Edna’s eyes widened. “Oh no, no. Tell him to go home to Sylvie. She needs him a lot more than I do right now.”
“Sylvie went to her mom’s. It’s fine. He’s staying at the hospital tonight.”
The elevator stopped with a soft swoosh and a lurch that made Edna’s stomach drop. She grabbed Tom’s arm. Fright shone in her eyes when she looked at him. All her resolve faded.
“I-I-I can’t do this. I-I-I thought I could, but, oh God! I’m not ready. Tom, I can’t do this.” She backed into the elevator and leaned against the buttons. “I can’t do this, Tom. I can’t. I can’t go home, either.”
She fell to the floor, wailing. Dr. Peptic came down the hallway and joined them in the elevator. He kneeled beside Edna and checked her pulse.
“It’s okay, Tom. I can put her in a room here tonight, and she can visit Jim when she’s ready. Looks like she could use a little sedative, anyway. Let’s go back up and get her settled. I know you want to get back to the station.”
“I do, but I didn’t expect her to take it this hard. Are you sure she’ll be fine here?”
They grabbed an empty gurney and helped Edna lie back on it. If she heard them talking, she made no indication. Fresh tears ran down the side of her face and settled in her ear folds. Her lips quivered occasionally, and the fear never left her eyes.
“Yes. Most likely she’ll sleep the sedative off, so you can join her in the morning, anyway.”
“Thank you,” Tom said. “Lock the doors as soon as you can.”
“You know I can’t do that. But if the fog rolls in way out here, I will lock all the doors to the main halls of the hospital. Only the lobby will be open,” Dave agreed.
“I suppose. The full moon isn’t for at least one more night, anyway.”
“Well, technically tonight is a full moon, too, even though the calendar marked it for tomorrow. Always seems to be more than one night with a full moon.”
“Yeah. Tomorrow’s going to be chaos.”
“And I’ll be prepared. I have a full staff of volunteers that will be on duty all night tomorrow. We’ll be ready for anything.”
“Alright.” Tom turned to Edna and took her hand. “Dave’s going to take care of you. You’re going to stay here tonight, so you aren’t alone, okay? I’ll be back to see you in the morning.”
“Tom?” Edna whispered.
Tom leaned in. “Yeah, sis?”
Her lips trembled. “Jim’s dead.”
“I know, sis. I’m sorry.”
Edna just stared ahead, and Tom nodded at Dave before making his way back to his car.
He didn’t know it yet, but the night was just getting started.
Chapter Seventeen
“Welcome back, sir,” Curtis said as Tom entered the station.
“Everything okay?” he asked, pleased to notice Carla sat behind the desk just as she should be.
“Yeah. Carla’s been fielding calls and adding to the list as needed. Some of them have been found, so she crossed them off.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear that. How’s the file coming along?”
“Well, honestly, it’s a bit confusing,” Curtis began, but the fire chief strolled in and interrupted.
“Tom, you are not going to believe it,” Warren said. “Does the name Walker ring any bells with you?”
Tom thought for a few minutes. He remembered hearing the name Walker growing up, but there weren’t any in Rickdale anymore.
“Not many. If there were any Walkers left, they are long gone from Rickdale. Why? What’s up?”
“Well, I don’t know why it hasn’t occurred to me before, but Mae was a Walker before she was a White.”
Curtis interrupted. “Yeah, I was just puzzling over that in the folder. Says she had two boys with Harlan, but no one knows what happened to the oldest boy.”
“Does it say what his name was?” Tom asked.
“No, sir, not in the file, but there are indications that he was taken in by relatives. Just doesn’t say if they were Whites or Walkers.”
“Don’t quote me, but I think it was Jeffrey, or Joshua, or something like that. Seems to be stuck in my head that it started with a ‘J’, though I’m not sure why I think that or where I got it from. What I do remember about the Walkers is that they were the center of the biggest scandal many years ago, possibly before you were born, Tom, or maybe around the same time. Drew Walker walked out on his pregnant girlfriend, Naomi, who ended up putting the baby, a boy, up for adoption. He left Rickdale and no one ever heard from him again. It was a huge scandal because back then, much like now, you manned up if you knocked a girl up. It’s how a lot of us, myself included, ended up with our wives now. For him to just up and take off on her tarnished her name, and then she put the kid up for adoption, which made tongues wag even more. I was just a kid myself when it happened, so my memory might be a little shot, but I do remember that one because my dad ingrained it in my head.”
“He just up and disappeared? Was it an anniversary or something?”
“Not that I recall. People would’ve mentioned that, you know. Would it have been such a big scandal if it was? I’m thinking it wouldn’t have been.”
“True. If Naomi had that baby in Rickdale Memorial, there’ll be a record of it. We just need a date. Curtis, look up the scandal on the computer. Rickdale Gazette would have posted news about it.”
Warren held his hand up. “Yeah but, the Gazette wasn’t online then, and a fire destroyed their old copies about twenty years ago. I don’t know they ever got all their articles filed online.”
“Only one way to find out,” Curtis said as he sat in front of his keyword and let his fingers fly across the keys. The screen flickered and an old picture of the newspaper appeared.
“We’re in luck. They managed to get this one recorded. Oh!” Curtis sucked in air as he read the screen. “Lots of info here, too, sir. Take a look.”
Tom’s eyes widened as he read the article. He pulled out his notepad and scribbled notes on it.
“Warren?”
“Tom?”
“How’re your boys doing in moving the bodies?”
“It’s slow. The cemetery isn’t where you said it should be, so they’ve been digging all day with no results. They should be packing it up in about thirty minutes and heading back out tomorrow. That’s the best I can do. Not risking any of them in the fog.”
“Don’t blame you there. I need to call the hospital. I have a theory, but until I get those records, that’s all it is.”
“Many theories started as an idea and became facts. Keep me posted on what you find out, Tom. I’ll be staying at the firehouse for the duration of the week.” Warren gave Tom a two-finger wave and left.
CALEB PULLED INTO HIS mother’s driveway with a screech. They ran into the house quickly, Everly not even bothering to grab her bag. They had outrun the thicker fog, but it still crept in from the creek behind the house.
Jennifer had her nursing uniform on. “You got home just in time. I need to cover a shift at the hospital since Dr. Peptic gave several male employees an early leave. I need you to stay here until my shift ends, okay? Really. I can’t worry about you.”