Helena can’t disappoint the red, tear filled eyes….her heart is breaking.  “I’ll get you in there.  Come with me.”

Helena takes Tina by the arm and they walk past the nurse’s station and head toward the rooms.  Three nurses step up in attempt to block their way.

“I’m Helena Peabody.  My family’s name is engraved all over this hospital.   I tried to do this nice way and that got us nowhere.  Now, I’m going to do it my way.  You will move out of our way while I go find my friend.”

They push past the 3 women as a different nurse comes around the corner.

“Tina Kennard?  Ms Porter is asking for you.”

Tina grabs Helena’s hand and pulls her with her to the room.  “Come on, we have to see Bette.”

With the news that Tina will be with Bette, Sam hurries out of the emergency room with the location of the accident.  She has to see what happened for herself.

***********************************

Tina rushes to the room and embraces Bette as she lies in the bed. 

“Oh my god, babe you’re awake.  How are you feeling?”

Helena stands over to the side and watches the scene…grateful that Bette is alert….drowsy but alert.

“I’m going to be fine, baby….it’s going to be hard to move around but the doctors tell me I’ll be fine.  I want to go home now.”

“No way, Bette Porter!  You have broken bones, sprains and you hit your head….you have to stay here so they can monitor you.  There’s no way in hell that you’re leaving this hospital!”

“Bette, do you remember anything about the accident?”

Bette looks at Helena and answers, “I was on my way home and then out of nowhere I saw lights and heard screeching tires.  The next thing I know, EMTs are cutting me out of my car and I’m in an ambulance on my way here.  Is the other driver okay?”

“Fuck the other driver, baby.  Whoever hit you just drove away!  I don’t care what happens to him.”

“Tina, I’m going to be okay…you have to calm down….the babies need you calm.”  The medicines are having an effect on Bette and she’s having trouble staying awake.

“I’m calm, babe.  Close your eyes….everything’s going to be okay.”

*****************************************

Sam walks up to the accident scene, just as Bette’s vehicle is being loaded on to the tow truck and thinks, ‘My god how did she survive this accident?’ 

She waits for the police to finish the interview with a man and woman and their ‘yipping’ dog.   She assumes they’re eyewitnesses and can hardly wait to talk to them herself.  She looks around sees the tread marks on the road.  The car could have been parked and waiting.  Tread marks don’t just appear when a car is braking….they also appear when a car engine is gunned from a parked position.

She sees the police walk away from the couple and she hurries over. 

“Excuse me.  I’m Sam Matthews…my friend was the lady in that car.”  She points to the SUV and hands them her card identifying her as a Private Investigator.  “Could I ask you just a few questions, also?”

(15 minutes later)

Sam heads back to the hospital.  She knows this wasn’t an accident.  She has a partial plate number and description of the car that the couple saw in the shadows when they left their home for their nightly walk.   And saw again 30 minutes later as they were returning home. She thanks the heavens for rental car agencies inability to not use their cars as mobile advertising. Her gut tells her Dawn Denbo is behind this.  Now she just has to go about proving it.