Night Chill

by Jeff Gunhus

  FOURTEEN

  Even after hearing the details of the search, Jack couldn’t manage much better than a dumbfounded stare at the sheriff. How was it possible that the body was gone? He had seen her. She was right there on the hood of his car. There was no way the body could just disappear.

  As Jack processed the information, a pit carved out a space in his stomach as the three other people in the room waited for an explanation. He suddenly realized they didn’t believe him.

  “I saw her. I swear it. Did you look in the woods? She probably crawled into the woods.”

  The sheriff held up his hands. “Now look here. I’ve had men out there since last night and we’ve been looking all day. Deputy Sorenson here and myself did most of the search ourselves. We even brought the dogs out.”

  “And?”

  “Nothing. Not a thing.”

  “She couldn’t have gone far. She was all tied up.”

  “Yeah, you told us that.” Janney opened up the notebook where he scribbled his notes from the morning. “You said she was bound and gagged with duct tape. That she rolled off the hood of your car right before you rolled into that ditch.” He closed up the notebook. “That’s what you said this morning.”

  “That’s what happened.”

  “Yeah, so you say,” the deputy said.

  Jack ignored him. “How about in the man’s car. What’s his name…Huckley? You had to find evidence in the trunk of his car.”

  Sheriff shook his head. “Looked myself.”

  “And?”

  “Nothing. Not a thing.”

  “Impossible. I just don’t…I mean, how could…”

  “Mr. Tremont, I’m gonna need to ask you a few more questions, all right?”

  Lauren reached down and took Jack’s hand. He appreciated her gesture of support, but he wondered if it made him look guilty, like he needed the support because he had something to hide. He wondered if they knew about the last time he was questioned by the police.

  “Were you over at Piper’s last night?

  Jack felt the muscles in his stomach tighten. “Yes, I was at Piper’s last night from about four to seven.”

  “Have a couple of drinks?”

  “Yeah. No…just one drink actually.”

  “You had one drink in three hours?”

  Jack remembered the shot of whiskey he and Max had after watching Albert James die. “No, I guess it was two drinks.”

  “Uh-huh, now it’s two drinks. You want to think on it a little longer?”

  Jack didn’t care for the sheriff’s tone. “Wait a minute. What’re you thinking? I got blitzed, picked up my kids drunk and hallucinated that a psychopath tried to kill me. Jesus.” Jack raised himself up in the bed. He was yelling now. “What the hell’s wrong with you?”

  Janney was a big man and not intimidated by Jack’s outburst. He pointed a finger at Jack’s chest. “You will calm down. And I mean, right now.” He took a deep breath. “I’m just trying to figure all this out. All I know is that I have two smashed up cars on my highway and a crazy story with no proof. I have no victim, no blood in the trunk of the other car.”

  “I didn’t make this up,” Jack insisted.

  “You were at Piper’s when Albert James took a lightning bolt to the head, right?”

  Jack nodded.

  “Shook you up pretty bad, huh?”

  “The man died in my arms. Yeah, it shook me up. But I—”

  “Then there’s this business in California a few years back.”

  Jack felt Lauren’s hand tighten in his.

  “The little girl. What was her name?” Janney flipped through his notebook.

  Not until that moment did Jack realize how much he had let himself believe no one would ever find his secret in his new life, that at least the public side of it was behind him. He knew the private torture would never end. But he thought he might at least spare his family from living through it again. Jack’s voice had a catch in it when he answered. “Melissa Gonzales.”

  “That’s right. Melissa Gonzales. Damn shame about that.”

  “Damn shame,” the deputy said.

  Lauren squeezed Jack’s hand. “That was an accident,” she said.

  Jack closed his eyes and tried to put his mind somewhere else. Or course he’d seen the similarities. Of course he knew it was a bizarre coincidence. He’d been working it through his brain all morning. But it didn’t change what he saw last night.

  Janney puckered his lips. “Yeah, got the whole report sent right over to me. Says here little Melissa hit the windshield just like—”

  “Their tire blew out. He ran right into me,” Jack whispered.

  “And the girl went through the windshield of her daddy’s pickup and landed on the hood of your car. Just like this girl last night? The girl you’re trying to save?”

  Jack turned away. A shiver started at the base of his spine and worked its way up his back. He closed his eyes but the girl’s face was there to look back at him. Not the girl from last night, but, now, Melissa Gonzales. Ten years old. Honor student. Played softball and liked blues music and horses. Wanted to be a doctor or a vet, her grandma had told him at the hospital. Right before she spat in his face and called him a murderer. The official report said the deaths weren’t his fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. Accidents happen. It was what his friends told him too. Still, he caught the looks they gave him. Something had changed. He’d killed someone and that was part of who he was now.

  Their reaction was bad enough when they thought he was innocent.

  It would have been much worse if they had known the truth.

  The sheriff was right. Melissa Gonzales had smashed into his windshield just like the girl last night. He could still see her face when the air bag deflated, wide, unblinking eyes that stared at him while a flood of red spread out of her hair like a halo. That’s where the image was different. The girl last night had been alive. He was sure of it.

  “I know how it looks. But you have to believe me, I didn’t imagine this.”

  “I’m just sayin’ I can’t find a body or evidence of one. I’m just sayin’ that it doesn’t take a shrink doctor to wonder if something’s not going on in there?” Janney tapped the side of his head.

  “Did you question the guy in the car yet?” The deputy grunted and turned away. Jack turned his attention to him. The man looked to be in his mid-twenties, clean shaven with a crew cut. His uniform was starched with the pleats of his pants pointing down to polished black boots. Every thing he carried seemed to shine. Jack imagined the kid sitting in his living room at night intensely cleaning his gun millimeter by millimeter, praying for the day he’d have a chance to blow someone away. He probably polished his handcuffs too. Jack just hoped that Sheriff Janney had been smart enough not to give the kid any bullets. Jack decided he’d had enough of the deputy’s attitude. “Excuse me. Do you have a problem?”

  The deputy glared back but held his tongue.

  Janney jumped in and broke the staring contest. “Jack, the man you hit—”

  “That I hit! You mean the man who attacked me.”

  “Yeah, O.K. Like I told you, his name’s Nate Huckley. It’s not like he’s some drifter. He’s pretty well known around here. He’s a little on the strange side, sure, but nothing like this. You gotta understand it makes your story that much harder to believe.”

  “O.K. So what does Nate Huckley say about all this?”

  Lauren answered before the sheriff. “He’s in a coma. There’s not so much as a scratch on him but he’s not reviving. We have to do more tests.”

  “Will he come out of it?”

  “Hard to say. He could wake up an hour from now, a week from now…”

  “Or never,” Janney said.

  “Or never,” Lauren agreed

  The deputy mumbled something.

  “What’d you say?” Jack said.

  The deputy fixed him with a hard look. “I said, ‘Another notch in the belt’.”

&
nbsp; “You son-of-a-bitch.”

  Janney grabbed his deputy by the arm and pulled him toward the door. “All right, that’s enough of that. You wait outside.” He waited until the deputy was gone. “Sorry about that. He’s a damn fool sometimes. Don’t let him get to you. Listen, I’m gonna keep looking into this and try everything I can to figure it out. A lot of folks are gonna wonder if Nate Huckley getting a fair shake here.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m just saying I’ve got to look into the possibility that Huckley’s the victim in this mess.”

  “I don’t understand.” Jack said.

  “You’re driving home, had a few drinks…”

  “I wasn’t drunk.”

  Janney started to say something but seemed to think better of it. He tucked his hat under his arm and headed for the door. He paused, a little too dramatically Jack thought, and stared at Lauren. “See, funny thing is, when you were brought in they didn’t check your blood for alcohol. That’s standard policy, isn’t it Dr. Tremont?”

  Lauren was tight lipped. “It should have been done. I’ll check into it.”

  Janney smiled. “Oh, I checked. Wasn’t done. Nurse’s say you treated him when he came in and said it wasn’t necessary.”

  “It wasn’t. I could tell if he was intoxicated or not.”

  “I’m sure you could,” Janney said. “Just looks a little funny, you know? Any way, I know this sounds like some bad cop line, but don’t be leaving town for a while, O.K.? It might take a little time to figure this out and I’d like to have you both around to answer questions.”

  “We’ll be here,” Lauren said.

  “All right, then. I’ll be getting along now.” Janney nodded to Jack as if he’d just stopped by to wish him a speedy recovery. Jack and Lauren watched the sheriff leave, both of them silently wishing he’d never come at all.

  FIFTEEN

  Jack changed into the fresh clothes Lauren brought from the house. As he sat on the edge of the bed to button his shirt, Lauren slid behind him and rubbed his shoulders.

  “I know what I saw, Lauren.”

  “I believe you. Focus on the fact that you and the kids are safe. Focus on that.”

  Lauren the calm. Lauren the wise. How many times had she filled that need for him? A hundred times? A thousand? He still couldn’t believe he had almost lost her. He leaned back into her and she wrapped her arms around him. “You should have seen the girl’s eyes. She was so scared.”

  She held him tight and then kissed him on the cheek. “I have about an hour of stuff to do around here and then we can all go home. Why don’t you go down and hang out with the kids?”

  Lauren started to pull away from him but Jack pulled her back close. He still hadn’t told her about Sarah’s strange behavior in the car. That their daughter somehow seemed to know about Melissa Gonzales. The words had been replaying in his head all day.

  He said I should open the door or I’d end up like Melissa. Who’s Melissa, Daddy?

  Then there was Albert James’ bizarre warning about Sarah being in danger, a warning that turned out to be right only hours later.

  Jack wanted to tell Lauren, have her rationalize it all so he could put it aside, but he didn’t know where to start. Besides, he knew how it would sound. Especially now with everyone doubting there was a body in the back of Huckley’s car, he couldn’t afford to look like he was losing it.

  He kissed her hand and let go. But as she started to get up, he said, “Why didn’t you let them do a blood alcohol test done when I came in?”

  Lauren hesitated. “When they told me you and the kids were on the way in to emergency from a crash scene, I ran down to be there. It was horrible to wait there, not knowing what was going on. Testing you for alcohol was the last thing on my mind.”

  “It wasn’t because you smelled alcohol on my breath.” Lauren didn’t answer. “I wasn’t drunk. I had one beer and a shot over a four hour time frame. I would never put the kids in danger, you know that.”

  “Yeah, I know. Listen, I’ve got to run. I’ll see you in an hour.”

  Jack could tell he’d rubbed her the wrong way. With everything going on, the last thing they needed was a fight. He called after her, “Hey, sorry. I’m a little on edge. It’s just…”

  “It’s just what?”

  “I love you.”

  She flashed him the same smile that made him fall for her ten years earlier. “You’re just kissing up. Angling for that sponge bath when we get home,” she said with enough playfulness enough to let him know everything was all right between them.

  He reached up and rubbed his neck. “I am a little sore.”

  “If you’re a good boy. Maybe.” She gave him a wink. “See you in an hour or so.”

  Jack spent most of the next hour in the room with Becky and Sarah watching T.V. and brushing their hair. They amazed him. The whole ordeal was like a movie to them, something scary while they watched it happen, but quickly forgotten once it was over. The cast on Becky’s right arm was already covered with signatures from the nursing staff and she brandished it about with pride. She only had a hairline fracture so the cast wouldn’t be on for long, but she was making the most of it. Jack couldn’t help laughing when Sarah asked if she could get one too.

  At quarter to five, Jack got up from the bed and told the girls he’d be right back. A Disney cartoon about little round robots was on T.V., and they didn’t even look up as he left the room. Jack walked down the hospital corridor toward the elevator. The hospital had three stories and he had visited Lauren here enough times to know the layout pretty well. Although she ran a small family practice in Prescott City, once word of her credentials got out the doctors at the Midland General often called her to consult on cases. With a medical degree from Stanford and post-doctorate research at Johns Hopkins and UCLA, she was a medical celebrity in the mountain towns of Western Maryland. Midland was only a half an hour from Prescott City, so Lauren didn’t mind making the drive. Jack guessed it also helped keep her sane to treat more than just swollen tonsils and bee stings day in and day out.

  He got off the elevator on the top floor, where the long term in-patients were kept. The floor was a reverent quiet, partially because Midland wasn’t a very busy hospital and most of the rooms were empty, but also because the patients here tended to be old and very near their natural end. The corridor was like a library at two in the morning; the kind of place where you just knew to be quiet.

  A nurse sat behind the oval desk across from the elevator. She made no effort to hide the book she was reading. He couldn’t see the title but saw the distinctive mark on the cover designating it as an ‘Oprah’s Book Selection.’

  “Can I help you?”

  “Hi, my name is Jack Tremont—”

  “Oh, you must be looking for Dr. Tremont. Let me page her.” She started to pick up the yellow phone on her desk.

  “No, I know where she is. I’m actually looking for a patient. Huckley. Nate Huckley.”

  The nurse pursed her lips together and shook her head. “Terrible what happened to him, isn’t it? Drunk driver, I heard.”

  Jack felt an ice ball in his stomach. He fought back the urge to correct her. It would only make it harder for him to accomplish his mission. “Yeah, it’s terrible. I wanted to check in on him. Dr. Tremont asked me to.”

  She arched her eyebrows at him. “She asked you to check on a patient for her?”

  “Yeah. Just wanted me to pop my head and make sure everything was fine. You know how she is.”

  The nurse hesitated, then pointed down the hallway to the right. “Room 320. You know not to touch the equipment, right? Maybe I should come with you.”

  “No need. I’ll only be a second.” He pointed at her book, “Looks like a good one.”

  The nurse smiled, “Oprah never lets me down.” She lowered her voice and glanced up and down the halls, “This one has sex scenes.”

  Jack grinned and pretended to look at the page she was r
eading. The nurse shooed him away with a giggle. Jack whispered, “I’ll let you get back to it then. I won’t be long.”

  He strode down the hall without waiting for an answer. A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed that the nurse was settling back into her chair, book in hand. Good. He wanted to do this alone. Jack walked down the hall until he came to room 320. He rested his hands against the heavy wood door of Nate Huckley’s room and turned his head to listen for any sounds coming from inside. He heard nothing so, with a deep breath, he pushed on the door.

  SIXTEEN

  “Hola Felicia. Que Pasa?” Lauren said, pulling back the curtain from the bed.

  The little girl gave her a weak smile. “Your accent is getting a little better. Could still use some work though.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I think it’s pretty good,” she said. “So tell me, how are you feeling?”

  “Sore. I’m sore everywhere,” Felicia said.

  Lauren leaned forward and smoothed back a few strands of loose hair on the girl’s forehead. She was a pretty thing, ten years old, with dark skin and long black hair. Over the last week Lauren had grown attached to the girl. Even though Lauren wasn’t a pediatric specialist, Felicia’s condition had immediately attracted her attention. “I’ll get you something to make you more comfy, all right?”

  Felicia nodded and watched Lauren write in her file. “Dr. Tremont?”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m gonna die.”

  The little girl’s matter-of-fact tone caught Lauren off-guard. It was as if the girls had read Lauren’s mind. Lauren stared down at her notebook while she thought of the best way to answer. She had never lied to a patient before, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell the girl the truth. Before she could say anything, Felicia reached out and touched her forearm.

  “It’s O.K. Dr. Tremont. You don’t have to lie to me. I mean, I’m scared a little, but I don’t…I don’t want to feel this way anymore.”