Top of The Edge - Robyn Hospitalized

When she entered the house through the back door and into the kitchen, Louise was shocked and gasped at what she saw. Billy was sitting on the floor holding her black iron skillet with his back against the wall. Next to him she saw Ralph sprawled out on the kitchen floor unconscious and motionless. She looked at Billy and asked, "Is he...?" Shaking his head slightly, he answered in a low raspy voice, "No, he's still alive."

"Here, let me help you back to the sofa in the living room."

"Thanks, but before that we need to secure this idiot. I have a feeling that when he comes to, he's going to be madder than ever and will probably pick up right where he left off, only worse. What do you think?"

"I think your assessment is more accurate than you even know. There's some rope in the trunk of the car."

"You don't have anything closer, here in the house? He could come-to any moment now. We need to get him tied and gagged asap."

Louise thought for a minute and replied, "I've got some clothes-line rope in my closet." Upon her return to the Kitchen Billy instructed her on the kind of knots to tie and the best way to secure Ralph with the rope. Louise also brought from her closet what appeared to be an old tee-shirt, which she tore into strips to use for the gag. Just as she was tightening the gag knot at the back of his head, Ralph began to groan. He was beginning to regain consciousness.

"Can you give a description of what the man looked like?"

"It was so dark, and he kept his head down." Cherry thought for a minute before continuing her answer. "I can tell you what he sounded like though. He sounded like some hick from the mountains of Tennessee." That answer caused Smith to pause for a few seconds and furrow his brow before he asked, "He sounded like what?"

Now it was all beginning to make sense. Maryanne had told Smith her version of the events which included Cherry and Robyn rendering aid to the spy, a fact that troubled everyone that heard it.

"He had the strongest southern country twang I think I've ever heard."

"So that's why you thought you could or should help him."

"Well, that, and the fact that he appeared to be half dead and about to drown. He claimed that he was a survivor of a merchant ship that had been torpedoed by a German U-boat several miles up the coast, and that he had been drifting at sea for days. Like a couple of idiots, we actually believed him."

Maryanne and Nadean suddenly came through the door, but before they could say or do anything, a hospital orderly approached Maryanne and said, "You can't be in here. We have a designated waiting area for colored folks." Smith immediately jumped up and shoved his FBI credentials in the man's face and said, "This is a federal matter, and she will wait here with us!"

"I don't know if I can allow..."

"I don't care what you do or don't know about what you think you can or can't allow. This is the way it is, no discussion needed. Now go on about your business... away from us."

The orderly was visibly angry and shaken as he stormed out of the room slamming the door as he left. Maryanne raised her eyebrows at Mr. Smith and then looked over at Cherry who along with Tuttle was now smiling and nodding in approval of Smith's comments to the orderly.

Nadean stepped a little closer to Smith and said, "It's a good thing you handled that. For a minute there I thought I was going to have to break two noses tonight." Smith just smiled and shook his head. He found it hard to believe that such a petite young lady had so much unction and fight about her. He was also keenly aware of the fact that if she didn't reign herself in at some point, she could find herself in some serious trouble.

Within minutes of the rude orderly incident, Robyn's parents burst through the door in a panic. Cherry went over to greet them straight away.

"Cherry, what happened?" Mrs. Kramer's voice was frantic. "You girls told us that the chances of something like this happening were slim to none!"

Keeping his voice low Mr. Kramer said in a smooth deliberate tone that could only be described as smoldering anger on the verge of explosion, "It would appear, that the slim chance won out against the odds."

Before Cherry could respond to either of them, a nurse approached the group. She looked down at the chart she was carrying and then back up... "Are any of Miss Kramer's family here?" Mrs. Kramer responded immediately. "We are her parents. Where is Robyn? Is she alright?" The nurse nodded and smiled. "Yes ma'am, she is going to be fine. She took quite a hit to her head, and she appears to have suffered a concussion as a result. We would like to keep her here another 8 to 10 hours for observation. However, she keeps insisting that she is fine and wants to leave here immediately."

"May we speak with her?" Mrs. Kramer asked.

"Yes, you may. Right this way."

As the nurse and Mr. and Mrs. Kramer exited the room, Cherry asked Mr. Tuttle, "Who notified them?

"The hospital always reaches out to family members, and frequently will only confer with them."

"Hmm, I guess that makes sense."

After about 45 minutes, Mr. and Mrs. Kramer re-emerged from the treatment area, and Robyn was right behind them... in a wheelchair being pushed by the rude orderly. Cherry thought, "There must be something really wrong with her for them to wheel her out in that thing." But her concerns were soon allayed when she took note of her parents' facial expressions. They appeared to be much calmer now and even somewhat relieved. They stopped and Mrs. Kramer, smiling now, motioned for everyone to gather around. "We're going to take her home with us and we'll keep her under our observation for a couple of days."

"A couple of days?!" Robyn spouted out incredulously.

"What's with the wheelchair?" Maryanne asked, still appearing to be more than a little concerned about the whole ordeal.

"Hospital protocol." Robyn answered shaking her head in contempt.

After a few more moments of everyone expressing well wishes, and admonishments for Robyn to get some rest, the Kramers made their way to the exit. As they were helping Robyn into the back seat of their car, Cherry said to her, "I'll call you tomorrow."

"You better."

As the Kramers' car pulled away from the hospital, Smith spoke to Cherry. "Are you okay to drive?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

"Then I want you to go home and get some rest... but first, can you make sure these two ladies get home safely as well?" He was referring to Nadean and Maryanne.

"I was already planning on it."

Ralph's eyes were wide open, and panic stricken. He was making guttural sounds from behind the gag and twisting and turning as he attempted to free himself from the bonds of the clothes-line rope. Billy and Louise were sitting at the kitchen table and looking down at him. Billy, who was seated closest to Ralph, leaned over towards him and said in a low voice. "I'll take that gag out of your mouth so we can talk... and depending on how the conversation goes, I may even untie you. But first, I need you to assure me, with a simple nod of your head, that you're going to stop all this hollering and ranting about. How about it?" After a few seconds Ralph gave Billy his nod of assurance. Billy attempted to remove the gag from Ralph's mouth, but the pain emanating from the burn across his mid-section had intensified from having swung the iron skillet hard enough to knock Ralph out. He leaned back in his chair grimacing, before asking Louise to remove it, which she did... cautiously. Ralph remained quiet as Louise slowly backed away from him to the other side of the room. Still seated adjacent to both Ralph and the kitchen table, Billy leaned down toward Ralph as he spoke. "I'm going to lay out some ground rules for you Ralph."

"Ground rules? You are going to lay out ground rules for me... in my house!" The intensity and volume of Ralph's voice crescendoed toward the end of his exclamation. Keeping his voice calm and low Billy replied, "That's right, and you just broke the first rule. Don't worry though. I won't hold you responsible... you don't know what it is yet. The first ground rule Ralph is that you need to stop doing things that might bring attention to us - you need to quiet down Ralph. The ranting and raving, slamming doors, and throwing things around - that needs to stop." Ralph said nothing as he looked back and forth between Billy and Louise.

After several seconds, Billy spoke calmly, straight forward and this time with much more emphasis. "I need an agreement Ralph... that you will comply with ground-rule number one."

"Who hit me and tied me up?"

"We don't have time for this Ralph. Let's stay on point with the ground rules. Can and will you comply with..."

Ralph interrupted, "I know it couldn't have been you. You're hurting so bad that you couldn't even take the gag out of my mouth.

"I don't think you understand. I'm holding all the cards here Ralph, and before I release you, I need you to...

Ralph cut Billy off again as he turned his focus to Louise and began to yell. "You did this to me, didn't you? As soon as I get loose from this, you're dead! You hear me, Louise? You are a dead woman! I'm going to kill you! Then he began yelling at Billy, "And you just wait till I talk to your superiors. You're dead too. I'm gonna..."

Ralph hadn't seen it before, but there was a baseball bat in the corner of the room behind where Louise was standing. She found and brought it in from the shed out back that she had just been clearing out to hide the car. She grabbed it and moved so quickly that Ralph never saw it coming. The first swing caught him right in the mouth as he was still yelling at Billy. Then for the second swing, she swung downward to the top of his head. Once again, Ralph was unconscious. Then she leaned the bat in the corner adjacent to Ralph's head and re-applied the gag. Then speaking to Billy in a maternal sort of way, "I'll help you back to the couch. You really should be lying down."