Home of the Gray Dog - Segment 14

Chapter 66

Following hospital rules, Jack brought Itzam outside in a wheelchair. They stopped next to the ambulance bay located close by the ER parking lot. Dr. Ellison followed them and waited with Itzam while Jack went to bring around the SUV for the return trip to the mansion.

         “What’s that?” asked Itzam, leaning forward in her chair. The sound of a wailing siren was heard in the distance.

         Dr. Ellison pushed her back, none to gently, before answering. “It’s just an ambulance. We get them here all the time. Now, sit still before you fall!” The doctor was not usually so abrupt with her patients, but Dr. Delaney’s earlier complaints regarding her treatment of young patients still rankled. Seeing Itzam ready to cry again, though, softened her tone of voice. “Don’t worry about it, Itzam. You’ll be home soon. Look! Here comes Jack now.” With a sigh of relief, Dr. Ellison pushed the wheelchair the rest of the way to where Jack was parking the SUV.

         Jack helped Itzam into the back seat of the SUV and tightened the seatbelt to secure her in place. Walking around the vehicle to the driver’s side, he stopped to watch the ambulance pull into the bay. He next saw a gurney pulled out of the back with the patient’s lower body appearing first. The gurney seemed to contain a person in torn clothes from an era long ago. Only when the woman was fully outside and wheeled into the hospital did Jack recognize the person it contained. Long mahogany-red hair spread out from Samantha’s head onto the pillow.

         “Dr. Ellison,” called out one of the men wheeling the gurney, “we could use your help.”

         “Jack, make sure Itzam takes it easy for a few days.” With these last words of instruction to Jack, who was standing in shock next to the SUV, Dr. Ellison disappeared into the ambulance entrance of the ER.

         Jack turned and noticed the line of headlights coming down the dark road between the mansion and the hospital. The first vehicle came to a stop only a few yards from the ambulance, and Walker jumped out almost before the engine had fully turned off.

         Dr. Delaney opened the passenger side door and shakily stepped out to brace herself against the side of the SUV. “You are a maniac!” she yelled after the rapidly disappearing Walker. “Where’d you get your license, at Sears?” Then, and only then did she see Jack standing nearby. She pointed to the dark headlights of the vehicle she’d just left. “Walker could have killed us racing after the ambulance like that. The idiot didn’t take the time to turn on the lights in his hurry to get here…twice almost running off the road!”

         Jack yanked the loudly protesting doctor out of the way of incoming traffic when more cars entered the area around the ambulance bay. Everyone was talking at once, excited at finding Samantha alive, but worried about her current condition.

         “Quiet, everyone,” Jack called out, “and someone please tell me what’s going on!” With Franklin on one side of him and Sherri Delaney on the other, Jack tried to make sense of their stories, while walking with them into the ER waiting room. What seemed like everyone living at the mansion and orphanage also followed them inside.

* * *

         “Get an IV with Ringer’s lactate started.” Dr. Ellison quietly and calmly ordered the nurse, back in her element as the head of the ER. “Slowly, slowly,” she cautioned. “The last thing she needs is to into cardiac arrest.” She stepped back from the table where Samantha was lying and saw Walker hovering on the other side of the room.

         “Is she going to be all right?” he asked, coming closer to Samantha, who was still unconscious but beginning to stir as the saline solution entered her dehydrated body. No one noticed her eyes slowly opening to stare around the room in a panic.

Chapter 67

After listening to the many versions of Samantha’s miraculous rescue, Jack started to return outside where Itzam was still waiting for him in the SUV. Just as the automatic doors were sliding open, those in the waiting room heard the sound of screaming coming from the emergency room.

         Inside, Walker reacted to Samantha’s terrified cries in time to catch her as she started to slide off the examination table. “Honey, it’s okay. You’re safe now.” His comforting words, said over and over again, failed to stop her screams. “Harriet,” Walker begged, “please help her.”

         The nurse handed Dr. Ellison a needle containing a mild sedative. The doctor injected it, after a bit of a struggle, into the IV already in one of Samantha’s flailing arm. She wasn’t quick enough, and Samantha’s free arm smashed into Walker’s face, causing his nose to start bleeding.

         “Samantha, calm down,” Dr. Ellison pleaded. With no abatement of Samantha’s panic after the administration of the sedative, the doctor called out to the nurse for some soft restraints. “I’m sorry to have to do this, Walker, but she’s going to hurt herself going on like this.” While waiting for the padded straps, she handed Walker gauze for his bloody nose.

         Before the nurse came back, Samantha fought her way out of Walker’s loose hold. Using the last of her strength, she pushed herself off the table to land in a heap on the floor. “I want to go home.” Her voice was barely above a whisper and hoarse from her recent screams. “I want to go home. Please let me out of here.” Her eyes remained unfocused, and those in the ER realized she thought she was still down in the underground cavern.

         For the second time that evening, Walker scooped her up into his arms. She was now bleeding from where her fall had pulled out the IV needle. The torn and dirty dress barely covered her, and it smelled from decades of being on the dead body of the original owner. How it got on Samantha was still a mystery, but it would be quite some time before Walker learned what had transpired those days she had been missing.

         For now, her sanity was uppermost in his mind. “Harriet, can’t I take her back home? We can make sure she takes plenty of fluids and keep an eye on her round the clock.”

         Dr. Ellison thought for a couple minutes, observing her patient’s continued terrified demeanor, and weighing the options for her care. “First, I have to examine Samantha to check for broken bones or major external injuries.” She carefully and thoroughly accomplished this while Walker hovered impatiently nearby.

         Afterwards, she turned toward him to ask, “Can your mother stay with her? Nothing appears broken, but I insist Edith call me immediately if she sees any deterioration in Samantha’s condition overnight. When she calms down a bit, I want you to bring Samantha back tomorrow for x-rays and a more extensive examination.”

         Getting Walker’s swift agreement to have his mother to meet them back at the mansion, Dr. Ellison reluctantly had two orderlies take Samantha back to the ambulance. She first reinserted the IV and showed Walker how to change the saline bags she sent back with him. All this time, Samantha stared sightlessly ahead of her, the sedative finally working.

         Watching the ambulance heading for the mansion, Dr. Ellison shook her head ruefully, already regretting giving in to Walker’s impassioned pleas. She knew Samantha to have a strong healthy body, but it was the state of her mind after such an ordeal that worried her the most. She realized, though, that being in familiar surroundings might be the best choice for Samantha at this stage of her recovery.

Chapter 68

Thanks to Walker’s quick cell call on the way back to the mansion, Edith was waiting for them. She tried to hide her shock at seeing the condition of the younger woman when the orderlies removed the gurney from the ambulance.

         “Bring her inside quickly,” she ordered, gesturing the men to hurry. “Walker, make sure the elevator is down on this floor.” Her son ran across the entrance room and had the door to the large glass elevator opened wide to admit the gurney.

         When they arrived on the third floor where some of the mansion’s staff lived, Edith went ahead of them and used her master key to let them into Samantha’s suite. “Bring her into the bedroom, gentlemen, then you can go back to the hospital.” The two orderlies followed her directions and carefully laid the injured woman on her bed.

         “Walker,” Edith said quietly, once the orderlies left, “I think the first thing I have to do is get Samantha out of that filthy dress and give her a bath.” When Walker didn’t get this very subtle hint to leave, Edith decided she needed to speak more clearly. “I don’t think you need to be here.”

         “Edith, I’m staying. Now, what can I do?” Without waiting for his mother to argue some more with him, Walker started to undo the dozens of tiny buttons down the front of Samantha’s ragged dress.

         Realizing that it would do her no good to push the issue, Edith took hold of one long sleeve, almost torn off already, and gently removed it. This revealed dark, yellowish-purple ecchymoses all along the length of Samantha’s left arm. After removing the other sleeve, Edith saw more bruising on Samantha’s right arm.

         “What did he do to her?” Walker’s low furious voice caused Edith to look away from the black and blue areas on Samantha’s arms and over to Walker’s face. She then followed his glance to where his hands were holding on tightly to the open bodice of the dress, his knuckles turning white with anger. Horrified, she gasped when she saw Samantha’s naked upper body covered in welts. They varied in size and went from her shoulders down to her waist.

         Before either of them could react to the sight of this brutality, Samantha’s eyes suddenly opened. She pushed Walker’s hands away from her body and once again started screaming hysterically. “Stop, please stop. It hurts so much. Why are you doing this?”

         Okay, Walker, you’re out of here,” Edith managed to yell above Samantha’s cries. “Samantha doesn’t need a man, especially you, seeing her like this.” She started pushing Walker toward the apartment’s front door, with him protesting the whole way. “I’ll call you when you can come back.” With that, Edith gave him one final shove and slammed the door in his face.

         Even through the heavy wooden door, Walker could hear Samantha’s terrified voice. Standing there, Walker knew those cries would stay with him for a long time. Only when they slowly quieted, then disappeared, did he leave his vigil outside her suite.

Chapter 69

Knowing Samantha was in good hands with his mother, Walker decided to track down Toby and start reading the journals the younger man had retrieved from the underground cavern.

         “Have you seen Toby lately?” he asked Keith, the front desk clerk, upon reaching the first floor.

         “I think he’s in the dining room.” Keith smiled as he said this. “The last time I saw him, he had his head deep in some type of book, probably porno since he didn’t even return my ‘Hey, how ya doing?’ as I walked by.”

         “Thanks, Keith. I think you’re right, but if it’s what I think, it’s worse than porno.” Walker left the desk clerk mulling over what he meant and quickly went down the corridor and into the dining room.

         Upon seeing his employer entering the nearly empty room, Toby motioned him over to where he was sitting at the back of the room. His usually cheerful face was pale and drawn, and the journals covered the table in front of him. “I hope you don’t mind, Walker, but I started reading a couple of these.”

         “That’s okay. What have you learned from them so far?” Walker sat down and pulled what appeared to be the newest journal toward him.

         “The man who wrote these is a sadistic monster. That comes through on every page he wrote.” Toby pointed to a journal with a faded green cover. “This seems to be the first one, all about someone named Nancy.”

         “His wife, she was his second wife.” While saying this, Walker opened the cover of the journal he had chosen and opened it to the first page. Ignoring Toby for the moment, he started reading. By the time he finished the first two pages, he was swearing angrily and rather loudly. The few people still in the dining room turned toward him in amazement, shocked to hear him use words none of them thought he even knew.

         “Walker,” Toby asked nervously, “what is it?” It took a few tries to get Walker attention, but his words eventually sunk in.

          “Colin wrote about…about what he was going to do to Samantha.” Walker whispered the last few words, trying in vain to regain his composure. “He was going to do to her what his ancestor, Jason Edgeworth, did to his victims.” Walker remembered the recent sight of Samantha, lying bruised and beaten on her bed upstairs. He knew Colin started to follow through on what he had written, and only his death saved Samantha’s life.

Chapter 70

Before Walker could read more of the journal, his cell phone started to vibrate in his shirt pocket. Seeing the name of his mother on the screen, he quickly took the call. “Edith, how is she?”

         “The sedative finally put her out, but I don’t want her to have visitors for now.” Anticipating Walker’s protests, Edith quickly said, “I’ve paged Stella to come help me, but that means you’ll have to find someone to replace her over at Hannah’s Home for the time being.” Stella had become Edith’s right hand in the management of the orphanage, and Walker started running names over in his mind as to who could cover for her. This only lasted a few seconds before Edith’s voice once again got through to him.

         “I’m going to want Chef Geoffrey to make her some meals to get her strength back.” Edith had been near tears at seeing the condition Samantha’s body was in after more than three days without either food or water.

         “Isn’t there anything I can do?” begged Walker, “Did Colin...” He stopped, unable to get the words out.

         “Did he what?”

         “Was she…did he molest her?” He whispered this, unsure if he wanted to hear the answer.

         “Walker,” his mother answered slowly, knowing her son was waiting two floors down, probably already regretting his question. “I don’t know. They couldn’t give her a full examination at the hospital before sending her home.” Edith was sitting in a chair beside the bed where Samantha was restlessly sleeping. “We’ll just have to wait until she can tell us what happened, if she ever does.” With that, she once again reminded Walker to find a replacement for Stella and hung up her cell phone.

         Downstairs, Toby had silently sat at the table watching the various emotions crossing his employer’s face. The people still in the dining room also waited for Walker to tell them about Samantha’s condition. The young woman was a favorite among all the elderly residents. Many had earlier been in the hospital ER waiting room and heard her terrified screams.

         Finally, Walker absentmindedly closed his cell phone and replaced it in his pocket. Only then did he remember he wasn’t alone and slowly looked around at the sea of faces, all who had become like family to him. “My mother is there with her,” he said, “and Stella is coming over to help.” He then remembered her one and only instruction, to find someone to go over to Hannah’s Home.

         Spotting the diminutive Sophia Kessler at a table on the opposite side of the room, Walker realized she would be the perfect person to be with the children for a few days. He caught her attention and waved her over to his table.

         “Boss,” said Toby, ready to leave to give them privacy, “why don’t I go and…?” He stopped, unsure of what he was going to say, but Walker motioned to stay in his seat.
When Sophia joined them, Walker outlined what he needed them to do.

         “Sophia, would you mind finding Beatrice Walsh and the two of you staying with the kids for a few days?” Sophia and Beatrice, a good friend of Isabella who worked the night shift, should be enough to watch for any problems at the orphanage.

         “Of course,” Sophia agreed quickly. “I think she’s already over there, so I’ll go there immediately.” Rising from her chair, the elderly woman patted Walker gently on his shoulder. “She’s going to be okay, Walker.” With those encouraging words, she left the two men alone at the table.

         “What can I do?” Toby asked, eager to be of help.

         “I need you to find Franklin White,” Walker stood up, ready to leave, “and see if you can borrow one of his cameras.” He hesitated before continuing, even though Toby realized what Walker was about to ask of him. “We need to identify those women Jason killed, and the Westbrook police probably will want pictures of them.” He looked into Toby’s serious young face, realizing he was asking a lot of him. “Can you do this? I don’t think it would be safe for an elderly man like Franklin to go down there.”

         Toby smiled grimly, understanding the trust Walker was giving him, “No problem, Boss. Consider it done!” With that, he straightened his shoulders and practically marched out of the room to find the resident photographer.

         Seeing the journals still spread out on the table, Walker gathered them up and headed for his fourth-floor apartment. He dreaded what he would read inside them.

Continued in next segment.

Home of the Gray Dog - Segment 15  (18+) Chapters 71 through 75 #1269052 by J. A. Buxton