Saving Allegheny Green

by Lori Wilde

  “Hush,” Conahegg said softly. “You’re upset, Ally.” When had he started calling me Ally and why did it feel so nice? “Hush and let me take care of this.”

  I wanted to protest. To tell him that I was the one who took care of things in our family, and by the way he had no right to call me Ally. But he didn’t even wait for me to tell him anything.

  Conahegg started up the sidewalk, Sissy slack against his strong arms. I trotted along beside him, trying to keep up, my fingers laced through Sissy’s.

  Conahegg was at fault. If he hadn’t brought us here, Sissy wouldn’t have gotten beaten.

  Immediately, I realized the unfairness of my accusations. I was thinking with my emotions. He’d simply been doing his job and if Sissy hadn’t shot Rocky we wouldn’t have been here, either.

  Conahegg walked us through the station, ignoring Swiggly who watched openmouthed, and took us out the back way to his patrol car. We drove to the hospital in two minutes flat. He hurried inside for a wheelchair and returned with three nurses.

  They wheeled Sissy away and I started to follow but Conahegg stopped me.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “Yeah, well, so am I.”

  He put a hand on my shoulder. A gesture of support, commiseration. “I mean it.”

  “Why should you care?”

  For a moment he hesitated. I tried to read the expression on his face but couldn’t. “It’s my job.”

  That wasn’t the answer I wanted, but don’t ask me what I expected him to say.

  “I’ll come back to question your sister after they’re finished examining her,” he continued.

  “I gotta go.” I pulled away from him. I had to get to Sissy and find out what she wouldn’t reveal in front of Conahegg—the name of the man who’d beaten her and the reason why.

  “Allegheny,” he called out as I reached the pneumatic doors. I stopped and the doors opened, but I didn’t turn around to look at Conahegg.

  “Yes,” I called over my shoulder.

  “If she tells you anything I expect you to relay the information to me, even if it means implicating your sister in something illegal.”

  This time I did turn. “What are you suggesting?”

  “I don’t know what your sister is involved in, but I promise you I will find out who hurt her. And he will pay.”

  THE HOSPITAL RELEASED Sissy at 6:00 a.m. Conahegg had returned once to check on us and told me to call for a squad car when we needed a ride home, but I’d declined, having had enough of Conahegg and his crew for one day. I talked to an emergency room nurse I knew, Glenda Harrington, and she agreed to give us a lift, but she didn’t get off until seven. We were stuck for another hour.

  “I wanna see Rocky,” Sissy whined. “Just for a couple of minutes.”

  “Sissy…”

  “Ally, please.”

  “Are you going to tell me who beat you up?”

  Sissy hardened her jaw, ran a hand through her spiky, midnight-black hair and looked away from me. We were sitting in the emergency room waiting area with two bleary-eyed drunks and an elderly lady who’d fallen fast asleep over her knitting.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “You knew the guy, didn’t you?”

  Sissy shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”

  “Some thug bloodies your nose, blacks your eye, hits you in the belly and you tell me it’s no big deal.”

  Who was my sister protecting and why? I wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her but she’d been through enough for one night.

  “Could we drop it?”

  “Does it have something to do with your pal Rockerfeller Hughes?”

  Sissy’s expression confirmed my suspicions. The tip of her nose turns red when she lies. “You’re wrong.”

  “What do you see in him, Sissy? He borrows money from you that he never pays back, he makes promises he doesn’t keep. He does drugs for heaven’s sake, and he’s not even cute. I don’t get it.”

  “You don’t understand,” she said. “How could you when you can’t even get a man of your own?”

  Ouch. Her comment hurt more than I cared to admit. The truth is, I haven’t even gone out with a guy in over three years. My life is too busy, my past history with the opposite sex too shaky. Plus, I haven’t found anyone who interested me. Until tonight. Until Conahegg. But why him? Why now?

  “It’s not that I can’t get a man,” I retorted. “I don’t have time to date, not between taking care of you and Mama and Denny and Aunt Tessa. My social calendar is a little full.”

  “Nobody ever asked you to play martyr, Ally, but it’s your favorite role.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Take it any way you want.”

  My pulse quickened, anger surging through me. Okay, the anger was born of hurt. I sacrificed so my family could survive, and I get accused of being a martyr. Nothing would please me more than if they’d take care of themselves and I could have my own life.

  “I’m going to see Rocky whether you come or not.” Sissy rose to her feet and swayed. I reached my arms out, prepared to catch her if she fell, but Sissy righted herself and headed for the elevators.

  “Wait,” I said. “I’ll come with you. But we’ve got to be back here at seven to catch a ride home with Glenda or you’ll have to find your own way home.”

  “Whatever,” Sissy mumbled.

  Whatever indeed. I was only five years older than my sister but right now, I felt like a hundred. Most of the time I had no idea where she was coming from. I imagine I confused her as much as she confused me.

  We rode the elevator in silence. A man in a lab coat pushing an EKG machine got on. He smiled and nodded. I smiled back. Sissy stared unblinkingly at the elevator door.

  We got off on the third floor. The day-shift crew had arrived. Groggy nurses carrying foam cups of bad coffee made their way to the report room. Since I occasionally worked here part-time on the weekends, I knew most of them. I smiled and called out greetings but kept walking, reluctant to stop and have a conversation. With my hand at Sissy’s back, I pushed her down the corridor.

  The door to Rocky’s room stood ajar.

  Abruptly, Sissy halted.

  “What is it?” I snapped, still smarting from her martyr comment.

  “Wait.” She took a deep breath. “I’m not ready.”

  “Come on, you were so hot to see him.” I plucked her shirttail between my fingers and hauled her through the door.

  Big mistake.

  Rocky was not alone.

  Nor had we given him advance warning by knocking. If we had, perhaps the blonde in the bed might have stopped kissing him. As it was, Rocky and the blonde were welded together, arms around each other in a deep embrace, mouths joined hungrily as if they hadn’t eaten in weeks.

  Sissy stared in disbelief.

  I got mad for her. My sister drives me buggy, but I wasn’t about to let anyone else treat her badly.

  “What is going on here?” I demanded.

  Rocky and the blonde broke apart quicker than two dogs getting hosed.

  “S…S…Sissy,” Rocky stammered, not even bothering to address me. “What are you doing here?”

  “She came to finish off the job,” I said, unable to resist. “Where’d you put that pistol, Sissy?”

  Rocky’s arms flew up to cover his head. “Wait a minute, Sissy, it’s not what it seems.”

  “Is she the one?” the blonde asked, shaking a cigarette from the package of Marlboro Lights she pulled from her pocket. She wasn’t a real blonde, up close you could see her dark roots. Her face was pitted with old acne scars and she wore too much makeup in an attempt to hide them.

  “No smoking,” I said. “In case you haven’t noticed, this is a hospital. And by the way, who are you?”

  The bleached blonde shrugged and stuffed the cigarette back in the pack before jerking an oversize thumb in Rocky’s direction. “I’m his wife. What’s it to yo
u?”

  Ah, Mrs. Dirtbag.

  I glanced over at Sissy. She was pale as a corpse. Except for the black eye.

  Rocky had lowered his hand and was staring at Sissy, too. “Hey,” he said. “What happened to your eye?”

  Sissy didn’t answer. Her bottom lip trembled. I had the strongest big-sisterly urge to tuck her under my arm and spirit her out the door.

  “Come on, honey,” I soothed. “Let’s get out of here.” I reached for her but she shied away and instead walked closer to Rocky’s bed.

  “I can’t believe I ever thought I loved you,” she said, her voice full of hurt.

  “You, too?” the blonde snorted.

  Sissy sent Mrs. Rocky the evil eye and the woman clammed up. “See this?” Sissy touched the black-and-blue ring beneath her eye. “The beating was meant for you.”

  “Huh?”

  “You heard me.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  “Your friend. The one you borrowed money from to make your demo.”

  “You do know the guy that assaulted you,” I interjected. “Tell me his name, Sissy. I’ll have Conahegg arrest him.”

  My sister paid me absolutely no attention. She was too intent on boring a hole through Rocky with her glare. “Your good pal gave me a shiner because I refused to pay your debt. He said to tell you this is a warning. That he’s going to give you ten times the pounding if you don’t have his money by Monday.”

  “Monday?” Rocky’s Adam’s apple quivered.

  “I’m not taking any more beatings for you or from you, Rockerfeller Hughes,” Sissy said, looking madder and braver than I’d ever seen her. I could barely contain myself from bursting into applause. “Next time, I’ll tell him where to find you.”

  “Sissy…” Rocky whined.

  “Oh, and for the record, I’m glad I shot you.” Then Sissy whirled on her heel and marched out the door.

  “Darlene,” I heard Rocky ask the blonde as I hurried to catch up with my sister. “You got three thousand dollars I could borrow?”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  NO MATTER HOW I CAJOLED, Sissy refused to tell me the name of the guy who’d beaten her. She said it was none of my business. How’s that for gratitude?

  On Sunday, I worked the three-to-eleven shift in Labor and Delivery at the hospital. We had only one patient and she didn’t deliver on our shift, which gave me plenty of time to snoop around and see what had happened to Tim and Rocky.

  Tim, I discovered, had been treated the night before for a moderate laceration to the knee, then carted off to county lockup. Rocky was scheduled for a debridement of his toe early Monday morning but was being dismissed after the procedure.

  I didn’t go up to see him again, although there were a few things I wanted to tell him. Sissy had made me promise to stay away.

  What did surprise me, however, was a visit from Conahegg.

  My coworker and best friend, Rhonda Smithy, and I had medicated the plodding mother-to-be and left her with attentive relatives. We were unenthusiastically looking forward to our Lean Cuisine frozen dinners when lo and behold Conahegg appeared with a pizza.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, eyeing the pizza.

  “Thought I’d see if you were hungry.” He set the box down on the table.

  “You expect me to believe you brought me a pizza out of the goodness of your heart?”

  “Anyone ever tell you that you’ve got a suspicious mind?”

  “All the time.”

  Conahegg grinned and ran his gaze over my body. It was a quick perusal but he was checking me out. I wished I was wearing something sexier than shapeless hospital scrubs.

  “How did you know I was working at the hospital tonight?”

  “I went out to your house.”

  “Did you need to speak to me about something?”

  Conahegg’s eyes darkened and he cast a glance at Rhonda.

  Sharp as a hypodermic, Rhonda peered at her watch. “Oh, excuse me for a minute, I think it’s time to change the IV on the patient in room one.” She scurried from the lounge but not before giving me an exaggerated wink.

  “Have a seat.” I nodded at the chair Rhonda had vacated.

  Conahegg sat, his long-limbed frame drawing my attention. Good gawd but the man was built. The quality of light in the room suddenly sharpened. I blinked in wonder. The fluorescent bulb flickering, surely. But I couldn’t stop myself from staring at Conahegg.

  “I think I know who attacked your sister,” he said. “I drove over to see her but she won’t talk to me. I get the feeling she’s protecting Rockerfeller Hughes, but I don’t know why.”

  “Me, either.” I sighed. “Who do you think attacked her?”

  “Loan shark by the name of Dooley Marchand. Do you know him?”

  I shook my head.

  “He works as a bouncer at the strip club out on I30. Your sister’s boyfriend owes him a lot of money. Dooley doesn’t like to wait for his due. We’ve arrested him before for working people over. One of my deputies saw him at the station right before your sister was beaten.”

  “Scumbag.”

  “I can’t arrest him if your sister won’t press charges. Could you talk to her?”

  “Me?” I laughed. “She never listens to me.” My Lean Cuisine dinged in the microwave. I gazed longingly at the pizza.

  Conahegg opened the box. The aroma of garlic, onions and oregano filled the room. “Have a slice,” he invited.

  Pepperoni. My favorite.

  “Is this a bribe?” I asked.

  “Why, Ms. Green, what you must think of me.”

  If he only knew!

  I took the pizza.

  “Listen,” Conahegg said, his eyes on my face. “The truth is, I wanted to warn you about Marchand. Don’t mess with him. If you see him on your property call me immediately.”

  “Okay.”

  “I mean it.” He laid one hand across the top of mine.

  I froze in midchew. Holy Toledo, what the man could do to me with a single touch. To hell with Dooley Marchand. I was in danger of spontaneous combustion from close bodily contact with Conahegg.

  “Hear me?”

  I swallowed. Hard. “All right.”

  “And tell your sister to watch out for Mr. Hughes’s wife.”

  “Oh? You know about Darlene?”

  Conahegg’s pupils widened. “I know about everything that goes on in town.”

  “I’ll consider myself warned.”

  “Darlene Hughes has been in prison for the last thirteen months. Three weeks ago she was paroled.”

  I hated to ask. “What for?”

  “Assault with a deadly weapon.”

  “Why am I not surprised?” I thought of the hard-eyed, bottle blonde with a penchant for Marlboros.

  “She stabbed Rocky’s last girlfriend in the neck with a rat-tail comb. Be careful, Ally, there’s a lot of unsavory characters hanging around your sister.”

  Be careful? Did that mean he cared? Oh, why was I torturing myself? What was happening to me? I didn’t pine over guys.

  “I know,” I said. Could he tell how I was feeling? Could he read desire in my face? Did he have the slightest clue that unflappable, sensible Allegheny Green was losing her perspective because of him?

  He leaned forward. “Sissy is in over her head.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Drugs.”

  “Oh come on. Aren’t you exaggerating a bit? So she smokes some pot.”

  Conahegg shook his head. “I’m afraid it’s more than that.”

  “I don’t follow.”

  “We had the hospital do a drug screen on Hughes and it came back positive for cocaine as well as marijuana. We also suspect he might be dealing to supplement his career as a musician.”

  “What career? As far as I know he’s never played professionally.” I polished off the slice of pizza, dusted my fingers on a napkin.

  “Exactly. How does he survive?”

  “
Mooches off Sissy.”

  “And your sister paints artificial nails for a living.”

  “When she’s in the mood,” I said.

  “Not much money in part-time work like that.”

  I definitely didn’t like where the conversation was headed. “My sister is not involved with drug dealers.”

  “How do you know that for certain?”

  I didn’t want to dwell on my sister and her problems. At least not with Conahegg. I wanted to eat pizza and gaze into his granite-gray eyes and imagine what it felt like to be held in those strong, masculine arms. Great. Since when had I been reduced to romance-novel fantasies?

  “How’s Tim?” I asked, changing the subject.

  “Tim?”

  “You know, the naked guy you hit with your squad car.”

  “He posted bail.”

  “That was quick. Who sprang him? He’s broke and he doesn’t have much to do with his own family.”

  Conahegg shrugged. “I’m really not at liberty to discuss it.”

  “Oh.”

  So much for our chummy little conversation. I thought he’d come to see me but apparently he’d only been pumping me for information about Sissy and Rocky. Disappointment turned the pizza crust to sawdust in my mouth.

  Conahegg got to his feet. “Enjoy the pizza.”

  “I will,” I responded, feeling irritated with him. If I have to choke down every last bite.

  He stopped at the door. My treacherous heart skipped a beat. Was he going to ask me out? Would I say yes if he did?

  “Allegheny…”

  “Please, call me Ally.”

  “Ally.” He smiled.

  “Yes?” I held my breath. Waited.

  “You’ve got cheese on your chin.”

  “I HATE THAT MAN.”

  “You like him. A lot.”

  “I do not,” I denied hotly a few hours later as I sat hunched over the computer signing out my charting. I was still smarting over the mozzarella on my chin incident.

  The graveyard shift nurses had arrived, and they were in the process of assessing our lone patient. Rhonda and I manned the phones and waited for eleven o’clock.

  “You’re obsessing, Ally.” Rhonda blew on her freshly painted fingernails. Pretty in Puce, was the name on the bottle, as if it were physically possible to be pretty in puce. Rhonda was polishing her nails in anticipation of a midnight date, and I was still second-guessing Sheriff Sam Conahegg.