“What was so important about those papers?” asked Kurt.
I looked down at them, hoping that I hadn’t ended up risking my life for what turned out to be a phone bill. No, they were the pages about the DNA analysis of the three children who weren’t Stephen’s. I folded them back together with shaking hands and tucked them inside the singed manila envelope.
“We’ll see,” I said. My throat felt too sore to try to explain it all now.
“You look terrible,” said Kurt.
I laughed a little. “Thanks,” I said in a low tone.
He was holding so tightly to me that my arm had gone numb, but I didn’t ask him to let go. “I was sure when I saw the smoke coming out of the house that you were dead inside of it. I drove around the whole area and when I saw that other house nearby, I just took a chance and hoped I’d find a way from that backyard to this one, and I did.”
I couldn’t help but think that perhaps Kurt had been guided by inspiration to find that hole in the fence. It had been used for great evil, and now for good, as well. “You’re right where you’re supposed to be now,” I said. “And so am I.”
I wasn’t sure how we were going to figure out our problems, but the one thing I knew now was that I didn’t want to live without Kurt. He had come for me when I asked him to, and I wasn’t going to let go of him again.
“Linda, I love you,” he said, as if he thought this was his last chance to say it. “And whatever’s wrong between us, I promise I’ll fix it. Somehow, I will.”
It was just like Kurt to think it was his job to fix things, I thought. But what I said was, “I love you, too.”
After that, the EMTs came over to check everyone for smoke inhalation and it turned out I failed the test, which meant I got an oxygen mask and an invitation to ride in the ambulance to the hospital for treatment.
Kurt got in beside me.
“Do you want me to give you a healing blessing?” he asked, as the doors closed.
I nodded and felt a deep calm and sense of rightness as Kurt anointed me with consecrated oil from the tiny flask he kept always on his keychain, then spoke aloud a blessing of healing and comfort. I don’t remember any of the words, only the relief that I could let go and let someone else take care of everything.
Chapter 33
I woke in a hospital room some time Thursday morning, I guessed. Kurt was there, slumped in a chair, asleep. I felt guilty waking him, and only meant to shift my position a little so that the arm that had gone to pins and needles came back to life. But as soon as I moved, Kurt started and stood up, coming toward me.
“Are they all right? All of them?” I asked.
He nodded. “The children are all accounted for and safe. A few of them were treated for smoke inhalation on site, but you’re the only one who ended up in the hospital.”
It occurred to me then that the reason I’d ended up here was the manila envelope with the evidence against Joanna and Edward Carter I’d thought was so important. I patted around the hospital bed for it, then realized how foolish I must look.
Kurt met my eyes with a look of chagrin. “They already came to take the papers you saved from the fire.”
“Who? The police?”
He nodded. “I don’t know if it really mattered that you saved them, but they insisted that it was part of the Stephen Carter murder case. I figured you had meant for the police to have the papers, despite the fact that you kept the truth from them for so long.” His tone was mildly annoyed, which meant he was showing some restraint, and I appreciated that.
I could have defended my choices, but I didn’t bother. I’d wanted to save Talitha, and even if I hadn’t noticed what her own mother was doing to her until it was happening right in front of me, she was going to be better off with Kenneth and Naomi. I’d figured out that Joanna and Edward were involved in the murder, even if I had been rather late. And I’d had the presence of mind to call 911 in the midst of the fire. I wasn’t entirely embarrassed about my part in all of this.
“You said all the children were accounted for? What about Joanna’s?”
He sighed. “You really need to know all the details right now, don’t you?”
I nodded. “I really do.”
“All right. She and Edward Carter were apprehended on I-15, heading south toward Short Creek with their three young children. The two of them will be arraigned for the murder of Stephen Carter and the arson on the house.”