11 Failure to Appear by J A Jance
Author:J A Jance [Jance, J A]
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
CHAPTER
12
Again I found Alex waiting on the front porch. She met us at the car to give me a quick update. Karen Louise was fine. Kelly had been moved from Recovery to a private room where her condition had been upgraded to serious but stable. She had not regained consciousness. In other words, we still weren’t out of the woods.
Inside, the Oak Hill B & B was alive with activity. Bed-and-Breakfast establishments don’t usually supply evening meals, but this wasn’t a usual circumstance. Florence made pot after pot of coffee, regular and decaf. She served that along with plates heaped high with salvaged wedding cake to an informal gathering that threatened to last all night. Most drop-by visitors were friends of Kelly and Jeremy’s, people who had expected to attend a wedding. They came instead to express dismay and to glean progress reports on Kelly and the baby.
Word of Tanya Dunseth’s arrest preceded us. When James Renthrow and I arrived with Amber in tow, the response was enthusiastic and immediate. Maybe there’s something in that old line about no people like show people. The people gathered in Florence’s spacious living room, Tanya and Jeremy’s fellow cast members, were very much concerned, and they wanted to help. Someone started a sign-up sheet for volunteers to take turns watching Amber. Most mentioned they’d be happy to care for Karen Louise as well. It warmed me to know help would be available for Kelly once her out-of-town relatives returned home.
Florence had been busy doing more than just making coffee and serving cake. Calling in some of her B & B chips, she had found lodging for everybody, although not at a single location. At that time of year, last-minute accommodations in Ashland are the exception, not the rule. Still, Florence had managed.
Alex and I were scheduled to stay where we were. Dave and Karen ended up at someplace called the Auburn Street Cottage, where, I was told, although the shower was tall enough to stand up in, it was also outdoors—across a long backyard and concealed behind a lacy curtain of green growing vine. Scott and Ralph Ames shared a double room at the Ashland Hills.
There was a considerable fuss when Romeo and I first showed up, me carrying Amber and James Renthrow packing the diaper bag. Within minutes Alex personally took charge of the child. Since Alex’s underhanded scheming had precipitated this current crisis, that seemed only fair. I repaired to the kitchen, where I found Dave Livingston bird-dogging the phone. He poured two cups of coffee, kept one for himself, and handed the other to me. We both leaned against the kitchen cooking island to drink it.
“I hear Kelly’s condition has been upgraded,” I said.
He nodded. “The doc says it’ll be several days before we know if there’s any residual damage—paralysis, memory loss.”
My stomach knotted at the prospect. We stood in silent commiseration—two fathers caught in the aftermath of disaster—agonizing about an injured child, fearing the worst but stubbornly hoping for the best.
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