Earthcrack: A Lin Hanna Mystery (38 page)

As she pulled into the parking space in
front of Wildflowers, she found herself fighting back tears.
 
She knew that she was tired and had been
under a lot of stress recently.
 
In
spite of all that, she felt like a schoolgirl agonizing over her first crush.

“This is ridiculous,” she told herself. “I
am a mature woman and I have certainly faced much worse than this.
 
I need to get over it—whatever
happens will happen and life will go on!”
 
She grabbed her purse and headed for the store.
 
She wasn’t going to let worrying about
Neal Smith make her an emotional basket case.
 
Tonight she and Sue could finish
organizing their information and wrap things up for now; tomorrow she would
head back to Wupatki and things would start getting back to normal.
 
To solidify her decision, she flipped
out her cell phone and called Danielle to say that she would be back by noon
the following day and to tell her to put her name back on the schedule.

***

It was almost five-thirty when Lin
arrived in front of Sue’s apartment at Walnut Canyon.
 
The first thing she noticed was that Sue’s
car wasn’t parked in its usual spot.
 
Sue must have had to work late, she thought.
 
Maybe she had to close up and they had
visitors right up until five.
 
She
will be in shortly, Lin said to herself.
 
I can get our meal organized and maybe make a pitcher of iced tea.
 
She had two bags of food from
Wildflowers plus her files of notes but she managed to balance everything for
one trip in.

Approaching the front door to the
apartment, Lin realized she hadn’t retrieved the key Sue had given her before
picking up all the stuff she had to carry.
 
That was smart! She mentally chastised herself as she leaned down to
place the bags of food on the stoop and reached for her purse with her right
hand to locate the key.
 
Suddenly,
she sensed a presence behind her; she thought she heard a step.
 
Expecting Sue, she had begun to turn
around when a heavy arm grabbed hers yanking it behind her back while pushing
her forcibly into the locked door.
 

Searing pain coursed through her arm as
she felt her right shoulder separate and her face was shoved into the metal
numbers on the front door.
 
She
couldn’t see her assailant but felt a rough, hairy face shoved against her
right ear.
 

A deep voice whispered, “You need to mind
your own business, bitch—this is nothing—things could get much
worse.”
 
At that moment—the
heavy arm wrenching hers seemed to loosen and she felt a searing pain above her
ear. Lin felt herself collapsing against the door, falling into the bags of
food.
 
Then everything went black.

Lin felt herself trying to grope through
a dense fog—she could hear a mixture of voices and there was a bright
light in her eyes.
 
Her head was
pounding.
 
What had happened?
 
Where was she?
 
Gradually a memory returned—rough
hands, a deep voice, pain—she became aware of a searing pain shooting
through her right arm.

 
Lin tried to open her eyes and managed
briefly, only to have them shut against the bright light above. She stirred
trying to get up.
 
She tried to
speak but the words wouldn’t come.
 
Firm but gentle hands pressed her back down.

“Be still,” it was Sue’s voice, “you’re
at the hospital in the ER.
 
Now that
you are awake they’ll give you something for the pain.
 
They need to do X-rays but they are sure
you have a dislocated shoulder and a nasty cut above your right ear—plus
a nasty scrape on your cheek—maybe a concussion.
 
Just try to be quiet.”

Lin tried again to speak but simply couldn’t
overcome the fogginess in her head.
 
She gave up and tried to relax against the hard table on which she
lay.
 
She opened her eyes briefly
when a nurse touched her arm. The nurse held the biggest needle Lin thought she
had ever seen. Before she could protest, she felt it plunge deeply into her
thigh.
 
Finding her voice briefly
she managed to murmur—“That hurt!” before she slipped into a blissful
void.

The next time she awoke, Lin was in a
dimly lit room and it was quiet.
 
She managed to move her aching head enough to look around.
 
It was dark outside and the clock on the
wall said it was after ten.
 
She was
lying on an elevated hospital bed and her right arm was secured to her right
side and across her middle with what seemed like miles of tape.
 
There was an IV line in her left arm so
she couldn’t probe her head, but there was a pounding that seemed centered
above her right ear.
 
Now that painkillers
dulled the pain in her shoulder and arm, she could tell that her face also felt
funny when she tried to move her lips.

Looking further about the room, she
noticed that Sue Gray was curled up asleep in a reclining chair that looked
stiff and uncomfortable.
 
No one
else was on the scene.

Lin managed to move her left hand enough
to find the call button and rang for a nurse.
 
Shortly a young woman arrived. “I see
you’re awake,” she said, “ how do you feel?”
 

“Like I was hit by a train,” Lin
murmured.

The nurse smiled as she turned on the
light over the bed, “Not quite, but you did have a nasty encounter with a
door.
 
Your cheek was scraped.
 
You also took a nasty blow to the head
and someone managed to dislocate your shoulder.
 
Your head has been stitched and your
shoulder is back in place.
 
You also
probably have a mild concussion—oh, and there is a sheriff’s deputy in
the hall who wants to talk to you.”

By this time Sue was stirring in her
chair.
 
“It’s Deputy Taylor, I’ll go
tell him you’re awake.”

The nurse checked Lin’s vitals and
indicated that she was ok in that department.
 
She elevated the bed a bit which made
Lin’s head throb more.
 
She groaned
as she tried to sit up more in the bed.

 
The nurse looked at the clock, “You can have more pain meds at midnight
but the doctor didn’t want to overdo that because of your concussion.
 
You should be able to sleep more after
that.”
 
As she turned to go, Billy
Taylor entered the room followed by Sue and Danielle who had, evidently, been
waiting with Billy.

Lin tried to focus her thoughts; she tried
to remember exactly what she had experienced.
 
She knew Billy was there to find out,
but her thoughts were still fuzzy.
 
Still, she did her best to describe what had happened—she felt
sure she must be
 
missing some
details though.

“Don’t worry,” Billy said, “ the doc told
us you might not recall anything, because of the concussion, so you are doing
great to remember as much as you did.
 
You can call me later if you recall any more details.”

Sue broke in, “ I already told him about
the blue SUV you suspected was following you earlier in the day.”

“Yeah, but he disappeared, that may have
been a coincidence,” Lin managed to say.

“I don’t think so,” Billy interjected, “
You told Sue you first saw the car at Walnut Canyon early that morning.
 
We think whoever it was decided to go
back there, knowing you would turn up eventually.
 
Apparently the man hid behind some
junipers, then followed you up to the door where he attacked.”

Danielle spoke up, “ Billy and I were out
to dinner when the call came—left a good steak on the table at Horseman’s
Lodge.
 
You owe us one.”

“I’ll make good on that,” Lin tried to
joke, “when they let me out of here.”

“That won’t be before tomorrow afternoon—maybe
not until Friday—depends,” Sue said. “ You’re going back to my house for
a few days until you are ready to return to Wupatki,”

Lin started to protest but did not.
 
She realized that, with her arm taped to
her body, as well as her other injuries, she wouldn’t be able to drive.
 
In fact, she wouldn’t be able to do much
at all like this.

Danielle quickly reassured Lin that
staying at Walnut Canyon with Sue was the right thing to do.
 
The doctor would release her to come
back to Wupatki when she was ready.
 

Billy spoke up, “ If it is any comfort,
we think we know who did this—at least who was behind it.
 
Raymond Tso is in custody—has been
for a couple of days—but he has a wide network of men who do his dirty
work for his loan sharking business.
 
We think he turned them loose on everyone he wanted to intimidate before
he was arrested.
 
Your guy just hadn’t
caught up with you yet.
 
We’ll work
with the tribal cops and probably have him picked up in no time.
 
You call me if you remember anything
else.”

Lin could only nod her assent.
 
Danielle and Billy left and Sue settled
back in her chair.

“You need to go home,” Lin said, “ get
some sleep.
 
I’m OK.”

“Never, happen,” Sue said, “ I’m staying
right here until I know you’re going to be ok.
 
The doctor comes in tomorrow to check on
you.
 
He’ll know more then about
your condition and how long you have to stay.
 
The folks at Walnut Canyon are ok with
my staying—besides, you can’t even feed yourself!”

“Not hungry,” Lin managed to say.

“Well, I am,” Sue tried unsuccessfully to
sound annoyed, “you managed to fall right in the middle of that beautiful meal
you brought.
 
A royal mess it was!”

“Sorry,” Lin murmured.
 
She felt groggy and so tired but she
knew she was too uncomfortable to sleep just then.
 
She seemed to hurt all over.

“That’s ok,” Sue got up and walked to the
door, “but now that you are coming back to life, I think I’ll go down to the
cafeteria and see what I can find to eat at this late hour.
 
Back in a minute.”

Lin nodded briefly as Sue exited the
room.
 
She lay back against the
pillows and closed her eyes but sleep still eluded her.
 
She tried not to focus on the pain in
her arm and head but it was hard.
 
She might have managed to doze for a few minutes, but she was awake once
more when Sue returned.

“I thought maybe I would find you asleep,”
Sue remarked.

“I dozed a bit—I’m so uncomfortable…”
Lin complained.

“Well, it’s after eleven now.
 
The painkillers will be coming soon and
you’ll likely rest better then,” Sue reminded her.

Sue settled back in the reclining chair
and drew a blanket over her legs.
 
She looked up and saw that Lin’s eyes were, indeed, still open.

“Neal Smith was here earlier,” Sue
ventured.
 
“He showed up in the
emergency room and was most upset.
 
In fact, he was in tears.
 
He
would’ve stayed but he had a class to teach from seven until ten.
 
It was about six already when they
brought you in.”

“How did he know?”
 
Lin was puzzled.

“I called him,” Sue confessed, “You have
his number programmed into your cell phone.
 
I thought he should know.”

“He wanted to come back after his class,
but the doctor told him you would not be allowed any visitors before
tomorrow.
 
The doctor said I could
stay with you tonight and Billy was here to learn what you remembered if you
woke up, but that was all.
 
Don’t
worry—Neal said he would be back in the morning.”

“I’m not worried,” Lin replied, “in fact,
I’m not sure what to say to him anyway.”

“I guess you’ll think of something,” Sue
murmured as she fluffed up the pillow she had stuffed in the chair and tried to
settle in for a nap.

Lin didn’t feel like talking anymore
anyway.
 
She lay back on her pillows
and waited for the nurse to come in and send her to dreamland.
 
Shortly before midnight the long awaited
painkillers arrived.

“No needle stick this time,” the nurse
smiled, “these go in your IV.”

Lin watched as she inserted the syringe
in the IV port and the liquid meds flowed in.
 
They were like magic—she saw the
nurse cut off the lamp and felt the bed being lowered.
 
That was the last thing she remembered.

***

It was almost eight o’clock the next
morning when Lin awoke.
 
Gingerly
she did a mental inventory of her body—the pain in her arm was now more
of a dull ache, her face felt a bit sore, and her headache was no longer pounding—just
a dull throb remained.
 
In spite of
the meds that had induced her deep sleep, she felt more alert and
clear-headed.
 
She still could
remember no additional details of what had happened though—her memory was
still foggy. Every time she tried to recall the events of the evening before
the details seemed lost to her.

No one was in the room when she awoke but
a nurse soon arrived with a cup of pills.

“What are all these?”
 
Lin wanted to know.

“This one is an antibiotic to prevent
infection with your cuts.
 
The blue
one is an anti-inflammatory drug—that’s to help with your shoulder—inflamed
tendons and such. The other is a strong pain killer.”

Lin shook her head at the nurse, “Just
the first two please—I don’t want the pain killer, I’m groggy enough already.”

“You may regret that decision,” the nurse
said, “ that strong IV dose you took at midnight will be totally gone in a
couple of hours.”

“How about a couple of Tylenol,” Lin
suggested. “I promise I’ll let you know if I need more.”

“It’s your choice,” the nurse replied. “I’ll
get the Tylenol for you but I’ll have to tell Dr. Barnes when he comes in.”

“Fine,” Lin replied.
 
She felt a little like a disobedient
child but she knew she wanted to be able to think clearly—to remember
more details of what happened—and she wanted to get out of this hospital.”

When the nurse returned with the Tylenol,
Lin asked, “Where’s Sue, she was gone when I woke up?”

“She left about seven this morning.
 
I think she was going home to shower and
change.
 
She said she would be back
about nine or nine-thirty.
 
You
missed breakfast—the doctor left orders not to wake you after midnight—but
I can get a tray sent up for you,” the nurse busied herself, straightening up
the bed and organizing things in the room.

When the nurse left to check on her
breakfast, Lin decided to “test the waters” and try getting up.
 
When she sat on the edge of the bed a
rush of dizziness overcame her.
 
When the room quit spinning, she reached for her IV pole with her left
hand—being careful with the line that was in her arm.

Carefully pushing the IV pole in front of
her and using it to help her balance, she slowly made her way to the
bathroom.
 
By the time she finished
there and made her way back to bed she was exhausted—but she had not passed
out or fallen.
 
The hardest part was
trying to balance with only one available hand—and that attached to an IV.