by Jody Klaire
“You hurting?”
His sniffles made me squeeze him closer. No wonder the little guy had a cold after nearly freezing to death with Charlie.
“You’ll be better after a good sleep.”
His soft breathing told me that he was doing just that and I thought it would be impolite not to join him.
Chapter 19
A NUDGING WOKE me up and I just caught the end of my rumbling snore as I opened my eyes. Earl was looking down at me with a crooked grin on his face. My sleeping buddy, Zack, had abandoned his post. Martha and Earl’s living room was dimly lit with floor lamps that had funny-colored glass in the top and a carpet that looked older than I was. I guess most folk would have called it dated but it looked and felt homey to me.
“He’s gone to bed,” Earl told me, handing me a cup of hot chocolate.
“He has?” I inhaled the chocolaty scent and felt the kinks unlocking in my back. The healing had worked. My breathing was better and, thank cotton, the pain had up and left. “He not feeling so good?”
“Just fine,” Earl said, taking a seat in what must have been his favorite chair. The way he slid into it and flicked up the lever in such a fluid motion spoke volumes about his evening activities. That, and the fact he had some kind of zapper tidy attached to the side. “You’ve been out for a good while.”
“I have?” The now familiar knot of tension tied up my stomach muscles. I needed to find out what happened. I needed to try and see Renee.
“Slept right through the game. Not that you missed much, Broncos never showed up.”
I blinked at him a couple of times until it dawned on me that he was talking football. “How is Ronny?”
“Like he didn’t have a knee, that even with surgery, the doctor wasn’t sure he’d salvage.” His eyes were on the TV and his tone pretty nonchalant. His aura said he was nervous as heck and freaked, real freaked.
“Glad to hear it,” I said. “Medical corps taught me some secret tips.”
Earl’s eyes remained glued to the screen. “Like healing other people with your hands?”
That knot in my stomach tightened more. Last thing I needed was to turn a friend into a frightened enemy. “Just had to slot it back in.”
Earl smiled. “Ronny’s knee was crushed to the point he’s been hopped up on painkillers for months.”
I rubbed my head. That explained all the fuzzy feelings I’d had.
“Thing is. Surgeon had me feel his knee. Kid is a brave one.” He switched the channels. “Just felt it again. Good as new.”
“Like I said, medical corps trick.”
Earl opened up a can of beer and motioned to me to ask if I wanted one. No way was I even thinking about dulling my wits. Earl was onto me but I could salvage it—
“They teach you how to fix his spine through his knee too?” Earl’s eyes drifted to mine for a moment. “’Cause the boy was gonna have to have two disks removed.”
Busted. How was I getting out of that one? “He tell you what happen?”
Earl turned his attention back to the TV. “Not all of it. Some bastard knocked him clean off his feet with their truck though.”
Anger bubbled around him as he said it. Why hadn’t Ronny told him the truth?
“Thing is. When I found out, I’d left a hundred messages on his cell.” Earl sighed. “Boy was meant to be helping me fix up a job.”
I took a long sip of the hot chocolate. “You’re a mechanic, right?”
Earl nodded. “Uh huh. Work out of my garage. Lord knows why I bother. Only damn customers are tourists. If it wasn’t for the Jewel trade . . .” His voice drifted off as my face must have said it all. “You know something?” His voice lowered. “He tell you something?”
So what did I do now? Pretend that I’d healed Ronny’s injuries through medical science I couldn’t explain? Stay quiet when Seth Jewel was happily walking around without being punished for his crime?
I stared at the replaying game on the TV screen, sipping my chocolate. I’d covered for a criminal once. I’d gone to prison for the idiot and it had done nothing but cause devastation.
“I saw it when I healed him,” I admitted. “Seth Jewel.”
Earl nearly spat out his beer. He knew that I had never met or heard the name Seth before. He also knew what he’d seen but whether it was enough he’d believe me was in his hands.
“You saw it?”
I sighed as Martha walked back into the room. In for a dime, in for a dollar.
“I don’t work in Serenity Hills,” I told them, deciding it was better to leave out my “stay” there. “We aren’t on our way to a conference.”
Martha sat down and picked up the crochet she was working on. “I told you,” she said to Earl. “I called her name a few times and she didn’t even register.” She turned to me. “Plus, how did she have a gun?”
“People can have guns here,” Earl answered. “It didn’t mean anything.”
“She’s right,” I said.
Now, I knew that Renee said to keep it quiet. I knew that to tell these people may put them in danger should anything ever happen. But, I needed help and I needed to get Renee out because without Renee, I couldn’t do this. Without her, I felt like I could barely function. Go figure.
“Her name isn’t Serena,” I said. “She’s Commander Renee Black.”
I wasn’t sure if they’d make the connection between father and daughter but Earl raised his eyebrows. “Colonel Charles Black’s daughter?” He cleared his throat like he still had beer stuck. “I thought she went off to college and Europe somewhere.”
“You did?” Maybe that’s where she’d got her love for croque-madame?
“Yeah,” Earl said. “She used to attend the memorial service with his medals on her chest. She was just a kid back then.”
“You were there?” I asked, wondering why Renee had never said.
“No,” he said. “Too raw, but it’s on TV. She stopped turning up . . . what . . . twelve years ago. Commentator said she took a job in Europe.”
Earl smiled as I felt the sweat spring out of my skin.
“Colonel Black is a state hero,” he said. “His widow lives not too far, near Black Falls.”
“They have a place named after them?”
Earl laughed. “Other way round.” He leaned forward. “If that’s his girl, we got to help.” He looked at Martha. “We have to try.”
Martha had been real quiet during the conversation and that worried me. I was hurling a lot at them and I hadn’t even started yet.
“Who are you working for?” she asked, only for Earl to shush her.
“You know she can’t tell you that,” he said. “If she’s not going by her real name then she’s incognito.”
Earl’s energy was transformed. No longer was he a middle-aged man slumped in front of a football game. No, now he was animated. The twinkle in his eyes full of excitement. “Did the guy she shoot do something?”
“I don’t know,” I told him, sticking to the truth. “Look . . .” I took a deep breath, hoping that they would stay with me a while longer. “I’m different from the other folks you might meet.”
“Damn straight,” Earl stated. “You’re a marvel.”
The heat felt like it was pouring from my cheeks. He really thought I was a marvel? I chugged back the rest of my chocolate to cover the blush.
“Aeron,” Martha said. “Since you got here, you’ve done everything you could to help. You saved the deputy, you risked your life to save that couple not to mention taking care of little Zack.”
“Well . . . he . . . I . . .”
Martha and Earl beamed at me with such ferocity that all I could say was, “Awww, shucks.”
I took a couple of breaths to stop smiling like a fool and returned to the task at hand. “I am different in the way that I helped Ronny.”
“Told you she fixed him,” Earl said to Martha.
“That’s why I had to collapse in the bathroom,” I explained. “I ain�
�t getting rid of the problem, just displacing it. Washing it away stops me passing it on.”
They said nothing but sat listening. Their energy was calm, so at least they weren’t freaking out, yet.
“Thing is,” I said, putting down my empty mug. “I don’t know why Renee shot that man and normally, I’d only have to touch her and I’d see why.”
Again they stayed silent so I pushed on.
“I see glimpses of folk’s past when I touch them or certain objects like jewelry.”
“That’s how you knew about Seth?” Earl said, the rage rumbled over him again. “Damn Jewel boys and their tempers.”
Martha didn’t react and I realized that she had figured out the whole thing way before Earl had. She was sharp and so I guessed that she figured I was a freak the minute she saw me.
“Thing is. When you helped me earlier, Martha,” I looked down at my hands, “I saw what you saw during the shooting.”
“You did?” Martha’s eyes widened and her crocheting was forgotten.
“Just the images,” I lied. “The external noises.”
She looked relieved. I was thankful for it.
“I can’t get to Renee, but if I can findout what everyone else knows . . . then I can help prove her innocence.”
“What can we do to help?” Earl and Martha asked in unison.
I sat there dumb. Once again they had made my brain stop working with their kindness. I wanted to bottle them and take them with me wherever I went.
“I . . . well . . . I can’t get to see the guy she shot,” I said. “Not without drawing suspicion to myself. And as no one can know about what I’ve told you, I need to find a way to touch people without getting caught.”
Martha walked to the side table and returned with a pen and paper. “We should start by writing down who was there.”
That seemed like a great idea. “Well, you, me, and Earl,” I said, hoping that Earl would cotton onto the fact I needed to see his past too. “Evan.” I remembered that he was offering me a place to drink.
“Hal,” Martha added, writing down the names.
“Charlie and Joyce,” Earl said. “They were bickering off to the side like always.”
I closed my eyes, running through what I’d seen and what Martha had seen. “There were two ladies on the left. Colluding about somethin’.”
“Grace Teller,” Martha answered. “And where Grace is—”
“Marie Salter is,” Earl finished.
“Brad Jewel,” I said through gritted teeth, Earl joining me in my grouching.
“Mark was beside him,” Martha said. “And Simon.”
“Simon?” I asked.
“He spends most of these days fishing the lakes,” Earl answered. “He isn’t one for talk . . . ex-navy . . . When he’s not fishing, he’s with Jewel and Jenson.”
“Why does Mark hang out with that loser?” I asked.
“Cousins,” Martha answered. “But two different men you could never wish to meet.”
Cousins. Well, I guessed Mark couldn’t choose his family any more than I could have chosen my miser-grump of an Uncle Abe. “Was there nobody else?” I had a feeling I was missing somebody.
“Well, Renee,” Martha said. “Such a beautiful name.” After a moment of smiling into her thoughts, she cleared her throat. “There was Sheriff McKinley too . . . and the man.”
“Do you know his name?” I asked.
Both Martha and Earl shook their heads.
“He isn’t from round here,” Earl said. “Must be from the avalanche—”
“Or a tourist,” Martha added.
I folded my arms. So he wasn’t a local. “Will you keep away from that man? I ain’t sure who he is but I know Renee and she wouldn’t never shoot nobody unless it was serious.”
Glad to see them nodding agreement, I leaned forward onto my knees. “Now, as for Seth. I think I got a way that we can get him to admit his crimes.”
“You do?” Earl asked.
I nodded. “But first, I gotta ask a big favor from you, Earl.”
“You need to see what I saw?” he asked. “I can just as easily tell you.”
Smiling, I tried to show that I wasn’t going to trespass on his deepest thoughts. It was bad enough that I was about to witness the world through his eyes, the last thing he needed to know was how much I did see.
“I might see somethin’ that you may not necessarily think is out of place.” I was sounding like Franken-Frei again. “But I’ll know if I see it.”
Earl got to his feet and joined me on the sofa. “I gotta do anything in particular?”
“Just hold out your hand.”
I was glad to see that he held out his good arm, I’d had my fair share of healing for a while. “It’ll feel like I am giving you a static shock. But that’s it. It don’t hurt or nothing.”
Earl nodded and I took a deep breath, hoping that I’d get a glimpse of something to help me.
Dammit, I forgot ketchup. Should I go back? I don’t really want to. Martha has enough on her plate without me getting under her feet again. Wish she’d take some time to relax once in a while.
Maybe the boys will just eat it as is. It’s free food after all, don’t see the Jewel boys offering anything to help out. Wish I didn’t have to rely on them, wish I could just close the damn garage and help her out.
“Earl!”
“What is it, honey?” She’s gonna think I’m a complete idiot. Why did she marry me? If she’d taken off with Roger before I asked her, life would be so much better. Look at him now, Senator and what am I? A damn grease monkey.
Ah! Stupid arm! Why can the damn thing just heal already? Heaven knows we can’t afford me getting it fixed . . . not now.
God, she’s so pretty. The woman is like an angel.
“Hey!”
What a jerk. What does he think he’s doing? Could have taken her arm off. “Hey you!”
“Excuse me!” She’s rubbing her hand. Stupid fool could have knocked her clean off her feet. I’ve a right mind to—
“You forgot the ketchup.”
I know. I know I left the damn ketchup, woman. Forget the ketchup! Oh, just give me the damn—argh!
“Left.”
Even she knows it’s useless. Why did she stick with me all these years? “It’s fine.”
“Just hold it in your left.”
I’m not a child, woman. I know I’m useless but I still have some dignity left!
“Hey, Martha.”
Great, what does that useless fool want? Deputy Hal “Haven’t a clue.” How he got to wear a badge . . . ?
“I’ll get it for you, Hun, just wait a second.”
If he’d just marry that damn Salter woman, she could mother him.
“Thanks, Martha. I just got to hurry.”
Hurry? Where, you idiot? The whole town is cut off and there’s no cars to give a ticket today. There’s Serena. Why does she remind me of someone? Can’t think who it is. My memory is as bad as my arm.
“Serena, sweetheart. How are you this morning?”
“Martha . . . there’s no need to yell her way, she isn’t deaf.” She is pretty useful too. Wish I’d seen her floor that Jewel idiot.
“Serena?”
“Martha, keep it down.” She’s getting deaf I swear. Argh, this food is burning through my damn fingers. “Martha, I’m gonna head to the boys.”
“Serena, sweetheart, you alright?”
I should buy her hearing aids for our anniversary. When is that? Dammit, have I forgotten it? Better ask the boy.
“Hey, Ice Queen, where’s your knight?”
Oh look, if it isn’t that jackass Jewel. Knock him flat on his back, honey! Oh she’s stopped. You’re in trouble now. Who is that guy? Wait—
Bang.
Bang.
“Martha!” Lord, woman, you’re too close. Please be okay.
“Earl? Earl!”
“I’m here. Martha you hurt?” You’re okay? No wounds . . . Just b
reathe. Where’s the gun. Charlie? “Charlie, he—”
“No time!”
Yeah, why would you listen to me? When do you ever listen? Got to get Martha off the street.
“No . . . is Serena . . . did he hurt her?”
“I don’t know.” It’s okay, love. I won’t let anyone hurt you. That much, I can do. “Let’s get back to the café.”
“What about Aeron?”
Aeron? Oh Lord, bless her. Last thing she needs and I bet Charlie doesn’t listen to a word. Never listens to a damn word otherwise Joyce wouldn’t be the wreck she is.
“She’s got enough on her plate.” Don’t look at the body, honey. Got to get you away. Don’t need to see that. “Let’s take care of Zack for her . . . we’ll see her later.”
Martha was holding my head up ’cause at some point, I’d gone and dropped to the floor. I was starting to wonder why I didn’t wander around in a helmet. Would have been easier for everybody.
“You thought he had a gun?” I asked Earl. “I mean, the flash?”
Earl nodded. “Everybody has a gun here. It was just the way he reached back. Made me think he was going to draw.”
“Maybe Renee thought that way too?”
Earl and Martha murmured agreement as they pulled me up to my feet.
“Well, that’s definitely something.” I knew I had to learn more. I had people to ruffle up. “Do you think Hal would be open to talking to me?”
“Not right now,” Martha said and at my deep sigh, she pointed to the clock on the wall. “It’s gone midnight.”
“It is?” There was no way I could get in to see Renee now. “Well, I should head back to the cabin. I need to figure out a plan.”
“He has breakfast at nine in the morning,” Martha told me as I rescued my coat from the hook and headed to the door. “We’ll keep Zack here. That way you can work.”
I turned around. They looked up at me. I dived forward and wrapped them up in a hug. I didn’t care if it was appropriate and ignored my inbuilt reaction to keep folk at arm’s length.
“Thank you,” I whispered in a hoarse voice. “I promise that by the time I leave here, Seth will come clean.”
Both looked at me with such confidence that I felt raw. By blackbear, I loved these people, I loved Zack, I loved St. Jude’s. Heading out of the door, I tried to figure out why I said I was leaving them. Hadn’t I decided to stay? To quit CIG?
