~ Curiosity Kills ~

by

Linda Roberts

After spending the day in the archives, I decided to get some exercise. As I jogged along the road near the Annabelle, things went bad. Two goons who came from the direction of the mine followed me.

“Hold up there,” one of them hollered. “We want to talk to you.”

When I didn’t stop, they began jogging too, closing the gap between me and them.

I picked up speed and pretended not to hear him.

“Ouch,” I said as I took a dive, tumbling into a hole behind a small hill just past the Annabelle, ducking out of sight. It looked like they wanted to be sure I didn’t hang around this area too long. I didn’t get a good look at their faces, but it looked like they were wearing some sort of jacket. I didn’t think they were dressed for working at a mine.

“Where did she go?” I heard one of them ask.

“Don’t know. Guess she kept on running. Nothing to worry about. I’m sure she’s harmless.”

“Did you see that bod? Boy, would I like to get a piece of her.”

“In your dreams,” I whispered, as I hid behind the hill writhing in pain. My heart was pounding so hard and my breathing was so labored I was afraid they’d hear it and find me for sure. Thought I might have sprained my ankle, but just had scrapes and bruises. I waited for what seemed like an eternity before venturing out of my hiding place. It was getting dark when I began to sneak back the way I came, crouching down low in the ditch alongside the road so I wouldn’t be seen.

“What the...?” I said, as I stumbled over something. Someone moaned, but I couldn’t see who it was.

As I reached out to break my fall, I felt something cold and wet. There was a pungent, almost acrid odor in the air, making me shiver. The hair on the back of my neck stood up.

I had been sneaking along the ditch when I tripped over a body. I wasn’t sure, but in the moonlight, it looked like the man lying there motionless was P.J., one of the men I had seen at McGinty’s Tavern. He was groaning.

“Get my nephew, Nick Shanahan,” he whispered.

“What happened?” I asked. “Can you get up? Do you want me to call 911?”

“Hell no,” he whispered. I could barely hear him. “Keep 911 out of it. Get Nick, he’ll take care of me. Call him. Cell phone in my pocket. Speed dial 1.”

As I waited for Nick to answer, I wondered what this old geezer was doing out here all by himself.

“What’s up, Unc?” Nick asked. He must have been looking at the number on his Caller I.D.

“Nick, I’m calling for your uncle. He’s been hurt and he wants you to come right away.”

“Where is he? I knew it! Damn it, I knew he’d get himself into trouble someday with his snooping around, sticking his nose in where it didn’t belong. How bad is he hurt?”

“I’m not sure, but it looks pretty bad to me. He’s barely conscious.”

“Where are you? I’ll be right there.”

“I’m on a dirt road, an access road of some sort, just south of the Annabelle Mine. He’s in a ditch off the west side of the road. Be careful. A couple guys at the mine were skulking about earlier. I think they might have had something to do with this.”

“Okay, I know where you are. I’ll be there in ten minutes. Watch for me in my black Ford 4x4.”

~ * ~

When I saw Nick’s black pickup driving slowly down the west side of the road, I stood up and waved him down. He jumped out of the truck and bounded over the edge of the road, down into the ditch. I could tell he was really upset.

Nick knelt down with one knee on the ground. “Uncle P.J., what the hell happened here?”

“Someone hit me from behind. Didn’t see who, but I’ve got an idea who it was. Those two assholes over at the Annabelle tried to run me off earlier today. They didn’t like it when I told them to piss off.”

“There’s blood all over you,” Nick said. “We need to get you to the hospital.”

P.J. pushed himself up onto one elbow. “No way. No hospital for me. I’ll be all right.”

“I’ll be the judge of that, you crazy old coot,” Nick said, as he paced back and forth, keeping a lookout for the two guys P.J. told him about. “Maybe now you’ll listen to me. Good thing you were carrying that cell phone I gave you last week. Damn it, you could have bled to death out here.”

I helped Nick get P.J. into his pickup. Then I ran down to where I left my rental car and followed them to St. Jude’s Hospital.

~ * ~

I was so concerned about P.J. that I forgot my own cuts and bruises. After emergency room personnel got P.J. into bed, started an IV and stabilized his condition, one of them noticed the blood all over my arms and legs. He thought I had been seriously injured too.

Rafe Sudor, the swarthy looking, young intern, pointed to the bed next to P.J. “You’d better take a seat here. Let me take a look at that arm of yours.”

“Oh, don’t worry about me. I fell into a puddle of P.J.’s blood when I, uh, I tripped over him out on the road. It’ll wash off.”

“If you’re sure that’s all it is, you can wash up in the bathroom just around the corner.”

I wondered what he was thinking when I saw that mischievous twinkle in his eye. I found out as I rounded the corner heading for the bathroom, when I overheard him talking to Dr. Leland, the resident on duty. So I was eavesdropping. You can’t blame a girl for that.

“Damn the luck. I sure would like to show her my bedside manner, if you know what I mean.”

“Down boy,” Dr. Leland said. “If I were you, Rafe, I’d get in there and check on our patient. You know, the one hooked up to the IV. I’m sure he’ll appreciate your exceptional bedside manner. Check his vitals.”

I chuckled to myself the whole time I was in the bathroom. It might be fun to check out his “bedside manner.”

Nick was pacing back and forth in the waiting room when I came out of the bathroom. His disheveled, dishwater blond hair and his five o’clock shadow seemed somehow inconsistent with the way he was dressed. Other than the dried blood on his khaki Dockers and hunter green polo, he was impeccably dressed. His loafers were dusty from the ditch but very stylish. He stopped pacing long enough to get a good look at me, sizing me up, I suppose. His green eyes snapped and narrowed as he spoke.

“Somebody is going to pay for this. What were you doing out there? Tell me what happened.”

“I was jogging. Getting some exercise out near the mine late this afternoon. A couple guys came out of the mine and followed me down the road. I thought that was weird, ya know. I got nervous and hid out behind a little hill until they went back to the mine.”

I rubbed my thighs and pointed to the scratches and scrapes on my legs. “Got a little skinned up when I dove behind the hill. Looks like I’ll have some dandy bruises too. Chicken that I am, I waited until it started to get dark before heading back toward town, crouching low in the ditch so those guys wouldn’t see me if they were still around.” I rolled my eyes at the thought of how ridiculous I sounded. “That’s when I tripped over your uncle.”

Just then Dr. Leland came out to talk to Nick. “Your uncle seems to be resting comfortably right now. His vital signs are stable. He’s going to be okay, but he lost some blood and he’s got quite a gash in his head. We’d like to keep him in the hospital overnight just to keep an eye on him.”

“Okay, doc, you’re the boss. He won’t be happy about that, but you know best.”

“We’re not that busy in the ER tonight. Think we’ll keep him here for a while. What happened to him?”

“Don’t know, doc. This lovely young woman...” he said, looking at me. “Hey, I don’t even know your name. She found him by the side of the road. He asked her to call me for help. That’s all we know.”

“Well, he’s resting comfortably. Why don’t you go home? We’ll call you if anything changes.”

“I’ll check with you in the morning.”