Part 32 (2/2)
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”Much better,” Delores said, and she sounded very relieved. ”And while you're there, you can put on the coffee. It would be nice to have a cup when the fireworks are over. And thaw that coffee cake I stuck in the freezer. Ten minutes in the microwave on defrost should do it. And would you carry out the garbage on your way back? I forgot to do it when I left.”
”Sure, Mother,” Hannah said, grabbing Mich.e.l.le's hand and making a quick getaway before their mother could think of more tasks for them to do.
Chapter Twenty-Eight.
64VT Te're done,” Hannah said, gathering up the sweater W they'd initially been sent to fetch and switching on the coffeepot. ”Are you ready?”
”I'm ready.” Mich.e.l.le came out of her room wearing a sweats.h.i.+rt and a pair of jeans.
Hannah opened the front door and they both stepped out. ”I'm locking it. Do you have the key?”
”I've got it.” Mich.e.l.le whistled as a multicolored shower of streamers shot across the sky. ”That was pretty spectacular. Is it the finale?”
Hannah glanced at her watch as another fiery flower blossomed in the sky. ”Not yet. The show is supposed to run forty minutes this year. We've still got over twenty minutes left.”
The two sisters climbed down the steps to the sh.o.r.e by the light of the fireworks that were bursting in the sky. As they reached the bottom, a huge white shower rained down and Mich.e.l.le gasped. ”What's that, Hannah?”
”What's what?”
”That big thing sticking out under the dock. It wasn't there this afternoon.”
”I don't know, but I'll find out.” Hannah walked closer 298.
and waited until another shower of lights illuminated the area. Her voice was sharp as she spoke again. ”Is there a flashlight in the cottage?”
”Yes, Mother keeps one in the kitchen.**
”Go get it and bring it down here.”
Mich.e.l.le turned and walked toward the steps. ”Okay, but what is it?”
”Just get the flashlight, okay?”
The fates were kind and another volley of fireworks burst in the sky after Mich.e.l.le had left. Hannah reached out toward the object and shuddered as she realized that the ”thing” Mich.e.l.le had seen was someone's leg. Delores hadn't been so crazy after all when she'd warned Hannah not to come here alone. Hannah stared at the leg for a moment and then she gave a deep sigh. There was only one thing to do and she was the only one here right now to do it.
It took all the strength that Hannah possessed, but she managed to free the ominously still form from its watery prison under the dock and pull it up onto the sh.o.r.e. By the time Mich.e.l.le got back with the flashlight, Hannah had flipped it over. ”s.h.i.+ne the flashlight, Mich.e.l.le.”
Mich.e.l.le turned on the flashlight and both sisters stared at the inert figure for a moment, the beam of light illuminating the b.l.o.o.d.y wound on Freddy Sawyer's head.
”Is he dead?” Mich.e.l.le asked, her voice shaking.
”Only one way to find out.” Hannah dropped to her knees and felt for a pulse. ”Not yet, but it doesn't look good. Run back to the cabin and call for an ambulance fast.”
”But there aren't any. Lonnie said they were all called out to that accident out on the highway.”
”Right.” Hannah shook her head to clear it. The sight of Freddy's still face and the awful wound on his head had rattled her. ”Okay. I'll take him to the hospital myself. I hate to ask, but can you stay here with him while I get my truck?”
”I'll stay,” Mich.e.l.le said.
Her baby sister sounded calm and that rea.s.sured Hannah. ”Okay, I'll be back just as fast as I can. Don't try to move LEMON MERINGUE PIE MURDER 299.
him. If he starts to thrash around, talk to him and do your best to hold him still. We don't want that cut on his head to open up and start bleeding again.”
Hannah raced for her truck and made short work of driving it down to the sh.o.r.eline. She backed up as close as she could, opened the rear doors, and got out to find Mich.e.l.le still sitting right where she'd left her, holding Freddy's hand. ”Pulse?”
”It's still there.” Mich.e.l.le stood up and Hannah noticed that there were traces of tears on her cheeks. ”How are we going to load him in?”
”Sideways. I'll take his head and shoulders and you take his legs. If he's too heavy for you, holler out and we'll put him back down.”
”I can do it,” Mich.e.l.le said, and she knelt by Freddy's feet.
Hannah was about to lift Freddy's shoulders when she caught a whiff of a telltale odor. ”Do you smell anything, Mich.e.l.le?”
”Yes, booze. Do you think Freddy got drunk and hit his head when he pa.s.sed out under our dock?”
”I don't know, but it's a possibility. I'm ready to lift if you are.”
It wasn't easy, but between the two of them they managed to load Freddy into the back of Hannah's cookie truck. Hannah cus.h.i.+oned his head with the ratty old hooded sweats.h.i.+rt her mother would have advised her to throw out, and shut the rear doors. ”I'll drive him straight to the hospital. Call and tell them I'm coming. Say it's Freddy Sawyer and he's got a bad head wound. They should meet me at the emergency entrance with a stretcher.”
”Okay, but don't you want me to ride along to help?”
”You don't have any medical training that I don't know about, do you?”
”No.”
”Then you're better off here. Make that call to the hospital and then go and tell Andrea and Mother what happened. I want all of you to look for Jed Sawyer and tell him that I'm 300.
driving Freddy to the hospital. I'll call the cottage as soon as I have any news on his condition.”
”Got it,” Mich.e.l.le said. ”Good luck, Hannah.”
Hannah got in behind the wheel and lowered the window.
”You're really great in a crisis, Mich.e.l.le.”
”Thanks.” Mich.e.l.le gave a little smile. ”I think I must have inherited that from you.”
By the time Hannah took the turnoff for the Lake Eden Memorial emergency entrance, her nerves were shot. She'd driven a distance of only ten miles, but it had been gruesome. Freddy had cried out and mumbled from the back of her truck and what she'd been able to understand had been heartbreaking. Freddy was upset because Jed was mad at him. Jed hated him and thought that Freddy was stupid. If Freddy could only get that present back for Jed, then Jed might forgive him and not go away. Then they could be friends again and everything would be all right.
Hannah had attempted to talk back to Freddy to rea.s.sure him, but she didn't think he'd heard her. He'd just gone back to the mumbling again about how he had to give Jed the present.
About five miles from the hospital, Freddy had stopped mumbling. He'd groaned once or twice, and then he'd been disturbingly quiet. While Hannah had been hoping that Freddy would calm down and stop mumbling, his total silence had been worse. Hannah had tromped on the accelerator and prayed that he'd only lost consciousness and not died.
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