenly lay back on the ground and punched hard with both legs, hitting him in the chest. He fell sideways with a shout. “Fucking bitch!”
She fumbled with the arrow and pulled it out of her sleeve, rolling onto her side. Peter reached for the stun gun; it was so close to him. Rocky rose up on her knees and drew her arm back, holding the arrow inches from the point and brought the arrow down on Peter’s hand with the full weight of her body.
He screamed in shock. Rocky grabbed the stun gun and stood up. She pointed what she hoped was the front end of the gun at him.
“I will shoot you. I’ve already had a very bad day, and you are not the first person I’ve shot today. So don’t move. Don’t fooking move!” She had no idea if the gun had a lock, how it worked, but she had her fingers at what felt like a trigger.
Peter grabbed the protruding arrow with his free hand, and with a curdled howl he broke it in half. He rose up on one knee and stood up like a wrestler ready to lunge. Rocky knew that he was coming at her and this was her last chance. And Cooper, it was Cooper’s last chance.
The man roared like a bear, opening his mouth, throwing both arms wide. Rocky squeezed the trigger, and the force of the charge from the two wires dropped him, convulsing to the ground. Keeping the Taser in one hand, she grabbed the bag that half-contained Cooper, dragging him onto the trail, far away from Peter.
“I’ve got you, I’ve got you.”
Cooper whimpered. Rocky saw a light bounce around the corner of the trail, a huge flashlight, bouncing at an oddly familiar tempo. Then the light filled her eyes and she put her hands up to cover her face.
Melissa shouted, “I’ve found them! Isaiah, I’ve found them! Over here!”
The sudden presence of the girl both heartened and dismayed Rocky. She did not want Peter to harm Melissa if he recovered too quickly. “Lissa, toss me that roll of tape. Now help Cooper. Get that stuff off his legs.”
Rocky saw Peter try to get up and she pulled the trigger again and prayed that the gun still held a charge. It did. Peter’s body jerked into spasm. She ripped an arm’s length of duct tape, placed one foot on his back, grabbed one arm, then the other, and circled his wrists with steel gray tape. Rocky stood up, panting and shaking.
Melissa’s flashlight lay on the ground, offering an arc of light on the girl who crouched on the ground next to Cooper. Melissa’s eyes were huge. She looked from Rocky to the man.
“You kick ass, therefore you are,” said the girl slowly. Before Rocky could respond, the sound of Isaiah’s voice boomed along the trail, calling her name.
Chapter 36
The ride to the mainland on the water ambulance was harrowing but brief. Tess and Hill were wrapped in thermal blankets and strapped to stretchers. Two volunteer firefighters sat on Peter, while Isaiah kept his arm around Rocky, who could not stop shivering. She was ke
enly aware of how small the boat was compared to the rumbling ferry. Every time it hit the top of a wave, she felt a jolt from her tailbone to her head. There was at least some comfort in the fact that Melissa and her mother were back at Rocky’s house with Cooper, and they had promised to call Dr. Reynolds to see if the dog needed any medical attention after his ordeal. As they pulled into the dock in Portland, two police cars stayed to take Peter away and an ambulance waited with the rear doors open to take Hill and Tess to the hospital. Rocky impatiently answered the police officer’s questions as she watched the ambulance pull away. Isaiah urged her to report every detail about Peter.
“We’ll get to the hospital, but let’s make sure Peter’s stalking days are over first,” he said.
By the time they arrived at the hospital, Tess was being prepped and sedated for emergency surgery. Pre-op medications appeared to relieve Tess from the intensity of her pain. She grabbed Rocky’s sleeve as the younger woman leaned over in concern.
“I might as well tell you, I’ve got cancer. I’ve known for months. It’s been setting up shop in my abdomen. You better call Len; he understands hospitals and their language. His phone number is in my purse, in the address book. He’ll call the children. I’m sorry, Rocky,” said Tess, her eyes dreamy with medication.
“What! What do you mean, cancer? You’re not dying, are you?” said Rocky as she collapsed in tears. Tess disappeared behind the automatic doors leading to the surgery unit.
Len did not live far from the hospital and was there in fifteen minutes. Isaiah had checked in on Hill, who was asking for Rocky. “He can wait,” she insisted. “He’s not dying, and I can only attend to one disaster at a time.”
Rocky had never met Len before, and had only heard about him from Tess, who had regaled Rocky with stories about their weekly competition with darts. She did not expect the tall, handsome man with the searing blue eyes. Len moved easily in the hospital and was able to get a report from an obliging nurse. Tess had a ruptured appendix. Len shook his head. “The doctor said that she must have suffered with an inflamed appendix for weeks, even months. If she had just come in to be examined, they could have figured this out in fifteen minutes. Instead, her appendix ruptured. And on top of that, she had an obstructed bowel, and I can’t honestly tell you where that came from, and neither can the docs.”
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