Here I Am. Send Me.--Chapter Twenty-Four

The danger ratchets up as Evelyn and Chris leave the psychiatric hospital.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Evelyn and Chris made their way through the exit procedures quickly and didn't speak to each other until they were in the car. Chris struggled into the passenger seat without assistance while Evelyn got in beside him with the keys in her hand. She didn't start the engine.

Chris spoke first. "Are you feeling something really weird here?"

"I've felt something weird from the beginning but it's reaching a crescendo. What was all that about the Bible?"

"Courtney was teaching her Daniel and Revelations. Those are both prophetic books which are referenced extensively in studies of the End Times."

Evelyn sighed. "Layman's terms, please, Padre."

"My denomination isn't big on teaching End Times but, to put it as simply as possible, as we near the end of the world as we know it, Satan is going to try to recreate what God did with Jesus. Satan will send an entity to the world that is the opposite of the Christ. That entity is commonly called the Antichrist. I'm way oversimplifying here but the Antichrist is described in both the Books of Daniel and Revelations."

Evelyn knew where this was going but played it out. "How was the Antichrist described?"

"Boastful, proud, and denying the deity of Jesus."

"All of the same accusations that Courtney made about Leyla. And if Josey was off her mental health medication, she would have been extremely prone to suggestion."

"Which means that, if she knew about Josey's medication, Courtney could have been deliberately trying to get Josey to have delusions about Leyla. But why?"

"We're not there, yet." Evelyn opined. "We have two major 'ifs' to get past first. Was Josey off her meds and did Courtney know about it?"

"How do we find that out?"

"Let's start with Cal. I saved his number on my phone. You make the call while I drive." She said, handing over the phone. The motor started easily and she pulled the car from the lot and into the local streets of Carthage before heading west on Highway 70N toward Nashville.

He tapped the screen. "Your phone's locked. Can I hold it up to your face?"

Evelyn shook her head. "Not while I'm driving. Just plug in my PIN. It's 7-8-6-4-7-8"

He was surprised at how quickly she gave him the code to her phone but punched it in without comment. Holding the side button, he held the phone up.

Evelyn spoke loudly. "Siri, call Cal Marshall."

The robotic female voice responded. "Calling Cal Marshall."

After two rings, Cal's voice came over the speaker. "Hullo?"

Evelyn expected Chris to start speaking but he held up the phone again. "Hi Cal? This is Evelyn Dunham, the social worker that met with you the other day?"

"Yeah, I remember. You made Leyla cry."

Everybody forgets that she was also a part of saving the little girl's life. "I'm sorry about that, but we're trying to help your family, including Josey, and we would like to meet with you. Is there any way that we could get together, possibly without your mother?"

He didn't question the last request. It probably wasn't rare in his life. "I'm at onsite training for my job all day today. Maybe tomorrow afternoon?"

Chris held up two fingers and mouthed after two.

"We can make it at two o'clock or after."

"Two is fine. Do you know Salvatore's Pizza on Lebanon Road?"

"I can find it. We'll meet you there at two o'clock tomorrow."

Chris ended the call and leaned back into the seat. His head was pounding again but he had another hour before he could take his next dose of pain medication. He tried to relax the pain away, taking slow breaths as the car worked its way down the two-lane highway. The topography was rolling, and they passed between rows of country houses on large lots before finding open pastureland broken up by wooded stretches.

A couple of minutes passed without either of them speaking. He lolled his head over and watched Evelyn as she focused on driving. It was odd. When he first met her, she had struck him as not unattractive but not anything approaching beautiful. Even now, she wasn't pretty in a fashion model sort of way but there was something about her that made her special.

He decided to break the silence. "Maybe we should decide where to have our first date."

She smiled. "You mean this isn't it?"

"It's a lovely country drive on a nice Spring Day. But maybe we could consider something more traditional."

She was about to speak when her eyes locked on the rearview mirror, and a look of alarm crossed her face. "What the?..."

Chris turned just in time to see the grill of a huge pickup accelerate into their rear bumper. The sudden jolt sent a spasm of pain through his ribs.

"What's happening?!" Evelyn's voice was up an octave as her eyes went back and forth between the road in front and her rearview mirror.

"That was deliberate." Chris pulled out his phone and felt his own voice creep upward. "I don't have any bars." He switched his telephone to camera mode, started making a video, and pointed it back at the truck.

The second bump was harder. There had been a low but steady stream of traffic throughout the drive but now the road was empty. Evelyn sped up to try and get some distance between them and their pursuer. It matched speed and bumped them a third time. This time, she had to fight with the steering wheel to keep the car under control. She floored it.

Her four-cylinder engine was no match for the V-8 behind, and it kept pace easily, pulling across the middle line and positioning itself next to her driver's side rear panel. She realized what was about to happen and slammed on the breaks just as Chris screamed "Hit the brakes!" The anti-lock braking system refused to lock up, and the pick-up was able to swerve over and hit the side rear of the car.

Evelyn lost control as her rear wheels skidded sideways on the pavement. She felt the weight of the car shift precariously to the right, forcing her to hold the brakes down until they completed the 180-degree spin and settled to stop facing the wrong direction.

She jerked her head around to locate the pick-up. It was slowing in the road behind them just as an oncoming tractor-trailer rig crested the rise in the distance. The pick-up hesitated before speeding away.

A few seconds ticked by.

"Are you okay?!" Chris's voice came at her high and strained.

"No. Are you?" Her breaths were coming in shallow pants.

"No. But I don't think I'm any more injured than I already was."

They both sat, each trying to regain their composure as the newly-arrived tractor-trailer pulled to a stop next to them. The driver got down and ran over. Evelyn lowered the window and the old, middle-aged man said, "Are you two okay?"

She nodded and changed her answer. "I think so."

"Stay right there. I've already called 9-1-1."

Out here, it would take forever for the Sheriff's Department to show up but Evelyn would need the accident report for her insurance company.

Chris looked intently at his phone and called out to the truck driver. "Did you happen to see the license on the pickup that hit us?"

The older man shook his head. "I looked. It didn't have a plate."

Chris held up his phone for Evelyn to see. Somehow, as the truck had passed and their car began to spin, the video caught the rear of the pickup with enough clarity to confirm that the license tag had been removed.

He leaned over and whispered. "Someone just tried to kill us."