Daddy's Gone a Hunting

96

Hannah’s sense of uneasiness was turning into active distress. Something was terribly wrong. She knew it. Kate had been more than restless this morning. They hadn’t moved her yet into a private room. Something or someone had frightened her. I shouldn’t have left her, Hannah thought. I know I shouldn’t have left her. She was trying to get through to me.

I wonder if Dad has been over to see her yet today. She reached for her cell phone and called his apartment.

Sandra answered on the second ring. Obviously upset, she said, “Hannah, I would like to know what’s going on. Your father has been in a horrible mood since yesterday. Then not twenty minutes ago, some detective called. I answered the phone and he asked for your father. First, your father starts yelling at me for answering. Then he grabbed the phone right out of my hand. I guess the detective asked him to go down to the DA’s office or something and speak to them and then your father started yelling at him, too. He was shouting that it was all a conspiracy to keep him from getting his insurance money. Then your father yelled, ‘What do you mean that Jack Worth has been very cooperative?’ Then he hung up the phone and rushed out. He didn’t tell me where he was going. But, Hannah, he’s losing it. It’s been too much of a strain.”

“You have no idea where he went?” Hannah snapped.

“I guess maybe he went to see those detectives. He repeated the address they gave him. I offered to go with him but he practically took my head off. Then he stormed out.

“Hannah, after we got back from the hospital yesterday, your dad was very upset even though Kate was doing much better and was going to be moved to a private room soon. You would think that he would be happy that she’s going to wake up soon. Anyhow, I tried to persuade him to have Bernard drive us up for a nice lunch in one of those dear little inns near the Hudson River, you know, around West Point, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He…”

Hannah couldn’t listen anymore. She closed the phone and dropped it into her bag. She thought about the important executive meeting scheduled for four o’clock regarding the spring fashion show. She would have to miss it. She pushed back her chair, grabbed her coat off the rack in her small office, and threw it over her shoulders. She stopped momentarily at the reception desk as she rushed toward the elevator. “I have to go to the hospital. I have to be with my sister. Tell them I’m sorry. I just can’t wait any longer.”

It took ten long minutes to get a cab. “Manhattan Midtown Hospital,” she said nervously, “and please hurry.”

Alarmed, the driver looked back at her. “You’re not having a baby or something, are you, lady?” he asked.

“No. No. Of course not. My sister is a patient there.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, ma’am. I’ll do the best I can.”

Has Kate been moved yet? Hannah wondered, as twenty agonizing minutes later, she threw money into the slot between her and the driver, hurried out of the cab, and ran into the hospital. There was a line at the visitors’ desk but, apologizing to the other people who were waiting, she rushed to the front of it. “I believe my sister was being moved from intensive care to a private room today. Where is she?”

“What is her name?”

“Connelly. Kate Connelly.”

The receptionist checked the computer. “She is in room eleven-oh-six. Her father just arrived a few minutes ago. He should be with her now.”

A sense of sheer panic consumed Hannah. She turned and began to run to the elevators. Not understanding why she was so frightened, she realized that she was pleading, “Let her be all right. Please, let her be all right.”