Chapter Thirteen

Splendor Pass Community Hospital was tiny compared to most. It really was more of a clinic than anything else. But it was nice, and as Maggie walked through the sliding glass doors a step behind Koda, she was met with a warm blast of air and a pleasant, clean scent.

He’d been quiet since he’d held her hand in the truck. She hadn’t said anything either, but her hand still tingled where he’d touched it. In fact, her entire body felt strange, as if she’d just now accepted after a year of denial, that she could still feel this way. It had been so long since she’d focused on anything but grief, that the concept of being attracted to someone was hard to wrap her mind around.

They walked up to the nurse’s station, where a young woman sat on the other side of a gleaming counter.

“May I help you?”

Maggie thought she caught a glimpse of appreciation in the other woman’s eyes as she settled the brunt of her attention on Koda. He was in uniform, the silver star on his jacket gleaming in the fluorescent light of the lobby.

“We’re here to see Candi Brooks,” he said.

“Sure thing.” Her fingers danced along the keyboard. “Miss Brooks is in room 116.”

“Thanks.”

The woman watched him turn, her gaze dropping shamelessly to his rear end. Maggie felt a prickle of irritation. Rude. Stepping possessively closer to Koda, she glanced at the clerk over her shoulder. Then ran right into him when he stopped to drink from the fountain a few feet away.

“Sorry,” she mumbled.

As they climbed the stairs to the second floor, her thoughts turned dark again. For the last hour, she’d been trying to brace herself for seeing poor Candi, but was having a lousy time of it. What if she blamed Maggie, at least in part for what happened? No matter what Koda said, no matter what anyone said, no amount of reassuring was going to make her feel okay with this. Because she felt it was her own fault.

Koda read the room numbers aloud as they passed. “One fourteen, one fifteen…here we go.”

He hesitated before knocking. She figured she wasn’t the only one dreading this.

“Come on in,” said a voice from inside.

He pushed the door open, just as a nurse in pink scrubs was leaving.

“She needs her rest,” she said, eyeing Koda as if resenting his presence. “I know you have your questions, but please keep it short.”

“It’s okay. He’s family.”

Candi lay in a bed by the window, her hand outstretched toward them.

The nurse nodded and walked out the door, closing it behind her.

An awful lump rose in Maggie’s throat. Candi’s face was a swollen, black-and-blue mess. Her nose was bandaged and part of her hair was shaved away from another bandage on her head. Her beautiful, strawberry-blond hair that had been teased to perfection just last night.

A strangled sound escaped Maggie’s throat. Koda stood beside her, his deep complexion drained of color. He moved first, crossing the room to take Candi’s hand.

“Don’t say it,” she said, trying to smile. Her lips were so puffy, they shone like glass. “I look gorgeous, right?”

Koda took an audible breath. Maggie could tell he was trying to compose himself.

“You always look gorgeous.”

“Liar.”

He smiled down at her, but there was something in his expression Maggie hadn’t seen before. An emotion so intense that it twisted her stomach. She had no doubt that whoever did this would pay.

“I’d never lie to you,” he said.

“At least I’m finally getting that nose job I’ve always wanted.” The swollen eyes shifted to Maggie. “Hey there, doll.”

That was it. Those three little words, warm and sweet, despite everything, were enough to make Maggie want to cry. Her chin trembled, even though she willed it not to. She stepped closer, brushing Koda’s shoulder.

“Hi, Candi.”

“Why so sad?”

“I’m…” Maggie struggled to find the right thing to say, but it eluded her like a naughty puppy. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

Candi’s lips curved. It looked painful. “Me, too. But he didn’t hurt anything that won’t heal. And on the bright side, I’ll have a few days off from the café, right?” She looked back at Koda, who was frowning. “Oh, come on, you two. I’m not dead.”

She wasn’t dead. Not this time… Koda must have been thinking the same thing, because he slid Maggie a look.

“It’s okay,” Candi said. “I’m gonna be fine.”

Maggie stared at her. “I feel like this could be my fault. Zane—”

Candi put a hand on Maggie’s arm. “Don’t say anything else. Zane’s already been here and I know what he thinks.”

“He has a point.”

Koda sighed.

“Well, he does,” Maggie said.

“Zane’s mad,” Candi said. “He needs someone to blame, so he’s blaming you. When he calms down and thinks it through, he’ll realize how stupid that is. But unfortunately, Zane isn’t the type to calm down easily.”

Maggie remembered how he’d glowered at her that afternoon. Like he’d wanted to come across the table and rip her throat out.

“He’ll be fine,” Candi went on. “Don’t worry about him. You weren’t the one who did this.”

Maggie could see why men were obsessed with this woman. She was stunning, on the inside and out. And even though Maggie had only known her a short while, she understood this. Accepted it as fact.

“I’ve been trying to tell her that,” Koda said. “But she won’t listen to me.”

“I listen to you,” Maggie said quickly. “I do.”

They looked at each other for a long, pregnant moment.

“I’m glad to see you two are getting along,” Candi said.

Maggie’s face pulsed. Was it that obvious?

“Candi, honey.” Koda pulled up a chair. “Do you remember anything? Anything at all?”

“Sure. I remember most of it. Right up until I hit my head, and then it gets foggy. I was just getting out of the shower and I heard someone banging on the front door.”

“What time was it?”

“Early. I had to open at the café. About seven.”

Koda fished a small notebook out of his jacket pocket and flipped it open. “You opened the door?”

“I went to the door, but I didn’t open it. I looked through the peephole and that’s when he busted it open. Hit me right in the damn nose.”

Koda glanced up, his face drawn. “What did he look like?”

“He was wearing a mask.”

“What kind?”

“A Halloween mask. It was one of those things you put over your entire head. Rubber. It was a Native American face. There was long black hair. Feathers in it.”

Koda scribbled on the pad, his head bent in concentration. “We found some of the hair on the floor. Synthetic.”

“I grabbed it,” Candi said. “I tried to get it off, but he kept ducking. He was fast. Really fast.”

“Did he say anything?”

“Nothing. Not a sound. Not even when I hit him over the head with the lamp.”

Koda’s lips twitched at that. “How hard?”

“Hard enough to knock him backward. Bastard.”

“How about his body type? How big was he?”

“Tall, lean. But he was solid. Strong. He felt like cement.”

Koda nodded, scribbling in the notebook. “What was he wearing?”

“Just a T-shirt and jeans. Don’t ask me to describe them, because I can’t. That’s about all I noticed. Except that the T-shirt was white.”

Pausing, he looked up. “No jacket?”

“Nope.”

“Strange. It was in the teens this morning.”

“The whole thing was strange.”

“Do you know how long he might have been there? Roughly.”

“I passed out after I hit my head. But as far as him beating the shit out of me, I think that part only took a few minutes.”

Koda finished writing something down and the room grew quiet, the only sound being the purposeful footsteps of medical staff down the hall.

“Anything else?” he finally asked. “Anything that sticks out about him?”

“Yeah.” Candi sniffed, and for the first time, Maggie could tell she was getting tired. They should leave soon. “He smelled funny,” she said.

“Funny, how?”

“Don’t know if I can put my finger on it. Kind of earthy. But familiar. I can’t explain it.”

“Earthy…like he needed a shower?”

“No. Earthy, like earthy. He smelled sort of like…pine needles and mud.”

Koda glanced at Maggie.

“Okay, then.” He patted Candi’s leg. “You should rest now. I’ll be back later to do a formal interview. Mostly we just wanted to see you. Make sure you’re all right. Aunt A is coming later, okay?”

Candi nodded, her eyes heavy. Maggie was surprised she’d managed to stay awake this long. She was probably getting some pretty serious pain meds through her IV. But if Maggie had learned anything about Candi so far, it was that she was one tough cookie.

Maggie leaned down. “Bye, Candi. I’ll come back to see you tomorrow.”

She smiled, but her eyes were closed.

“Let’s go,” Koda said quietly. “She’s exhausted. We shouldn’t have stayed this long.”

Maggie followed him to the door just as the nurse came back in, lips pursed.

“We were just leaving,” he said.

“Wait.” Candi’s voice was sleepy but urgent. “I remember something. It’s fuzzy. It was after he pushed me…”

Koda stepped forward.

“He took…” Candi’s face screwed up. Maggie couldn’t tell if it was from pain, or the effort of remembering. “He took my bra,” she said. “The son of a bitch took my bra.”

The fog had been so thick.

Their little yellow car had inched along, making its way through the mostly deserted town. It was almost midnight and a full moon hung over head. There were moments of clarity, where the mist parted and the moonlight shone through like a giant lamp in the sky.

“I’m about to pop,” Aimee had said, and they’d laughed again.

She pushed her hair away from her face, and looked out the window. “This place gives me the creeps, Mags.” She said this while rubbing the fog away from the glass. “If I didn’t have to go so bad…”

They passed an old mechanic’s shop on the right. A post office on the left. There were no other cars, and Maggie felt oddly cold despite the heater blowing warm air against her cheeks.

She leaned forward and rubbed the windshield with her shirtsleeve. “I can barely see.”

“Up there,” Aimee had said. “To the right. There’s a gas station and convenience store.”

“Wolfe Creek General Store,” the sign had said. As they got closer, they could make out two dejected gas pumps in the gravel parking lot. Beyond that, a small building with a neon-red Open sign flickering in the window.

Maggie had pulled up next to a pump and looked at Aimee before opening the door. “At least they’re not closed,” she’d said. “Otherwise we’d be going on the side of the freeway.”

They’d stepped out into the frigid night air, and it had taken Maggie’s breath away. Aimee came around and grabbed her elbow. “You sure you don’t want to? It’s not too late.”

“And get hit by a car with my pants down? I’d rather take my chances here.”

They’d stood there, arm in arm, staring at the store as if it were a slumbering animal. They couldn’t see much beyond the windows, except that the lights were on. An animal cried in the woods behind them and the sound sent chills up Maggie’s neck.

Aimee danced from foot to foot. “It’s freezing out here. Let’s go in.”

They opened the cloudy glass door, a bell tinkling their arrival, and were met with a peculiar emptiness. There wasn’t a clerk in sight.

“Weird,” Aimee whispered. “This place is so weird.”

“I know.”

Across several aisles of junk food and travel essentials, was the bathroom. There was a crude stick figure of a man and a woman painted on the door.

“I guess that’s it,” Aimee said.

They heard a clunking sound outside and turned to see an attendant by the pumps.

Maggie sagged in relief. At least it wasn’t completely deserted like some kind of Twilight Zone episode.

She’d turned to Aimee. “Why don’t you go first, and I’ll get the gas.”

“Okay. Get me a pack of those mini doughnuts, will you? The ones with powdered sugar. I’ll pay you back.”

“We’ll make ourselves sick.”

“That’s the whole point of a road trip, Mags. Junk food and gossip.” She turned then, her hair bouncing down her back in a wave of blond curls, her head tilted just so.

And then she’d looked casually over one shoulder. She’d been so young, so pretty, so full of life.

“I’ll be right back,” she’d said.