Hideaway Hospital Murders (11 page)

Now she knew her scheme
would work. Elmo would be forced to play along. It had been a wild
idea, and she had already realized that Elmo would turn her down
flat. But that was before she found
this
.

Her cell rang.

“
Hello?”

“
What’s happening
there?”

“
Elmo’s going blind at the
computer. Mallie Mae and Macy are upstairs. I’m in the secret
basement.”

“
What are you doing down
there?”

“
Just looking around,
working out some details.”

“
You still think you can
talk Elmo into holding secret clinical trials down
there?”

“
Yes, Ma’am.”

“
He’ll never buy it,
Carnie.”

“
Oh, yes he will.” She
looked down at her discovery. “He’ll have no choice.”

Chapter
14

“
It’s 8:55, and we will be
closing in five minutes. Thank you for shopping at your Coreyville
Pharmacy,” said the assistant manager over the sound system. Then
he walked to the entrance and locked the door. If somebody had
waited that late to get their prescription, it was just too bad.
They could come back tomorrow. His stomach was screaming for an
order of Wendy’s biggie fries.

There was only one customer in the store—a
long-haired man in granny glasses with a beard, wearing bell-bottom
jeans and an oversized jacket. The old guy was straight out of a
history book—San Francisco hippies, 1967. The only thing that
spoiled the look was the more modern-looking jacket.

The man had been browsing the aisles for ten
minutes or so, hands always in his pockets. “Sir, could I please
get your help for a minute?” he said.

“
Yes, Sir. What do you
need?” said the assistant manager.

“
I wanted to buy the large
container of liquid Cheer, but it’s on the bottom shelf, and I just
can’t get down that low to pick it up. Bad knees.”

Poor old guy, thought the assistant manager.
“Okay, I’ll be happy to get it for you.”

The man led him to the aisle and the
assistant manager squatted down to pick up the large plastic
bottle. “This one?” He turned his head to look at the old man. But
all he saw was something black flying toward his face.

The old man examined the assistant manager
lying on the floor. He appeared to be out cold. He returned the gun
to the holster underneath his jacket and pulled out a roll of duct
tape. He wound it around the wrists and ankles very slowly to avoid
making the familiar screeching sound. Then one last piece for the
mouth.

Now he would deal with the pharmacist.

“
Ma’am? Could I ask you a
question?”

“
Yes, Sir,” said the young
female pharmacist. “How can I help you?”

“
I need something for my
back. An over-the-counter cream. The strongest thing you’ve
got.”

“
Okay. That would be
capsaicin—the extra strength version. It’s on that aisle right
there.” She pointed to it.

“
Okay. Thanks.”

He walked to the aisle and looked for it.
After a minute or so, he went back to the pharmacy counter. “Ma’am,
I can’t seem to find it.”

“
Okay. Just a second and I
will help you,” she said as she counted out pills and poured them
into a bottle.” She glanced at the weird old man walking back to
the pain reliever aisle. He walks like a girl, she
thought.

When the pharmacist met him on the aisle, he
stepped back to give her room to locate the cream.

She wondered why he hadn’t been able to find
it—right there in front of him. She picked up the box and turned to
him. “Here it is.”

But her polite smile vanished when she saw
the gun pointed at her chest. She automatically raised her
hands.

“
Put them down! Now turn
around and put your hands behind you.”

The old man holstered his weapon, taped her
wrists, and told her to lie on the floor, face down.

He taped her ankles and then he flipped up
her skirt, revealing her pink panties. “You’re a sexy thing, aren’t
you?” But there was no time for pleasure. He had a job to do. He
rolled her to her side, ripped off a piece of tape and stretched it
tightly across her quivering mouth and around her head.

He whispered into her ear, “Lie still—if you
want to live.” Then he jammed ear plugs into her ears.

The old man quickly moved behind the
counter, found a stool and sat down at one of the computers,
slumped down so he could not be seen from the street. He keyed in a
search for every customer who had filled a prescription for Viagra
in the past 60 days. Then he did a similar search on Prozac,
Namenda and several other drugs. He printed out the results of each
search. When he was finished, he grabbed the printouts and slipped
out the back door.

The assistant manager and pharmacist would
be found in the morning. They would give their statements to the
police, describing the scary old man. But the police would never
find that old man. Because he had worn latex gloves. And because he
had disguised his appearance and his voice.

And because he was
not
a
man.

**********

“
Hello?”

“
Hi, Baby. I miss you
already,” said Carsie.

“
Hi, Sweetie. Me too. How’s
it going there?” said Elmo.

“
Okay, I guess. Grandma is
about to show me how to make cherry divinity.”

“
I don’t think I’ve ever
tasted the
cherry
kind. I do like the white divinity. Hadley makes it at
Christmas time.”

“
Oh, but this is much
better. I’ll bring you some when I come back.”

“
Okay.”

“
Are you still working?
It’s getting late. And I’m sure you’ve been sitting at that
computer all day long.”

“
Yes, but I’m in the middle
of something and I just don’t want to stop right now.”

“
Okay, Honey. But don’t
stay up too late. I love you.”

“
Love you too.
Bye.”

Grandma walked into the kitchen as Carsie
was closing her cell phone. “Talking to Elmo?”

“
Yes, Ma’am.”

“
Don’t worry, Sweetie. The
wedding will be back on before you know it.”

“
I hope so.”

“
You did a great job
snagging him, by the way. You looked so cute that day—he never
stood a chance.”

“
Yeah. But I really do love
him.”

“
Well, that’s fine, as long
as you don’t forget what this is all about.”

“
I don’t want to think
about that.”

“
But you’ve got to come
through for us.”

“
I will. But after that I
just want to live my life with Elmo.”

“
Happily ever after, huh?
You can try. But he might find it hard to believe you weren’t in on
the deal.”

“
He’ll believe me. He loves
me.”

“
Yeah.”

“
He
will
believe me as long as you
and Carnie don’t let on.”

“
Look, Honey, when you go
in on a scam, it’s really hard to come out clean.”

“
But I really think I can,
Grandma.”

“
Okay. Give it your best
shot. I won’t rat you out. Neither will your sister.”

“
Thanks.”

“
Enough of this talk. Let’s
make some candy!”

“
I’m ready,” said
Carsie.

“
Okay, then. First, you
need to gather the ingredients.”

Carsie would retrieve each item as her
grandmother called it out.

“
Here’s what you need:
sugar…light corn syrup…that package of red candied cherries on the
top shelf…vanilla…and eggs.”

“
Oh. I didn’t know it
had
eggs
in
it.”

“
So what if it
does?”

“
Well, I just worry about
Elmo’s cholesterol.”

“
That’s what you get for
hooking up with an old man, Missy.”

“
Grandma!”

“
I’m just kidding. Besides,
you only use the egg
whites
, so there’s no
cholesterol. Of course, there
is
a lot of sugar.”

“
That’s okay,” said Carsie.
“I won’t let him pig-out on them.”

Grandma led her through each step of the
process. She learned that it had to be done in a precise way, even
using a candy thermometer at one point. Finally, she dropped
rounded teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto a sheet of waxed paper.
After a sufficient cooling period, they sampled the candy.

“
Mmm, yes. Perfect,” Carsie
said.

“
And now you know how to do
it yourself.”

“
Thanks, Grandma. Elmo’s
gonna love these.”

Her grandmother put her arms around her and
held her close. “You’re so welcome, Carnie.”

Carsie expected a big hug. What she got was
a long kiss on the lips. She pulled away.

“
Grandma! What are you
doing?”

“
I’m sorry.”

“
And why did you call
me
Carnie
?”

**********

Macy took a break from reading her romance
novel to go downstairs for milk and cookies. But first she peeked
into the study and said goodnight to Elmo. She was relieved to see
him alone. She half-expected to find Carnie in there, trying to
seduce him. Maybe it was mean for her to think of Carsie’s sister
in that way. But Carnie deserved it. After all, she had made a
sexual advance toward Macy a few nights ago. With Carsie out of the
house, who knew what Carnie might try to do with her sister’s
fiancé?

And even though she was not interested in
Carnie or any other woman in a sexual way, Macy was drawn down to
the basement by a titillating curiosity. The Media Room was dark.
But she saw a faint light under Carnie’s door as she approached it.
She pressed her ear against the door, but heard nothing.

The door jerked open, swinging away from
Macy. There was Carnie, standing in the doorway. Her smooth, naked
skin reflected the soft glow of the nightlight. Her body was
beautiful, perfect. It begged to be touched, caressed. Macy stood
in a trance as Carnie’s blazing eyes saw right through her
nightgown to the steamy flesh beneath.

Macy shook herself and ran for the stairs.
She forgot about the milk and cookies and the romance novel. She
locked her door, jumped into bed and pulled the covers over her
head.

Chapter
15

The living room clock said 5:58 AM. Cynthia
wondered if Greg was going be on time, or if he would even make it
at all. They had worked at her mom’s house until nearly 11:00 the
night before. They were both getting worn down from the lack of
sleep over the past few nights. But she had still managed to get
herself out of bed every morning to go for her run. This would be
Greg’s first attempt.

There was a knock at the front door.

“
Good morning. I wasn’t
sure you’d make it,” she said.

“
Well, it wasn’t easy. But
I told you I’d be here at 6:00, and here I am. Hey, aren’t you
going to be chilly in those shorts? It’s 65 degrees out
there.”

“
Only for a couple of
minutes. After that I’ll get warmed up. Actually, you’re going to
roast in
that
.”

“
But I thought you were
supposed to wear a sweat shirt and sweat pants when you go
running.”

“
You are—if you want to
maximize your sweating.”

“
Oh, great. So maybe next
time I’ll wear shorts.” Although he could never look
that good
in them,
he thought. Wasn’t it kind of dangerous for her to be out running
the streets early in the morning by herself, looking so cute and
sexy? She had been doing it every day since moving to Coreyville a
few years ago. But now, he would be along with her, to protect her.
And he’d do his best to concentrate on the running—resisting the
urge to grab her perfectly shaped butt.

“
Ready to go?” said
Cynthia.

“
Yep. But wait—don’t we
need a flashlight? It’s still dark.”

“
Here you go.” She picked
up two flashlights from the small table near the door. “We’ll get
enough light from the street lights to see where we’re going. We’ll
only need to turn on the flashlights when a car’s coming—just to
make sure they see
us
.”

“
Oh—one more thing,” said
Greg. He turned her around and gave her a big kiss. “Okay. Now I’m
ready to go.”

But as soon as he had said it, he began to
have second thoughts. Maybe they should skip the running today and
just lie around on the couch. But she had already opened the door,
grabbed his hand, and started pulling him onto the porch.

They alternated jogging and walking,
spending more time walking than Cynthia normally did.

By the time they got back to her porch at
7:00 AM, it was dawn, and Greg was exhausted. “It feels like I’m
wearing concrete shoes.”