The Last Straw (The Jigsaw Files #4) - Sharon Sala Page 0,75
to us, so it’s not like we had any diaper duty or sneaking out of the house at midnight business to deal with.”
Millie laughed a little, and it felt so good to turn loose of some fear.
“Rachel was never that kid anyway. She’s always known what she wanted, and has never let other people deter her from going after it.”
“Yes,” Ray said. “And that’s why she’s still alive. Because she fought to stay that way. I’m holding on to the fact that she’s going to fight her way back to us now. And when she’s well enough, we’ll take her home again and we’ll love her back. She won’t be the same. Just accept that now. But she’ll be stronger.”
Millie glanced at the time. “I slept through the 1 a.m. visitation. But we can go in at two.”
“Can I go in, too?” Ray asked.
Millie nodded.
“Two family members at a time, and we have to be very quiet. There are some very sick people in ICU.”
Ray nodded. “I just want to look at her and let her know we’re here. You never know how much they can hear.”
“You’re right,” Millie said. “I was so horrified when I first saw her, that it was all I could do to say her name. I’m so glad you’re here. If you’re hungry, the food in the vending machines isn’t awful. We have to wait until six thirty before the cafeteria opens.”
“I’m fine for now,” Ray said. “I missed you. I just want to hold you.”
And so they settled in to wait, keeping an eye on the clock until they could see Rachel again.
* * *
Rachel knew nothing. She didn’t know she’d been rescued, or had surgery, or that Millie and Ray were so near. The blessed peace of clean and soft were lost on her. The fluids and food she was getting intravenously were what she’d needed days ago. Fever warred with the antibiotics being pumped into her, and right now it was still winning.
She was safe, and didn’t know.
She had prayed to be rescued or to die.
She needed to wake up so she’d know her prayers had been answered. Maybe that would be the turning point, knowing she didn’t have to fight her way out of that hell now to survive.
She didn’t know there were nurses with her. She didn’t know when Ray and Millie came in, or when her surgeon came in to check on her again before morning.
She heard nothing.
Saw nothing.
Knew nothing.
She just was.
Waiting to be Rachel again.
* * *
Mildred Pete was a nervous wreck. She’d spent the night moving from room to room with the lights out, scared half out of her mind that Farrell Kitt would come looking to silence her.
She still couldn’t believe she’d had the nerve to challenge him, but her heart hurt for Junior Kitt. He was a sweet little boy, who was now going to grow up with a big strike against him for being his father’s son.
She also felt bad for Judy Kitt. It was obvious she’d known nothing about what her husband had done until it was too late. Everyone in Paulette had known that Judy Kitt took herself and her kids to the Baptist Church in town, while Farrell had become wrapped up in Jeremiah Raver’s cult. That was what they’d called it, and time had proven them all right in their beliefs.
Mildred was torn about turning Farrell in. But she also knew that if she didn’t, someone else would. She was almost sixty. She’d been planning to retire at the end of this school year. Having that money for a nest egg in her later years would be a blessing.
But she didn’t want people in Paulette to know she was the one who turned him in. And the only way to keep that a secret was to have that money deposited in a bank in another city.
So by the time the sun came up, she was in the kitchen having breakfast. As soon as she started a load of clothes to washing, she took off to Baton Rouge, to open an account in one of the banks. She had been saving Christmas money in a sock in her underwear drawer. Nearly five hundred dollars.
It was Saturday. That meant no school, but it also meant the banks would close at noon. It would take almost an hour to get there, but by the time she reached Baton Rouge, the bank lobby would be open. And when she left, she’d have a new