Tyrell stared at the phone in Albert’s hand. ‘What happened?’ he said to Albert.
‘I don’t know,’ Albert cried. ‘I told her to hang on, that I was running to get you.’
‘What did she say? Did she say where they were?’ Tyrell asked.
‘No,’ Albert admitted. ‘Something about the Hideaway Cabins. She said she was worried about Ward. And then I was so busy trying to warn her … I’m sorry.’
Tyrell tapped his fingers on the desktop. ‘I’ll bet she had to hang up,’ he said. ‘He might have walked in on her and so she had to end the call.’
‘Oh God, this is my fault,’ Albert wailed.
While Albert fretted over what he had done, Tyrell tried to think. She hadn’t called back. He was willing to bet that meant she couldn’t call back. At least he could check the number. He held the phone, pressed the number from the last call and waited.
‘What are you doing?’ Albert demanded.
‘I’m trying to find out where she called from,’ said Tyrell.
Albert wrung his hands. ‘I’ve got to get out there and deal with a delivery. Please let me know what you find out.’
Tyrell nodded as Albert, worrying aloud, left the office. The minutes crawled by while Tyrell waited. The number was not Dena’s. Whoever she borrowed this phone from was not picking up. On about the tenth ringing signal, he heard a click and then, to his shock, a voice.
‘Hello?’ It was a young female voice.
Tyrell gripped the phone. ‘Excuse me,’ he said politely. ‘Who is this?’
‘This is Brittany.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Tyrell. He thought about identifying himself as a police officer, but then decided it would raise more questions than it would help the situation. ‘Maybe you could help me. Someone just called me from this number and we were … cut off.’
‘Oh, they’re gone now,’ said the girl.
‘Who’s gone?’ asked Tyrell. ‘From where?’
‘The family that was here. I’m at work in the Wawa. What do you want anyway?’ the girl asked suspiciously
‘I’m sorry. I just want to know the location – the town where you’re located.’
The manager gave Brittany a signal not to be talking on the phone. There was work to do. He was finishing up the mopping in the front, unsatisfied with the job she’d done.
Brittany hesitated a moment. The man sounded nice and sincere. Besides, what difference did it make if she told him where the store was. ‘Redmark,’ she said. ‘On Route 27.’ Then, before she could get into trouble, she hung up.
Tyrell repeated it aloud. ‘Redmark, Route 27.’ He placed Albert’s phone on his desk and pulled out his own phone. He pressed a few buttons on his phone and got the location. It wasn’t that far. He just had to hope that they had stopped there for the night. He left the office, headed for his car, when he thought maybe he needed some help on this. He punched in the police station number and asked for Captain Van Brunt.
Peg said, ‘Is that you, Tyrell?’
‘Yeah, is he in? Tell him it’s important.’
‘He’s in the car, hold on.’
Tyrell waited, looking at his watch. After a moment, Peg got back on the line. ‘I’m sorry, Tyrell,’ she said, sounding sheepish. ‘I can’t find him right now.’
‘Never mind,’ he said grimly, knowing that Van Brunt had refused his call. ‘I’ll take care of it myself.’
No one in the van made a peep on the way back to the cabin. The children, sensing that something was wrong, did not say a word. When they arrived at the end of the dirt road and Peter stopped in front of the little cabin, Peter ordered the girls to get out. They scrambled to comply.
‘Why are we stopping here?’ Dena asked.
Peter did not reply to her question, but demanded the room key from Dena, who reached into her pocket and gave it to him without a word. Peter handed it out the window to Tory, and told her to go and open the door and to take Megan inside.
When the two girls had disappeared through the door, Peter turned to Dena. ‘How are you feeling?’ he asked pleasantly. ‘Still have the pains?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I just had another contraction. I think we’d better hurry.’
Peter gazed calmly through the windshield. ‘No hurry,’ he said. ‘We just have to let nature take its course.’
Dena felt infuriated by his arrogance, but she didn’t want to antagonize him. ‘I realize this is normal and natural and all that, but I still will feel a lot more comfortable when we get to the hospital,’ she said.
‘Don’t be silly,’ said Peter. ‘There’s absolutely no need for that. You’ll be perfectly fine right here.’
For a moment, Dena thought she must have misunderstood. She stared at his placid, opaque countenance with a growing sense of alarm. For a minute she thought of Brian. This was even worse. How could it be that she had ended up worse off than she had been with Brian? She wanted to scream, only partly from pain. ‘Peter, this baby is not due yet,’ said Dena. ‘Don’t you understand? It might be small. It might need help to breathe.’
‘Oh, that’s a lot of medico-feminist nonsense. Your body is built for giving birth, and babies are built to survive. Women gave birth for years without all those doctors and hospitals. Now, just relax and put yourself in my hands. I won’t let anything happen to this baby.’
Dena turned and looked at him, fighting back the tears that were rising to her eyes. ‘Peter,’ she said, ‘why are you doing this?’
An expression of irritation crossed his face. He pocketed the keys, opened the driver’s side door on the van and climbed down. Then he walked around and opened the door on her side.
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Hop down. We’ll get you all settled inside.’
‘I’m not getting out of this van,’ she said. ‘I’m going to a hospital.’
‘Don’t fight me on this. I know what I’m doing,’ he said.
Dena tried to think, although her mind was reeling with the possibilities of disaster for her baby. Calm down, she thought. Try and be reasonable. ‘Peter,’ she said carefully. ‘I … I know … I realize that you might be … in some sort of trouble.’ She tried to make her voice sound casual, as if the trouble were a minor traffic violation. She tried not to think about Brenda Kelly, and what it all might mean.
‘Trouble? What do you mean trouble?’ he demanded.
‘Look, I don’t have time to be … coy here,’ she said. ‘This thing about Brenda Kelly …’
‘I don’t know anything about that,’ he said.
‘Peter, I know there is no restaurant in Minneapolis. I don’t know why you said there was. I’m assuming you might be trying to get away from something …’ she said.
‘I have my reasons,’ he said. ‘You would never understand.’
‘Whatever your reasons are, I don’t care. I just want to be sure my baby is safe. You don’t have to take me to the hospital. Just give me the keys and I’ll find it myself. Or drop me off at the door, and keep on going. I swear to you, I won’t tell anybody. I promise you I won’t. I owe you that.’
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Chop, chop. We’re wasting time.’
Dena was trembling all over but she willed herself to speak quietly and forcefully. ‘This is my baby,’ she said. ‘And we are going to do it my way.’
Peter gave her a long-suffering look. ‘Dena, try to think rationally. There is nothing dangerous about having a baby at home. Women have been doing it for centuries. You know I’m right. Now come along.’
His self-satisfied smile made her want to reach out and smack him. It was frightening too, but she wasn’t going to think about that. The only thing she could think of was her baby. Stay calm, she thought. For your baby. Change your tack.
‘Peter,’ she pleaded. ‘I know how much you care for children. There is no one who is more concerned about children than you. This is my child and I’m appealing to you as a parent. Can’t we just go to the hospital and bring this baby safely into the world?’
Peter sighed. ‘Dena, I am thinking about the baby. That’s all I’m thinking about. The baby is the only one worth thinking about. He’s an innocent. A brand-new life who needs to be brought into this world in the right way.’
‘That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to make sure that he is safe from birth. And I will take good care of him. Believe me, I will.’
Peter snorted and shook his head. ‘I doubt that,’ he said. ‘Look how stubborn you’re being. Now come on, get out of there.’
She knew what he said about home births was true. Most children had been born that way throughout history. But that wasn’t the point. The point was that he didn’t give a damn for what she wanted. He was making a life-threatening decision for her baby as if this was his child, not hers. And, without knowing exactly what his intentions were, she knew that she and her baby were in danger from him. He was deaf to her pleas. There was no use in pretending or hoping. She had to try something.
‘OK, OK,’ she said. She shifted around in the passenger seat so that her whole body was facing the open doorway. Peter lifted a hand as if to take hers, and help her out. She hesitated, remembering how he had been her friend. He had taken her side, tried to protect her from Brian. It couldn’t have come to this. But it has, she reminded herself.
You have to think only of the baby. His upraised arm exposed his ribs. She had no room to pull her lower leg back, to give it some heft, but she did her best. She kicked her leg forward and hit him in the chest. Traveling upward, her foot hit his chin and he staggered back. She slid down off the seat, hitting the ground with a thud that jarred her up to the top of her head. What now, she thought? Run? She had seen a light on in the office when they came in.
She had a momentary head-start on him. She wondered if it was dangerous to the baby to run. What did it matter? she thought. It was dangerous not to. She had run on and off for years, for exercise. She knew how. She clutched her belly and headed up the path, crying out for help. She did not get as far as the dirt road when the pain hit.
It was not a sharp pain. It was a cramp. Just a bad cramp, but it doubled her up and stopped her short. Oh God, she said. Oh God, please help me. She breathed deeply and tried to start again. By then he had caught up with her.
He grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her, so that it felt as if it would break.
She could feel all the color draining from her face. ‘Come on,’ he said soothingly. ‘Let’s go back now, and I’ll put a cold cloth on your head.’ Then he patted her stomach fondly. ‘And I’ll take good care of you until we get this little fellow delivered.’