Lost & Found - Jacqueline Sheehan [95]
“Something’s wrong,” Tess whispered. “My stomach…I can’t stand up, can’t walk.” She squeezed out the words as if the effort would kill her.
Rocky knelt on the linoleum floor and put one hand under the stricken woman. “I’m going to pull up, Tess, and get you out of the bathroom.” An odd part of her brain demanded to change the variables, change the location of Tess, to fight off death and disaster. As soon as she put an arm around Tess’s ribs, the woman shrieked, and Rocky knew a hot orange bolt of pain shot through the older woman. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but you are not dying in the bathroom. We’re going to get you out of here. I’ll call Isaiah and he’ll get the water ambulance.” She dragged Tess to the hardwood floor in front of the couch.
Rocky punched in Isaiah’s number. Her hands shook. The dog barked.
“Cooper, stop. I won’t be able to hear.”
After six rings, the answering machine came on and Rocky said, “Tess is sick and needs to get to the hospital in Portland. I’m calling nine-one-one right now.”
She hoped that the volunteer squad was home. “We need the water ambulance immediately. Isaiah’s rental house.” She hung up without offering details. She had seen the small fire truck go out on other calls. It was affectionately known as the Tonka Truck. Now, she prayed to see it drive up. She wanted to be ready for Peter if he tried to get in.
More than anything she wanted a weapon, and despite the dog’s unrelenting barking, she slipped out the front door, did not turn on the outside light, and pulled her bow and arrows from the truck. She left the terror of the unseen behind; this was not the terror of going into a basement at night or having a car go dead in a dim parking garage. This fear was about Tess and the dog and losing what she had left. She wanted to see Peter, and she was convinced that he was there in the darkness. She wanted to run over him and flatten him like a can. The adrenaline reservoir poured out and flooded her body. Rocky slipped back in the house.
Cooper had barked so hard that foam pooled at the corners of his black mouth and his body exploded with electricity. He emitted a musky scent and his challenge of attack filled the house.
Rocky grabbed her bow and notched an arrow. She held the bow in her left hand with the arrow pointing to the floor. The dog stopped barking for a moment and she watched him. He tilted his head to one side and listened with heightened awareness. He turned his head slowly from the ocean side of the house to the front side. He growled again and faced the door. Headlights bounced into the windows.
“Take it easy, must be the fire crew. We’re going to get Tess out of here.” Rocky turned her head to yell back into the house. “Tess, they’re here!”
She pulled aside the curtains of the front door and saw a familiar outline of a man. And there were no flashing lights. It was Hill, getting out of his truck. She immediately felt a twinge of relief. At the same moment Cooper went ballistic. Hill had parked at the far side of the drive fifty yards from the house. The dog threw himself at the door, claws digging at the wood, leaving jagged streams of exposed wood. Yes, it was Hill. She recognized the outline of his thick hair, his coat. What was he doing here?
“Down boy, it’s a friend,” she said.
She opened the door a few inches with her right hand, blocking the opening with her body so Cooper couldn’t get out. Then she grabbed him by the collar and opened the door the rest of the way. The bow in her other hand clattered awkwardly against the doorframe as she stepped onto the deck.
Hill stopped when he saw Rocky and the dog. And at the same moment Rocky realized that Cooper had never seen Hill before. So why was the dog acting like this? Then the torrent of facts hit her. Hill was the one who knew everything because she had told him. He knew about the dog being saved, about the house in Orono, about Cooper staying so often with Tess, about her friend Isaiah, oh God, Isaiah, he hadn’t answered his phone.
“Stop! Stay there or I’ll let him go,” she shouted. Cooper strained