The Other Side of Lone Mountain

Chapter Fifteen

When Paul arrived at Mandy’s, she was just coming out of the bedroom. She had on her uniform and was ready to go. “I see you’re ready!” said Paul.

“Would you like a cup of coffee before we leave?” asked Mandy.

“Sure” he replied. Neither of them mentioned last night. Mandy poured two cups of coffee and asked Paul if he’d had breakfast, to which he replied, “Yeh, while you were out jogging your mother was stuffing me with pancakes, eggs and bacon. I have to admit, it was very good. If I hang around you and your mother long enough I’ll probably end up gaining fifty or sixty pounds.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, I think” she said laughingly. Paul loved to hear her laugh. He loved the way her eyes lit up and how the gold specks sparkled like gold glitter. God, she’s beautiful, he thought to himself, as he took in a deep breath. He snapped back to the present when he heard her voice, “Well, in that case you won’t mind if I have a little breakfast before we take off?”

“No, no, you go right ahead. I’ll tell you what, while you’re eating, I’ll put in a call to the hospital.”

“Fair enough” she replied.

Paul went into the living room to place the call. The operator at the hospital connected him with a nurse’s station in the ICU. He inquired about Mark but the nurse informed him that the doctor wanted to talk to him. That worried Paul. Why would the doctor want to talk to me? After what seemed an eternity to Paul, he finally heard the doctor’s voice.
“Mr. Covington?”

“Yes” he replied.

“I’m Doctor Cabral, Mr. Scott’s physician.”

“How is Mark doing? When we left last night he was still in the emergency room.”

“Mr. Covington, have you contacted his family yet?” asked the doctor.

“Yes, I called his wife last night and she’s driving in this morning.” replied Paul.

“Is there something wrong Doctor?”

“I don’t want to alarm you, but Mr. Scott took a turn for the worst last night. I’ll explain more about it when his wife arrives. Will you be coming in to see him today as well?”

“Yes, I will. Someone from the Sheriff’s Department will also be with me. Will Mark be up to answering a few questions? We want to find out what happened on that mountain and how he landed on the ledge.”

“I don’t know how much he’s going to be able to tell you, but you can try. However, I do caution you; do not allow him to get agitated. We’ll talk more when you get here. Good bye for now.”

“Good bye Doctor.” Paul hung up the receiver, more worried than ever. What happened last night after they left? He couldn’t fathom what it could be.

He finally walked back into the kitchen where Mandy was just finishing her breakfast dishes. She looked up at Paul to see immediately that something was wrong.

“What did they say?” she asked.
“I spoke with a Doctor Cabral, Mark’s doctor. He told me that Mark took a turn for the worst last night, but he wouldn’t tell me how. He just said he would explain everything once Vickie and I get there.”

“Did he say whether or not we would be able to question him?”

“He said we could try, but he wasn’t sure how much he would be able to tell us and he asked that we not agitate him in any way.”

“In that case, let’s get going. The sooner we get there the sooner we’ll know what’s going on. Hopefully Vickie will be there by the time we arrive.”

They would stop at the Sheriff’s Office first. On the way Mandy said, “I know none of us has said a word about the shots that were taken at us last night but I know we are going to have to talk about it sooner or later. I have to report it to Jeff when we get to the office.”
“I know; I’ve been so concerned about Mark that I haven’t stopped to think about it. But now that you’ve mentioned it, I wonder who that was.”

“I’m not sure but I’ll bet it was one of Gill’s boys. Don’t ask me why I feel that way but I do. Maybe they didn’t know we had found Mark and was trying to scare us into leaving. When I shot back at them and announced who I was, maybe they felt it was too risky to stick around. If they wanted to kill one of us, I’m sure they would have succeeded.”

“Maybe you’re right but I didn’t like getting shot at. Whatever these guys are up to,
they’ll stop at nothing to keep from being found out.

They arrived at the Sheriff’s Office about ten-thirty. Jeff was in his office. He was talking to one of the other deputies. Mandy walked up to his door and knocked. Jeff looked up and saw them and motioned for them to come in. “Mornin, Mandy, Paul.”

“Good morning, Sheriff”, replied Paul.
“Mornin Jeff”, chimed Mandy.

“How’s Mark doing? Any word yet if he’s gonna make it?” asked Jeff.

“I called this morning but couldn’t get any definite information. The doctor would only say that he had taken a turn for the worse last night. He said he would tell us more later when his wife arrives. I’m due to meet her at the hospital about one o’clock this afternoon.”

“Mandy, you’re going to be there too aren’t you? We need to get a statement from him because if this wasn’t an accident as you keep insisting it wasn’t, then we need to find out who was behind it.”

“Well, Jeff, but last night with all that was going on and us trying to deal with Mark and the doctors at the hospital, I didn’t get a chance to tell you all that happened last night. It’ll all be in the report, but right after we had pulled Mark up from that ledge where he had landed, we were waiting for the chopper to get there when someone took some shots at us from behind some trees not more than 100 yards from where we were. I returned fire, but I don’t think I hit anyone. I identified myself and asked them to show themselves but they never did. After firing those few shots they took off. I’m thinking it was one of Gill’s men, but I can’t be sure. I think whoever it was; they were simply trying to scare us.

“Well now, that does put a new spin on things. If it was an accident, why would someone want to keep you from rescuing him?”

“My thoughts exactly”, said Paul.

“Well we need to get a move on because we still have a couple of stops to make before we head to the hospital. I’ll come back later and type up my report.”
“Okay, I’ll see you when you get back. While you’re gone I’ll send one of the guys up there to have a talk with Gill. See what we can turn up. I don’t expect that he’ll give up any information, but it’s worth a try.”