Unhallowed Ground

by Kristen Gupton

  He lifted his bandaged arm slightly. “I suppose. I got seventy-eight stitches for my troubles. I might need surgery on my hand to repair some tendons, I guess. Luckily for me, the mobile MRI trailer is out back. They’re looking over the images and talking to a specialist. Goddamned mess. And poor mom...”

  “How is she? What exactly happened?” Kelly asked, shoving past his grogginess. “Madgie came home and was freaked out. I went to the house, but you and she were already in the ambulance. I saw what it looked like inside.”

  Tim shook his head and stared down at his arm. “I don’t really know. I mean, mom was acting weird all day, but I can’t really blame her after what happened to dad. Madgie came over and made dinner, and we decided to go to bed. Madgie screamed and I went downstairs, finding mom with one of her big ass chopping knives in hand trying to stab herself with it! Luckily, it wasn’t working too well since they have those blunt ends but...”

  “What the hell?” Kelly shook his head and looked to the side. “She’s got some pretty brutal knives in that kitchen that would have gotten the job done a lot better, though I’m glad she didn’t manage to do whatever it was she was trying.”

  “I dunno, Kel, it was the weirdest fucking thing. I ran in and tried to get it away from her, and she slashed out at me. I blocked it with my arm, and that’s when I got hit in the hand. She freaked out and gave this God-awful shriek before running past me into the living room. I followed and tackled her, fighting to get the knife out of her hand. Madgie called 911... I honestly don’t remember a whole lot more of what happened after that. The power went out and it got dark. I was scared to let go of her, afraid I wouldn’t be able to find her without the lights on. She was so damn strong! I don’t know if it was adrenaline or what, but, I’m telling you, I’ll never pick a fight with an old woman after this. Dennis finally showed up with the EMTs, Madgie disappeared...” Tim shrugged and looked over at Kelly again. “I’ve never been more scared in my life. Whether it was the thought she might kill me or herself, I don’t know. The power going out in the middle of it was just the icing on the cake. Luckily, it was just a breaker, and Dennis was able to get the lights back on. The amount of blood...holy shit, Kel. You said you went in, so you know what I’m talking about.”

  “Yeah, it looked pretty bad.” Kelly wasn’t sure what else he should say. Grace’s odd behavior and what he’d seen left him uneasy. Now, he felt less like he was losing his mind and more certain something profoundly wrong was happening around him.

  “They said I can go see mom in a little while. Did she mention anything to you about getting hurt in the last few days?” Tim asked, breaking the awkward silence.

  Kelly quirked a brow and shook his head. “No, why?”

  “In the course of treating the superficial stabs she gave herself, they said they found a older, deeper cut in her side. The doctor thinks it’s less than a day old, but it wasn’t something she did last night with the knife.” Tim stood back up, restless.

  “Well, I saw her day before yesterday at the feed store and she seemed perfectly fine,” Kelly replied, watching as the other man began to pace in front of him. “She was off all yesterday, though, everything was so messed up with William, but...”

  Tim stopped and looked down at Kelly as his words trailed off. “What?”

  Kelly shifted in his chair and looked down at his hands. “Someone went out and vandalized the equipment at the job site. With the old ladies having gone missing the night it happened and all pissed off about it, Ryan and I almost had to wonder if they were the ones who did it. If they did, Grace might have hurt herself climbing around in the engine compartment of one of the machines.”

  Tim scowled and shook his head. “Look, I know shit’s really been messed up for the last two days, but you can’t honestly believe that my goddamned mom went out into the sticks during a blizzard and tried to take apart Henry’s tractors.”

  “Did Grace tell you how upset she was that we were being sent to do the job in the cemetery?” Kelly asked.

  He looked to the side and gave a small nod. “Well, yeah, I heard about it from her. She was pretty freaked out. Though, with all this shit happening after you guys went out there and started digging, maybe she wasn’t wrong.”

  “Everything is so messed up.” Kelly slouched and frowned, opting to keep the rest of it to himself. “It’s a nightmare. I’m glad you were there to stop her, though. Sorry you got hurt.”

  Tim sighed and looked back down the hall. “Hey, I think they have the cafeteria open. I’m guessing you haven’t eaten in a while, and neither have I. They didn’t really want me to in case they decide I need surgery right now, but...I’m starving. I’ll take my chances with barfing under anesthesia. Not like the hand specialist can get out here in a big hurry if they need him.”

  While his stomach was uneasy, Kelly’s drinking the night before had left him feeling a little off and in need of something to eat. He stood up from the chair, immediately stooping forward. After his nap in the uncomfortable chair, everything hurt.

  Tim snorted and shook his head, turning toward the cafeteria. “Good God, you act like you got the crap beat out of you last night. Come on before they throw you on a gurney.”

  Chapter

  28

  A few hours later, the doctor gave Tim and Kelly his blessing to go see Grace. Kelly wasn’t really sure what to expect, and he entered the room behind the other man, looking over his shoulder.

  Grace was obviously sedated, but even so, she was strapped to the bed to keep her restrained. She made no move at all when they entered.

  Tim stood over her for a moment, quietly calling to her but there was still no response. “She’s out.”

  Kelly moved to the other side of the bed and looked down at her. Her complexion was washed out, but there was a yellow pall to it. Her eyes were sunken. There were multiple small cuts visible on her hands and arms, and he had no desire to see the bigger wounds she’d subjected herself to.

  He dragged over a chair to the side of her bed, Tim doing the same. They sat there in a protracted silence for a long while until the doctor entered to discuss things.

  “How are you doing, Tim?” the doctor asked, standing at the end of Grace’s bed.

  “I’m okay. I’m more worried about her.”

  “Can’t say I blame you. This is an unusual case. We get people in who’ve tried to harm themselves now and then, but for it to be her, well, it caught me by surprise.” The doctor looked down at Kelly. “I’m sorry, but I should talk to Tim about this in private.”

  Tim shook his head. “Kelly’s family, Dr. Hughes. It’s all right.”

  Dr. Hughes knew good and well that Kelly most certainly wasn’t a blood relation, but with Tim’s consent, he opted not to argue. “Fine, fine. As you know, her self-inflicted wounds from last night were relatively superficial, so we’re lucky there. There are some issues on her blood work that came up as a complete surprise, however.”

  Tim raised his brows. “Like what?”

  “Her liver enzymes were elevated beyond what we would expect, and her white cell count was extremely high. You can see she’s got a touch of jaundice, her bilirubin is elevated. As for the earlier injury she sustained to her side before his happened, it goes through her abdominal wall. It’s a serious injury.” Dr. Hughes switched his gaze between the two men. “There’s no way she sustained something like that without being in absolute agony afterward. I need to know how it happened. Is there any chance she was in the truck with your dad when it went off the road?”

  Tim shook his head. “If she’d been with him night before last, she would have died out there! How could she have made it all the way home if she has something that bad wrong with her? That wreck was damn near all the way to the interstate!”

  “I don’t know, Tim. This is serious, though. You mentioned that Madgie was with you and her last night?” he asked.

  Tim nodded.

  The doctor gave another uneasy glance toward K
elly before continuing. “Look, I don’t think you did anything wrong, but with an elderly person like her and an unreported injury like that, I’m going to have to ask Deputy Bryant to come back in. Something isn’t adding up. She couldn’t have been going around just fine before last night with something like that wrong with her.”

  Tim stood up and the color blanched from his face. “Are you accusing me of elderly abuse or something?”

  “Tim, I know you wouldn’t hurt a fly, and despite what you think, she must have been in that wreck last night. Still, she had to have been in terrible pain all day yesterday,” the doctor said, raising his hands slightly.

  “This is fucking insane!” Tim replied, shaking his head and pointing at Kelly. “He was with mom yesterday before I was able to get over to her house!”

  Kelly’s eyes went wide. “I didn’t do anything to her!”

  “I’m not saying you did,” Tim replied. “But you were with her. Tell him that she was acting just fine!”

  There was an immediate heat on Kelly’s skin, and he shrugged. “Well, she...actually, she was acting a little weird. Not like she was physically hurt or whatever, but she didn’t really seem right, you know?”

  “Weird how?” Dr. Hughes asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “I dunno, like, slow to respond to things,” Kelly said, turning his eyes back toward Grace. “When I told her that William had died, she was really kinda nonchalant about it. Could she have been in shock or something?”

  Dr. Hughes gave a single nod. “Possibly. I can’t imagine her not being in complete agony with that sort of injury, though. We’re not talking a scraped knee, here.”

  “I have to say she was walking and moving around just fine,” Kelly said, looking up at Tim. “Hell, Ryan was with me the whole time I was over there, and Madgie was over there with you and Grace before she went nuts.”

  The doctor looked at Tim again. “Look, I don’t think you did anything wrong. Maybe she was in a deep state of shock. It can make people act really strange sometimes. Just to cover all the bases, though, and given what happened last night, I really do need to contact law enforcement.”

  Tim reached up and ran his hand through his hair. “I can’t believe this is happening...”

  “Look, he’ll just have to verify your stories with the others who were around. Like I said, I’m not accusing anyone of anything. Maybe she was hiding it somehow. We just need to have all the facts on the table.” Dr. Hughes shook his head and looked at the old woman. “It’s all for her well being. I’ve got her on some serious antibiotics for that abdominal wound, and we’ll need to keep a close eye on her for any signs of infection. We’re going to put her through the MRI to make sure she doesn’t have any injuries inside her that we’re unaware of. In fact, they’re ready for her to be brought out as we speak. I’ll let you know what we find out as soon as I can.”

  Kelly and Tim left the room and wandered down the hallway back to the waiting area. Tim had his uninjured hand shoved in his pocket, his gaze cast to the floor as they went.

  “There’s no goddamned way she was in that wreck with dad last night,” Tim said once they were past the nurses’ station.

  Kelly glanced back over his shoulder, seeing Grace’s bed being rolled out of the room behind them. “What if she was, and someone picked her up and took her home? I mean, surely she would have mentioned it, but... I don’t know. The house was stone cold when I went there the first time. No one was there. That cup of tea froze because the back door was open all damn night.”

  Tim grunted and straightened up, narrowing his eyes and looking at Kelly. “You think she could have whacked her head hard enough to have forgotten all that? Shit, maybe she was with someone else last night after getting picked up. None of this makes any sense.”

  Kelly thought about the vision he’d had of her outside his window and offered a shrug. “If I knew, Tim, I swear I’d tell you.”

  “Yeah, I know. Wonder how long it’ll be before we have to get grilled by Dennis about this?” Tim asked.

  He frowned, looking toward the glass doors. “Not long, he just parked out there.”

  “Well, that’s great. Better to get it over with sooner than later,” Tim grunted, smoothing back his hair as the deputy strode into the lobby.

  Dennis came straight over to them and offered a nod, clutching a folder to his side. “This just gets weirder and weirder, eh?”

  Tim nodded. “Yeah, being accused of abusing my mom, or whatever the fucking doctor has in his head, is about the last thing I can handle right now.”

  “I know you didn’t do anything,” Deputy Bryant said, giving an exhausted shake of his head. “There’s obviously something pretty deeply wrong with your mother’s mind right now. Sane people don’t go trying to stab themselves with kitchen utensils. She may have done it to her damned self earlier, for all we know. I already have Grandma’s side of the story. She gave it all to me whether I wanted it or not when I went over this morning. It jived with your version of events. Helluva parking job she did in the front yard, too.”

  Kelly switched his gaze between the two of them. “Is there any way she could have been in that wreck with William and gotten hurt like that without having any other visible injuries? She looked completely fine.”

  Dennis frowned and gave a small shrug. “I doubt like hell she could have. When we got the truck out of the ditch, the front end was crumpled pretty bad. It hit that ditch going at a good clip, and the passenger door wouldn’t open for us. I can’t imagine she just climbed over William’s body to get out. Besides, how would she have gotten home in that storm?”

  “Kelly thinks someone could have picked her up and taken her home later,” Tim said, giving Kelly a sidelong glance.

  “Possible, but I’m sure she would have mentioned it, shock or not. Besides, whoever picked her up probably would have called in about the wreck,” Dennis replied. “Maybe the storm had the phones out, but...for them to just leave William’s body out there and not report anything, well, that doesn’t make sense to me at all.”

  Tim’s jaw visibly tensed several times. His exhaustion and stress had destroyed his normally overly-friendly nature. “Well, can we please just do whatever it is you need to do with us? I really just want to get some rest.”

  Dennis brought up the folder he held at his side and pulled out two papers from within, handing one to each of them. “All I’ll ask for is written statements from the both of you on what happened yesterday. Like I said, I don’t think anything devious took place at all, and I talked to the sheriff about this on my way here, and he’s with me. If you guys could just run those by the substation before tomorrow sometime, I’ll be happy enough.”

  Visibly relieved, Tim looked the paper over for a moment before lowering it and offering Dennis a tired smile. “Okay, I can handle that. I just got freaked out that I was going to get blamed for whatever in the hell happened to mom. With losing dad yesterday and all this...”

  Dennis reached out and patted Tim’s shoulder. “It’s a small town. We all know each other, and I know the doctor is just being hyper-vigilant. With all the damned liability and government pressures on them these days, they’re all next to paranoid.”

  “We appreciate it, Deputy,” Kelly said, having read over the instructions on his report paper.

  “Both of you look pretty rough. Try and get some rest. Paranoid or not, Dr. Hughes knows his medicine, and Grace is in good hands.” Dennis offered them both one last smile before turning around and leaving.

  “Well, that was painless,” Tim sighed. “Beverly should be here to pick me up soon. She had to go take the kids to her sister’s house. We’ll wait over at mom’s house for word on her condition and whether or not I get to go under the knife. You should probably go home and get some rest, too, Kel. Mom’s not awake right now to appreciate us being here, anyway.”

  While he wanted to protest and wait for the MRI results, Kelly knew he was running out of what little steam h
e had left. “I’ll check back in with you to see what they find. I think we could all use a little sleep.”

  Tim nodded and looked toward the doors again as a red pickup stopped before them. “There she is. I’m out. Talk to you later.”

  Kelly offered up a nod and an empty smile as Tim strode out the doors and got into the vehicle. He waited for it to leave before going outside. While Tim was generally a good guy, something about his wife had always driven Kelly up the wall, and he wanted nothing to do with her.

  He walked around the building toward the side he’d left the car on. Though he hadn’t realized it the night before in his panic, he’d parked right beside the mobile MRI trailer.

  He pulled the keys from his pocket and started to reach for the door handle, but a loud thud from within the trailer stopped him cold. It was quickly followed by a muffled scream, audible over the massive generator powering the trailer. A second later, however, the generator cracked with a visible arc of electricity and chugged to a stop.

  Knowing Grace was most likely still inside, Kelly shoved the keys back into his pocket. He moved around the car and ran up the ramp to the trailer’s entryway.

  He paid no heed to the “Authorized Personnel Only” sign and tugged open the door. Never having gone into the MRI trailer before, he wasn’t sure what to expect.

  The interior was dark as the lights had gone out. Kelly had yanked the door open with enough force to make it stay open, casting winter light within.

  A nurse with a bloodied lip spun to look right at him, her eyes wide in terror. “Help us!”

  Kelly turned and saw Grace standing in the adjoining room before the massive cylinder of the MRI itself. The wall separating the two rooms was glass, giving him a fair view of the scene, weak emergency lights offering some illumination. A man stood in the doorway between the two rooms.

  Kelly turned his attention back to the nurse. “What in the hell is happening?”

  The MRI technician near Grace didn’t know who Kelly was, but having another man there to help get the old woman back under control was what he needed. “Get in here and help me restrain her!”