Rocky Road

by Josi S. Kilpack

  She picked her way through the brush with cautious steps, wishing she’d worn long pants. They went over a rise and began a gradual descent into an area that was rockier than the woods they’d been walking through. Just before they rounded an outcropping of rock and walked into a small clearing, Sadie could smell remnants of a campfire. There wasn’t a fire in the rock-lined pit, but Sadie guessed he’d made one last night or perhaps this morning. There were two small cooking pans resting upside down on a flat-topped stone, and the red frame backpack Sadie’d read about in the newspaper articles was leaning against a cedar tree. Dr. Hendricks led her to the shaded portion of the clearing just past the fire pit.

  “Are you leaving?” Sadie said, pointing to the bulging pack. Other than the pans, there wasn’t anything laying out—not a tent, a jacket, a tarp—nothing.

  “I’m always ready to go, just in case.”

  “Just in case what?”

  “Just in case someone like you shows up and I have to disappear again.”

  Sadie understood the meaning behind his words. She didn’t have him captured. Things were still very much in his court. And yet he’d brought her here. Why? She also wondered about her objectives again. Did she expect him to come back to St. George with her after they talked?

  “Have you been here all this time?”

  “Most of it.” He put the bag of salads on the flat stone that already held his two pans.

  Sadie moved toward the rock, and Dr. Hendricks stepped back. As he watched from a distance, Sadie removed the aluminum containers from the bag and bent back the edges around the cardboard lids. She pulled out the plastic cup of dressing and looked up at the doctor. “Do you want to dress your own?”

  He shook his head, and Sadie poured dressing over both meals. She always dressed her own salad—that way she knew she had the perfect amount for her particular taste. Maybe he wasn’t as picky after living up here for two months.

  Assuming he still wanted her to taste both of them, she took a bite of the first salad and then a bite of the second one. It really was delicious—the tangy dressing complemented the sweetness of the pork. The beans and rice at the bottom created a really good blend of texture and flavor. “These are really good,” she said after swallowing the second bite.

  He made no move to take one of the salads, so she took another bite of each one. “I could do this all day,” she said with a smile. “I assure you that I haven’t spent the last few years in Australia working up an immunity to iocane powder.”

  He didn’t smile or make a move toward the salads.

  “It’s from The Princess Bride,” she said. He showed no recollection of the movie. Sad. “Anyway, which one do you want?”

  “I don’t care,” he said, but he sounded less suspicious, maybe even a tiny bit embarrassed about being so cautious. Sadie picked up one of the containers and handed it to him, along with a plastic fork still in its wrapper. Then she picked up the other salad and looked around for somewhere to sit.

  Sadie didn’t like eating from her lap, but she had no choice, so she settled herself on a log. He sat on another log that looked as though it had recently been moved to this part of the clearing. Sadie guessed that she was his first visitor. She mixed the salad components together a little more before taking another bite. It was so good. “You don’t stay in the cabin?” she asked.

  He shook his head and poked at his salad—he hadn’t yet taken a bite. Maybe he was waiting for her to finish hers without frothing at the mouth or something. “I’ve gone in a few nights when it was raining, but I sleep better out here.”

  “It’s a little different from your home in St. George.”

  “It’s better,” he said without hesitation, meeting her eyes quickly before returning to his salad. He finally speared a piece of lettuce. “I love it out here.”

  Sadie took another bite and carefully chose her first question. She suddenly wished she’d thought to bring something to drink, but it hadn’t even crossed her mind. Focus. “Why did you leave?”

  “What are you going to do with what I tell you?” he asked quickly, as though he’d been waiting for the chance to ask the question.

  She liked the fact that he seemed prepared to tell her something if she could offer him some reassurance. “I can promise you that I’m not trying to get you in trouble, and I don’t stand to gain anything personally, regardless of your answer. Right now, I just want to understand, and then I want to work with you on what the next step for you should be. As I said earlier, if they decide to look, I’m not the only one who will be able to find you.” Especially now that your wife is dead, she thought. Gosh, how was he going to react to that? She felt terrible for not telling him yet, but she still felt it was the best course.

  Dr. Hendricks took his first bite and chewed it very slowly. When he swallowed it, he looked up at her. “I’m giving you far more trust than I’m comfortable with.”

  “As am I,” Sadie said. “What brought you here?”

  “Would you believe me if I said God did?”

  “Maybe, but I’d need some explanation.” The dressing was unbelievable. She refused to be seduced by the impending food-fog.

  He took another, bigger, bite, and Sadie took great pleasure in the way he savored it. She’d made a good choice to bring food. Dr. Hendricks began, “You said earlier that I left what seemed to be a really good life. Six months ago, I thought so, too—I thought I had accomplished more than most men did in their lives. I thought I had given back and made the world a better place. And then a brick fell out of that castle in the sky, and then another, and another, and another ...” He went back to stirring his salad.

  “So you ran from it?” Sadie prodded.

  “When I left, I thought I was working on a solution.” He paused to spear another bite with his fork. “I’d contacted an attorney, and I was supposed to meet him at his cabin that Friday night—somewhere no one would see us.” He waved in the direction of the cabin owned by Kyle Edger.

  “Why such subterfuge?”

  “I’d lose everything if my wife found out what I was doing.”

  “So, was this attorney a divorce attorney?” she asked, as though she knew nothing about Kyle Edger. Not telling him what she already knew would help her gauge his honesty.

  “He mostly did contract law, but he agreed to help me.”

  “With a divorce?”

  “With staying out of prison.”

  Sadie frowned, sincerely confused by his answer. She’d assumed Dr. Hendricks had gone to Edgar for advice on the business, not about something criminal. “What had you done that you needed to be protected from prison for?”

  Dr. Hendricks let out a heavy breath and took another bite before looking up at Sadie again. “Do you know my wife?”

  Sadie squirmed internally. But she still felt that she didn’t know enough of what was going on to tell him about Anita. It would derail this conversation. She felt guilty, but suppressed it. “I’ve met her,” she finally said.

  “And I’ll bet she was charming and gracious and eloquent, right?”

  “She was at first. But then I crossed her and glimpsed another side of her.”

  “Crossed her how?” Dr. Hendricks asked, an eager quality entering his voice. He held the fork in his hand, anticipating her answer.

  Sadie briefly explained how she’d attempted to overhear Anita’s private conversation with Dr. Waters. As she spoke, Dr. Hendricks stared at his food, and Sadie noted how very unlike a doctor he seemed. Not just in his appearance, but in his lack of confidence and in his mannerisms. He was slumped forward, his spine rounded and his shoulders pulled in as he stared at the ground instead of at her.

  “Ah, Jake,” he finally said. It took a moment for Sadie to remember that Jacob was Dr. Waters’s first name. Dr. Hendricks didn’t sound angry. Just sad. For whom?

  “Is there something between Anita and Dr. Waters?”

  He shrugged his shoulders and continued eating, with his eyes trained o
n the lettuce and beans. “I wondered if there could be, before I left, but I never knew for sure. I hope Jake’s smarter than that.”

  “But you think your wife would cheat on you with your business partner?”

  “If it helped her get something she wanted that she couldn’t get from me? Absolutely.”

  “Is that why you left?”

  “That was part of it, sure. But Anita is ... false, about everything. Her feelings, her success—our success. Who she cares about and why, assuming she cares about anyone at all. She manipulates and charms her way to the top of everything she does, but it’s all a house of cards.”

  “Like the boutique misrepresenting itself as a charity?”

  He glanced at her, and then he nodded and took another bite.

  “That was her idea?”

  “I didn’t even know about it until six months ago.”

  “Forgive me for being so direct, but how could you not know? You’re listed as the vice president of the LLC.”

  “Aye, there’s the rub.” He nodded slowly and thoughtfully, stirring his salad. “Ever since Anita took over the management of the clinic and the foundation, I sign whatever she puts in front of me. I know I’m an idiot for doing it, but I didn’t think I had any reason to question her—she was my wife and so much better at the business side of things than I was.”

  “So you’re saying she tricked you into signing the papers?”

  “She tricked me into a lot of things.”

  “Like what?” Sadie asked. She was growing weary of the cryptic comments, but she sensed it was Dr. Hendricks’s way of warming up to disclosing more information.

  He snorted at her question and then sat up and put his salad on the ground. Sadie bit back a warning about dirt or bugs—he could at least put it on the table rock. Maybe she should hand him one of the cardboard lids. But the intent expression on his face kept her silent—the salad was the least of his worries.

  He fixed her with a piercing look. “Obviously, you already know a lot. How much do you know?”

  He was testing her to see if she trusted him enough to share what she knew. Surprisingly, she did. “I know about the boutique misrepresenting itself. I know that there’s something between Dr. Waters and Anita, although I’m not sure what, and I’m hesitant to jump to any conclusions. I know you called Lori yesterday, and she ran for Vegas as soon as she could because of it. I know she called Kyle Edger after she called you, and now I know that Kyle Edger was helping you with, as you put it, keeping you out of prison.” She paused, and then she continued. “And apparently he’s letting you stay at the cabin.”

  He looked confused.

  “What?” Sadie hated the fact that she didn’t know something he expected her to know.

  “Kyle died of a brain aneurysm a few days before I left.”

  Sadie couldn’t hide the shock on her face, and Dr. Hendricks continued before she could manage a response. “I thought it was strange that he didn’t reply to my last e-mail—I sent it the day before we were supposed to meet. When I got up here, I still had no idea what had happened to him.”

  Sadie waited for him to continue and then gave him a prompt. “Why did Lori call him, then?”

  “I asked her to try to get my file from his office or his wife or something—some way to prove that I’d been meeting with him. I thought maybe he kept notes on what we talked about, even though I asked him to keep it on the down low.”

  Sadie looked at him for a few seconds. “I don’t understand. You didn’t know he was dead when you left, but you stayed here anyway? For two months? Why not find proof of your meetings right after you learned about his death?”

  “I just ... I couldn’t go back.” He stirred his salad. “I was supposed to meet him here, and he didn’t show up. When I learned what happened, I ... I just couldn’t go back to that life. It was the last straw, and it broke me.”

  “Maybe you could start at the beginning for me,” Sadie said when she realized that the bits and pieces weren’t adding up the way she needed them to.

  Dr. Hendricks was quiet for a moment, and then he reached into the pocket of his T-shirt. Sadie tensed, immediately thinking of the Taser in her own pocket, but then she relaxed when she saw that the piece of paper he took out was a well-worn picture of his kids. He propped it on the ground so he could look at it while he explained what had caused him to run away from a life that, on the surface, looked nearly perfect.

  4 lb. pork roast (picnic roast works best)

  2 tablespoons brown sugar

  1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

  2 teaspoons cumin

  1 teaspoon salt

  1 (12-ounce) can Coca-Cola (not diet)

  1 cup chicken broth

  2 cloves garlic, minced

  1 onion, chopped

  1 cup brown sugar (more to taste, if desired)

  The night before, in a small bowl combine 2 tablespoons brown sugar, cayenne pepper, cumin, and salt. Mix with a fork until blended well. Rub mixture over pork roast. Spray slow cooker with cooking spray, or line with a liner; add rubbed roast. Cook overnight on low heat setting.

  The next morning, pour Coke, chicken broth, garlic, and onion into slow cooker with pork. Continue to cook on low. One hour before serving, shred roast, and remove any pieces of fat. Add 1 cup brown sugar. Mix well.

  Use tongs to remove shredded pork from cooker. Serve over salad or rice, or serve burrito-style with toppings, such as lettuce, tomatoes, rice, sour cream, cheese, etc.

  Makes 8 servings.

  Note: May be made on serving day: Follow directions as indicated but cook 3 hours on high heat setting before adding cola, broth, garlic, and onion. Cook 2 additional hours on high. Shred pork, and add additional brown sugar. If there are a lot of juices after first cooking segment, chicken broth may be omitted.

  1 cup uncooked long-grain rice

  1 teaspoon butter or margarine

  2 cloves garlic, minced

  1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lime juice*

  1 (15-ounce) can chicken broth

  Sauce:

  1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice

  2 teaspoons sugar

  3 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro

  In saucepan, combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 teaspoon lime juice, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook 15 to 20 minutes over low heat, until rice is tender. Remove from heat. In small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon lime juice, sugar, and cilantro to make sauce. Pour over hot cooked rice, mixing as rice is fluffed.

  Makes 2 cups.

  *Though fresh limes are always best, bottled lime juice works if it’s what you have on hand.

  Note: This recipe works well in a rice cooker.

  3 medium tomatillos, husked and washed, but not peeled (leave whole or cut in quarters)

  1 1/2 tablespoons (1/2 packet) buttermilk ranch dressing

  1/4 bunch cilantro, chopped

  2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

  1/8 to 1/4 cup lime juice, or to taste*

  3/4 cup buttermilk

  1/2 cup mayonnaise

  1 teaspoon sugar

  1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt

  1/2 teaspoon cumin

  Mix all ingredients in blender until well blended. Chill and serve over salad. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

  Makes 2 1/2 cups.

  *Fresh lime juice is always best, but bottled lime juice will work in a pinch.

  Chapter 28

  Dr. Hendricks took a breath before he spoke. “When I met Anita, Jake and I were looking for someone to take over the foundation—we’d started it as a community service thing, but it had gotten so big and was taking so much of our time. We both had families, and our practice was growing. We just didn’t feel like we had time for it, and so we wanted to merge it with a bigger organization or bring on someone to run it for us, but that meant growing it to be able to pay for that kind of overhead. It was kind of a ‘fish or cut bait’ situation, and we
were leaning toward cutting bait. Anita was what made us decide to keep fishing.”

  Sadie remembered from her research that Anita had begun work for the foundation as an assistant director, but he’d just said he “met” her before that, which didn’t seem to fit. Sadie filed that question away, not wanting to interrupt his flow. “I’ve looked into Anita’s history,” she said. “She has an impressive track record with other charity organizations.”

  “Yes, she does,” Dr. Hendricks agreed. He picked his salad up again and continued eating as if it hadn’t just been on the ground. Sadie forced herself not to think about it. “Her dream was to be the director of a nonprofit, and, at the time, my dream was not to be the director any longer. We hired her as an assistant director, but it didn’t take long for her to take on the director position. She was a force to be reckoned with, and she turned everything around. I was able to focus on my work, and she was doing exactly what she’d always wanted to do.”

  “Did she become the director before the two of you got married?”

  “Just a few months before. She’d been working for us almost a year and a half when she got the promotion.”

  “And when did the two of you become romantically involved?”

  “After she’d been working there for a while. I’d been divorced for a year by that point, and—”

  Sadie couldn’t let him lie to her. “You already told me you ‘met’ her somewhere, and she mentioned a conference in her tribute at the memorial service, so I’m assuming there’s more to the story than you simply choosing her resumé out of all the other applicants and her just turning out to be such a rock star—which seems to be the story everyone believes.”