Chapter 11

D anica stared at her grandmother in shock. “You were attacked?”

She shrugged. “Yes, if that’s the word you want to use. I’m not sure I want to use that word, but let’s just say I thought I heard somebody behind me. I turned around, and, the next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital.”

“Who in the fucking hell was it?” Danica snapped.

“If I could tell you that, I would solve the problem and do so. But I can’t tell you because presumably that’s why he hit me when he did, just as I was turning around to see who it was. Yes, I know that’ll get you all in an uproar, but I’m fine.”

“You’re fine,” she repeated, staring at her, “but you weren’t fine. And if somebody hits you on your own property, that is something to be concerned about.”

She smiled and shrugged. “Maybe,… but it’s also not something to be overly concerned about because he’s obviously gone.”

“What if he comes back?” she asked, clearly worried.

Harriet gently gripped Danica’s hands. “It’ll be fine.” She looked back over at Cameron. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to check up on you,” he replied, his gaze completely ignoring the hard look Danica shot in his direction.

“As you can see, I’m totally fine.”

“Good,” he replied, lifting the teapot and pouring three cups, obviously with no intention of leaving.

Harriet sighed. “You really don’t need to worry about me.”

“Just because you say so doesn’t make it true,” he pointed out bluntly, “and having seen the size of the lump on your head, I won’t just let it slide. If you don’t want to contact the sheriff, that’s fine, but I will.”

“No, you won’t,” Harriet declared, the sharpness of her tone cutting through the small room like a knife.

Danica stared at her and shot back, “Why not, Nana? What on earth could that possibly hurt?”

“What it could do is bring up an awful lot of old memories and old hurts that really have nothing to do with it. The last thing I want is to have any of that old stuff brought back up again.”

“And you think it would?” she asked. “Is that what’s going on here?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, as she smiled gently at her granddaughter. “And I don’t care. I just want it all to go away.” She looked over at Cameron. “I’ll need milk in my tea, please.”

Surprised, he hopped to his feet, walked over to the fridge, pulled out a jug, and brought it to the table.

“What difference does it make if it does bring all that back up?” he asked, not to be deterred.

*

Danica wasn’t sure how much of this conversation was happening because her grandmother didn’t want him involved, yet he was being fairly insistent. And, if he went to the sheriff—which Danica wasn’t against, although she would hate the process—her grandmother would likely get quite irate yet again. The last thing she wanted was to upset Nana. “I think it’s probably a good idea if we do bring in the police,” Danica shared, not wanting to let it go, especially when she had a vote in her corner. Never ever had that happened before.

Her grandmother frowned at her and shook her head. “The local authorities haven’t changed,” she murmured. “It’s still the same people, the same fear, the same overt hatred.”

Danica winced. “True.”

To which Cameron muttered, “You were attacked at your home, so nothing else should matter.”

She laughed bitterly. “Nothing else should matter, but it will,” she stated, a hard edge to her tone. “You don’t have any idea how that was for us.”

“You keep saying that, but it’s been a long time, and it should have been well and truly over long ago.”

“Agreed, but it isn’t,” Harriet said.

Then Danica caught sight of her grandmother’s pale face again and frowned. She didn’t want the same old drama either, but doing nothing wasn’t an option. “Neither,” she told her grandmother, “can I have you getting attacked, particularly on your own property.”

Her grandmother shrugged. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we lived in a perfect world, and assholes weren’t out there,” she said, her language surprising both of them. She chuckled. “Forget about it. I’ll be fine. It wasn’t major, and we won’t dwell on it.”

“How can you not dwell on it?” Cameron asked, studying her. “What if it isn’t you next time? What if it’s your granddaughter?”

*

Cameron got up and left soon afterward. As he walked out to his car, he heard a shout. Turning around, he saw Danica jogging toward him. “I will contact the sheriff,” he repeated firmly.

She smiled. “That’s what I was hoping you would do. Just be aware that my grandmother will likely hold that against you.”

He shrugged. “She can hold it against me, but my question to her is still very valid. What happens if it’s you next time? Harriet may not care about her life, but I’m hoping you don’t have such a cavalier attitude to something so precious.”

“No, I don’t have a cavalier attitude to something so precious,” she said. “Yet I can understand her not wanting to bring up everything we’ve already been through. You weren’t here last time, and you don’t know everything that happened.”

“No, I don’t, but I will be checking in with my brother though to see what’s going on.”

“Nana and I really would like for Jace to stop spreading his vitriol. If you want to do something concrete, then, yes, start there.”

“You want to tell me more? Surely there is more to the story.”

“No, I won’t tell you about it all. More than enough rumors and chaos are all around for that to come out without involving us,” she explained. “I also don’t know how dangerous any of this is, so, please, if you’re doing this, watch out for yourself.”

He stopped, studying her expression, as his lips quirked. “What’s the matter?” he teased. “Would you miss me if something happened?” She shuddered, and he watched the color strip from her face.

“Please don’t even joke about that,” she whispered.

He felt hit with a level of remorse that was completely unexpected. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I know you’ve been through an awful lot already.”

“I have,” she agreed forcibly, “and, until you have experienced such a thing, it’s hard to imagine. And don’t joke about something like that. You’re a good doctor, and this town needs you. It would be a shame if something happened to you, God forbid. I also know that people would say any accident that befalls you was because of your association with us.”

He felt himself stiffening at that concept, wondering if that’s the only reason she would have any regret. But deciding it wasn’t time to push it, he just nodded. “I’ll be careful. By the same token, you also need to be careful. If someone would attack your grandmother, they would certainly attack you as well.”

“I know. I know,” she muttered, turning to glance back at the house.

“You should probably sleep in the house.”

She looked over at him and, in a bold statement that he didn’t understand, said, “As much as I would like to, that’s impossible.” Turning, she headed back to her grandmother and disappeared from sight.

He was left standing here, pondering her statement.

*

Back at his house, Cameron wandered through his property, wondering what to do, and then finally decided it would be better to go talk to somebody in person. Hopping into his vehicle, he headed to the sheriff’s office. Even with this extra stop, he knew he would still end up arriving early for his night shift at the hospital, but that would be par for the course anyway.

As he walked in, several people looked up, smiled, and called out to him.

“Hey, Doc. What’s going on?”

“Nice to see you, Doc.”

“How you doing, Doc?”

He smiled, waved, and asked, “Is Deputy Peter Benson here?” He’d patched up the man a few months ago, and it was helpful to have a familiar face to talk to, especially under these circumstances.

“Yo,” came a call from a side office.

Cameron looked over to see somebody he at least knew personally and had worked with at the hospital on several cases. It usually involved domestic violence, though a couple accidental injury cases were involved too. He walked over and asked, “Hey, you got a minute?”

Benson looked up, smiled, and nodded. “Always for you, Doc. Come on in. Grab a seat. What can I do for you?”

Cameron sat down and looked over at him, waiting to gauge the expression on his face, and asked, “What do you know about Danica Hartling?”

Immediately his expression changed, and he looked down and shuffled the paperwork in front of him. “Ah, it’s going that way,” he muttered.

“I sure get odd reactions, depending on who I talk to.”

“I’m sure you do. I wasn’t here at the time and just know what everybody has said afterward, since I’ve been here a long time now,” he murmured, “but that name still causes all kinds of chaos when you mention it.”

“I’ve seen that myself,” Cameron noted. “I wasn’t here at the time of the big event, but my brother was.” He got a look from the deputy, who just nodded. “Apparently my brother has more than a lot to say about it to everybody, but he’s not being very forthcoming with me.”

“What is it you want from me?” the deputy asked, folding his hands and resting them atop the desk.

“Did you… Are you aware that old lady Harriet—Danica’s grandmother—was attacked and hit over the head today?”

At that, Benson’s eyebrows shot up. “No,” he said, sitting upright. “I did not know that.” He frowned, shaking his head. “It’s odd that I don’t, since that report should have crossed my desk as soon as it came in,” he added, looking across his desk in multiple places, as if searching for the missing report.

“Nobody reported it because they don’t believe anybody’ll care.”

He winced at that. “I can see where they might have gotten that attitude from a long time ago,” the deputy admitted, “but it’s not as if that still prevails today.”

“They had a visit several days ago by two deputies.” Cameron shared what he’d been told, trying to keep his tone causal. “They seemed to be questioning Danica’s presence, while at her grandmother’s house.”

“Of course.” The deputy sighed, slouching back in his chair and looking over at Cameron. “We can’t always stop the superstition and rumor-mongering that goes on around here,” he began, “but I would like to think that, if there were attacks causing injuries, somebody would let us know, so we could put a stop to it.”

“Which is why I’m here,” Cameron stated. “I just wasn’t sure how this all was supposed to work its way through the system, particularly if the system isn’t exactly there for those two women.”

“Oh, it’s there for them,” he declared, waving his hand. “Again, absolutely nothing to do with me. But I do know there are very long memories around here.”

“What are those long memories all about?” Cameron asked curiously, looking at him.

“Some of the staff here have been around for a long time, and, although I’m sure a lot of those memories have twisted over the years, that impression still remains, and none of it’s good.”

“Of course, but Danica was also a victim,” he pointed out.

Deputy Benson nodded. “I know. Trust me when I say that I’ve had this argument with several of them over the years, whenever the subject has popped up, inevitably around Halloween.”

Cameron leaned forward. “You’re kidding. Why Halloween?”

The deputy stared at him. “Surely you know about the hauntings at the hospital.”

“Yes, in a secondhand way from other staff here, but I haven’t done a Halloween here yet to see for myself.”

“I have had some firsthand experience,” the deputy said, with a laugh. “I don’t know that it happens every year, but apparently it happens enough times that people get freaked out and won’t work the hospital shifts on Halloween. Then again, maybe people won’t go to the hospital either, especially if they’re freaked out about what might show up while they are there,” he suggested, with a shrug.

Cameron nodded. “Every time I bring it up, I get weird answers, and people clam up.” He looked over at the deputy. “Don’t you get those reports?”

“Nothing has been filed officially,” he stated, “and definitely not on the Halloween stuff.”

“Okay, so that’s bizarre.”

“Oh, it’s all bizarre,” he declared, with a nod. “Yet, if anybody is attacking anyone in my town, I want to know about it.”

“I wasn’t sure if it was something that would even come across your desk.”

“It would because we’re a small outfit, and anything like that is definitely a no-go. Now I need to go talk to her.”

“You might not get a warm welcome.”

“Of course not,” he muttered. “That would be way too simple. Regardless, someone has been hurt. Why would anybody not want us involved?”

“Someone’s been hurt, but the person in question is the one who’s definitely grumpy about it.”

He chuckled. “I’ve met Harriet several times, but she’s always been nice and easy to talk to.”

“I would agree with you. But, in this instance, I don’t know that that’ll hold true, considering she’s the one who was attacked.”

“I should check at the hospital for a report.”

“You could,” Cameron agreed, “and I’ll tell you something else that I found to be strange. They let her go with a head injury, yet no mention of the head injury is in her case file. I saw it for myself when she was at home.”

“Are you sure?” Benson hesitated, watching Cameron nod. “I know this will come across as completely crazy, but is there any chance that the granddaughter may have inflicted that injury after the fact to throw you off?”

Cameron just stared at him in shock. “What?” he asked, unable to get anything else out for few moments, trying to wrap his head around the insinuations. “Honestly, I’m stunned that you even asked that.”

“If the doctor at the hospital didn’t see a head injury, yet you go to the house and see a head injury, why wouldn’t you at least contemplate the possibility that the granddaughter, Danica—about whom we have all kinds of crazy reports—didn’t attack the old woman?”

“Good God,” Cameron muttered, sitting back.

“I’m guessing you didn’t even think of that.”

“No, I didn’t think of that,” he stated, calmly trying to gather his wits about him, “because that’s just ludicrous. She has absolutely no reason to do something like that.”

“Was she happy to show you the wound, or was she trying to fight it?”

“She was protecting her grandmother’s privacy and trying to get her permission to a certain extent,” he replied, frowning. “I don’t think it was to stop me from seeing her own handiwork , as you propose. Besides, I did talk to Harriet about it myself.”

“She couldn’t tell you who hit her?”

“No,” he said, frowning.

“Exactly. Now, I’m not saying that’s what happened, but is it possible that the head wound developed after the fact and just didn’t show up at the time of the hospital visit?”

Cameron slowly shook his head. “Yes, it’s possible, I suppose, but not common. She has a large head wound,” he noted, carefully choosing his words. “I don’t know how she got the head wound, who gave it to her, or anything else about it, only that she has one, and her head has a definite swelling.”

“Is it severe?” the deputy asked.

“No, but, according to Harriet, she heard something behind her, turned, and was knocked out.”

“It also could have been Danica then as well.”

Cameron stared at Deputy Benson, feeling the sinking in his stomach. Was the Deputy prejudiced against Danica and her family? Was he causing harm by being here? He wasn’t sure, but there was something… off in the guy’s speech.

Benson nodded. “See? That’s what people will say.”

“You don’t even sound surprised.”

“Nope, I’m not because that’s the stuff that goes along with anything to do with her.”

“That Danica attacked her own grandmother, trying to make it look like it was somebody else? Come on. Harriet was taken to the hospital unconscious.”

“Sure. But you don’t know who made her unconscious,” he pointed out. “All I’m saying is that I’ll take a look. But you have, in your own words, just basically asked what happened. Harriet turned, got hit from behind, can’t identify who hit her, yet no injury showed up until after she got home again. That doesn’t make sense then, unless Danica hit her twice.”

“Good God,” Cameron snapped. “You’re telling me that Danica supposedly hit her grandmother over the head enough to knock her out, races her to the emergency room, and then, with everybody thinking it’s just a fall, gets her home, hits her again, then puts her to bed with a head wound?”

Benson just sat there and looked at him. “What? You got another explanation?”

“No, I don’t,” he snarled, “but that’s not a logical explanation either.”

Benson shrugged. “I get it. You don’t like it. I don’t like it either,” he muttered, with a shrug. “So, if the granddaughter did hit her grandmother, we need to know about it because that is something I can do something about.”

“What can you do about it?”

“I can arrest her and charge her for attacking her grandmother,” he replied.

Cameron sat back with a whoosh , a sinking feeling in his gut. “That’s not what happened.”

“Then you explain it,” he said, looking at him. “I’m just going by what you’ve told me.”

“No, you’re not,” Cameron declared. “ That isn’t what I told you at all.”

“It is. You’re just not listening. Maybe you’re under her spell, just like everybody else was at the time.”

At that, he stiffened. “What do you mean, like everybody else was at the time ?”

He looked at him. “Oh, you really don’t know very much about what went on back then, do you?”

“No, I don’t. I wasn’t here. I told you that.”

“Yes, but do you also understand that back then,” he added, using air quotes for emphasis, “she was suspicious at the very least?”

“Why? Because of her mother?”

“Oh, her mother was a whole different ball game,” he noted, “but you’ve got to remember that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

“What, so she’s guilty, without having done anything, just by association of her blood?”

“Hey, hey, hey, I’m not saying that,” Benson replied, waving his hands. “Don’t go putting words in my mouth.”

“It sure feels like you’re putting them in my mouth,” Cameron said, staring at the man he thought would be an answer to this quandary. Now he realized he’d probably just made things even murkier and more confusing for Harriet and Danica.

“You go do what you need to do,” the deputy replied, waving him out. “I’ll make an official report and go see her. Don’t worry about it,” he added.

“Don’t bother. Instead I will check on her.”

“What? So now you’re telling me that you don’t want me to go talk to her?”

“No. I don’t think I do,” Cameron said, with an odd smile.

“Doc, you’ve got to understand that you came this far because you realized that this old lady was in trouble,” the deputy pointed out. “So, the least you can do is let me ensure she is safe where she is.”

“I know she’s safe,” Cameron declared, scrubbing his face. “I just can’t believe that this is the outcome of what I thought would be a helpful investigation. Instead I think I’ve made it worse.”

“Maybe you need to take a closer look at the people involved,” the deputy suggested. “I’m not saying that this group of people are crazy or would do something like that, but I’m just listening to your words.”

“No, no, you’re not,” Cameron corrected, staring at him. “You’re listening to rumors, superstitions, something completely different.”

The deputy eyed Cameron suspiciously. “Are you doing okay?”

“I’m starting to realize that maybe this town is not doing okay at all anymore,” he murmured, standing and turning to leave.

“I’ll still stop by and talk to them,” Benson called out.

“You do you,” Cameron responded, with a wave of his hand. “I’m no longer concerned about your input.”

“Maybe that’s more of an issue,” Deputy Benson said, as he got to his feet and headed out after Cameron. “Maybe you should be concerned, and the fact that you aren’t just makes me even more worried.”

“I’m fine,” he said, turning to face him. “I just hadn’t realized how deep the poison in this town has spread.”

And, with that, he walked out of the station.