Fatal Distraction Page 19

  The house phone at Helen’s left elbow rang unnaturally loud in the silence. She saw the blinking light on the panel indicating the call originated in Oliver’s room. She hesitated to pick up the call. She didn’t need any more bad news. Twice more the phone’s electronic bell sounded. She reached over, lifted the receiver, placed it to her ear, but said nothing.

  “Mrs. Sullivan?” It was Steven, the medical attendant.

  “Yes?”

  “I thought you might like to know that your husband is awake.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Thornberry, Florida

  Sunday 5:00 a.m.

  HELEN’S HAND SHOOK AS SHE RETURNED the receiver to the phone’s cradle. Frank’s concern was plain in his eyes. “What’s going on?”

  “Oliver’s awake,” she said. As much as she’d prayed for this, she hadn’t let herself believe Oliver would return to her. Hope had lain dormant in her heart. He’d been comatose for almost four days. Now he was back. She pushed her chair away from the desk, rose, and ran to the bedroom.

  She stopped at the open doorway. Steven was standing near Oliver’s side, checking the monitors, the tubes. Her gaze traveled immediately to Oliver’s face. His eyes were open.

  “Oliver?” she said. His gaze moved toward her and his head turned slightly. One side of his mouth turned up in a crooked line that might have been a smile.

  Helen moved to his side and took his right hand. “Oliver, I’m so happy to have you back,” she said before she bent to kiss his cheek. “Welcome home,” she whispered into his right ear.

  She stood back and gazed into his eyes, as a thin stream of fluid dripped from their corners. Was he crying? “Oliver, it’s okay. Everything’s all right. Really. You’re fine. I’m fine.” He closed his eyelids for a while, then opened them again.

  Steven finished his work and stood aside a few moments. He glanced toward Frank standing in the open doorway. Helen noticed the grim look that passed between them before Steven said, “I’ll leave you two alone for a bit. I’ll be in the hallway when you’re finished.”

  Helen didn’t hear the squealing door hinges and knew the door remained open. To avoid being overheard, she leaned toward Oliver, whispered, “Honey, it’s almost Christmas. You’ve been asleep for four days. You’re home, in our room, but you’ve had some surgery. They’ve given you medications, so you probably feel a little odd. Don’t worry. You’ll be fine. I love you.”

  She kissed him again and felt the wetness on his cheeks and the stinging on her own cheek when her tears ran down behind one of the butterfly bandages over her stitches. “Oh, don’t worry about my face, Oliver. It’s fine. Superficial. Stitches coming out on Tuesday.”

  Helen continued to babble quietly, to touch him, holding his hand. Slowly, she realized he wasn’t responding to her. His hand was limp in hers. He hadn’t moved his head again. Had he moved it the first time? Or had gravity pulled his head to the side? He’d said nothing, made no sound of any kind.

  She raised up and looked directly into his eyes. “Oliver? Can you hear me?” she asked. He said nothing. She felt twinges of fear.

  “Do you understand me?” Oliver’s silence continued. Helen stood up straight, squeezed Oliver’s hand again.

  “Can you feel that?” No response. She squeezed again.

  “Squeeze my hand, Oliver. Can you do that?” She waited, but felt no squeeze in return.

  “Okay, honey. Don’t worry. We’ll get everything sorted out. I’m going to call your doctor. You close your eyes and rest. You’ll want to eat soon, I’ll bet. Maybe biscuits and red eye gravy? A sausage patty or two?” She squeezed his hand one more time. “I’ll go out to the kitchen and see what we’ve got. I’ll be back soon.” She kissed his cheek once more before she left.

  Steven and Frank were huddled at the end of the corridor talking softly. She joined them. “Did he speak to you?” Steven asked.

  She shook her head. “What’s wrong with him?”

  “I don’t know. Could be several things, it’s hard to say. I’ve called the neurosurgeon, but I got his service. It’s early, Sunday morning. If I don’t hear back from him soon, I’ll try again.”

  “Does he understand us?” Frank asked. “Can he answer questions?”

  “Let’s not put any more stress on him right at the moment. He seems stable, but I’m sure his situation is frightening to him as well as to the rest of us. Let me talk with the doctors and then we’ll see what we can do.”

  Helen stood by, listening, absorbing everything. She felt slow, groggy, confused. She’d prayed for Oliver to wake up, and he had. But now, he seemed unable to communicate with her. Could he understand? Or not? Had he traded the prison of unconsciousness for another prison of paralysis?

  Frank began giving Steven his marching orders. “Don’t call anyone else. Don’t tell anyone else about this, understand? Your shift is supposed to end at what, seven o’clock? Two hours from now?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Keep trying to reach the neurosurgeon, but no one else. Stay with him and do whatever you think you should do medically. Call me if there is any change. I’ll be back before you’re scheduled to go off duty.” Frank looked toward Helen. She nodded her agreement. “Can you do that?”

  “Yes. I’ll keep you informed,” he said, just before he returned to Oliver’s room.

  Helen turned and walked back to the living room with Frank following close behind her. She’d had a few minutes to gather her composure while Frank instructed Steven and she was ready. But for what?

  “This could be a serious security problem, Helen,” Frank said.

  “Beyond Oliver trying to kill himself again, you mean?”

  Frank lowered his gaze for a moment, then returned his stare to hers. “That’s right. If someone else tried to kill him and they find out he’s awake, they are likely to try again. They’ll feel threatened. Especially if Oliver actually does know who set the fires and murdered Todd Dale.”

  Helen’s anger bubbled over. She’d had as much as she could take. “He can’t talk, Frank. How can he be a threat to anyone? He can’t even squeeze my hand in response to questions. He may not understand anything we’re saying to him.” With each sentence, she felt a stabbing pain in her chest as sharply physical as an infarction. Was she having a heart attack?

  “But his attacker doesn’t know that,” Frank told her bluntly, anger tinting his tone, too. “Do you want me to tell everyone? You’ve got a journalist sleeping in one of your guest rooms. Want me to wake her and tell her? Should we issue a press release?”

  Frank’s tone shocked her, perhaps as much as hers had shocked him. Both were calm under pressure, both had trained themselves to be objective, unemotional. But the hours and the stress and lack of sleep had finally taken them to the brink of their control.

  They stood glaring at each other a few more moments until Helen turned away, waiting for her pounding heart to slow to a normal rhythm. After a while, she returned to her desk and attempted to pour more coffee from the insulated carafe, but it was empty.

  “I’ll get that refilled,” Frank said. He picked up the tray and carried it out the door to the kitchen. When he left the room, Helen did the only thing she could think of to do. She laid her head on the desk and closed her eyes to pray.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Thornberry, Florida

  Sunday 6:00 a.m.

  JESS FELT LIKE A CAGED TIGER and a hungry one at that. Since she’d arrived at the Sullivan ranch last night, she’d been cooped up in the building, watched every second. How could Helen live like this? Never alone, never free to move around as she pleased? Security necessary every second of every day? No thank you, Jess thought. Not for me. The idea alone was stifling.

  She glanced out the window. The calendar had passed the winter solstice, but it was still full dark outside, even at six o’clock in the morning. She was showered, dressed, and hungry. Maybe Mike was awake, too, and they could leave early, stop for brea
kfast, and get on the open road toward Dentonville.

  She sniffed. The aroma of fresh coffee seduced her like a practiced lover. Someone was awake.

  In the hallway, she discovered Mike’s door was still closed and she saw no light leaking from the crack near the floor. She passed his room treading softly on the hardwood floors to allow Mike and the rest of Frank Temple’s team the opportunity to sleep that had eluded her.

  Led by her nose, she found the coffee, a mug and a box of pastries. She snagged one of each to return to work in her room when she noticed the living room door open. She found Helen seated in the chair in front of the fireplace where they’d talked last night.

  “Good morning, Helen. Want company?”

  Helen glanced up. “Sure. Where are you going at this hour? There’s nothing open for fifty miles around here this early on Sunday.”

  “Couldn’t sleep. Kept thinking about Vivian Ward.” She wanted to be dainty about it, but her stomach growled again and she gnawed a big chunk off the cheese Danish and stuffed it in her mouth.

  “Vivian is an amazing woman. I’ve often wondered how she kept putting one foot in front of the other all these years. I’m not sure I’d have been as strong as she has,” Helen said.

  Jess wolfed down the remainder of the pastry and felt it settle into her gut. It wouldn’t be enough to sustain her for the day, but there were more pastries in the kitchen if she needed another. She licked the sugar off her lips and sipped the strong, black coffee before she responded.

  “You’re right. Vivian is exceptionally strong. I think she knows more than she’s told me,” Jess said.

  Helen smiled. “No doubt. Everybody knows more than they reveal to a journalist.”

  Jess felt the shocked expression that jumped onto her face. “You think of me as a journalist?”

  “Aren’t you?”

  “Well,” she said, a thoughtful tone in her voice, “I suppose.”

  “How should we view you? You travel the country, finding cases where you think the justice system is serving the criminals at the expense of the victims. Hoping to give the victims justice, you investigate and illuminate those cases by writing long pieces that appear in one of the most widely read magazines in the country,” Helen said without rancor, the Iron Cowgirl’s legendary composure firmly in place. “Sounds like a journalist to me.”

  Helen sipped her coffee and appeared to be relaxed when Jess knew she was anything but calm. Neither of them felt much peace at the moment. But Jess was starting to get a vibe that something had happened between the time she went to bed and the time she arose this morning. Helen knew more than she was sharing, too. What had happened?

  Jess shrugged. “You know about my son, Peter?”

  “Yes.”

  “Journalism is a job. It’s what I do to pay the rent. I try to do it as well as I possibly can. But it’s not what I am.”

  “Which is what?” The governor sounded curious, not rude.

  The intimacy of the moment encouraged Jess to share with Helen Sullivan something she rarely discussed about what drove her ambition. A truth that would resonate with the older woman, she knew, and maybe drive Helen to help her. “A mother with a child lost to her for too long. A mother who wants her child back.”

  Helen’s quiet gasp was explosive in the pre-dawn silence.

  Jess said, “A mother who can’t simply sit around and wait for others to take care of things, even if there are people whose jobs are to help her.” She waited a few moments and then continued, “Vivian Ward is one of those women, too. She’s a woman who helps herself instead of relying on others to do things for her. That’s why I know Vivian knows more than she’s told me so far. And why I believe she will tell me the rest, if I can find her.”

  Jess thought Helen might reveal what had happened in the past few hours to place the haunted look in her eyes. But she didn’t. Jess tried a different tact. “I’m worried about Vivian. If she does know more, then she could be in serious danger. If Tommy Taylor didn’t kill Mattie Crawford and Vivian knows that, Mattie’s real killer will want her silenced forever.”

  Helen’s worried gaze met Jess’s determined one. “What do you want me to do?”

  “Call and find out what’s in Arnold Ward’s affidavit now. That’s the first thing.”

  “And then what?”

  Jess wasn’t used to sharing her plans with anyone. Normally, she figured things out for herself and did what she thought she should do. Sometimes she was right, sometimes not. But this time, she couldn’t do everything alone. She’d already tried that, and Tommy Taylor was dead and Vivian Ward was probably the target of Mattie Crawford’s killer right now.

  “I think Arnold’s affidavit is going to reveal Mattie Crawford’s real killer. We have to arrest him before he hurts Vivian. Or someone else.” Jess said, realizing she must sound to Helen Sullivan the way Mike often sounded to her: young and enthusiastic, but melodramatic and inexperienced. Jess wouldn’t have taken the chance, but she needed Helen’s help with Vivian and she didn’t know any other way to get it.

  Helen rose from her chair and walked to the land line on her desk. She picked up the receiver and dialed a number she knew by heart. “Mac? It’s Helen. I’m sorry to call so early. Yes, I knew you’d be awake and on your way over. Have the techs opened the Arnold Ward affidavit yet?”

  Helen was silent while she listened to Mac Green’s response. “I see. All right. Yes. He’ll be here shortly after seven-thirty. Yes. Come right in when you arrive.” She listened a few more moments. Jess watched Helen close her eyes and rub her forehead with the fingers of her left hand, as if she had a serious migraine. “Thanks, Mac. I appreciate it.”

  Helen stood lost in her own thoughts for so long that Jess wondered whether she’d been forgotten. Jess coughed a little and Helen glanced over toward her. “Mac says they’re not done with the affidavit, but they opened it last night. He’s on his way here and bringing a copy with him.”

  “What did Arnold say about Crawford’s killer?”

  Helen sighed. “What you suspected. Tommy Taylor didn’t kill Mattie Crawford.”

  Despite being prepared for it, Jess’s body reacted violently to Helen’s words. The ache in her belly doubled her over.

  “Jess, are you all right?”

  Jess nodded and raised a hand. After a few long seconds, she began to feel a bit better.

  Helen watched her from across the room, and when Jess seemed to recover enough to hear the rest of Mac’s news, she continued. “Arnold’s affidavit was more than a year old. He wrote it just before Taylor was scheduled to be executed last year.”

  “Did he say who did kill Mattie?”

  “Only that it wasn’t Tommy Taylor.” Helen refilled her coffee and carried the mug as she walked to the windows and looked at the slowly emerging landscape.

  Jess noticed the sky lightening just enough to make out shadows of the trees and buildings outside the ranch house’s large windows. When she thought her legs would function again, she rose and joined the governor.

  “Helen?”

  Helen turned toward her.

  “It’s likely that Arnold learned more about Crawford’s killer in the past year.”

  “It’s also possible that Arnold was Crawford’s killer. Did you consider that? What if that is the thing Vivian knows? Do you really want to force her to tell you such a thing? Who will that help, Jess? Who?”

  Since David Manson suggested the possibility that Arnold Ward had killed Mattie Crawford, Jess had thought about it seriously. She’d considered the idea preposterous and offensive at first because Arnold was a decent man and Manson was the worst kind of jerk. But Arnold killing Mattie Crawford was possible. She’d had to admit the possibility to herself, before she could analyze it. She shared her analysis with Helen.

  “I don’t believe Vivian has that kind of meanness in her heart. God knows, I’ve been wrong about almost everything in this case. But revealing that Taylor didn’t kill their boy
after Taylor died will hurt Marilyn and Matthew Crawford because they will feel, as you and I both do, that they helped to kill the wrong man. That’s hard to live with, Helen. I don’t think Vivian would put that burden on her friends without a damned good reason. Especially if she knew Arnold had killed Mattie. Why wouldn’t she simply go to her grave without revealing the evidence that proved her husband a killer? Arnold was already dead before she told me any of this, remember.” The logic seemed flawless to Jess, even if she couldn’t prove any of it. Yet.

  Helen nodded, but didn’t affirm Jess’s thinking. Helen’s silence emboldened the younger woman to continue her persuasion. “Mattie’s killer is still out there, Helen. I feel it. You do, too. If you didn’t we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

  “Let’s say you’re right about everything. You’ve got some sort of plan in mind, don’t you? What is it?”

  Jess laid out her early morning plotting. Assuming something horrible hadn’t happened to Vivian before Tommy Taylor’s funeral this afternoon, she would definitely attend, and Jess would be there before Vivian arrived. She planned to approach Vivian and persuade her to tell her the truth.

  “I know she’ll tell me. That’s why she gave me the evidence. She wants me to know.”

  Helen sighed again. “And then what?”

  Jess bridled at the patronizing tone that she felt more than heard in Helen’s words. “I could shoot him myself if you like. I’m perfectly willing to do that.”

  Helen seemed startled at first. Then she laughed. “Oh, Jess,” she said. “You remind me so much of myself sometimes it’s scary.” She strode back to her desk and sat down, all business. She picked up the receiver and punched a couple of buttons. “Frank, can you come in please?” She replaced the receiver and looked up at Jess, a small smile on her lips. “Let’s let the law men do the heavy lifting, okay?”

  Jess grinned, too, realizing that Helen had rather skillfully led her to a much more rational solution. “Fine by me.”

  They spent the next twenty minutes with Frank Temple outlining the plan they would use to locate Vivian Ward, question her, and bring her into protective custody until they found Matthew Crawford’s killer. Jess felt much better about their plan than the one she’d come up with earlier. But she hadn’t been kidding when she told Helen she’d be happy to shoot the bastard. Nor was the threat an idle one.