The Courage Tree - Diane Chamberlain [66]
He turned onto the road, recognizing it as one he and Janine had explored the day before. Could they have driven right past the site of the accident?
He glanced at Paula. “Sorry if I’ve been hard to deal with for the past hour or so,” he apologized.
“Joe.” Paula reached over to rub his shoulder. “How could you be any other way right now?”
He had gone into the office for a few hours today, expecting to get a little work done before taking off for West Virginia to continue the ground search, but he’d been unable to concentrate. He’d kept his small office TV tuned to the local news channel and his phone smack in front of him on his desk, hoping to get a call that would turn this nightmare around. But it was Janine who called him, and she did not give him the news he’d wanted.
He’d stopped in Paula’s office to tell her that he was leaving right away for West Virginia, and she asked to come with him. Her offer relieved him; torturous as this drive had been, it would have been even worse if he’d been alone.
He drove slowly, negotiating curve after curve along the narrow road, the gravel spitting out from beneath his tires. Anyone driving too fast along this road wouldn’t stand a chance, he thought.
“Maybe the car Janine saw was from an old accident,” he said to Paula.
“Maybe,” Paula responded.
“I don’t know whether to hope it’s the Honda or not,” he said. “If it is, then…then I guess there’s no point in hoping anymore. Janine said the car was smashed and burned.”
“We’ll have to just wait and see,” Paula said. She looked down at his scribbled directions, which rested in her lap. “I think we’re very close now. Maybe around the next bend.”
They hadn’t seen another car on the badly paved road, but their sense of isolation came to an abrupt end as soon as they rounded the next curve. Parked at various angles along the road were two police cars, an ambulance, a fire truck and a tow truck. Joe’s heart climbed into his throat as he approached a barrier of orange cones across the road.
A young woman in a sheriff’s uniform walked up to the driver’s side of his car, and Joe rolled down his window.
“You are…?” the woman asked.
“Joe Donohue.”
The woman backed away from the car and moved one of the orange cones to let him through. Joe passed by the barrier and parked on the side of the road farthest from the cliff.
“There’s Janine,” he said, as he turned off the ignition.
Janine was standing with one of the police officers, and it wasn’t until Joe had gotten out of the car that he saw that Lucas Trowell was next to her. He’d wanted to rush up to Janine and pull her into his arms, but the sight of Lucas standing so close to her made him reconsider. What if she rejected his embrace? He had been torturing himself with the fantasized image of Janine and Lucas in bed together since talking with her on the phone the night before.
He and Paula began walking toward the crowd. Joe’s legs felt wobbly, and he was afraid to peer over the side of the cliff to see what was holding everyone’s attention. He did not like heights, but more than that, he did not want to see the car that may have carried his daughter to her death.
“Joe!” Janine spotted him. She left Lucas’s side to run up to him, her arms outstretched, and he was relieved by the warmth of her greeting.
“Are you okay?” he asked, holding her close.
“Not at all,” she said, letting go of him. “I’m so scared, Joe.”
“I know,” he said. “Is there any news? What’s the status here?”
“See those two guys?” She pointed toward a couple of young men who were standing at the edge of the cliff. They were wearing what looked like jumpsuits or some sort of uniform.
“Who are they?” he asked.
“They’re the emergency rescue guys,” she said. “They’re going to try to get down to the car.”
Joe then noticed that the men had ropes tied around their waists, shackling them to the bumper of the tow truck.
“I wanted to go down with them,” Janine continued, “but they won’t let me. I can’t stand this waiting!”
“Is there any more information