Nightchild

Part Three--Chapter 61

The events that followed were a blur that rolled into days of pain and waiting. Heathe was the first to be taken away by ambulance then Blythe, Nate and Scott Weber. Heathe was knocking on death's door, his vital signs reduced to nothing and he suffered a multitude of complications and infections over the weeks of not knowing if he would live or die. With every improvement, there were two setbacks, giving doctors little if any hope of his recovery.

Blythe's wounds had been superficial, not deep enough to do long lasting damage, but she'd lost a lot of blood. After several stitches and a few days of monitoring, she was released from the hospital the following day. The bone in Nate's arm had been cracked when Phil stabbed him and it remained in a cast for weeks. The cuts along his brow and cheek were deep and would eventually require plastic surgery to remove the scarring but Nate would heal and be back to normal in no time, at least physically.

Scott Weber's ankle had only been sprained and the investigation showed that unable to hobble out to the clearing, he'd called the police, an ambulance and then hearing the commotion the dogs were making had gone outside. It was then he found Heathe and using his knowledge as a veterinarian, had been able to stop the flow of blood, keeping him alive until the paramedics arrived and took over. Wolf and Erine had broken through the cracked and loose windshield, followed Blythe's screams to the edge of the property and into the clearing.

The case was cut and dried, the pictures and articles of clothing all the evidence needed to close the case of Gentry Blythe MacLarren and a dozen or so unsolved murders around Texas and southwest, southcentral United States over the last decade and a half. Ironically, Rene Sanders died the same night as her murderer, never regaining consciousness, never aware that her tormentor had not gone unpunished.

Too sensational to keep the media at bay, the people involved soon found themselves celebrities of a hideous nature...celebrities of crime...victims, heros, survivors, statistics. Articles glamorized Nate, touting him a national folk hero, one going so far as to cleverly state that "Every American woman dreamed of a Nate in shining armor on a white charger" instead of the usual faceless knight.

Nathan Stevens wasn't impressed with himself or his unwarranted publicity, however, he found himself withdrawing more and more each tedious day, withdrawing from business, his music and particularly his wife. He drank and he waited, waited and drank until the doctors would finally call to tell him if his lifelong friend would live or die. No amount of urging from J.T., Eddie or even Chance to go on with his life, to use this opportunity to further his career could budge him and Nate stodgily refused to deal with anything until he knew Heathe was out of danger.

Blythe's family's attorney had managed to locate her parents and send them an emergency message and they were flown in for a mock funeral for their only son, Phillip Patrick MacLarren. Nate, who had pictured Angus as a large robust tyrant was shocked to see the beaten old man that embraced his daughter with such reserved awkwardness. Rachel MacLarren was an openly loving woman but it was evident her every thought and action in life had been to please the now frail Angus, leaving Blythe loved but somehow on the outside looking in.

There was something odd about the couple Nate couldn't quite put a finger on, in the way Angus refused to discuss Phillip, yet the eyes registered no shock, no emotion when he was brought up. Could it be that Angus's own investigation all those years ago had led to his son and he had quickly closed it, left everything that reminded him of Phillip? Is that why he'd refused to sell him the house? The way he reacted to Blythe, their resemblance, did looking at her make him see his son? To live with the knowledge that a creature from your loins, that you gave life to, could have ravaged so completely your other child, the baby you poured your very being into...Nate couldn't even imagine and could only wonder at the truth of what Angus and Rachel MacLarren did or didn't know all those years. It was out of his hands...everything was out of his hands.