Angels in Disguise (11 page)

"Mom brings her if she needs to come."

Hawkman stepped into the kitchen. “Why don't you check and see if there are any messages on the answering machine."

Paul went into the den and punched the button. Jessica's voice echoed through the room three times with the same message. “This is Jessica, please give me a call."

Hawkman stood at the doorway. “Who's that?"

Paul shrugged. “I don't know."

He didn't want to tell Paul about the pending divorce just yet, so he left it alone. “I'll need you with me while I go through Carlotta's things."

Paul followed him into the bedroom and sat on the overstuffed chair by the vanity. “This room gives me the creeps."

Hawkman shot him a look. “Why? You used to share it with your wife."

"I guess that's the reason. There's no telling how many other men have slept in the bed besides me."

Going into the bathroom, Hawkman opened the medicine cabinet. Immediately, he discovered the prescription for the pain pills, along with Valium and a couple of others for anxiety, also a container of birth control pills nestled among the rest. Odd, he thought, why didn't she take those? He assembled the drugs on the back of the toilet, then checked the physician's name and discovered each one had been prescribed by a different doctor. He poked his head around the door. “Paul, did your family belong to an HMO?"

"No, Carlotta didn't like them. So we had our own doctors and just paid through the nose."

Hawkman gathered up the medicine bottles, and dumped them onto the bed. “Mind if I take these with me?"

Paul reached over and fingered the array of pill containers. “My Lord, looks like she was teetering on the edge."

"Appears so.” Hawkman then approached the dresser and methodically went through every drawer. It took him over an hour to thoroughly search the room which revealed nothing more of importance. He moved into the den and pointed at the large oak desk. “Did Carlotta use this?"

"Yes, one of her favorite pieces of furniture.” Paul flopped down on the small couch. “Looking for anything in particular?"

Hawkman sat down in the chair and opened one of the drawers. “Clues about people your wife knew. Someone she might have had contact with the week before she disappeared or even earlier.” He turned in the chair and faced Paul. “I need to question Tiffany again. I know you might not want me to right now, but the child may be the only one who can help. It might even be good for her to talk to someone outside the family."

Paul squirmed. “I hate to see her upset."

"I'll try to keep it on a light key."

"If you feel it's important. You've got to do what you deem necessary to get to the bottom of this.” Paul slapped his hand against the arm rest. “Damn Carlotta. She's really upset us all by pulling this stunt.” He got up and paced the room. “Why'd she up and leave without telling anyone?"

Hawkman thumbed through some papers. “Did you two have an argument before she disappeared?"

He lifted his arms, dropped them to his side and exhaled loudly. “We disagreed about stuff all the time. I'd gotten to the point I hated to come over here, because anything would set her off."

"For instance?"

"She blamed me for the toilet running over, a drippy faucet, the garbage disposal going out and any other broken appliance. I told her to hire a handyman and get the stuff repaired. She not only wanted me to fix it, but to do the calling. I kept telling her I didn't have time. And if those items didn't get my dander up, she'd start on something about Tiffany."

While Paul talked, Hawkman continued going through the desk and found a small diary. He flipped through the pages and raised a brow as he noticed scheduled appointments and notes. “I'd like to take this with me,too."

Paul squinted at the book Hawkman held up. “What is it?"

"A calendar of sorts."

"Sure, take it."

"I'll return all these things when I'm through."

"I'm not worried."

"Sorry about keeping you so long. I'm almost done."

Paul stared out the window. “I really liked this area. I miss it a lot. Maybe I'll be able to move back soon."

Hawkman glanced at him, wondering what he meant. He soon closed the desk, and moved into the kitchen where he checked the cabinets for anything suspicious and then the drawers under the phone for any sort of scribbled notes. Not finding any, he finally turned to Paul. “Okay, I think that's about it."

Finding a small plastic sack in the pantry, Hawkman slipped the prescribed drugs and small book inside. “I'll see what I can find out from these items. It may give me a clue or two about Carlotta's disappearance."

Paul silently walked out the front door.

Hawkman returned home to find Jennifer asleep on the couch. She held the television control in her hand, with the sound on mute. This worried him. She never took naps. This ailment appeared to be sapping every ounce of her energy. He hoped those doctors found something soon. Maybe the next two days of tests would end this mystery.

He went back to his computer room and closed the door so as not to disturb her. He placed the items from Carlotta's house on his desk and turned on the light. The booklet interested him the most. The prescriptions could wait. He'd have to contact each doctor, and he hadn't decided if it would be worth the effort. It seemed pretty apparent Carlotta had a drug problem. It might have started with pain pills, but had escalated out of hand.

He opened the small book. Working backwards on the calendar, he noted several entries where Carlotta commented on how disgusted she'd gotten with Paul. Several memos caught his attention; ‘Paul doesn't trust me.’ Others mentioned ‘the flower called’ or ‘lunch with the flower'. “Did she mean Tulip?” he mumbled aloud. He pulled a yellow legal pad toward him and made some notes. Maybe Paul would know if she referred to Tulip as ‘the flower'? He also wanted to mention her to Tiffany.

Delia didn't act like she knew Tulip real well when she mentioned the two women at the house. Which seemed natural enough. Even though they'd all went to high school together, Delia having no daughters might not have close contact with many of the girls unless Paul brought them home or introduced them to the family at a function.

Engrossed in his note taking, he didn't hear his office door open. But he definitely felt the soft arms wrapping around his neck.

Hawkman swiveled his chair around and pulled Jennifer into his lap. “Hi, sweetheart, how are you doing?"

"I feel all tuckered out."

"I'll sure be glad when tomorrow and Friday get here. Maybe we'll get some answers as to what's going on with you."

"Hope so, I'm beginning to think this is all in my head."

He gave her a squeeze. “You're not the type to imagine stuff to make you sick. By the way, what time's your appointment?"

"We have to be there by nine thirty."

"Good, glad it's early. I know we won't know anything until next week, but at least we're on the way of finding out something."

She picked up the book. “What's this? Looks like a diary."

"I guess that's the proper name for it, but it appears Carlotta used it like a calendar where she made appointments and wrote comments. I've found some interesting tidbits in it so far. Haven't gone through the whole thing yet."

"Like what?"

He opened to one of the pages where he'd placed a marker and pointed. “Like right here, she refers to a person quite often as ‘the flower'. I'm wondering if this isn't Tulip?"

"Sounds logical."

"If so, it's odd because I got the impression from Ms. Withers, she and Carlotta weren't close buddies."

"Depends on how you classify close.” She placed a finger on the entry. “The reference here could be no more than setting up lunch dates or canceling them. You really can't judge whether they were close from this, unless you heard their conversations."

He turned to another area. “Here she makes some very derogatory remarks about Paul. They definitely weren't getting along."

"If she kicked him out, I'd say it's pretty obvious."

"Of course, they had the child to consider, but you'd have thought with him not around Carlottas’ emotions would have simmered down."

Jennifer read through some of the passages. “It appears she expects him to keep everything up and running. Here she mentions the drippy faucet and he told her to get a handyman. From what she wrote, it sounds like she met his response with a furious retort, instead of any sense of responsibility."

"Paul told me about some of her requests while I searched the house. He said she demanded a lot. He told her he didn't have time to do the repairs and even offered to pay for the handyman. She didn't want to search for one, but wanted him to do the dirty work. I get the feeling Carlotta expects a lot out of people."

"Certainly sounds like it. But she doesn't want to give anything in return. I wonder if she treats her little girl the same way?” Jennifer scooted out of his lap. “I'm hungry. Want me to fix you a sandwich, too?"

"You feel like it?"

"Yes. I've got to do something or go out of my mind."

He smiled and gave her a pat on the butt. “I'll be there in a few minutes."

The next morning, they arrived at the urologist's office. After Jennifer registered, they took a seat. When the nurse called to take her into the area where the doctor would perform the cystoscopy, Hawkman stood.

Jennifer placed a hand on his arm. “No, you can't go in there with me. Wait out here, I'm sure it won't take long."

He didn't like the idea of his wife on a table with instruments going inside her body without him there to hold her hand. The minute she disappeared down the short hallway, he started pacing. He took a toothpick from his pocket and chewed it until it became soft. Taking a vacant chair, he picked up a magazine and thumbed through it without even noticing the pictures. He kept eyeing the passageway where Jennifer disappeared. The minutes dragged, and even though less than an hour had gone by, he swore a half a day had passed before she finally appeared in the corridor. He jumped up and met her before she made it into the waiting room. “Are you okay? You look like nothing happened?"

She laughed. “I'm fine. It didn't hurt and I watched on a monitor as he took a tiny telescope and examined my bladder.” She tossed her head back in an arrogant manner. “I'll have you know I have a very nice, clean looking organ there. Everything appeared in excellent condition."

He patted her shoulder and grinned. “That's good news."

"However, the doctor said there's something going on. The pyelogram showed my right kidney is slightly swollen. He'll know more after he examines the CAT scan results."

Hawkman scowled. “I don't like the sound of that."

Jennifer looped an arm around his. “Honey, let's just take a step at a time. I'm trying not to worry, because stress isn't good."

He grasped her hand. “You're right. Let's go for lunch."

She smiled up at him. “Great idea."

The next morning, Hawkman woke up early, his body dripping with sweat. He'd spent a restless night fighting a nightmare about Jennifer. A huge thing resembling a bladder, with a telescope dangling from it's side, had chased him down a hillside. When he stumbled and fell, the monster flattened on top of his body and practically suffocated him from it's weight.

He climbed out of bed, slipped on his eye-patch and went to the kitchen in his underwear. The cool air in the house felt good against his damp skin. After plugging in the coffee pot, he went to the main bathroom and took a quick shower. He toweled his hair, wrapped the terry around his waist, adjusted the eye-patch, then returned to the kitchen for a mug of java. When he glanced out the window, he watched the sun's rays play across the sky and over the hills as daylight entered the new day.

He sighed, turned around and almost spilled his coffee. “Sweetheart, did I wake you?"

A smile tickled the corners of her mouth. “No, but it sure looks like your nerves are on edge."

"I did have a little trouble sleeping. I had a nightmare about a bladder monster."

She bent over in laughter. “Oh, my. That's funny. You were definitely doing a lot of tossing and turning. Did it finally get you?"

He cackled. “Almost, but I woke up before it asphyxiated me."

She glanced up at the wall clock. “Fortunately, I can have a cup of coffee. It's early enough. Can't have any food and no liquid for an hour before the test."

"So what does this one entail?"

"We'll have to kill some time while I sip the chalky fruit flavored drink. After I finish it off, I go in for the test. They have me lie on this portable contraption, then inject a dye into my arm which outlines the organs. They turn on the machine and it runs my body back and forth taking layered pictures."

"I've heard about these. Pretty complicated and intricate machine."

"Great invention though. Years ago they'd have to do exploratory surgery to see what's going on. This makes things so non-intrusive. And so much safer for the patient."

"And it doesn't hurt, right?"

"No. Except for the needle in the arm. I understand I might feel a warm sensation surge through me from the iodine, but it only lasts a few minutes.” She blew across her cup. “I've never had one before, so I'll tell you more about it later. And you really don't have to go with me. I can manage just fine. I'm sure you'll find everything rather boring and you need to work on the Carlotta case."

He snapped up his head. “Are you kidding. It can wait. They're going to put my sweetheart through a big ugly machine. There's no way I'd let you go alone."

As soon as they arrived at the hospital, the girl behind the counter gave Jennifer two cold berry flavored drinks in bigger than pint size plastic containers, and instructed her to report back to the desk after she'd downed the last drop. She and Hawkman strolled around outside as she slurped the liquid through a straw, shuttering after each swallow.

"This is horrible stuff. I can tell you right now, the flavoring doesn't help."