Elaine Orr - Jolie Gentil 07 - Vague Images (20 page)

“I’ll put something in with the tea,” I said, and took his cup and walked into the kitchen
. I looked at the back of my food cupboard for a bottle of Amaretto I keep there for Aunt Madge, and listened to the three men.

“So, you figured if she saw you…?”  Lucas let his question hang.

“I thought it might distract her enough that Scoobie could get hold of her. I didn’t think that Numnuts here would run in after me.”

“I thought you were a younger guy, teenager or something, or I would have let you sink,” Scoobie said.

“Get smashed you mean,” George said.

Lucas spoke slowly, his voice breaking
. “So you got in those rocks to try to save Kim?”

“They were both working on it.” I called this from the kitchen as I put the alcoholic tea in the microwave.

Lucas sniffed and I heard Scoobie get up to get him a tissue.

“I, uh, may have told her something you won’t like,” Scoobie said.

He summarized the discussion on the pier, including his promise to help Kim in a year if she still wanted to kill herself.

“How could you do that?” Lucas’ voice was weak, but still angry.

Scoobie’s tone seemed meant to calm. “I’m banking on her changing her mind, with help from all of us. At the time, I thought it was the only way to keep her from jumping. She would have been killed, for sure.”

“I’m not getting in the damn water again
. Not with rocks, anyway,” George added.

Lucas looked from George to Scoobie as I walked back into the living room and handed George his tea
. “You’ve both got rocks in your head.”

George grinned and took a sip
. “God, this is awful.”

I took the mug out of his hand and poured some on his knee.

CHAPTER TWENTY

SCOOBIE AND I TALKED in low tones as we sat in my kitchen
. I didn’t think Lucas or Kim were awake at six A.M. on a Saturday, but didn’t want to test my supposition.

“You think she knew he was hurt?” I asked.

“She knew something. We looked for him for a while before we found him, but who would have told her?”

“Alicia did,” Kim said
. She was wearing one of my cotton nightgowns that’s more like a long tee-shirt, and she looked about twelve.

“How on earth would she have known we were even looking for him?” I asked.

“She has a real mom. Her mom’s friend works at the hospital and saw you guys there, and I guess she calls Alicia’s mom whenever you get hurt or something.”

Scoobie grunted in apparent appreciation and I looked at him
. “I bet it was Harriet. She knows Megan, I think.”

Scoobie stood and gestured that Kim should take his seat at the table, and reached for a pitcher on the counter to pour her a glass of orange juice
. “So how did you end up with Alicia?”

“Her mom told her about me
. I met her at that teen club. She said she wouldn’t tell anyone where I was if I kept coming out there.”

“Smart girl,” I said
. I didn’t really think that, I wanted to shake Alicia. But, I had to grudgingly admit she had probably made a good decision. I looked at Kim directly. “We don’t have any idea who called Lucas to go to the hospital. Or hurt him. Why did you think it was your fault?”

“He came here to look for me, and when he found me I ran away.”

“Right,” I said. “But you don’t know who called him yesterday, do you?”

She shook her head
. “But they knew he would come if they said they knew where I was.”

“Who are
they
?” Scoobie asked. He sounded frustrated. I knew I was.

“The people who knew my dad
. My mom said they were everywhere. Did Lucas tell you someone came to the house after the funeral?”

I nodded
. “He thought that might be why you left.”

She shrugged
. “I wanted away. Just away. The guy freaked us out, Lucas and me. But I would have left anyway.”

“And you thought the people who knew about your dad knew you were in Ocean Alley?” Scoobie asked.

“I thought they might figure it out. I kept seeing this dark green car.”

“I saw that car!”  I turned to Scoobie
. “I thought it followed me one day, but I wasn’t sure.”

“And of course it made no sense to let anyone know you thought that,” he said, irritated.

Kim gave a nervous sort of giggle. “You sound like Lucas and me.”

“I wasn’t keeping anything from you
. I decided it was just me being jumpy.”

Scoobie folded his arms across his chest
. “So you say.” 

Kim looked between us, anxiety in her eyes.

“He’s not mad…” I began.

“Just wondering if she’s going to remember to tell us the important stuff,” he said, seemingly trying for a light tone.

Kim looked from him to me and almost hung her head. “I’m sorry I worried you. I just didn’t need to…hear about meds.”  She looked at Scoobie.

“Keep your options open,” Scoobie said, and glanced at the clock shaped like an apple that hangs above my sink
. “I gotta get to the school library, and then the hospital. You are going to hang here, right?”

She nodded
. “For some reason Lucas says we’re going to a movie.”

I DECIDED NOT TO BE concerned about Kim. She and Lucas needed to figure out what to do next. It occurred to me that she might not want to go back to Georgia with him. I supposed she could stay for a short time. On the couch.

I sat in the parking lot of the dollar store and reviewed my lengthy to-do list
. With the corn toss fundraiser the next day, I was getting my familiar panic feeling. I could hear Scoobie say, “It’ll happen whether you worry about it or not, so chill.”

Easy for him to say.

I entered the store to buy some poster board and markers to make signs for the corn toss, and ran into Max. He sustained a brain injury during service in Iraq, and speaks rapidly, often repeating words.

“I haven’t seen you for a couple of weeks,” I said.

“I’ve been busy, busy. I have to rake leaves at my house.”

With the help of a friend, Max bought a tiny cottage, paid for with his military benefits
. “I drove by there a couple of weeks ago. “It looks like you painted your porch.”

“I did
. I did. Alicia’s friends helped.”

She’s a great kid
. “Are you coming to the Corn Toss tomorrow?”

He shook his head, hard
. “People will be throwing things. I don’t want to get hit in the head.”

I started to tell him it would be safe, and then decided not to
. When Max is around, we all try to pay a lot of attention to him. That’s fine, except at a busy fundraiser. “I’ll try to remember to save you some brownies.”

“You don’t have to
. Aunt Madge is.”  He smiled at me. “I liked your picture today.”

“My pic…?”  Damn!  George probably wrote an article about Lucas and Kim
. “Thanks, I’m glad you told me.”

Max walked away, humming.

I bought my supplies and then put coins in the newspaper box outside the store.

Mugging at OA Hospital

A man was knocked unconscious in a first-floor hallway at Ocean Alley Hospital at approximately five-ten PM Friday. He awoke in a utility closet and was rescued by passersby. Though not seriously injured, he did require treatment in the emergency room.

The crime does not appear to have been random. The victim received a call that a relative was at the hospital and he was greeted by a white male in an area of the hospital that is little used after five PM. Information about the relative was apparently a ruse to get the man to the hospital.

The motive for the attack is unclear. The victim did not know his assailant, who is described as white, about five-ten, with straight brown hair and tinted glasses.

The hospital CEO could not be reached for comment before press time, but Todd Everly, Director of Security, said hospital staff and local police were working closely to determine who assaulted the victim. Everly stressed that patients and visitors should “take normal precautions, but do not need to fear for their safety.”

The Ocean Alley Press is cooperating with local police in not naming the victim at this time. Additional details will be provided as they become available.

I scanned the rest of the paper and was relieved to see there was not an article about Kim’s potential suicide attempt at the pier. George had been true to his word. The piece about the so-called mugging was to be expected, but nothing in the article indicated who Lucas was or why he was in Ocean Alley.

That was one thing I didn’t need to be concerned about.

When I folded the paper I did it so that the back page was on top.  There was my photo. It was from the spring fundraiser, and my hair was purple and yellow, with purple streams down the front of my tee-shirt. It looked as if I was about to sneeze.

The caption said, “Join Harvest for All and Shop with a Cop volunteers Sunday at the community center
. These fundraisers draw a crowd, in part because of their zany themes. A participant in the spring liquid string event presents a colorful reminder.”

At least he didn’t use my name
.
I’ll get George later
.

I HAD A LONG list of people to contact about the corn toss and had gone back home to make calls. I wanted to be sure the volunteers weren’t overwhelmed and, of course, that they were doing what they had said they would do.

Aunt Madge did not need any such conversation, but I hadn’t talked to her for several days
.

Harry answered the phone
. “Did you get to that appraisal in the popsicle district yesterday?”

“I did, and I stopped by the courthouse to get enough info to get started on my write-up
. I’ll work on it for a few minutes this evening.”

Harry, polite as always, said, “You’re so busy, it can wait until Monday.”

“Thanks, but it’ll be the only sanity I have this weekend.”

“Speaking of sanity.”  Harry handed the phone to Aunt Madge.

“Hello, Jolie. Up to your eyeballs yet?”

“Way over my head
. Just wanted to see if you needed any help, or if you had everything under control, as usual.”

“Probably more than you do,” she said, dryly
. “Don’t think you’ll want to do a raffle again.”

“Why not?”

“Just mutterings about enough gambling in the casinos, that kind of thing. Silly, really. Tickets are only a dollar.”

I filed that thought away and was about to hang up when she said, “One basket is supposed to be delivered to your house later today
. From the hospital.”

“The hospital!  We’ve never been able to get them to donate anything.”

“No one said this, of course, but I think it’s for public relations purposes. That Board of Directors knows it’s made some unpopular decisions. It isn’t every day you get a senior staffer bumped off in the john.”

Too true
. I had barely hung up the phone before someone knocked at my door. Lucas and Kim were at the movies, and Scoobie was at the hospital until three, so I peered out the living room window. Jason Logan was balancing a huge basket of goodies on the porch railing.

It isn’t every day that someone who might be a murder suspect knocks on my door
. I figured if he had told Aunt Madge or someone else that he was stopping by, he wouldn’t be likely to have a weapon hidden in the basket.

I opened the front door and stepped aside to let him in, noting his expensive slacks and tan cotton sweater probably cost more than five outfits in my closet
. “It’s too bad we don’t vote on best basket. You might have a winner there.”

Logan looked quite pleased with himself as he deposited the heavily laden basket on my dinette table
. I followed him into the room, and he pointed to it. “We’ve got a mix of things to help you stay healthy—he pulled out a bottle of vitamins – things to help if you have an injury – he picked up a box of Band Aides and then an Ace bandage – and healthy snacks.” 

I nodded in appreciat
ion and looked more closely. “Do I see some M&Ms down there?”

He smiled
. “Yes, but they have almonds. Very good for you.”

I gestured to the couch
. “Do you have time to have a seat?”

“For a minute
. I’m always on a tight schedule, and no doubt you are today.”  He sat on the couch.

His remark sounded as if he meant he thought his schedule was more important than mine, but I decided not to think that way
. “It is always rewarding to see how the town helps Harvest for All. There are new donors every time we have a fundraiser.”

“Ah yes, well.”  For a brief moment I thought he was about to raise his hand to his breast coat pocket for a check, but he stopped himself and continued
. “I hope the hospital can be more active in the future. There’s been so much going on the last few months, our charitable work has been reduced.”

I waited
. Jason Logan did not come to my tiny bungalow to profess his love for the food pantry.

His posture became a bit straighter, and he said, “We all felt terrible about you finding Tanya.”

It was out of my mouth before I could stop myself. “I’m sure she felt worse.”

His eyes widened for a second, then he seemed to decide I was not trying to be funny
. “Yes, a great loss.”  He paused for maybe three seconds. “I’m told you’ve been talking some to Todd Everly, our chief of security.”

I hadn’t expected that comment
. “Yes. You can probably guess that I have a special interest in that day. He’s good about answering questions.”

“Detailed questions?”  His look was intense.

“Not really. I just feel sort of…bound to her. As if I can let go of worrying about the murder when someone is arrested.”

“We will all be relieved when her murder
er is found.”  He glanced down. Jazz had come closer, apparently to smell his shoes. I wished Pebbles would make an appearance, but knew she wouldn’t.

“I’ve heard you were good friends.”

His tone was sharp. “What do you mean?”

“George found a nice photo of the two of you at a hospital fundraiser somewhere
. You know how reporters dig into every story.”