Loe raamatut: «The Seal's Return»

Dedicated to all the nonprofit organizations—large and small—that help veterans heal through interaction with dogs, horses and other animals.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Extract

Copyright

PROLOGUE

Nigeria

JUBAL PIERCE KNEW he probably wouldn’t live to see the next dawn. It wasn’t that he had seen many dawns in...what was it? One year, two years? Maybe longer since he’d been taken prisoner by a band of terrorist rebels?

He knew his time was limited because his most frequent guard had brought him something more than a small dish of insect-filled rice.

“Gift,” the tall, thin figure said in the limited English he’d picked up while guarding Jubal.

Jubal grabbed the bowl with his chained hands. The usual rice, but this time there was also some kind of meat. There was no spoon. He was expected to eat with his fingers. He was allowed nothing that could be turned into a weapon. His sole possessions were the filthy pants and remnants of a shirt he was captured in.

“Why a gift?” he asked, using his hands to help the guard understand.

The man simply shrugged.

Jubal bowed his head in thanks. The guard left, closing the door to the tiny windowless hut that was home. There were enough cracks that he could hear activity outside. Excited chatter. A lot of movement.

Jubal ate the food, licked the sides of the tin bowl, then struggled to get to his feet and walked the length of the chain attached to the wall. He was so damn weak from lack of food. He figured he had lost nearly half of his two hundred and thirty pounds. With pure strength of will, he finally stood and peered through a crack.

His eyes slowly adjusted to daylight. Most of the fifty-some members of this particular group were scurrying around like ants. Tents were being loaded in an ancient truck. Three men, including his keeper, gestured wildly.

They were leaving. Something had happened and it didn’t bode well for him. The terrorists didn’t know who he was. If they did, Jubal knew he would be dead. All they knew—or thought they knew—was that he was a doctor.

His SEAL team had been sent to rescue a medical unit caught between warring tribes in Nigeria. They were too late. The medical civilians and their patients had been killed, and enemy soldiers were waiting for them.

His fellow team members had been killed as well, and Jubal was badly wounded. But so was one of the rebel leaders. When Jubal claimed to be a doctor instead of a soldier, he was tasked with saving the life of the wounded leader. He had enough medic training to stop the bleeding and was taken along to care for the leader.

When the man recovered, Jubal was kept prisoner to provide care for others in the tribe. After several escape attempts, he was kept chained.

Jubal was quite sure that he, like his teammates, was believed dead. There had undoubtedly been a search, but the clinic had been burned with the bodies of his team and medical unit members inside. All identifying objects had been stolen as souvenirs.

He knew that he could die any day, especially after the supplies they had taken from the clinic ran out and his patients started dying. He heard the loud debate outside his hut after one fatality. But the head man, whose life he had saved, prevailed. Jubal knew, though, that time was running out...

Now something—or someone—had alarmed his captors. A rival tribe? A government raid? The question was whether they were taking him with them or planning to kill him. He suspected the latter. He was in no shape to move. That meant they would either kill him directly or leave him locked in the hut to starve to death.

His guard stepped inside, threw him a chunk of bread, then left without a word. Another “gift.”

He heard the truck take off, then the three jeeps followed with armed men hanging onto the sides. No one looked back at the hut...

To them, he was already a dead man.

CHAPTER ONE

Chicago

DR. LISA REDDING woke instantly at the loud ring of the telephone. She glanced at the clock. Three a.m.

Her heart skipped a beat. It couldn’t be the hospital unless there had been a horrible accident. She’d just come off her twenty-four-hour stint as a resident three hours earlier.

“Dr. Redding?” the voice on the other end of the phone said.

“This is Dr. Redding,” she replied.

“I’m Officer Kent Edwards, Chicago Police. I understand you’re the guardian of Gordon Redding.”

“Yes. What happened?” She tried to keep her voice calm as her heart started to race. She had arrived home after midnight and hadn’t bothered to check on her brother and sister. Her aunt, who looked after them, was probably still asleep downstairs.

“He’s been arrested. He’s down at our station.”

Lisa’s heart slowed. Not dead, then. That was her first thought after seeing so many maimed juveniles in the hospital. Then it sped up again. Gordon? Arrested? “What are the charges?” she asked with an audible tremor in her voice.

“Car theft and possession of drugs,” the officer said.

She took a deep breath. She knew Gordon was having a tough time, but this? “Where is he?” she asked in a voice she’d trained to be professional in the worst of situations.

The officer gave the name and location of the precinct, and she was relieved it was one just three miles away. She knew it, in fact. She even knew some of the officers since they often visited the hospital to talk to both victims and offenders. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” she said.

She hurriedly dressed, went downstairs to wake her aunt, who’d been staying with them since Lisa’s mother had died nine months earlier.

Lisa knocked at Aunt Kay’s door and when her half-awake aunt opened it, she explained what had happened. “I’m going down to the precinct now, but I didn’t want you to wake up and find two of us missing.”

“I stayed up until he went to bed at ten,” Aunt Kay said. “He must have left after I fell asleep.” She shook her head. “I just don’t know what happened to that boy,” she said. “But I don’t think I can handle him.”

Lisa’s heart dropped. She was home enough to know how difficult Gordon had become. She had hoped he would snap out of it. But the death of their mother had sent him on a downward spiral. He had become rude and dismissive of both her and Aunt Kay, who’d moved into the Redding home to take care of her youngest niece and nephew while Lisa finished her residency.

Lisa gave her a quick hug. “I understand,” she said. “I don’t know when I’ll be back but we’ll talk then. Try to keep everything normal for Kerry.” Lisa grabbed her purse and car keys and drove toward the precinct. The late summer air was still hot, the sky dark with clouds. She concentrated on the empty road ahead and tried not to think what this would mean for Gordon, or Kerry, or her career.

She reached the precinct and identified herself, and almost instantly a young man in uniform hurried over to her. “Dr. Redding? I’m Kent Edwards. I understand you’re Gordon Redding’s sister.”

Lisa simply nodded.

“I’ve seen you at the hospital,” the officer said. “I’m sorry this happened, but your brother isn’t helping himself.”

“What happened?”

“At two-thirty this morning, my partner and I stopped a car that was reported stolen. Your brother was a passenger. The driver is also a teenager but is known to us. Drugs were in the car. Prescription pills. Weed.”

“What kind of pills?” Lisa asked sharply.

“A hallucinogen known as Adam on the street.”

She was familiar with it. It was also one of the date-rape pills. “Were they on him?”

“Not on his person but they were in the car under the seat. Your brother won’t say where they got them.”

“So he’s an accomplice who might, or might not, have known there were drugs.”

“It would help if he would talk to us. He’s not saying anything. Look, he’s a first-time offender. If he would tell us who supplied the drugs, we could probably get him probation.”

“I can tell you now he won’t tell you anything. If nothing else he’s loyal to a fault.” She hesitated, then added, “Our father died eight years ago in a plane crash. Our mother died nine months ago of cancer. As a resident at the hospital, I’m gone more than I’m at home. He’s angry and rebellious, but until this year he’s always been a good kid.”

The officer nodded. “You can see him in the interview room. Talk to him.”

“What about the boy with him?”

“He’s eighteen with a previous record. Mostly small-time stuff. Fights. Vandalism. Now he’s graduated to a felony.”

“Can Gordon go home?”

“The sarge wants to hold him for twenty-four hours. He thinks it might do some good if he gets a glimpse of what the future might hold if he doesn’t help himself now. You should probably call a lawyer.”

Her heart sank. The thought of Gordon in jail was like a jagged knife in her heart. She had failed their mother. Failed Gordon by not being there for him. For not understanding how bad things really were. “Will he be in jail?”

“Juvenile detention.”

“Can I see him?” Lisa asked.

He escorted her to a room. Gordon sat in a chair at a table, his wrists in handcuffs.

He looked up at her. His longish blond hair was mussed and his green eyes were red. He visibly swallowed as she entered the room, then his mouth tightened. Gordon was a good-looking boy, tall and lean. He had been on the soccer team until their mother died and he missed too many practices.

“We going home now?” he said while avoiding her gaze.

“I don’t think so. I’ve been advised to get a lawyer we can’t afford.”

For the first time, fear crept into his eyes but his voice was defiant. “That’s horseshit. I didn’t do nothin’. I was just riding...”

“In a stolen car?”

“I didn’t know that. This guy just called and asked me to go to a party. He picked me up. I didn’t know the car was stolen.”

“And you didn’t know about the drugs?”

His gaze wouldn’t meet hers.

“Do you know how much trouble you’re in?” she asked. “That was a date-rape drug in the car.”

“I said I didn’t do anything.”

She just stared at him. “You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, right?”

He nodded.

“Unfortunately, the police do not buy that. It’s not like school,” she added. “I can’t talk you out of this...situation. They’re going to keep you here for twenty-four hours. I’ll get you a lawyer, but you have to understand that being in a stolen car with drugs means more than a a slap on the wrist. A criminal record can destroy your chances for college, for a career.”

“Whatever,” he said, but she saw a growing awareness behind the word she’d heard too often this year.

She stood. “Think about cooperating with the police. You don’t owe that...guy anything.”

The fragile mask came off his face. Gordon blinked then, and she thought she saw tears gathering in his eyes. Her heart started to melt. He was just a kid who lost his father and then watched his mom die. She softened her voice. “I’ll do everything I can to help you,” she said. “I love you. Aunt Kay loves you. And Kerry...she would be devastated if anything happened to you. I know it’s been a hell of a year but Kerry and I need you. We can’t lose someone else.”

She left then, before she started crying. Once outside the room, she leaned against the wall and let the tears flow.

* * *

THREE DAYS LATER, Lisa reluctantly approached the office of the director of Medical Education at the hospital where she was finishing her third year as a resident. She paused, stiffened her shoulders and knocked.

“Dr. Redding,” Dr. Rainey said as he opened the door. “You wanted to see me?”

The words stuck in her throat. She had to force them out and keep the tears in place behind her eyes. “I have to turn down the pediatric surgical fellowship,” she said. “I hope it’s not too late to find a replacement.”

“May I ask why?” Dr. Rainey asked with a raised eyebrow.

She hesitated. She knew there were a hundred applicants or more for each fellowship at the hospital. It had been an honor to receive it, and now...

He waited for her answer.

She started haltingly. She told him about Gordon and her family situation. “The good news is the other boy admitted he bought the drugs on his own, that Gordon had nothing to do with it. He claimed, though, that Gordon knew the car was stolen. Gordon said he didn’t, but he must have had his suspicions.”

After she finished, she couldn’t speak for a moment. She’d fought hard to get this residency and then to be selected for the coveted fellowship. It was her long-held dream, but she couldn’t sacrifice what was left of her family for it.

“My sister and brother need more than I can give them now,” she finally said. “My brother... I’m afraid Gordon is headed for disaster. He’s just so...angry. My sister is still grieving, and her grades are diving. My aunt has been staying with us and doing her best, but she has to leave. I...just can’t be away all the hours required for the fellowship. I can’t give you or my siblings my best with...” Her voice trailed off. Every word had pain dripping from it.

“They’ve lost two parents,” Dr. Rainey said. “That’s a lot to handle.”

“My brother was...very close to Mom, considered himself the man of the house, and then he had to watch her die. He’s angry at the doctors who couldn’t save her, and I’m one of them. He feels I deserted him, as well.” She hesitated, then said the words she had practiced. “I promised Mom I would take care of Gordon and my sister, and I haven’t been able to do that.”

Dr. Rainey leaned forward. He seemed to hesitate, then said, “I don’t want to lose you. You’re one of the best residents we have and I think you would make a fine pediatric surgeon. I’m told by the attendings and nursing staff that your instincts are excellent.”

It was a rare compliment from Dr. Rainey and made what she had to do even harder.

Gordon’s arrest, though, made a change in lifestyle imperative. Gordon had been released with a number of conditions, including a curfew. His hearing would be in three weeks, and the attorney she’d hired had talked to Gordon’s caseworker. It was possible that he would be given a year’s probation and then his record could be cleared...expunged...if he stayed out of trouble.

She knew he wouldn’t. She’d caught him sneaking out after curfew last night. She knew as sure as the sun rose in the morning that he’d try again.

“What are you proposing to do?” Dr. Rainey asked after a few seconds.

“A position with stable day hours,” she said. “Maybe a clinic. Maybe after Gordon finishes high school, I can...” Her voice drifted off.

Dr. Rainey sat back in his chair and tapped a pen on his desk.

“I have a friend,” he said, “a general practitioner in a small town in Colorado. He’s had heart surgery. It leaves the town without a doctor within a hundred miles. He hopes to find someone to replace him while he recuperates.

Lisa was stunned. She hadn’t known what to expect but it certainly wasn’t what she realized what was coming.

“I’ve been to the town,” Dr. Rainey continued. “It’s small and friendly. You can step into a fully equipped practice. It would be good experience for you and a great environment for kids. There’s a lake, mountains, skiing. The school draws from the surrounding ranches and is said to be quite good.”

He paused. “The town will provide a house within walking distance of the office. If, at the end of a year, you’re still interested in the fellowship, I’ll try to bring you back.”

* * *

IT SEEMED TO be an answer to a prayer. She was exhausted from the hours at the hospital together with the ongoing drama at home. Still, she hesitated. “Our house...”

“If I remember correctly, you live near the hospital. I’m sure a resident or incoming staff member will be more than happy to rent it for a year.” He wrote down a number. “If you’re interested, call Eve Manning in Covenant Falls. She’s the mayor and can give you more details.” He looked up at her from his desk. If you’re interested, I’ll need to let my friend know ASAP.”

“Thank you,” she said, surprised at his understanding, even more so by the proposal. She had never lived anywhere other than a large city but right now a slower pace seemed inviting.

She thanked him and said she would certainly consider it. The more she thought about it during the day, the more feasible the idea seemed.

During a break, she looked up Covenant Falls on the web. The site featured a photo of a sunrise spreading gold across a pure blue lake with white-tipped mountains behind it. There were insets, including photos of a football field, a community center, an attractive main street and two teenagers riding horses.

From that moment, everything happened swiftly. She called the mayor, liked her instantly on the phone. She found herself relaying all her concerns, especially regarding the two rebellious teenagers, and by the end of the conversation was convinced Covenant Falls might be an answer.

She tried not to think of the fellowship. This was something she owed her parents, a debt she couldn’t ignore.

Two days later, Lisa used her day off to fly to Denver, full of apprehension, for a one-day visit to Covenant Falls.

She was picked up by Eve Manning and driven to Pueblo to meet with Dr. Bradley at the hospital there. He was hooked up to a monitor and his color was poor, but his eyes were challenging as they met hers.

“Dr. Rainey said you’re a good diagnostician,” he said. “But it takes more than that to be a small-town doctor. You need an instinct about people. You have to really care about them. They know if you do. And if you don’t. It’s not like a hospital where you see them once or twice before sending them to someone else.”

“I realize that,” she said, “and it appeals to me. It’s frustrating to treat a patient and never know what happens later. I intended to go into a private practice after completing my fellowship.”

“Cliff Rainey said you’re experiencing family problems?”

“Siblings. Teenagers,” she said frankly, and gave him a brief summary of what had happened. “What makes it hard is I’ve been absent when they needed me most. I thought my aunt could fill in, but it isn’t the same. I didn’t realize that until my brother, Gordon, was arrested.”

He nodded. “Sometimes we doctors are so busy taking care of our patients, we don’t have time to take care of our own families. I’m guilty, as well.”

He then asked medical questions, queried about diseases, treatments and protocols. “We have an older population with the ailments that come with it, but we also have our share of pregnancies, broken bones, flu and rattlesnake bites. We usually have a couple of those each year. We keep anti-venom in the office but then the patient has to be transported to a major hospital that maintains a larger stock.”

“As to staff,” he said, “I have a very competent nurse, but she isn’t qualified to write prescriptions. There’s also a part-time bookkeeper who works out of her own house. She can take care of most of the paperwork for Medicare and insurance companies.” He studied her for a moment. “I can’t pay you much, but the town is providing a home, and the experience will be useful.”

She nodded.

“Let me know what you decide after you visit Covenant Falls and see the clinic. The position is yours if you want it. If Cliff Rainey recommends you, that’s good enough for me.”

She breathed easier as she left. She glanced at her watch. It was one-thirty in the afternoon. She had left Chicago on an early flight that morning, but then there was the long drive from Denver. She understood it would be another hour and a half drive to Covenant Falls, then the drive back to Denver for another early-bird flight to Chicago.

Her aunt was staying with Kerry and Gordon. She hadn’t told them about the possibility of moving. She didn’t want to say anything until she felt reasonably confident the position was a real possibility.

“What do you think?” Eve asked when Lisa joined her in the hospital reception area.

“He said the job is mine if I want it,” she said.

“So now it’s my job to convince you to want it,” Eve said. She explained that the town was cradled on one side by mountains and the other by the plains. “There’s approximately three thousand people in the area, including ranches that aren’t in the city limits but contract for city services.”

“I’m going to be taking my sister and brother out of the schools and activities they know,” Lisa said. “What is there for them here?”

“The school is highly rated and will open in four weeks. We have football, baseball, basketball and track along with a terrific music and drama department. Then there’s skiing clubs, Boy Scouts and Explorer Scouts, community baseball and football. There’s also a lot of special-interest groups—music, mechanics, computers, a horseback riding club.”

“It sounds great. To me. I’m not sure it will to them. They love the city.”

“Maybe because they’ve never experienced anything else,” Eve said.

Lisa was silent the rest of the drive into town. Rolling plains reached toward the mountains. The two-lane road was bordered by fences with occasional breaks leading to houses and barns. As they entered the town of Covenant Falls, it looked even smaller than she’d imagined. She counted all of three stop signs. Eve parked in front of an attractive building she identified as city hall, and they walked across the road to the Covenant Falls Medical Clinic.

She met the nurse, Janie Blalock, who didn’t look much younger than Dr. Bradley. The nurse was friendly and showed her around the office, including a small X-ray room. It was, Lisa thought, probably well equipped for a small-town doctor but she would miss all the state of the art diagnostic technology available in Chicago.

“Time for lunch,” Eve announced when Lisa finished the tour.

Lisa thanked Janie, then she and Eve walked half a block to a glass-fronted building with a big sign proclaiming it to be Maude’s. The diner was nearly empty, and they took a seat next to the window. A large motherly looking woman immediately came over.

“This is Maude,” Eve said. “She owns this place and it has great food.”

“This the new doctor?” Maude asked.

Lisa looked helplessly at Eve.

“She’s looking us over,” Eve said lightly.

“You’re a sight prettier than Doc Bradley,” Maude said. “Your meal is on the house,” she added. She studied Lisa solemnly. “Seems to me you need a bit of meat on you. How about a steak?”

“They’re good here,” Eve said. “My husband swears by them.”

Lisa wasn’t sure. The last few days of uncertainty and worry had her stomach in turmoil. But she also had to eat and she still had a long day ahead. She nodded. “A steak and salad with dressing on the side, please. And an iced tea.”

“I’ll take the same,” Eve said.

When Maude left, Eve turned to her. “What do you think?”

“I like Dr. Bradley. I like the clinic. I like the mountains. But I’m not sure Kerry and Gordon will feel the same.”

“My son lost his father when he was four,” Eve said. “I know how difficult it is for a child to lose a parent. And you and your siblings have lost both. But this town supports its own, and that would include you. We’ll do our best to keep your family safe and happy.”

They couldn’t do any worse. Their Chicago neighborhood that had once been a safe place to live now bred gangs. It wasn’t home sweet home anymore. She just wasn’t sure Gordon saw it that way.

“I’ll show you the house after lunch,” Eve said. “The owner passed away and the heir agreed to let us use it and much of the furniture for a year if we did the repairs and voided the overdue taxes. It’s a good deal for us both. My husband and his group of vets painted the house and fixed everything that needed fixing.”

“Group of vets?”

“We have a lot of veterans here,” Eve explained. “In fact, a military nurse recently moved here. She was wounded in Afghanistan and wasn’t ready to go back to nursing, but she’s available in an emergency.”

Lisa absorbed that. Since their mother died, Gordon had threatened to go into the military when he was old enough, and she had done her best to dissuade him from that path. Would a town full of vets sharpen his interest? One count against coming here.

The food came then, Lisa’s stomach’s turmoil ending at the smell of the steak. Once bite proved Eve’s recommendation. It was excellent and the salad good. The prices were amazingly low, even if the meal hadn’t been free. One count for moving here.

Eve continued to plug the town as they ate, then drove her around for a tour. They drove by a wooded park with a gazebo in front of a sprawling building. “That’s our community center and library,” Eve said. “And there’s a small museum and a beach, as well.”