Camera Never Lies by Goddard Elizabeth

Author:Goddard, Elizabeth [Goddard Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-60742-227-3
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2010-08-23T04:00:00+00:00

Ranger Jennings returned me to the lodge, informing me he would probably need to question me again. In other words, don’t leave. That was fine with me until Monday rolled around. Then, I would need to get back to my business on the coast. By the time I arrived in my room, I was shaken, drained, and starved. The rangers could at least have offered me a Twinkie for my trouble. Wanting an extra measure of safety, I bolted the door behind me.

Considering how I’d last left Spencer—glancing at me from the lobby while I tracked down the housekeeper—he might call for a search party if I didn’t contact him soon. But I couldn’t think straight. A glance at the clock told me it was nearing five. Dinner couldn’t come soon enough. Remembering that I’d stuffed the side pocket of one of my bags with a few protein bars, I opened the closet to look for them.

Something on the floor caught my foot.

Hillary Jennings was cradled there, motionless. A long scream came from somewhere—it seemed outside of my body.

“Oh Lord, please not again.” I dropped to my knees to examine her, shake her to life, barely noticing the pounding on the door. The knob jiggled.

“Hillary, are you alive? Wake up!” Tears streamed down my face as I tried to find a pulse. My hands shook too much.

“Polly! What’s going on? Let me in.” Spencer yelled through the door.

I unbolted the door and opened it. It felt like reverse déjà vu. I pointed to the closet. “It’s Hillary, the housekeeper…” I slumped against the edge of the bed, trembling.

Spencer knelt next to her, looking for signs of life.

“Is she…is she—”

“She’s alive. Call 911 or whatever it is you call in this place.”

I called the operator, uncertain how things worked in a national park in the middle of nowhere. Within minutes, medics arrived, lifting Hillary out of the closet onto a stretcher. I wondered if we should have already eased her from the awkward position. We’d left her, I suppose, so the authorities could see her as I found her. I now saw how heartless the decision had been.

While they were moving her, Spencer wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “We might have hurt her, had we moved her, love,” he said, with a quick and tender peck on my cheek.

The kiss and endearment—something new from him—would have made me weak in the knees at any other time. I knew he was doing his best to comfort me. In return, I offered a wan smile. “I know.”

Hillary moaned and woke up, complaining about her head. She tried to climb off the stretcher, claiming she didn’t want to go to the hospital. The medics, assisted by two rangers, held her firmly as they wheeled her through the door. I wanted to collapse. Seeing someone on the closet floor twice now had reduced me to rubble, a woman whose tattered emotions lay in ruins.

I held strong until they were completely out the door and prayed silently the two rangers would leave with them as well.

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