Forbidden Ground (Cold Creek #2)(52)
He raced into the field, waving his arms. A huge wash of wind rippled the grass and ripped at his hair and clothes. The helicopter set down. Two medics jumped out with a portable stretcher and a med bag. Before the rotors stopped, they ran with Grant toward Todd’s favorite tree.
*
Hours later, still shaken, Kate and Grant slumped at Todd and Amber’s kitchen table. It was dark outside, after nine. Amber’s parents had arrived, put the boys to bed and would stay the night. Kate and Grant had promised to take the three kids for a while tomorrow to allow the grandparents to drive into Columbus, where Todd had been taken to the Ohio State University Hospital. He was alive—for now. That was all they knew until Amber phoned.
Kate clenched her hands in her lap while Grant got up and paced around the kitchen table. Amber was talking so loud, sounded so frenzied, that Kate could hear her. She recalled how Amber had told her she’d be a basket case if anything ever happened to Todd as it had to Paul. Grant’s second close friend to experience tragedy. She prayed Gabe was safe with Tess on their honeymoon.
“Broken ribs...both shoulders...both femurs...” Kate could hear Amber telling Grant. “Spinal cord...not sure but they’re doing MRIs and CT scans before surgery...internal injuries. Grant, I just can’t believe he fell, not Tarzan Todd. Did Brad get down okay?”
“The volunteer fire guys went up partway and talked him down. Can I help you there? Do you want some company to get through the night?”
“It won’t do any good here now. Maybe later. Oh, if you could help my parents with the boys tomorrow, because Mom hasn’t been well, and it takes both of them. They’re going to come here, bring me some things.”
“Listen, you have to take care of yourself so you can take care of Todd while he recovers. And yes, Kate and I already planned to take the boys for a while, no problem.”
“I don’t know how we’ll make it without his salary.”
“That’s the least of your worries. He has company insurance, not only for injuries on the job but off. He’ll get his salary—sick leave, too. Don’t worry.”
“So I guess—I guess Brad can cover for him,” Amber said.
Kate saw Grant’s head jerk, as if he’d been so focused on Todd’s injuries that he hadn’t thought of how Brad would benefit. But Amber was still talking.
“Thank Kate for me. Oh, meant to say, the E.R. doctor said it’s a miracle Todd managed to turn himself in the air. You know, falling that far, it’s almost always headfirst. Thank God his skull didn’t get smashed, too.”
Like Paul’s, Kate thought. Surely, the two tragedies couldn’t be related.
Grant leaned back against the kitchen counter as his gaze met her wide stare. He must know she could hear because she gasped and covered her mouth with both hands.
But it was Grant, who had been so strong through all this, who collapsed in a chair and looked agonized. He didn’t even say goodbye, and Amber hung up before Kate could take the phone from his trembling hands.
“Like their ghosts are after us,” he whispered to himself, before he jumped up and went into the bathroom down the hall. He closed the door but she could still hear a single, sharp sob.
*
It was time, Grant thought, to come clean with Kate, at least about some things. Maybe leveling with her about his grandmother would make her realize she had to back off about the mound. After all, Kate had already been “haunted” by thinking she saw the Beastmaster stalking her. At the least, he could explain what he’d said about ghosts, which he’d put her off about last night. She’d let up, probably because they were both so devastated and exhausted.
He didn’t want her to think he’d meant there was a curse on Paul and Todd, because she’d try to find out why, keep digging at him since he wouldn’t let her dig in the mound. He didn’t believe in ghosts or a curse. A fatal crushed skull and a freak accident that could have meant another crushed skull were catastrophes for sure. But even if some of the corpses they’d taken things from in the tomb had their skulls crushed, it was just a scary coincidence. Besides, wouldn’t such a crazy theory of ghostly revenge mean Brad or he was next? For sure he had to explain some things to Kate—and to himself.
The two of them took the McCollum kids to McDonald’s for Happy Meals, and then he drove them all to the playground on the grounds of the long-deserted Falls County Mental Hospital, which had started life in the 1880s as the Cold Creek Lunatic Asylum. A wealthy businessman who’d been born in Cold Creek had left money in his will for an amazing array of swings, slides and jungle gyms for the disadvantaged children in the area. No way were they going anywhere near the woods today. They all needed open spaces.
“The derelict buildings here give Gabe fits,” he told Kate as they pulled into the playground area. “They have Do Not Enter signs, but some people think the old places are haunted and go ghost hunting. Vandals hang out here. Graffiti’s everywhere. We need another benefactor to restore some of the old buildings for youth retreats or artists’ studios, something. An artists’ retreat was Paul’s idea. And, I hate to bring this up, but Bright Star’s put up a lot of money to buy some of the acreage to expand and further segregate his Hear Ye flock, move them all here.”
“An old mental institution sounds like a great place for him and anyone who trusts him, including my cousin Lee and his wife. I’ll have to find another way to spy on that cult or pry Grace loose to talk to her.”