Elaine Orr - Jolie Gentil 07 - Vague Images (26 page)

“He cursed and started to get up, and I hit him hard, with my fist, on the side of his head.”  He flexed his right hand. “And then he was still and I gagged him and put him in that electrical closet.”

“Well, for sure he’d know it was you who hit him!”

I couldn’t see if he flushed, but his expression looked pained. “I had on a straight-haired wig, and a doctor’s coat, and kind of tinted glasses. I wanted to see if he recognized me like that. If he did, Lucas would recognize me the way I usually look and he’d remember he saw me…by the restroom. I needed to know.”

“Oh, that’s a great disguise,” I said
. “You really thought he wouldn’t figure it was you who hit him?  And then you left him there to die?”

His tone was defensive
. “It was good. And he wouldn’t have. I checked his vitals. Somebody would have found him pretty soon. Like you did.”

I was waking up more, and the more awake I was the more panicked I felt. 
No one knows where I am!

“Wait a minute
. Didn’t Lucas see you that day Sergeant Morehouse brought him to the hospital to walk through what he saw the day Tanya Weiss was murdered?”

“No
. When Sergeant Morehouse brought him over, I had one of my officers walk them around. But I couldn’t avoid Lucas forever. I needed to see if he recognized me from the day of Tanya’s…you know, death.”

“So what?  He didn’t see you with her or in the ladies room, did he?”

“He saw me when I walked out of the ladies room.”

“Ah.”  Now I got why Todd thought Lucas could be a threat to him
. But he should have figured out that Lucas hadn’t noticed Todd or the restroom, or whether it was for men or women.

“So you see,” Todd said, “I had to know.”

None of his thinking made sense to me, but I’m not sure the thoughts of any amateur murderer would. At least on television, there seems to be some logic to what a killer does.

Then I was so angry I couldn’t talk
. Because he killed Tanya Weiss and hurt Lucas, of course. But also because Todd was so stupid to have called Lucas from inside the hospital and near a security camera. If he hadn’t done that, he wouldn’t have felt threatened by my suggestion, and I wouldn’t be in the woods unable to get away. My anger passed, and I was exhausted. I lay back down. “You know what’s funny?”

“What?  Nothing’s funny.”

“I decided not to think about the murder any more. Lucas and Kim were okay. I didn’t…I don’t like it that anyone got killed. But it just didn’t matter so much anymore. It never occurred to me that you…”  I took a breath and stopped talking. “What did you put in that tea?  I’m getting a really bad headache.”

Todd just looked at me
. I started to laugh. Half laugh and half sob. “I guess it doesn’t matter. I can’t run away from you. And we probably aren’t where anyone can hear me if I yell.”

He stared at me
. “I have a key to the operating suites. I was an EMT with a volunteer fire department for a while.  I gave you a triple oral sedative dose in your tea, and then used the stuff docs use to put patients to sleep with. But not enough.”  He sighed. “I didn’t kill Tanya on purpose, and I didn’t intend to hurt Lucas.”  His voice became more strained. “I can’t kill you if I have to talk to you.”

I began to shake
. “I’m going to keep talking.”

He grimaced and looked away from me
. “We’re six or seven miles west of Ocean Alley. In a strip of woods that backs into the Garden State Parkway.”  He stood and seemed to almost talk to himself. “I can’t keep hurting people.” 

Todd looked at me
. “I’ll call an ambulance and walk out to the road to meet it.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

THE DOOR TO my hospital room opened and Sergeant Morehouse walked in.

I looked at him and then behind him
. “Where’s Scoobie?”

He grunted
. “They called your aunt from the ER. She and Harry were painting at his old place, and their phones were downstairs. Ramona went over there. They’re on their way.”

“Where’s Scoobie?”

“You’re a damn parrot. George made Scoobie go with him to get drunk. Dana found ‘em and told him you were going to be okay. But Scoobie didn’t think he should leave your reporter friend. He said Dana should tell you, what was it?  Oh, yeah. Yo Jolie.” 

“They don’t drink!” 

“Scoobie still doesn’t. And the way George was pukin’ outside the Sandpiper, I’m thinkin’ he’s done with it for a couple decades.”

Morehouse sat on the foot of my bed
.

“George lost his job,” I said.

“I heard. I met that girl at the fundraiser. The Lucas guy’s sister. Talked to Alicia about her. Kim’s her name, right?  She ain’t wired too well. George maybe did the right thing.”

“She’s might get medicine again
. And she won’t be around people who think suicide is…the answer.”  I looked at Morehouse. “Where’s Todd?”

“State Police were gonna take him to Trenton.”

“How come you don’t have him?”

“We aren’t in Ocean Alley, in case you don’t know
. Paramedics took you to Jersey Shore Med Center in Neptune. It was closer and you were out of it. I coulda told ‘em that was your normal.”

“My norm…  Oh
. You drove up here.”

Morehouse smiled
. “I did. Can’t have my favorite pest die when she’s out of town.”

“Gee, thanks.” 

Morehouse stood. “Madge has called me three times. She’ll be here in a few minutes.”

“It’s all just…so hard to believe.”  I could feel tears coming, and I blinked to keep them in
. “He said he did it because Tanya Weiss wanted to get rid of the security office and hire contractors.”

“People lose their jobs all the time
. They don’t kill because of it. Not good to put on a resume.”

“I liked Todd.”

“Yeah. He was crying when they got to him. Said he
liked
you. Good thing he didn’t
hate
you.”

Aunt Madge and Harry arrived not long after Morehouse left
. She stared at me for several seconds. “I’m tired of this, Jolie.”

Harry looked surprised at her tone
. “I think what Madge means is she hopes you feel better soon.”

“Darling,” she began.

I’ve never heard Aunt Madge call Harry that, and right now it didn’t sound like a term of endearment.

She turned to Harry. “When have you heard me say something I don’t mean?”

Aunt Madge can sometimes scare me with a look. Harry didn’t seem cowed, but he did let her finish chewing me out.

“It’s ridiculous,” she continued
. “Sergeant Morehouse said you had an idea about checking something on hospital cameras. Why didn’t you tell the police?”

“Because he might not have checked, and he would have told me to butt out.”

“Safer than butting in,” she said.

“I don’t like murderers going free.”

“Neither do the police.”  She glared at me and I stuck my tongue out.

“I still have that photo of you running around town in your underpants when you were four.”

My aunt, master manipulator.

THE HOSPITAL KEPT me overnight because my heart rate was so low. I was glad it wasn’t the Ocean Alley Hospital. I’m really angry at them for hiring someone like Tanya Weiss. I don’t think much of their choice of the head of their Board of Directors.  Or head of Security.

I’d finished my breakfast tray and a nurse had just taken the IV out of my arm
. Last night I was disoriented, so I hadn’t paid much attention to the room. It was painted a cheerful shade of yellow, and the morning sun hit the wall across from my bed in a pattern of stripes because the window blinds were only partially open.

Breakfast hadn’t been bad, and I was sitting up in bed finishing a cup of coffee that was pretty awful
. Aunt Madge and Harry had called an hour ago and said they’d be up at ten to get me. I told them I could take a cab. Aunt Madge said the only way she talked my parents out of coming up from Florida was to say she would take me home and then have me call them. That was much better.

There was a light knock on my door.

“Come in.”

The wood door opened with a soft whoosh
. George stood looking at me and he wore an odd expression.

I frowned and looked behind him. “I can’t look that bad
. Where’s Scoobie?”

“Anxious to see you, believe it or not
. But he said you knew he had that big test, and you’d be okay with me coming to get you.”

“Sure
. If it’s okay with Aunt Madge.“  I pointed to a plastic chair. “Morehouse told me you had a fun night.”

“Damn
. Half the town knows. And Madge said fine, as long as you don’t tell your parents she didn’t drive you home.”

“I’m not twelve.”  George gave me a half amused look, and I added, “I hope Tiffany got a picture.”

He glared at me, and then saw I was smiling. “Scoobie blocked the shot. He said I quoted some law about privacy. I don’t think I know any.”

“It’s not like you observe them,” I said
.

“Yeah
. Scoobie said something about being hoisted on my own petard.”

“I think he got that from Aunt Madge
. You okay?”

“I will be
. I’m getting pissed. I think that’s good.”  He paused. “You have any idea it was Everly?”

“Working on a story, are we?”  When I saw George’s dejected expression I grew more serious
. “Nope. If he hadn’t drugged me and driven me to the woods to bury me, I still wouldn’t believe it.”

“Scoobie’s pretty upset about it.”

“Me, too.”

Neither of us said anything, and then George’s expression grew more animated
. “I’ve got an idea.”

“About another newspaper job?”

“Nope. I don’t really want to leave Ocean Alley. Even though everyone knows as soon as I mess up.”  He leaned toward the bed. “I looked up what it takes to be a private investigator in New Jersey.”

“You mean, like a private detective?”

“Yeah. That’s actually what it’s called.”

“Why do you want to do that?

“Same skills. I already know how to investigate, especially when people don’t want me to.”

I thought for a moment
. I liked Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone books. I thought Kinsey had to train with private investigators before she got her own license. But that was California. “Are you qualified to be a detective?”

“I think I am, but the State of New Jersey probably won’t
. I have to work with an insurance or investigative firm for a year or so before I can apply.”  He grinned. “Or in law enforcement, but I doubt they’d have me.”

A bunch of thoughts were going through my mind, which was tough, because the drug Todd Everly gave me yesterday evening still made me tired
. “Wouldn’t it be dangerous?”

“Mostly not
. I might tick off a few more people than I did being a reporter, but I never mind doing that if it gets to the truth.”

“I guess if that’s what you want
. I mean, of course. You look excited. That’s great.”  I shifted in the bed. I’d had toast for breakfast and some crumbs had invaded the sheets.

“You wanna do it with me?”

For a minute I wasn’t sure what
it
was. “What…you mean be a detective?”  I laughed. “Everyone I know would disown me. Especially Scoobie.”

Yes, Scoobie
. I need to talk to Scoobie.

“I didn’t exactly run it by him,” George said
. “You’ve always been pretty good at making up your own mind.”

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

“I’m not asking you to date me. Just maybe work together.”

“It’s not something I do naturally.”

“What, make up your own mind?”

“You’re deliberately missing my point
. I only look into…stuff if it affects me. Or Scoobie, or someone else I know.”

“But especially Scoobie,” he said, quietly.

I wasn’t going to talk about Scoobie with George. It was too weird.

“I like working with Harry
. Even if I have to deal with Lester. But I can see how you would want to be an investigator, or whatever.”

“You think I’d be good at it?”

“As long as you don’t mind irritating people. And you don’t.”

BY NOON I HAD BEEN home from the hospital for about an hour. Aunt Madge had come and gone. She had brought several of her breakfast muffins and left a huge bowl of chicken salad in the fridge. I thought about how she was in her eighties and I was in my thirties and I should really be waiting on her. It’s just she never seems to need, or want, help. She’s always too busy.

I was propped on my couch and Jazz had settled onto my stomach. As far as she was concerned, the world was right
. Pebbles rustled a bit on the rug, and Jazz peered over to look at her. Apparently things with the skunk were as they should be, and Jazz stared at me some more.

“I’m not going anywhere
. Not that you really care.”

She yawned
. She didn’t care, except that she likes to sleep where it’s warm, and that means near me. After about three more seconds of looking at me, she curled into a ball.

The newspaper was on the floor near Pebbles
. A box on the front page said Todd Everly had been arrested for killing Tanya Weiss and kidnapping me, and it referred readers to the paper’s web page. The news had come too late for a full article. I’d already had calls from people who read the web article, but I’d changed the message on my mobile phone to say I was fine and I’d catch up with callers tomorrow.

Lucas and Kim had gone to visit their aunts for a few days
. Harry drove them into New York City to catch a train for Chicago. It was the first time I’d known where their mom’s sisters lived. I think Harry helped Lucas and Kim arrange the trip, in large part so I didn’t have two extra people in my small house until I felt better. Maybe they would stay with their extended family for a while instead of at the B&B.
Not my problem.

I didn’t think of the two of them as problems
. I just needed time to think. Now that I was sure how I felt about Scoobie, I couldn’t decide what to do. Should I tell him?  What if he felt really different?  Could we still be friends?  Of course we could. But it would be…awkward.

Scoobie called my bungalow our house
. I liked that. And he suggested that George could stay in his space at the rooming house. I smiled to myself.
Scoobie wanted to be sure George didn’t stay with me.

Not that George and I would date again
. I liked him better for putting Kim above a story, and I liked having him as a friend. About the same as I liked having Ramona for a friend. You can never have enough friends. Especially if they help at Harvest for All fundraisers.

Someone came up the steps and onto my front porch and rapped on the door
. I looked at Jazz. “You get it.”

Before I could get up, a young man’s voice called, “Jolie, it’s Clark. I have flowers for you.”

“Key’s under the mat,” I yelled. I don’t usually leave it there, but I knew people might stop by, so Aunt Madge had put it there for me.

Clark opened the door and walked the short distance to the living room and stared at me
. “You look the same.”

“I’m okay
. Let me smell. Then you can put them on the table.”  He walked to me and I inhaled the aroma of lilies and carnations. “Wonderful. Are they from Megan and Alicia?”

He put them on the table and turned to me with a quick smile
. “How do you know they aren’t from me?”  He laughed at my expression. “I don’t know who they’re from. For some reason they were at the customer service desk at Mr. Markle’s store, and he asked me to bring them to you.”

I leaned on one elbow
. “Hmm. Is there a card?”

“Yep
. And Mr. Markle said I’m supposed to leave before you read it.”  Clark took a card from a clip attached to one of the stems. “I think he knows who it’s from.”

“No doubt,” I said, dryly
. Mr. Markle does not sell floral displays, but he does have a couple of buckets of bouquets of seasonal flowers. They aren’t in vases, though, so someone must have taken one to the store. Mr. Markle would certainly let someone plop flowers in a vase, but I was surprised he’d let Clark deliver them.