I
sat alone in the hospital examination room with midnight fast approaching. Tired, they had kept me in the hospital too long, and despite the painkillers, my body hurt in too many places. I heard a soft knock on the door, and Louise walked in.
“Hi. Glad I got here before they released you.”
“I’m ready to go,” I said, all of a sudden feeling a little better.
“They tell me you’re good to go back to the hotel tonight,” she said, smiling as she sat in a chair next to me. She grabbed my hand and held it for a second.
“I have my aches and pains, but nothing major. They stitched up my arm and my head again. Washed a million scratches and gave me a shot to fend off infections. So, all-in-all, I have a dozen or so new stitches and about five pounds of new bandages on various parts of my body.”
“It’s a miracle you survived, but I’m glad you did. They told me you might also have a concussion.”
“I don’t doubt it. I can’t tell you how glad I am that you were able to find us. I seriously don’t know if I would’ve made it until morning. Wet as I was, the cold night would’ve been very rough.”
Louise nodded. “You know, it’s still touch and go with Streelman.”
“That’s what they told me,” I said.
“They had to amputate his arm. He’s banged up elsewhere, but what they’re really worried about is the infection that has already set in.”
I nodded, acknowledging that I heard her, but offered no response.
“We’ll need a detailed statement, but that can wait until the morning. For right now, can you give me a short summary. We’ve figured out a lot, we think.”
I walked her through how Streelman forced me at gun point to get into the car and the drive out to the river. She only asked a couple of questions for clarification until I got to the point of his telling me his secret.
“He’s got a second family?” she asked, following that with a number of questions similar to the ones I had asked Streelman.
She never asked me why I bothered trying to rescue the person who had just tried to kill me. A question for which I still didn’t have a good answer. When she finished, she called Nichols and gave him a shortened version of what I told her.
“Nichols is still out there. They’re trying to secure the car until they can remove it from the river. It will be a long night.”
“Like I said, I did not want to spend the night out there.”
“At least Nichols is dry and had the good sense to take a jacket.”
“I didn’t exactly get an opportunity to prepare for my little adventure.”
“Oh, Jim. I’m so happy you’re going to be okay. I was scared tonight.”
“Me, too. Did Sheriff Barnes really climb down to rescue us?”
“Ha, no way. He slipped, and then he couldn’t get back up, so he decided to go down. I think he slipped and fell most of the way down. Lucky for him, he survived.”
“You know he busted his ankle.”
“I heard.”
“Must be an election year because he was really talking up his finding and rescuing us to the press while we were getting off the boat,” I said.
“He made sure the press was there, too. To be fair, he is well liked by his people. I hear they have a secret rule, though, not to ever let him be the first to a crime scene.”
I smiled. I knew some of those in the air force.
“Did he say why he targeted you? You hadn’t done anything to him.”
“Not really, he had some misguided impression that I was a threat to his getting away with killing Doug. He also thought I had told you all to focus on him as the main suspect. Stupid man, if he would have done nothing after killing Doug, he may have gotten away with it,” I said.
“Possibly. Did he really say he did all this for love?”
“Yes, but don’t expect me to explain his thinking. The guy is mixed up. He told me when I first got into the car that he was going to kill himself, but first he wanted to explain everything to me, so I could tell his side of the story. Yet, he didn’t. The idiot tried to kill us both without telling me anything. He only told me the rest of the story after the crash while he was in and out of consciousness.”
“Your friends are all worried about you. I don’t think they know much about what happened, other than that you and Streelman are both here. By morning the news stations will be all over this, but it was all too late for the ten o’clock news tonight.”
“I’m not playing golf in the morning.”
She laughed. “I hope not. You’ll probably have trouble walking around tomorrow. Besides, I think we’ll be having everyone in for one last interview tomorrow morning. We need to close as much of this out as possible before everyone leaves. I doubt if anyone will be playing golf.”
A knock on the door interrupted us, and a police officer in uniform stuck his head in, motioning for Louise to come out.
“I’ll be right back,” she said. True to her word she returned a moment later.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“James Streelman passed away.”
I didn’t respond. Too many thoughts went through my head.
“I need to step out for a while. Please don’t leave the hospital before I get back.”
“Okay.”
She left. I looked over at my damp jeans and shirt. Putting them back on would be no fun, but I didn’t think Louise brought me a change of clothes this time. My nurse showed up before Louise returned. She said I could leave and gave me a couple sheets of paper with instructions on how to keep my wounds clean. I almost turned them down, saying that I had received the same set a few days earlier, but decided it took less effort to nod my head and accept them.
I felt more exhausted than hurt. The pain medicine they had injected into me in the ambulance may have had something to do with it, but I figured that should be wearing off by now.
What a waste, I thought. For some strange reason, I felt a new anger develop inside me. Streelman caused me to miss out on what was supposed to be a fun and relaxing golf trip. I also thought about his family. I had never met any of them, but Streelman’s actions would undoubtedly be devastating to them.
Maybe Nelson deserved what he got, but why here or this week? I had a number of crazy thoughts about both Nelson and Streelman.
“Mr. West, Mr. West.”
I must have fallen asleep. The nurse had a tight grip on my arm.
“Are you alright?” she asked.
“Yes, just tired I guess.”
“I thought you’d be gone by now, so I came back in to check on you. Glad I did. We better check your vitals one more time before you go.”
“I’m fine,” I said, but she looked at me like she had heard that too many times before.
As she was taking my blood pressure, Louise came back in.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes, a few final checks, that’s all,” the nurse said. “You’re not driving yourself to your hotel, are you?”
“No, I’ll take him back,” Louise said.