No Turning Back (The Traveler) (6 page)

Taylor said, “I parked the car out back, remember?”

“I’ll meet you around the back then,” Gary told him. He seemed confused and hasty with a burst of reckless energy.

Stephanie, Joyce and Valerie looked around, all wondering what was going on. And as soon as Gary returned to the sidewalk on 4th Street, he turned left and headed down the block toward the corner.

“What’s going on?” Melissa asked him, still standing there outside.

“My mother’s in the hospital,” he answered gruffly. “She was in an auto accident.”

He marched with urgency, pumping his arms and legs with all nerves and adrenaline.

“I’m going with you,” Melissa told him.

“No you’re not!” Gary piped at her without looking.

Melissa followed, determined to support him, while leaving her friend Valerie behind.

Valerie ran out of the record store behind her and yelled, “Where are you going?”

“I’ll be back. I’ll call you later.”

When she caught up with Gary, they made a swift left at the corner and headed toward the parking area at the back of the storefronts.

“I’m going with you,” she continued to insist.

Gary marched forward like a robotic zombie on a mission. He was too frantic to argue.

When Taylor pulled up in front of them in a black Audi, Melissa promptly jumped into the backseat as Gary climbed into the front passenger side.

Gary, Taylor and Melissa arrived at Middletown Hospital on the southeast border of Louisville and rushed through the emergency room entrance with Gary leading the way.

“I’m here to see Gabrielle Stevens. I’m her son, Gary,” he addressed the first nurse in view at the sign-in desk. The wide, C-shaped hospital desk was waist high and positioned in the center of the room. Patient and family member chairs were lined up to the left and the right of it.

Receiving nurses and medics overheard Gary announce himself before turning to observe the man in pensive silence. They were already familiar with his mother’s case.

“Just one minute, please,” the nurse told him. She picked up the hospital phone and dialed a number. “Yes, Gary Stevens is here for Gabrielle.” They had been expecting him.

The nurse waited patiently for a response to her call. “Okay,” she said with a nod and a look of sympathy.

Melissa eased up to Gary’s right arm and squeezed him gently. Gary remained silent thinking only of his mother.

Taylor took a few deep breaths beside them and felt hopeless.
I pray that nothing serious has happened to her. This is just a horrible feeling to have,
he told himself. Gabrielle had been like a second mom to him, and she obviously meant the world to Gary.

Finally, the nurse told him, “Doctor Teikata will be right out to see you.”

“Tee-kah-ta?” Gary enunciated to make sure.

The nurse nodded. “Yes.” She looked to the double doors to her left and spotted the doctor walking out. “Here he is now.”

All eyes turned toward the doctor. He was a young Asian-American man wearing thinrimmed glasses. His black hair was cropped short. He almost looked too young to be a practicing physician.

“Gary Stevens?”

Gary nodded as Melissa continued to hold on to his right arm.

“Yes, I’m Gary Stevens.”

The doctor nodded back and stuck out his right hand. “I’m Doctor Teikata.” He shook Gary’s hand before he looked to his friends and hesitated. There was a pregnant pause.

“You mind if I speak to you in private a moment?” the doctor asked.

Gary heard his words but didn’t budge. His heart felt heavy in his chest. His mouth was dry with no answer.
What does that mean?
he thought as his heavy heart pounded in his chest.

“Gary, it’s all right,” Melissa told him, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, we’ll be right out here for you,” Taylor added.

Gary nodded and remained speechless. He seemed to be in a trance as he followed the doctor.

When the doctor pushed open the double doors and stood alone behind them with Gary, he took a deep breath and composed himself. It was the doctor’s job to explain each case no matter how brutal.

“Your mother’s automobile accident damaged many of her vital organs beyond repair,” he began. “Even if she had arrived at the hospital on time, there would have been little that we could have done to save her. She had already suffered an immense amount of internal bleeding at the scene before the ambulance even arrived to her. I’m sorry.”

The doctor paused and let his words sink in. He had been trained to give all of the bad news in one big gulp.

Gary stood in a daze. His intuitions told him to expect the worst as soon as the hospital had contacted him. But dead? His mother was dead?

A young nurse had recognized his mother’s name badge from the Frankfort Convention Center that was tucked inside of her business jacket, and she helped them to track Gary down at his record store.

After registering the fatal news, Gary raised his two index fingers to his temples and couldn’t feel anything. Nothing came to mind. There was only the doctor’s words between them and nothing to prove that it was all real and not a witch-ride nightmare that he couldn’t wake up from. He felt like slapping himself out of it.

“Are you prepared to view the body?” the doctor asked him.

View the body?
Gary repeated to himself. Suddenly his temples were throbbing. He felt lightheaded and faint. The doctor even stepped forward to secure him by the arm.

“I can let you think over it for a minute if you need to,” he suggested. “You also have a couple of police officers here who would like to speak to you. I told them I would need to speak to you first.”

Gary looked into his glasses and asked, “Police officers?” That added to the equation.

Dr. Teikata nodded. “Yes, there was a carjacking incident and a kidnapping involved. Your mother was fatally injured while apparently trying to escape from the moving car. One of the men involved was fatally injured as well. The police have the other man in custody.”

With the new information, Gary became more alert. “A
carjacking
? Where?”

The doctor explained, “I don’t have all of the details. Those are questions you’ll have to ask of the officers. But again, I needed to speak to you first about your mother.” He paused a moment and repeated, “Would you like to view the body now?”

Suddenly, Gary was more interested in the carjacking than viewing his mother’s remains. He didn’t want to see her just yet. He wanted to know more of what happened to her first.

“Do you mind if I speak to the officers first?”

Dr. Teikata studied him reflectively. He did not expect that. The young man seemed to be cognizant and focused, much more so than he imagined young Mr. Stevens would be. He nodded and said, “Sure, right this way.”

Gary sat with two Kentucky state troopers in one of the small patient rooms of the hospital.

“So, these two guys from West Virginia jumped into my mother’s car somewhere along Interstate 64 and got into an accident while she was trying to escape near Louisville?”

The younger officer nodded.. “That’s correct. Detectives are investigating the case further as we speak. We’ll notify you when we have more information.”

“What about the driver?” Gary asked.

“He’s already been booked, and he’ll be prosecuted for a number of charges, including vehicular homicide, car theft, kidnapping, assault and reckless endangerment,” the older officer added. “Don’t worry, this guy’s going away for a long time. And those are just the charges that we have on him here in Kentucky. These guys were also wanted in West Virginia.”

Gary listened to them and remained calm. “Would West Virginia hold some kind of priority over him?”

“No, both states would charge him separately, but since we have him, we’ll definitely hold him and charge him first here in Kentucky,” the older officer informed him.

Gary spoke softly and remained polite. “And you’ll let me know when the court case comes up?”

“Of course, we’ll let you know everything,” the younger officer answered.

“Are there any other questions?” the older officer asked, standing tall inside the small room.

Gary stood with him and shook his head. “No, not right now. I just need to go back in there and see my mother now.”

Both officers dropped their heads in response to him. The younger officer took a breath and spoke up first. “We’re very sorry about your loss.”

“But at least we have the two culprits,” the older officer added.

Gary nodded to them both and quietly headed toward the door.

Inside the chilly and lifeless coroner’s room with Dr. Teikata, Gary approached his mother’s body, stretched out across the cold hard table. He barely recognized her. She appeared twice her normal size and was crushed and swollen from the neck down.

“The emergency team put her on ice immediately to try and reduce the swelling, but there’s only so much that ice can do.”

As Gary stared down at the remains of his mother and studied her multiple injuries, he was surprised himself that he could view her deceased body without exploding into anguish, grief or a flood of tears. It seemed so clinical, as if he was in a high school biology lab. He could feel the emotions bubbling up inside of him, stirring, but they remained beneath the surface.

Am I supposed to be going crazy right now or … how am I supposed to act?
he asked himself. This was not a game of poker.

Finally, he muttered, “What’s wrong with me, doc? I don’t know what to feel. I’m … I’m numb.” His voice cracked as he spoke, but he shed no tears and felt no anger.

“Sometimes, we experience a shock of the nervous system where our natural impulses fail to trigger to the brain,” Dr. Teikata answered.

“What does that mean?” Gary looked and asked him. “I won’t be able to feel anything? I can’t even cry for my mother?” He reexamined her battered body on the table and said, “She looks like something out of a horror movie.”

Dr. Teikata translated Gary’s poise. “Sometimes patients develop post-traumatic stress that can kick in long after the initial events have occurred.”

The doctor grimaced as he continued his explanation. “Post-traumatic stress syndrome can manifest itself in a number of different ways. It can be as simple as a loss of sleep, panic attacks, eating disorders or an inability to work. It can also trigger dramatic mood swings, depression, denial and any number of anti-social behaviors.”

Gary summed it up and said, “In other words, just about anything can happen.”

The doctor took a breath. He said, “I’ll give you a phone number to call Dr. James Rayborn. He’s a good friend of mine and a great clinical psychologist. He can help you to work your way through this.”

Gary heard the doctor’s words and stood there dumbfounded. The doctor was right. Gary didn’t know what to feel, and he absolutely loved his mother.

This is crazy!
he told himself.
Why can’t I cry for her? What’s wrong with me?

When Gary finally joined Taylor and Melissa back inside the emergency waiting room, a full hour had lapsed.

Taylor stood from his seat and asked him, “So, what’s going on? Is she all right?”

Melissa stood and awaited an answer herself.

Gary regarded their concern and ignored them. What could he possibly tell them? He had no idea what to say. He didn’t want to be bothered with explaining it. He was still trying to process it all himself.

“So, what happened?” Melissa pressed him. “Is your mother all right?”

Gary stared forward, absentmindedly. He said, “I hope she’s all right. I just hope she went to the right place.”

Melissa and Taylor searched each other for a translation.
What was Gary talking about?

“What is it, Gary? What happened?’’ Taylor asked softly, almost in a whisper.

Gary couldn’t bring himself to respond. Taylor read Gary’s silence and knew the answer.

Melissa was already beginning to tear, and she hadn’t even met his mother. She had only seen Gary’s pictures of her.

Gary exhaled and said, “I need a minute,” and began to walk toward the automatic exit doors for fresh air.

Taylor and Melissa quickly followed.

I have to set up a funeral for her, and a big one,
he mulled as he reached Taylor’s car out in the hospital parking lot.
My mom knows a lot of people in Kentucky.

Taylor and Melissa were forced to learn the details of the senseless carjacking and murder of Gabrielle Stevens through television and newspaper reports. Gary refused to tell them much of anything on their drive from the hospital or during the days that followed. He seemed only concerned with preparing for his mother’s funeral. While his staff members continued to run his record store, Gary huddled at his loft with his mother’s estate lawyer to arrange for a detailed memorial service and burial.

“I want a large marble tombstone with a heart on each side of her name.” Gary ordered as the lawyer made his notes.

Attorney Christopher Burnett, a tall and slender man in a dark-blue suit, white dress shirt and a mint-green tie, had known Gary for half of his life, almost as long as Taylor had known him. His quick speech pattern made him seem forever hasty.

“Yeah, I really think your mother would like that. That’s an excellent choice,” he agreed with a nod.

They sat at the small kitchen table, which was covered with paperwork, including the important estate documents—Gabrielle’s will, trust funds, bank account statements, property deeds, taxes, and health, life and dental insurance policies. These were documents that Gary had never seen or never dealt with before. Still, in his first year of owning a record store, he hadn’t even done his own taxes.

On the other side of his loft, resting on the comfortable sofa, Taylor and Melissa continued to hover around while checking in on him.

“Any day now I figure he’ll snap out of this,” Taylor commented on his friend’s dogged work mode. They had both spent a considerable amount of time in Gary’s presence during the three days that followed his mother’s death. They both wanted to monitor any aberrant behavior to make sure he wouldn’t plunge into something extreme. So they refused to leave him, while taking alternating shifts in his company. They had even taken turns spending the night at his loft, but all Gary seemed interested in was arranging his mother’s funeral and estate.