Changing Fortune Cookies

by P. D. Workman

  Terry nodded. “Hopefully,” he agreed cautiously.

  Erin wanted to hear a resounding ‘yes,’ and she imagined that Campbell did too. She looked at Cam, then back at Terry, and changed the subject.

  “Does Detective Coleman want us to stay here to talk to him, or can we go?”

  Terry rubbed the back of his neck, thinking about it. “He’s probably got enough to deal with here tonight and tomorrow morning. I don’t know what he’ll need from you. I’ll talk to him. Suggest that we all stay in Whitewater tonight so that he can have access to you tomorrow.”

  “I want to go to the hospital,” Campbell said immediately. “Are they taking him to the little one here or to the city?”

  “To the city.”

  “Then I want to go there.”

  “Okay… I’ll let him know that you’ll be in the city with Joshua and Mary Lou. And Erin and I can stay here at the hotel.”

  Cam nodded. Terry went back over to Coleman to talk to him again, then spoke with Sheriff Wilmot, who was watching the proceedings with interest. He returned to the truck. “Yeah. That’s fine. Let’s go back to Whitewater first and check in.” His eyes met Erin’s. “I’m sure Erin will want to stop at the hospital for a few minutes before we retire.”

  She nodded her agreement. She couldn’t stop herself from yawning, suddenly realizing what a long day it had been.

  “You move over,” Terry instructed. “I’m driving. Cam, hop in the back.”

  They all swapped seats, and Terry climbed up into the driver’s seat, where he painstakingly adjusted the seat, mirrors, and air vents. Erin melted back into the warm spot Cam had left in the passenger seat and closed her eyes. It wouldn’t hurt to rest them while they drove to the hotel to check in.

  Chapter 50

  Erin awoke when the car stopped. She rubbed her eyes, opened them, and stretched. She felt remarkably refreshed after the brief nap. Terry looked over at her and smiled.

  “Better?”

  “Yeah. Much.” Erin looked out the window and instead of seeing the hotel, saw the big red brick hospital. She blinked and frowned and turned back to him. “I thought we were going back to Whitewater to check in first.”

  He grinned. “We did.”

  “We did?”

  “Well, I did. You snored.”

  Erin giggled, embarrassed. “I don’t snore.”

  “Well, you make a cute little rumbling noise when you sleep. You must have caught Orange Blossom’s purr.”

  Erin looked over the seat at Campbell to say something about how she didn’t snore, and found him sprawled on the back seat, limbs in every direction, dead to the world.

  “I guess I wasn’t the only one who needed a nap.”

  “He probably hasn’t had much sleep since Joshua was taken.”

  “Yeah. You’re right.” Erin undid her seatbelt and reached over the seat, having to climb halfway over to reach Campbell and give him a good shake. “Hey, sleepyhead. We’re here.”

  Terry snickered at her calling Cam a sleepyhead. But at least she had woken up when they had stopped. Campbell hadn’t.

  Cam grunted, flailed, and sat up gasping, like he’d been holding his breath underwater. “What?” he sputtered.

  He looked around. Gradually, the wild look left his eyes as everything came back to him. “We found him, right? Tell me that wasn’t just a dream.”

  “We found him,” Erin agreed.

  “Thank goodness. Let’s go in.”

  He had his seatbelt off and was out the door before Erin, striding toward the hospital’s big front doors.

  Joshua was in a private room in the ICU. Erin was anxious. She had assumed that since the only things wrong with Josh were that he hadn’t had enough to drink or been able to move around, he would just be in a regular hospital room. Once he’d had a couple of glasses of water and the chance to get used to having his feet under him again, he would be fine.

  But it was more serious than that. Mary Lou whispered to them while they gathered around his bedside. It was probably a violation of the visitor rules for the ICU for them all to be there, and K9 but, as a police officer, Terry tended to get a little leeway on some of the rules.

  “They have him on an IV to rehydrate. The detective gave him some water, but it isn’t enough. They have to do IV to get his blood volume back up as quickly as they can safely. That will boost his blood pressure and help his heart to work the right way. But they’re worried about his kidneys too because he was so dehydrated. They’ll have to watch his fluid output for a few days and make sure his kidneys can both function.”

  “Poor guy.” Erin looked down at Joshua, who appeared to be sleeping peacefully. “Has he been awake? Has he said anything? Can he identify Kim?”

  “He hasn’t really been able to talk. He recognized me. The doctors said that’s good, because being that dehydrated can cause brain damage too. When he starts to get better… He’ll be able to talk to Detective Coleman and hopefully tell him everything he needs to know about Kim Brandon.”

  Erin looked at Terry. “They have enough to arrest her, don’t they? I mean, the stuff that was in the trunk of her car…”

  “They have to have enough evidence to get a warrant to search her car,” Terry reminded her. “They can’t just bust their way in there and look in it. And if she figures out that they’ve found Joshua, she could destroy everything and run before they get a chance to find anything. That’s why you’re supposed to wait and let the police do their job, so they can gather the evidence that will be needed to convict Kim. They can’t just lock her away on your say-so.”

  “I know. But I thought…”

  “Your eyewitness testimony, on breaking into the vehicle, is not enough to get a warrant. Coleman needs corroborating proof.”

  “But we have that.”

  “No. You were acting on a theory. One that could just as easily have been wrong.”

  “But it was right. We found Joshua.” Erin looked down at him on the bed. He looked so small and young. So vulnerable. “I’m not sorry we did what we did. How much longer would he have lasted if we hadn’t?”

  She looked at Mary Lou, hoping that she agreed. She wouldn’t be so intent on having Kim locked up forever that she would rather have waited another day or two, would she? She would rather have her son back than justice, if she had to choose between the two.

  Mary Lou nodded. She stroked Joshua’s hair.

  “He didn’t have much longer,” Terry agreed. He didn’t add that he still wasn’t sure whether Joshua would recover, but Erin heard it in his voice. She hoped it wasn’t true. Joshua would get better. He was young and healthy before the abduction. His kidneys would kick back in. He would do a little physio and be back on his feet again. Everything would go back to the way it was before the kidnapping.

  “So… what are the police going to do?” Campbell asked.

  With the work that he did with Beaver, he probably knew a good amount about police procedure. He wanted to hear how it was going to go down.

  “I don’t have all of those details,” Terry said. “I’m not part of it, so I haven’t been fully briefed. But I gather that they’ll fall back tonight and put Kim Brandon under surveillance. They won’t tip her off that anyone has been at that farm. They’ll clean everything up so that it looks pristine, and wait to see if she goes back for Joshua.”

  “Assuming that it wasn’t her plan to just leave him there to die,” Cam said.

  “She was going back every day or two,” Erin pointed out. “According to the GPS. So she should go out there sometime today.”

  “As long as it doesn’t hit the news,” Terry advised. “They’re trying to keep it all under wraps, but there was a lot of activity tonight. It’s going to be hard to convince all of the neighbors to keep quiet until the police can make the announcement after they have Brandon in custody.”

  There were a lot of ifs. But Erin was confident that they would be able to catch Kim going back to the farm. It had t
o work.

  “We’re going to get her,” she promised Cam.

  Chapter 51

  Of course, Erin couldn’t be a part of the surveillance team watching Kim’s house. And she couldn’t be at the abandoned farm to watch the sting go down if Kim went back there.

  She didn’t even know what Kim looked like.

  So after she woke up early the next morning—even when she wasn’t working at the bakery and had been up most of the night, her body’s internal alarm wouldn’t let her sleep late—she moped around the hotel room, looking out the window, hoping to see some part of the takedown in progress.

  But all was quiet on the streets of Whitewater, especially so early in the morning. Terry groaned at her a few times to go back to bed, but she wasn’t going to be able to sleep and her tossing and turning would only keep him awake.

  The only thing that she could see in downtown Whitewater that was open so early was a local coffee shop. Not one of the big chains that dominated the city, but an independent store. Like Auntie Clem’s Bakery. She was happy to support a local, independent business, so she decided to go down and get herself a cup of coffee. And she could get Terry a coffee, which would hopefully stay hot enough in its insulated cup, and a danish for when he decided to wake up and join the land of the living.

  She grabbed her purse and her card key and scribbled a note on the hotel stationery before leaving so that Terry would know where to find her if he woke up while she was still out. Which she thought was doubtful. She tiptoed around K9, who raised his head to look at her and then put it back down again and closed his eyes.

  The air of the coffee shop was thick with the fragrance of fresh coffee and baking. They probably didn’t make their own pastries on site, so there must be a bakery open somewhere close by, where bakers like Erin and Vic were following their usual morning routine to get all of their fresh breads, muffins, and pastries baked, making sure that the coffee shop got the first batch so that they would have warm, freshly baked goods ready for their early-morning traffic.

  Erin had been planning to order only a cup of coffee. She didn’t need any extra calories to pad her waist. She normally would just have a piece of toast and tea for her early breakfast, and then have something more substantial for her lunch. But the baking smelled so inviting that she couldn’t resist. She didn’t have any work to keep her hands busy and keep her mind off of eating deliciously high-calorie treats like she normally did. It was different being a customer, planning to just sit down and have a leisurely cup of coffee.

  So she ordered a nice, healthy, low-calorie bran muffin. Then she canceled the muffin and went for a couple of danishes, one for her and one for Terry. She could go for a walk while waiting for him to wake up and burn off the extra calories.

  She watched the other patrons. Most of them were known to the staff, who called them by name and knew their orders before they placed them. People didn’t seem stressed out in the before-work rush. They were relaxed and enjoying their coffee rituals.

  A couple of nurses in smocks walked in. Coming off of shift rather than going on, Erin thought. They weren’t bright-eyed and ready to start their day. They looked ready for bed. They ordered a tea and a soft drink rather than caffeinated drinks, and a couple of muffins to eat as their before-bed snack. The one who had ordered tea turned around while she waited for it, scanning the other customers, maybe looking for another nurse who should be there. Erin smiled pleasantly at her, feeling friendly and full of well-being from the delicious danish pastry. The woman nodded an acknowledgment and continued to look around. She had a heart-shaped face, blond hair that was a little sweaty and tousled from her shift at the hospital, and friendly blue eyes.

  Erin thought she had probably seen the woman before. Maybe during the cooking contest. She had met a lot of different people during the competition. It had been chaotic, lots of introductions, hands to shake, personal stories to listen to. Only a few of them stuck with her.

  The heart-shaped face turned back to her and the woman’s eyes went over Erin again. Maybe also remembering that they had been introduced during the cooking contest.

  The barista was holding a cup out toward the nurse. “Kim? Kim? Miss Brandon?”

  Kim didn’t take it. She remembered who Erin was. And she knew that Erin didn’t belong there in Whitewater. She turned and bolted out of the coffee shop, leaving her friend and the barista staring after her, mouths open.

  Erin jumped to her feet and ran to the window to watch Kim go. There was no point in trying to chase her. What was she going to do? Put the woman under arrest? Based on evidence that the police still didn’t have?

  Kim ran down the street and turned, disappearing from sight. Back home, where her car was parked. If she’d been at the hospital on shift, why had she left the vehicle at home?

  Maybe someone had picked her up. She had carpooled. Or she liked to walk over when the weather was pleasant. But whatever the reason she hadn’t had the car with her at the hospital, she was on her way to get it now. And then she was going to run, and keep on running.

  Erin fumbled with her phone. It took her several misplaced taps and swipes before she managed to search for Coleman’s phone number. Then, her phone seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of time to filter down to his contact entry and display it on the screen. She tapped and waited for the call to go through. It rang and rang, going through to his voicemail.

  Erin hung up and started walking toward the police station. She tapped his number again, hoping that if he saw her number come up twice in a row, he would realize that it was an urgent matter. Did Whitewater have 9-1-1 service? Should she try?

  “Detective Coleman.” His voice was a snap in her ear.

  “It’s Erin Price. I just saw Kim Brandon in the coffee shop and—”

  “I thought you didn’t know what she looked like.”

  “I didn’t. But I heard the barista call her by name, and she was looking at me. She realized who I am and—”

  He swore. “Did you talk to her?”

  “No. She just saw me across the coffee shop. She ran away. Left her order there and just ran back to her house.”

  “Stay away from her. Don’t follow her, do you understand?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “But nothing. I’ve heard how fast and loose you play with the law, and I want to make this clear. If you go after her, if you follow her even at a distance, you will find yourself in a jail cell.”

  “I didn’t. She ran away and I called you. I’m walking toward the police station, in case I couldn’t get you on the phone.”

  “Okay. I’m not there. I’ll interview you later in the day. In the meantime, I need you to stay out of the way of my operation.”

  “I am.”

  “We have people watching her house and the farm. She’s not going to get anywhere, but she might lead us to the evidence that we need.”

  “What if she destroys the evidence in her car?”

  “I told you. We have eyes on her. If she throws something out, we’ll see her do it and recover it. If she torches the car or something stupid like that, we’ll have officers right there.”

  “And if she goes to the farm, then that’s evidence that she is the one who kidnapped Joshua.”

  “Or at least, she knew about it. Each piece of evidence is only one part of the story. We need to add them all together before there will be enough to convict her of anything.”

  “Yeah.” Erin took a deep breath. She stopped walking. There was no point in running to the police station when he wasn’t there. She would go back to the hotel.

  First, she would go back to the coffee shop and grab the food she had left on her table, assuming it hadn’t already been cleared away.

  “Do you have someone watching her grandma at the hospital too? I don’t know if Kim was doing something to make Deidre sick or just waiting for nature to take its course, but… if she thinks that I’m on to her, I wouldn’t want her to do anything desperate…”


  “Killing her grandma wouldn’t accomplish anything if she didn’t get her inheritance before leaving town. But yes, I’ve got someone at the hospital, too. A little more tricky, since she knows the staff there.”

  “I guess it would be,” Erin agreed. She wondered who they had there. Someone pretending to be janitorial staff? A fake patient or a visitor watching from behind a newspaper? “I guess I should let you go. Sorry, I wasn’t trying to get in the middle of things… she just walked into the coffee shop and recognized me.”

  “No problem, Miss Price. And… thank you.”

  Erin nodded and hung up.

  Chapter 52

  When Coleman came calling, Terry was up, sipping his coffee and eating the danish Erin had managed to recover.

  Coleman knocked on the hotel room door. Erin let him in. She looked around. There wasn’t really anywhere for a sit-down meeting in the room. She sat on the bed and Terry moved from the one chair at the writing desk and motioned for Coleman to take it. He sat down with Erin on the bed, brushing flaky crumbs off of his face. K9 lay where he was in the middle of the floor, sighing loudly.

  “Kim Brandon has been arrested for Joshua’s kidnapping,” Coleman announced.

  Erin let out a breath of relief. “Oh, I’m so glad! Thank you!”

  “We’re still building the case against her, but we have enough to get the warrants we need to search her house and car, her workplace, and grandmother’s hospital room. We’ve pretty much finished with the farm buildings, but we’ll have evidence techs go over it one more time to be sure we’ve got everything.”

  “With what was in the car, you should have enough…?”

  “We’ll see. Nothing is ever one hundred percent, but there isn’t much that would explain away a kidnap kit in the trunk. Especially with needles and prescription drugs stolen from the hospital to sedate him or keep him compliant.”

  “How did she get them?” Erin shook her head. “I thought those things were all inventoried and kept under lock and key.”