Dreams~Shadows of the Night (32 page)

His breath stopped in his throat when he saw a car resting upside down at the foot of the mountain. He quickly dug in his pocket for his cell phone while he scanned the area, and almost dropped it when he spotted a woman wrapped around a bush.

“Jesus God Almighty,” he hissed through his teeth and immediately punched in 911. As soon as he reported the details he began to ease his way over the side.

>>>>dreams<<<<

Ryan stepped out of Catherine’s hospital room and motioned to a hovering Priscilla.

“You can go in now, but try not to tire her out. She needs to rest. I’ve given her a light sedative, so don’t be alarmed if she drifts off on you.”

“Thank you, Ryan,” she said choking back a sob.

He squeezed her shoulder.

“She’s going to be fine, Priscilla.”

“I was so scared when I couldn’t find her.”

“We all were.”

“Oh dear, I forgot to call Josh. He’ll be half out of his mind by now.”

“I’ll take care of it. You go to Catherine.”

She nodded and hurried away. He waited until she’d disappeared into the room before turning to walk swiftly down the hall and out an exit that led to an adjacent building where he kept his office. He went in through the backdoor, picked up the phone on his desk, and punched in Josh’s cell phone number.

“Josh? It’s Ryan. Are you someplace you can talk in private?”

“Yes, but I was just about to head out the door for the airport. Do you have any news on Catherine?” he asked, his voice strained with
anxiety.

“She was found this morning. She’s going to be all right,” Ryan hurried to clarify. “In fact, she’s in remarkably good condition considering she spent the night outside clinging to a bush on the side of a mountain in a pouring rain.”

“What! Are you kidding me?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“What the hell was she doing outside in weather like that?”

Ryan pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.

“I hope you’re sitting down because if you’re not you might want to be.”

Josh sank onto a nearby chair.

“Okay, I’m sitting. What’s going on, Ryan?”

“Someone called Catherine on her cell phone when she left work yesterday and told her Priscilla was at their house carrying on hysterically about losing a baby. Of course Catherine immediately thought something had happened to her nephew. The person claimed to have found her number in Priscilla’s purse and gave Catherine directions to their supposedly house.”

“What do you mean, ‘supposedly’?”

“They had her drive into the hills where it’s totally uninhabited. She’d never been there and didn’t know this. Once she arrived, they tried to run over her with their car.”

Josh shot out of his chair.

“Why in God’s name would anyone want to do such a thing? Did they catch whoever was responsible?”

“You could say that. Apparently they miscalculated the distance to the edge and ended up going over the rim themselves. Catherine, seeing the car coming at her was forced to climb over the side. Thankfully she was able to get out of the way and hold onto a bush when the car went literally flying by her, but then she couldn’t climb back up.”

“Jesus! Someone tried to kill her? Do you know who the maniac is?”

“Yes. Listen, this is going to be very difficult.”

“It’s obvious there’s something you don’t want to tell me? You weren’t lying about Catherine being all right, were you?” he asked
uneasily.

“She’s suffering from hypothermia and shock as you might imagine, but she’ll recover. She’s here in the hospital resting right now.”

“What, then? Come on Ryan, you’re starting to spook me here, man.”

“Josh, the person who tried to run Catherine down was
your mother.”

Chapter Twenty-nine

The sound of Josh sucking in his breath came clearly through the phone.

“What! No!” he cried out in horror. “There has to be some mistake. I know she didn’t care for Catherine, but my God, my mother wouldn’t have done something so terrible.”

“There’s no mistake. Her purse with a photo ID was in the car with her.”

Josh sat back down.

“She’s dead, isn’t she?” he asked after a moment
’s hesitation
.

“Yes. I’m sorry, Josh.”

“Does my dad know?”

“No. I asked the police to wait until I called you. I thought it would help if you could make arrangements to have some family there when they contact him.” He gave Josh a name and telephone number to call.

“My poor dad. He thinks she went down south to attend another one of those flower shows she likes.”

He paused.

“He knew Mom had a problem when it came to accepting Catherine, but like me, I know he’d never think she would have gone this far.”

“It’s difficult to admit someone you love is flawed. He may have hoped she would change if he gave her enough time. Something or someone may have set her off.”

“Set her off? Oh Jesus. I did. This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have upset her with my ultimatum about kicking
her
out of my life
completely
if she didn’t start being nicer to Catherine.”

“You can’t blame yourself for this. You’re not solely responsible for your mother’s actions. Anyone who would allow their hatred of another person to cause them to go to such extremes obviously was suffering from a deep rooted problem and needed counseling.”

“So you’re saying my mother was a nutcase?”

“Well, that’s not exactly the medical term I’d use,” he said trying to ease into his explanation. “I’d never met your mother, but I know from the things Catherine said she loved you very much to the point of being overly possessive. Sometimes when that happens people feel threatened by having to share that love.”

“When you put it like that it does make her sound sick in the head.”

“In her own way she was,” he said gently. “Try not to hate her too much. She obviously believed it was in your best interests to have you break if off with Catherine.”

“She told me as much, and that’s when I tried to set her straight. You know my-way-or-the-highway kind of thing. I never thought she would crack up like this, but now that I remember how she looked when she talked about Catherine, I should have realized something was very wrong. My mother used her love as a shield to protect me and at the same time as a weapon to destroy Catherine.” He exhaled a noisy breath. “It must have been like walking through a minefield for Catherine trying to deal with my mother. She’d have been a lot better off falling in love with you.”

“I was never in the driver’s seat on that. Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Take care of Catherine for me until I can get to her, will you? That is if she still wants to be with me after what my mother tried to do. After all, how many times can a person be expected to let bygones be bygones?”

“When you love someone? As many times as it takes, I would think.”

“I may have used up my quota. Thanks for taking the time to call me personally.”

“I just want to say one more thing before I hang up, Josh. Don’t underestimate Catherine’s capacity to
forgive.”

“I’ll try not to, but if I was in her shoes and after all the things she’s gone through with the Dallas family, I’d personally be inclined to say good riddance to the lot of us.”

>>>>dreams<<<<

Catherine’s eyes fluttered open. She swallowed, inhaled a shallow breath, and caught familiar odors that drifted around the room
–
hospital smells. Either she was hallucinating or she was finally out of the rain that had been her constant companion for hours. She closed her eyes for a moment and opened them again, half expecting to be back on the side of the mountain wrapped around the sturdy bush that had saved her life.

She moved her hands and almost whimpered in relief when she felt the firmness of a mattress beneath her fingers and the pillow
under
neath her head. Although a blanket covered her, she still felt cold with a chilling iciness that had settled deep into her bones. She remembered how numb her body felt and how she’d fought to keep her mind clear. But by the time the man had found her she’d been so exhausted she could barely form a coherent sentence.

Shock. There had been remnants of it despite her efforts to fight that, too. She couldn’t stop thinking about how she’d scrambled over the edge of the mountain seconds before the car had followed her. She’d heard screaming
–
a terrifying sound that even now shuddered through her head. The horrible noise of scraping metal and human pain had echoed until she wanted to put her hands over her ears and block it out.

Filled with dread, her own sobs had burst from her throat when she realized she might very well join her tormentor if she continued to keep slipping.
Then
she’d crashed into the bush that became her
salvation. She’d clung to the prickly branches and remained anchored there at the mercy of her own fear and the all enveloping darkness. By the time dawn’s first light touched the mountainside, she’d been too numb to move.

She shifted slightly now, only to regret the movement when her aching muscles protested. Whatever she’d been given for pain had obviously worn off. Not wanting to subject herself to more drugs, she gritted her teeth against the discomfort.

A nurse came in seconds later. Catherine recognized her and tried to smile. It came out more like a grimace.

“Hello Susan.”

“Hello yourself; and by the look of you, you need something a little stronger to help with the pain.”

Catherine started to shake her head, but stopped herself fearing the discomfort it would probably cause.

“No, I’d rather not. I don’t take well to drugs.”

But Susan was already adding a drug into the IV hanging by the bed. She patted Catherine’s hand and smiled.

“Stop trying to live up to the rumors that medical people make the worst patients and take your medicine like a good girl.”

Catherine watched her leave and within seconds the drug had already begun to make her drowsy. Giving into the inevitable, she closed her eyes. The nightmare began almost immediately. She instinctively tried to fight her way out of it, but the drug was too powerful and kept her lock
ed
helplessly in its grip, trapping her in the unwanted dream.

Ivy stood there by the bed looking down at her
.
Catherine barely recognized the broken and bruised body, smeared with blood and grime, but the evil smile was all too familiar.

“I almost had you, you know.”
The voice came out as a blast of icy air.

Catherine pulled the sheet up in feeble attempt to shield herself.

“But you didn’t.”

The apparition raised bony shoulders in a shrug.

“This time.”

“There isn’t going to be another time. You’re dead. You can’t hurt me anymore.”

“Don’t be too sure. You’re here in the hospital, aren’t you?”

“It’s only temporary. I’ll be going home soon.”

“It doesn’t matter where you are because I live inside your head now.”

“No you can’t. I won’t let you.”
Sweat popped out dotting her brow and glossing a thin coat over the rest of her body. “Go away; just go away and leave me alone.”

“Never. You’re mine,” Ivy said
,
and filled the room with her deadly laughter.

Catherine’s head tossed back and forth on the pillow. The sensation that cold fingers were closing around her
throat made her gasp and claw
at her neck. She continued to fight for breath until her screams brought Susan running back into the room.

>>>>dreams<<<<

The next time she awoke, Ryan was standing by her bed looking at her with a frown marring his smooth features.

“Catherine? Come now,” he said in a gentle voice. “What’s all this screaming about?”

She gulped back a sob and made a grab for his hand, needing to feel a warm flesh and blood human being.

“She was here. She came back. Don’t let her get me!”

His frown deepened.

“Who was here?”

“Ivy. She . . . I couldn’t breathe. Oh God, Ryan, she was choking me.”

He squeezed her hand.

“You just had a bad dream. You’re safe now.”

Tears streamed down her pale cheeks.

“You don’t understand; she’s in here,” she whimpered and pointed to her head.

“Ivy can’t stay inside your head unless you allow it. She’s dead.”

“I don’t think I can stop her. I didn’t want her here, but she came anyway.”