With King’s help, Aurora covered more ground than she’d expected. And her ankle didn’t hurt nearly as much as it had earlier. In fact, she could now move without holding onto King, even though she moved slowly. Maybe she’d just twisted it a little instead of spraining or breaking it. She had no idea where King was leading her, but as long as she had him with her she knew she’d be safe. At first she thought he would take her to the rowboat, but that hadn’t happened.
To keep her mind off her fatigue and the blackness that surrounded her, she thought about all the things that had happened in less than a week and made a mental list of them.
Friday night I met Blanche Southerland for the first time. On Saturday, I helped Hessie Davis and met Dixie Lee Cunningham. Sam tried to find Tom Southerland, Sam and I met Kurt and Carole’s client Winston Ford—didn’t like him! Found Tom’s cap in toilet. Uncle Charlie came to lake. Dixie Lee phoned, said Hessie remembered license number. Uncle Charlie remembered a Dixie Lee.
Jill and Robert stopped by on Sunday. Jill’s pregnant. On Monday morning, I heard that a body had been found in a freezer in the lake. (Learned Tues. that body was Tom Southerland.) Hessie disappeared. I stayed with Dixie Lee, saw Win without sunglasses, recognized his eyes. Kurt left message saying he saw black van at Hessie’s house Sunday night. Car slammed into Jill’s car, Jill taken to a Roanoke hospital. Brought Little Guy home. Kurt gave me license number of van—same number Hessie remembered.
King and Little Guy disappeared on Wednesday. I rowed over to Smith Mtn. to look for dogs. Found and lost Little Guy, hurt ankle, King found me.
Aurora jumped when King woofed and yanked on her sleeve. He whined, barked. A familiar bark a short distance away answered him.
“Little Guy, here boy,” Aurora called. She heard an answering yap-yap, but he didn’t come dashing eagerly through the woods as she’d expected him to.
“King, get Little Guy.” King only whined. “What in the world is wrong with you two dogs? Okay, King, if Little Guy won’t come to me, you take me to him. Let’s go.”
With her hand resting on his back, Aurora and King forged ahead. Minutes later a dog reunion took place. Little Guy and King acted like they’d been apart for days. Little Guy seemed to feel no remorse for leaving Aurora alone several hours ago. She grabbed hold of him. Good, her belt was still around his collar. She’d worried when he ran off earlier that the belt would get caught on something, that he’d be trapped.
“Doggie,” said a weak voice a few yards away.
Startled, Aurora hushed the dogs and listened.
“Doggie,” called the voice again.
Aurora couldn’t believe what she heard. “Hessie, is that you?” she called. “Where are you?”
“Momma, I want a cookie.”
Aurora pinpointed Hessie’s location and hurried to her as quickly as she could over the rough ground.
“Oh, Hessie, dear. You’re alive. Oh my goodness. It’s Wednesday; you wandered off Monday morning. Have you been on the mountain all this time?”
Aurora sat on the ground and held Hessie in her arms, stroked her matted hair, pulled Hessie’s torn red robe tighter around her. She ran her hands over Hessie’s body and legs. One foot was bare; a ragged slipper hanging together by threads partially covered the other foot. To Aurora, Hessie’s feet felt like chunks of ice. “However in the world did you make it this far?”
King whined, nuzzled Hessie and Aurora. Aurora grabbed hold of the belt on Little Guy’s collar and pulled him close to her. “King, get Sam. Go, boy. Find Sam. Hurry.”
The Lab licked her chin, barked, and disappeared into the night.
Little Guy tugged against the belt. “No, you stay here with me.”
With one hand holding Little Guy’s makeshift leash, Aurora removed her sneakers and socks. As gently as she could, she put one sock on Hessie’s bare foot and replaced the mangled slipper with the other sock. Though not the cleanest around, Aurora’s body-warm socks should feel good to Hessie’s frigid feet.
Hessie sighed, snuggled against Aurora. “Momma,” she said, and fell asleep cradled in Aurora’s arms. In the distance Aurora heard King barking.