Chapter 11 Inferno #3
April watched as he removed his electronic tablet and tapped a few buttons. From her angle, she could see he was recording Callie Haywood’s statement. From her horizontal position, Callie couldn’t see it.
She continued to writhe and tug at her bonds. “I said my name is Callie Haywood, you fool! I’m surrounded by fools. That’s why I’m trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey. I don’t have Alzheimer’s. Ask me anything, and I’ll prove it.”
“What’s twenty times twenty?” Luke demanded.
“Four hundred,” she snarled. “Now let me go!”
Gil crept up behind him, keeping out of her direct line of sight. “What’s your home address and social security number, ma’am?”
“Oh, for pity’s sake!” She rattled them off in a fit of fury.
Bear stalked around Luke and towered menacingly over her bed. “Where’s my sister buried?”
She recoiled, trying to squeeze herself into the furthest corner of the bed. “Who are you?”
“I asked you a question first,” he returned icily. “Where is Tiana Dakota buried?”
Ben’s father, whose burns were being treated in the back of a nearby ambulance, slid to the group from his perch. He waved away the protesting paramedic and staggered over to Callie Haywood’s side.
“As God is my witness, you witch!” Bear and Gil had to hold him back as he reached for her neck. “If you don’t tell me what you and my demented wife did to Tiana—” He broke into a fit of coughing and nearly bent over double to catch his breath.
The dark-haired woman standing on the other side of the Parkinson’s patient jolted as if she’d been shot. “Benjie,” she said faintly.
April’s hands flew to her heart. It’s her!
It’s really her! She didn’t know how or why.
Her brain rapidly sized up the woman, mentally taking one of Bear’s sister’s photographs and putting it through the aging process.
While her thoughts raced, her gaze fell on the woman’s bright, aqua blue sneakers.
Someone had glued or sewn tiny beads to the toes, arranging them to resemble eagles.
“Tiana!” She repeated the name a few times. “You’re Tiana Dakota, aren’t you?” To her disappointment, there was no recognition on the woman’s face. The name wasn’t familiar to her.
She scrambled to explain the miracle unfolding in front of her.
Traumatic brain injuries were serious and life-threatening.
The kind Tiana Dakota would’ve sustained thirty years ago could have easily resulted in permanent brain damage, including irreversible memory loss.
The mind was a complex organ, and amnesia was no joke.
There were so many types of it — anterograde, retrograde, transient, post-traumatic, dissociative…
The list went on and on. Each case was unique.
That Tiana could speak and walk was astonishing.
That she was alive was nothing short of a miracle.
Tiana’s gaze clung dazedly to April. “What did you call me?” She pressed her palms to her temples as if her head ached.
It was equally possible she was reliving a much older injury.
The pain of being run over by a vehicle would’ve been excruciating and terrifying.
It was possible her mind had put up a protective barrier to insulate her from the shock.
If the barrier was coming down, it could bring untold amounts of pain with it.
“Tiana,” April repeated, speaking as gently as she could while still being heard above the melee. “Tiana Dakota.” She needed her to focus on her name. On who she was. On the good.
Tiana’s face crumpled, and tears dribbled down her cheeks. “That’s a name I haven’t heard in a v-very long time.” She started to tremble and was soon shaking as badly as the captain with Parkinson’s disease.
April raced around the stretcher to grip her arms. “How about you take a seat?” She led her to an empty stretcher and helped her sit down. A paramedic materialized with a bottle of water.
“Bear?” April called for him without turning around. “You need to see this. Gil? Luke? Dr. Haywood? All of you need to see this.”
In seconds, Bear was at her side. Gil and Luke followed, holding up Benjie Haywood between them.
“Where are you going?” Callie screamed at them. “If you don’t let me go this instant, I’m going to sue the living daylights out of every one of you!”
“You can try.” Wheeler remained at her side with a pair of Lonestar Security guards to ensure no one followed her orders.
It was only a matter of time before the police sorted things out, and Callie Haywood’s bed restraints would be replaced with handcuffs.
She’d made a critical error. Thinking she was invincible, she’d overplayed her role as an Alzheimer’s patient.
When Benjie Haywood reached the stretcher where Tiana was seated, he would’ve fallen if the Heart Lake sheriff and retired sheriff hadn’t been holding him up.
“Tiana?” The color left his face, rendering it as white as the gauzy bandage circling his forehead.
“Is it really you?” His face and arms were blistered from the searing heat he’d endured while trying to save his wife, but he seemed oblivious to the pain.
“Benjie!” Tiana sighed his name in wonder. “What happened to you, sweetheart? You look…” She swayed his way, reaching for him.
Benjie reached back, and the two sheriffs obligingly led him closer to her. He slumped to his knees, and they left him there as he reached for Tiana’s hands.
She scooted off the stretcher with April’s help and dropped to her knees in front of him.
Benjie’s son called his dad’s name, lurching in his direction, but Kaya held him back. “He’s okay, Ben. He’s going to be okay.”
April nodded in approval at her, and Kaya smiled back through her tears.
“Every prayer I’ve ever prayed has been answered.” Bear’s voice was hushed with reverence as he curled an arm around April. He seemed content to watch the long-overdue reunion between Tiana and Benjie, patiently waiting his turn to be reunited with his sister.
April’s heart was too full for words. All she could do was lean into his strength. Her cheek ended up pressed against his. Her happy tears mingled with his happy tears.
Callie Haywood’s reign of terror was over, and the miracle of justice was unfolding in real time right before their eyes.