Polly Dent Loses Grip (A LaTisha Barnhart Mystery) (17 page)

“You’re telling me this because. . .?”

“I read the article about how you helped catch a criminal in Maple Gap. I dug around a bit and found some newspaper articles on the death of Marion Peters. That was enough for me to know that I wanted you to look into this matter for me.” He closed his eyes and held out the second sheet of paper. “There is something else, too. Before the locks on Polly’s rooms were changed, right after I heard of her fall, I went to her room and found this. Apparently she’d received a threat from someone telling her to back off.”

The paper’s spidery creases meant it had been balled up and smoothed out.

STOP PUSHING SO HARD OR I MIGHT JUST PUSH BACK. NO ONE WOULD MISS YOU.

I can tell you my heart raced with excitement. This proved what I needed it to prove
—
a motive. Someone had a reason to off Polly. “You brought me up here to ask me to look into things?” I gave him a hard stare. “Who’s to believe you didn’t have something to do with Polly? Did she know of your bank robber days?”

Thomas stared down at his hands. “She did. I told her. I thought she might be the one I’d waited for all my life.”

“You thought? Something make you think maybe you’d been wrong in that assumption?”

Another long pause and I felt the vibes of rebellion, or hurt, that caused someone to be reluctant to admit their judgment of someone had blinded them.

He sigh
ed
. “She became very close with Mr. Payne.”

Bingo! Though the idea of Otis Payne and Polly Dent cuddling up to each other. . .? Nah. “Tell me about it.”

“You’ll remember the first day you arrived here. At the elevators. Gertrude mentioned Polly and Otis rounding out our little group. I’m afraid it was intended to be a dig at Polly, but it is well known that Polly and Gertrude held no love for each other.”

“Truer words were never spoken. I picked up on that cat fight right off.”

Thomas folded himself in to the armchair and cradled his forehead in his hand. “It was true. Polly and Otis spent a lot of time together. I think it’s how she got into the gym that afternoon after hours.”

“Mm-hm.”

“Our relationship wasn’t. . .well. . .” He ducked his face into the cradle of his hand again.

“I’m getting you, honey. And I doubt Polly’s relationship with Otis was that way.”

His eyes burned into mine. “That’s the reason I asked you to look into things. Polly never talked much about Mr. Payne, but the two did treat each other with more familiarity than Otis treated the other residents.”

I smacked my lips together, powerful thirsty all
of a
sudden. “Think I could get a drink?”

Thomas snapped to his feet. “Most certainly. What would you like?”

“Water is fine.”

While Thomas fiddled away in the kitchen, I absorbed what I’d heard and studied the note to Polly real hard. Who’d do such a thing? With great care I lifted the note from the table, wondering if Thomas’s fingerprints had obliterated all the others. I could drop this off to Chief Conrad when I got to Maple Gap, but unless one of the residents had a record, like Thomas, their fingerprints wouldn’t be on file.

The print, too, might help. Whoever prepared the note snipped whole words instead of letters. But that kind of search could be time consuming and, if the person had been smart enough to get rid of the magazine or newspaper, it could be impossible.

I kept coming back to Thomas’s money and the doctor mixing up medications. But Thomas’s confession also made things more difficult. What if his confession was elaborate bait on a hook meant to force me to reveal what I knew? A tangled web.

When Thomas reappeared with my water I upended the glass and gulped it down. “You have a baggie I can slip this into? I’m thinking I’d better take it with me.”

“Of course, let me get one for you.”

He returned with a sandwich bag and I slipped the note inside and zip-sealed it shut. “What made you show up downstairs? I thought you weren’t feeling well.”

“I’m not. Gertrude insisted I attend and she does have a tendency to get her way, but now I think I’ll call it a night.”

I started rocking. Where was the eject button? On the third rock forward I tried to haul myself off the sofa. Thomas, bless him, saw my dilemma and aided my ascent. After straightening my clothes, I eyeballed the former bank robber, giving him a wide smile. “Gertie’s not going to be a happy woman if you cut out on her.”

Thomas rolled his eyes. “Gertie’s never happy.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Dinner was served. My stomach gurgled and popped in response. At our table, Matilda, Hardy and Gertrude had tucked into their food, looking for all the world like a nice cozy trio of old friends. When Gertie saw me coming though, her eyes brightened and she looked ready to pounce on me. She probably wouldn’t wait until my rear touched-down either, which is why I bent to whisper to Hardy before her barrage of words left me no opening.

“I’m not just hot, I’m on fire.”

Hardy’s big eyes rolled my way. “I could have told you that.”

He’s such a cheeky thing. I patted his head and waited for him to haul his carcass out of his seat and pull out my chair. He didn’t get the message at all, just kept grinning at me.

“You gonna hold the chair for me or not?”

He reached out a hand and gripped the seat. “I’m holding it.”

Matilda came to my rescue.

“You pull out that chair for my daughter-in-law or she’ll be a widow quicker than you can say your good-byes.”

Go
M
omma! A woman after my own heart. . .and mouth.

Hardy’s smile melted, but he hopped to his feet real quick, all the time charming me with those puppy-dog eyes. Long lashes. Gold flecks mixed with cocoa brown. Made my knees go weak and glad I had a chair to fall in to.

“Where’s Thomas?” The attack from Gertrude began with that simple question.

“He wasn’t feeling well.”

Her lip pooched, her chins folded, triplicates of each other.

“He promised me. I hope you didn’t call the doctor. Did he tell you about him? Almost no one trusts him. Not since Sue Mie’s uncle died.”

For all her brashness, Gertrude could pout like an oversized image of Nellie Olson, straight out of Little House on the Prairie, though her black and gray hair scared away that image pretty fast. Other than her quick mouth, I knew little about Gertrude. Brashness oftentimes covered natural impatience or deeper insecurity. I skipped down that mental path for a second before Hardy got his tongue wagging.

“Gertrude and I were having a good talk over the old days. Seems we both know something about being poor.”

“I did my best
.
” M
omma
defended herself unnecessarily. Whenever Hardy alluded to his childhood and not having much, Matilda got quick on the defense. To this day it irked her that Hardy’s father left them with so little, though she never once outright complained about being the one to provide for her son. Hardy and I often suspected that M
omma’s
heart had been shattered so hard by her husband’s abandonment, it had left her sour on remarrying. She’d never even dated again. Of course, with a son as devoted as Hardy, she knew she would be taken care of at all costs.

“Were your parents together, Gertrude?” I asked as she forked in a chunk of the hand-carved ham the caterer was slicing up for residents. It got me to wondering how they knew what to serve and to whom, dietary restrictions and all that.

“Mom and Dad died within three months of each other. My mom went first. Had a heart attack. Daddy just fell asleep.” She slurped her water and dug in for another chunk. “Me. I never married. Had lots of men after me, but I could never settle on one of them. Decided it was better to stay single and footloose. Hardy tells me you have seven children. That’s about unheard of in our day and age. Guess you felt tied down most days.”

My thoughts tripped over the reminder of babies squawking, then teenagers with an attitude, then
their
moving out to get
an
education or start their own nest. Either those children had me in tears or in stitches. Grandbabies would be my reward.

“Tied down in a good way, Gertrude. Children are the blessing of the Lord, or haven’t you ever heard that?”

Gertrude blinked and became still. “My mother used to tell me that.” She stabbed at a carrot but didn’t bring it to her lips. “She always wanted a lot of children, but something happened and I was the only one. Guess I didn’t make it too easy for her because I kept whining about how much I wanted a brother. She would just give me that sad little smile.”

Count your blessings. Name them one by one. I had a whole list of babies for the naming part. Hardy’s hand found mine under the table. He gave my fingers a gentle squeeze that let me know he felt the gratefulness of our blessings, too.

I decided it was time to start dishing the questions. “Did you know about Thomas’s bank robbing days?”

Gertrude swirled a carrot through mashed potatoes and popped it into her mouth. “Everyone knows by now. He made the mistake of telling Polly. Polly thought she was so sly, but she
couldn’t
keep her mouth shut for two seconds.”

A uniformed caterer delivered a plate to me with all the trimmings. I tapped my empty water glass. “Please. I’m parched.” And I had another gig tonight with Sue. That should be a mighty interesting conversation. Sue would know a little more about Dr. Kwan, I was sure, being a nurse and all.

Hardy sat back in his chair, hands laced across his non-existent stomach. “Wish I had me a toothpick.”

“You could use the strap on my purse to floss with. It’s upstairs though.”

Hardy puffed out his lips. “Guessin’ it’s time to make that appointment with Dr. Cryer.”

Dr. Cryer is Maple Gap’s dentist, and the truth is it was way past time for Hardy to be seeing him. “I’ll make one tomorrow when I’m in town.”

Hardy’s eyes went wide. “No use rushing things.”

Gertrude laugh
ter
vibrated her entire body. “I’m not fond of the tooth-guys myself.”

In her favor, she did possess a nice set of pearly whites.

“I’ve had two cavities in my life. Got good teeth from my daddy.” A mound of mashed potatoes disappeared between her lips. “Didn’t eat a lot of candy either. Mom and Dad didn’t have the extra money so I grew up without it and really don’t miss it. I keep telling Thomas to lay off the sweets but he doesn’t listen. You ask me I think he misses his little dog. He had a little dog when he was younger. Got hit by a car one day.”

She kept prattling. Matilda started to doze. Otis Payne returned to the cafeteria minus Louise. He continued where he left off, going straight to the tables where relatives sat with their loved ones, or to the new faces that clutched pamphlets hailing Bridgeton Towers as a wonderful place to live.

Dr. Kwan entered the cafeteria, making me wonder if he’d been called to check up on Mitzi, though after what Thomas revealed I doubted he’d done the calling. I glanced over at Matilda, still snoozing along. Hardy caught my eye and nodded toward his mother.

“Been wanting to talk to that doctor some,” Hardy said.

“While you’re gabbing, I’ll take
M
omma upstairs and get my things together.” I tried to communicate to Hardy with my eyes. “Make sure you ask him about how he dispenses medications to the residents.”

He cocked his head at me. “Didn’t you tell me that CNA lady does that?”

“No. I told you she wasn’t allowed to do it. Only an RN, but I’m figuring the doc has to be in charge of things somehow. Just ask.”

Matilda twitched forward in her seat and her eyes blinked open.

Hardy reached over
and
patted her arm. “LaTisha’s going to take you upstairs,
M
omma.”

“Don’t need a nursemaid, Hardy.”

“I’ve got a few things to do anyhow,” I said. “We can walk together.”

She gave me the hairy eyeball. You can see why
,
when she regained her mobility after the stroke things became tense. She grated over everything we did for her that she felt she could do for herself. Now I have no problem with someone wanting to do for themselves, but when that same person is fragile to begin with. . . It sure gets awful hard to get them to see the wisdom of having someone nearby at all times.