Chapter 2

Through the shooting pain in his head and most of his body, Harris could see the lights overhead and thought he could hear voices coming from a speaker somewhere. He tried to open his eyes without much success, so he stopped for a time, trying to get some idea of where he was. As he stopped fighting, his memory began to return and he could almost hear the crash of the truck hitting the car and the screams from Nicky just before she hit the window. He remembered now, with a vengeance. He was in an accident trying to beat Tom home. Oh my God! That was the plan now certainly gone badly wrong. Tom probably knew the whole story. Suddenly, he remembered Nicky and blood flying everywhere. How was she? Did she make it OK? God, his head hurt. The pain was so intense that he surrendered to it and passed out.

Hours later, he tried again to open his eyes and this time he was successful. He was in a hospital room and it appeared he was in traction and his head was in some kind of contraption so that he couldn't move it. He began to panic and tried to holler out but felt a button in his left hand. He couldn't raise his arm so he just pushed the button repeatedly until someone finally came into the room

"Well, I see you're awake and back with the world. I'll get the doctor for you and he can tell you all about it. OK?" This was from a face that briefly appeared in his line of vision. He must have fallen asleep again because an older man with white hair and a stethoscope around his neck awakened him. This was the doctor that had handled his case when he was admitted or so he was told.

"You are a mighty lucky man, Mr. Templeton. Your injuries are serious but none is life threatening. You are in traction for a broken neck, which we had to pin, and you have some internal injuries that have been repaired. You'll live a normal life once you heal. I expect you to be good as new in about 10 weeks or so. Do you remember what happened?"

"I remember pulling out of the Holiday Inn parking lot and seeing a truck. Did the woman who was with me survive OK?" He held his breath for the answer.

"The woman survived but she is in a coma. She had extensive head injuries and we have no idea of the extent of the damages. The brain is swelled severely and we have relieved as much pressure as we dare. We will just have to wait to see what happens. I will tell her husband that you are awake. He asked to see you when you woke."

"Is there any way that you could keep him out of my room Doc?"

"You wish not to see him?" The doctor had a small frown on his face.

"No I most certainly do not wish to see him. I want him kept away from me. Call the police if you have to."

"That won't be necessary. I'll leave word that he is not to be admitted to your room. Rest well, Mr. Templeton." With that, he left me alone to contemplate all I had learned since awakening here.

It was pretty clear that Tom would have read the letter that Nicky left him and he would have no idea that nothing had happened between him and Nicky. But he would also know that Harris had lied to Nicky about the affair and had set her up to cheat with him. That would be enough for Tom to do something to get back at Harris. It was necessary to keep away from Tom until he could get out of the hospital and away from here: someplace where Tom couldn't find him. With that, he drifted off to sleep again to dream bad dreams.

Tom remained at Nicky's side for about an hour before he finally rose and walked to the hallway. He did not stop at the nurses' station but walked down the hall and looked into the rooms as he passed them. In the fourth room he saw what he was seeking: Harris lay there with his eyes closed. He was in some kind of traction device but otherwise appeared to be better that Nicky. Tom walked quietly into the room and stopped at the foot of the bed. He just watched the sleeping man without speaking.

Tom had been standing there, lost in thought when Harris woke up. Harris focused on Tom and the fear that came on him was visible on his face. He fumbled for the call button and jammed his finger down on the button when he found it. He tried a few times to speak and finally got some words out.

"Tom, you have to know that nothing happened between Nicky and me. I wanted to but she couldn't go through with it. She loves you too much I guess. You can be mad at me since I was the one that lied just to get her in bed, but you know how I always felt about Nicky. It just got too much for me and I did something stupid. Please remember, nothing happened!"

Tom listened but paid no attention to the words. He just watched the focus of his anger and hatred. After Harris finished speaking, he turned away without saying a word and walked back to Nicky's room.

He was still sitting there watching her when the doctor came in to see him. He was agitated and wanted to know what Tom had said to Harris when he went into his room. He just looked up at him and said,

"Nothing. I said nothing to him."

"Mr. Templeton has requested you not visit him. He doesn't want you in his room. Do you understand and agree?"

He looked very upset but Tom didn't much care.

"I have no intention of seeing Mr. Templeton again here in the hospital. Please convey my words to him if you would. That should put his mind at ease."

That was the truth but Tom doubted it would give Harris any peace. He would see him again but not until after Nicky woke up, if she did. The two of them owed him the truth and he would have it. What he would do about it remained to be seen.

Harris left the hospital after three weeks with a neck collar and an ADR. He made the doctors release him about two weeks earlier than they thought best but he wanted out of that hospital. He wanted to be anywhere Tom wasn't. It was true that Tom had not made any attempt at talking to him after that first night he found him at the foot of his bed, just watching him, but he was scared of him just he same.

Nicky's parents and sister had visited her and her mother was there almost every day, but Tom had not been back to the hospital since that first night, or so the doctors said. He found that surprising since Nicky had not awakened from her coma yet. It had been just 23 days since the accident and the doctors said that it wasn't unusual for a trauma induced coma to last that long. They were not yet concerned. Tom, however, did not come back to see her. That was cause for concern to Harris but he thought he could avoid any confrontation with Tom if he kept away from him.

Harris called a cab to take him back to his small apartment. His car was a total wreck but he couldn't drive anyway. He had called his sister Shelly who lived about two hours away and asked her if she could come to stay with him for a while. She had split from her live in boyfriend so she was on the outs anyway so she agreed. She was pretty much useless, but she could cook and clean and wash clothes. So, it was better than nothing. He went in and turned on all the lights. The place was a dump but it suited him.

He checked the fridge and found two bottles of beer left so he made a note to Shelly to get more as soon as she got there. He kicked off his shoes and lay down on the couch. His side and neck still hurt but he could move slowly without too much pain. He had just settled down when the door opened abruptly, slamming into the wall with a crash.

"Well, I see you are all better and back in your shithole. At least one of you fucking backstabbing bastards is up and moving. Too bad your lover is still in a coma. Must have been your charms."

Tom walked into the room and stood over the couch. His demeanor was calm and relaxed but that could be deceiving with someone like him. The look he gave Harris was cold.

Harris tried to sit up but the pain of trying to move suddenly shot up his neck and into his head, leaving behind a splitting headache. He gently sat back down and tried not to move his head too fast.

"Jesus, Tom. Couldn't you have knocked before breaking down my door?"

Harris had known Tom all his life and knew that there was no use pretending innocence. Tom would do what he wanted and Harris had to trust to his brain to see a way out.

"Just wanted to stop and pay my respects. I never had a chance to talk to you in the hospital since they said you didn't want to see me. That hurt my feelings. I might think that you had something to hide." That smile was not reaching his eyes. It was like the man: cold and cruel.

"Tom, look. I told you in the hospital that day that I was at fault and that Nicky unfortunately believed me when I told her you were cheating on her. She had no reason to doubt me and she was really broken up over it. It was easy for me to manipulate her into going to the Holiday Inn with me. You have to believe she had no part in this."

Harris figured that if he could convince Tom that Nicky still was faithful to him and that he and Nicky had done nothing, Tom might be able to forgive and forget. Not likely, but the only chance Harris could see for staying alive.

As Harris was saying this to Tom, Tom moved behind the couch saying nothing. Harris finished what he had to say and waited. He couldn't turn his head without turning his whole body and that hurt too much.

What Tom did next came as a complete surprise. He grabbed Harris by the hair, pulled his head back so that he was staring up at Tom standing over him. The pain was intense and he broke out into a sweat. He grimaced but kept quiet in fear for his life. He felt a cold pin prick at the side of his neck and was confused until Tom moved his other hand into view, holding a shiny, serrated blade. There was a small drop of blood on the tip. The knife disappeared and the pinprick reappeared.

"I am going to ask you some questions. I expect complete truth or you will not see another day. You know me and you know I am deadly serious. Understand?" Tom spoke in the same dead voice he had used since he arrived.

"I understand. I'll tell you exactly what you want to know. Honest, I want to live."

"First question: Is this the first time you and Nicky have gotten together? Had you already fucked her before this?" Tom waited.

"Nicky and I have never been together in any way that you don't know about. That is the God's own truth. You know Nicky would never do something like that."

"Second question: Why did she believe you this time? What did you do to convince her?" Tom asked this with a little emotion, but Harris wasn't sure if this was good or bad.

"I really played that one for all I was worth. I cried and told her I really didn't want to say anything. I made her so curious that she begged me to tell her. I told her you were cheating with Phyllis. I told her I had watched you take her up to a room for a couple of hours."

He paused, waiting to see if he was still living. When Tom said nothing, Harris continued.

"She was already angry at you for telling her you had to work late but without any explanation. You never did that before and she was worried. I played on her concerns."

"So, you used my hard work and my need for secrecy against me with my own wife? You used what I had told you in confidence?"

Tom was now beginning to feel something again so he was becoming more and more angry.

"Yes, and I am so damn sorry. I just wanted Nicky so bad that I forgot about everything and just went for it. I thought she would just go with me this one time and never tell you about my part in it. I forgot that Nicky is so damn honest she could never do it any other way. She would have to tell you the truth and that's what she did."

"This is my final question and your life depends on it. What exactly happened in that motel room? I want details and I want it all. Don't even try to hold anything back. You are close to dying right now so lying will make it happen for sure. Tell me!"

Harris told Tom everything that happened, right up to the point where he had a finger inside her and was ready to make it happen when she stopped and pushed him away: the argument afterward, and Harris trying to change her mind. He told Tom everything right up to the phone call and the furious rush to get home to retrieve the letter. He told him the last sight he remembered: Nicky hitting the window and the blood everywhere. He held nothing back, knowing his life was in the balance.

He was so intent on getting all of the details right and making sure Tom knew that nothing had really happened and that his wife had called it off, he didn't notice Tom walking to the door. When he looked up, he saw Tom holding the door open and looking back at him.

"I won't kill you here and now because I still have fond feelings for Shelly. It would not be good for her to come in and find your blood all over the floor. I don't know what I am going to do yet. Say 'Hi' to Shelly for me."

Harris sank back onto the couch with a huge sigh of relief. He was going to live, at least for another day. Maybe if Tom cooled down, he would come to realize that Harris was just a piece of shit not worth the trouble of killing. Tom was cold but he was also practical, so it was a possibility. And, he had always had a soft spot for Shelly. As long as she was here, he might be safe. He took another swig on his beer before realizing it had gotten warm. He drank it anyway.

As Tom left the apartment where Harris lived, his mind was working furiously. He was pretty sure Harris had told him the truth, both about any past relationships and what had transpired that afternoon. It fit with what Nicky had said in her letter and it fit with the way Harris operated. He would have tried to convince Nicky to go along so that he could escape any blame. So, one thing out of the way.

It was also clear to Tom that Harris was going to have to die. He had done the one thing that he knew Tom could never forgive: he had tried to fuck Tom's wife. But since the Police knew about the letter and what Harris had been planning to do, his death would have to be arranged in such a way that Tom was not a suspect. That was not hard and it could be arranged without too much trouble.

The third thing that Tom had to decide was what to do about Nicky. She was in a persistent coma but the doctors all expected her to recover from that. Any brain damage was yet to be determined, but again the doctors felt this to be only a minor concern. It was just a matter of time. What bothered Tom was the lack of trust that Nicky demonstrated in her willingness to believe Harris's concocted story about cheating. That was a blow to Tom's idea of what their marriage represented to him. He had expected more from the woman he loved and to whom he had dedicated his life. Why would she believe a story like that without asking him directly? He had never lied to her before so she had no reason not to trust him.

Because of his background, trust was a very important thing to Tom. It was critical to trust the people you lived with and worked with. In his former life, you had to trust your friends or you could die. Tom took trust to a very high level. When he found that Nicky did not trust him that was a major blow to his ego and his belief in their marriage. He took his marriage vows seriously and thought Nicky did as well. But for her to consider that he could break them, and for her to think that it was acceptable to him if she broke those vows even in anger, was inconceivable. He could not accept that now and he doubted he ever could.

Since he had been the one to formulate the plans that even now were leading to a major expansion program into Europe, Tom began to make a plan to move forward. It was the best he could do with what he had now and he was determined to put it into effect as soon as possible. Tomorrow would be the beginning. If he could make this work, he could effectively solve all of his problems at once. With that thought, he drove home to his empty house.

The next day, Tom spoke with George Turner about making a trip to Europe to investigate sites and perhaps make an offer to someone there to head up the transition team. He knew some people there and had some candidates. George thought it was a great idea but wondered if Tom shouldn't stay with his wife. Tom explained that her coma was not likely to break soon so now would be a good time to go. So that was settled.

Tom next called Nicky's mother and told her that he was going to Europe for a week or so and needed to leave the twins with her. She was cold to Tom, angry over his failure to visit Nicky in the hospital. Tom told her that he had his reasons and that he would talk about it with her one day. She had her suspicions but let it go, agreeing to keep the twins.

Finally, Tom made a call to a contact from his past and gave him a job to do for him after he had left for Europe. He gave some preliminary instructions and information, making sure that only the subject he was concerned about was taken care of. He waited for a return call to confirm. He received the call and made arrangements to call his contact when the trip to Europe was confirmed.

This happened the end of that week when his dates for the trip were locked in. He asked for the job to be completed two days before his planned return to the States. He was specific about the job and wanted there to be no complications. None were expected and his contact assured him that he would be satisfied with his work. Tom thanked him and made arrangements for payment.

Tom made the trip and enjoyed it immensely. Europe was all that he expected. He found several sites that were perfect and he made an offer to an exceptional individual as head of the transition team. Everything went as planned. He received a call from Betty telling him the terrible news that his boyhood friend, Harris Templeton had been killed in an apparent robbery and break-in. Shelly had not been there at the time and was OK. It happened just a day before Tom's return. She conveyed her sympathies and knew that he and Nicky would be crushed. Tom thanked her and hung up.