The Storm and the Darkness (14 page)

When Nicolas said nothing, Alex offered, “Maybe I could try to call the neighbors. There’s only a couple’a houses out on the bend where she lives. The St. Andrews boys are good folks, so if they’re not snowed in I could ask them t’check on her.”

Nicolas brightened a bit. They were getting somewhere. “Perfect. But if her phone lines are down, won’t theirs be too? And for that matter, shouldn’t yours be?”

“I live on the other side of the island. They usually go down in sections. But yea, if hers are down, theirs will be too. Though, if they answer…”

“Then we know it’s not her phone line,” Nicolas finished, realizing suddenly the implications of Alex making this phone call. What would he do if something was wrong with her? Hopefully one of the boys could go check on her, but what if they couldn’t? He was getting ahead of himself, and he was never at his best when his mind went this way. Nicolas felt that same helplessness he did when his sister went missing, and he did not like the feeling at all.
Stop over-thinking this, you idiot. You’re acting just like Oz.

“Can you call now?” Nicolas pressed.

“Absolutely. And I will call ya right back.”

“Please do.”

Alex cradled the phone and let out a long, exhausted breath. He did not like liars, but lying was exactly what he was going to need to do. And do it well. He was taught never to lie, like all kids that were raised well, but even his mother recognized that there were times when a lie was not just better, but safer, than the truth. She had died believing it.

Though several days had passed, his nerves hadn’t recovered from overhearing Ana and Finn’s conversation. While his mind searched for the right thing to do next, as the storm worsened, his options became smaller in number. He was far from giving up, however. The call from Ana’s cousin had only quickened his desire for resolution. If Ana wasn’t communicating with her family, either, then Alex knew he had no time to waste. He only hoped he was not too late.

Alex took another deep breath. With one hand he squeezed the back of the chair, and with the other he slowly dialed the phone. Nicolas Deschanel answered after the first ring.

“Good news! Ana is just fine. She was a little shaken up from the storm, so she’s been staying with the boys. They’re taking good care of her, ya know, so alls’ well.” Alex hoped he sounded as convincing as he was trying to come across.

Silence and then finally a long sigh. “Thank…
god
.” Another sigh, and then a short laugh. “I know it probably seemed like I was overreacting, but I was just worried, with it being her first winter and all…” he rambled on some more, but Alex only heard bits and pieces because the realization that Nicolas believed his lie filled him with nervous excitement.

“Aw, don’t worry, it’s natural to worry about yer loved ones and she is lucky to have someone care so much. I’m sure once she is back home, she will give ya a call and tell ya all about it. Heck, I’m sure she’d call from their house, but long distance is so expensive these days…” As soon as it was out of his mouth, Alex regretted it.
Long distance is free you idgit!

A long pause from Nicolas Deschanel’s end. “Sure, sure, well I appreciate your help Mr. Whitman, and if you happen to talk to them again, tell her she can call collect.”
Damn. Well, at least he didn’t call me out for lying.
“Okay?”

“Of course, I sure will, Mr. Deschanel. Now take care.”

“Yes…you too.”

“Do be sure to call if I can be of anymore assistance.”
Please stop talking
, Alex chastised himself.

Once he was off the line, Alex sunk into the sofa and closed his eyes. He hadn’t lied about calling the boys. He started calling them the morning after the storm started, long before Nicolas Deschanel had reached out asking him to do it. Unlike Nicolas, Alex realized that even a day without communication with Ana was worrisome. He didn’t need nearly a week pass to trigger a call to action; he knew she needed him.

When the brothers didn’t answer his calls, Alex thought,
well let’s just try the Auslanders,
who lived on the other side of Ana, further around the bend. Much to his surprise, they did answer.

“Oh, Mrs. Auslander, so sorry to bother ya,” he said. “Yer phone lines are fine then, yea?”

“Oh yea, they haven’t gone down at all. Lucky year, Mr. Whitman. It’s only the roads right now,” she said.

Phones were fine there, which meant they should be fine at Ana’s and at the St. Andrews place. Yet, neither were answering. “Say, Gertrude, ya haven’t heard or seen anything from the new girl have ya? I was just wantin’ to check in with her and make sure she’s faring okay.”

When Gertrude responded, she lowered her voice, and it sounded like she was covering the phone with her hand. “See, I was hoping she had come to stay with you for the storm. The lights her in house have been off for days, and no one has turned them on at all. I know, I was watchin.’”

Ana Deschanel would not be the first person to struggle in a Maine storm, nor would she be the last. But he knew that getting her family involved would only worry them unnecessarily. The island was closed, and until it was open, there would be nothing they could do for Ana.

But now that Alex knew for sure that she was missing, his mind resumed churning. If he was waiting for the road to clear, he could be waiting awhile.
Enough thinking
, he told himself.
Inaction is doin’ nothin’ for that girl, and it may already be too late.
 

It was time for Alex to get involved.

Bullshit. Nicolas could smell it, but what he didn’t know was exactly what his senses were detecting.

Ana had mentioned these boys before. The younger brother she hadn’t met yet (
had been avoiding
, Nicolas thought). But Jonathan St. Andrews…Nicolas knew she did not like him. Their interactions had been very unpleasant; enough that she had taken the time to talk about the man’s rudeness at length with Nicolas.

So now he was supposed to accept that she was hanging out, drinking hot cider, and playing Yahtzee with them? Something about that was not sitting right. Then there had been a marked changed in Alex’s tone. On the first call, he sounded annoyed. On the second, he was overly eager to help. Nicolas felt pretty certain that Alex wasn’t being forthcoming, but what he could not understand, no matter how much he racked his brain, was
why.

He considered a
Deliverance
-style situation. Obviously they had to eat during the winter. Then he imagined a sex slave ring where she was sold to some Ukrainians. She was thirty, but still had her looks, and she could easily still pass for twenty-two in the right light. It wasn’t
that
far-fetched.

Even at his most imaginative, though, Nicolas had a hard time believing that they were keeping her as a food source or a means of income. But if not those scenarios, then what?

Nicolas made some phone calls. First he checked into flights, and although some were cancelled, they expected to have more operational the following week into Portland, and sooner into Boston. He then checked the Coast Guard, and they recommended he call the Casco Bay Ferry service. The man there told him that even if he could get a flight into the area, getting on to the island was a no-go for a while. Sometimes, he said, when the winters were
wicked harsh
, the ferries might not run at all. He told Nicolas there were some private services, but they were even less likely to run in bad weather.

Nicolas was stuck with information he was fairly certain to be inaccurate, and no means of going there to check for himself. No, he did not like this situation at all, and was beyond the point of denying how much it was bothering him.
 

His options: sit back and let the helplessness consume him…or find a way to get on to that island and help Ana?

Ana was still unconscious, a week after they found her. Jon didn’t have the experience to know when she might wake up, or what kept her from doing so. All he could do was continue to ensure she had fluids, nutrients, and regular monitoring.

Although Jon had seen patients at his father’s practice, independently–usually when Andrew was out of town or tending to an emergency–this was by far the most complex and serious case he had managed himself. If it weren’t for his father’s training, Ana might have died. Equally, if his father hadn’t been a medical cowboy with all his contraband equipment, Jon wouldn’t have had the needed resources.

Finn kept a vigilant watch. He still slept by her side, and spent most of the day either by her bedside or checking in on her. He had an old copy of
Walden Pond
that he read to her off and on. It was one of Finn’s favorite reads. Jon always found it funny that his proletarian, fisherman brother loved reading Thoreau, but he never teased him about it.

Jonathan knew there was no real medical evidence that talking or reading to an unconscious patient helped in any significant way. It was usually prescribed for the families, not the patients. But when Jon suggested it, Finn leapt at the idea. He was looking for anything that might make him feel useful.

The storm had worsened, continuing a few days after they found her. Finn predicted it would last a night, but it had lasted three, with no wane in intensity over its course. They were now buried in two feet of snow, with the roads closed for the foreseeable future. Summer Island was virtually shut down...and shut off from the rest of the world.

When Jon saw the number of the overseer come up on his phone display, he felt a sinking feeling deep within him. He knew why Alex Whitman was calling, and he also knew that Alex didn’t like him one bit. Alex was one of the few people on the island who did not accept Jon for who he was, and anytime they passed in town, he could see Alex taking his measure. He was pretty certain Alex figured him for a closet serial killer or some other sort of psychopath, and Jon did not possess the skills or the desire to set the record straight.
 

The funny thing was, Jon thought the same thing about Alex. While Finn laughed it off, claiming Alex was simply
goofy,
Jon could never shake the suspicion that Alex knew more about his parents’ murders than he let on. Most of the islanders felt sympathy for the man who had once, as a boy, watched his parents slaughtered, miraculously escaping. To Jon, Alex often bore the shifty, dishonest look of someone hiding something significant.

But while Jon had never gossiped about Alex, he was not certain that Alex had done him the same courtesy. There were others on the island who would take their animals to Jon’s office and keep an eye on him the entire time, their face betraying their real feelings about him. What did they think, that he had become a vet for some sick and twisted purpose?
 

People fear what they don’t understand
, Finn had said once.
You’re not an open book, so they can’t read you. And if they can’t read you, they fill in the blanks with their own ideas. Human nature is distrustful.

It’s really none of their business who I am
, Jon said.

Since when have people on this island cared what is, and is not, their business?

So yes, there were a handful of people on the island who assumed the worst about Jon. If there were more, they were better about hiding their feelings. The overly suspicious handful also included Jon’s neighbors two houses down: Gertrude and Hans Auslander.

The Auslanders were second generation Germans, both born on the island. The rumor around town was that they were also cousins...as in, their parents were first cousins. They had no children, and were both nearing seventy. They were nosy, assumptive, and extremely prolific within the gossip circles; many of the island’s rumors started with the couple. In the case of Jon, he was almost positive that Gertrude was responsible for ninety percent or more of the slander circling around about him. While was quite pleasant to his face, Jon knew what a malicious piece of work she was.

When Alex Whitman called the first time, Jon didn’t answer because he was indisposed. Then, Gertrude the Gossip called less than an hour later, and he knew something was up. When Alex called a second time, Jon’s avoidance of the call was deliberate, and that was when the sinking feeling started to set in.

It was pointless to tell Finn. He’d just laugh and tell Jon he was being paranoid. His brother, who in one breath could be understanding about the distrustful nature of people, in another would tell Jon off for being too distrustful himself.
Not distrustful...realistic.

Then, on the third and final night of the big storm, the phone lines
did
finally go down. Jon did not feel nearly as relieved as he might have expected. Although he would not have to agonize over the calls from Alex and the Auslanders, Jon and Finn’s only tie to the outside world had been abruptly severed. By the end of the week–with Ana still unconscious–Jon found himself wishing he had reached out for help when he had the chance.

There was also the matter of Ana’s head injury. It was not only healing well, it almost completely
gone
. Jon’s first reaction was to look at the other side of her head, to see if he was mistaken on the wound location. But no...it was there, in the correct place. Just...healed. It had the pinkish look of a forming scar.

He asked Finn for a second opinion.

“Look at the cut on her head. Tell me what you see.” Jon had nodded toward her, with his arms crossed.

“What am I looking for, exactly?” Finn gave him a quizzical look.

“Her wound! Describe it.”

Finn had eyed him oddly, and Jon could almost read his little brother’s thoughts.
He thinks I’ve gone off the deep end. That I haven’t had enough sleep.

“Ooookay,” Finn said and leaned over her. “Am I supposed to tell you the colors...or compare it to a shape...or?”

“Just tell me how it looks compared to when we brought her here!” Jon snapped.

“Oh! It looks great,” Finn said and smiled at him. “You did good Jon, it’s almost like the gash was never there.”