Courage Tree (16 page)

“I
think you were supposed to turn back there,” Paula said.

Joe drove his car onto the shoulder of the road to prepare for a U-turn. This was the fourth or fifth time Paula had needed to correct his sense of direction on this trip, but her voice never lost its patience or concern, even though he’d barked at her in irritation a couple of times. He wondered if Lucas had navigated for Janine. Did she bark at him? Probably not. Janine, under the worst of circumstances, was no barker.

He made the U-turn, then pulled back onto the road.

“I think it’s right there.” Paula pointed ahead of them, where a narrow road led into the woods.

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, expect
ing 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 on the car?” Paula asked. “Do they know for sure if…?”

Lucas Trowell joined them at that moment, coming to stand next to Janine.

“It’s a Honda,” Janine said in a low voice, as though it was a secret. “They know that much. And there’s only one Honda missing around here.”

Lucas shifted closer to her, and although Joe couldn’t see for sure, he was fairly certain Lucas had his arm around her back.

“This is rough,” Lucas said to Joe and Paula, as if they didn’t know. Joe wanted to smack him. It was unnerving to see the Ayr Creek gardener touching Janine. To have him wear that stunned and solemn mask on his face, as though Sophie were his own child, was infuriating.

“Don’t you know of any herbs that can fix up a kid who’s been in a car wreck?” Joe said, and he heard the ugliness in his voice.

“Hey.” Paula punched him lightly on the arm.

Joe shook his head. “Sorry,” he said.

“It’s all right,” Lucas said.

Paula, ever the diplomat, reached her hand toward Lucas. “I’m Paula,” she said. “A friend of Joe’s.”

Lucas shook her hand. “Lucas Trowell,” he said.

Joe followed Janine’s gaze toward the rescuers, who were just beginning their descent over the side of the cliff.

“I need to see what’s happening,” she said, moving away from the group toward the cliff’s edge.

She had more guts than he did, Joe thought. He did not want to see what was at the bottom of the cliff. But Paula and Lucas began following Janine, and he walked alongside them reluctantly, as though he had no choice.

“Where are the other girl’s parents?” Joe asked Lucas, as they walked.

“They’re on their way,” Lucas said. “The police couldn’t reach them until an hour or so ago.”

“Stay back, folks,” one of the firemen said. He looked hot
in his heavy uniform, and he held his arm out to block Janine from getting any closer to the edge of the cliff.

“How far down is it?” Joe asked Lucas.

“Not far at all,” Lucas said. “Ten or twelve feet, at the most. But it’s steep. A lot of rocks and brush.”

“They still don’t know for sure if it’s Alison’s car?” Paula asked.

Lucas nodded slightly, his mouth set in a grim line. “They know,” he said. “They checked the license plate number. It’s hers. But I don’t think Janine realizes that yet. I just wanted to let her hang on to hope a little bit longer.”

Well, what a kind fellow you are,
Joe thought to himself. “Why the hell were they on this road?” Joe asked. “It goes nowhere.”

“It actually comes out on a road that eventually leads to Route 55, so there was a method to her madness,” Lucas said. “She liked shortcuts, apparently.”

Janine was arguing with the fireman.

“Let me just
stand
here,” she said to him. “I won’t go any closer to the edge, I promise.”

The fireman motioned to Lucas to come stand next to her. He said a few words to both of them once Lucas was near her, probably telling him to keep an eye on Janine, because Lucas locked his hand around her elbow. Joe wished he’d been the one called to Janine’s side, but the truth was, he wouldn’t have been able to stand that close to the edge.

“What’s taking them so long?” he heard Janine ask, and she broke away from Lucas to take another step toward the cliff. Lucas grabbed her arm to hold her back.

A couple of people in uniform—firemen and sheriff’s deputies, Joe figured—squatted at the edge of the cliff, talking with the rescuers down below. Joe strained his ears to listen, but could make out little of what they were saying.

“Do you want to get any closer?” Paula asked him. “Do you want to see the car?”

He shook his head, feeling sick and stunned. “I just can’t believe this is happening,” he said. “I refuse to believe Sophie’s been killed in a car wreck. After all her near misses with her kidney problems, and now this.”

Paula rested her hand on his arm, much the way Lucas was touching Janine. “Maybe she’s alive in there,” she said, and Joe could hear tears in her voice. “Let’s pray that she is.”

He wasn’t good at prayer, but he tried now. Paula spoke her prayer out loud, pleading with God to save Sophie, and he repeated the words to himself.

A van came around the bend in the road, pulling to a stop outside the barrier of orange cones, and Joe recognized it as the Suburban belonging to Holly’s parents. Rebecca and Steve got out of the van and ran through the cone barrier toward them, but the sheriff blocked their path. He took them aside, talking to them quietly, probably bringing them up-to-date on what was happening.

Just then, the head and shoulders of one of the rescuers appeared over the edge of the cliff. He was leaning back, the rope holding him in place on the side of the cliff as he talked to one of the firemen. They spoke for a moment, while everyone stared in their direction. The fireman finally nodded, then walked over to Joe and the others as the rescuer dropped down the side of the cliff again.

“Gather round,” the fireman called, motioning to them to do so.

Rebecca, Steve and the sheriff joined the anxious semicircle around the fireman, and Joe knew from the deep lines across the man’s forehead that he had nothing encouraging to tell them.

Joe glanced at Janine. Her eyes were on the fireman, her lower lip clenched between her teeth. She looked as though she was holding her breath.

“I’m afraid the news isn’t good,” the fireman informed them. “It looks like the car burned up pretty bad on impact. Right now, though, the rescue team can only see two bodies inside.”

“Two?” Steve repeated. “There were three of them.”

“Right, I know,” the fireman said. “And they’re trying to find the third. She might have been thrown out of the—”

“Whose bodies have you found?” Joe interrupted him. He couldn’t tolerate the slow delivery of information.

“We don’t know,” the fireman said. “Looks like one adult and one child, but the guys can’t really get inside the car yet. They’re working on it, but they need to get some tools down there with them.”

Joe glanced toward the top of the cliff to see that a few of the emergency workers were lowering equipment to the men below.

“The two in the car appear to have been burned pretty bad.” the fireman said.

Burned beyond recognition.
The familiar phrase ran through Joe’s mind. Never had he imagined it applying to his beautiful daughter.

Rebecca lowered herself to the ground, where she sat, cross-legged and weeping. Steve sat next to her, his arm around her shoulders, speaking to her softly.

The sheriff cleared his throat, readying himself to take over from the fireman. “I think it would be best if you folks went back to Virginia,” he said, “and let us—”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Janine said. “Not until I know exactly where my daughter is. Please let me go down there and look around.”

The sheriff shook his head. “It’s too dangerous,” he said. “The car’s in a precarious position.”

“What are they doing down there now?” Joe asked.

“They’ll get the bodies out,” the fireman said. “Then we’ll lift up the car and see if…if the third victim is underneath. If you folks want to stay here, I have to ask that you get over to the other side of the road and away from the cliff. I’ll let you know when there’s any news.”

Reluctantly, they walked to the opposite side of the road
and sat down on the gravel, their backs against the brush-covered embankment that edged the road.

Steve stood up almost as soon as he’d sat down. “I’m going to make a run for some drinks. What does everyone want?”

“Vodka,” Rebecca said. She sounded serious, but instantly started to laugh, and in less than a second, the laughter turned to tears. She buried her head in her arms.

“Anything for me,” Paula said.

“Same here,” said Joe.

“Nothing for me,” Lucas said, holding up his own nearly-full water bottle. He nudged Janine, who was seated next to him, but she shook her head. “Water for Jan,” he said.

“No one calls her Jan,” Joe muttered under his breath to Paula.

“Apparently Lucas does,” Paula said, and he looked at her sharply.

“Whose side are you on?” he asked.

“Nobody’s side, hon,” she said. “Just…now isn’t the time for jealousy. Both you and Janine need support, and it doesn’t really matter where it comes from. Okay?”