Dire

by Jeff Carson

  “Yeah, aren’t you in class?”

  “Nope. Had two this morning. Then I have one at three.”

  “Ah. Three classes. They’re piling on the pressure senior year, huh?”

  “Fridays are different. We don’t have lab today for biology, and I’m at the library studying my butt off, if you must know.”

  Wolf smiled. “With Cassidy?”

  “Yep.”

  Jack and Cassidy had been together now for over a year, their relationship enduring her father’s murder and a whole lot of personal turmoil that followed. Cassidy was a good kid and good for Jack, and Wolf had often marveled at the way they worked together, pushing each other to be bigger and better separate people and yet remain a solid team. Jack had apparently learned something about relationships by watching Wolf and Sarah’s mistakes.

  “Tell her I said hi.”

  “She’s inside. I had to go outside to call you back.” Another blast of wind hit Jack’s phone. “And it’s freezing out here. What’s up?”

  “Nothing. Just wondering what you’re up to this weekend, then I’ll let you go.”

  “I think Cass and I will go skiing tomorrow. Otherwise, I don’t know. What are you doing? You wanna go with us?”

  Wolf frowned. “And be a third wheel? No thanks.”

  “You wouldn’t be.”

  “I tweaked my ankle. I’m on the way to the hospital now.”

  “Really? That sucks. How?”

  “Work. What are you up to tonight?”

  “Cass and I are going to a party.”

  “Be safe.”

  “I will.”

  Wolf smiled. “All right. I’ll let you go.”

  “I’m serious, though, Dad. If you ever want to hang out with me and Cass, you’re not being a third wheel.”

  Wolf narrowed his eyes. “No thanks.”

  “It’s just … we’ve been talking … and we think that … I think that if you wanted to date, then mom would probably … I don’t’ know. You know what I’m saying.”

  “Okay. Thanks, yeah. I know what you’re saying. I’ve gotta go.”

  “All right. See you later.”

  Wolf hung up and held the phone in his hand for a few seconds before dropping it in the center console. Shaking his head, he twisted the volume knob on the FM, filling the SUV’s cab with a Grateful Dead song playing on the local station, KBUD.

  The song brought back memories of his own senior year of high school, when he enjoyed blue-sky days like this, when the only care in the world on a Friday afternoon was who was going to get the beer that night, and from whom, and where they were going to drink it, and then when he and Sarah were going to get some alone time.

  The memories seemed of centuries past. Lately Wolf’s only alone moments with anyone were with Jet, the German shepherd Jack had adopted and left for Wolf to take care of most of the time, a dog who was probably lazing in a cloud of his own gas in the living room about now.

  The Lone Wolf, Judy Fleming had called him. He was fine being alone if the alternative was aggressive, meaningless sex with a woman who had a hollow heart. He should have never agreed to that drink with her two months ago, and he definitely shouldn’t have drunk as much as he had, which had ended with him between the sheets with her.

  That next morning, waking up in her over-soft bed, watching her study him with a triumphant smile while she slipped on her pantsuit, Wolf had never felt so ashamed of himself. Sure, he’d gotten laid, but at what cost? The woman was the town bicycle and she seemed proud of it, courting men in public like it was part of her job description. He deserved better than that.

  Sarah smiled at him in his mind’s eye. It was a sad smile, like she felt sorry for him.

  And what the hell was that? A year and a half of grief counseling at the community center and he gets a dead ex-wife taunting him every few minutes with a spike of shame?

  He twisted the volume knob and let the reedy timbre of Jerry Garcia fill his ears.

  Chapter 4

  At 3:30 Wolf had still not gotten the X-rays he needed. In fact, nobody had seen him at all. For all the millions of dollars pumped into the new county building down in Rocky Points, one would’ve thought they could’ve put in a measly X-ray machine. Instead, he was thirty miles south, sitting in the disinfectant air of the County Hospital, listening to the buzzing lights overhead.

  He scraped the metal chair across the linoleum floor, took off his sock, and propped his foot up on the examination table. Folding his arms, he closed his eyes, and with a steady tingle the blood drained away from his ankle. Fatigue from the long day had fully set in and he was starting to rehearse fight moves in his head, a good sign that he was in a bad mood.

  “Mr. Wolf?”

  He jolted awake and his foot slid off the examination table. He stopped himself short of planting it on the ground and almost fell off the chair. The blood rush to his ankle sent a blinding wave of pain, making him clench his teeth and eyes.

  “Oh, shoot. Are you okay?” The nurse bent down and put her hands gently around his lower leg.

  “Yes.” He straightened in his chair and looked at his watch. He’d been completely out for fifteen minutes.

  “I’m sorry for being so late. We had a … well, you don’t want to know what I just had to do,” she said.

  Gently lowering his ankle, the nurse looked up with jade-colored eyes that were like twin cosmic events.

  He stared—it was impossible not to—and before he could catch himself she swallowed and averted her gaze.

  A strand of strawberry-blonde hair fell across the lightly freckled golden skin of her cheek. Hooking her hair back, she turned and Wolf just caught a glimpse of tattoo ink behind her ear, the specifics of the image blurred by her feline movements.

  “Sorry,” she said with a reddening face.

  “No, no problem.” He had no clue what the apology or the acceptance of the apology was for. He was speaking on autopilot.

  She picked up a tablet computer from the floor and walked away, her legs and backside flexing underneath the loose-fitting scrubs. She was thin and athletic. Of course, the dark-blue nurses’ scrubs had Wolf’s imagination working overtime, but judging by the sinuous muscle of her arms around the elbows, he could imagine the subtle lines of her knees, her thighs, the crease of skin at the base of her buttocks.

  “So it says here you have a bum ankle.”

  “Yeah.” He blinked and cleared his throat. “What was that?”

  She turned to him and smiled. “It says you have a bum ankle, I said. A sprained ankle?”

  “Ah, yeah.”

  “Or a broken ankle.” She set the tablet down and sat behind a desktop computer on a small table. Tapping the keys with her index fingers, she squinted and checked the screen after every few keystrokes, like she was either just getting used to a new system or was hopeless on computers. “We’ll find out for sure.”

  He sat in the silence for a beat and then pulled the chair back along the wall and sat down again.

  “Up on the table, please.” She kept her eyes on the monitor.

  “Right.”

  He limped over and hopped up, tearing the examination-table paper as he twisted into position. “Whoops. Sorry.”

  She smiled briefly before pecking at the keyboard some more, her smile lingering for a few heartbeats until she looked stumped again by something on the screen.

  The smooth lips, the slow squint when she smiled, the way her hair dropped in lazy corkscrews out the back of her ponytail—she was a beauty on all counts.

  The room felt electric, the air charged, like he was standing on a treeless mountaintop during a lightning storm.

  “Okay.” She stood up from the computer. “Let’s take a look.”

  With another pause, she smiled and stared at him, this time showing a perfect row of white teeth. “Sorry. I just … I feel like I recognize you. How do I know you?"

  “I’m a cop, a detective in Rocky Points. Do you live in Rocky Po
ints?”

  “Yes.”

  He shrugged. “I guess you’ve seen me around. I don’t know.” He had never seen her around. He would have remembered seeing her around.

  She tilted her head. “Oh, wait. I know where it’s from. You’re the cop on the internet.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “I am?”

  She smiled. “Yeah. You don’t know you are?”

  “The cop on the internet … I’m panicking a little right now. Are we talking about the nude photos from college?”

  She smiled wide, and it was like Wolf had been struck by lightning on top of that treeless mountaintop.

  “You’re on the news sites. Fishing that guy out of the river?”

  “Oh.”

  She laughed for a few seconds and then pulled down the corners of her mouth. “Good job with that, by the way. I take it this injury happened during the rescue?”

  He nodded.

  With careful precision, she rolled up his pant leg. Cradling his foot with one hand, she gently began prodding his lower leg with her thin fingers. Her nails were unpainted, like she’d groomed them with her teeth, and she wore three silver rings on her right hand, none on her left.

  “Does this hurt?” She felt a couple of inches up on his tibia, above the inside knob of his ankle. Professional movements. No eye contact.

  He shook his head.

  “And this?” She moved her hands to the exterior of his leg and felt along the fibula.

  “No.”

  “And can you put weight on it?”

  “Yes.”

  “There’s a lot of swelling. I talked to your infirmary nurse and I agree you’ll need some X-rays, but it looks like a sprain and not a break to me.” She walked back to the table.

  Wolf noticed there were underwear lines popping through that dark fabric, so he studied them as she went.

  She glanced back, catching him in the act, and a smile played at the corners of her mouth as she picked up her tablet.

  “I’ll have the X-ray technician come in as soon as possible.”

  Without hesitation, she walked to the door and twisted the knob. One second she was there, the next she ducked out of the room and the door clicked shut.

  He stared at the door, breathing in the lingering scent of her shampoo and floral perfume.

  The buzzing florescent lights seemed louder now, sounding like a wrong-answer buzzer on a game show. Then he heard her speaking to someone out in the hallway in a hushed, clipped tone.

  She lived in Rocky Points. That was good. He would see her around. What was her name?

  He was suddenly overtaken by an urge to know everything about this woman. It was more than an urge; it was a need.

  Her voice was still there. She was right there on the other side of the door.

  He slid off the exam table, this time ripping the paper all the way, and landed on his good foot. Just as he reached for the knob there was a booming male laugh and the doorknob twisted.

  A black man dressed in splatter-paint scrubs came inside. “Whoa, hello.”

  Wolf hopped back, just avoiding a collision. “Hello.”

  “Mr. Wolf?” The man used a feminine, drawn-out “s” sound with the word mister. He set down his tablet on the counter and held out a stiff arm to Wolf, hand jutting down at a sharp angle. “I’m John. I’ll be doing your X-rays today.”

  “Oh.” Wolf shook his huge warm hand. “Hi.”

  “Did you need to pee or something?”

  Wolf shook his head.

  “It looked like you were leaving when I came in.”

  “Uh, yeah. No, I was just … what’s that nurse’s name?”

  “Lauren?”

  Lauren.

  John studied Wolf for a second and then gave a knowing smile. “She’s a knockout, isn’t she? Heartbreaker, that one.”

  Wolf felt the heat rise in his face under John’s watchful eye.

  The X-ray technician picked up the tablet and swiped a finger. “A cop? You’re a cop?”

  He nodded. “Detective.”

  “Is there a difference?”

  “I don’t have to wear a uniform.”

  “So, a huge difference.” John’s eyes widened. He was dead serious.

  Wolf smiled, wondering if it was a good difference or a bad difference to the man. “Yeah.”

  “I’m gonna go ahead and take you to the X-ray room. Are you fine walking or should I get a wheelchair?”

  “I’m fine walking.”

  John opened the door and walked out into the hallway. “This way.”

  Wolf followed, catching a glimpse of the nurse named Lauren sitting behind a desktop computer inside the nurses’ station. She flicked a glance at him, and then went back to studying her screen and pecking her keyboard.

  “Right over here,” John said, steering him with hand motions like he was a 747 jet.

  Wolf pried his gaze away from Lauren and followed.

  Thirty minutes later, Wolf was back in the small room where he’d started, John finishing a splint wrap on his ankle.

  “Ice this sucker tonight for at least a half-hour. Twice. You got a heating pad?”

  Wolf nodded. “I think so.”

  “Well, get one if you don’t have one. Alternate heat and ice. Or you’re going to regret it in the morning.”

  Wolf took the pain-medication prescription and an extra bandage wrap and shook the man’s hand. “Thanks for your help.”

  “Don’t sweat it. Have a good one.” John left the room and quietly shut the door behind him.

  Wolf loosened his work boot as far as possible and slipped his splinted foot inside. He tied it as tight as it would go with a double knot and stood up. Pushing more and more weight onto his left foot, he was surprised at how little it hurt now with the wrap and splint.

  He took his time pulling on his jacket, rehearsing a conversation with Nurse Lauren in his head, and went out into the hallway.

  She was gone.

  Dammit.

  And then there she was, walking right past him, leaving him in her swirling feminine scent.

  “He didn’t give you crutches?” She sat behind her desk in the nurses’ station and studied the computer screen.

  He cleared his throat. “No, he didn’t.”

  “Lord knows, I tried.” John was standing at a counter, writing on a piece of paper. “Got us a strong, silent type. If you’re not going to use that prescription, at least take some ibuprofen. It’ll help with the swelling.”

  John walked away with a pronounced swing of his hips and knocked once on the top of Lauren’s computer on the way by.

  “Seriously, you need to be using crutches.” Lauren tapped her keyboard. “It’s best if you stay off that thing or it will never heal.”

  “I’m in surprisingly little pain.” He limped over and stood next to her. “John is good at what he does.”

  Now she was typing a thousand words per minute.

  “Listen, uh, it’s Lauren, right?”

  Another nurse came in and fake-smiled at Wolf. “Excuse me.”

  He backed out of the way and she rushed by.

  Lauren stopped typing and looked up at him. Her expression was unreadable.

  The other nurse approached again. “Coming through again. This is the nurses’ station, sir.”

  “Yes, sorry, I was just leaving.” He stepped up to Lauren’s desk again.

  “Can I help you?” She wore a hint of a smile, bolstering his confidence just enough.

  “You’re new here?”

  She rolled her eyes. “This is the line you’re giving me?”

  “No, I mean, I’ve never seen you around Rocky Points before, and I see a lot of people around Rocky Points. It’s kind of my job. So, I figured you must be new in town or else I would know you. You’re a … recognizable type.” Wolf had never heard so many words spew out of his own mouth at once.

  She scrunched up her face. “I’m a recognizable type?”

  He wondered if there wa
s smoke coming off his face, which felt like he could have fried bacon on it.

  She studied him for a few seconds and her lips curled into a tiny smile, like she was enjoying every second of his suffering. “I moved to Rocky Points two months ago from Denver.”

  “Ah.” He nodded. “I guess that would explain it.”

  “Why do you ask?” She raised her eyebrows, concentrating back on her computer screen.

  At that moment, he realized this was the first woman he’d asked out on a date since he’d blurted “Will you go out with me?” to Sarah in the hallway in tenth grade.

  Was that right? How could that be? He’d slept with women, been to dinner with them. Numerous women. How had the dates ever been instigated before now? That couldn’t be right. He’d asked them out, hadn’t he?

  “Ex-cuse-me.” The nurse was back, this time bumping a roll cart into his leg.

  Wolf stumbled out of the way, and then went back to Lauren again. “Would you like to get a drink sometime?” He felt like he’d lurched forward and jabbed her with the words, sounding worse than his tenth-grade proposition.

  She gave a slow blink and her smile disappeared. “You have kids, David?”

  “Yes. One.”

  She gave him what looked like a suspicious look.

  “How about you?” He asked.

  “When?”

  “When … do you have children?”

  “No, when do you want to go out? I can’t today. I’m free tomorrow, but early evening, and I really can’t be doing anything for too long.”

  “That’s perfect. How about the Beer Goggles Bar and Grill? You know it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay. How about 4:30?”

  She nodded. Her lips parted as she lifted her gaze, the computer monitor’s glow reflecting off her eyes as she went back to studying the screen. She was beautiful in her utter indifference to the moment.

  “Okay, I’ll see you then,” he said.

  “See you then.”

  There was a huff behind him. The annoyed nurse was returning with the roll cart, this time with bent elbows ready to absorb shockwaves.

  He held up his hands and jumped to the side, pushing off his bad ankle and wincing in pain, just barely avoiding a collision. “I’m leaving, I’m leaving.”