Monsters and Lollipops

by Franklin D. Lincoln

“I don’t think a return to the steroids would help any at all,” Roger Callan said as he came into his office and took his place behind his desk. Liz was sitting in the chair at front of his desk. Her examination had been completed in the other room and she had been waiting here in his office for a couple of minutes. The clock on the wall said two thirty seven.

  “They did help before,” Liz argued.” I just thought that since I wasn’t feeling any better, that perhaps I should try them again. Lord knows I haven’t been feeling well since that last medication you put me on. Actually with all that’s been going on lately, I missed the medication several times and quite frankly, I felt better when I didn’t take it and felt terrible every time I got back onto it. If I didn’t know better, Roger, I might even think you were trying to make me sick with that stuff.”

  Roger Callan’s face turned gray and he stared coldly at Liz. Then she said in a lilting tone.” Don’t take me serious, Roger,” she said apologetically.” I’m just talking. I didn’t mean to accuse you. I know you have my best interest at heart. I trust you.”

  Roger forced a smile, but the pallor of his face denied it.” Oh, I know that Liz. No offense taken.”

  Liz took a pop out of her hand bag and offered it. It was obvious that Roger wanted to refuse, but he took it any ways and laid it aside.

  “You realize, of course, that a steroid treatment would require the infusion process again. I know you never liked that and I’m not sure, in light of what happened last time, I could get you in until the investigation is over. Perhaps we would have to try a different hospital.”

  “Oh, no,” Liz seemed to blurt it out.” That wouldn’t do.” Then she seemed to catch herself, trying to lessen the concern in her voice.” I…I mean, I really would prefer to go to Amity.” She wrung her hands nervously.

  Roger eyed her warily. After a moment, he leaned back in his chair, twirling his pencil with both hands near his chest.” All right,Liz,” he said flatly. Calculating coldness was in his eyes and his brow deepened.” Perhaps we should try it again.” He abruptly stood up in dismissal.” I’ll call Doctor Blakeney and have it set up.”

  Liz was gone but a moment, when Roger Callan strode to his door and closed it. He quickly returned to his chair behind the desk, picked up the phone receiver and dialed quickly. He squirmed nervously in his chair as he waited, listening to the ringing on the other end of the line.

  It was ten to four when Hal Hall wheeled his Volkswagen into a parking spot outside Celia Parks’ apartment building. There were two consecutive spots there and with the little car, he didn’t need to parallel park. He could merely drive in.

  Just inside the vestibule to the right was the stairwell. The first flight stopped at a landing then twisted to the left for another flight. Liz cast a wary glance from the stairs to Hal. He knew what she was thinking. No way was she going to climb those stairs. He glanced around beneath the stairs and spotted a small elevator door set into the wall.

  “This way,” he said as he guided around the stairs toward the elevator. Liz felt a bit relieved.

  Moments later, they stepped off the elevator and walked a short distance to the left and stopped in front of Celia Parks’ door. Hal pressed the doorbell button and they could both hear a buzzer like sound on the other side of the door. They waited for a few seconds and when there didn’t seem to be any sound of activity from inside, Liz glanced impatiently at Hal, reached over in front of him and leaned on the buzzer. A sense of urgency welled up inside her and suddenly she felt that there might be something wrong. She removed her finger from the button, balled her fist and started pounding on the door.

  She staggered and almost fell forward as the door suddenly opened inward, her arm was still raised and her fist was pounding empty air. Celia grasped her by the wrist to hold her up. Surprise was on her face and she said,” Liz! Are you all right?”

  “Yeah, I’m all right,” Liz answered.” The question is, are you all right?”

  “Why, yes. Of Course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “No reason,” Liz said straightening herself.” Of course you’re all right. Why wouldn’t you be?” She gazed over Celia’s left shoulder and saw Ben MacCready standing in the living room behind her.

  “Hello, Liz. Hal,” the police chief flashed a smile. The ends of his bushy black mustache turned slightly upwards.” I got here early.”

  Celia closed the apartment door behind them as Liz and Hal made their way into the living room. Ben sat back down in the overstuffed chair he had been sitting in. Hal took the chair opposite him while Celia and Liz sat on the couch.

  “You’ve already been to the hospital, then?” Liz asked as she settled herself as comfortably as she could. She preferred a chair to a couch, but she didn’t complain.

  “Yes. And I’m pleased to say that Michael is much better. He was able to tell me what actually happened the other day. I have to admit that I thought, myself, that he had been hit deliberately by a cement truck, just to persuade him to keep off Arnold Pruitt’s back, but it turns out that it was nothing more than an accident after all. He had been sideswiped by a tractor trailer and the driver kept going. We’ve managed to track the man down. Turns out he’s a new driver. Just a kid. He was on his second run and was afraid he’d lose his job if he stopped and reported the accident.”

  “Then there was no attempt on Mike’s life after all. We were just jumping at shadows then?” Liz said.

  “We might better jump at shadows than to miss something lurking in the dark,” Ben said. Then he changed the subject.” So how are you today, Liz?” He said.” You look even more tired than you did the other day.”

  “I’ve missed my nap today. That’s all. But I’ll be all right.” She took a few lollipops from her coat pocket and held them out in an offer. No one accepted so she kept one out and put the others back.” I’m actually much better than when you saw me the other day.”

  The day after Liz’s ordeal at the hospital and her arrest for flashing, Hal had called the police station looking for his son, Tom, hoping for help against MacCready. Hal was surprised to find that Ben MacCready, himself had wanted to talk to him and Liz. He had assured them that he meant no harm to either of them and if they would meet with him, he could explain about a lot of things that had been happening of late. He offered to meet them in a public place, if that would be more agreeable to them.

  Liz and Hal finally agreed to meet with him at the thruway rest stop in Depew. Over coffee in a booth at the back of McDonald’s, MacCready explained that after Liz’s disappearance at the hospital, he had been concerned about her and had gone to Celia Parks’ apartment hoping to find her there. He had given Celia quite a scare for she thought he was a stalker. She had recognized his black Chevy that he had driven following Celia and Liz to Vinnie Porelli’s car dealership and then followed her home and watched her building for several hours.

  He had explained how he had seen Celia’s car parked in front of Liz’s house that first day he had gone to question her. When he had left Liz, the car was still there. Afraid that someone was stalking Liz, he had gone back to the police station, retrieved his own personal car and returned to keep watch. When Liz and Celia came out of the house, got in her car and drove away, he followed. He had recognized Celia as an attendant at the hospital where Liz had had the infusion and wondered what she was up to, so he followed her home.

  “How did you know who she was?” Liz had asked him.

  Ben seemed a bit hesitant to explain, but knew he had to in order to gain Liz and Hal’s trust. He just wasn’t quite sure how he should start it.

  “I had been shown pictures of her.” He paused. The others waited expectantly.” You see there was someone else at the hospital who worked with Celia that was not really who she thought she was.” He leveled his gaze at Liz.

  A quizzical expression clouded Liz’s face. Ben continued on before she could utter a question.

  “A month or so, ago,” Ben said.�
�� I was approached by a young lady who told me she was a free lance journalist. She was working on a story about terrorists and money laundering.”

  “What would that have to do with Celia?” Liz interjected.

  “Nothing,” Ben said reassuringly.” She just happened to be one of the people she met.”

  “Who…. . who is she?” Liz asked.

  Ben took a deep breath, let it out and said,” Shirley Robbins.”

  “Shirley Robbins!” Liz and Hal both said in unison.

  “But she’s a medical attendant.” Liz said.

  “Not really. As I said, she was a journalist. She got a job as a medical attendant just to get close to Doctor Blakeney.”

  “What does he have to do with anything?” Liz asked.

  “Plenty,” Ben answered.” He’s a link in a chain helping people channel ill gotten money into legitimate enterprises for the sole purpose of hiding the source of that money and redistributing it back in the form of new less recognizable funds.”

  “Money laundering, you called it,” Liz said.

  “Yes. A lot of money flows through oil and gas and pharmaceutical companies as investments. Blakeney, using his position at the hospital he has contacts with several pharmaceutical companies.”

  He looked straight at Liz.” One of those companies produces the experimental drug you were given through infusion.”

  “Does that mean…. . ?” Liz started to say, but Ben cut in.

  “We don’t know if that means anything about what happened to you and the Pruitt woman. All we know is that money had been funneled through Blakeney and a lot of money had its origin from right here in Mandalyn. That’s why Shirley had come to me. She had asked my help in finding out who, in our town could have access to that kind of money.”

  “So that’s why you were out with her. I saw a picture of you in a photo album and Deb and I thought…”

  “And Deb thought I was out cheating on my wife,” Ben completed.

  “Well yes. It did look suspicious and…. . Hey! Wait a minute. Deb said you have the album. How did you get it?”

  “I’m sorry. Liz, but I was still wondering what was going on and I was still following you the day you took it back to that lady. After you left her, I went to the door and asked what you were doing there. She rambled on something about the album that I didn’t understand, so I confiscated it. I took it back to the office but didn’t find anything interesting about it.” He turned to Hal.” It was Tom who found the picture with me and Shirley in the background. In light of what had happened earlier in the week, I decided to keep it under wraps. I didn’t want anyone questioning me about knowing Shirley.”

  “I don’t understand,” Liz said.

  “Because Shirley Robbins is dead.”

  There was complete silence at the table for a moment or two.

  “You see,” MacCready continued.” The girl killed in a car accident a while back was Shirley Robbins. And I don’t think it was an accident. The car went over the bank all right, but I think she was dead before it happened. I think the car had been deliberately pushed.”

  “You think someone from around here did it?” Liz asked, her voice seeming small.

  “Yes. I do,” MacCready said emphatically.” Shirley had left me a voicemail on my cell that night that she was afraid she was being followed. You see she had been at the hospital late at night and had found documents that would blow the case wide open.”

  “She knew who from Mandalyn was involved then?” Liz said.

  “I think so. She didn’t say and she never got the chance to tell me. There were no documents in the car when we found her.”

  “Do you have any suspicions as to who it was?” Hal said.

  Ben sighed heavily.” Yes, I do.”

  Now several days later there in Celia Parks’ apartment they were meeting again.” Has there been any fallout since the town meeting?” Liz asked

  Ben chuckled to himself.” Yes. There has been. The Mayor and Martin Callan came to see me yesterday.” He glanced at Liz and smiled.” Seems you did a good job at the meeting. I wasn’t sure whether it whether Lew Drum was in on the money laundering scheme or not. Him being the town banker and all. He certainly could have access to large amounts of money. I never did understand how he was able to open his own bank and make a go of it. I did hear that he had come into some money through an inheritance. I know his first wife had money.”

  “But now you think it’s Martin Callan for sure,” Liz put in.

  “Yes,” Ben said.” He certainly seemed eager to make an issue out of your complaint. Looks like our plan worked. I figured that whichever one of them was involved would see this as an opportunity to move me out of the way.”

  “Well, I’m glad it wasn’t Lew,” Liz said.” After all that has been happening to that man. I wouldn’t want to see him have more problems.” Then she said,” But where did Martin get all that money?”

  “I don’t know,” Ben said.” He had some money that his father left him, but I know it wasn’t much. That old stone quarry that his father owned had been closed for years before he died, so there couldn’t have been much left.”

  “I didn’t know his father owned the stone quarry,” Liz mused.” You mean the same one that Joe was found beaten up in.”

  “Yes. That’s right,” MacCready caught himself and changed his tone.” Hey, now wait a minute. Don’t start jumping ahead of ourselves and start speculating that Callan had anything to do with what happened to Joe.”

  “Where did the money come from to start the farm equipment dealership and send Roger to college and medical school? That never occurred to me before,” Liz said.

  “I don’t know,” Ben answered.” But if it had been gotten legitimately, there would be no reason to launder it.”

  “So what are you going to do now?” Hal asked.

  MacCready looked Hal straight in the face and said grimly.” The only thing we can do is continue with the plan.”

  Hal looked from MacCready to Liz and back. His face was pale with concern.

  “I know it’s putting Liz in danger, Hal. But Liz is willing to do it. I promise I’ll be on it all the way.”

  “If you can,” Hal said grimly.” What happens if you can’t.”

  “Let’s try to not think about that for now,” Ben said, then turned to Liz.

  “Did you make the appointment with Blakeney.”

  “Roger is going to take care of it. He’ll call me when he has it set.”

  “Would someone mind telling me what is going on here?” Celia piped up.

  “Ben and I thought we would try to unnerve Doctor Blakeney. Maybe make someone else nervous. I went to my doctor today and asked for another infusion process. He didn’t think it was a good idea, but I told him I wanted it anyhow.”

  “How is that going to help?”

  “Ben thought if I could meet with Blakeney, I might hint that I know something about what’s going on at the hospital. It might rattle him enough to contact Callan, if it really is him.”

  “I just hope it doesn’t push them into harming Liz,” Hal said.” She’s already had a couple of attempts on her life. If they killed the Robbins girl, what would prevent them from killing again?”

  “We don’t know if those incidents had anything to do with this,” MacCready came back.” Somehow those things just don’t seem to fit.”

 

  *****

  Chapter Twenty Seven