Larkin's Landing_A Tombora Springs Mystery

by SK Wee

  After a while, the nurse popped her head out the door once more. “You can come in now. Cal! What are you doing here? I haven’t seen you for a long time.”

  “Just helping out some friends, Julia. How have you been?” The look on Julia’s face told me that these two must have been in a relationship and she would have liked it to continue.

  When we were shown into the small examination room that Tara was in, she was lying with her eyes shut. In the strong light, the bruising showed up vivid and ugly. I reached for Tara’s hand and she opened her eyes. I could tell they gave her something quite strong for the pain. She had a hard time focusing her eyes.

  “Fee, thank you for your help. Cal? What are you doing here? Where’s Raine? You didn’t arrest him, did you? Please tell me that he’s okay.”

  “We haven’t seen Raine at all. More than likely, he’s still in bed sleeping it off.” Cal’s anger was starting to reappear, stronger than ever.

  “Never mind that,” I calmly stated, I didn’t want Tara more upset. “Cal, maybe you could wait outside?” I knew Tara would not speak freely with a deputy sheriff in the room with us. For some reason, she still felt the need to protect her attacker. Cal had a stubborn look on his face but must have finally seen the wisdom of leaving.

  “I’ll be close by in case either of you needs me for anything.” Cal walked out the door but I knew that he was probably just outside the door well within hearing range.

  “Thank you, once again,” Tara started, once Cal left. “I don’t know what I would do without you. I was so scared when the bleeding and cramping began. You were the only one I could think of to call. I know Raine didn’t mean it, he didn’t even know I was pregnant yet. Maybe he would have treated me better. I don’t know—I just don’t know him anymore. It’s like his future isn’t what he had envisioned and he blames me for that. But he needs me, Fee. I know he would totally fall apart if I left. As it is, he’s just hanging on by a thread.”

  “Don’t think about it now, sweetie. I’m going to make sure you heal. We’ll talk about him later.” I could see the stress it caused her by talking about him and wanted her to relax.

  “Knock, knock!” Pastor Dale, of all people, came into the room. “Someone in need of a healing prayer?” He looked at Tara’s chart and seemed to study her intently.

  “Hello, Pastor Dale.” I was certain Tara didn’t have a pastor. She had never spoken of having any religious background. “I didn’t expect to see you here. This is my good friend, Tara. I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt to say a couple of prayers. What do you think, Tara?”

  “Sure, why not?” Tara just closed her eyes while the pastor said a couple of prayers for the sick. He then nodded to me and left the room. Tara slipped off into sleep and I went to look for Cal. As I thought, I didn’t have far the look, he was standing patiently just outside the door.

  “You didn’t tell me she was pregnant.” I was right—he listened to everything we had talked about.

  “It wasn’t my news to tell. It wasn’t for your ears either. But I figured you were out here listening. What are we going to do? At least we know for certain Raine is the one who beat her up. She’ll never file any charges though.”

  “What I do know is that these things usually keep escalating.” Cal had a worried look. “What’s going to happen next? This was damn serious already. It’s really hard to protect someone that doesn’t want protection. I do know that I’m going to stay on guard here and when he shows up, which I have no doubt he will, I’m going to be here to talk to him.”

  “I don’t know.” I didn’t think that was the best course of action. “That might make things even harder for Tara. If you make him angry, don’t you think he’ll just take it out on her?”

  “At least Raine will realize we’re on to him and I won’t allow it to continue without him being punished. I’ll make sure he knows that I’ll be watching him. By the way, what was up with the pastor? He tore out of here like there was a fire or something.”

  “Really? He didn’t seem in too big of a hurry when he said his prayers. That sounds strange. Well, I’m going to sit with Tara until she wakes. If you’re going to stay on duty, maybe go relax in the lobby. And try to keep calm!” Cal gave me another grin as he left for the lobby once again. I was getting tired and leaned back in the chair next to Tara’s bed. It didn’t take long for me to doze off.

  The nurse was in and out, which got me out of my doze. She asked if I wanted anything and all I could think about was a good cup of coffee, but I knew from past experience that the hospital coffee was terrible. So I told her not to bother unless she could find some decent brew. As she walked out the door, she turned back and smiled. “I think your wish has been granted!”

  Cal walked through the door with two large coffee cups from the café in town. “Oh, bless you, Cal. You’re a godsend! Thank you.” Just the smell of it got my blood back to pumping. Ahh.

  “Thought you might be ready for some. How’s our girl doing? Has she been awake at all?”

  “No, I think they gave her something pretty strong for the pain. She’s sleeping comfortably, a deep, healing sleep.”

  “I talked to a friend of mine that works at the Landing, and he is going to speak with Raine. If the man insists on coming over here, which I believe he will, then Logan will bring him.” I didn’t know that Cal had a friend that worked at the Landing, and when he mentioned the name Logan, of course, I could only think about Logan Tate, the man that filled my dreams at times. Even though he was a married man and had barely spoken to me.

  “Mmmm . . . I smell coffee.” Tara yawned as she woke up. “Cal, you’re still here?” The look of fear came back to her face. She tried to sit up, but the cords attached to her kept her in place.

  “Tara, lie back. If you need to get up, you’ll have to call a nurse to help you.” I gave Cal another look that said, “Go back outside.” Once he left again, Tara seemed to relax. “I know the hospital coffee isn’t very good, but I’ll share some of mine with you if I can get another cup.” I looked around the room but there wasn’t anything that could be used. When I stepped outside the door, Cal handed me a small cup that he must have filled from his own cup. “Thanks,” I whispered.

  While we sat and enjoyed our morning coffee, we didn’t talk about anything serious. We put the morning news on and just sat and enjoyed each other’s company. About an hour later, Raine barged into the room, anger evident.

  “What’s the deal with the cop outside the door? What did you tell these people, Tara?” I had never met Raine and though I could see why Tara would be drawn to him, I could also see the violence surrounding him. I stood up to guard Tara against his advance and he immediately turned his angry glare on me.

  “We are here to protect her,” I said even though I’m sure I wasn’t much protection. He could have easily pushed his way by me.

  “Raine, settle down. The doctor is here to talk to you.” This deep, calm voice came from the doorway and my heart skipped a beat when I looked over at him—Logan Tate. Delicious as ever. He now wore an old faded T-shirt with the sleeves ripped off. I could see the tattoos were on both arms where the last time I had only noticed one side. I still wasn’t sure what they depicted as I was drawn to his face. He had at least a couple days of beard growth making him look even more dangerous and rugged.

  Raine turned to look at Logan also. “Where?” He pushed back out the door to talk to the doctor. I looked at Tara who hadn’t said a word yet.

  “Are you okay, Tara? I’m not going to let him hurt you. None of us are.” Tara looked nearly petrified, and I wanted to calm her down.

  “Oh, Fee. What am I going to do? He scares the crap out of me. I thought I loved him but I don’t think I can live like this anymore.” Tara started to cry and I sat down on her bed and tried to soothe her.

  “We’ll think of something. You won’t have to live like that, my friend. Nobody should live in fear of their spouse. Don’t worry, I’m not going to let that h
appen.” I sounded surer than I felt. What could I do to stop him?

  When he returned, he seemed much calmer. I still sat on the bed and was not going to let him get any closer. “Please, I just want to talk to my wife.” The anger was gone, replaced by a sorrowful entreaty.

  “You can talk to her from over there.” I wasn’t going to let his calm demeanor influence me. “I’m not letting you get any closer.”

  “I’m not going to hurt her! I love her!” When I just stared at him without moving he must have realized that I meant what I said. “All right then. Tara, the doctor wants you to stay here at least until tomorrow. She wants to do some more tests. Oh, baby, I didn’t know about the pregnancy. I wish I had known. I just want to hold you close.”

  “Don’t, Raine.” I could hear Tara beginning to cave into his pressure, and I squeezed her hand in reassurance. “Leave me be for now, please. I don’t want to see you for a while. You have to get your life sorted out. I don’t know what happened to you but you’re not the same since your father died. I need my old Raine back, this new one scares the shit out of me.”

  “You’re right, baby. I need to get my shit together. I’ll call you later, just remember how much I love you, baby doll.” Raine turned and walked to the door. I could see out into the hallway and noticed Logan standing there with his wife. I remembered then that his wife worked at the hospital. She was so beautiful and was smiling up at her husband, the man of my dreams. I breathed a deep long sigh, more because of my senseless longing for a virtual stranger than for the fact that Raine was now gone and Tara and I could both relax.

  Chapter Ten

  Tara

  The pain was almost more than I could handle. Not so much the physical pain—which was certainly bad enough—but the pain bearing down on my heart and soul was even worse. I only had suspicions that I was pregnant before my miscarriage, but the dream I conjured in my mind had been one of blissful happiness. I thought having a baby would change everything for us. Raine would quit drinking and become the best husband and father that ever walked the Earth. I know it was just a silly dream, but now the dream was dead, dead as my baby, dead as Vince and Bonnie. Dead.

  There was no longer any reason to keep me in the hospital. My bruises would heal and my ribs were wrapped, which was all they needed to do to them. My only problem was that I needed a place to call home and the only place I had was at the Landing with Raine. I had no place else to go. Fee was going to come and pick me up and I thought she would want me to stay with her, but she was still living with her folks and I knew that they thought little of me. I would not feel comfortable staying with her.

  With the paperwork nearly done, I just needed the nurse to come in with any last-minute instructions. As I stood waiting, I stared out the window, trying to figure out what was going to happen next. It seemed like the raft my life had become was quickly sailing downstream, and I didn’t have any oars to steer it or even to slow it down. I felt like everything was beyond my control.

  “Hey! How are you feeling?” Fee walked in gave me a gentle hug. “You certainly look better than you did yesterday. We need to figure out where you can stay. Any ideas?”

  “I was just thinking about that. What else can I do but go back to the Landing? My whole life is there. One way or another, I’m going to have to face everything that has happened and try to fix whatever I can. I’m scared as hell, but it has to be done.”

  “You can stay with me until you find someplace else. I really don’t think you should go back there. You’ll just be in the same circumstances that led you here. But if you insist on going back there, then I’m going to stay there with you. I don’t know what I can do but at least you have someone on your side.” Her sacrifice left me speechless but I couldn’t allow her to take over as a bodyguard.

  “Oh, what a wonderful friend you are. That’s so kind of you to offer, but . . .” I was interrupted from my statement by Cal who chose that moment to enter the room. He was just as enticing as ever and even though I was now married to the love of my life, I still thought way too much about this man standing in front of me now with a very concerned frown on his face. “Cal . . . what’s wrong? What has happened now?” I felt a twinge of foreboding, something was dreadfully wrong.

  “It’s Raine, Tara. I’m so sorry to have to tell you this. It looks like he may have committed suicide last night. His body was found this morning. I just came from there.” My knees buckled and Cal grabbed hold of me and led me over to the bed where I sat down. Raine? Dead? Suicide?

  “No, it can’t be. No, no, no!” My mind was a fog of pain and recriminations. This was my fault, how could I have been so cruel to him? What was wrong with me?

  “I’m here with you, Tara. We will get through this together.” Somehow I could hear Fee’s voice through the fog, though it sounded like it was miles away.

  “Where is he, Cal? Is he still at the Landing?” I felt like I needed to see proof. I needed to look at his handsome face without all the anger and violence that had somehow infiltrated his soul.

  “We finished with the investigation, and they were bringing him here. An autopsy was ordered, which will be done downstairs. We’ll go there with you.” Cal sounded like he wasn’t at all surprised by my demands. I could see compassion in his eyes but also his sense of duty. This portion of his job was not his favorite.

  “Thank you, Cal. Thank you both, for all your help.” The nurse finally showed up with my discharge papers and I was free to go down to the coroner’s office. I thanked Cal once again for his help and explained that his help wasn’t necessary. I tried not to be rude, but his mere presence made me feel guilty for all the times I thought about him when I was with Raine. I would need to find a way to deal with my guilt.

  They had Raine in a black body bag—the coroner didn’t yet have a chance to open it before we arrived. He warned me not to touch anything and slowly opened the bag just enough for me to see his face. I had been warned that he died from a gunshot wound to the head so I wasn’t shocked, but it still turned my stomach to see all the blood. I had to turn away quickly, I now knew without any doubt that my husband of two months was dead.

  Fee helped me down the corridor and outside to her car. “Oh, sweetie, I know it’s hard to deal with everything that’s been thrown at you over the last couple of days, but you do need to make some choices. I remember when Lizzie left—Rich brought me straight to the funeral home. At the time I thought it was cruel of him to do so, but I’m glad he did because I needed to start to deal with it before it ate me up. I think you should do the same. I’m going to stick by you through everything. You can lean on me and feed off any strength you find there. So I’ll ask—what do you want to do first?”

  “I guess we should go to the funeral home. I know Raine wanted to be cremated. He mentioned that when his father died. I believe he had some papers in the safe that he told me were important if anything ever happened to him.”

  “Okay, that’s where we’ll begin. I know Mark at the funeral home and he can help us figure out what needs to be taken care of.” Fee set everything up. She gave me the final say on everything, but she knew more about these things than I did so I just agreed to anything she thought was right. I knew Raine would not want a church service or even a memorial service at the funeral home. I decided to proceed the same way as Vince’s arrangements. That reminded me of Raine’s mother and sister, and I knew I would need to call them right away.

  Once we left the funeral home, Fee stopped quickly at her family’s farm to grab some clothes. She insisted on seeing me through everything and would not allow me to go back to my apartment alone. I was eternally grateful for that since I really didn’t want to go back there by myself. Even with Fee by my side, it was going to be very painful.

  At least the employees had seen fit to shut the place down. Doris was in the kitchen, but she was just waiting for me to get there to hear any news. Evidently, the sheriff’s department was there earlier but didn’t tell anyone wha
t was found. Doris wasn’t even sure Raine was dead. She did notice them load up the black body bag, but she wasn’t really sure just who was inside of it.

  Doris asked what she could do to help, and I set her up with the chore of calling all of the help and telling them that the Landing was closed until further notice. I left her to come up with the reasons for that. I couldn’t imagine ever opening the doors again. I didn’t think Raine’s mother would come back to run the place and I also knew Abby wouldn’t either. That left me, and I really didn’t have any idea how to run the business.

  Once we went upstairs, Fee once again came to the rescue. The apartment was a total disaster. Clothes were thrown all over the place, there were spots of blood, beer cans, cigarette butts, and a sink full of dirty dishes. I’m not a bad housekeeper, but Raine was hard to keep up with. Before he moved back, my place was nearly spotless all of the time. She helped me clean and scrub. My place was small, the efficiency kitchen was just a short wall on one side of the living area, the bedroom and bathroom were separate, but all the rooms were quite small.

  After we cleaned everything, it no longer looked like Raine’s place and felt more like mine again. That thought got my guilt flowing again—poor Raine wasn’t yet cold and I was getting on with my life, at least that’s what it felt like. I had made the phone call to his mother earlier, and I felt like she probably blamed me also. Why not? It was my fault after all.

  “Tara?” Fee sat down next to me and held my hand. “I think we should look through those papers Raine told you about. I’m sure there will soon be some legal issues that will need to be ironed out. Might as well be as informed as we can be.” We went back downstairs to the office. I knew where the combination to the safe was, but I had never opened it before. After my third try, I handed it off to Fee. Good thing I didn’t make my living as a safecracker.