Chapter 20

"Rob, I'm so scared, and so sorry." Laurel was crying as we drove toward the hospital. "I got tangled up with Todd, and I don't know how to get out of it." She just sat there holding her backpack on her lap, looking out at traffic. The cops had checked out her bag, as they had done with everyone in their group, and hers was clean. Mitch had noted that all she had in front of her on her table was a coke – no beer, nothing alcoholic. At first he'd been suspicious of her, because she'd acted so nervous, and was a little unsteady on her feet. But there was no evidence of drugs, nor anything drug related, so he didn't detain her. She had, however, been the one who tipped us off to what Todd had done to Renee's drink, so she would be called on for a statement, and to appear as a witness if it went that far. But now she was a mess. "Hhh ... how long do you think they'll hold him?"

I glanced over at her, "Todd?" She nodded. "Well, the officer in charge said that Todd's father was some sort of local big shot, so he'll probably make bail in a couple of days. Depends on what the DA wants to hit him with, I guess. Why?" We'd stopped for a light, I looked over at her again, a little closer this time, and saw that her makeup was running a little. From crying, I guess. Sure wore a lot of it, I thought, and I wondered why she was using so much eye shadow. Didn't remember that from the one time I'd talked to her in the hospital. "There's a box of tissues in the console, if you need them."

She sniffled, and said "Thanks," and reached for them, then dabbed at her eyes. She pulled the visor mirror down to check, and started crying again.

We were in traffic, and nearing the hospital, so I pulled into the lot before I looked at her again. She had a wad of tissues in her hand, dabbing at her face, and was just smearing the gunk around. I handed her a half-empty bottle of water, and she soaked another couple of tissues and that worked a little better. Then I said, "Laurel? Look at me." Kept her head down, and her shoulders sagged. "Laurel!" She looked up then, and I got a close-up look at the shiner she was trying to hide, as well as the bruise on her cheekbone. She'd obviously had practice in covering them, because I hadn't noticed them until she wiped off that makeup. Felt the bottom of my stomach just drop out.

Now, there just might be something on my scale of disgust that's lower than a man who would do that to a woman, but it would involve little kids, or puppies. I started wishing George had let me go on hammering on that lowlife snake. I just looked at her again and repeated, "Todd?"

Her head dropping again gave me my answer. "And the one they call Rabbit. He was there tonight. Not the one with the bottle, the other one. Was reaching in his pocket when that old guy pulled out his gun and put them on the floor."

I remembered they'd pulled a pretty fair sized gravity knife out of that pocket.

She went on, "Todd told him he could have me if he could figure out what to do with me." She brought the backpack up and buried her face into it, and just sobbed. I reached over and touched her shoulder, and she flinched, an automatic reaction, I guess, then she relaxed a little. "Sorry, Rob," she sniffled, "it's just that..." She started crying again.

"They hurt you anywhere else? Maybe you should see a doctor here in the ER. You have an insurance card from school, right?"

"No! I can handle it!"

"Laurel, it doesn't look to me like you're doing too good a job of handling it. At least come in and talk to Kaitlyn. Maybe she can help."

"Kaitlyn must hate me by now," she sobbed, "no way she's gonna want to have anything to do with me."

"Just come in with me and see her. I'll guarantee she won't turn you away. She already told me she's concerned about you being mixed up with that bunch. Said you didn't belong with them." I reached over again, and she didn't flinch this time, just sort of sagged back into the seat. "Laurel? Come in and talk to her. Please?"

I wondered what Kay's reaction would be when she saw us walk in to the ER waiting room. I had my arm around Laurel, not really supporting her physically, but more emotionally. Kay jumped up and came to us, eyes full of questions, but I saw no accusations there. Just concern, and trust. "Rob? What's wrong?"

Laurel blurted, "How's Renee? Is she okay?"

And at the same time I was saying, "Sweetie, I think you need to talk to Laurel. She needs some help, and I think you can give it to her."

To this day I don't understand how Kaitlyn and I managed to connect so quickly, on so many levels, but I saw the almost instant flash of understanding in her eyes, and that trust too, and she kissed me on my cheek, and nodded.

She turned to Laurel and said, "Yes, Renee's gonna be okay. They put her on an IV, and she's sleeping it off right now. Said she got a pretty good dose of whatever it was, but there was no alcohol in there, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. But it'll probably be a couple of hours, so I'll wait with her. The hospital called her family, and they're on their way." She looked at me again, "And they'll give the police a report on what they found in her system." Then she reached out to Laurel, and just collected the distraught young woman in her arms, and walked her over to a quiet corner of the waiting room. I stood there a minute, watching, then took a seat where I could see them, and started rummaging through the usual pile of old magazines on the table beside my chair. Looked back over a couple of times, and finally saw them get up and walk over the triage desk. Laurel was crying again, and bent over a little, like she was hurting. They talked to the nurse at the desk, then Kay looked over at me again and nodded, and went in with her. I saw that Laurel was hanging onto Kay's hand, like she'd never let go.

I got a cup of faux coffee from the machine in the corner, terrible stuff, and sat back down. Thumbed through a couple of old Popular Scie... magazines – typical torn covers – and was trying to deal with the rapidly cooling coffee, when a distraught-looking Black couple came in. Older guy about my size, a shorter and slimmer woman, followed by a rather large teenager, apparently their son.

They looked around the waiting room, then walked over to the desk, and talked to the aide on duty there. I saw her nod, and ask them something. The man reached for his wallet, apparently for ID, and showed it to her. She nodded again, and called for a nurse, who came right out and talked with them for a minute, before taking the woman on in to the treatment area. The man and his son looked around, and came over to sit near me. I waited until they were seated then went and sat next to them.

"Are you Renee's Dad?"

"You know my daughter?" he said, obviously tensed up and ready to deal with anyone who might be responsible for her being there.

"Only by sight," I said. "My fiancée came here with her in the ambulance." I didn't know how much I should say to them right then. Better wait for her mom, or even better, for Kaitlyn to come out and talk with him.

He still looked at me suspiciously, unsure whether I was a threat or not. "Your fiancée? She knows our Renee from college?" The way he looked at me and the way he said "our Renee" told me that this was a very close, very protective family, and not to be trifled with.

"Yes, a little," I said, "she told me that Renee is a recent transfer in to the school, and that she's been well-received there. Said she's a really sweet girl, and she likes her very much. We were on the other side of the same restaurant and saw what happened." I didn't think it was necessary to go into much detail yet. "Renee asked my Kaitlyn to come with her in the ambulance, so she did. I'm just here to pick her up, and I brought another girl with me. Kay's with her right now." I held out my hand to him, "I'm Robert Lister, Rob for short."

He hesitated a moment, still unsure, but then shook my hand and smiled a little, "My name's Robert too, Robert Hanford." He smiled again, relaxing a little, "Bob, for short. This is my son Joshua. They said she hasn't come out of it yet." He looked right at me as if he was trying to decide something. "And for some reason I get the feeling you're not telling us the whole story. Am I to understand that we have you to thank for caring for Renee?" I know he noticed that I winced when he first gripped my hand. He turned it over gently, and looked at it, and said "And that's what it took?"

"Well," I said, "it was mostly Kaitlyn, but yes, there was a bit of an altercation, if you want to call it that." I looked at him again and said, "But I think your daughter should be the one to fill you in on it, and maybe Kay and Laurel." I hesitated, "And probably George. He's a retired cop who stepped in to help. Otherwise there'd probably been more than this," and I held up my hand. Then I had a thought – George had given me his card, and told me that if I needed him for anything, to please call, and he'd do whatever he could. I had Mitch's number too, just in case, but I figured George would be the go-to guy for this.