Ding Dong!! Is She Dead?

by Alathia Morgan

  “Mother, SHUT UP.” Shocking her into silence seemed to be the only way that she might listen to what he had to say.

  “I had to take Allie to the hospital because she was attacked. When they released her, I wasn’t just going to let her go home to an empty house since I know that had to have really shaken her up. I got her some food and then offered to sleep on the couch, but she started so shaking bad when I turned out the lamp that I couldn’t leave her like that. I slept on top of the covers and she is still asleep. We didn’t tangle any sheets as that was the last thing on her mind after what happened to her last night. I was simply caught up and didn’t even think to call you since it was almost five in the morning.”

  “Oh my Justin, I can be there in just a minute so that we can help you take care of her.” Knowing that his mother would do just that, Justin again had to stop her before the entire town was on his doorstep.

  “I really appreciate that mom, but no one can know where she is. Her attacker is still out there and he has no idea that she is here. I didn’t even notify that police that she was staying here since it was spontaneous. How about this, after church tomorrow, if she is up to it I will bring her to the PLACE so that she can tell you the whole story. I think that for tonight if she will sleep that will be the best medicine for her. Although, it is wonderful that you would offer to come help take care of her.”

  Justin seriously hoped that his mother would stay out of it until Allie was up to going before the inquisition squad at his family’s house.

  His mother took the hint, “I’ll let things alone only for tonight though. I will start something for lunch tomorrow. I’m guessing that I couldn’t get you to bring her to church in the morning?”

  Hope would always spring eternal in his mother’s plans. ”Not possible since she is kind of in hiding. Also, you know how women can be sometimes. While lots of love is great, in this case I think it would be a bit overwhelming. Let’s just take it one step at a time for now. I’ll call you as we are headed out there tomorrow okay mom?”

  “Well if you are sure that you don’t need me tonight?”

  Justin responded with “I love you mom, bye.” Hanging up, he looked down and realized that a shower was next on the list of things to do. Then he would make some food that might temp Allie to eat and help her rest better. Chicken soup would be a good idea even if all he had was the canned kind, but he would have to check and see.

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  Allie woke up to the wonderful smell of food cooking. Wondering exactly who was cooking, she got up to investigate.

  Allie groaned as she tried to stand because of all the bruised muscles from the accident. Her neck was still sore enough that she wouldn’t be doing any sort of exercise in the near future. Walking slowly to the door she peeked out to make sure that it was only Justin in the kitchen. Relieved that it was still the two of them, she headed to join him.

  “Hey that smells wonderful. What is it?” Allie was impressed that he had cooked on the stove instead on microwaving something as most single people did.

  “Hi, sleepy head, that wonderful smell would be homemade chicken soup. I had my brother pick up the ingredients and bring them over so that whenever you did wake up it would be ready.” Justin turned from stirring the soup to face Allie.

  “What time is it?” Allie felt out of balance since she had slept the morning away.

  “About nine in the evening, so you have been asleep most of the day. I would say about sixteen hours so far, although I’m willing to bet that if you eat, shower and go back to bed you will be out again. You had a really bad night.”

  “Oh, crap. Megan and Sally will be worried about what happened to me. They were expecting me this morning to come and hang out. Where is my cell phone?” Turning around quickly to go to her backpack, she had to grab hold of the counter to keep from falling over.

  Justin hurried around slipping his arm around her waist and helped her over to the couch so that she could lay back down.

  “Stay right there and I’ll bring your bag to you.” Justin went to the bedroom to retrieve the phone. Making sure that Allie would be able to sit up; he also grabbed hold of some pillows so that she could prop up on the couch. “Here you go.”

  Allie looked slightly green from all the movement. “Did you need to take one of those pills to make you feel better?”

  “No, let me call Megan and then I will eat something. I’m not sure that I could take a shower at the moment. I will take something before I crawl back in bed unless you are going to take me back to my house?”

  Allie really hoped that he wasn’t going to kick her out. She had never felt so awful before; if this was anything like Megan had felt last week, Allie was in complete sympathy with her.

  Justin just smiled and shook his head no, patting her on the head. He went back to the kitchen to start serving the soup. Trying not to eavesdrop, but having no choice since the kitchen was only divided by a bar opening up into the living room, he couldn’t help but hear what Allie said to Megan.

  “Megan, is everything okay?” Allie started with, but Megan cut her off.

  “Oh, so you know what happened. Is Julie alright?” Allie paused and let out a sigh of relief. “She’s going to recover. Whew, I was worried, but they wouldn’t let me stay with her since they wanted to check me out as well. Then they kept me telling me that it was too early to tell. I was told to pick out a hospital bed myself or go home. So I left.”

  Allie waited for Megan to explain how dangerous that was before she told her what happened.

  “Justin took me to get something to eat. He was such a gentleman and wouldn’t let me go back to my apartment so I stayed at his condo. I only woke up a few seconds ago which is why I just called you.” Nodding her head, she glanced at Justin.

  “I would say so, but you will have to tell me what you think in person. Is Sally really disappointed? I know that she has been cooped up for so long now. Oh, you told her that I had to stay away so that he wouldn’t follow me? I agree she doesn’t need to know the whole story about what happened. Uh, Justin who?” Motioning for Justin, while shrugging her shoulders, mouthing last name?

  Justin realized that he had never introduced himself, so he walked over and took the phone from her. “Hey Megan, I’m Justin Greeley. I promise to take good care of Allie, but she was hurt last night so I need to let her eat and get her back to bed.”

  “No, ma’am there will be no funny business going on in this house which is exactly what I told my momma. Yes, Ma’am.” Justin was pulling out the southern charm for Megan. “Speaking of my mother, she would be pleased if you could come to lunch tomorrow. I know that it could be difficult, but she would love to have you and Sally join us. Yes, my mother is Georgia Greeley. We normally have company for Sunday lunch to which I’m bringing Ms. Allie. It would be wonderful for Sally to be somewhere safe that was completely different from where you have been staying the past week. I think that my mother would really like to have you and Allie will feel much better knowing that you are all right as well. Please say yes? Perfect, I’ll text you the address so that you can let the officers know where to take you. We should be there about 12:30. Wonderful, I’ll let her know. Nite.”

  Justin hung up the phone and sent the text to Megan with the information that they would need to make it out to the ranch in the morning.

  “So I have no say in how things are going?” Allie looked a little upset at having her call taken over without any explanation.

  “My mother called while we were asleep and the only way that I could keep her from showing up here was to promise to bring you out to the ranch for lunch. She would like to take care of you herself. I let her know that the best thing for you tonight was to rest. Since I was not going to wake you up to ask you, it seemed the better idea at the time.” Justin walked back to the kitchen to carry the tray of food over to Allie. “I’m sorry if you feel like I took over, but I was just trying to help.”

  Watching him set u
p the soup, Allie realized that no one had ever tried to take care of her in such a way.

  “I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have griped at you. So much has gone on and I feel like I’m losing control. When that happens I tend to snap at those around me.” Looking sheepish, Allie took the tray from him. Trying not to burst into tears, she started eating the soup.

  “Oh, my goodness, you can cook. Oh, that didn’t come out the way I meant that either.” Allie stopped, “I’m shutting up now. Thank you.”

  Justin walked back in and got the other tray, setting it on the coffee table. “It’s all right. You are not the first person to be surprised at my culinary skills. My mother didn’t have a girl, so since I was the youngest child, she made me help her in the kitchen. I can do it if the need arises. Now, eat. We can work the rest out later.”

  Chapter 10

  J.D. got a phone call about 2 in the morning. Wondering what on earth could be going on he listened to the voice on the other end explaining what had happened at the Three W’s. Getting dressed while he listened to the instructions for dealing with the aftermath, he quickly grabbed his gun and badge.

  “I’ll be there in ten minutes.” Hanging up, his wife mumbled something incoherent. “I’ve got to go into work. Something happened and it’s all hands on deck for the time being. I might have to work on my day off, but I’ll try to let you know a little later once things have gotten under control.” His wife rolled over and started snoring again.

  He quietly left the house and took his truck just in case he had to hit the country roads where his squad car would be noticed more quickly than just a plain truck.

  Winding through the country roads, he managed to make it to the site in less than seven minutes. Looking around he finally spotted the other truck with the door open, but it looked like no one was inside.

  Hearing a groan, he ran over and found Mike almost passed out, unconscious across the seat. Heading back over to his car, he took out a blanket and laid it across the seat. Pulling his truck as close to Mike’s as he could, he left if running while he moved Mike over to his truck.

  Once settled, Mike was still out so J.D. took Mike’s truck and pulled it over to the edge of the abandoned mill buildings. Covering it up with a tarp from his car, he moved some old boards and tires to lean on it so that it looked like it had been there quite a while.

  Jumping back in his truck he headed toward the closest town which was over two hours away that had a hospital. He was trying to make sure that it was someplace that had many people through its doors and might not have gotten any pictures of Mike as a wanted man. Since the town was large enough to have three hospitals, it seemed like the logical place.

  Listening to the radio while all the chaos continued in the search for Mike, J.D. wondered exactly what Mike had done this time. There seemed to be some confusion about what happened and the dispatch kept saying officer down which made no sense. There should have been somebody hurt, but Mike wouldn’t have hurt one of their own intentionally. Two hours later, he arrived and went into the E.R. with his story ready for anyone that had questions.

  “I was driving along and saw this truck out on HWY 276 with the door standing open and this guy was lying in the seat unconscious. I didn’t have any signal on my cell phone to call an ambulance, so I moved him over to my truck. I’m not sure what is wrong with him, but he looks like he has been in an accident.” The medical team went hurrying out to his truck with a stretcher.

  “Sir, did you see anything that had a name on it or do you know who he is?” The technicians were busy getting him out, but they would need something to work with to identify him and let his family know that he had been in an accident.

  “Oh, there was a letter with the name Bubba Box on it. It couldn’t have been anyone else’s because it looked like he lived in his truck, so the mail was probably his.”

  Seeing that they were finished, he pulled his truck to the visitor parking and went inside to see about the status of Mike aka “Bubba”.

  “I’ll leave you my cell number so that in case he wakes up or needs to know where his vehicle is he can call me.” J.D. planned to leave the number of the prepaid phone that they had been using so that no one would trace it to him or call him at work where there could be questions about this person he had dropped off at an E.R. in Rockwall.

  The nurse came out of the room that they had taken Mike into. “He seems to have been in an accident. He has some broken ribs and one of them may have punctured a lung. It was a good thing that you brought him in or he wouldn’t have made it. It looks like he also has a concussion from hitting his head. Once we get him stabilized it will probably be several days before he wakes up. We will give you a call if you would like to come back, but since you aren’t family it will be up to him once he is able to speak.”

  J.D. thanked her and left, heading back to Royce City where they would be looking for Mike. He was certain that if he showed his badge at the hospital he could get back in to check on Mike when he had a chance. Considering the mess that Mike had made of that night it might be awhile before he was able to take a day off and get away from town without arousing suspicion.

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  Allie woke up refreshed from a sound sleep to find that it was only eight in the morning. Having finished dinner the night before, she had taken a shower hoping that the hot water would relax some of those sore muscles. Borrowing shorts and a shirt from Justin, she had taken a pain pill and gone straight to sleep. Justin was still sleeping, so Allie crept quietly out to the living room turning on the t.v.to watch the news.

  They were calling the attempted murder of a police officer simply a failed robbery attempt instead, which was just shocking since Julie had almost died. Allie was certain that they were trying to downplay the seriousness of what happened since there was no mention of Mike Butts or any information relating to that situation.

  Suddenly hungry, Allie decided that she would raid Justin’s cabinets and see what would work for breakfast since it was still a while until they would go to lunch at his parents place. Finding some Lucky Charms and a bowl, Allie went back over to see what kind of movies were on to help occupy her morning.

  Justin woke up and rolled over to find Allie gone. Worried that she had left, he went out to the living room breathing a sigh of relief when he saw that she was on the couch watching a movie.

  Planning to grab some cereal and join her; he realized that she had finished her eating before falling asleep again. Opting to make as little noise as possible, he went and took his shower letting her rest some more before they headed out to his parents.

  With the bathroom door closed, Justin wondered what had happened to him. He had gone from turning down several offers for dates or serious relationships to acting like he was a married man caring for a hurt spouse. Unsure if exactly what he was feeling was from all the excitement or if it could be a long term feeling that could last.

  Having heard of love at first site he was not sure if he really believed in it, but he certainly was willing to give it a try if Allie was as wonderful as she appeared to be.

  Feeling like her protector was good for a male ego and Justin wasn’t about to lose the opportunity to take care of her and show her that people could be nice and caring with each other. Justin had a feeling from the way that she reacted to what he considered normal behavior that Allie hadn’t had very many people that loved and cared for her. She just needed someone to love her and that seemed to be an okay idea with him for the moment. Certain that he had just figured out the solution to the world’s or at least Allie’s problems, Justin started whistling while he shaved and took his shower ready to show Allie what a true man’s love was like.

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  Having to borrow some of Justin’s clothes to wear since her clothes had been ruined in the accident. Allie tried to make herself as presentable as possible since she was meeting his family. This step was always the one where she felt the most out of her element because foster
families were so different than a generational family that had always been together. Looking at the huge two story white house with its wrap around porch, it reminded her of homes from Gone with the Wind. Hoping that Justin’s mom wasn’t a self-centered version of a southern lady, not sure that she could handle that kind of drama at the moment. Allie and Justin got out and were greeted by several dogs running up to lick them.

  Justin announced that his parents weren’t home yet, so he would show her around until they got back. Walking up onto the porch, he opened the green front door that wasn’t even locked. Allie was impressed that while the home looked wealthy and should belong to the upper class, there was a sense of hominess inside that made it welcoming.

  Taking the grand tour, Allie saw that there were many rooms for guests and a huge dining room for fancy dinners. The kitchen had been modernized, but still had that feeling of history buried deep within the walls.

  Justin checked on lunch and then they continued the tour. There was a modern media room, a library and the office that was used for the ranch bookkeeping. He finished the tour with the basement that had been converted from a cellar that ran under the length of the house. It was divided into a game area with pool table, foosball and darts on the right side and to the left a small apartment set up. It had two bedrooms, a bathroom and a small kitchenette/ living room.

  Hearing the dogs barking, they returned up stairs to greet his parents. The kitchen porch door opened as Justin and Allie made it upstairs.

  “Hello, Justin we’re home, did you check on lunch?” Georgia called walking in the door. She was five foot, four inches tall, with short brown hair and looked lovely in her Sunday suit and matching hat.