The Nurse Novel

by Alice Brennan

  “Where’s the first aid kit, Steve?” asked Judge’s voice.

  “Right here.” Steve indicated it beside the box on which the lantern was placed.

  “I’ll have to have more light,” Lindsay told them.

  “She’s already seen you, Steve. Hold the flashlight for her,” came a voice from the shadowy corner.

  The man called Steve growled, but a moment later the round white beam of a flashlight fell on the cruelly lacerated back. Lindsay’s breath caught in her throat as she grasped the extent of the man’s injuries.

  “Did you say a doctor had been sent for?” She spoke over her shoulder to the man holding the flashlight. “Or am I being childish to think you’d take such a chance?”

  “Oh, Hutchens swore he could bring a doctor eventually,” said the soft voice from the corner. “But he suggested we get you, because he was afraid it might take him some little time to find the doctor. What we want you to do is keep the man alive until the doctor gets here.”

  “I been telling you, Judge, we ought just to take him way out in the Gulf and dump him,” the guttural voice growled.

  “And I’ve been telling you to stop talking like a fool,” snapped the Judge.

  “We’d be rid of him,” growled Bo.

  “Until he was missed, and then his employers would start a search that would bring in all the law enforcement officers from Washington to California.”

  “And by the time they got here we’d be a long time gone,” Bo whined.

  “Leaving behind all we’ve spent years building up? Bo, you are more of a fool than I thought.” The Judge’s voice was still soft, but now it had a faint sibilance like the whir of a rattlesnake’s warning. “Don’t forget, Bo, you are expendable!”

  “Oh, now, wait a minute, Judge!” There was terror in Bo’s whine.

  Steve, standing behind Lindsay, said curtly, “Get on with it, sister. Patch him up.”

  Lindsay picked up a bottle of antiseptic from the kit, a wad of sterile cotton, and began gently to bathe the lacerations, wiping away the blood that had congealed around some of the wounds.

  The injured man groaned and turned his head a little so that an eye and a corner of his mouth were visible. The eye peered up at Lindsay, and she cried out in shocked recognition, for the man was Alden Mayhew.

  “Hi!” Alden’s voice was a mere ghost of sound. “Fancy meeting you here, Lin. Ouch! That hurts!”

  “Alden, what happened? Why did this happen?” Lindsay asked anxiously.

  But he had lapsed once more into unconsciousness, and Lindsay straightened and faced the shadows in the far corner. She was no longer afraid. Now she was only deeply angry.

  “Why did you do this to him?” she flamed furiously. “He meant you no harm, whoever or whatever you are. He was writing articles about the Bayou that might have brought a lot of tourists who would have spent a lot of money.”

  “Sure he was, and that was reason enough for what happened to him,” said the Judge’s soft voice. “But I didn’t mean for him to be killed. Murder’s out of our line. We stop short of that; that’s why we’ve gone on for many years. Now you get busy and patch him up, Nurse.”

  “I’ve told you I have nothing to patch him up with, as you express it,” Lindsay protested angrily. “This is a job for a doctor in the emergency ward of a good hospital. Maybe you didn’t mean to kill him, but you’ve come so close to it that you could easily get twenty years in prison for it.”

  The softly menacing voice said accusingly, “You hear that, Bo? You could get twenty years for this!”

  “Oh, but they’ll never catch old Bo, Judge. I’ll be long gone before they even find the guy!” Bo whined.

  “You will indeed, Bo. If we are going out into the Gulf to dump a body, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it was yours.”

  The soft menacing voice now held a rasp that made the guttural voice cry out in whining protest. But Lindsay had turned back to the pitifully inadequate ministrations she could offer Alden.

  “Untie his hands and his feet,” she demanded of the man who was holding the flashlight.

  “What for? He’s not going any place!” growled the man.

  “It will ease him a little. He’s drawn into a most awkward position, and it makes it more difficult for me to treat him. There is so little I can do for him. Surely you won’t mind giving him that much of a break. There are four of you; only one of him. And he’s certainly in no shape to be any threat to you!” Her voice was surprisingly steady. When Steve did not move to accede to her order, she snapped out furiously, “You sneaking evil creatures! You cowards! You utter brutes! Untie him, I said—and now!”

  From the shadows came an amused chuckle, and then the Judge’s voice said with mock politeness, “Do what the lady says, Steve! I’m afraid she’s losing her temper. And we wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we?”

  Steve growled something, and in the white beam of the flashlight Lindsay caught the glimmer of metal as a knife slashed at the ropes holding Alden’s ankles. As Steve started past her to cut the ropes holding Alden’s wrists, Lindsay moved swiftly, trod on Steve’s feet hard and reached for the flashlight.

  Taken off guard, Steve wrestled for the flashlight, and Lindsay fought to turn it on that shadowy corner where the voices had been coming from. There was an instant when the light spilled on the corner, but just then the shadows ducked behind a large box and she saw only the corner itself.

  Sick with disappointment, because she knew she would not get another chance to see the men who stood there, Lindsay felt herself thrown violently backward to the floor. Steve stood above her, a switchblade knife in one hand, the flashlight in the other. And though she could not see his face, his tone told her he was livid with fury.

  “Why, you little bitch,” he said through his teeth, more surprised than angry. “I told you to behave yourself and you wouldn’t get hurt. But you get smart just once more, and Bo’ll have another job that he’ll enjoy. Now you get up from there and behave yourself!”

  From the corner came the Judge’s soft voice, and now it was faintly touched with an ugly humor.

  “Really, Miss Mallory, I’m surprised at you! Don’t you realize that if you were able to recognize us, not even the fact you are Miss Jennifer’s niece could save you from most unpleasant consequences?”

  Feathers of ice crept up Lindsay’s spine, and she was almost afraid to ask the question that had to be asked.

  “You know my aunt?”

  “Naturally! Everybody in these parts knows Miss Jennifer,” said the Judge, and now the amusement in his voice was even more pronounced. “She’s quite a character. I have to admit we were all surprised to find out she had been reduced to taking in boarders, but then Miss Jennifer has never been one to pass up the chance for a few extra dollars.”

  Another question had to be asked, and Lindsay pushed it from her throat awkwardly, sick fear of what the answer might be.

  “And did Aunt Jennifer have anything to do with this?” She made a slight gesture with a shaking hand toward the man who lay unconscious on the cot.

  “Oh, dear me, no!” answered the Judge, and the faint sickness that had been in Lindsay’s heart eased. “Except that she let the fellow stay at Bayou House, Miss Jennifer knows nothing about the activities here, and we hope to keep it that way.”

  Suddenly one of the shadows who had not previously spoken hissed, “Shut up! Somebody’s coming. I hear a car.”

  The room went tensely silent, and the white beams of the flashlight flicked out. Lindsay could feel the tension in the room, and now she, too, could hear the sound of an approaching car.

  Lights spilled into the room through wide cracks in the walls, and she heard a small rustle as the shadows in the far corner once more dropped behind the big box.

  The lights died, and after a long, tense moment there was
a knock at the door and Steve called out, “Who’s there?”

  Lindsay all but screamed with delight when a voice outside called impatiently, “It’s Dr. Corbett. Open up.”

  She caught her breath in a small sob of such acute relief that it hurt her throat as she turned toward the door. But Steve slung her backward. She stumbled against the cot, and Alden groaned.

  Steve opened the door, and Dr. Corbett stepped inside. And before Steve could slam the door again, two more men followed him—men armed with guns and flashlights that sprayed the room with a savage white light so that the shadows were no longer able to hide behind the box.

  For a dazed moment the room was held in the grip of a silence so deep it was like a fog held against one’s face. And then one of the men, with a flashlight in one hand, a revolver in the other, walked to the box, while the other one stood, poised alertly, covering him with a flashlight, his own revolver taking care of the four men who stood helplessly pinned against the darkness by those round white beams.

  “Well, I’m darned!” said the first state trooper, and there was boyish glee in his voice. “As I live and breathe, if it isn’t the Judge himself! Long time no see, Judge! And have we been trying to find something to pin on you! Now that we’ve got it, are we ever going to make it stick!”

  Lindsay had no eyes for the three men in the corner or for Steve, who stood scowling, unarmed now, while the second state trooper kept him covered.

  Over his shoulder, never taking his eyes from the three men behind the big box, his gun and his light unwaveringly pinned on them, the trooper asked, “Is the fellow going to live, Doc?”

  “How would I know?” snapped Dr. Corbett. “What do you think, Nurse?”

  Lindsay was too shaken, too incredulous with joy over the unexpected rescue, to notice the faintly accusing note of Dr. Corbett’s voice.

  “I don’t think! I’m too upset to think. I can’t!” Lindsay stammered, and was unaware of the tears that slid down her face. “I’m just so glad to see all of you!”

  Dr. Corbett, kneeling beside the cot, examining the patient, did not even glance up at her.

  “It’s Alden Mayhew, Doctor,” Lindsay stammered.

  Dr. Corbett spared her a cynical glance.

  “But of course,” he drawled. “I knew it would be, the moment I found you’d rushed off here to rescue him single-handed. I knew it had to be Mayhew, or you’d have used a bit of common sense and stayed where you were and sent for help from the Village.”

  Lindsay stared down at him, startled by his tone, by the way he had glanced at her. But there was no time for anything else, as the Judge snarled, “I suppose that weaseling little so-and-so, Hutchens, double-crossed us.”

  The trooper grinned at him happily.

  “Why, no, Judge, as a matter of fact, he didn’t,” he answered. “But his story, when he caught up with Dr. Corbett on a maternity call out in the swamp, was so thin Sheriff Grimes decided he’d be better off under lock and key. He can be a witness against you, and he’ll be tickled to death to spill his insides and turn state’s evidence in return for a milder sentence for himself. Judge, this time you’re really going up the river for a nice long visit; and the Bayou is going to be a much nicer place without you and your little playmates.”

  He spoke over his shoulder to the other trooper.

  “Have the boys come in, Jim, and bring their handcuffs. We’ll need a full set for each of them and our own as well,” he ordered happily.

  “Be a pleasure, Marsh,” said the other trooper.

  While the four men were handcuffed and removed to the waiting car, Dr. Corbett and Lindsay were busily ministering to Alden, who was regaining consciousness at last.

  “We’ve got to get him to the hospital,” said Dr. Corbett to the trooper.

  “No hospital,” Alden protested faintly. “Back to the House. Lindsay will take care of me, won’t you, Lindsay?”

  “Of course I will, Alden, only I really think you should go to the hospital,” Lindsay told him anxiously.

  “Too far. Bad enough when you’re up and around, but the way I am now—no, thanks. I won’t risk it,” Alden insisted.

  Dr. Corbett scowled. “Well, I admit he’s got a point. In his condition, the trip would be a dangerous one. Do you think you can look after him, Lindsay, at Bayou House? But that’s a silly question, isn’t it? Of course you can and will.”

  He stood up, snapped his instrument bag shut and turned to the door.

  “I’ll get a couple of the boys to get him out to the car, and we’ll get him back to the House as quickly and as mercifully as possible. I’ve given him a sedative, of course.”

  He brushed past Lindsay, and she stared after him, wide-eyed and deeply hurt at his behavior since he had entered the hut. Why, he seemed to be angry with her because he had found her there! Surely he must understand that it had not occurred to her to refuse a call for her services and that she had not known the injured man was Alden until she reached the hut!

  The journey back to Bayou House was all that Lindsay and Dr. Corbett had known that it must be. But it was finally accomplished and Alden settled in bed, still face down, since it would be a long time before he could lie on his back.

  Clara and Miss Jennifer were wide-eyed and shocked as the troopers bore the injured man up to his bed. And when Lindsay came in to ask for Clara’s assistance in caring for him, Miss Jennifer demanded a detailed account of what had happened.

  “I’ll be back, Aunt Jennifer, in a little while and tell you all about it,” Lindsay said shakily. “Right now, I have to get Dr. Corbett’s orders for the patient’s care.”

  “Well, you’d better put on a clean uniform when you get around to it,” Miss Jennifer snapped. “That one looks as if you’d been rolling round on the floor in it. And a very dirty floor, at that!”

  Lindsay looked down at herself, put a shaking hand to her disordered hair, managed a faint, “Yes, Aunt Jennifer,” and escaped.

  Dr. Corbett was coming down the stairs, and she waited for him, her eyes searching his face anxiously.

  “Will he be all right?” she asked.

  A touch of frost was in Dr. Corbett’s eyes as he said, “Barring unforeseen complications, and with the devoted care and attention you will, of course, give him, I’m quite sure he will be able to testify against the Judge and his cohorts at the proper time.”

  “I’m glad,” said Lindsay radiantly.

  “Yes, I was sure you would be,” said Dr. Corbett coldly.

  He walked out of the hall and to the verandah. Lindsay followed him, pausing at the top of the steps to ask, “Please—are you angry with me? Have I done something to upset you?”

  He turned and looked up at her, and through the open door the light from inside the hall door fell on his face. His expression carefully controlled, his eyes bleak beneath faintly raised eyebrows, he asked, “Why should I be angry with you, just because you rushed out headlong to the rescue of your beloved Alden without stopping to realize that you would only be risking your own life without a hope of saving his?”

  “But I didn’t know it was Alden until I got there,” she protested. “That man called Steve came here and said there’d been a hunting accident.”

  “I know. It’s the same yarn Hutchens told me. And I didn’t for a moment believe it. That’s why I called Sheriff Grimes and he called the state troopers, fortunately for you and your precious Alden!”

  “He’s not my precious Alden,” she flashed indignantly, so shaken by the events of the terrible evening that she could not control the tears that were slipping down her face unnoticed. “And I didn’t know he was the patient.”

  Dr. Corbett made a slight gesture of dismissal, as though the whole subject had become a bore.

  “I’m sorry; I haven’t time to discuss it now. I doubt if there will ever be time for that! But I’ll b
e back tomorrow to check on him. And I’ll get the prescriptions filled and bring them with me. There’s a chart listing what he will need tonight. It will be very little, so you should be able to get a good night’s sleep. I’m sure you need it.”

  He strode off to his car, and a moment later had gone swiftly down the drive, leaving Lindsay to stand forlornly at the top of the steps, looking after him, tears still sliding down her face without her being aware of them until she tasted the salt of them on her lips.

  Chapter Eleven

  Lindsay awakened with a start to find Clara bending over her and the room flooded with sunshine.

  “It’s all right, honey,” Clara soothed her. “Dr. Corbett is upstairs with the patient. I knew he’d want to see you before he left, so I thought I’d better wake you so’s you could be dressed by the time he gets back downstairs.”

  Lindsay gave her a faint smile of thanks as she slid out of bed.

  “How’s Aunt Jennifer?” she remembered to ask as Clara turned away.

  Clara grinned. “Champing at the bit to know what it’s all about, and mad as rips because nobody can tell her. Otherwise, she’s just fine.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t tell her much, because it all happened so fast that it’s a sort of blur in my memory,” Lindsay confessed.

  “Well, don’t worry about it,” said Clara comfortably. “Doc Corbett says Sheriff Grimes and one of the troopers will be here soon, and they can give her the low-down.”

  Lindsay showered swiftly and got into a crisply fresh uniform.

  So Dr. Corbett was there, and Clara took it for granted that he would want to see her! Well, she reminded herself grimly, of course he would. Wasn’t she the nurse in charge of the case? His behavior last night had certainly indicated that there was no other reason he would want to see her. Her heart sank at the memory of his face, tight, withdrawn, looking as though he had never seen her before and didn’t care a whit if he never saw her again.

  Last night had been a horror; even the memory of it made he shudder. But she admitted now, as she brushed her hair into neat order and applied the faintest possible touch of lipstick, that moment at the foot of the stairs when he had looked at her as though he hated her had been the worst part of a completely incredible evening.