“Jesus Christ,” he yelled, and she heard something crash to the floor and shatter. “Can’t you just go away?”
She stared at the closed door, silently demanding it swing open, knowing that it wouldn’t. There were already too many closed doors between them, and this was just another one she couldn’t hope to break through.
The telephone rang. As she hurried to the kitchen to answer it, she thought wearily: In how many directions can I be pulled at once?
Over the phone, a familiar voice blurted out in panic: “Doc, you gotta come out here! She needs to be looked at!”
“Elwyn?” said Claire. “Is this Elwyn Clyde?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’m over at Rachel’s. She don’t wanna go to the hospital, so’s I thought I better call you.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know, exactly. But you better come here quick, ‘cause she’s bleeding all over the kitchen.'
18
Dusk had fallen when Claire arrived at Rachel Sorkin’s house. She found Elwyn Clyde standing outside on the porch, watching his dogs run around in the front yard. “Bad business,” he muttered darkly as Claire came up the steps.
“How is she?”
“Oh, she’s wicked ornery Gone and ordered me outside when all’s I’m trying to do is help, y’know. Just wanta help, but she says, ‘You go outside Elwyn, you’re smelling up my kitchen.” He looked down, his homely face drooping. “She was good to me, what with my foot and all. I was just looking to return the favor?’
“You already have,” said Claire, and patted his shoulder. It felt like a bundle of twigs through the ratty coat. “I’ll go in and have a look at her.”
Claire stepped into the kitchen. At once her gaze shot to the wall. Blood was her automatic reaction upon seeing the bright splashes. Then she saw the words, spray-painted in red across the cabinet doors:
SATAN’S WHORE
“I knew it was coming,” said Rachel softly. She was sitting at the kitchen table, clutching a plastic bag of ice to her head. Blood had dried on her cheek and matted the strands of her black hair. Broken glass littered the floor around her feet. “It was just a matter of time.”
Claire pulled up a chair next to Rachel. “Let me see your head.”
“People are so unbelievably ignorant. All it takes is one idiot to get them started, and it turns into a…“ She gave a choked laugh. “Witch hunt.”
Gently Claire lifted the ice pack from Rachel’s scalp. Though the laceration wasn’t deep, it had bled profusely and would require at least half a dozen stitches. “Is this from the flying glass?”
Rachel nodded, then winced as though that simple motion had set off new stabs of pain. “I didn’t see the rock coming. I was so angry about the paint, about the mess they’d left in here. I didn’t realize they were right outside, watching me walk into the house. I was standing there, looking at the cabinets, when the rock came through.” She gestured toward the broken window, now boarded over.
“Elwyn put up the boards.”
“How did he happen to come by?”
“Oh, that crazy Elwyn’s always tramping through my yard with those dogs of his.
He saw the broken window and came in to see if I was all right.”
“That was good of him. You could have a worse neighbor.”
Rachel answered with a grudging, “I suppose. His heart’s in the right place.”
Claire opened her medical bag and took out the suture set. She began dabbing Betadine on Rachel’s wound. “Did you lose consciousness?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You’re not sure?”
“I guess I was a little stunned. I found myself sitting on the floor, but I don’t recall how I got there.”
“You should be under observation tonight. If there’s any bleeding inside your skull-”
“I can’t go to the hospital. I don’t have insurance.”
“You can’t be home alone. I can arrange a direct admission.”
“But I don’t have the money, Dr. Elliot. I can’t pay for the hospital.”
Claire regarded her patient for a moment, wondering how hard she should push the issue. “All right. But if you stay home, someone will have to be with you tonight.”
“There’s no one.”
“A friend? A neighbor?”
“I can’t think of anyone.”
They heard a loud knock. “Hey!” yelled Elwyn through the closed door. “Can I come in and use the bathroom?”
“Are you absolutely sure about that?” Claire asked with a meaningful glance in Elwyn’s direction.
Rachel closed her eyes and sighed.
A police car had just pulled up in the darkness when Claire came back out onto Rachel’s porch. She and Elwyn watched as the officer stepped out of the cruiser and crossed the front yard toward them. He came into the light, and she recognized Mark Dolan. She was surprised to see him, because he normally worked the late night shift. She had never liked Dolan, and she wasn’t kindly disposed to him today, either, when she remembered what Mitchell Groome had told her.
“Had some trouble here?” he asked.
“Called ya over an hour ago,” Elwyn said crossly.
“Yeah, well, we’re up to our eyeballs in calls. Vandalism takes a lower priority. So what happened? Someone went and broke a window?”
“This is more than just vandalism,” said Claire. “This is a hate crime. They threw a rock in the window, and Rachel Sorkin was hit in the head. She could have been seriously hurt.”
“How is that a hate crime?”
“They attacked her for her religious beliefs.”
“What religion?”
Elwyn blurted out, “She’s a witch, you goddamn imbecile! Everyone knows that!”
Dolan’s smile was condescending. “Elwyn, that’s not very nice of you to call her that.”
“Nothing wrong with calling her a witch, if that’s what she is! If it’s okay with her, hell, it’s okay with me. I figure, better a witch than a vegetarian. I don’t hold that against her, neither?’
“I wouldn’t exactly call her beliefs a religion.”
“Don’t matter what you call it. Just ‘cause a woman wantsta believe some airy-fairy stuff don’t mean people can throw rocks at her!”
“This is a hate crime,” insisted Claire. “Don’t pass it off as simple vandalism.”
Dolan’s smile had thinned to a sneer. “This will get the attention it deserves,” he said. And he walked up the porch steps and into the house.
Claire and Elwyn stood together for a moment in silence.
“She deserves better,” he said. “She’s a good woman, and she deserves better ‘n this town has dealt her.”
Claire looked at him. “And you’re a good man, Elwyn. Thank you for staying with her tonight.”
“Yeah, well, it’s turned into somethin’ of a major operation now, hasn’t it?” he muttered as he headed down the steps. “I’ll just take these dogs on home first, seem’ as how they make her all tetchy like. Might as well get that other fool business over with, too. Since I did promise her.”
“What business?”
“Bath,” he grunted, and tramped off into the woods, the dogs trotting at his heels.
