Teresa glanced out the passenger window. Daylight had already slipped away and the dark shadows made the maples by the road look like a giant army standing in formation. She shuddered. She didn’t like driving through the mountains in the dark. Come on, Teresa, don’t get spooked. Just pay attention to the road. At least the rain had stopped. But the road was still wet…wet and slick, the shoulder soft and muddy. She’d have to be careful over Fool’s Crossing Bridge.
She glanced at her bag of fruit on the seat and thought maybe she should have that Bartlett pear. She tried opening the Ziploc bag with one hand. As she did, she could feel the car get away from her, and she knew she was in trouble. She felt the car skid, heard the screeching of her tires. She was all over the road.
As the car spun in a circle she could hear herself screaming. Any moment she expected to feel another car crash into her. Instead, she found herself suddenly on the shoulder, stopped, the nose of her BMW pointing into the woods.
For a long while all she could do was sit behind the wheel, trembling. She looked around. The highway was dark, with no sign of any cars coming in either direction. The only illumination came from her own headlights. She gasped when she saw the huge maple only two inches to her right. Two inches more and she might not have been able to walk away. She shook off the fear and carefully opened the door.
As soon as her foot hit the ground, thick mud oozed over her shoe and up her calf. She struggled against the suction and finally yanked her leg free, then got back into the car. She leaned out the open door as far as she could and saw that her back tire was also buried in mud.
She slid over to the passenger side, trying to keep the mud on her leg from smearing all over the leather seat. She could open the door only partway because of the tree. She stuck her head out as far as she could. It was enough to see that her right tire was buried even deeper than her left. What am I going to do? She slipped her hand into her purse and felt for her cell phone.
“Looks like you got a real problem here, lady.”
Teresa’s heart went up to her throat. She turned to the voice and saw a man in camouflage clothing with a cap pulled low over his head. He leaned through the open door on the driver’s side.
“Maybe I can help.”
Teresa pulled the phone from her purse and pointed to it. “I’ve…already…called. A tow truck will be along…any minute.”
The man looked confused, then smiled a strange smile. “No you didn’t, lady. I was watchin’ you.”
“You were…watching?”
“Yeah, I was walkin’ along the tree line and saw your car go out of control. You’re lucky you ain’t hurt. Somebody upstairs must like you.”
Teresa clutched the phone wondering if she could punch in 911 before he was able to grab it.
“What I figured we’d do was gather up these here broken tree limbs and build a ramp behind the back wheels. Then you put your car into reverse and floor it, and maybe free the tires. Might work. Ain’t nothin’ worse than Hunter Mountain mud, though.”
“You really think it’ll work?”
The man shrugged. “Worth a try.”
Teresa began to slide to the driver’s side to get out and help gather wood. “I’m really lucky that someone from these parts happened by. I don’t know what I would—”
“Who said I was from round here?” The man’s tone was harsh.
“Well…you seemed to know about the mud and all. And…you’re not backpacking, and it is night, and—”
“Why you got to be so nosy, lady? I was just tryin’ to help. I hate nosy people. I could leave right now and let you sit here in this mess. It makes no difference to me. That’s the trouble. Nobody minds their own business anymore.”
The stranger started to walk away, and Teresa felt unexpectedly relieved, then full of panic when she realized she would still be stuck in the middle of nowhere. She dialed 911 and took a deep breath when she heard the operator answer. “Hello!” she said, not meaning to sound so shrill. “This is Teresa Emerson and my car is stuck somewhere along CR 45. The mud’s up to the hubcaps and I can’t get out. Maybe…”
The stranger stopped in his tracks and turned toward her. From the headlights she could see a frightening look on his face. It was a look of madness.
“Help! Help!” she screamed into the phone.
“Calm down, Mrs. Emerson,” came the response on the other end. “Just tell me approximately how long you were driving along 45 so we can get a better idea of where you are.”
“Help!” Teresa screamed as the man bent into the car and reached for her. “Get away from me!” She tried to kick him backward.
“Please, Mrs. Emerson, just calm down!” said the voice over the phone.
“He’s trying to grab me! He’s—”
The man ripped the cellular out of her hand and pressed the power button, then slipped it into his shirt pocket.
“Not many Emersons round here. You must be related to that abortion doctor.”
Teresa stared, wide-eyed, unable to speak or move. The man flattened her against the seat, then pinned her down with his knee. One hand wrapped around her throat.
“You related to that guy? That butcher?”
Teresa opened her mouth but nothing came out. The man lunged for her purse and began emptying it out. He still held her pinned with his leg, but he no longer had her by the throat. When he found her wallet, he rifled through the pictures. He stopped when he came to the one of Eric standing next to his father. Without a word, he ripped it out of its plastic holder and shoved it into his pocket.
“You’re his wife,” the man said, backing out of the car and pulling her with him. “You’re that butcher’s wife. Now don’t that beat all? Ain’t it somethin’ how things work out? Now maybe I can finish the job.”
“My friend is excited about the clip. He saw it about an hour ago and said he’s going to give it the first spot on 50/50 this coming Saturday night. He said it’s dynamite and should blow a hole in the entire abortion issue. He also said Jim Carney tried to give Dr. Emerson a chance to refute the allegations, but he refused to give an interview. Emerson claims it’s all a lie made up by the pro-lifers to discredit him.”
Maggie sat curled on her floral couch, her feet tucked under her, one hand holding a cup of coffee, the other holding the phone. She couldn’t help smiling at the sound of Kirt’s voice.
“Carney said Emerson was really frosted. Practically accused us pro-lifers of beating up Adam Bender so his abduction story would look realistic. He had some colorful adjectives for you too. Want to hear them?”
“Sure.”
“How’s right-wing fundamentalist antiabortion bigot sound?”
“Hmmm.”
“Of course 50/50 will have to get someone else on the pro-abort side to rebut, probably Planned Parenthood or maybe another doctor with a chain of abortion clinics. And we know what they’re going to say. But Maggie, this has got to make people sit up and take notice. It’s got to make them think about what’s really going on in these clinics.”
“I’m praying God will use this to open hearts. He has to reach their hearts, Kirt. That’s where the change will come from.”
“You’re right, Maggie. But maybe this is one of the tools God will use. By the way, how’s Adam?”
Maggie closed her eyes. “Well, I think his heart’s probably in better shape than the rest of him. He’s pretty banged up: fractured ribs, broken ankle, lots of cuts and bruises, but no internal injuries.”
“You sound like you read his chart.”
“I did.” Maggie listened to Kirt laugh and noticed how good his laughter made her feel. “He’s lucky to be alive. But he’s going to be fine.”
“On a lighter note, I just want to say, I miss you.”
“Me too.” Maggie took a sip of her coffee feeling warmed by both it and his words.
“The session’s almost over. I’ll be home in a couple of weeks. We’ll have the entire summer together.” Kirt paused. �
�That is, when I’m not working at the law firm and when you’re not working at the Center.”
“Sounds like we’re going to be busy.”
“Not too busy we can’t plan the wedding, I hope. Which reminds me, where are we going for the honeymoon?”
“I don’t know. Have any suggestions?”
“I’ve started gathering information on resorts and cruises. Maybe you can do the same and then we can put it all together and come up with a place we both like.”
Maggie put her coffee cup down on the end table and stretched out. “What have you got so far?”
“An Alaskan tour—a two-week combination of cruising and land trips to Anchorage and Fairbanks.”
“Really? I’ve always wanted to go to Alaska.”
“You haven’t heard the best part. There’s the El Dorado Gold Mine, a real chance to see a permafrost tunnel firsthand, and then there’s the authentic tent camp. Also the reproduction of an Athabascan Indian village looks good.”
Maggie picked up the five-by-seven color photo from the end table. It was a new picture of her and Kirt, which she had just framed. She traced his face with her finger. “But isn’t the Alaskan cruising season almost over?”
“No, they have them all the way up to the middle of September.”
Maggie laughed. “Have you looked at the calendar lately? That’s barely three and a half months away. I guess you were planning this for next year?”
“Noooo. I thought since I was going to be around this summer and could help, we’d…we’d—”
“You want to get married before September? Before this September?”
“Would I be pushing it if I asked you to make it before September 11? That’s the last date of the cruise that gives you two nights in Fairbanks instead of only one, plus an additional night at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. That’s assuming you really want to go, but you can look it over and decide. Oh, did I tell you the package also included cruising through Glacier Bay and—”
“I love you, Kirt.”
“I love you too, Maggie.”
Thor lay sprawled on his burgundy leather couch. The only movement he made was his right thumb pressing the channel changer. But nothing he saw on the eight-foot screen of his projection TV held his interest. One channel replaced another in an endless monotony of sitcoms and movies. Maybe he’d get some sleep. It had to be after eleven because he had just flicked past the eleven o’clock news with that boring anchorman whose name he couldn’t remember but who reminded him of a Ken doll.
He stretched and almost kicked over his plate of Chinese takeout, which he had barely touched. How could he eat with all that was happening at the clinic? He still hadn’t gotten over the call from 50/50. All night he had tried to rouse himself to call Louie, to let his friend know what was going on. Friend? No, not friend. No use in stretching the truth anymore. If push came to shove, Louie would take Thor down just as surely as he’d take down those two muscle men who botched their job.
Thor laughed sardonically as he pictured an endless cycle of the hunter and hunted, of the predator and prey. Big fish eating up the little fish. He pictured Louie’s face, with its hanging jowls and pointy overlapping teeth, and thought of a barracuda. Then he dismissed the image. Louie wasn’t a barracuda at all. He rarely gobbled up his prey in one fierce bite. He was more like a piranha—jabbing, tearing, taking little bites at a time until there was nothing left. The same way Dr. Newly had been…and now Clara. He remembered the smug look on Clara’s face as she had listened in. He could almost picture her filing away the information she had gleaned in some mental filing cabinet. Was she collecting her own “fireproof insurance”? They were all piranhas, the lot of them, even the women who came for his services. All biting and tearing, wanting something from him.
He flicked off the TV, then picked up his plate and carried it toward the kitchen. When the doorbell rang, he almost dropped it. At this hour? His heart raced. He opened the door and saw Lieutenant Tooley and another uniformed man standing in the doorway.
“Good evening, Doctor,” Tooley said, stepping into the gray marbled entrance without being asked. His partner hesitated, then followed.
“Sorry to interrupt your dinner…but I think I may have some bad news.”
Thor began walking toward the kitchen. His hands were shaking and he needed to get rid of the plate. “Come inside.” He could hear footsteps behind him. He disposed of the plate and turned to the lieutenant. “What’s happened?”
“About three hours ago, one of our 911 operators got a call from your wife…uh…ex-wife, regarding—”
“Teresa? Has something happened to Teresa?”
“Now hold on there. I didn’t say nothing about anything happening to Teresa. Just stay calm while I tell you what we do know. No use in putting the cart before the horse.”
Thor could feel pieces of himself being gobbled up, as though a school of piranha were having a feeding frenzy. He felt terror of a kind he had never experienced before as Teresa’s words exploded in his brain: You better hope nothing happens to me. He swallowed hard and tried to compose himself. “Tell me what you know,” he said weakly.
“Like I was saying, Teresa told one of our 911 operators that her car was disabled—”
“Disabled? How?”
“Then she started screaming into the phone and the line went dead, but not before she told the operator she was on CR 45—”
“Yeah, she was on her way to Oxlee to pick up Eric, our son. She always drives 45 through Hunter Mountain.”
“Well, that’s were we found her BMW, mud up to the hubcaps. Looks like she skidded off the road.”
“She wasn’t…she wasn’t killed, was she?”
Tooley shook his head. “Nope. She wasn’t even in the car. No blood either, just a lot of mud, so we don’t think she was hurt or anything.”
“I don’t understand. Why would she call you, then leave her car?”
Tooley cleared his throat. “That’s the question we kept asking ourselves. The 911 operator said Teresa screamed, ‘He’s trying to grab me,’ just before the phone went dead. So we tried to cover a wide area around the car. Then Jake here found the footprints, big ones, not Teresa’s. Someone was with her.”
“Maybe someone saw her stranded, gave her a ride back into town or…”
“Nope. The footprints went into the woods, and it looked like Teresa was dragging her feet, like someone may have forced her along.”
Thor pulled out a stool from under the kitchen counter and sat down.
“And we found her purse in the car. We don’t think Teresa would leave her purse voluntarily. And the odd thing was all the contents were strewn around the floor and seat. Like someone was looking for something.”
“I don’t understand any of this, Lieutenant. What does it mean?”
“Nothing more we can do tonight,” Tooley said, placing his hand on Thor’s shoulder. “But first sign of daylight, me and my men will follow the trail. There should be decent prints with all the mud. We’ll scour Hunter Mountain till we find her.”
“Thank you,” Thor said, his head cradled between his hands. “Maybe…maybe I can help, go with you and—”
“Nope. You best stay away. We don’t know what’s what right now. Could be all a big misunderstanding. Could be something serious. But I want you to call me if you should hear from Teresa.” He handed Thor a card with his number on it. “Or if anything unusual comes up.”
“Unusual?”
“Like if someone should slip a note under your door or something.”
“A ransom note?”
Tooley shrugged. “I’ve seen it all. Nothing would surprise me. Which brings me to my last question. Do you know of anyone who’d want to hurt you or your ex?”
“No.” Only several dozen. Thor thought of the nameless, faceless people who had sent him threatening letters over the years: fathers whose babies he had aborted, women who had had serious complications from their abortions, those
other women who blamed him for killing their babies, as if he pulled them off the street and forced them into it. But as far as a name, only one name came to mind. Louie Pardino.
As soon as the door closed behind Tooley and Jake, Thor raced back into the kitchen, yanked the handheld phone from its cradle, and began punching in numbers. When he heard the sleepy voice, Thor began yelling into the phone.
“What have you done with Teresa?”
“Thor? Do you know what time it is? Why are you calling me at such an ungodly hour?”
“I’m warning you, Louie, you better not hurt her! Not one hair of her head, you hear me!”
“Thor, stop shouting. Calm down and tell me what this is all about.”
“The police just left. They think someone’s kidnapped Teresa.”
“I’m sorry…very sorry to hear that. But what does that have to do with me?”
“The POs from Dorianna Gray, the 50/50 interview. I know how you operate, Louie, your object lessons, your ways of punishment. But this time you were really stupid. This time—”
“Thor, I’d be careful if I were you. You’re swimming in dangerous waters. I don’t know what you think happened, but I had nothing to do with any of it.”
“You’re not the kind of person who’d admit anything, so save your breath because I won’t believe a word.”
“Don’t go down this path, Thor, I’m warning you.”
“It’s too late for warnings. If anything happens to Teresa my life is over.”
“What do you take me for, an ignoramus? You want me to believe that Teresa means that much to you? We’ve been on too many gambling jaunts together. It was always you who went looking for the broads.”
“Teresa has enough on me to put me away for life. But let me tell you something—if I go down, I’m taking you with me, you and your money laundering, your leg breakers, your Dorianna Gray Cosmetics.”
Tears in a Bottle Page 20
