Jen's Legacy.

Monday was a replay of that previous day as far as the media were concerned, always hungry for more, but with more information about the accident becoming clear.

By Tuesday, the excitement was dying down; all of the bodies had been recovered from the accident scene and all of those who had been injured were now receiving the best medical care. Miraculously, only two further deaths in all of the seriously injured had occurred, though even those two, were two deaths too many. Had they been able get them out of that ravine sooner and into the hospital it might have been a different outcome. It was a wonder that there had not been more deaths than the twenty-seven they currently had.

The media was already drifting away or were looking at other potential stories.

There was a momentary surprise thrown into the mix for Mrs. Prescott to deal with at the end of her evening briefing. A question was asked from the front of the media scrum which had become quieter and less excited as time had gone by and the situation had been brought under control. Some reporters had even drifted away, searching for other stories. There was no one they could throw blame at for the accident, other than mother nature with that rock fall, so they began to lose interest. With them it was always a case of; find an emotional problem, find out who they could blame for it, and then start throwing mud and accusations and allegations.

“You mentioned a Dr. Healey in several of your briefings.”

They were searching for other angles.

“What can you tell us about him?”

She could deal with that.

“Dr. Royce Healey. One of the most qualified emergency surgeons in the country. We were so fortunate that he was in town, though we had not planned that he would report for work at Culver General until the end of the month.

“When he heard the sirens last Sunday morning, he knew he was needed, and he got to the hospital as quickly as he could; one of the first surgeons to get there.

“I spoke with him, face to face, just before he came to the hospital, knowing we would be thrown unexpectedly into the deep end, considering the nature of that accident. Few hospitals get hit this hard, so fast. All I can say is, thank god, he was here. He is the reason there were so few fatalities among those brought here. Fortunately, the same is true of the other hospitals who received those with lesser injuries. The on-site triage at the accident scene directed all of those injured to those hospitals best geared to their injuries. Culver general received the most serious cases. All of our hospitals and their staffs responded magnificently.”

“Where is he now? Can he speak to us? Give us more details.”

“Unfortunately, no. He’s still in surgery. He’s been on his feet for almost sixty hours now in various operating rooms with little more than a few hours of sleep and little rest or time off to eat, and he’s still working. When he manages to take a longer break, in a few hours from now, he will likely need several days to recover.”

A local reporter that Mrs. Prescott recognized then took over; Melissa, somebody or other.

“What was this story about your granddaughter going missing for a few days and then showing up in Culver a few days ago with this new Doctor… Doctor Healey?”

Where had she learned that? Mrs. Prescott now knew what a deer felt like in the headlights. She was caught at a loss for a few seconds, but the question could not be sidestepped; that would be asking for more trouble.

The Melissa woman would dig all the deeper if she felt she was being given the run-around.

“I don’t know where you heard that first part, but I think I can understand it. My granddaughter was never missing. That may have been an impression that others might have had, but my granddaughter did not go missing, despite any rumor you may have heard. Someone always knew where she was.” Disingenuous, but true and evasive.

The questioner persisted. “So you are saying she wasn’t missing? And the rumors were untrue?” She was going to persist.

What did she know?

“There may have been an impression that she was missing. She was actually on a rafting holiday for a few days and met up with Dr. Healey part way into that trip, and they walked out together.” All true.

“So, there was no accident? She was never in any real danger?”

Missing. Accident? Where the hell had this information come from?

“It depends how you define an accident.” She was being devious. “My granddaughter got wet when she fell out of a raft—an accident; a not uncommon occurrence on those trips—and she was embarrassed of course. That may have been what you heard, but Dr. Healey was already there and got her out of the river before anything more serious could have happened to her.” What she was saying was strictly, mostly true.

“They continued from there and walked out together. That was nine days ago. They arrived in Culver last Saturday evening.”

She made it sound as though their meeting had all been planned. She hoped that reporter didn’t check out where he or they had stayed when they’d got to Culver that Saturday evening, or interviewed the maids in that flop of a motel who’d cleaned out that room the following morning, or they would get an earful from them about what had gone on in that room; though for them, it had been nothing out of the usual for that particular motel.

And who would ever have signed in to a place like that using their real names? Mrs. Prescott felt that she was on safe ground and continued.

“She phoned me last Thursday evening and told me where she was, and that I could expect them to be in Culver on Saturday evening, and they were. I knew where she was.”

Claire had said a lot more than that too, during that phone call, but nothing her grandmother would choose to share with this reporter, and Claire had left her grandmother in no doubt about what they were doing with each other even during that call.

“Do you have an address for Dr. Healey so that we can follow up with him?”

On which of the rumors and embarrassment? No bloody way!

“No. We don’t give out that information, but you can always work through me, through the hospital.” Mrs. Prescott would always meet such enquiries with a brick wall of inscrutability.

She took a deep breath and decided to tell the reporter enough of a misleading snippet to send them on a different track.

“I expect you’ll find out eventually. My granddaughter and Dr. Healey are engaged. When he is able to take a break, he will be staying with my family, of course.”

She hoped she was leaving them with the impression that meeting her granddaughter in the canyon as they had that day, had been planned, and had been a way to avoid the media, which always seemed to be too interested in her family, and that he’d been staying with her family, at the time of that accident.

“They were holidaying in the canyon for a week, after she interrupted her rafting trip to join him.”

“What about the other rumors that a search was begun for her?”

Melissa was a tenacious individual.

“That was because of a misunderstanding and miscommunication from that time. It was called off almost as quickly as it began, and as soon as the situation became clear. That’s what happens when rumors and misinformation make the rounds.”

She’d had to get that dig, in.

“Is there a date set for the wedding?”

“Not yet.” She was already in too deep to let this go any further and become even more difficult.

Mrs. Prescott closed down the meeting and was glad to get out of there.

She might have expected something like that to happen

The Prescott’s were always newsworthy because of their wealth and the numerous charities, hospital and educational programs that they supported.

One of the girls on that rafting party must have said more than was wise. Never mind. The local press would be careful what they printed, and the editor would likely contact her before flying with any story he couldn't be sure about. The Prescotts owned the newspaper.