Flight to Darkness by Gil Brewer

dream was better.
For some reason I thought of Norma, back home. She would have
fought. She would have climbed all over Redfern and spat in
Hartly’s eye.
    “ Thanks, nurse.” Redfern took my
arm and the four of us paraded up the stairs.
    Outside the door another nurse confronted us.
Slim and too quiet, she spoke in whispers. She was impressed with
her duty, probably a new nurse.
    “ I’m Sheriff Redfern.”
    “ Oh, yes,” the nurse said. “You can
go right in, but you can only stay a minute. Dr. Morton said he can
talk, but not to excite him. He’s hurt pretty bad, you
know.”
    Redfern’s gaze swiveled to me. The nurse
opened the door and we walked in.
    The dimly shaded bed light above the
white-painted hospital bed was the only light in the bare room. A
white screen on rollers was to the right of the bed. The blinds
were drawn and the man in the bed was detectable only as a hump
beneath the tautly smooth white covers.
    Bright-eyed, he watched us enter. He lay very
still. Redfern drew me over beside the bed. The man’s right arm lay
in a cast and there were bandages on his chest and shoulder. There
was tape on his jaw and dressings over his left ear.
    “ Mr. Allen,” Redfern said. “We
don’t aim to bother you. So if you’ll just say yes or no. Can you
identify this man as the man who struck you with a car early this
evening in Sordell?”
    The man’s gaze turned to me. He said
nothing.
    Then an odd feeling took hold of me. I turned
to Leda, pressed her hand, started to say something, changed my
mind. I stared hard at Gerald Allen.
    I had seen him before. I was sure of it. Red
hair. Not much of it but it was red, all right, and he was small,
too. It was noticeable even in the bed. My mind went back to the
hospital in California. Where a carrot-colored head of hair shone
in sunlight and its owner stood on the hospital steps. Yes. Allen
was the one—he had to be. But how could I prove a thing like
that—and why?
    “ How about that, Mr. Allen,”
Redfern said. “You get a look at this guy?”
    Allen shook his head slowly. “No.” He closed
his eyes. “I hurt. Leave me be.”
    I bent over the bed. “Allen,” I said. “Allen,
were you ever in California? Just lately? Were you?”
    Leda pulled at my arm. “Eric, what’s the
matter?”
    The door of the room opened. The nurse looked
in. “Your minute’s up,” she said. “I’m sorry, you’ll have to
leave.”
    Was it sudden fright, then relief, that I
noticed in Allen’s eyes?
     
     

Chapter 5
     
    “ I want to speak with my
wife—alone.”
    We were starting down the hall toward the
hospital stairs. Redfern frowned.
    “ All right,” he said. “We’ll wait
on the stairs. You been cooperative. You didn’t have to do this,
y’know.”
    I just looked at him.
    “ Why’d they want to do that?”
Hartly said.
    “ Maybe he wants to hold her hand,”
Redfern said. “Come on.” They moved down to the first landing and
stood there, talking quietly.
    “ Listen,” I said to Leda. “Did you
recognize Allen? Have you ever seen him before? Think hard,
baby.”
    She looked at me. “Eric, what’s all this
about? Are you sure you didn’t leave the cabin and go out with the
car after I went into town?”
    I felt anger and bitterness and I couldn’t
keep that out of my voice. “You know better than that. I’d tell you
if I went into town. What’s the matter with you?”
    “ Of course,” she said. She looked
at the floor, then at me. “What did you say about
Allen?”
    “ Have you seen him
before?”
    She shook her head. “No, Eric. I’ve never seen
the man.”
    I reminded her about the day at the hospital
in California.
    She recalled the men. “But I’m sure you’re
wrong, Eric. It couldn’t possibly be.”
    I groaned inside. What use was it? It was like
shouting in a tornado. I might have known she’d see no resemblance.
But it was there for me. I read it and it was there. “Listen,” I
said. “I don’t know what’s up, Leda. I