Solemn Oath (26 page)

Shannon relaxed a little and allowed Lauren to help her with the gown and chatter a nonstop monologue about what they were going to do and how they would do it. For once, Mercy was grateful for Lauren's gift of constant verbalization. It kept Shannon calm while Mercy took supplies out
of the kit—fine-tooth comb, swabs, blood tubes, slides. It had been at least a couple of years since Mercy had done a rape case. Knolls was supposed to be a peaceful community with very little violent crime.

Shannon allowed them to photograph her face and other injuries, then looked at Mercy again. “Do Mom and Dad have to know about our visit the other day?” She glanced at Lauren, then back at Mercy. “You know, when I came to your office? And what we talked about?”

Mercy shook her head. “I already told you that's doctor-patient confidentiality. It doesn't have anything to do—” She broke off, and stared with growing dismay at Shannon's bruised face and apprehensive gray eyes. “Oh, Shannon, is that who did this?”

The girl shook her head as tears spilled down her cheeks. “I told Lance no last Friday night, just like you said. He took me right back to town and dumped me off without even trying to find my girlfriends who were cruising somewhere on the square. I had to walk home.” She looked over at her torn, bloodstained jeans as Lauren placed them carefully into the plastic bag. “Today after school this guy drove up and stopped on the road beside where I was walking. He told me his name was Cody, but I don't believe him. He was lying. He said Lance wanted to see me and he would drive me there.” She stopped talking and glanced hesitantly at Lauren. “You can't tell anybody this, right?”

“That's right,” Mercy said, “but you can. What happened?”

Lauren turned from her work and put an arm around Shannon's shoulders. “It's okay, sweetie. You can go ahead and talk to us. You can tell us anything you want.”

Shannon sighed. “I thought maybe Lance had changed his mind and he really did like me for myself.” Her face scrunched up, and she wrapped her arms around her stomach and bent forward. “The guy who called himself Cody took me to the woods and told me Lance was spread
ing it around their school in Radium Springs that I was…you know…giving in. He said he could prove he was more of a man than Lance was.” Her face puckered with more tears. “I tried to tell him the truth, but he wouldn't listen. He just started pulling at my clothes, and when I fought back, he hit me.” She gestured to the swollen skin around her eye, and the sobs once again rose to a crescendo.

“It's okay, Shannon,” Mercy said softly. “Take your time.”

“I got out of the car, and he chased me through the trees, and that's how I got all scratched.” For another moment she couldn't talk. She leaned into Lauren's shoulder and allowed the nurse to hold her and murmur reassurances to her until the sobbing hiccups subsided. She shook her head and looked up at Mercy. “None of the fighting did any good, Dr. Mercy. He kept telling me what a nice body I had, and that I should share it.” Her face contorted again. “You warned me about a lot of stuff, but you never told me anything like this could happen.”

L
ukas drove down a dark, quiet street accompanied by the rough hum of his out-of-tune Jeep and the mutter of his growling stomach. The Antonio's bread sticks and pasta that Mercy had left scented the cab with garlic. The only thing that kept him from ripping open the little foam box and devouring the food was a stop he had to make first.

He parked in front of the apartment building where Theo lived, stared for a moment at the dimly lit window of apartment C, then got out of the Jeep and walked toward the front door. He didn't want to do this. Social visits rated right up there with parties on his pet peeve list. He didn't even know why he was doing it, except he needed to make sure Theo was okay. So this was kind of like a spiritual chore.

He was halfway up the uneven sidewalk when the front door opened. Theo stepped into the threshold, still wearing a blue chambray shirt and work jeans, his outline darkened by a glow from the room behind him. It took Lukas a moment to realize that Theo didn't see him in the darkness.

Theo raised his hand to his head and combed fingers restlessly through his hair, took a deep breath and stepped out onto the concrete porch.

“Hello, Theodore,” Lukas said.

Theo froze, caught his breath, squinting as he stared out into the darkness. “Who's there?” He took another step out. “Lukas? Is that you?”

Lukas stepped forward into the light. “Yes.”

The breath came out of Theo in a rush. He looked down.

This didn't seem like any social visit Lukas had ever been on. “Are you okay?”

Theo stood with his right hand gripping the door frame for another moment. He nodded. “I think I will be now.” He sighed the words. “God really does answer prayers. Come on in.” He stepped back for Lukas to enter, then reached over and switched on a lamp as Lukas sat down on a chair inside the doorway.

From what Lukas could see of the apartment, it was the antithesis of his home. It was spotless. “What's wrong, Theodore?” he asked.

Theo shook his head and sank down on a secondhand sofa. “You caught me just in time. I shouldn't have rented a place so close to a liquor store, but this apartment came cheaper than anything else in town. I was just sitting here thinking about how good a few sips of bourbon would taste right now, and then I was praying, kind of halfheartedly, that God would keep me from doing something stupid. I was just stepping out to buy one of those little tiny travel bottles with a couple of swallows in it, but I know it wouldn't have stopped there.” He heaved a sigh and looked at Lukas. His face was a deep well of dismay mixed with relief and wonder. “God brought you here, didn't He?”

Lukas nodded, unable to hide his own surprise. “Yeah, I guess He did.”

“I was using all the arguments I could come up with to talk myself out of it. I was thinking about my date next week with Mercy and Tedi, and about how disappointed Tedi would be, and how mad Mercy would be. And then another
part of me argued that it was just a couple of drinks, and that nobody would find out anyway.”

“Oh, yeah? Have you forgotten the town we live in? This is Knolls, Theo, not New York City.”

“I know. I kept trying to remind myself how I'd be letting everyone down. I don't want to do that again. You don't know how much Mercy's suffered, and she didn't deserve it. I just want to be able to prove to her that I can do this.”

“You can't,” Lukas said.

Theo blinked at him. “What?”

“You can't do it. What do you think that whole salvation thing is all about, Theodore? You have to let God do it, because you've proved to yourself that you can't. Every single time you feel the temptation, you have to give it to Him.” Lukas felt like a hypocrite. How did he know what it was like to be an alcoholic?

But he knew what it was like to be a sinner. And sin was sin. “Ask Him to take the temptation away,” he continued. “Stay in His Word. Recite Scripture. One of my favorites is ‘I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.'”

Theo leaned forward, elbows on knees, hands clasped. “But that's the problem. I'm not doing everything. I belong to Him now, and I'm supposed to be a brand-new person, but I'm still struggling.”

Lukas shot him a dry grin. “You thought you'd be Superman.”

“I thought I'd be a holy Christian, not the same old drunk. I thought I wouldn't need the booze anymore.”

“But you still have a human nature, a human body. Accepting Christ as your Savior isn't like waving a magic wand and making everything perfect. You still have to learn and grow and be fed. When you first took algebra in school, you didn't pick up the book and automatically know the material. You had to learn it step by step.” Lukas glanced over at the side table and saw the New Testament Theo's
boss had given him. He picked it up and turned to a passage he'd been trying to learn in his life ever since he started treating patients. “You should mark this one, Theo, where God tells the apostle Paul in Second Corinthians, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' You have to keep acknowledging your own weakness daily in order to allow God to control your spirit. You give up your own will, and—”

Suddenly Lukas's own personal truth drove through his heart like a white-hot probe. He caught his breath at the discovery, and at the pain.

For him, the feelings that were growing inside his mind and heart for Mercy—and the powerful physical reactions that had helped drive them—were forbidden to him, just as forbidden as alcohol was to Theodore.

“Lukas?” Theo said, concerned. “Are you okay?” He leaned forward. “You were talking about giving up my own will.”

Lukas tried to swallow back the pain. This talk wasn't about him, it was about Theo. “You've got to give it to God,” he said softly. “We all have to turn it over to God. We don't control our lives any longer. He does.” The future Lukas had recently begun to dream about with Mercy seemed to disappear in the darkness. He was going to have to let her go. He couldn't think of marriage at this point, couldn't continue a budding romantic relationship with someone who did not share the Spirit that made up who he was. He knew it, had known it all along, but he'd conveniently grabbed at the fact that she seemed more and more open to discussions about spiritual things. It was almost as if he'd been trying to pressure her for his own selfish reasons.

And the thought of losing her now caused a pain reminiscent of the grief he'd felt when his mother died. He knew he would see Mom again. With Mercy, how could he know?

While Theo took the Book from him and read, Lukas felt his heart grow softer for this struggling man and his pain. And for the first time in his life he could identify.

And as he listened, he also argued with God. The answer remained the same. Let her go.

Was he going to be alone for the rest of his life? He should have listened to Mercy when she tried to break it off in the first place. She was right—it would have been less painful two weeks ago, when he hadn't even allowed himself to acknowledge the possibility that he was in love with her.

Theo put the New Testament down and sighed. “Lukas, I've started saving some money from my paycheck, and I'm going to try to pay Mercy back everything she spent to protect me from the embezzlement charges. I want to pay child support. I know she doesn't need it, but she paid me all those years. It's my turn.”

Lukas struggled to answer past the ache inside him. “That's good, Theo.”

“I sent the first money order today. She should get it in the mail at her office tomorrow. I just hope I can keep doing it.”

“Talk to God about that, too,” Lukas said. “Talk
to
Him, not just
about
Him. He'll be there when you ask.”

He would be there for both of them. Lukas swallowed his pride and realized he needed God's constant presence as desperately as Theodore did.

 

Ivy Richmond still left her front porch light on and the door cracked open when she expected company, even if it was just her daughter, Mercy. It was her own brand of hospitality, her way of saying welcome.

Mercy needed that welcome tonight. She needed a warm comforter wrapped around her, a steaming cup of apple cider and a good mystery novel. She needed something to
get lost in, to help her forget about Shannon's pain-filled face. Every time she closed her eyes she saw the bruises. Every time it grew silent, she heard the shock-filled voices of Shannon's parents.

And then she thought about Delphi Bell's life of struggle and the bruises she suffered so often from a man she couldn't seem to get away from. There were too many battered people in this world.

Mercy stepped into her mother's house without knocking and found Ivy and Tedi together on the overstuffed blue love seat, Ivy reading the
Knolls Review
by lamplight, and Tedi watching Steve Urkel getting hit by a pie on
Family Matters
. They looked so much alike. Like Mercy, they had Cherokee blood from a not-too-distant ancestor.

Tedi laughed out loud, a free, unrestrained sound that always brought a smile to Mercy's face. A commercial blasted past the canned laughter at the same time Tedi saw Mercy.

“Hi, Mom!” Tedi jumped up and ran over to hug Mercy—a wonderful tendency she hadn't yet outgrown. “Can we stay long enough to see the end of the show?”

“You've seen that episode four times.”

“Yeah, but I like it. Please? By the time we get home it'll be over.”

Ivy stood up and added her voice to her granddaughter's plea. “If you stay awhile, I'll heat you up a serving of my baked cinnamon apples with some frozen yogurt on top.”

Mercy shook her head and pulled at her already too-tight waistband. In spite of her lack of appetite lately, she was gaining weight. Blame menopause. “We can stay, but I'd better stick to water.” She walked into the dining room and plopped down on a solid wooden chair while Tedi returned to the television for the final segment of slapstick comedy.

Ivy came into the dining room and turned on the overhead chandelier. Soft, warm light revealed a spotless
kitchen, something that had been more in evidence since Ivy found herself with few daily activities besides watching Tedi after school four days a week. The kitchen and dining room took up only about a third of the great room, which held a computer area, exercise area and skylights over an indoor garden. Leave it to Ivy Richmond to grow life anywhere she was.

Ivy stepped over behind Mercy and reached down to knead her shoulders. “Tense day?”

The press of her strong fingers against overtight muscles felt great. “In a lot of ways.” Mercy sighed as Ivy continued to massage her stiff muscles.

“Did you hear about Bailey Little? He resigned his position as hospital board president. His nasty letter to the editor is in the
Review
today.”

Mercy didn't reply. She'd heard, but she was on emotional overload and didn't even want to think about that.

“Today was supposed to be your day off,” Ivy said, still massaging. “I thought you were just going to have lunch with Lukas and then go home.”

“Lukas had to work today, and a couple of my patients ended up in the E.R. Mmm…that feels great.” She sat for a moment in silence, letting the massage ease away some of the stress that had been taking over her shoulder muscles since this morning. “Mom…are you bored?”

“What?”

“You know, do you find a lot of excess time on your hands?”

The massage stopped for a moment, then continued. “Why do you ask?”

“You mentioned the other day that you were suffering from the empty-nest syndrome, and yet you're stuck taking care of Tedi after school, so you can't go to Springfield as a volunteer at the free clinic with your friends. Are you looking for something else to keep you busy?”

Ivy's hands stilled on Mercy's neck again. “I help take
care of an active eleven-year-old, and I love it. Do I act bored?”

Mercy shrugged, hoping that would reinstate the massage. It didn't. “Well, you sent home three meals for Tedi and me last week, you cleaned my house Tuesday and you volunteered to host a slumber party for Tedi and three friends Saturday night. I don't know, maybe it's a stretch, but you could be looking for a little more to keep you occupied.”

The massage regained momentum at last, accompanied by Ivy's skeptical voice. “I get the feeling you have some input for me.”

“He weighs about four hundred and seventy pounds, and right now he's totally bedridden. His sister—the only family he will claim—just came out of a coma at Cox South. That was the emergency I had Monday morning when I dropped Tedi off with you. Clarence and Darlene have no friends. Lukas and I have been making house calls on them this summer, and Clarence is finally on state aid, but it isn't enough.”

“You need money for them?”

“It may come to that, but right now, while Darlene is recovering, they both need a friend who is as bullheaded and tough as they are.” The massage got a little deeper. “Ow! I meant that in the nicest possible way.”