A Strange Little Desert Town - Chapter 13 (3/5)
A Strange Little Desert Town
Chapter Thirteen - But I Don't Want to Go
Part Three of Five
| previous entries |
~*~*~*~
“… Doctor Merrin….”
“Could Doctor Merrin please report to imaging immediately. Doctor Merrin.”
The intercom clicked off.
Work at the hospital went on unblinking. As though there had not just been a hostage situation involving one of their best surgeons, nor the fatality that had required the coroner to attend. Ash was nursing a fresh cup of coffee in a thin, paper cup. She held it wrapped in a napkin to prevent from burning her fingers.
Jacinta looked at her hands. They were shaking. My dad, she thought wretchedly. My own Dad. By my own hands. She tried to focus on the fact that he deserved it, that it was either Ash by his hand or him by hers. Gilbert had been acting out of greed & selfishness. Jacinta had prevented a murder. It was defence. It was.
She saw her nephew, Daniel, rushing down the hospital corridor towards them. He was in uniform. Not my nephew then. The police. Are they going to arrest me? she wondered. They should. I just killed a man. Jacinta watched his approach with both dread & relief. The first step to justice, she mused with melancholy.
“Ash!” Daniel exclaimed as he got closer. “Jacinta!”
He quickly closed the remainder of the distance between them.
“Are you okay? Tell me what happened!”
Daniel’s partner, Sam, caught up & bent over double, bracing his upper using his thighs, as he tried to catch his breath. Ash was almost singularly focused on her coffee cup. Jacinta dropped her eyes & stared at her hands, willing them to remain still. Daniel moved to the chair beside his sister. He put a comforting arm around her shoulders.
“Talk to me, Sis,” he said softly.
“It was Gilbert,” Ash said with a sound of finality.
Daniel’s head jerked up suddenly. “What?!”
“He was trying to kill Ash,” Jacinta’s tone was wooden. “Stupid, greedy man.”
Daniel stared incredulously at Jacinta. He knew that Gilbert had been holding a grudge since his Grandmother had died, but he’d never realised how serious it was. He should have set a watch on the man. Or perhaps he should have pushed Ash to get a restraining order against him. But he was an old man! There had been no suspicion that he was going to use anything worse than harsh words against anybody.
“He had a gun,” Ash said softly. The sound of snapping vertebrae was playing on loop in her mind’s ear.
Daniel was flabbergasted.
“I’m finished here detectives” the coroner said as she approached, removing her gloves. Her assistant wheeled the full body bag past them on a stretcher, heading for the exit. Daniel felt his eyes irrevocably glue to the stretcher. In his peripheral, he could see Jacinta’s do the same. Moving to the coroner, they spoke in hushed tones as to what she thought of the scene Daniel had briefly looked at before hurrying to find his twin. It was as she'd first thought. Death by broken neck.
Is that guilt? he wondered suddenly, as he sat back down beside his twin. He’d seen that pained look on too many suspects & drunk drivers over the years. He felt sick. Surely not, he thought, trying to ignore the hollow pit that was forming in his stomach.
Jacinta stood up. She looked awful. Almost sick. Danny let himself study her features for a moment. There was definitely something else wrong with her. Her skin was pasty; her eyes bloodshot & dark-rimmed as though she was sleep deprived.
“Jass, are you okay?”
She stared at him for a moment, & Daniel couldn’t help but think there was something else there too. Something deep. Dark.
“No,” she replied simply. “Do you need to question me right now or may I go home?”
“I need to ask a few questions before you can go,” he said sympathetically. “I’ll try to be as quick as possible.”
Jacinta nodded & sat down. Daniel couldn’t help but read her body language. She looked defeated.
~*~*~*~
Corey gripped the steering wheel & stared at the red traffic light. Never in his life had he been an impatient driver. Not even when he had lived in the city during college & before moving to be with Ash. Now, however, he was fighting against a sense of dread. A feeling of deadly urgency.
There were only two sets of lights between the house & the hospital. They’d both turned orange on his approach, but both times he was too far back to be able to continue through safely. The subsequent red lights each felt like an eternity.
I have to get to the hospital. I have to get to Ash.
His fingers drummed against the wheel. He looked both ways.
I’ve got to get to Ash!!
~*~*~*~
Wendy looked at the clock on the mantle above the living room open hearth.
Hurry, Jass! She thought while she prayed that the Stripe resolve was as strong as the rumours told.
~*~*~*~
Corey pulled into the hospital front car park just as the Coroner’s van was pulling out. His heart jumped into his throat.
Surely not!? Surely they’d not have asked me to come in if she was dead? Don’t they send cops to the house to tell you? So many things flew through Corey’s head at once. He realised that he’d been sitting, stationary, at the entrance for almost two minutes. He pulled himself together as best he could & entered the car park to find a space.
Unsurprisingly, he found one relatively quickly. It was outside visiting hours; there wouldn’t be many people parked here that weren’t staff. He took a breath & steadied himself. She will be okay. She will. They wouldn’t ask me to come down to the hospital if they were sending her out in a bag. They wouldn’t.
He got out of the car & locked the door.
~*~*~*~