A Man I Used To Know, page 8
Could it be a couple of mice in there? Or even...
Lila shuddered, remembering the noise.
Even something larger, like a rat?
This part of western Canada still prided itself on being rat-free. Businesses and institutions were careful with their waste, trying to maintain the status. Lila wasn’t sure she’d ever seen a rat near her home.
The trash bin was silent now, but she still had the impression of something in there, trapped and silent. She pictured bared teeth in the moonlight, and whiskers quivering.
“What nonsense,” she muttered aloud. “More likely it’s somebody’s cat. Poor kitty climbed in and now it can’t get out.”
She put her handbag down on the pavement, gripped one of the projections on the edge of the bin and hoisted herself up to peer in, then gasped.
What she saw was half a face.
In fact it was part of a small pointed face, a child’s face, but only the mouth and chin were visible because, she realized, the rest was shadowed by the brim of a ragged baseball cap.
The child huddled tensely in a dark corner of the trash bin, staring up at her.
Lila gazed back in horror, trying to fathom the situation.
This small person might be boy or girl, she had no way of telling. The intruder had been filling a box with buns, cake and pieces of fried chicken. This last treasure was still gripped firmly in a pair of small greasy hands.
“Are you hungry?” Lila asked, beginning to recover her senses. She peered over the edge of the bin. “Please, come out of there and I’ll see that you...”
But as Lila spoke, the child erupted from its hiding place with the swiftness and agility of a cat, grasped the side of the bin and vaulted to the ground, trailing scraps of food, then disappeared around the corner of the ambulance garage.
Lila shouted and gave chase.
She didn’t know why she was running, except that she felt appalled at the thought of any child eating food from a garbage bin in the midst of this prosperous city.
Beyond the hospital’s auxiliary unit, she could still make out the dim running shape as it fled across the lawns and in and out of shrubbery.
It was really a very small child, Lila realized, struggling and panting. This shadowy wisp she pursued was probably the same age as poor little Tony, back there in the hospital with his staph infection.
When I find out who’s responsible for this kid, there’s going to be hell to pay, she thought grimly.
The running shape barged through a lilac hedge and back into the parking lot. Lila followed, muttering in distress as the gnarled branches tore at her hair and clothes.
But when she fought free of the hedge, there was no sign of her quarry. Lila’s heart lurched with disappointment. She bent to grasp her knees for a moment, still heaving and winded from the chase, then stood erect and looked around at the silent parking lot.
Suddenly she tensed.
A big dusty truck and camper stood off to one side of the lot. As she watched, the camper rocked and swayed briefly, then settled again, as if somebody had just climbed inside.
Lila ran over to the vehicle and pounded on its aluminum side. “Open up!” she yelled. “Who’s in there? What are you doing?”
Too late she realized the rashness of her action. This big vehicle might be dusty and well traveled, but it was also a newer model and looked expensive.
What if the occupants were just moving around, preparing for sleep?
Or worse yet, she thought, her cheeks turning hot, what if somebody was making love in there?
But there was no response from the camper, and the deliberate silence emboldened her to try again.
“Please,” she called. “I don’t want to bother anybody, but I’m looking for a child I just saw running away from the hospital. Could you open the door for a minute?”
Again there was a hushed stillness. After a moment Lila thought she could hear a muffled sound, like the whining of a sleepy child. Then, leaning close to the camper wall, she detected an urgent whisper. It sounded as if somebody were trying to soothe the child, who nevertheless began to whimper more loudly.
Lila hesitated, wondering how far one’s personal responsibility extended in a situation like this. There was clearly more than one person in the camper, so presumably somebody was in charge.
Maybe it was none of her business.
Frowning, she squared her shoulders and glared at the mud-smeared sides of the vehicle. When a child was reduced to rummaging through trash cans late at night, somebody had to make it their business.
“Look,” she called. “I don’t want to make trouble for anybody. I just want you to open the door and talk to me. If you don’t, I’m going to call the police on my cell phone and wait right here until they come.”
There was another long, tense silence. Finally the door opened and a small person stepped out on the tailgate, then jumped down to the pavement, glaring at Lila from under the brim of a baseball cap.
Lila looked at the child in confusion. “You’re the one who was in the...”
“My brother’s really hungry,” the child interrupted sullenly. “I didn’t think there was anything wrong with taking that stuff for him. People already threw it away, right? Tomorrow it’s going to the landfill, so why can’t we eat it?”
“How old is your brother?”
“He’s four.”
“And you?”
“I’m eleven.” The child looked up again, and Lila realized, despite the grubby clothes and cap, that she was a girl.
“I see. And who is looking after you and your brother?”
“I am.” The girl cast her a scornful glance. “We don’t need anybody to look after us. We’re fine.”
“May I see your brother?” Lila glanced upward as the sleepy complaint from within the camper began to get louder.
“No!” The ragamuffin jumped up to block the entry door, but Lila set her aside with gentle firmness and climbed into the camper.
On the bed, an enchanting little boy with round flushed cheeks and a mop of curls sat clutching a teddy bear. He sniffled and gazed at Lila through a sparkle of tears.
“I’m hungry,” he said. “My tummy hurts.”
“Shut up, Casey!” the older child hissed. She too had climbed into the camper and stood close behind Lila, her hands clenched tensely into fists.
The boy’s name struck a dim chord in Lila’s memory but she couldn’t stop to think about it now. Instead she sat on the bed and lifted the little fellow onto her lap, touched by the way he burrowed gratefully against her.
He smelled pleasantly of soap, and his curls were shiny. The camper, too, looked surprisingly clean and neat considering where Lila had recently discovered one of its occupants.
“What’s your name?” she asked the older child.
The girl shrugged and looked down stubbornly at the toe of her sneaker.
But her brother took his thumb from his mouth and gave Lila a hopeful, winsome smile. “She’s Kelly,” he said. “And I’m Casey. We were...”
“If you don’t shut up,” Kelly told her brother fiercely, “I’m going to smack you, Casey. No kidding, I really am.”
He cowered against Lila, who held him close, stroking his rumpled curls. At that moment something dawned on her.
“Kelly? And Casey?” Lila stared at the two children, thunderstruck. “You’re...but you must be Tom’s kids, then. Isn’t that right? Your father is Tom Bennet.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
WHEN LILA SAID Tom’s name, the little boy began to cry again. “I want Daddy.” He burrowed against Lila, sobbing. “I want my daddy.”
Lila looked at the girl, who stood tensely in the doorway. Her face remained mostly hidden by the brim of the cap so it was impossible to see her expression.
“Kelly, where’s your mother?” Lila asked. “Does she know where you are?”
But the child stared down at her feet and refused to answer.
“Could you just give me her phone number so I can call and let her know you and Casey are all right?”
The silence lengthened, grew strained and tense.
“Are the two of you all alone here?” Lila said. “You have no adults looking after you?”
Still no answer. The only sound in the small enclosed space was Casey’s muffled howling.
Lila held him and patted his back, feeling increasingly helpless.
“Look,” she said at last, “you can’t stay overnight here, eating food from a trash bin. I’ll take you home with me and talk to your father tomorrow about...” She paused awkwardly.
Kelly looked up, and Lila caught a flash of fear and panic in the shadowed eyes.
“We’re not going anywhere with you,” the little girl said. “You must be crazy. I’d never let a stranger take me and Casey away.”
“Of course you wouldn’t. But I’m not a stranger,” Lila said patiently. “I’m a doctor in this hospital. Looking after children is what I do for a living. Besides,” she added, “I’ve known your father all my life. We played together when I was younger than you are.”
“Well, Dad never said anything about you,” the child muttered. “So why should I believe you? You might just be one of those crazy people who likes to steal kids and hurt them.”
Lila realized the rudeness came out of fear, so she kept herself from giving a sharp reply.
“I’m not a crazy person, Kelly,” she said quietly. “I’m a doctor, and I live with my father in a nice house in the country with lots of animals. The kitchen is full of nourishing food,” she went on, “and there are warm beds for you and Casey to sleep in. And that’s where I’m taking the two of you, so I’m afraid you’ll just have to get used to the idea.”
Suiting actions to words, she got up, still holding Casey, wrapped a blanket around his small body and began to carry him toward the door.
But Kelly barred the way, glaring up at her fiercely from beneath the cap. “We’re not going with you,” she said. “Put him down.”
Lila saw how the girl’s thin body quivered with fear and tension. She felt a wrench of sympathy.
“Kelly,” she said gently, bending to get a clearer look at the face under the cap, “if I don’t take you and Casey home, I’m required as a doctor to notify the child welfare authorities about you. Then somebody from their agency would come and take charge of you. Don’t you think it’s better to come with me?”
Kelly hesitated, then turned away with a shrug of defeat. Her chin trembled and jerked as if she was fighting back tears.
Lila remembered Tom as a child. Sometimes he would come to school with welts and bruises on his arms, but the last thing he ever wanted from anybody was pity. This little girl was a lot like her father.
“Maybe you could bring a few clothes,” she said casually, “so you and Casey will have something to wear in the morning.”
Silently, Kelly took a small duffel bag from under the bed and began to jam it full of jeans, T-shirts and shoes. She seemed expert at packing for herself and her brother, selecting items with practiced ease and stacking them neatly in the bag.
They stepped down from the camper. Still holding the boy, Lila watched while Kelly took a key from the pocket of her jeans and locked the door, then stood rigidly in the moonlight.
“My car is over here,” Lila said, leading the way across the parking lot. “But you know what?” she added, hefting Casey into a more comfortable position in her arms. “I left my handbag by that trash bin. Could you run and get it for me, please?”
The girl cast her an inscrutable glance, then trotted off across the pavement to pick up the handbag, hoisted it onto her shoulder and came running back to Lila, who waited beside her car.
“Thank you,” Lila said. “Now, if you’ll look in that small compartment on the outside, you’ll find a set of car keys.”
Kelly rummaged in the zippered case and found the keys. Without being told, she moved around the car to unlock both the driver’s and passenger’s doors.
Lila watched her over Casey’s tousled curls, thinking what a competent and unusual child she was. Again she was reminded of Tom at the same age.
“You’d better put Casey in the front,” Kelly muttered, holding the passenger door open. “It’s easier to buckle the seat belt on him that way. Dad and I never let him ride without a seat belt.”
“That’s a very good idea.” Lila bundled the sleepy boy into the car, assailed by a sudden feeling of unreality.
What was she doing, driving around in the middle of the night with a couple of little kids? And how would she care for them?
She also had a sharp moment of anxiety when she pictured Archie’s reaction to all this. It wasn’t too hard to imagine what her father was going to say when he woke up and found a couple of lively children occupying his house.
These days Archie Marsden seemed unable to tolerate any kind of disruption to his daily routine, no matter how minor.
But at the moment, there was simply no other choice. Lila stood erect, watching while Kelly climbed into the back seat and buckled her own seat belt. The girl leaned back and stared straight ahead, her jaw grim and set.
Lila started the car and drove out of the parking lot, then headed west along the river.
The motion of the car made Casey nod off again almost immediately. He slumped within the straps of the seat belt, his curly head bobbing to one side, a thumb jammed into his mouth.
“Have you been out there in the camper ever since your father was hurt?” Lila asked, trying to see Kelly’s face in the rearview mirror.
No answer from the back seat.
“I thought you and Casey were going to British Columbia with some of the rodeo people. That’s what the nurses told me.”
Lila kept her voice deliberately casual, hoping to disarm the wary child, who stared out the window at the darkened countryside.
“But your father told me you came to visit him in the night,” Lila went on. “We all thought he was imagining things, but I guess he was right.”
As she spoke, this fact dawned on her with sudden relief. Tom hadn’t been hallucinating, after all. His daughter really had come creeping into his room while the hospital was dark and still.
Lila thought about the prickly, independent child looking after her little brother all alone, then slipping into the hospital to check on her injured father. She felt a lump in her throat, and tears stinging her eyelids.
Finally, since it was clear that Kelly wasn’t going to answer any of her questions, Lila fell silent and concentrated on driving.
As they drove down the valley road and parked in front of the house by the river, she could sense Kelly’s interest sharpening. The child leaned forward and stared at the water gleaming dull silver in the moonlight, then at the big house with its veranda and gables.
But she still said nothing, just climbed out of the car, opened the front passenger door and leaned inside to unbuckle Casey’s seat belt.
Lila joined her and lifted the sleeping boy into her arms, then carried him up the veranda steps, handing the keys to Kelly.
“It’s the one with the blue tab,” she murmured.
Kelly unlocked the front door and Lila freed her hand briefly to switch on the hall light, then took Casey to the study, put him down on the couch and pulled the blankets up cozily around his pajama-clad body.
“I think he’ll be all right here, don’t you?” she asked Kelly. “There’s a guest room upstairs that you can use.”
The girl shook her head and indicated the Navajo carpet. “I’ll just sleep on the floor,” she said. “Right here beside him.”
Lila was on the point of arguing, but changed her mind and nodded. It would be frightening for Casey to wake up and find himself alone in a strange place. Kelly was right, it would probably be better if she slept near him.
“I’ll go downstairs and get you an air mattress and sleeping bag,” she said.
“I don’t need any of that stuff,” Kelly muttered, sounding sullen again. “I’m not a baby.”
By now Lila was getting more accustomed to this difficult little person. In fact, it was so much like dealing with Archie when he was in one of his moods that she had to struggle to keep from smiling.
“I’ll get them, anyway,” she said calmly. “But first we’ll go to the kitchen and find you something to eat. I’ll bet you’ve been giving all the food to Casey, haven’t you? And now you must be starving.”
The girl cast her a startled glance. Casually, Lila pulled off Kelly’s baseball cap, then caught her breath.
Except for a delicacy of the bone structure and a girlish cast to the eyes and lips, this could be Tom Bennet at ten years old. Kelly had the same strawblond hair, clipped boyishly short, the cocky lift to her chin, the wide blue eyes and freckled nose, the air of toughness and vulnerability that Lila remembered so well.
“My goodness,” she murmured, reaching out involuntarily to touch the smooth golden hair. “Kelly, you look so much like your father.”
But Kelly ducked away and stared up at her suspiciously, looking uncomfortable without the protection of her cap.
“Let’s find you something to eat,” Lila said, getting up and heading for the kitchen. “And after that, it’s time for everybody to get some sleep.”
Kelly hesitated to look again at her sleeping brother. She tucked the blankets closer under his chin, then followed Lila to the kitchen. Without being told, she crossed the room to wash her hands at the sink.
Two of the dogs woke up and thumped their tails sleepily on the floor. Kelly smiled at them, startling Lila. But as soon as the child realized she was being watched, she masked her expression and stared blankly out the window.
While Lila sliced bread and filled a plate with stew to heat in the microwave, Kelly squatted on the floor and patted the big spaniel. He lifted a sleepy eyelid and rolled over, waving his paws in the air, pleading for his belly to be scratched.
Kelly complied gravely, then got up and washed her hands again while Lila was putting the dishes of food on the table.
