The headlights of DiNolfo’s Skylark pierced the dark of night as she wound the tight curve off Cavegat Pass and into Fox Hollow. She had taken a short drive with Joe, just catching up, talking about their lives since DiNolfo left the Elkhart area as a kid. They departed, agreeing to meet up again soon, work permitting. Afterwards, she started to make her way back to her apartment. She walked down the long hallway to her unit, got her keys out and even had her handle on the door, but decided at the last minute that she wasn’t ready to turn in yet. Something was calling her to Fox Hollow. Now she was maneuvering through the winding roads of Fox Hollow just minutes from the Morrow Manor. The fog was lingering now, enveloping the car as the sanguine warmth of the day met the chill of the autumn night.
She eyed her rearview mirror suspiciously as a strange uncertainty took hold of her thoughts. The road wound like a serpent through the mountainside, the forest lying quiet and dark. She knew she should have turned in for a full night’s sleep, but she just couldn’t shake the feeling she had. She was a big believer in intuition. “Follow your gut!” her father always used to say, and something that night was telling her to go to Fox Hollow. She wanted to check in on the ice fishing shack Amos was talking about. If he used it to spy on Catherine last time, he might use it again. She wasn’t sure of the exact location of the little house, but it couldn’t be too hard to find. Then, as she came fully around the turn, she saw a distant light. It was a little ways off into the forest, and it was coming from a tiny shack on the border of the Morrow Manor.
*
Jack lay in his hospital bed, agitated and fatigued. He had tried to call the house three times in the last hour but the calls were not going through. He needed an update. The news stations were absolutely useless.
What’s the point of having news stations if they are not going to report actual news?
Puff pieces about the upcoming harvest festival and hayride safety tips, while the first thirty minutes of the broadcast was dedicated to a corrupt politician in Harrisburg.
“Crook! I bet if it was one of his daughters missing, it would be on the news nonstop!” said Jack before clicking the TV off angrily. He let the TV remote slam to the floor before picking up the phone to dial the house again. He tried the main house. He called the guest house. He even dialed the business phone in the stables hoping that someone would pick up. None of them did. They weren’t even ringing. He got a mechanical female voice who insisted that his call could not be completed as dialed. “Damn it!” screamed Jack as he slammed the phone down.
“That’s it! I’ve had enough of this crap,” he huffed as he started ripping off his hospital gown. He reached for the canvas bag Bridgette had left him in the corner. He pulled out a fresh pair of jeans and a t-shirt, grabbed the grimy tennis shoes that she had procured from his closet, and gingerly slid one on his good foot. His other leg was hard casted and his foot was too swollen to wear any kind of shoe. He was lucky he could get a sock on it. Just then the burly Nurse Dippet walked in, clipboard in hand and no-bullshit glare on her face.
“And where do you think you’re going?” Nurse Dippet asked angrily, her purple face pushing too far into Jacks’ personal space for his liking.
Giving her an irate look, Jack replied, “I am going home. Please bring me my discharge papers.”
“Mr. Morrow! For the last time, there is protocol for such things, and they do take time.”
Jack replied in the same condescending tone that the nurse had used against him. “Nurse Dippet, I would suggest you follow your protocol then!”
“Mr. Morrow, it will take several hours to discharge you. We need clearance from the doctor and -”
“This is the most backwards, third rate hospital I have ever encountered in my life” he cut across her.
“That doctor has been over at the nurse’s station for the last twenty minutes chatting with the blond nurse. Tell him to sign it!”
Nurse Dippet hurriedly waddled out of Jack’s hospital room, muttering under her breath, “Never in my life!” In just twelve minutes, Nurse Dippet had returned with Jack’s discharge papers.
That must be some sort of record for this chop shop.
“Please sign this too,” Nurse Dippet said haughtily as she pushed another piece of paper towards Jack. “This paper indicates that you are leaving the hospital of your own accord, and ignoring medical advice. You cannot hold the hospital or its staff responsible if you further aggravate or complicate your injuries.”
Jack scraped the ink pen across the paper, grabbed his crutches and made his way to the parking lot where he had left his truck before Kendricks left a hole in his knee.
*
“Frank!” yelled Bridgette, scanning the farm trying to see where the shot came from. “Frank!” She heard rustling in the orchard, followed by a scream.
“Go back inside!”
“I most certainly will not!”