Ring Around the Rosy (14 page)

“Just a few more things.” John
smiled at her. “How’s your sister?”

Susan flinched. She couldn’t
believe he had the guts to ask. Ignoring the question, she went to her car door
and opened it. “If there’s nothing else, I’d like to go home.” She needed Dave.
She punched in his number.

“Susan, where are you? I’m on my
way.”

“I’m going home. Can you come
over?”

“I’ll meet you there.”

Susan couldn’t wait to get home,
couldn’t wait to be in Dave’s arms again.

Chapter Nine

The phone rang while Susan
showered early the next morning, but she couldn’t hear the message with the
water running. Not that she cared.

No matter, she wasn’t in that big
of a hurry to hear it, and now that she didn’t have a job, it didn’t make much
difference. After yesterday, her nerves were raw enough. More messages from him
wouldn’t help matters.

She set the coffee maker, opened
the door, and picked up the newspaper. Thankfully, no roses graced her doorstep
this morning. She poured a cup of coffee and opened the paper to see the
headline.

Reporter in Nursery Rhyme Murders Sacked

What the heck was this? Why make
her the headline? What was Hill trying to prove? Worse, why would Ernie let
him? She scanned down to read the rest of the story.

Reporter Susan Weston was fired
yesterday after refusing to divulge information about the phone calls from the
alleged nursery rhyme killer. After talking with reporter Dan Hill and Editor,
Ernie Price, Ms Weston commented “the calls were personal.”

Is Ms Weston involved with these
crimes? Does she know more than she’s admitting? Is she an accessory to murder?
Police sources said Ms Weston knew all the victims,

Ms Weston was a suspect in the
first murder when lead Detective David Morgan found her bracelet at the crime
scene. The fact Ms Weston’s father was involved in a shooting causes deep
concern. Did it have something to do with the other murders? Are they related?

How did Hill get that information
about the bracelet? How did he know she knew the victims? Dave? Did he believe
she had something to do with those crimes? And, darn it, why bring her father
into it?

It was bad enough the Riverdale
Rag waited outside the hospital every day, looking for details of the shooting.
How dare Hill insinuate she was involved in any of it? And what about Dave? Did
he still consider her a suspect? Was he toying with her?

No. That couldn’t be. Not Dave…but
he was the only one who knew.

This couldn’t be happening. What
was her mother going to say when she read this? Oh shoot. Now she’d have to
call and pacify her. Explain about the calls.

She’d deal with her later. Not
now. Besides, it was time to pick up her father from the hospital. Ignoring the
blinking light on her answering machine, Susan grabbed her car keys and left.

Why she had offered to take her
father home from the hospital was beyond her. Maybe because the guilt was
eating at her for not staying there like Clare and Kate had. Or, maybe because
she felt sorry for her sister. Everyone knew Clare wasn’t good in a crisis, and
with all the reporters laying in wait… Susan couldn’t subject her parents to
that. But it wasn’t her job, either. Why couldn’t Clare just grow up already?
Her sister lived in a tunnel. It would only have taken her ten minutes to get
to the hospital.

Too bad Steve wasn’t home. He
usually took responsibility seriously. But he was away on one of his lengthy
business trips. Susan turned off the highway and headed toward the hospital.
Fortunately, there wasn’t much traffic.
 
Driving on the highway wasn’t one of her favorite things. But it was the
quickest way to get there, and the directions Dave gave her for the side roads
were too complicated.

Poor Clare. Steve’s absence seemed
to affect her more than the shooting. It was as if her sister’s whole world
crashed down on her. Why hadn’t Clare gotten over the shooting by now? Their
father was fine, up and walking around, even.

Susan pulled into the parking
garage and hurried inside.

After five days, you’d think the
news crew would have found something more interesting to write about, but no,
they still camped outside, trying to get an interview, waiting to pounce when
the doctor released her father. That’s what happened in small communities. Of
course, this morning’s headlines hadn’t helped.

On the advice of a nurse, Susan
took her father out through the emergency room to avoid the reporters.
 
They’d probably be at the house, too. No way
to avoid it. This was a big news story for Riverdale. After all, her father was
one of their own. Not to mention her parents were well-known in the community.
They participated in many activities, as well as school functions. Since the
shooting happened in Riverdale, her newspaper reported it, but it only appeared
on page two. Fortunately, the Gazette moved on to bigger and better things to
report, like the story about her on the front page.

* * *

Susan stayed with her parents for
most of the day. Life wasn’t going to be easy for her father for a while. He
still had trouble walking and limited use of his left hand. Her mother had
trouble helping him. Clare was upset with Steve for being gone so much, and, as
usual, wasn’t much help. Something was brewing between them. Maybe Steve knew
about Clare’s indiscretion. Steve seemed to be absent more and more lately.

Susan realized that the sense of
humor she had been jealous of was Clare’s way of covering up her inadequacies.
Thinking of Clare as inadequate almost made Susan laugh. Certainly not a word
she’d ever use to describe Clare before. Nope, she used to envy her sister’s
life. She sometimes even wished it was a life she could settle for, but the
desire for a career took priority.

Chapter Ten

Susan arrived home tired and
emotionally drained. What a day. Clare was about to drive her crazy. The woman
needed tranquilizers or something. Talk about emotional highs and lows. How in
the world did her sister manage to work, let alone raise kids?

In a hurry to get to her
apartment, Susan took the steps two at a time, rounded the corner, and stopped
dead. Two roses sat in front of her door. Before picking up the wilted flowers,
she looked around. Of course there was no indication where the roses came from.
Inside her apartment, she threw them onto the counter, and pressed the play
button on her answering machine.

“Susan,” the sinister voice said.
“I took care of everything.” Click.

What the heck did that mean? At
least he didn’t say anything about killing someone else. Ernie’s voice came on
next.

“Susan, sorry about that story
this morning. There’ll be a retraction tomorrow.” Ernie paused.

She just bet there would, probably
on page 22 where no one would see it.

“By the way,” Ernie said. “You’re
not fired. Call me.”

She picked up the phone, punched
in Ernie’s number, and waited.

“Susan.” Ernie’s voice held a hint
of contrition. “You will come back to work, won’t you?”

“That depends.”

Ernie laughed. “You always were a
hard nut to crack. Okay, you’re back on the assignment after Hill prints his
retraction and apology tomorrow.”

“Front page headline?”

“Front page headline,” Ernie said.

Susan sighed. She had to ask. “So
why the sudden change of heart?”

“You aren’t going to believe
this,” Ernie said.

“Try me.”

“The informant called and insisted
on a complete retraction. Said you had nothing to do with any of the crimes —
you were his connection. Said if we wanted any more warnings, we had to put you
back on the story. And your detective friend called and threatened a lawsuit,
which had the most influence.”

Dave called. He did believe in
her. “Okay, I’ll come back to work. And I want a personal apology from Hill”

“Good. And Susan, don’t forget
about the Harvest Festival interview tomorrow.”

 
Susan hung up and shook her head, turned on
her laptop, and keyed in the Strongsville Harvest Festival, She took some notes
for another boring story and composed some questions to ask Herb Miller, the Historical
Society’s chairperson. Thank goodness Gloria was scheduled to take the photos.

Susan liked Strongsville, a unique
little town that had grown in leaps and bounds as more and more people left the
city for suburban life. After printing out the questions, she closed her
computer. Only 9:30, but after such an exhausting day, she decided to turn in.
As her mother used to say, “Morning came early.” Besides the interview was
scheduled for nine.

Given that it took her a good hour
to motivate herself, down some coffee, and feel human, she’d have to get up by
at least seven to have time to shower and get ready. Mornings were not her best
time. Just once she’d like to be on time.

Sitting on her bed with Bella
curled in her lap, Susan looked around her large bedroom and remembered the fun
she, Clare, and Kate had designing the space. Even at night, the room had the
brightness of sunshine with the beaming yellow walls. Kate had insisted on the
orange-and-yellow, floral quilt for the bed after Susan picked out the brown
and orange plaid fabric for the upholstered chair that sat in the corner. Of
course, Kate would pick out floral. One of these days, she’d get Kate to make
her a quilt.

The cherry dressers, from her
grandmother, mixed well with the lime-green rug that Kate found on sale. Susan
was glad the cream-colored shades didn’t distract as she had feared. Kate
suggested attaching a fabric of green and yellow stripes to change their
effect. Susan liked the idea, and one of these days she’d do it.
 
She turned off the light and stretched out on
the king-size bed. The room’s warm, inviting feeling of security helped lull
her to sleep.
 
It had a calming effect on
her.

The alarm startled Susan out of a
dream-filled state. She reached across the bed to turn it off. A smile crossed
her lips as the memory of her dream came alive.

Dave had pledged his undying love
and on bended knee offered the most romantic marriage proposal. Giggling, she
got out of bed and prepared for the day. Marriage had never entered her mind
before, except to dismiss it when her mother brought it up. But the dream
brought new thoughts of marriage to her mind. What would it be like to be
married to Dave?

“Marriage.” She laughed. “What
subconscious thought caused that dream?” Shaking thoughts of marriage from her
mind, she filled the coffeepot. Just as she was ready to jump into the shower,
the phone rang. She froze. At this hour of the morning, it could only be one
person. Friends and family knew she wasn’t a morning person. She waited while
the machine answered it.

“Did you miss me?” the voice
asked. “I know you’re there, monitoring your calls.” The voice continued. “I
told you I fixed it. Got your job back. Nice retraction in this morning’s
paper. Did you read it?”

Her hands trembled. Darn it, he
was still watching her. Stupid, at this hour of the morning of course she’d be
home.

“I’ve been busy, and your
detective was getting too smart for his own good, with his comments about me
slipping up. I know you wrote that story even though your name wasn’t on it. I
recognized your style. Why did they give the credit to Dan Hill? That wasn’t
fair to you”

Her body trembled. Goose bumps
erupted on her skin, prickling the hair on her arms. Her fear increased at the
mention of Dave. He knew they were spending time together.

“Was I supposed to call Hill
instead? Tell them I don’t much like Dan Hill.” He paused, and Susan waited for
the click of the hang up, but he went on after a few seconds.

“I’m still around, making my
choices carefully. The next one is going to be a surprise.” Then the familiar
click, and the phone line went dead.

She punched in Dave’s number.
Terror and dread replaced her lighthearted mood from her dream. He answered on
the first ring. “Dave.” She tried to keep the fear out of her voice. “He called
again. Oh God, will this ever end?” The calmness of the last week whisked away
in one brief second.

“I’ll be right over.” Dave calmed
her with his easy, smooth voice.

She rushed through her shower,
threw on some clothes, not paying attention whether they were appropriate for
the interview. She didn’t care. The story didn’t hold much interest to her.
Dave arrived as she finished applying her makeup. She was half tempted to
cancel the interview or find a substitute, but Dave convinced her to go ahead
with it.

“You need a diversion from this
case, and this will create the appearance of normalcy if he is watching you.”
Dave said. “I don’t want you to deviate from your daily habits.