Lost and Found Groom

by McLinn, Patricia

  Around Daniel’s shoulder, Kendra saw Rufus standing outside the open door, with a telephone receiver in one hand and waving the other one imperiously.

  “Damn it,” Daniel muttered, then set his jaw and kept talking. “With Matthew and me. Including everything I am and–?”

  “Daniel! Daniel!”

  “Maybe you should see what he wants.”

  Daniel ignored her suggestion as well as Rufus’ shouts. “–even with the flying, and–”

  “Daniel!”

  “Dammit to hell, Rufus, in a minute!”

  “Don’t have a minute! It’s an emergency!”

  “It sounds urgent, Daniel.”

  “We’re going to finish this,” he vowed grimly.

  “Yes. We’ll finish it.”

  He frowned at her words, but she’d already started toward the building, and in another second Daniel followed her.

  Rufus had retreated into the office and was talking into the phone when they walked in. Spotting Daniel, he gestured him closer.

  “He just walked in, Sheriff. I’ll put you on speaker phone.”

  “Daniel?”

  “I’m here,” he said, none too cheerfully.

  “I know you’re not on the payroll yet, but we’ve got a situation.”

  Daniel’s posture didn’t change, but Kendra sensed his shift from irritated to intense as he sat on the edge of the desk.

  “Couple of hikers missing. Lady called and said her husband and son hadn’t returned from a hike in the Big Horns as scheduled last night. She said they’re experienced, didn’t have equipment to stay out overnight and they’re regular as clockwork about checking in.”

  “Any sign of their vehicle?”

  “We’re trying to spring somebody to check their PLS–place last seen–but our manpower’s tied up with the fires, including our search and rescue volunteers. It’ll take at least a couple hours to shift around enough resources for a ground search. Rufus says he’s got a plane fueled, ready to go. If you can spot ’em, we can send the ground team right to them. That could be important time when daylight starts fading.” The sheriff paused. “If you’re willing.”

  Without taking his eyes off Kendra, Daniel said, “Give me a minute, Sheriff Johnson. Rufus, take us off speaker phone.”

  Rufus complied, but made no secret of watching and listening as Daniel walked over to where she’d stopped inside the door.

  “You heard. It’s not my job yet, and I promised you the day. If you say not to go, I won’t.”

  She knew what his going–now and always–might do to her. But she could see what not going would do to him. If she were ever going to test her fear against his courage, it might as well be now.

  “Go.”

  A flame seemed to go on inside him. Not only for what he was going to do, but for her. He kissed her, hard and fast.

  “It’s routine, Kendra. When I land, we’ll talk more. I want the rest of my answer.”

  “I’ll be at the paper.” Working would be better than going home and trying not to think, and far better than staying here and waiting.

  *

  “Got ’em,” Daniel said in a satisfied mumble, as he sighted two figures in a clearing after some two hours of searching.

  Now he understood why they’d failed to return on time. One of the figures was stretched flat on the ground, with a leg wrapped in what appeared to be a makeshift splint.

  Into the radio, he said, “Far Hills, this is Cessna One Four Six One. I have visual on the two hikers. Repeat, visual on two hikers. One appears to be injured, Far Hills.”

  He gave the location coordinates. The standing hiker had spotted the plane and waved to him. Daniel gently tipped first one wing then the other, to let the hikers know they’d been sighted.

  Not bad for his first mission with Kendra’s blessing. Well, blessing might be too strong. At least she hadn’t given him an ultimatum. That was something to pin his hopes to. Along with the fact that she’d come to the conclusion he’d been banking on with that “last day” question. You and Matthew. If he could be sure–

  “Cessna One Four Six One, good going,” came Rufus’ voice, distorted by the radio, yet as capable of interrupting thoughts as his shouts had been of interrupting Daniel’s crucial conversation with Kendra. “We’ll get the ground crew headed that way.”

  But as he circled, Daniel saw trouble.

  Big trouble.

  The hikers were in a large area bare of trees but with low, dry brush scattered across it. That underbrush would turn to tinder when the fire hit. He wouldn’t want to be down there trying to dodge burning bushes. Especially not with an injured leg. The whole area sloped gently upward until it fell off as a sheer rock wall on three sides. The fourth side–the route they’d come in–was forested. And between them and where any ground crew would have to come writhed a snake of fire.

  “Far Hills, this is Cessna One Four Six One. Ground crew cannot reach their position. Unless you know another route.” He described the setup.

  Rufus confirmed there was no other route. “We’ll have to wait for the Forest Service to get a chopper in there.”

  “How long, Far Hills?”

  “A few hours, most likely.”

  Daniel took a closer look at the advancing fire, then checked his fuel gauge.

  “Far Hills, I’m going in. After I land and pick them up, I won’t have fuel to get to Sheridan or Casper. Arrange for another plane or helicopter to meet me at Far Hills to get the injured to a hospital.”

  “Negative,” Rufus said. “Daniel, I know that patch. You might be able to land, but you can’t take off. It’s not big enough.”

  “I’ll make it big enough. Listen, Rufus, one thing–let Kendra know I’ll be late.”

  “Daniel, you’ve got to wait–”

  “Negative. No time. I’m going in.”

  *

  “Kendra, something’s breaking.” Larry Orrin, editor of the Banner, looked even more harried than usual.

  She automatically stored the story she’d been working on and grabbed her notebook. “The fires? Are you sending a photographer?”

  Larry took her arm. “I’m not sending you–not to report.”

  “Why? I’ve got plenty of time to finish the food drive story.”

  “I know. It’s–Rufus Trent called and asked me to tell you. It’s Daniel Delligatti’s plane. He landed to pick up some hikers trapped up top by the fire and they’ve lost radio contact.”

  Kendra knew she held her breath, but for an instant it felt as if she’d held her heartbeat, too. Then she turned quickly and grabbed her purse. “I’m going.”

  *

  Rufus was talking into the radio, informing the pilot of the medical plane from Billings about ground conditions when Kendra and Larry joined the crowd packed into the office.

  “Have they heard from Delligatti?” Larry asked.

  A gray-haired man Kendra thought she recognized as a part-time mechanic for Rufus slowly shook his head. “Not a word.”

  “Quiet,” barked Rufus, fiddling with the radio.

  Then came the sound his ears had already picked up. A crackling on the airwaves that seemed to be broken into short segments.

  “Is that him?”

  “That’s him–it’s got to be.”

  “Quiet!” Rufus roared. “Far Hills, requesting repeat on transmission. Repeat.”

  “Far Hills, this is Cessna One Four Six One. Do you read?”

  Kendra dragged in air, along with the sound of Daniel’s voice.

  “Yes, Daniel, we read you. And we’re damned glad to hear you.”

  “Feeling’s mutual, Far Hills. Fire line must have interfered with the radio signal.”

  “What’s your status?”

  Kendra stared at Rufus’ lined face as she concentrated on Daniel’s voice–trying to read unspoken messages beyond their words.

  “I have both hikers. One’s injured. Compound fracture of the left leg. I can’t tell about interna
l. I had to take off west and circle south because of the fire, so fuel’s tight. Do you have medical transport at Far Hills?”

  “Plane from Billing’s in its landing pattern here right now.”

  “Good.” Daniel’s calm voice gave his location, some twenty minutes southwest of the airport.

  “Roger. How’d the landing go up there, Daniel?”

  “Not bad. The takeoff had rough spots, though.”

  Rufus frowned. “Is that going to affect your landing here?”

  “It wouldn’t hurt to have a fire truck. Gear might be messed up.”

  “Roger.”

  Rufus released the button that had allowed his words to go up to the airplane, and glanced at Kendra.

  “Why is Daniel worried, Rufus?”

  “Sounds like trouble with the retractable landing gear. Where he had to land up there, it’s awful rough.”

  “We couldn’t get a fire truck here in time–even if there were any to spare. Everything but the bare essentials is fighting forest fires.” Larry looked at Rufus. “You know that.”

  “So does Daniel. He’s giving us a head’s up.”

  Rufus barked orders to bystanders about finding fire extinguishers and where to position themselves. Kendra watched half a dozen men take off running toward the hangar and a nearby shed.

  The landing gear had to drop down. It had to. Her prayers should reach up and wrap around the tires and yank them down. “Can’t Daniel do something, Rufus?”

  “There’s a backup, but if the hydraulics are gone . . .”

  “What then?”

  “He lands on the belly of the plane. And tries like hell to keep the wings level.”

  “Why?” She had to know.

  “That’ll keep the plane balanced–less likely to spin or pinwheel. And,” Rufus studied her from under his brows, adding gruffly, “because if the tip of one wing or the other drags against the runway it’ll spark, and even with him low on fuel it could start a fire–the kind of fire we’d have a damned hard time putting out.”

  “Can’t you foam the runway?” Larry asked.

  “Sure, if this were O’Hare or Kennedy. Not Far Hills. We can do a little. But it’s mostly up to Daniel.”

  Kendra nodded her thanks for telling her the harsh truth, then dredged up a smile. “If anyone can do it, Daniel can.”

  A grin lit his sun-lined face. “Damn right. He’s a hell of a pilot.”

  Rufus stepped outside to watch the medical plane from Billings land, and Kendra followed as if he were her lifeline to Daniel. The plane eased in, then rolled somewhat cumbersomely off the runway. The pilot and a medic hopped out and jogged over to Rufus, shaking hands.

  “I heard your transmissions. I spotted him up top. He should be in sight any minute.”

  “Kendra!” Marti hurried from the parking area toward the knot of people.

  “Marti, how did you–”

  “Fran heard, she called me. What’s happening?”

  Larry and Rufus filled her in with a few brief phrases.

  “But he was going to take you up today,” Marti protested.

  “He did. We’d landed when this call came in.”

  “And he went anyway? Just left you here?”

  “She told him to,” Rufus said. “Not that the boy didn’t want to go.”

  Marti turned to Kendra, perhaps waiting for her to refute that.

  “Daniel said he wouldn’t go if I asked him not to. I . . . I couldn’t make the words come out, Marti. I couldn’t have lived with myself if I’d told him not to go.”

  “Oh, honey.” For a moment Kendra thought her aunt was going to take her into her arms. Then, as if the older woman saw how fragile her control was, she instead wrapped both hands around her upper arm. “This is going to work out. This is all going to work out.”

  “There he is!” shouted someone.

  All among the growing crowd, hands went up to shield eyes as they peered at a dot coming from the southwest. To Kendra’s eyes, the dot had barely resolved into an airplane when the medical plane pilot and Rufus Trent dropped their hands and exchanged a look.

  The medical pilot said, “I’m going to get my machine started, and out of the way. If there’s a fire–”

  “Yeah, go on,” Rufus interrupted in a quelling voice.

  The pilot shot Kendra a look, then sprinted back to his plane.

  Daniel’s voice came from the radio inside. “Far Hills, this is Cessna One Four Six One.”

  Rufus reached the radio in three strides. “Go ahead, Daniel.”

  “Instruments indicate landing gear has not deployed. Do you require a fly-over for visual confirmation, Far Hills?”

  “No fly-over needed. Visual confirmation, Daniel–gear has not–repeat not deployed.”

  “Understood, Far Hills.”

  “Daniel, there’s a fairly flat pasture north of town–landing on grass could be softer–”

  “Negative. The plane waiting to take this passenger to a hospital is here. Besides, the fuel won’t stretch. I’m coming in.”

  “It’s all yours, Daniel.”

  Oh God, what if not even Daniel could pull this off?

  An answer came that she hadn’t known was inside her until Daniel had found it–then she would be forever grateful that she had spent this morning with him. Hours she would have forfeited if not for his stubbornness.

  As if by silent order, the crowd edged closer to the open gate that led to the runway. She became aware of Marti holding her hand and Rufus at her other side, his big hand cupping her shoulder.

  “Don’t worry, Daniel’ll bring ’em to earth safe and sound.”

  My angel can fly and then come back to earth safe and sound.

  “About to land, Far Hills,” came Daniel’s voice over the radio, as calm as ever. “See you in a minute.”

  Please, Daddy, watch over Daniel.

  And then, just before the radio transmission cut off came the bleat of a siren from inside the plane.

  “Oh, my God–!”

  “No. That’s okay. It’s the stall horn. He cut the engine on purpose, so when it hits it’s not as likely to explode.”

  Explode.

  Silence again. All breath held. All the world suspended. The propeller still circling, but slowed slightly, changing the texture of the blur made by its passing blades. The plane carrying Daniel and two people she’d never met seemed to float, as if it rode on a cushion of air. As if her prayers and hope alone could hold it up.

  And then it dropped those final inches, squealing metal against groaning tarmac.

  The back connected first. Screeching, howling, ripping metal.

  The left wing dipped, then leveled. The plane skidded slightly sideways, all the while protesting the harsh brake of friction. The propeller broke its teeth trying to bite into the solid surface.

  It seemed the sound would go on forever.

  And then it stopped.

  For a second no one moved, echoes of metal screams crashing in their ears, while their eyes tried to absorb the stillness of the crumpled tube before them.

  “Hot damn! Let’s go!” shouted the medic. He sprinted to the medical plane, already taxiing closer, while Rufus and the others closed in on the maimed plane that held Daniel.

  Kendra was aware of all the action around her and its purpose, was even aware of what the voices said–Marti announcing she had phone calls to make, some assuring her everything was okay, others extolling Daniel’s bravery and his flying skill.

  She remained rooted to the same spot, just outside the gate.

  Never taking her eyes off the plane.

  Watching as the workers on the ground yanked open the stuck door under the plane’s high wing. Watching as they awkwardly scrambled to unload the injured hiker from the angled fuselage and started the gurney toward the awaiting plane.

  The second hiker emerged, a teenaged version of the injured man. Father and son looked as much alike as Daniel and Matthew did. The boy started after the
gurney, then reached back into the plane, shaking hands with the man still inside, the man who had rescued him and his father.

  The boy jogged across the pavement to catch up with the gurney, coming alongside it a few yards beyond where Kendra stood, and clasping his father’s hand.

  Kendra felt an amazing connection herself in that instant–to a woman she’d never met and probably never would. The mother and wife of these two strangers Daniel had rescued.

  The woman who could have lost so much if it hadn’t been for Daniel Delligatti.

  As if it were her own emotion, Kendra felt the unknown woman’s never-ending flow of gratitude that there had been a man like Daniel to rescue the man and boy she loved.

  I couldn’t have lived with myself if I’d told him not to go.

  And maybe she couldn’t have loved Daniel Delligatti as much as she did if he hadn’t been the kind of man who wanted to go.

  A man like Daniel . . .

  A man who was so much more than the sum of the parts he’d played. A man who wasn’t yet convinced of that himself. But she was.

  She had been from those first hours sheltering from Aretha.

  She had loved him in those hours–him, the person beyond the names or the history. Not with the depth and complexity she now felt, but with a clarity and simplicity she no longer denied.

  Daniel appeared, framed in the elevated doorway.

  He jumped lightly down. A familiar slash of white split his face as he grinned at Rufus, and shook the older man’s hand.

  She had a sudden, clear memory of Daniel’s hand on the piano the day he’d come back to Far Hills. Fingers positioned to play a chord, instead hitting the keys one by one.

  That’s what she’d been doing to him–looking at each part of him individually, when they really formed a chord. If any note were missing, it would not be the same sweet sound–and he would not be the same man.

  The others crowded around Daniel, and she could see him dampening their hyperbole. He and Rufus walked side by side around the plane, with their admiring entourage following. Daniel looked as if nothing had happened, as if nothing had changed.

  Until he spotted her.

  Daniel never took his eyes off her as he started toward her. She never took her eyes off him as he stopped half a foot away, not touching her.

  “I heard you said that if anyone could land that plane safely, I could.”