Safe Haven

by Hannah Alexander

  Karah Lee placed a finger over Fawn’s dry lips. “Don’t try to talk right now. I know you’re in some kind of trouble, and you need help. I’ll do my best to treat you and protect you, and in order to do that I may still have to call for reinforcements, or send you to a larger, better-equipped facility.”

  Again, Fawn tried to speak, and again, Karah Lee stopped her with a quick shake of her head. “I need to ask you a question, and it’ll help me a lot if you’re honest with me.”

  Fawn wouldn’t promise any answers.

  “I know your real name isn’t Casey,” Karah Lee said. “Is it Fawn Morrison?” As she asked the question, Blaze came back into the room with a tray of supplies and didn’t break stride. He didn’t even seem surprised.

  “Please,” Fawn whispered. “Don’t call.”

  Karah Lee closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then looked away as she exhaled and stood. “First we’ll treat you. Then we’ll talk—if we can manage to coax your voice back to life.” She nodded to Blaze, then reached for the tray he’d carried into the room. “Get her vitals, then give her some water. I’ll set up for the IV.”

  “Gotcha, boss.” Blaze put a cuff around Fawn’s left upper arm. “Fawn, huh?” he said in that actor-smooth voice. “Pretty name. You don’t look much like the woman in the papers and on television. Was all that blond hair a wig?”

  “Blaze, don’t make her speak until we can soothe those vocal cords and plump up her cells a little,” Karah Lee said.

  Fawn shook her head.

  “Did you cut it to disguise yourself last week?”

  She nodded.

  “Brave move. Good job, too. I think Karah Lee could use a good haircut.”

  “Hey!” Karah Lee complained as she worked across from him.

  “Just a suggestion. Okay, Fawn, I’m taking your blood pressure and heart rate, then I’m going to get your temperature. After that, you can have some water, okay?”

  She nodded, watching him work, and especially watching his face. He wasn’t smiling, exactly, but he looked satisfied doing what he was doing, as if he thought it was the most fun job in the world. He was smart, too. She’d heard him coaching Karah Lee on the computer last night—though she hadn’t heard much of what he’d told her because the stupid hot-water heater kept kicking on and drowning out the voices.

  After jotting something on a clipboard sheet, Blaze glanced at Fawn and caught her watching him. He smiled, and those dark, dark eyes seemed to have lights in them. She tried to smile back and felt her lips crack painfully. She winced.

  “I’ll get some petroleum jelly for that,” he said, his voice gentle.

  She suddenly realized she stunk. Badly. He had to’ve noticed. How long since she’d had a bath? Yesterday? And she’d sweated like a horse all day today. She smelled like a street person—and since she’d been a street person a couple of times, she knew how that smelled.

  Okay, so she didn’t exactly smell like that yet.

  Karah Lee pushed the IV pole to the side of the bed and hung a bag on the hook. “Honey, I’m going to get those fluids going on you now. You already know the routine, so just try to relax. I’ll be as gentle as—”

  “Wait,” Fawn rasped. Before Karah Lee could take her arm prisoner, she reached into the right front pocket of her jeans and pulled out the flash drive. She held it up to Blaze.

  He looked up from his clipboard and stared at it, then at her, then back at it. “I’m an idiot,” he said softly, taking it from her. “Why didn’t I realize it was you in here last night?”

  “Okay,” Karah Lee said. “Now that’s established, can we get back to work here? Fawn, your arm, please.”

  “Take care of it,” Fawn croaked to Blaze.

  He held the device up to the light and studied it as Karah Lee opened a couple of small packets and rubbed alcohol on the inside of Fawn’s right arm, near the place she’d inserted the IV needle last Friday.

  “There must be something pretty important on here for you to break in and crash the computer last night,” Blaze said.

  Fawn nodded.

  “Mind if I take a look at it?” he asked.

  “I do,” Karah Lee said. “This young lady’s in deep trouble, wanted by the police and most likely someone on the other side of the law. You don’t need to be messing with that stuff, you need to be helping me with Fawn.”

  “But this could be—”

  “First, do no harm,” Karah Lee said. “Which means keep an eye on her vitals, then do the labs on her blood for me when I get it.”

  “I’m not certified.”

  “You know your way around that lab better than I do, and right now we’re breaking the law, anyway, because we haven’t reported her immediately. All I want are some answers, fast.”

  Fawn shook her head. “But—”

  “Hush,” Karah Lee said. “Just close your eyes and relax. We’ll worry about this other stuff later.”

  Fawn tried to do as she was told. She wished she could snuggle into the bed and cover up her face and sleep forever…after she had a drink of water and a bath.

  “Blood pressure’s eighty-eight over fifty-five,” Blaze said. “Heart rate a hundred twenty. Temperature’s a hundred two point two.”

  “We’ll get that down quickly.”

  A needle pricked Fawn’s arm and she jerked, startled. Her eyes flew open.

  “So,” Blaze said, leaning over her left side to place a straw in her mouth. “Thirsty?”

  Her lips barely functioned, and for a couple of seconds she sucked air. He adjusted the straw, and she felt the first spurt of cool, sweet, filled-with-life water trickle over her tongue and down her throat. She closed her eyes and gave herself to the pleasure of four hard, fast gulps before the glass emptied. Small glass.

  Blaze chuckled. “You’re going to have to take it easy on the next drink. So, you like dogs, do you? Dalmatians and cocker spaniels, like in the books?”

  She nodded, then looked at her arm in time to see her own blood flash up into a tube connected to the IV needle.

  “I’m drawing some blood from the IV hub, Fawn,” Karah Lee said. “Then I’m going to rehydrate you while we run analysis in the lab.”

  “You mean while I run the analysis,” Blaze muttered, returning to Fawn’s side with more water.

  “I promise to get this board back to you,” Joe the paramedic said as the four of them carried their patient down the wooden stairway.

  “I’d appreciate it.” Taylor followed them. He knew there was another backboard at the clinic he could borrow for runs, but he wanted this one back.

  He gave his report to the ambulance team as he and Tom helped them place their patient on the stretcher, then watched with relief as the big red, white and orange van drove away.

  Tom punched Taylor on the arm. “What do you want to bet Beaufont’s going to have some wild tale to tell us about all this?”

  “They can tell the feds.”

  “Not before I get a few questions answered.”

  “Then you’d better hurry, because Greg’s already made a call.”

  “When?” Tom’s voice picked up an edge. He hated it when anyone got the jump on him.

  “A few minutes ago. Apparently, there’s been someone hanging around town impersonating a federal agent.”

  Tom whistled. “Tell you what, Jackson, I think you’re one of those guys who bring trouble with them. This place was never so exciting before you came to Missouri.”

  “Gee, thanks.” Taylor aimed his flashlight across the pocked and rocky ground. “So when will you be back in uniform?”

  “Soon as you stop trying to give me orders.”

  “Your wish is granted.” Taylor glanced toward the Lakeside and reached for his cell phone. “I’ll see you later.”

  He dialed the bed-and-breakfast as Tom sauntered away. Edith answered and relayed the unfortunate news that not only hadn’t Karah Lee returned, but Blaze was gone now, too.

  Taylor thanked her and hun
g up

  Karah Lee placed a motherly hand across Fawn’s forehead, checking her temperature the old-fashioned, though less reliable, way. The skin felt much cooler, though still not back to normal. Fawn’s forehead was moist with slight perspiration—still not enough, but at least her body was functioning better. Blaze had given her two tablets of acetaminophen with her second glass of water about twenty minutes ago, and that, too, would have helped.

  Karah Lee placed the tympanic thermometer in Fawn’s ear and drew it back out. The girl’s temperature was now under a hundred. “Your fever’s broken, honey.”

  “I feel better.” Fawn’s voice was still soft, but it sounded stronger. “Are you going to call the police?”

  “If I say yes, are you going to bolt again?”

  Fawn blinked up at Karah Lee, and those clear blue eyes held hers. “Maybe. Can’t you look at the flash drive first? Please.”

  “What’s on it?”

  “I don’t know for sure, but Bruce gave it to me that…that night.”

  A frisson of horror trickled down Karah Lee’s spine. “The night he was murdered?”

  “Yes, and he said that there was important information in it that lives could depend on, and that if anything happened I should give it to someone I trusted to—”

  “Okay, but I think we should just give it to the police and let them—”

  “I don’t trust the police, I trust you.”

  “I couldn’t do anything with any information I might find on there.” Lives could depend on it? “Now just lie there and rest and let me do the worrying for a few minutes, okay?”

  “But you’re not worrying about the flash drive, you’re just blowing me off,” Fawn accused. “Let Blaze look at it if you don’t want to.”

  “I’ll talk to him about it.” Karah Lee adjusted the tubing so that it lay more neatly across the side of the bed. “And let me warn you now, if you remove this IV catheter again, you won’t be doing yourself any favors. The next needle will be bigger.”

  Fawn looked down at her arm, then narrowed her eyes at Karah Lee. “That’s mean.”

  “No, it isn’t. The only reason I didn’t use a larger needle was because you were too dehydrated for me to get the stick.” She gave Fawn a wicked grin. “Now you aren’t.” She went down the hall to the lab.

  She didn’t risk losing sight of the exam-room door, and was relieved to find Blaze just pulling a sheet from the lab’s printer.

  “You should get certified on that thing,” she said.

  “I will as soon as we hire someone else here, Bertie gets more help at the Lakeside, haying season is over, Dane sells some calves and the pig races are over.” He handed her the sheet. “The CBC shows a high white count, and the automated differential shows that Fawn’s body is losing the battle against infection. What else do you want me to do, fearless slave driver?”

  She glanced down at the numbers and nodded. “She needed antibiotics last week.”

  “The sterile water is already on the supply-room counter, waiting to reconstitute whatever you want mixed with it.”

  “My hero.”

  “What do you want me to—”

  “I’ll mix the medicine, you check out that flash drive Fawn gave you. I want a better handle on whatever’s going on with her, and she seems to think that drive will have some answers.”

  There was no mistaking the sudden light in Blaze’s eyes. “I’ll fire up the computer.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Taylor sped from the construction site, watching the street for stray partyers on his way to the church. Why wasn’t Karah Lee back at the bed-and-breakfast yet? Or maybe she was already in her room and Edith hadn’t seen her.

  Or maybe something else had happened….

  In spite of the hour, several people still mingled in the park and on the sidewalk on the square. Taylor spotted a campfire down by the beach, and several people sitting on the edge of the dock. He was about to cruise on past the square, when he noticed light coming through the door at the clinic and screeched his tires as he pulled to the curb.

  He jumped from the Jeep, pressed the automatic lock with his key chain and charged inside, through the foyer and into the waiting room—the entrance doors weren’t locked, and the door to the clinic proper stood open.

  Blaze sat at the computer in the reception office, and he turned around, looking frustrated, when Taylor arrived. “You know anything about computers?”

  “Not much. Tom’s the expert in that department, much as I hate to admit it. Where’s Karah Lee? Have you seen her? Did she—”

  “Sure, I saw her.” Blaze picked up the phone. “I thought you were the one who wanted me to go find her at the church. She’s back with a patient.”

  Taylor went weak with relief, then wondered why he’d suddenly started worrying so much about Karah Lee’s well-being. Except for the fact that there were a lot of strange things happening in this town lately, and…

  “What patient?” he asked.

  Blaze looked up from the receiver in his hand. He hesitated. “Maybe you should talk to Karah Lee about that.”

  “Oh, great, now we’re back to patient-confidentiality issues.”

  “Not exactly. Not this time.” Blaze leaned to the left and called down the hallway, “Karah Lee? You might want to come out here.”

  While Blaze talked to Tom on the telephone, Karah Lee stepped from exam room four, looking incongruous in her khaki shorts and turquoise T-shirt in this setting. When she saw Taylor she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

  He watched her closely. Something weird going on here…

  She glanced back into the exam room. “I didn’t call the police, Fawn, but Taylor’s here.”

  Taylor’s mouth fell open. “Fawn?”

  “No!” came a feminine, recognizable voice from the room.

  “It’s time,” Karah Lee said. “You can trust him.”

  “She’s here?” Taylor asked.

  Karah Lee nodded and gestured for him to join her.

  “As in Fawn Morrison?”

  She rolled her eyes. “You know any other Fawns?”

  He rushed down the hallway. Karah Lee gestured him into the room, and he saw a young woman lying on the exam bed.

  Instead of the boyish disguise she’d worn last Friday, this time she had short, gray hair. Her frightened blue eyes contrasted vividly against the fiery red skin of her face. The glasses she’d been wearing Friday were nowhere in evidence. She wore denim. She was the mysterious woman in blue with the “bad sunburn” Junior Short had seen entering Dane’s feed store yesterday evening.

  Taylor caught a whiff of body odor as he stepped close to the bed. “Hi, Fawn.” He kept his voice casual, gentle. She didn’t look prepared to handle all the questions that desperately needed to be asked.

  She waved at him with a trembling left hand. Her right arm was connected to an IV tube that looked as if it had some major stuff flowing through it.

  “You must like this place.” He reached for the molded-plastic chair against the wall. Then, instead of moving it closer to the bed, he left it where it was and sat down. Sometimes his size tended to intimidate people.

  Karah Lee crossed to her patient’s side. “You need to tell him what you’ve been telling me, honey.”

  “Which part? The part about how sorry I am I stole the food from the vending machine? I didn’t have any change, or—”

  “Tell me again about Bruce.” Karah Lee reached for the backless exam stool and wheeled it to Fawn’s bedside. She sat as close to the young woman as she could get, positioning herself between Taylor and Fawn.

  Taylor stifled a smile. This young woman did seem incredibly young, vulnerable.

  “I didn’t do it.” Fawn said the words quietly. She sounded as if she’d given up hope that anyone would believe her.

  “Tell us what did happen,” Taylor said.

  “I was in Branson with my boyfriend.”

  “That would be Bruce Penske,�
� Taylor said. The murder victim. According to the papers, the guy had been thirty-five years old. Taylor tried not to show his revulsion as he became fully aware of her youth.

  Fawn nodded. “He sent me on this errand to get rid of me for a while so he could do business, and when I got back to our room at the hotel, he was arguing with some old guy in a suit named Harv, and I didn’t realize I shouldn’t be there until—”

  “How old was Harv?” Taylor asked.

  “Probably at least forty.”

  Yep, she was young. “So what happened?”

  “They were arguing about that big building they’re putting up a couple of blocks from here.”

  The Beaufont project? “You’re sure that’s what they were talking about?” Taylor asked. “The building here?”

  She nodded. “Bruce was an investment manager, and he was withdrawing funds because the place didn’t pass some kind of inspection, and—”

  “Wait a minute, Fawn,” Taylor said. The earth moved! “What kind of inspection? A safety inspection of the building? A survey?”

  Fawn shrugged.

  Taylor looked at Karah Lee. “I think I have a hunch about why the Beaufont Corporation’s been so tight with security, and if we can find something to back up my hunch while the place is without a guard tonight—”

  “Everybody’s tight with security these days,” Karah Lee said. “It’s called legal protection.”

  “Hiring thugs with big guns to intimidate people? I think there’s more to it than that.”

  “For instance?”

  “Fawn said Bruce was murdered because he was blowing the whistle on problems with the property. Fawn, did he name any names? Give you any figures? Do you know—”

  “He never talked to me about that stuff,” she said, shaking her head. “The only names I know are nicknames like Vin and Harv, and then he gave me that flash drive Blaze is trying to pull up, but it doesn’t sound like he’s doing much better than I did.”

  “Okay,” Karah Lee said. “What happened during the argument?”