Jack clapped his hands. “You tell her, Janice. I’m ready to get out of here.”
The light above the phone on the wall lit up. Lauren pointed to Jack. “You behave.” Then she turned to Janice, “And you. Don’t let me walk in here and find you giving him a sponge bath.” She smiled, “He’s a smooth talker, so watch out.”
Lauren picked up the phone. “Yes, this is Doctor Tremont.” She paused. “All right, I’ll be right down.” She turned to Jack. “It seems that our daughters are fighting over what cartoon to watch. Becky thinks she’s in control because she has the cast on her arm, but Sarah doesn’t seem to agree.”
Jack grinned. “It’s amazing how fast everything gets back to normal.”
“Thank God for air bags and safety seats.”
Jack noticed the catch in her voice and knew his wife had just pictured what might have happened if they hadn’t been so lucky in the crash. He had done it a thousand times over the past twelve hours. “Hey, Lauren.” She looked up and he saw tears in her eyes. “We’re all O.K.”
She came over and hugged him. Janice turned away to give them privacy, but she could not help sneaking a look the warm scene with a smile. Lauren let go and headed out of the room. “Now I’m off to make peace with the sisters. And I thought being a doctor was hard. Remember Janice, no sponge bath. No matter what he tells you.”
As Lauren left the room, Jack heard men’s voices in the hallway. They were arguing about something but he couldn’t make out the words. Lauren walked back in the room followed by Hugh Janney, Prescott City’s sheriff, and one of his deputies. They stood at the foot of his bed in an uncomfortable silence.
“So,” Jack said, leaning forward. “Was she dead?”
Sheriff Janney cleared his throat. “No Mr. Tremont, she wasn’t dead.”
“Thank God.” Jack lay back in the bed. “Is she here? In this hospital?”
Janney looked down at the floor and then over to the deputy. “Mr. Tremont, I’m not sure how to tell you this.” The sheriff ran a hand across his chin and then rubbed the back on his neck. Finally, he looked up and met Jack eye to eye. “We looked everywhere you told us. As far as we can tell, this girl you told us about doesn’t exist.”
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.