Chapter Forty-Three 

Leah stood at the cabbie’s window, trying to convince him to wait for her. “Look lady. My pay is directly dependent on my fares.”

“I’m paying you five hundred dollars today. Surely that will beat what you would normally make in a couple of hours.” He shrugged. “You have to wait anyway for me to go upstairs for the money. Here’s my driver’s license. You hold on to it until I get back. I just need to throw some things in a bag and get some money. Five minutes tops.”

“Alright lady,” he apathetically agreed. “I’ll wait.”

Running into her bedroom, Leah picked up the duffle she had used for the fishing trip still on her bedroom floor. She threw in a couple of changes of cloths, a pair of tennis shoes, her toiletries, several sets of keys, her checkbook, her address book, and the contents of her safe into the bag, and then ran back down to the cab. “Alright, can you take me to the Jeep dealership off 101?”

When the cab pulled into the parking lot at the dealership, Leah had already taken the money she had promised him out of her duffle. “This is probably more than you get paid in a day,” she said, handing over the cash. “And it’s enough for you to forget you ever saw me.”

“Are you in some kind of trouble, lady?” asked the cabbie with a concerned look.

Looking away, she said, “No. I’m leaving, and there are some people…” She had to fight for control. “There are some people who won’t want to see me go.” She gave him a smile before she exited the car. “Thank you.”

Walking into the showroom she looked around for the salesman who had helped her before, and then went to the receptionist. “Excuse me, but I’m looking for Daniel.”

“I’ll page him for you.”

In a few minutes, the salesman appeared. “Daniel, did you go ahead and run my credit? I’d like to buy the Jeep I looked at if it’s still here.”

“It’s still here,” he said, guiding her to his office, “and your credit is stellar.”

“Good, because I need to rush this. I need to leave in no more than twenty minutes.”

“It’ll take that long to complete the loan papers.”

“Then I’ll write you a check. You can call my bank to verify it’s good. And I don’t have time to dicker with the price. We agreed on a price Saturday, and that’s all I’m going to pay,” she said, handing him a check for the amount Trapper had negotiated. In the next twenty minutes, she signed the paperwork, changed her clothes in the ladies room and left in her new Jeep.

***

Trapper was the last to get back to his office. When he stepped in, he knew by the look on everyone else’s face that they had not found her. He shook his head.

“Her car is still in the parking lot. She can’t go far,” said Gonzo.

“She can rent a car,” said Trapper, sitting behind his desk. “We need to make a list of the places she might go. There’s her apartment. Maybe the blues club on Taylor and Powell at the wharf.”

“Her house in LA,” said Mark. “I don’t think she’d go there, but we should check. She has a house near South Lake Tahoe somewhere on Fallen Leaf Lake, but I don’t know the address.”

“We don’t have much to go on,” said Ernie. “I’ll go call the rental car companies and see if I can get any information.”

Mark headed for the door with her. “I’ll go by her apartment and the club on Powell.”

Sitting on the corner of the desk, Gonzo watched for a moment as Trapper’s eyes searched the air, trying to figure out where else she might have gone. “Trapper, why don’t we call the police? They can put out an APB.”

“What would we tell them? She left work unexpectedly?”

“No. We’ll tell them she’s a heart patient, and we’re concerned about her health. It’s not a lie.”

“Alright. Call the police. I’ll call the children’s hospital.”

As the day dragged on, Trapper stayed at his desk, waiting for return calls. He’d called the children’s hospital, but she hadn’t been seen there. He thought about calling the airport, but he had no idea where she would have gone, and that made finding a possible flight impossible.

Ernie struck out with the rental car companies, and Mark’s news was no better. “You know, Dr. McIntyre, we wouldn’t be looking for her if you hadn’t dragged her into that room,” Mark said heatedly. “You knew that would upset her.”

Trapper had been sitting back in his chair chewing on the arm of his glasses trying to think. He glanced over at Mark. After a deep breath, he responded soberly, “I’ve already taken responsibility for this mess. But I’m not going to apologize for taking her to see the child who might have died if everyone had stuck to the rules. When you’re in a business that deals with life and death, the rules can’t be that unbending. I knew it would upset her. She should have been upset. Besides that, I was trying to save your job.” He took another deep breath. “I never imagined she’d run away.”

The next day, Arnold came to Trapper’s office. “I have some news about Ms. Haverty.” Trapper immediately closed the chart he was viewing, needing to hear something…anything about her. “She’s resigned her position with her company, claiming full responsibility, and it appears she’s absolved Mark of any wrongdoing. She didn’t go through with his termination. In fact, she recommended him to take her place here.”

“Didn’t they try to talk her out of resigning?” asked Trapper anxiously.

“They didn’t have the chance. She left a message late last night when she knew there’d be no one there to answer the phone. They don’t want her to leave. They asked us to call them if we heard from her and said they’d do the same.”

Trapper nodded defeatedly. “The police put out an APB, but without knowing where she went and how she went, they weren’t hopeful she’d be found. They also asked the LAPD and the Eldorado County Sheriff to do the same. One of the deputies in South Lake Tahoe knew which house on Fallen Leaf Lake was hers. He reported back that it didn’t look like the house had been lived in for years.”

Leaning over on the desk, Arnold saw the worry on Trapper’s face. “Why don’t you go home? Gates can cover for you here. If we need you, we’ll call.”

“Thanks, Arnold, but no. If she calls, she’ll call here.”

Late that afternoon, Gonzo and Trapper saw someone at her car as they were heading out to the Titanic. “Don’t look now, Trapper, but someone’s trying to get into Leah’s car,” said Gonzo, stopping to watch.

Changing direction, they both went over to the car. “You mind telling me what you’re doing?” asked Trapper a bit brusquely.

“Not that it’s any of your business, pal, but I’ve come to pick up my car.”

“Your car? I don’t think so. This car belongs to a friend of ours.”

“Well, mister, it just so happens that a friend of mine sold me this car yesterday.”

Trapper looked sideways at the man. “What’s your friend’s name?”

“Leah Lewis. I’m her mechanic.”

“You saw her yesterday?” The man nodded. “When…what time?”

“I don’t know. Before lunch sometime.”

“Look, we haven’t been able to find her since she left the hospital yesterday morning, and we’re concerned about her. Did she say anything about where she was going?”

“Not a word. But she was driving a new Jeep, so I figure she might be heading up to the mountains. She always talked about the trips she and her husband used to make up to Lake Tahoe. They used to camp a lot, too, so I figure that’s why she bought a Jeep. Now, if you don’t mind, I gotta get back to work.”

They stood and watched the man drive the car out of the parking lot. “Camping,” said Gonzo, thinking out loud. “We should call the State and National Park Service and let them know to watch out for her.” Nodding, Trapper turned toward his car. “Hey, where are you going?”

“To a car dealership.”

Trapper returned from the car dealership with only a little information about the Jeep which he shared with all the law enforcement agencies and the park service, but it didn’t make much difference. No one could find her, and after the morning she left, no one had seen her. Three more days had passed, and it was becoming more and more likely no one would find her until she wanted to be found.

Trapper was at the hospital every day, performing all the necessary functions of a Chief of Surgery, but he retreated to his office and stayed, waiting for his phone to ring. Today, Ernie and Gonzo brought in sushi for lunch and joined him.

“How long are you going to wait?” asked Ernie. “At some point, you need to get on with it.”

Looking over the sushi on his plate, Trapper pushed his glasses up on his head, and smiled. “Are any of our patients going without the appropriate medical care?”

“Medical care, no. Care in general, yes. You.”

Gonzo took another piece of sushi off the tray they’d brought in. “Ernie’s right. You have to stop waiting for this phone to ring. It Leah wants to talk to you, she’ll find you.”

When the phone rang, they all stopped in the midst of biting or chewing or drinking and watched the light blink on the phone. It rang four times before Trapper finally answered it, and when he did, there was nothing on the other end but silence. Sitting on the edge of the sofa, Ernie and Gonzo mouthed, “Is it Leah?”

Even though nothing had been said, Trapper nodded and waited until the person on the other end hung up.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” asked Ernie with angst and annoyance in her voice.

Trapper smiled. “She’ll call back once she’s collected herself.”

“How do you know it was her and not just a wrong number?” asked Gonzo.

“It felt like her.”

The phone rang again, Trapper picking it up after the first ring. “McIntyre.” Again, there was silence. “Tell me where you are,” said Trapper quietly. “I’ll come to you.”

Her voice was almost a whisper. “Why would you want to? You must think I’m some kind of monster.”

He answered so that his smile could be heard in his voice. “I don’t think you’re a monster. If you were, Maria Sanchez wouldn’t have affected you the way she did. What I do think is that we need to find a balance between how you’ve defined your job and the reality of working in a hospital.”

“I don’t have to do that. I quit,” she said sadly. “That job is the way it is. It’s not changing.” Trapper swore he heard a small whimper. “I’m the one who’s changed.”

“You didn’t change. You just found what you’d lost. Your company doesn’t want you to quit, and neither do I.” All he heard was a sniffle. Leaning back, he tucked the receiver between his shoulder and ear, his voice deep and husky. “Where are you?” Gonzo and Ernie looked at each other hopefully when Trapper quickly sat up and wrote something down. “Where is this?”

“It’s in Glenbrook on the east side of Lake Tahoe.”

“I’m on my way. It’ll take about five hours. Wait for me…Leah?”

There was a long pause before she answered, “I’ll be here.”