Tainted Waters

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

"Don't do it. Please don't do it," Shelley begged him.

"I have to. Do you think I like this any more than you do? I hate it but I want her to have a life. A good life. I want her to live." Kyle punched the wall grunting in pain. Cradling his hand, he turned to face her.

"But we don't know for sure she needs this. Just wait." She could barely contain her soft sobs.

"Wait until what? The doctor says oops we can put her on a waiting list but it could be years. You can check your family but oh yeah, we really can't. We don't have many options. I know it's not the conventional route—"

Shelley snorted. "Please, tell me you know how dangerous this is?"

He reached for her hand, squeezing it. "I do. I know … it's not safe. But I have to do this. I love her as much as you do. She's mine in every way that counts. If we follow the rules, we may lose her. You know she'll be placed way down on the list for a transplant. If they'll even put her on it. She's not considered a good candidate. She's disabled so why would they even care."

"It's not fair."

"I know. I have to do what I think is right. I don't want to lose her."

Sobbing, she turned and ran from the room, her body convulsing with the depth of her pain. He hated that he had to hurt her, but it just strengthened his resolve that if he didn't do something soon, it might be too late. Picking up his cell, he checked for the number he'd recorded in his contacts. The reality of what he was doing was overwhelming. It took him a minute to calm his nerves before he could hit call. The phone rang four times before he got a voice mail message.

"Leave your name and number. I'll call you."

Even though it was one of those recorded standard phone company recordings, a chill descended through his body sending out tentacles that wrapped themselves so deep, they felt like they'd settled into the marrow of his bones. Knowing he was dealing with the black market, which meant some unsavory people, he hesitated only a second before leaving the required information. Clicking off his cell, he went to set it down, only to find his hands were shaking so bad that it slipped out of his fingers, clanking onto the counter. His first thought was that he'd destroyed it and would never have to use it again. It wasn't his everyday phone, it was one that was a pay-as-you-go type. He'd bought it specifically for this purpose. Maybe he'd watched too much TV but the less information that he had to give them, the more he felt in control. Tentatively picking it up, he flipped it open. The screen lit up immediately. It still worked.

"You're in this now," he whispered.

~~~~

"Annnnnnnsssssaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmm."

Sam winced as she realized she'd taken too long. Grabbing the grocery bags, she looked around to make sure that their presence couldn't be noted. As she walked out, on impulse, she kissed her index finger and pressed it to her dad, who was in a picture with several other people. The black-and-white photo hung inside the door above another one. After giving them both a cursory glance, she locked up, put the stuff in the car, grabbed DD, and headed down the trail that led around the south end of the lake.

Her niece was dragging her feet, plodding along like this was the walk from hell, so different from the girl who'd played in the lake a short hour before. Sam knew she was tired, but it was the idea of walking that was her issue, not the actual exercise. Sam needed to distract her from what she was really doing.

"I'll race you to the top of that little mound?"

"No."

"Come on. It'll be fun."

"No." She continued to trudge along.

Sam spun around in front of her and walked backward. "Bet you can't catch me." She danced back as she swiped at her. "Too slow." This time, she let DD brush her T-shirt but got out of her way just before she'd have grabbed. She backpedaled a little faster. "Almost but not fast enough." She kept up the routine until they were almost to the top of the gentle rise and DD was almost jogging. Sam sprinted the rest of the way up the knoll backward. At the top, the path took a sharp left, cutting off the view because of dense trees. It was as she reached that point and was dancing from side to side that someone came around the corner. If she'd been facing forward, she might have been able to help avoid the collision but since she wasn't aware of anyone, she leapt to the right at the same time he moved in that direction.

DD shrieked. Sam tried to keep her in sight as she bounced off a muscled, sweaty body, hitting a poplar tree before spinning off and landing in some bushes.

"Assssaaaaaammmm. Assssaaaaaaaammmmmm. Asssaaaaaammmmmm."

The thick undergrowth seemed to have twined around her arms and body. She struggled with getting some leverage and untangling herself from the vines and brush. She yanked her left arm back, only to find that the movement threw her off-balance and she ended up landing farther into the brush. She scrambled more frantically, pulling her arms back, wiggling and squiggling to get free.

"Assssaaaaaaam. Assssssaaaaaaaaammmmmm. Assssssssssssaaaaaaaaaammmmm." Her niece's panic wasn't helping.

"DD, I'm okay. DD? I need you to stand there. Wait. Okay? I'm fine. I'm fine." She pulled more, knowing DD was headed for a panic attack, which could take hours to bring her down from. She had to get free. She fought harder.

"It's okay. It's okay. My name's Keegan. This is my fault. If you come closer, you can see your aunt. I'll help her out, okay?"

"No. Noooooooooo. Noooooooo."

"Okay. Okay. Do you want to help her? I bet she'd like that. If you grab these branches here and hold them back, I bet she'd be able to get free."

Sam could hear the soft, soothing sound of the man, whom she assumed was responsible for the collision. DD had stopped yelling her name, so that was a good sign. Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself and slowly extricated herself from the trees. Her ponytail, however, seemed to have a different mind. When trying to stand up, she was stopped short because her hair had become wrapped around a branch. Tilting her head at an awkward angle, she tried plucking a few strands free. Soon there was another pair of hands helping her. Stiffening, she jerked back, barely containing the swear word that was on her lips from the searing ripping pain that attacked her head as she tore free from her entanglement.

Barely glancing at the man who had helped her, she turned to her niece who was bouncing up and down, her fists clenched, her arms jerking almost spasmodically. Sam reached out and touched her hand.

"I'm okay. See." Sam spread her arms wide. She had no idea what she looked like, but she was aware of several scrapes and bruises. She started waving her arms and kicking her legs outward. "I'd make a good scarecrow. Hey? I bet I could keep those ravens from your mom's garden? What do you think?" She started twisting her face, contorting it into weird shapes. She slowed her movements.

"What do you think? Would your mom hire me to stand out in your backyard?" Sam kept at it for a few more minutes until DD stopped jerking and stood still.

"You got hurt." DD turned and gave a fierce look at the man, who was silently standing off to the side.

Sam reached out and took DD's hand which she let her clasp. She sighed before turning to see who was responsible.

"You!" It was the guy she'd run into in the stairwell of her apartment building.

"Me! You!"

"What? WHAT ANSAAAAMMMMMMMMM?"

Jerking out of her shock, Sam pasted on a smile. "Nothing, DD. This is someone I met earlier." She glared at him but made sure her niece couldn't see it. "I was surprised to meet him here. I'm wondering what he's doing here. Or how come I ran into him yesterday and again today?"

"Oh, cool. He's a friend, Aunt Sam. Meet me. Aunt Sam, who is he?"

"Uh, DD, I'd like you to meet …"

"Tim." He reached out his hand. "It's nice to meet you, DD. Sorry to frighten you."

"I'm not scared. You say sorry to Aunt Sam."

Sam almost burst out laughing. The only time DD says her name right, she’s giving hell to someone.

He dropped his hand before turning to look at Sam. The brilliance of his blue eyes jolted her. "It would appear I owe you an apology." He quirked up his left eyebrow and the left side of his mouth. It took her a few moments to realize that DD was tugging on her shirt.

"Uh. Right. Thanks. We really have to be going."

"Now we shake." DD thrust out her hand toward him; he took it without hesitation and shook it. She beamed at him. "You're my friend now. Bye." With that, she turned and started walking back to the cabin.

"I don't know what you're doing here, and I don't know if you're following me but stop. Stay away from me. Stay away from her. Got that?" She spoke in a harsh whisper, not wanting her niece to hear, especially now that she'd crowned him as her friend. She jammed her fists onto her hips, her face contorted with a fierce look.

He held her gaze for several seconds before responding. "I could say the same about you. I've never seen you before in my life and yet two times in two days you mow me over."

Sam straightened, a twinge of guilt raising its head, although she didn't let him know that. "Right, it was all my fault."

"Yeah. I guess you almost knocking me on my butt, at the apartment building, doesn't really count. And I would never hurt—" he looked past her, "DD."

Sam looked over her shoulder and realized that she wasn't walking at her usual snail’s pace, she was at the clearing.

"Oh, man! Stay away." Spinning, she sprinted after her niece. When she got to the open area near the cabin, she didn't see her niece anywhere. She ran to the water to make sure DD hadn't gone there. No sign of her. She looked back toward the cabin, on the right side, she saw a pink shoe disappear under the deck. Blowing out a breath she didn't know she was holding, Sam walked over and crouched down outside the closed plywood trapdoor. She sniffed the air. It was old and stale but smelled like dirt. For that, she was thankful. A week after her dad had died, the family had come out there and when they'd climbed out of their car, a foul smell had assaulted them. Her mom told the kids to stay in the vehicle while she gathered up some things in the cabin. Sam had tried to, but curiosity had gotten the better of her. She'd snooped around, trying to find the smell. Her mom had told her it must be because of a skunk. So, she'd tried to find it. When she lifted the makeshift door under the enclosed deck she'd been blasted with the stench. George, her dad's business partner, had torn a strip off her, yanking her out of there. She'd bitten him before running, screaming and puking. Her mom had given her a good talking to.

"Come out of there, sweetheart. It's dirty." And it used to be smelly and gross. Who knows what was living in there now? "I'm okay. Really. When you think of it, it's kind of funny, right? I mean, I fell into a tree and then I couldn't get up. The bush grabbed my hair and wouldn't let go. Now that's funny."

"It wasn't funny when Toby did that to me at school."

Sam closed her eyes and sat down. "No, that wouldn't have been funny. But a bush? Now that is hilarious. That branch grabbed me good and wouldn't let me go. It almost won that round. I'll show it next time though." She laughed softly.

The door lifted a bit. "A bush can't grab you, Aunt Sam."

"It sure seemed like it." She rubbed the tender spots on her head. "I'm going to have the scars to prove it."

DD withdrew back underneath. She seemed to have a fear that people got hurt and then they left and never came back. Sam had no idea where she'd gotten that idea.

"I really am fine. And now I have another story to add to my collection of fairy tales. It'll be a bestseller, but I'm going to need someone who can do the drawings for it. Hmmm, I wonder who I could get?"

DD's head appeared. "I can draw, Aunt Sam. I can do it for you."

She reached out and mussed her hair. "Okay, but I feel like a mocha latte. How about you?"

That was enough to get her moving. Sam held the door up, while DD scrambled out, oblivious to the cobwebs and dirt clinging to her. A glint of something caught Sam’s eye from deep under the deck. She stared hard, trying to see what it was. Only whatever had grabbed her attention, she could no longer see. It was gone now.

Heading off to the car, she stopped DD from getting in. "Wait. I need to brush you off first." After pulling out an old blanket and brushing off what she could.

Laundry and a shower before I take you home tonight.

After they were seated in the car, Sam turned to her. "We've talked about this before. You can't make friends with someone because I know them, or they appear nice to you. Okay?"

She nodded. "'K, Aunt Sam. I won't." Her eyelids started to droop. "Thanks. I loved today. And I got a new friend. Oh, and bones, An Sam."

"Yes. I like that show Bones too."

"No. Bones." Smiling with an innocence that Sam envied, she nodded off to sleep.

Not sure why DD had brought up the TV show, she started the car. A glance in the mirror had her do a double take. A witch would have been jealous of her auburn hair which had not only escaped its ponytail but was shooting off in every direction. She started laughing as she reached up and plucked a twig from the mess and tossed it out the window. A cool breeze blew off the lake, slipping its way inside the car and wrapping itself around her. She shivered, although she wasn't sure if it was from the cool breeze or the gloomy view through the windshield. The sun was down, leaving the cabin looking like a dark, ominous mass against the even blacker forest behind it. Tentacles of a chill scooted across her shoulders and down her spine. She hit the lock button, raised the window, cranked on the heat, shoved the car into reverse, and backed out of the laneway.

Maybe I should stop bringing her here.

It would break DD's heart, but something didn't feel right. She couldn't put her finger on it. Her mom would have told her she was 'seeing' the future. Sam didn't believe in that, although her mother and sister often did a good job of 'knowing' exactly when something had gone wrong for her. She put her feelings down to gut instinct—a feeling of here and now—that something was off. It could be as simple as the man who had shown up twice today.

Even though she'd never be independent and didn't know what would hurt her and what wouldn't, Sam had to give it to DD that she had a sixth sense about people. She often seemed to accept anyone and everyone in her fold as her friend, but there were some she hadn't. And they had turned out to be not nice people. Not that Sam would let DD's like of Tim sway her in his favor. Who was that guy? What did he want? What had she screwed up now?

She ran through several things she'd spent money on in the last year and was sure that she hadn't had a collection agency come after her. It had only happened once when she'd been twenty. She'd bought a car and couldn't pay for it and they'd wanted it back. It had gotten kind of ugly. They'd stolen her car, although they’d called it repossessing it, and she'd flattened the tires of the guy who'd served her the papers. She'd been young and looking out for herself. Was there any reason someone would want to come after her now?

The story she'd tried to run in the newspaper, about the guy who'd taken his wife's necklace, immediately came to mind. But that was over and done with. The paper had buried it, fired her, and moved on.

So, what did this guy, Tim, possibly want with her?

Turning the radio back up so she could hear it after turning it down to talk to DD, she swung the car in the opposite direction from which she'd come. She decided she wanted to take the long tour back. The last time she'd been on that road, she'd been a kid. It hadn't been the greatest of roads then and was probably worse now, but it had been their playground as kids. They'd never had to worry about traffic. They'd run on it. Kick the ball down it. Just play whatever they'd wanted to. The trees had been tall and lined it like walls in a hallway. Now, as an adult, she'd bet it was very scenic and hopefully had avoided the hands of the greedy, money-hungry builders who seemed to think all lakes needed their own little cities built on them.

She'd only gone about a quarter of a mile, following the curves, when she had to stop. At the point where the road should have switched back, so she'd drive along the lake for the next mile, there was a barricade. Those wooden sawhorse-looking things were spread across the road and tape, similar to what police used, was strung across from tree to tree and said 'Keep Out.' Several signs were posted on trees, stating in large letters, 'Trespassers will be Prosecuted.'

To Sam, it felt more like it should have read, 'Trespassers will be Shot.' She shivered at the ominous sound of that. Sadness engulfed her as she realized her quiet hideaway had now been discovered and would never be the same.