Rocky Road (26 page)
Caro didn’t like leaving Sadie, but she was anxious to do what Sadie asked after Sadie reminded her that sunset led to twilight quickly in the mountains. They needed to act fast. Sadie assured Caro that she had the Taser in her pocket, and she took to the tree line as Caro got into the driver’s seat and headed back to town.
The shadows were already darker than they had been when they’d first arrived at the cabin. If Dr. Hendricks knew Lori was coming, they would likely be at the campsite where he’d taken Sadie that afternoon. If Lori had taken Dr. Hendricks by surprise, however, she could be anywhere. It seemed wisest to try to determine why Lori was here before Sadie decided what to do about it.
Motivated by her plan, Sadie headed toward the path, scanning the area and walking on the balls of her feet to keep from making noise that would give her away. She reached the path and looked toward the cabin, standing completely still to listen for telltale sounds. She wanted Lori to be on the back deck or something, jostling the door or trying the windows. She heard nothing but the wind and the rustle of impending nightfall through the trees. Goose bumps broke out on her arms, and she took a deep breath to push down her rising fear. She turned onto the path, and two steps later she caught the faintest smell of campfire smoke on the breeze.
Without knowing it, Dr. Hendricks was leading Lori right to him. Unless he wasn’t trying to hide.
Sadie picked up her pace, but she could go only so fast if she hoped to remain silent. She scanned the trail ahead of her and stopped every few steps to listen. The thicker trees made the twilight darker than ever, and even though she wished for a flashlight, she wouldn’t have used it even if she had one. The smell of campfire became stronger, and she had a moment of optimism when she reached the place on the path where Dr. Hendricks had cut into the shrubs. Lori might have stayed on the path. Sadie had to step more carefully once she left the trail, but she was also trying to hurry. It was a difficult compromise to execute.
As she moved farther and farther from the trail, Sadie wished she’d paid more attention to how far off the path Dr. Hendricks’s campsite had been. All she could do was follow the smell of smoke.
She was several yards off the path when she saw the large rocks that protected his campsite. She picked up her pace, hoping she’d reached him before Lori had, only to be brought up short by the sound of voices. She crouched as low to the ground as her quads would allow and continued forward, faster this time. She was not as concerned now about being overheard—if they were talking, they might not be as likely to hear any noise she made.
“Lori, please,” Sadie heard Dr. Hendricks say as she reached the last bit of rock that separated her from his campsite. She knew exactly where she was now, but she didn’t know if this was the only way to approach the clearing. “I’m so sorry,” Dr. Hendricks continued.
“So it is true?” Lori asked, her voice heavy with emotion. “You cheated on me with her? Then you lied to me—to everyone—for all these years?”
Lori had put the pieces together. Sadie’s feelings of sympathy kept her from interrupting—didn’t Lori deserve an explanation? It might be good for Dr. Hendricks to hear firsthand the impact his choices had made on the people in his life. Sadie felt a little sheepish for being so concerned about Lori finding him. She wanted closure—was that so bad?
“Lori, you have to believe me when I tell you she seduced me. I still don’t know how it happened. But between the problems you and I were having and her ... determination to get her hands on the foundation—I don’t know that any man could have resisted her advances. And I tried, so help me, I did.”
“That’s not what she said happened.”
Sadie stiffened. Lori had talked to Anita about the affair? When?
“She said you were the one who came on to her, that you told her how miserable your marriage was, that you would do anything to go back and undo the whole thing if you could.”
“You talked to her?” Dr. Hendricks asked, equally surprised. “When?”
“She said that marrying me got your parents off your back, that you knew it was a mistake almost immediately but couldn’t stand the idea of telling your parents.”
“When did you talk to Anita, Lori?” Dr. Hendricks asked her. “You hadn’t talked to her before I called you yesterday, so when did the two of you talk about this?”
“I went to her house,” Lori’s voice was rising at the same rate as Sadie’s heart rate. When had she gone to Anita’s house? “I asked her point blank how the two of you met, and she didn’t even hesitate to tell me—it was at that conference in Atlanta. I remembered it—something was different when you came home, but you have always assured me, and I have always believed that you would never—”
“Wait a minute,” Dr. Hendricks cut in. “You went to see Anita last night? She was alive?”
“She told me about the two of you having drinks together and then going to your room.” Lori’s voice was definitely shaking with emotion. Sadie covered her mouth so she wouldn’t let a sympathetic noise escape. “And then you two hatched this plan for her to come work for the foundation after our divorce and make it look like you’d fallen in love after working together. And the whole time you were—”
“It wasn’t like that. I didn’t have a plan. I wasn’t acting out some scheme. It was all Anita—you have to believe me. I—”
“You cheated on me! While I was home trying to figure out how to save our marriage, you were with her, breaking all the promises we’d made to each other—all the promises we made to God that I thought meant something to you.”
“I’m so sorry, Lori. If I could go back and do things differently, I would.” There was silence except for Lori’s crying. Sadie mentally egged on the conversation, wanting them to get back to discussing Lori’s visit last night. Nikki had been there, too. So which of them had gone to see Anita first? Could they have gone together? Had Nikki lied to Sadie, or had Lori arrived after Nikki left?
“Nothing you say can change what’s happened,” Lori said, with a flatness in her tone that gave Sadie chills. “And you can’t undo what happened last night any more than I can.”
“Lori,” Dr. Hendricks continued after several seconds had passed. He began asking the very questions that were spinning through Sadie’s mind. “What happened when you went to see Anita last night?”
Lori began to sob, and even though Sadie couldn’t see her, she imagined Lori sitting on the ground, arms pulling her knees to her chest as she rocked back and forth. “She told me everything, and she loved every second of it. Then she just shrugged and said, ‘Not that it matters anymore.’ She turned her back on me like none of it was even worth feeling sorry about. I looked at the house you’d traded us in for, the life you’d started after leaving me and the kids behind, and I ran after her. She bolted for the front door, and that’s when ... ”
“When what?” Dr. Hendricks asked, urgency in his voice. “What happened?”
“She looked back at me, and she must have tripped,” Lori said, her voice softer now so that Sadie had to lean around the rock slightly in order to hear her. “She fell and hit her head on this metal table. I ... I didn’t know what ... It wasn’t my fault.” There was fear in her voice.
“What happened after she hit her head, Lori? This is important. What happened?”
“She started shaking, like she was having convulsions, and then she just stopped.”
“How long did it take for her to stop shaking?”
Sadie was surprised by the analytical question, but then again, he was a doctor.
“I don’t know. Not very long.”
Dr. Hendricks’s voice was tender when he spoke again. “It wasn’t your fault. She hit her head and died instantly. Probably didn’t feel a thing.”
“But if I hadn’t been chasing her, then—”
“She’d treated you like garbage, and she treated me like garbage, and she made a mess out of my life that is going to take a really long time to put back together. It is not your fault she’s dead—in fact, I should be thanking you.”
Sadie frowned—she didn’t like that sentiment one bit. As horrible a person as she may have been, Anita Hendricks’s death should not be viewed as a blessing. But maybe Dr. Hendricks was trying to pacify Lori or talk her down from the emotional ledge she was poised on.
“Now put down the gun so we can really talk about this.”
Gun?
A firearm changed everything—Lori had come up here armed?
Lori’s voice was shaking. “You can’t come back, Trent. It would have been easier for everyone if you’d just died out here. We’ve all mourned you already, and if you come back, you’ll just bring chaos with you.” There was a finality in her tone, a kind of acceptance of what she saw as the only option.
Holy cow! Sadie felt the outline of the Taser in her pocket. Could she really use it? On Lori? She hated to even think about it, but she carefully slid the device out of her pocket. She turned it on and was startled at the slight vibration it now made in her hand.
Needing a better view of what was happening on the other side of the rock, Sadie crouched down and moved slowly toward the edge, her back against the rock as she moved quietly and held the Taser as far away from herself as she could—she could only imagine what would happen if she accidentally tased herself right now. When she was still hidden, but close enough to get a view, she turned around and peered into the campsite. Another rock blocked her view of Dr. Hendricks, but she could see Lori standing on one side of the table rock, with her back to Sadie. Her hair looked unnaturally bright in the light of the campfire, and her feet were planted with her arms out straight, her hands holding a small handgun that was pointed directly at Dr. Hendricks.
“Lori,” Dr. Hendricks pleaded.
“Just stop it. I can’t see my kids hurt by this anymore. They think you’re dead, and if they find out you left them all this time, it will mess them up even more.”
“You’re not doing this for the kids,” Dr. Hendricks accused. “You’re doing this because you’re angry, and unlike what happened with Anita, this will be a cold-blooded murder. You can’t live with that.”
“I can’t live with you in our lives again! I can’t see you and talk to you and pretend I don’t hate everything about you, everything you’ve done. I can’t do that for one more day, especially now that I know who you really are. Now that I know the lies you’ve told me. What else have you lied to me about, Trent? What’s real and what isn’t?”
Her voice was getting louder, and her emotion was changing quickly to anger, pure and simple. Sadie was running out of time to intercede. She could feel Lori’s rage building in the air, as thick as the smoke coming from the fire.
“I’m not here to kill you. I’m here to make sure you never come back. You already left, so make it stick. Don’t come back.”
Sadie was somewhat relieved, but not completely. There was still a gun pointed at Dr. Hendricks. Lori was still emotionally compromised, and she’d still been at Anita’s house the night before. Maybe it was an accident like she said, but maybe it wasn’t.
“Lori, I have to come back. I have to make things right with the foundation and everything Anita’s done. I know you’re upset, but—”
“You’re not listening to me!” Lori shouted. “You can’t ever make this right with the kids, and that’s all I care about. Get out of here! Go away and don’t come back!”
The time to act had come. Sadie stood up, her leg muscles screaming from the prolonged crouch. She took a breath and moved out from behind the rock. Lori’s back was to her, but Dr. Hendricks quickly glanced at her. His beard hid any change in his expression, and his gaze quickly flicked back to Lori. “Uh, where are the kids, Lori?”
Sadie knew he was trying to distract her from Sadie’s approach, and she applauded his quick thinking. When Lori answered, Sadie took a step, hoping Lori’s words would cover any sound Sadie might make. “They’re with your parents—who also think you’re dead. Did you ever think about what that felt like for all of us? And what it feels like now to know that you chose to stay away? You chose to make us all feel awful.”
“I told you, Anita had been stealing all this—”
“I don’t care what Anita did! I care what you did!”
Sadie took another step.
“People know I’m here. Even if I did disappear again, someone would find me. The kids would know, and then they’d learn that you’re the reason I had to stay away. You can’t do that to the kids!”
“As if you care about the kids!” Sadie took another step, keeping to the shadows. But the closer she got to Lori, the fewer shadows there were to hide in. She still held the Taser out in front of her, but to use it she’d have to get close to Lori, and she wasn’t sure she could do that without being detected. If she could get within four or five feet, she could do a roundhouse and kick Lori’s legs out from under her. Dr. Hendricks would be on his own in getting out of the way should the gun go off, but if Sadie could make a surprise attack, there was a good chance any shot Lori pulled off would go awry. Once Lori was down, Sadie and Dr. Hendricks could hold her until the police showed up. She could use the Taser if she had to, but she hoped she’d be able to avoid it. “You’ve let them believe you were dead for two months, Trent.” Sadie took another step.
Sadie was about ten feet behind Lori now. She remained crouched over, trying to keep out of Lori’s peripheral vision. Her quads were burning like the St. George summer sun. “We’ve been mourning and going over regrets and holding you up on this pedestal, and all this time you were here. Letting us believe those things.”
“I was suicidal when I left, Lori. I was going to kill myself, and then I couldn’t bring myself to do it—because of you and the kids.”
Sadie took another step, but this time Lori heard her and turned around. Sadie squatted to the ground, dropped the Taser, and placed her hands in the dirt. She swung her leg forward and brought it back to her body in a long, consistent arc. Her foot caught Lori right where she planned, between her ankle and her calf. Lori screamed before falling to the dirt with a thud.
Sadie expected Dr. Hendricks to jump forward and restrain Lori. Instead, he shot past them, heading for the trail. Sadie looked in his direction and then back toward a disoriented Lori, who was trying to get to her feet. The gun was a few feet away from her, and Sadie lunged for it at the same time Lori did. They reached it simultaneously, and Lori screamed again, elbowing Sadie hard in the chest as she tried to get Sadie’s hand off the barrel. Sadie twisted the gun in an attempt to wrench it out of Lori’s hand, but Lori was stronger and her stakes were higher. She hit Sadie again, but this time Sadie lifted her elbow quick enough to snap Lori in the jaw. She kneed Lori in the side and finally got her feet underneath her and wrenched the gun away at an angle she knew would make Lori let go. Lori screamed again and then looked up at Sadie with a stunned expression. Sadie could barely catch her breath as she stumbled away from Lori, who remained on the ground.
“Why are you helping him?” Lori rolled to her side and grabbed a rock to help her stand. Sadie kept her eyes trained on Lori’s face as the rage drained from it, leaving an exhausted single mother of two, who was emotionally broken and mentally used up by everything that had happened in the last few days. Part of Sadie wanted to reassure Lori that everything would be okay and sympathize with the pain she was facing, but another part told her to run. When this was over, perhaps she would have a chance to explain herself and tell Lori that she understood why Lori felt the way she did, why her vision was skewed and her heart was aching so much she couldn’t see straight.
But Sadie couldn’t say those things right now. Lori wouldn’t hear them. Sadie couldn’t help her. She glanced at the Taser on the ground about five feet from Lori, but didn’t dare go for it because it would take her closer to Lori and she wasn’t sure she could wrestle her a second time.
“I’m so sorry,” Sadie said as she took another step backward, holding the gun by the barrel in order to avoid touching the trigger. “You don’t deserve everything that’s happened to you, but I can’t fix it.” She then turned and did exactly what her instincts told her to—run as fast as she could.
She was halfway down the hill when the sound of loud voices brought her up short. A bright light shined in her face, blinding her. She put a hand up to shield her eyes, and she finally understood the words that were being shouted at her.
“Drop the weapon! Drop it now, or I’ll shoot!”