Lone eagle

This was far worse, and as soon as he'd seen her, he called the baby-sitter in New York and told her she had to get hold of Joe.

“I don't know how, Mr. Scott,” she said, bursting into tears. She'd been afraid that something awful had happened to Kate, and it had. She'd had a terrible feeling about it when she hadn't come home. But she hadn't heard the phone when it rang late that night. “Mrs. Allbright has the name of the hotel, I think, but I don't know where it is. He usually calls her. It's easier that way.”

“Do you know what city he's in?” It was a hell of a way to live, Andy thought, with a husband who was always on the road.

But he knew that Kate was willing to do anything she had to, to be married to Joe. She would have done anything and everything for him, and had.

“No, I don't,” the sitter continued to cry. “Paris, I think. I think that's what she said. He called yesterday.”

“Do you think he'll call today?”

“Maybe. He doesn't call every day. Sometimes he doesn't call for a few days.” As Andy listened, he hated him, for what he wasn't doing for Kate.

She deserved to have someone around to take care of her, not a traveling salesman running around the world, selling his airline and his planes.

Andy told the sitter what to tell Joe if he called, what condition Kate was in, and the hospital where she was. And he told her that no matter what, day or night, she was not to leave the phone. He couldn't even call Joe's office, because it was the weekend. If they didn't hear from him soon, Andy was afraid Kate would be dead by the time he called.

He couldn't have done anything for her at this point, but it would have been nice for her if he'd been there, or if someone knew where he could be found.

“Is… is the baby all right?” the sitter asked cautiously, and there was a long pause.

“I don't know.” He didn't think it was his place to tell her that it had died. He thought that Joe should know first.

And after he hung up, Andy called Kate's parents, who were frantic when they heard about the accident.

Andy told them he'd keep them aware of any further developments, and they said they'd come down from Boston as soon as they could. And then he called Julie and asked her to drive into town with the kids and pick Stevie up, but to leave the sitter in the city in case Joe called.

“How is she?” Julie asked, feeling some strange bond to Kate.

“Pretty bad,” Andy answered, and then went back to Kate's room again. He stayed until after six o'clock.