Another Solution (Crowley County Series Book 4)

by T. E. Killian

  A nurse came in then and said, “He really needs to get some rest. Could you all give him a couple of hours? Then you can come back if you want.” She motioned to Jason who did indeed look tired. “He’s had so many visitors that it plum wore him out.”

  Granny stood and stretched almost like a cat waking from a nap. She moved over to the bed and said, “Jason. Don’t you get any ideas about checking yourself out of this place. You wait until Stella tells you that you can, you hear?”

  He laughed and Karen loved the sound of it.

  “Yes ma’am. I surely wouldn’t want to get crossways with all three of you women now would I?”

  With that, Granny motioned to Billy Joe and they left.

  Karen leaned over and kissed Jason one more time. “I’ll be back in two hours okay?”

  He smiled and nodded as she turned and followed the other two out of the room.

  As soon as she closed the door behind her, Karen was pulled into Granny’s arms.

  “Are you okay Dearie?”

  Karen kissed her on the cheek and said, “Yes, Granny, I’m more than all right. I feel terrific.”

  Granny leaned back and looked her in the eye. After a moment of inspection, she grinned and said, “Yes, I guess I’d say you are.”

  Granny nodded her head and said, “Karen, dear, you are by far the best thing that has ever happened to my grandson.”

  Granny squeezed her tight then stepped back. “All right Billy Joe. I think we can go home now. Jason’s in good hands here.” She winked at Karen.

  Karen stood there outside Jason’s door long after the elevator doors closed on them. What did she want to do now? She looked at her wristwatch. Four o’clock. Too late to do any more work today. But she probably should stop in and talk to her supervisor. She wanted to be here in the morning for Jason when he was discharged too.

  When Karen entered the therapy room, Ben was standing in her workstation with his hands on his hips facing the back of the room. She walked up behind him and said, “Can I help you find something Ben?”

  He turned around quickly and a smile appeared on his face. On second thought, it was more like a sneer.

  “Well, I hear your boyfriend had a little trouble this afternoon.”

  She didn’t answer but waited to see what else he might say.

  He just stood there smiling at her so she said, “If you’ll excuse me Ben, I need to see Sally.”

  With that, she left him for the clinic director’s office.

  When she left the clinic, she felt good. Sally had told her she could take all of tomorrow off if she needed to. It was certainly nice to have that kind of support at work. If only Ben would leave her alone now. Ben? Did Ben shoot Jason? Somehow, she didn’t really think so.

  She really needed to talk to someone about all of her mixed up emotions. Best Friends had closed for the day several hours ago. Daisy! Yes, Daisy would be getting off work any time now.

  So she walked across the parking lot to the clinic where Daisy worked for Stella.

  When she walked in the door, she noticed that the waiting room was empty. But both Stella and Daisy were standing by the receptionist’s desk, and all three were involved in a discussion.

  They all stopped and looked up when she came in. Daisy and Stella both rushed over to her and with one on each side of her, escorted her to the back where she soon found herself in Stella’s office with the other two women flanking her on a black leather sofa.

  As soon as she sat down, the tears burst out of her. Before she realized it, Daisy had her arms around her and started to murmur soothing words to her.

  Her only coherent thought was that this was exactly what she had needed.

  * * *

  Jason had finished his supper and was dozing when Karen came breezing into his hospital room, kissed him, and then perched on the edge of the chair on his right.

  “Hi Jason. I just had the most wonderful talk with Daisy and Stella. Aren’t they just about the most terrific women around?”

  Jason wasn’t sure what was going on and he wanted to be careful what he agreed to before he knew what she was talking about.

  “Yeah, Daisy and Mike are the best. And as far as doctors go, Stella’s probably the best I ever had.”

  She looked at him like he’d just grown another head. Well, he must have guessed wrong that time. Now what?

  Karen stopped and stared at him. “Oh Jason, you don’t have a clue as to what I’m talking about do you?”

  When he just smiled at her she said, “When I left here this afternoon, I went to the clinic to talk to Sally about being off this afternoon and to ask for tomorrow morning off too. Well, she said I could take the whole day if I needed to.”

  She looked out the window for a moment then said, “I ran into Ben while I was there and just the way he looked and the way he seemed to be taunting me about you being shot. Oh Jason, I’m almost positive that he had something to do with it but I don’t really think he actually did it though.”

  Just as he thought he was about to catch up with her she changed the subject again.

  “But that’s not what I was talking about before.” She stopped and interrupted herself. “Floyd is going to check on Ben isn’t he?”

  Jason laughed and said, “Yes he is.”

  “Oh good.” She twisted around in her seat. “But back to what I was saying about Daisy and Stella. Well, when I left the clinic I was really depressed and I needed to talk to someone. So I went next door to Stella’s clinic.”

  Jason breathed a little easier. Now maybe she was going to get to the point and he’d know what in the world she was talking about.

  “Oh Jason you should have seen it. I walked through the door and there stood Daisy and Stella both. They took one look at me and dragged me back to Stella’s office and they just covered me with love and especially prayer.”

  When he didn’t say anything, she said, “Oh Jason it was just simply wonderful and now I don’t worry about you because I know that you’re in God’s hands.”

  After all that, Jason felt like he’d run a mile and still hadn’t caught up with Karen completely. But that was okay. She was good with him being a deputy and that was the one thing he’d been the most worried about after being shot.

  After a few more minutes of small talk, Karen read the newspaper to him since his vision wasn’t completely back to normal yet. Then they talked some about their wedding plans.

  After another hour, Jason couldn’t help it, he was getting sleepy, but he didn’t want Karen to go yet.

  Once when his eyelids closed briefly, Karen stood and leaned over him.

  “Jason. As much as I’d love to stay with you, I know you need your rest.” She giggled. “As much as they’ll let you have tonight with someone waking you up every two hours to make sure your concussion isn’t worse than they think it is.”

  He started to protest but she covered his lips with hers and then said, “Good night Jason dear. I’ll be here very early in the morning okay?”

  He smiled and said, “Are you sure you don’t want to just lie down next to me. You could stay on top of the sheets.”

  She giggled as she blew him a kiss from the doorway and was gone.

  It wasn’t long after that that Jason fell into a deep sleep only to be awakened two hours later.

  It kept up that way all through the night just as Karen had predicted.

  One time when he was awakened though, it didn’t seem right. In fact, something was wrong, very wrong. Whoever was in the room with him wasn’t trying to wake him up. They had a pillow over his face trying to suffocate him. And there didn’t seem to be anything he could do about it. Both of his arms were tied to the bed frame.

  He had enough presence of mind to bend his right leg and bring his knee up to try to hit whoever had the pillow on his face. He felt his knee hit something solid and a loud grunt came from near his right ear.

  Jason kept kicking until the pillow was off his face enough for him to
take a deep breath and yell as loud as he could for help.

  The next thing he knew the overhead light came on and there was no one there but the night nurse he’d seen before when she had awakened him.

  “Did you have a bad dream Mr. Walker?”

  That was when she saw that his arms were tied to the bed rails at his side.

  “Oh my. Do you think I should call security?”

  Jason was breathing almost normally by then and he said, “Yes, but first cut these ropes off my wrists so I can call the sheriff.”

  Twenty minutes later, Jason was sitting up in bed talking to the night security guard when Floyd flew into the room. He took one look at Jason and turned to the guard.

  “That will be all for now, Buck. If you’ll wait out by the nurse’s station, I’ll talk to you in a bit.”

  When the guard left, Floyd almost fell into the chair Karen had been sitting in earlier. He looked pretty rough. He was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt which was rather wrinkled. His ever present cowboy hat was even missing. But his gun and badge were on his belt.

  “Okay Jason, tell me exactly what happened.”

  When Jason finished, Floyd whistled and said, “Blast it, Son, you sure must have someone out there mighty mad at you.”

  Jason couldn’t even produce a smile much less say anything.

  “Okay, Jason, here’s what’s going to happen now. I’ve got a deputy on his way to sit outside your door for the rest of the night. Then tomorrow I’m going to have a little talk with both of those Winslow guys.”

  Jason was shaking his head, which caused his headache to come back but not too strong. “No Floyd. You’ve got everything right except for one thing. I’m going with you when you talk to those guys. That Ben Winslow has been harassing Karen too much for my comfort and I want to set him straight about that once and for all.”

  Floyd’s frown turned into a grin as he shook his head. “Well, we’ll see just how much you’ll be able to do tomorrow before we go making any kind of plans like that okay.”

  Floyd left a short time later after a deputy had taken up his position just outside Jason’s door.

  But Jason had a terrible time trying to sleep after that. He just dozed a little several times. Later, as he was watching the sunrise out his window, his door opened and Karen seemed to fly into his arms.

  * * *

  Karen knew as soon as she peeked in that Jason was awake and alert. She wasted no time as she covered the distance from the door to his bed almost in one leap. Then she was in his arms.

  “Oh Jason, what’s going on? Why is there a deputy sitting outside your door? He almost didn’t let me in here just now.”

  He blew out a loud sigh before he spoke, which made her even more nervous.

  “What is it Jason?”

  “Karen. Sit down . . . please.”

  She did but she perched on the edge of the chair and held onto his hand with both of hers as she did. This didn’t sound good.

  Someone tied my wrists to the bed while I was sleeping last night and tried to smother me with a pillow.”

  He reached out quickly to steady her or she knew she might have fallen out of her chair.

  “Someone tried to kill you . . . again?”

  He only nodded.

  She was about to ask for more details when the door opened and Floyd stepped in. She was surprised to see him looking like he’d just showered and wearing a fresh uniform. She knew that he must have been here at the hospital earlier.

  He looked at her first and said, “Good morning Karen.”

  He gave Jason a questioning look and Jason said, “She knows.”

  Floyd blew out a breath and sat down in a chair on the other side of Jason’s bed.

  “Okay, here’s how it’s going to happen, and Jason, I don’t want any argument from you either, you hear?”

  Karen looked from one of the men to the other until Jason nodded and Floyd looked back at her.

  “Karen, can you take Jason back out to the farm in a few minutes?”

  “Sure.”

  “Okay, Jason, I want you to stay there at least until nine o’clock.” He held up a big hand when Jason started to protest. “I promise I’ll come get you before I try to talk to those Winslow yahoos.” He snorted. “But only if you’re up to it by then.”

  Jason relaxed back into his bed just as Stella breezed into the room looking like she’d been up for hours. She pushed Floyd aside with a smile and began to examine Jason.

  When she leaned back up, she turned to Floyd and said, “Just see that he doesn’t do anything too strenuous for the next forty-eight hours and he should be okay.”

  Jason smiled and said, “Hey Stella it’s my head, don’t I get anything to say about how I use it?”

  She shook her head, laughed, and said, “No way.” She winked at Karen. “I’m out of here.”

  No one said anything for a long moment after Stella left. Then Jason said to Karen. “Did you bring me some clothes?”

  “Oh, I dropped the bag by the door when I saw that deputy and then had to argue with him to get in to see you. I’ll go get them.”

  When she came back in, Floyd was leaning over Jason and they seemed to have been talking intently until they saw her. Then they stopped.

  Now what were those two cooking up? She’d have to keep an eye on Jason the rest of the day if she was going to get him to do as Stella had said for him to do.

  Jason smiled up at her and said, “Thanks Hon. Now if you could step back out for a minute I’ll just get into these things.”

  Karen opened the door just as Gil was about to knock. She let him in and then went out into the hallway to wait for Jason to get dressed.

  She could hear all three voices but then she heard Gil’s voice lifted in prayer again. It gave her a warm feeling to hear Gil praying.

  A couple of minutes later, the door opened and Gil stepped out. He stood in front of Karen and held out both hands. She placed her hands in his.

  “How are you doing Karen . . . really?”

  She tried to smile up at him but it didn’t work. He frowned and said, “How about you and I pray together right now?”

  She enthusiastically nodded her head and he began to pray for her and then for Jason. When he finished he smiled down at her and said, “They said you could go back in now.”

  With that, he was off down the hall toward the elevator with a wave of his hand.

  When she opened the door this time, she felt so much better than before. She knew what was going on now. Not only that, but most of all she knew that God was still in control.

  Jason was standing at the foot of the bed and Floyd seemed to be hovering nearby to make sure he wasn’t going to fall over. She could see that he’d stuffed his uniform from yesterday in the bag. Then when Jason saw her, he began to walk toward her.

  She wanted to reach out to help him but the sheer determination on his face stopped her. He needed to do this by himself so he could prove to Floyd that he would be okay to go with him later.

  While she drove out to the farm, Jason had his head back against the headrest with his eyes closed. She didn’t want to disturb him knowing that he still needed his rest.

  He startled her when he spoke. “Karen, I know I’ve said this a lot lately, but I’m so glad that I have you. I love you so much. I never thought it was possible to love someone as much as I do you.”

  Tears started streaming down her cheeks and when he turned his head her way, he noticed them. She could tell that it agitated him somewhat to see her crying.

  “Oh no Jason. Haven’t you ever heard of happy tears? That’s what these are. You make me so happy, happier than I’ve ever been my whole life.”

  As soon as they walked in the door, Granny met them and started trying to lead Jason back to her bedroom to lie down.

  “No Granny, please. If I have to lie down, I’d rather it be on the couch. I can still rest there and I’ll be able to see what all’s going on out here.”
>
  Karen thought Granny might protest more, but she went to a hall closet and brought a blanket and a pillow. After pushing Jason gently down on the sofa, she draped the blanket over him.

  As Granny was walking past Karen, she paused to whisper in her ear. “Are you taking notes on how I handle that boy?”

  Karen couldn’t help it, she laughed aloud, and it felt fantastic even if it did bring her a strange look from Jason.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jason had been sitting up on the couch for almost an hour now. He just couldn’t lie there any longer. He was ready to go and get some answers. But part of him would rather just sit there forever beside Karen with his arm around her.

  The sound of a vehicle reached their ears. She smiled up at him and said, “That must be Floyd now.”

  She turned slightly to be able to look him squarely in the eye. “I want you to promise me something before you go Jason.”

  He smiled down at her and said, “Anything.”

  She frowned and said, “You are going to have to learn that you don’t ever want to promise me something before you know what it is I’m asking.”

  They both laughed and she said, “I want you to be careful out there today. You let Floyd do all the talking and all the risk taking. You hear? You’re not one-hundred percent yet so don’t push it okay?”

  Floyd knocked and came on in. He walked over to stand in front of them. “You ready Jason?”

  Before Jason could answer though, he turned to Karen and said, “Is he?”

  She smiled and said, “Thank you Floyd. But he’s not quite ready.”

  She turned to Jason and said, “Do you promise?”

  He laughed and said, “Yes ma’am I do.”

  She turned back to Floyd and said, “Yes I guess he will be okay now but just make sure he doesn’t get too carried away okay?”

  Floyd saluted her and said, “Yes ma’am I surely will.”

  He turned when Granny came into the room and stood with her hands on her hips. “Floyd McCracken. I’ll hold you to that promise. And you know you don’t want to get crosswise with me.”