The Vanishing (7 page)

“Is that knot on her head why she’s unconscious?” he asked.

“I don’t know exactly. The bruising on her scalp is probably a day old, but she hardly ran through the swamp unconscious. Still, that much exertion could have exacerbated the head injury, causing her to black out.” She looked up at him. “Her breathing is too shallow, her pulse too weak. We have to get her to the hospital soon.”

He nodded and pushed the boat away from the bank. “I’ll go as fast as safely possible.” He lowered the motor and proceeded down the bayou as quickly as he dared.

Colette looked down the bayou then back at Anna, her face taut with worry. Max wished he could go faster, but the incoming tide combined with a northern wind was creating ripples across the usually smooth water. If he went faster, the boat would bang on top of the waves, jarring the already injured girl even more.

As they crept down the bayou, he scanned the banks. He didn’t want to say anything to Colette until they were out of Pirate’s Cove, but he doubted that lump on Anna’s head was accidental. The location he’d found Anna in contained no path leading to it, so he had to assume she’d arrived there by randomly traversing the swamp. The most logical explanation was that she was being pursued. Anna, of all people, knew the dangers of this swamp and would not have left the trail except by necessity.

Whoever was pursuing Anna hadn’t found her, which meant that he was probably still looking. The sooner they were safely out of Pirate’s Cove, the better.

It took an excruciatingly slow hour to reach Pirate’s Cove. As they pulled up to the dock, Danny Pitre stepped outside the back door of the gas station, carrying a bag of trash. As he lifted one hand to wave, Max jumped out of the boat and dashed up to the startled gas-station owner.

“I need help!” Max shouted as he ran. “Where’s your phone?”

Danny dropped the bag of trash and hurried inside the station. He pointed to the phone behind the counter and watched, wide-eyed, as Max called 911 and asked for Care Flight.

Danny jerked his head around to look out the back window of the station. “Is your lady hurt?”

“No,” Max managed before he rushed back outside and back to the boat.

Carefully he lifted Anna from the bottom of the boat and placed her on the dock at the feet of a dumbfounded Danny.

“I thought…heck, I don’t know, maybe that you guys was fooling,” he said, his eyes wide. “Is she…”

“No,” Colette said and stepped onto the dock. “But she needs care.”

“What happened to her?”

“I don’t know,” Max said, “but I’m going to find out.”

The sound of a helicopter echoed in the distant sky, and Max pulled out his wallet. “What do I owe you for the gas?”

Danny held a hand up in protest. “No charge, man. I hope she’s all right.”

“That was fast,” Colette said.

Max nodded. “They already had a chopper out this way on another call, but it wasn’t needed.”

He carefully lifted Anna from the dock and hurried as fast as he dared to the service road, the best landing place for the helicopter.

Colette insisted on riding with Anna, but they had room for only one. She yelled to Max that she’d call him as soon as she knew anything, and hopped into the helicopter. A couple of minutes later, they were above the swamp and off to the hospital.

Max pulled his keys from his pocket as he ran to his Jeep, but he drew up short when he saw something hanging from the driver’s side mirror. He knew immediately what the small pouch made of burlap was that hung there, even before he got close enough to see the markings drawn onto the coarse material.

A gris-gris.

It meant different things in different countries and cultures, but in this area, in this culture, it was a warning. Someone was letting him know that black magic was at play and he should quietly disappear.

He glanced up the street, where all the business owners and customers had stepped outside to see the helicopter. They were all looking back at him, their expressions full of curiosity. Had they seen the gris-gris? One of them must have placed it here, but which one?

He yanked it off the mirror and fought the overwhelming urge to toss it into the street. It was evidence in an investigation, so despite the distasteful feeling it gave him, he tossed it on the floorboard in the back of his Jeep before jumping into the driver’s seat and leaving Pirate’s Cove as fast as possible.

Chapter Six

Colette looked at the monitors the Care Flight paramedics had hooked to Anna and frowned. Her blood pressure was dangerously low and dropping more every minute. Her normally tanned skin was so pale that the black-and-purple bruise on her forehead almost seemed to glow.

The paramedics kept the hospital alerted to Anna’s condition, and the emergency room was prepared for her arrival. Colette hoped it wasn’t too late. She had no idea how long Anna had been unconscious, but from the ragged appearance of her clothes and the dried blood crusted around the scratches on her bare skin, it looked as if she’d been in the swamp for a while.

Why was she in that spot, with no sign of life around her? Had she lost her way and tripped, hitting her head on the way down? Max had asked only about her condition but hadn’t commented on how it might have happened. If he had any ideas, he’d kept them to himself.

An emergency-room crew was waiting for them at the landing site on top of the hospital. They transferred Anna to a gurney and rushed her down to the emergency room. Colette insisted on accompanying them, explaining on the way that she was a trauma nurse at another hospital and Anna’s supervisor.

In the emergency room, she found a place where she wouldn’t be in the way and let the doctors and nurses do their job. As much as it pained her to stand by while other people did her job, she knew that staff who worked together every day were more efficient and knew each other’s rhythm. Her trying to help would only hinder.

So she stood to the side, hands clenched, and prayed for good news as the trauma team worked.

Twenty minutes later, the doctor nodded to his team and stepped over to where Colette stood. “She’s stable for now, and I can’t find any sign of injury other than the blow to her head,” the doctor said.

Relief coursed through her. “Thank goodness.”

“I know I don’t have to tell you the risks associated with her condition or that we’re not out of the woods.”

She nodded. “I know you’ve done everything you can.”

“We’ll keep her in ICU until she awakens, but you’re welcome to stay, if you’d like. I can have one of my staff bring you a recliner. Not the most comfortable chair in the world, but it will do in a pinch.”

“I’d love to stay, and I would appreciate even an uncomfortable chair.”

“Well, she could do worse than a trauma nurse watching over her while she sleeps. I’ll check back in before my shift is over,” he said then left the room.

The nurses finished up their work and left as well, but one returned a couple of minutes later pushing a lopsided recliner. “It’s a bit beaten up,” the nurse said.

“It’s fine. Thank you.”

Colette pulled the chair close to Anna’s bed, where she had a clear view of her friend’s face and the monitors, then collapsed on it, the worn-out cushions sinking around her like a beanbag. Stress and exhaustion had worn her body and mind to a frazzle. She’d been running on adrenaline for so long that she could feel it leaving her body.

Anna’s condition wasn’t great, but it wasn’t life-and-death. Within the next twenty-four hours, Anna should awaken. When they could question her and test her motor skills and physical control, they’d know better the extent of the injury and could make a better estimate of what the short- and long-term effects might be.

The most important thing was that she was alive and safe.

Colette’s mind raced with all the activity of the day. That morning, she’d wondered if anything would ever be accomplished with Max, who clearly didn’t think her case was worth the time spent. But he’d pursued every avenue like the professional Alex had assured her he was and had found Anna in one day. Granted, there were a million unanswered questions about why Anna had left and what had happened to her, but Max had finished the job he’d been hired to do.

A wave of disappointment washed over her as she realized exactly what finding Anna meant—that she had no reason to see Max again. Perhaps once to wrap up the finer points, but then, Alex may handle that along with the billing.

It was hard for Colette to wrap her mind around the fact that she’d grown so used to leaning on him in such a short time, even though it felt as if they’d lived a lifetime in a single day. He was so guarded, so private, that it had been hard to learn anything much about him, but when she’d been able to peek through the veneer into the man himself, she always liked what she saw.

Max Duhon was a strong, capable man with a good heart. He was also the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen, and she’d be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that she was hugely attracted to him on a physical level. Maybe it had just been too long since she’d enjoyed the company of an attractive man, the feel of a man’s bare skin pressed against hers.

She sighed. Whom was she kidding? It wasn’t a drought causing her attraction to Max. It was Max causing her attraction to Max. She’d have to be blind not to be attracted to him.

It was just as well that the investigation had wrapped up so quickly. The last thing she needed was to get tangled up with another emotionally unavailable man, and Max showed all the signs of being exactly that. If only she could find a nice, balding accountant with a potbelly attractive, all her relationship problems would be solved.

She rose and checked Anna’s charts and the machine readouts again, just to break her mind off from thinking about the unattainable Max. A couple of minutes later, she sat back down and closed her eyes, just to rest them.

She didn’t even remember falling asleep.

* * *

H
OLT
C
HAMBERLAIN STEPPED
through the front door of his cabin and gave his wife a big smile. Alex stood in the kitchen, a place he thankfully didn’t find her often. She frowned over a pot of something red and bubbly.

“I see you’re trying to cook again.”

Alex tasted a bit of the red stuff and shook her head. “It’s just spaghetti sauce. It comes out of a jar, for goodness’ sake. How do I manage to mess that up?”

Holt laughed and stepped up behind her, then wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled her neck. “You have talents that far outweigh cooking.”

She turned around to kiss him and then smiled. “I don’t want Max to think I’m slacking, letting you prepare all the meals.”

“I see. This isn’t about wanting to pull your weight or some burning desire to be a better cook. It’s about impressing my brother. Should I be jealous?”

“Probably. He’s gorgeous.”

Holt grinned. “All the girls always thought so.”

“He did break a lot of hearts in Vodoun.” Alex inclined her head toward the kitchen window. “He’s outside. Said he was going out to the dock to think. That was over an hour ago.”

“Hmm, you thinking something’s up?”

“I think he’s at odd ends, trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life.”

“I don’t understand. He’s here working with us.”

Alex sighed. “You men are all the same. I don’t think it’s his profession that’s troubling him. Correction—I don’t think it’s his profession that’s troubling him the most. There’s far more to life than what you do to make a living, which is often the easy part.”

Holt looked out the window to the dock. He could just make out the top of Max’s head in the fading sunlight. “I guess I should talk to him, huh?”

She kissed him again. “That’s why I love you so much. You always know the right thing to say.”

He opened a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of Tums. “I’ll get him ready for dinner while I’m there.”

She flicked a dish towel at him and he hurried out the back door, laughing.

If anyone had told Holt when he planned his brief return to Vodoun that he’d not only end up staying and opening a business but settling down in marital bliss with his high-school sweetheart, he would have told them they were crazy. But now he couldn’t imagine any other life. He had rewarding work, a beautiful place to live, and the most incredible woman in the world working beside him every day and, even better, lying beside him each night.

A little indigestion now and then was a small price to pay for such a good life.

He walked down the path to the dock, thinking about Max as he walked. If only he could convince his brother that change could be the thing that made his life complete. That the need to distance himself from everyone would only hurt him in the end. But Holt knew he needed to tread lightly with his advice. Max was a grown man and definitely his own man. He respected Holt and had always looked up to him, but he wouldn’t appreciate Holt poking into his personal life uninvited.

The worn wooden slats of the dock creaked as Holt stepped on them, and Max turned slightly to see who was approaching. He gave Holt a wave but didn’t seem overly enthusiastic to see him.

Holt sat on a pylon diagonal to Max and tossed him the antacids, hoping to lighten the strain he could see on his brother’s face. “Alex is cooking tonight.”

Max looked down at the bottle and smiled. “Did she see you leave the house with these?”

“Yeah.”

“And she didn’t shoot you?”

“She’s a very honest woman and admits her weaknesses, but she may have hit me with a dish towel on my way out.”

Max opened the bottle and shook a couple of the tablets onto his palm. “I hate to agree with both of you, as it doesn’t seem polite since you’re giving me a place to stay, but my stomach lining appreciates your looking out.”

“No problem. I hear congratulations are in order. You keep solving cases in one day, you’re going to make the agency look good or my own work look really bad.”

Max shrugged. “It wasn’t any big deal. I did everything you would have done. We just lucked out finding Anna in the swamp. I don’t think she would have made it much longer.”