Hideaway Hospital Murders (10 page)

“
I’ll give you a call about
it a little later.”

Why was she being so cold to him? Then it
hit him. “Are you in a meeting?”

“
That’s
correct.”

“
Oh, I’m sorry. Yeah, call
me later.”

Greg parked his car and walked into the
hospital, to the surgery waiting room. He recognized the wife,
sitting with another woman and a young boy.

“
How long has he been in
surgery?” said Greg.

“
Just a few minutes,” said
the wife.

She introduced Greg to her sister and
nephew.

“
How did Jeff hurt his
back?” said Greg.

“
He was carrying a big bag
of cement. I told him he needed help, but he just wouldn’t
listen.”

“
They never do,” said the
sister.

Greg had already run out of things to say.
So, he picked up a magazine and began to read as the two women
chatted.

“
Jacob’s nose is running,”
said the wife.

“
Jacob, come here, Honey,”
said the sister to her son.

She pulled a tissue out of her purse and
wiped his nose.

“
You think he’s getting a
cold?” said the wife.

“
Could be. He’s got a
doctor’s appointment this afternoon.”

“
That’s good.”

“
But when I called they
said Dr. Elmo has taken a leave of absence. So we’ll have to see
some new doctor.”

“
Wonder why Elmo’s taking a
leave?”

“
Hope it’s not AIDS,” said
the sister.

That statement jolted Greg from his magazine
article. And he noticed that the nurse standing in the Nurses
Station perked up too.

“
What? Why would you think
that?” said the wife.

“
Well, he’s in his 50s and
he’s never been married…”

“
But I heard he
was
getting
married,” said the wife.

“
He backed out.”

“
No. Really?”

Greg butted in. “Actually,
he
postponed
the wedding.”

“
Yeah.
Indefinitely
, I’ll bet,” said
the sister.

The wife looked at Greg. “Do you know why he
postponed it?”

“
He just found out that his
mother has Alzheimer’s disease.”

“
That awful,” said the
wife. “My aunt had that. And there wasn’t anything the doctor could
do for her. All we could do was watch her go downhill until she
finally died. She suffered with it for years.”

Greg noticed that the nurse seemed to be
straining to hear the conversation. But when she saw Greg looking
at her, she quickly went back to work at the computer. He got up
and walked over to her. Her name badge identified her as Mary
Magdely.

Greg spoke to her in a confidential manner
that could not be heard by the wife and sister. “Do you know the
Mobleys, Mrs. Magdely?”

She didn’t look up from the computer.
“Uh…yes. Sort of.”

“
Well, I just want to
apologize. I don’t usually participate in gossip. But I had to
speak up and set the record straight.”

Greg figured her to be about 60. She was
attractive, and looked very professional.

“
I understand. Don’t worry
about it.”

She had kind eyes, and a caring face. Just
what you’d want from a nurse, thought Greg. But there was something
else in her facial expression.

Something she
wasn’t
saying.

Chapter
13

“
Our clever deception is
working like a charm,” said Mallie Mae.

“
I can’t believe he fell
for it. You’re such a good actor—it’s scary,” said Macy.

“
I do what I have to
do.”

“
But they’ve only
postponed
the
wedding. They didn’t
cancel
it.”

“
Give it time, my
dear.”

“
When I went down for a
glass of milk last night, Elmo was still in his study. It was after
midnight.”

“
That’s good. The more time
he spends on the computer, the less time he spends with
her
.”

“
Well, I just feel sorry
for him. He’s doing all that work to help you because he thinks
you’re sick.”

“
Don’t feel sorry for him.
He brought this on himself. He should have had the good sense to
steer clear of that money grubber.”

They both heard the car driving alongside
the house. Somebody was leaving. Macy rushed to the window.

“
It’s Carsie. Looks like
she’s alone.”

“
Good. Now we just need to
lose the sister.”

“
Oh, I’m sure she’s coming
back,” said Macy.

“
Not
necessarily…”

“
I’ll find out what’s going
on.”

Macy went down to the kitchen and poured
coffee into one of Elmo’s favorite cups. Then she put a few of
Hadley’s chewy chocolate chip cookies on a plate. They were still
warm.

She peeked into the study. “How about a
little snack.”

Without looking away from the monitor, Elmo
said, “Not right now, Macy. I’m very busy.” Then he caught a whiff
of the coffee and the freshly baked Hadley’s. He smiled at her. “On
second thought, sure, that would be great.”

Elmo took a big bite of a cookie. “Mmm.
Nobody makes them like Hadley.” He washed it down with a sip of
coffee.

“
Yeah, they’re
irresistible,” said Macy. “By the way, uh, I just saw Carsie
leaving in her car.”

“
She’s going to Jefferson.
Gonna spend a few days with her grandmother.”

“
Oh.”

“
It’ll be good for her. I
just can’t spend any time with her right now, and I know she’s
feeling neglected.”

“
I see. Any idea how long
she’s staying?”

“
Not really. Probably a
week or two. Why?”

“
Just wondering. Well, if
you need anything, you know I’m always here for you.”

“
I know. Thanks,
Macy.”

As she spun around to walk out of the study,
her flowered skirt twirled to catch up with her body. She pictured
Elmo watching her, admiring her perfectly shaped calves, waiting
for her skirt to settle back down across her cute little butt.

Macy knew she could make Elmo forget about
his fiancée. She only wished she had pursued him before Carsie came
along. She had wasted years of opportunity, spending all those
nights alone with him watching movies. She should have grabbed him
one night and seduced him with a mind-blowing kiss. A kiss that
encompassed all the pent-up lust hidden deep in her heart. She had
done it in her mind a thousand times. But instead, she just kept
waiting for him to make the first move. And he never did.

Carsie had said that when
she accidentally bumped into Elmo in the supermarket she had
finally found the man of her dreams. Or had she found the
money
of her dreams?
That’s what Mallie Mae thought. Macy actually believed Carsie’s
feelings were real.

But that didn’t change the
fact that Macy wanted Elmo for herself. And she had been feeling
pretty desperate until the wedding was postponed. Maybe there was
still hope for her and Elmo. She promised herself that if
she
did
get
another chance, she would not be so timid.

**********

“
Thanks for helping
tonight. But I hate that you’re missing choir rehearsal,” said
Cynthia.

“
It’s okay. Henry didn’t
mind filling in for me,” said Greg.

They rode along in silence for a few
minutes. Beverly had offered to make dinner, since they would get
to her house by 6:00. Then they would pack more of her things. Greg
had reserved a U-Haul for Saturday.

“
I had another one of my
crazy dreams this morning,” said Greg.

“
What happened
this
time?

“
Well, we were lying in bed
and—“

“—
in
bed
? I guess our morals aren’t
as good in your
dreams
.”

“
No, no. We were
married.”

“
Oh. Is that where you
think we’re headed?”

“
Uh, I don’t know. It was
just a dream.”

“
Okay. Go on.”

“
Anyway…we were making love
and—“

“—
you had a
sex dream
about
me?”

“
But we were
married
.”

“
In your
dreams
.”

“
I see,” said
Greg.

“
No—I didn’t mean it
that
way. I wasn’t
saying we’d never get married,” she said.

“
So, you’re saying
we
will
get
married? Can I take that as a
yes
?”

She grinned at him and blushed.

He went on. “So, there we were, in the
middle of it, and your mother just walked right into our bedroom
and announced that breakfast was ready.”

Cynthia started laughing.

“
She was standing there
staring at us. And I was on top of you!”

Cynthia laughed even harder.

Greg laughed too. He was
thrilled that Cynthia was not at all shocked by the talk of
marriage. But he would have felt better if she had reassured him
that Beverly would
not
be living with them if they
ever got married.

“
I love you, no matter how
goofy you are,” she said.

“
Gee, thanks.”

“
In fact, your goofiness is
one of the reasons I love you. So, don’t stop being
goofy.”

“
Don’t worry. I don’t think
I
can
.”

They laughed.

“
What about my bald head?
Is
that
one
of the reasons you love me?”

“
Well…”

“
And how about this spare
tire? Is
that
one of the reasons you love me? Are you gonna tell me that
you
like
a
man with some meat on his bones?”

“
Actually, I’ve been
meaning to talk to you about that,” she said.

“
Uh-oh. I finally found the
deal breaker. You’re dumping me because I’m overweight,
right?”

Cynthia chuckled. “No, no.”

“
What then?”

“
You should go with me when
I jog every morning.”

“
Ah-ha! I should have
known! If I want to keep you, I’ll have to get into
shape.”

“
Well, let’s just say that
if you really want to
catch
me, you’ll have to
be able
to catch
me.”

“
Very funny. Okay. Where do
I sign up?”

“
There’s no sign-up sheet,
soldier. Just report to my quarters at o-six-hundred.”

“
Sir! Yes Sir! I will be
there, Sir!” Greg saluted her.

“
Really, it’ll be fun,
Greg.”

“
Yes, Sir!”

Cynthia punched him in the arm and he
smiled.

**********

Carnie had finished her dinner and gone down
into the sub-basement for further investigation. She looked through
one of the notebooks, trying once more to make sense of the
formulas, but soon decided it was a waste of time. She went through
the bathroom and into the four-bed hospital ward. Yes, this would
work just fine, she thought.

She walked into one of the two small rooms
off the ward and studied it more carefully than before. There were
only two metal cabinets in the room, and they were empty. But
something about the floor seemed familiar. It was like the floor
in her bedroom. She got down on hands and knees. No, it couldn’t
be, she thought. She knocked on the floor in several places.

Carnie ran out through the lab and up the
stairs and retrieved her Bowie knife. She rushed back to the room
and began to search for the edges of a secret door. It didn’t take
her long to find them.

When she finally got the door open and
leaned it up against the wall, she was disappointed to see nothing
but dirt. She started to put the door back in place, but changed
her mind. Kneeling down, she stabbed her knife into the dirt
several times. On the third try she hit something. It was hard, but
not rock. It felt like wood. She dug with her knife and her bare
hands, throwing dirt to the side of the hole she was making—like a
dog digging up a prized bone.

By the time she stopped, some of her fingers
were bleeding. It was a door or some type of cover, she decided.
She pried it open and was shocked by what she saw. And Carnie
Slitherstone was not easily shocked.

“
Oh, Elmo, what dirty
secrets you have,” she said out loud.