“Of course they are. We’re trying to sort out the details. But I would say that as a nurse, she found ways around the system. She had legitimate access to them, it was just a numbers game.”
“So she took more than she was supposed to?”
“Maybe said that a patient needed a higher dosage than they did, and pocketed the extra.”
“Devious.” Terry shook his head.
“Whatever we can or cannot prove, I think we can agree she is that.”
The drive back to Bald Eagle Falls was quiet. Too quiet. Erin could hear K9 panting in the back seat. She knew that Terry was not happy with her for taking the truck and going to Whitewater Junction when he had said not to. She had known that he and the sheriff didn’t want her to investigate. She was just supposed to stay out of the way and let them sort everything else.
But Erin couldn’t let a friend suffer while she stood back and waited for the police to go through the proper channels. She had risked derailing the investigation and the police not being able to file charges against Kim. But Joshua’s life had to come first.
If they argued about it, they would just go around and around in circles. Erin knew that. Terry would be sure that he was right and she would be sure that she had done the right thing. She wouldn’t be able to change his mind.
So they were both quiet. She waited for him to start lecturing and criticizing her for using his truck to do something ill-advised and illegal. But he didn’t. They both knew that was something that could never be resolved between them. And Erin didn’t know where that left them. Was Terry willing to accept that discord in their relationship? Could Erin?
Forever?
Chapter 53
Back in Bald Eagle Falls, life was normal. Everyone was happy to hear that Joshua had been found and were confident that he would recover easily. Kids were resilient. They bounced back faster than you would think. Erin hoped that was the case. She had seen the damage neglect and confinement had done to kids younger than Joshua.
She went by Auntie Clem’s Bakery in the afternoon to check in with Charley and Bella and make sure that everything was going all right. She updated her shopping and task lists as she walked around.
“Smooth sailing,” Charley assured Erin. “We can hold things together when you have something you need to do.”
“I’m so glad you found Josh,” Bella said. “I was so scared… when it’s been more than a day or two, you know that things don’t look good…”
Erin nodded. She felt like she had come through a long, dark, tunnel. She had been very worried. Afraid to even hope that they would be able to find him alive. But she had come out the other end of the tunnel. She could breathe again.
“Were you going to take some more baking over to the Fosters?” Charley asked. “I set some things aside for them.”
“Did you? That’s a great idea. Yes, I’ll take them over now. Have you heard anything? I think she was confined to bed.”
Bella nodded. “I think this one has been pretty hard on her. But it’s not supposed to be much longer.”
“She’s a great mom, but having that many young kids must be so hard.”
“Some women really love having a full house. I’m not sure I’d be able to manage.”
Charley shook her head. “I always wanted siblings growing up, but I think that’s too many. She needs to take care of herself. Get Mr. Foster snipped.”
Bella’s eyes got big and round, shocked. Charley laughed.
“Okay… I’m going to take some bread over to them,” Erin decided. Bella would have to fend for herself with Charley.
No children were playing in the yard this time. Erin rang the doorbell, and there wasn’t a mad stampede for the door. It was opened a few minutes later by a man Erin didn’t know. Mr. Foster, she presumed. He was unshaven, hair tousled, his wrinkled shirt and slightly sweaty odor testifying to the fact that she had probably woken him up. She didn’t know if he were a shift worker. He hadn’t been there when she had dropped by before.
“Hi,” he said tiredly, looking her over.
“Hi, Mr. Foster. I’m Erin Price. I own the bakery?”
“Oh!” His eyes brightened. “You’re a really good baker! I wouldn’t believe that all of the things my wife brings home are gluten-free, except they don’t make Peter sick, so I know they are. It’s amazing what you can do.”
Erin’s face was hot. “Thank you so much! I love to bake for people, and Peter especially. He’s such a great little guy.”
Mr. Foster nodded his agreement.
Erin made a little motion with the box she was carrying. “I brought some more supplies.”
“Sure.” He reached for his wallet in his back pocket. “How much do I owe you?”
“Oh, this is just a gift to help your wife while she’s indisposed. You don’t owe me anything.”
He paused, hand on his jeans pocket. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. Please. Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay.” He took the box from her. “Would you like to come in and see the little guy?”
“Oh, she had the baby?”
He nodded, a warm smile spreading across his whiskery face. “Just a few hours ago.”
“Wow! Yes, I’d love to see him. Him—it is a boy?”
“Yes.”
“Peter must be tickled. Another boy in the family!”
“Believe me, he is. Come on in.”
Erin followed him into the house. Everything was quiet. Maybe a neighbor had taken the kids after school, or they had all been up late with the arrival of the new baby and were now napping to catch up. Mr. Foster led Erin into the master bedroom. It was warm and dark and close. Mrs. Foster was propped up in the bed.
“It’s Miss Price,” Mr. Foster announced. “With another care package.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” Mrs. Foster said softly. “But I can’t tell you what a help it has been the last couple of weeks. Peter has been able to make sandwiches for the girls, or to warm up some soup with a roll. I couldn’t be up and around at all.”
“He told me that. I’m glad it helped.”
Mr. Foster went to the bassinet beside the bed. He carefully lifted out a little bundle wrapped tightly in a light blanket. “And here’s the new addition to the Foster family.”
Erin received him in her arms. He was so small and so perfect. She always said she didn’t know if she were ready for children, or if she ever wanted to be a mother but, in a moment like this, when she held a newborn in her arms, it was a totally different story. Her heart yearned for one of her own.
“Oh, he’s so precious. Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” Mrs. Foster said.
Mr. Foster slipped out to put the box of baking in the kitchen. Erin stroked the downy hair on the top of the baby’s head.
“Does he have a name yet?”
“We’re thinking of Alan. But haven’t decided yet. We’ll see what fits in the next few days.”
Erin swayed back and forth, rocking the baby.
“Come here.” Mrs. Foster patted the edge of the bed. Erin sat down, holding the baby so that Mrs. Foster could take him back if she wanted to. Mrs. Foster just stroked his cheek and let Erin hold him.
“I can’t imagine how hard it has been for Mary Lou Cox to go through what she has with Joshua. I don’t know what I would do if someone took my baby away from me. Or any of my kids, of course. It must be an absolute nightmare. The poor woman.”
Erin was happy to be able to report the good news. “We found him last night. The woman who kidnapped him was arrested this morning.”
“And he’s okay?” Mrs. Foster’s eyes filled with tears.
“He’s alive. He’s in ICU today, and probably for a few days, while they get him back on his feet again.”
“Oh.” She let out a long breath. “I’m so glad. You said ‘we’ found him? You?”
“Me and Mary Lou and Campbell. We kind of figured out who it must have been, and we went to W
hitewater, and we were lucky in a lot of ways…”
“That’s fantastic news.” Mrs. Foster shook her head. “I don’t know how you do it. It really doesn’t make any sense. You’re not a policeman or even a private investigator. But you know, just by seeing things and listening to people, like with Peter…”
Erin nodded. “Yeah. I’m sorry about Peter. Sorry that he was involved in those last couple of cases. I know it bothered you.”
Mrs. Foster had been quite clear about that fact. And she had stopped letting the children go with her to Auntie Clem’s, despite how much they loved picking out their own cookies.
“Let’s put it behind us,” Mrs. Foster suggested. “I don’t want to say don’t ever involve him in a case again. I think that you do a lot of good, but I worry about what could happen to him. Especially looking at Joshua. If it’s that easy to take a teenage boy, just think about how simple it would be to snatch Peter or one of the girls. But if you think one of them might know something… would you please come to me?”
Erin nodded. She could feel herself flushing and was glad that the room was dim so that Mrs. Foster couldn’t see how red she got. “Of course. Yes. I’ll try to do that. I don’t expect to be investigating any other crimes, though.”
Mrs. Foster laughed and shook her head. “Oh, sure. I’m sure that will be the last time.”
Chapter 54
Erin knew that Joshua was out of the hospital. She hesitated on the front steps, taking a deep breath before ringing the bell. While things had eventually worked out with Mary Lou, she still wasn’t sure whether she would be accepted when a family member’s life wasn’t on the line. Things might have gone back to the way they were before Joshua had disappeared. Mary Lou might accept that Erin hadn’t had anything to do with Joshua’s disappearance, and acknowledge that she had helped to find Joshua and bring him home safely, but that didn’t necessarily mean that they were friends again.
The door opened. It was Campbell. He smiled and nodded. “Hi, Miss Erin. Come on in.”
“Is it okay?” Erin asked, trying to see around him to make sure that it was really okay with Mary Lou.
“Come on,” he repeated, stepping back and motioning Erin forward. Erin followed him a little reticently.
Joshua was sitting on the couch. Despite the fact that it was warm out, he was wrapped in a blanket. He pulled it closer to him as he turned to see who had come in. His tense expression relaxed a little when he saw Erin.
“Oh. Hi. Mom just went upstairs for something, but she’ll be back in a minute.”
Erin sat in one of the chairs. “How are you feeling?”
“Still pretty weak. They said I’ll probably recover pretty quickly.”
Erin nodded. He looked thin and pale. Who knew what kind of damage there was that they couldn’t see? Not just to his organs, but to his mind.
It was hard for her to understand what it must have been like for him. She had been abandoned in a cave, and most of the time she had been unconscious. But to have an experience like that to go on for days… bound in the darkness, not knowing if his captor would come back again, or would ever let him go…
Joshua’s eyes hovered on Erin for a few seconds, and then flitted around the room, anxious, looking for danger. Erin put her purse down slowly so that he wouldn’t be startled by her movement.
“I’m sorry that it took us so long to find you. I should have been able to figure it all out sooner.”
“You did your best. I’m glad that you guys did find me. She said that it wouldn’t be much longer. And I didn’t think she was going to let me go.”
Erin’s heart felt like it was being squeezed. She breathed through the pain. “You must have been terrified.”
“I wasn’t… I figured… it would be better to be dead.”
“What an evil woman. I don’t know how someone could hurt you like that. You never did anything to harm her.”
“I guess… she thought I was going to. That I’d get all of her money taken away—or all of her grandma’s money.” He stared at the tree outside the window. “I never thought what I was doing might hurt anyone.”
“You were just trying to find out the truth.”
“But that has consequences.” He shook his head. “I never thought of the people. I thought… reporters just report. I never thought that what they do actually makes a difference, changes things.”
“But that doesn’t make it wrong. If they were laundering money through the contest, then that’s hurting people. That needs to be stopped.”
“But taking the money from the people who thought they were just getting prize money for submitting a recipe to a contest…? That’s not really fair to them.”
Erin didn’t really have an answer to that.
“Are they going to lose their money?”
“I don’t know. It’s all going to be investigated. I don’t know if they freeze everyone’s assets while they do that.”
Erin thought about the woman lying in the bed in the hospital. She was past caring about whether they froze the assets or not. Kim had been thinking of her own selfish desires, not her grandmother’s.
She heard footsteps on the stairs and turned to watch Mary Lou descending.
“Oh, Erin. I thought I heard voices.”
Erin rose partway out of her seat to greet Mary Lou, but the woman waved her down. “Make yourself comfortable. You’re practically family here.”
There was suddenly a big lump in Erin’s throat. Family?
“You helped us find Joshua. You helped out when Campbell had his trouble. And you were one of the only ones who stood beside us when Roger… had to go away. Even though he had targeted you. I’d say that makes you part of the family.”
Mary Lou put her hand on Erin’s shoulder and gave it a little squeeze as she walked behind Erin to the other chair. She sat down.
“I need to apologize for the way that I treated you.”
“You were worried about Joshua.”
“That’s no excuse. I let someone manipulate me and thought that you were my enemy instead of my friend. I should have known better from everything you have done in the past. I should have seen what was going on in front of my own eyes.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Oh, Erin. I’m trying to apologize.”
Erin pressed her lips together and nodded. “Yeah. Sorry. I accept.”
Mary Lou smiled. “Good. I won’t ever let that happen again. I know who my friends are.”
“What about Vic?”
“Yes, Miss Victoria too. I’m sorry for flying off the handle about that escapade in the city… I wish I had known at the time, but I’m glad I didn’t. You were trying to protect Josh and help Cam, but… I wonder if there might have been a better way to go about it.”
“I wouldn’t doubt it,” Erin admitted. “I don’t always make the best choice.”
“No…” Mary Lou’s voice wobbled a little as she decided what to say. “But you always try.”
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Preview of Hot on the Trail Mix
Chapter 1
Erin pushed Orange Blossom to the side with her foot, ignoring his meows of protest, so that she could get into the pantry cupboard for the food she had set aside for Vic. In order to keep him from getting into something that would make him sick Blossom was not allowed in the pantry, even though it had now been determined that he hadn’t gotten sick from
getting into something he shouldn’t have, but had been intentionally poisoned. It was still safest if she only fed him cat food she knew to be safe. Or meat that she prepared for him while making her own meals.
“I made you some sandwiches too, they’re in the fridge.”
Vic, a slim transgender woman, Erin’s best friend and employee at the bakery, opened the fridge. Orange Blossom hurried over to her to see if Vic would be more cooperative about feeding him. Erin grabbed what she needed and shut the pantry.
“I made these granola bars. See what you think. I made some of them with certified gluten-free rolled oats, and some with buckwheat flakes. So the people who can’t tolerate oats still have an option as well. If you can’t really tell the difference, I’ll just make the buckwheat, so I don’t have to make two different kinds.”
Vic nodded. “They look good. No nuts?” Vic knew that Auntie Clem’s didn’t sell anything containing nuts. But of course, granola bars frequently had nuts.
“No. I put in some pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. And some raisins and goji berries. And I made this trail mix.” Erin put a baggie down on the counter. “Sunflower seeds, hemp seed, and chia—loads of protein.”
Vic swept her long, blond hair out of her face as she leaned over and packed the goodies into her backpack. “Sounds great. This should be more than enough to get us through the day.”
“Make sure you have plenty of water.”
“We do.” Vic pulled the zipper of the pack closed. “You sure you don’t want to come along with us?” she teased.
Erin flashed back to being trapped underground—no light, no water, bound hand and foot with no idea how to get out of the labyrinthine caves. She had been terrified she was going to die there, injured and alone. No one would be able to find her. She wouldn’t be able to find her own way out. The oxygen had been thin and she had been dehydrated.
Changing Fortune Cookies Page 26
