A Time in Heaven (26 page)

Katie turned to Jesse, “But what about your music?”

“As long as I have you to sing to, I guess
it’s
enough.” Jesse heard himself say the words, and realized that he meant them.

The first of October brought a heavy wet snow to Heaven. The couple stayed warm in their cabin confident they were well prepared for the winter.

At dusk the next
day it was Katie who heard it first.  Another plane was flying in low from the west.  “Jesse, another plane!”

They looked at each other.  “Let’s go find out,” Jesse said to her.

They grabbed their coats and raced out of the cabin.  Sadie had been sleeping
on the bed
and the door shut before she could follow. As they went up
th
e path to the lodge, the deep,
wet snow
slowed them down.  They could tell by the sound that the plane had landed.  The motor shut off.

Jesse was moving faster than Katie toward the lodge.
“Jesse?
!
” Katie called
as he disappeared down the path behind the trees.

He didn’t answer.  As she
came through the pines near the lodge, there stood
Jesse staring at
Joe Moss
and three more of his alien clients
.
Ka
tie
came to an abrupt stop behind Jesse.

“Well what do we have here?” Moss said. “Didn’t figure you two would still be alive.”

“No thanks to you
, pal
.” Jesse
said angrily as he
took a step toward Moss.

Moss pulled his gun
and pointed it at Jesse.  O
ne of the other men
had his hand on his gun as he glared at Katie
.  “I probably should have taken care of you
two
last time I
was here. I guess I’m just too kind hearted.
” He raised his gun.
“You two are much too much of a threat to my business.”

He knew that Moss was going to pull the trigger, so Jesse started to move.  It was too late.  Moss
fired at
him.
The bullet hit his side. H
e
showed no emotion as he
fell face first into the snow.  He was still.

Katie scr
eamed a
nd moved toward her love. Jesse
wasn’t moving.  She could see his blood in the snow.  Moss grabbed her before she reached Jesse.  He started to drag her toward the lodge.  “Now missy, I’ll show you what a real man can do for you.”

Katie was hysterical as Moss
kicked
ope
n
the lodge doors.  He yelled at her to settle down.  S
he couldn’t.  As they entered the lodge, h
e slapped her hard enough to send her across the room where she fell on the couch.  He was on top of her before she could even try to get up.  She felt his hand on her breast.
His breath smelled of whiskey.  Katie screamed again befor
e he put his disgusting mouth over
hers.

Without warning
the five wolves appeared in the door.  The Russian
with the gun was startled by the big growling animals and dropped his gun. Three of the pack
approached the men growling
and baring their teeth.  The m
en slowly backed away toward the dining room.

The two alpha wolves
, without any hesitation,
cha
rged Moss.  The male knocked the big man
to the floor as the female grabbed him by the throat. 
Moss didn’t even have time to scream.
She shook him so hard that blood splattered everywhere.
In a moment,
Moss lay dead on the floor
. A
horrified Katie
screamed and hid her face in the pillows on the couch
.
The wolves backed away from the body.

Two more men appeared in the door
with guns drawn
.
This time they were in uniforms.
As they stepped inside
,
the wolves took off
past them
out the door.  One of the men took
a
random shot but
the wolves
were gone
into the night
.

Katie
peered from behind the pillow.  She
jumped
off the couch screaming
and pointing
that these men had killed her husband.
She quickly stopped as it dawned on her
that these men were
probably
with Moss. 

“Take it easy miss.” The first man
showed her his FBI badge.  “I’m agent Carson and this is agent Taylor.
” He nodded toward the other man behind him. “
Can you tell us what happened here?”  He helped her to a chair and she reluctantly sat down.

Katie
, between the tears,
told the
man all she knew about Moss.  Carson
asked her how she and her husband got to the island, but before she could answer, another agent came a
nd whispered something to
agent
Carson
.

The agent
looked at Katie.
“Is that Jes
se Danvers out there?”
  Katie nodded her head as tears streamed down her cheeks.

“Good news
, miss
.
” He handed Katie his handkerchief. “He’
s not dead, but
he is
badly injured.  We have a helicopter coming in to take him to the hospital
in Juneau
.
It should be here in a few minutes.
”

Katie didn’t wait for him to finish before she ran to Jesse.  The agents
,
that
were outside, tended to Jesse.  They
had stopped the bleeding
from
his
wound
as well
as they could, but he was still unconscious.
She knelt down beside him and held his hand.  She felt him ever so slightly squeeze her h
and. “Jesse, I love you.  Just hold on
.  Help is coming.”  She kissed him.

The helicopter
was there in a matter of minutes.  It
landed in the meadow.  The medics quickly came to the area where Jesse lay.  They
worked on him until he was
stable.  He
urgently
needed blood.
Fortunately,
they had a couple of units with them. 
They hoped that
would keep him alive until the helicopter
could get him to the hospital.

Sadie
somehow
had managed to get out of the cabin and came running to Katie.  She hugged the lab
.  Sadie sat quietly beside her
until the agents told Katie it was time for them to get on the helicopter.  They put Jesse on first.
Then, they helped Katie and Sadie get on. 
The chopper
took off toward Juneau.  Katie looked out the window as
their home quickly disappeared in the darkness.

The ride to the Juneau hospital seem
ed
to take too long
as Katie watched Jesse take each important breath
.  But, s
oon, t
he helicopter sat down at the airport where it was met by an ambulance.  Before getting off the helicopter, Katie asked one of the medics that had taken a liking to Sadie, if he would see that she was taken care of. He assured her that he would
.
He told her that he would
take her to the nearby veterinary hospital.  Katie thanked him as she got into the ambulance with Jesse.
“She’s part of my family.  Take good care of her, please
.”

As the ambulance pulled up to the emergency entrance of the Bartlett Regional Hospital, Katie noti
ced there were an unusual number
of people around. She
asked, “Who are all these people?”

Agent Carson answered, “Word got out that Jesse Danvers is alive.  My guess is that they are media people looking for the story.
” 
Katie was about at her breaking point and so many people
weren’t
making
her handle the situation any better
.
Agent Carson looked at Katie with compassion
and touched her hand
reassuringly
.
“
The hospital is ready for you
and Mr. Danvers
.  I hope e
verything works out for you
. Goodbye.”

As Katie was thanking the agent for all his help, s
everal medical p
ersonnel came from the hospital and took Jesse away into the building.  Katie tried to follow Jesse.  But, other
staff
directed her
into a wheelchair and started to tak
e her into the hospital.  “Wait!
” she commanded
and tried to get out of the chair. “Where are they taking my husband?
”

One of the nurses told her that he was being taken directly to surgery.  The orderly then gently pushed Katie back into the chair.  She resisted, insisting to go with him. “As soon as we get you checked over, you can go upstairs,” the nurse told her.
“You won’t be able to see him until he is out of surgery anyway.

Katie insisted that she was fine, but the orderly blocked her from getting up.  The nurse wheeled her into an examining room.  “Please wait here until the doctor sees you.  It won’t be long.  She handed Katie a hospital gown and pulled the curtains closed.  Katie threw
it
on the bed.  She could see through a crack in the curtains
that the orderly was still just outside the room.  She decided to wait for the doctor,
and then
she might get to go to Jesse.

After an
excruciatingly long
hour, the intern on duty
came into the room to examine Katie
.
She had refused to put on the hospital gown. The doctor wasn’t happy about it but examined her as well
as
he could.  H
e told her that
she appeared to be fine and she could go.  She asked him where they had taken Jesse, but he was
less than cooperative.  He
walked out of the room without
saying
a word. 

Katie
went to the nurse’s station and asked the nurse she had seen before
what she knew about Jesse
.  The nurse told her t
hat he
was still in surgery,
and
that she could wait up
stairs in the waiting room.  An
orderly
arrived and
said that he would take her there.

She was taken to a room that looked more like a conference room than a waiting room. 
This alarmed Katie.  But what else could she do?  S
he waited
for another hour, m
aybe more.  There came a
point where s
he d
ecided to go find Jesse herself. She opened the door,
but the orderly stopped her as she tried to leave the room. “Why am I being kept prisoner?” Katie
irately
asked.

“I was told to keep
you in here
,
miss. That’s all I know. Now please go back inside and be patient.”

Katie knew it was no good arguing just now, so she went back and sat down to wait even longer.  Finally a large
well-dressed
man came into the room.  “Good Day Miss Warner.  I’m sorry you had to wait so long.  My name is agent Brown.” He showed her his badge.

Katie jumped up out of the chair that she had been sitting in,
“Why are you people keeping me away from my husband?  Is he alright?” Katie
had been able to hold back the tears up until now. Tears were streaming down her cheeks
.

“Please Miss Warner.  I have to ask you some questions about your time on Heaven Island.
Let’s start by you telling me how you got to the island.”

“Mr.
Brown
can’t this wait until I find out about Jesse.  I
haven’t seen him since we arrived at
the hospital.  Please, can’t I see him?  Or just tell me how he is?” Katie was pleading with the agent.

“I’m sorry, no I can’t do either.  This is a criminal investigation.
Not only was a man killed, but illegal perso
ns were found.  And your Mr. Danvers
was shot.
So if you will Miss Warner, tell me what happened.” He was trying to be sympathetic to Katie b
ut at the same time was trying to do his job
.