Who? It made sense that it was probably the same person who had attacked her before, but who in the hell was it and why was he after Lizzy?
Lizzy. His heart cried her name as he pressed on the gas pedal, exceeding the speed limit to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. She had to pull through this, but as he thought about how still she'd been, how pale and small she'd looked, his entire body shuddered with dread.
His hands relaxed as the sight of the hospital came into view. Grady Gulch Memorial Hospital was small but staffed with good doctors and nurses.
He parked and raced for the emergency room entrance, his heart still hammering hard and fast. Cameron was already standing in the waiting room. "They've taken her back to get her checked out. I imagine it's going to be a while before we hear anything." He gestured toward the chairs. "Why don't you sit and I'll get us a cup of coffee from the machine."
"None for me," Daniel said as he sank into one of the chairs. He felt that if he tried to put anything into his stomach right now, it just might not stay down.
Cameron returned with a foam cup of coffee in hand and sat next to Daniel with a tired sigh. "What are you thinking?" he asked.
Daniel stared down at the tiled floor. "I'm thinking I wish I hadn't watched the weather report. I'm thinking that when I saw her headed for the barn I should have gone out and joined her. Dammit, I should have been there in the barn with her." He raised his gaze to meet Cameron's. "And I'm thinking that whoever attacked her the first time and told her to leave town was pissed because she hadn't done what he'd told her to do, and tonight he found her again."
"Who in the hell could it be?" Cameron asked.
"Aren't I supposed to be the one asking you that question?" Daniel said wryly.
Cameron sighed again. "I've never felt so impotent as sheriff. My number one goal has always been the safety of the people of Grady Gulch, and now I have one young woman murdered and another apparently beaten to within an inch of her life. I called for a couple of my deputies to head out to your barn and see if the attacker left anything of himself behind. We'll wait until morning light and check for car tracks or whatever else we can find in the general area. Whoever was in that barn didn't walk to your place from town. If we can find some tire tracks, I'll cast them and compare them to every vehicle in the whole town."
"Just find him, Cameron."
"I'm doing my best." He took a sip of his coffee and then continued, "Lizzy told me a couple of days ago that she was getting ready to move on from Grady Gulch. Maybe it's time she did that, if nothing else for her own safety."
Daniel's heart rebelled at the very thought, and yet deep in his soul he knew that it had always been Lizzy's intention to move on. Besides, how could he ask her to stay someplace where her life might be at risk? "Maybe you're right," he finally said around the hollow ache of his heart.
The two of them fell silent then as they waited to hear if the entire conversation had been moot because Lizzy wasn't going to pull through.
There was nothing worse than waiting to hear about the condition of a loved one, Daniel thought. Minutes felt like hours, and he could only sit and think about all the terrible things that might be happening behind the closed doors ahead of them.
As he thought of those dark bruises he'd seen on her, he felt her pain, a jagged piercing ache that shot him to his feet to begin a pace of impatience.
Cameron got up for a second cup of coffee as Daniel continued pacing back and forth in the small room. What was taking so long? Why hadn't the doctor come out to tell them something?
It was another half an hour before Dr. Michael Lawrence finally walked out the door to greet them. "She's stable," he began, and the words nearly cast Daniel to his knees in relief. "But, she's still unconscious. All our tests have indicated there's no brain swelling, although it's obvious she was kicked several times in the head. She has a couple of cracked ribs and bruises pretty much from head to toe. All of them appear to be the result of her being kicked over and over again." He frowned. "Somebody wanted her badly hurt or dead. One more kick to her head and I have a feeling we wouldn't be having this conversation."
"But, she's going to be all right?" Daniel asked.
Dr. Lawrence frowned. "I'm not happy that she hasn't regained consciousness yet, but I think she's going to be okay. It's going to take her some time to get back on her feet. She took one hell of a beating."
"Can I see her?"
"Can I keep you from it?" Dr. Lawrence asked with a small smile.
"Not unless you have a big gun," Daniel replied.
"Room 119."
Daniel left Cameron and the doctor and burst through the door to find her room. The hallway smelled of some sort of pine cleaner and antiseptic soap.
The last time he'd been there was the night that Janice and Cherry had died. The city morgue was in the basement of the building. He never wanted to go to the basement again.
When he found the room he sought, he entered to see Lizzy looking small and fragile against the big hospital bed. She'd been placed in a hospital gown and one arm was out of the blanket that covered her.
The sight of that small arm, dark with bruises, made him half-crazy with rage and sorrow and guilt. He pulled a chair up next to the bed and sank down and stared at her face.
He loved her face, even though half of it was showing the signs of the deep purple bruises to come. Why hadn't she regained consciousness? Had the doctor missed something?
He leaned forward. "Lizzy? Honey, I know you're in there somewhere. You need to come back. You need to wake up."
There was no response, not even a faint flicker of an eyelid or a change in her slow, even breathing. Would she ever wake up? And if she did, was there going to be any kind of residual damage?
One thing was clear. She was going to need somebody to help her in her recuperation process, and he was committed to being that person.
He leaned back in the chair and released a weary sigh. He would do whatever it took to get Lizzy back to health, and then he would have to tell her goodbye.
* * *
She rose up from the darkness just enough to be aware of faint voices and pain. She couldn't make out what the voices were saying, but the pain shouted loud, hitting her in every area of her body.
She tried to fight past it, to open her eyes and see what was going on, but the pain was too great, the confusion in her head too tumbled, and instead she eagerly embraced the darkness as it rose up to claim her once again.
The next time the darkness began to clear she became aware of more things: the feel of the bed beneath her and the hospital scent in the air. Why was she in a hospital? Had she been in a car accident? She remembered leaving the café, Cameron walking her out to her car. What? What had happened after that?
The barn. The apple. She should be in the barn with Molly. As the memory of what had taken place in the barn pierced through the veil of darkness, a cry escaped her lips and full consciousness slammed into her.
"Lizzy?"
Daniel's voice came from someplace at her side, and she slowly turned her head to see him seated in a chair next to her. He looked like a wild man, his curly hair standing on end and his eyes dark and filled with such torment she wanted to weep for him.
"I'm okay," she said, hoping those simple words would take away some of the darkness in his eyes. She glanced past him toward the window, where the early light of day was streaking across the sky. "Long night, huh?"
He raked a hand through his hair, letting her know exactly how it had come to be in its current position. "You have no idea. I need to go get the doctor and let him know that you're awake. Will you be okay while I'm gone?"
She forced a pained smile. "I'll be fine, and I'm certainly not going anywhere."
He got up from the chair and raced for the door. It was only as he disappeared from her sight that her smile fell and tears burned at her eyes. Everything hurt. Even drawing a deep breath created a wealth of pain inside her.
As she tried to sit up, she was struck by a wave of dizziness that instantly forced her back to a prone position. He tried to kill her, she thought with a touch of horror. He'd almost kicked her to death. What kind of a man did that to a woman? To anyone? It had been an act of sheer brutality, of evil hatred.