“Is that why you ran?” I asked.
Gayle started to cry. “If I had stayed, Bob might have lived.”
Frank put his arm around Gayle. “You’re a kid, try to remember that.”
“I wanted a way to remember my dad after he died. I sort of knew what he had been doing with Bob because in the end, when he was really sick, he just started telling me all this crazy stuff. He was so mad that ordinary people were dying just because they didn’t have insurance. After he died, I asked Bob if I could help. I showed him the Other Life site, and that’s how we started to safely communicate with patients and with each other.” Gayle looked sheepishly at us. “I liked it, you know? I felt like I had done something real.”
“But then the pressure kicked in,” Frank said.
Gayle nodded. “People really needed help, hundreds of them. Lonnie freaked out a few weeks ago. He was afraid to lose his job and his insurance and he wasn’t, like, a healthy guy. Then Bob started to worry that the storage guy had gotten suspicious about our interest in the warehouse computers. It’s a little weird to keep asking about a warehouse full of rotting computers.”
Frank nodded and turned to me. I said, “So Lonnie wanted Bob to shut down the scam?”
“Yeah,” she said. “He was afraid his boss had already figured it out, and he was afraid of the storage guy. He was afraid they were doing something criminal, and he’d end up in jail.”
It was quite possible they could have all ended up in jail.
“And you saw Lonnie push Bob?” Frank asked.
Gayle nodded. “But like I said, I don’t think he meant to kill Bob.”
I couldn’t bear the suspense any longer. “How did you find out about me?”
“That was pretty easy.” She smiled. “My aunt told me to be aware of anyone named Prentice. I figured if I had to be on the lookout, I might as well know who to look for. I read everything I could find about the Prentice family.”
“When do you get your homework done?” I asked.
“I’m failing,” she laughed, and then her face fell. “I wished I had found you first. Instead I made the mistake of finding your father.”
“Where did you find him?”
“He owns an apartment in the city. I went to your family’s house. Huge, by the way. I looked through the mailbox a few times, maybe I opened some stuff. No big deal.”
Frank rolled his eyes and added postal fraud to the list of his niece’s offenses.
“Anyway I realized pretty quickly he would be a problem for me, because once I made contact, he tweeked out.”
“Is that when you dyed your hair.”
“Yup.” She tossed her head a few times. “It sucks. I know.”
“So how did you get to me?”
“I raided my aunt’s home office and dug up everything I could find about the labs. That’s how I found Liz James.” Gayle rolled her eyes. “Five hundred dollars later, she gave me the information I wanted. I borrowed the money from Bob, but he made me tell him why first.”
“So he knew you and I were possibly related?” I asked.
“Oh yeah. He even drove me to Liz’s apartment to make sure it was legit.”
“What did he say when he found out?”
“You ever see his chin when he laughed?” Gayle said, spinning her finger from her chin to her chest.
The pinball tilt, I thought. What a wonderful memory to share with Gayle.
“I’d like to share something with you,” I said to Gayle.
“Shoot.”
“First, there was a wonderful man named Teddy who I believe is your biological father. He passed away, but he had a twin brother.” I nodded in Frank’s direction and Gayle’s mouth dropped.
“Okay,” she said slowly as she took in her biological uncle.
“You should also know that Dr. Prentice has a wife. My mother.”
“I have a grandmother?”
“Yes, and she’s a trip. You’ll totally love her.”
“If she’s that cool what did she see in Dr. Prentice?”
“Not a whole lot,” I said, and then paused. “That’s why he’s not actually my father.”
“Seriously?” Gayle seemed relieved. “I guess I’m glad about that. Will I meet your father too?”
I shrugged. “I’ve never met him.”
Gayle laughed. “This is gonna get good.”
the end
© Tina Hoerenz
About the Author
Deirdre Verne (Scarsdale, NY) is a college professor and active blogger. A writer whose target audience is the millennium crowd, Deirdre’s interest in green living inspired her to create an off-the-grid character who Dumpster dives her way though a suspense-filled mystery series. A member of Sisters in Crime, Deirdre’s short stories have appeared in all three of the New York chapter’s anthologies: Murder New York Style, Murder New York Style: Fresh Slices, and Family Matters.
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