Disappearing Nine Patch (A Harriet Truman/Loose Threads Mystery Book 9)
Page 8
He reached a hand over and took Harriet’s. His was soft and warm, she noted. He kept his eyes on the road while he spoke.
“I know I’m not Aiden or Tom, but I’m here as long as you need me to be.”
Harriet looked at his profile as he drove.
“I appreciate that.”
They rode in silence the rest of the way to the hospital. James dropped her at the emergency room entrance then went off to find a parking spot. Harriet hurried through the automatic doors and went up to the information counter.
“I’m here to see my aunt, Beth Carlson,” she told the young woman sitting behind the computer.
“Room three,” she said after typing in the name and checking the database. “Go through the right-hand door, and the nurses can direct you.”
“Thanks,” Harriet said as she turned and hurried for the door.
“I’m looking for Beth Carlson,” she repeated to the nurse standing behind the command center when she reached the emergency area. The woman stepped out from behind the circular computer counter and led Harriet past a series of curtained rooms, each marked with a large screen-printed number.
“Here we are. Number three.” The nurse held the curtain aside so Harriet could enter.
Aunt Beth was sitting on the gurney, her short legs dangling over the side. A young-looking dark-haired doctor was wrapping her left arm in a stretchy bandage. Her chin was purple.
“I’m fine,” she said immediately after she saw Harriet.
“Aunt Beth.” Harriet said went over to stand by her. Her eyes filled with tears of relief. “What happened?”
“Now, that’s a very good question. Was my car steering okay when you drove it?”
“It was fine. No warning lights came on or anything.”
The doctor scooped Aunt Beth’s legs up onto the gurney.
“Let’s have a look at that ankle,” he said and began removing her right shoe and sock.
Once she was repositioned, Beth continued her story.
“I didn’t feel like cooking, so I thought I’d get Chinese takeout.” She put her good hand over her mouth and gasped. “Call the restaurant, and tell them what happened. Then call Jorge and see if he can run over and get my dinner.”
“I’m sure the restaurant will understand, under the circumstances.”
“I still haven’t eaten, and I still have a hankering for some good Chinese food.”
Harriet knew her aunt well enough to make the calls. She knew she’d never find out what happened if she didn’t.
“Now, please, what happened?” she asked when she’d finished.
“All I know is, I was taking the shortcut to town over Miller Hill, and when I came to that steep downhill curve, my power steering went out. It happened so suddenly, I couldn’t get the wheel cranked around quick enough to make the turn. I went over the side and, luckily, slid into a tree. My ankle injury was from stomping on the brake so hard.”
“Seems weird that your power steering would quit on you all of a sudden. Your car isn’t that old.”
Before Harriet could ask any more questions, Mavis and Connie arrived. She moved aside as they stepped to either side of the bed.
“Are you okay?” Mavis asked.
Beth looked first at her and then at Connie.
“I’m fine. I can’t say the same for my car.”
Connie looked at the doctor to see if he was listening, but he was busy opening another stretchy bandage. She lowered her voice.
“Do you think someone sabotaged your car?”
“The name Juana Lopez-Montoya comes to mind,” Mavis whispered.
“You think someone did this on purpose?” Harriet said in as normal a voice as she could manage.
All three women glared at her. She dropped her voice an a level or two.
“We should have the police here if you think someone did this on purpose.”
“That skinny blond patrolwoman came when the ambulance did,” Beth told them. “She’s having my car towed to the impound lot. She said they’d have a look at it and see if there’s any indication something was done to it on purpose. She said the age of my car plus my tire slashing incident made her interested enough to check things out.”
“Do you think Juana is capable of something this sophisticated?” Harriet asked, looking at all three women.
Connie narrowed her eyes.
“I’ve tutored her in the past.” She took a breath and blew it out slowly. “I’d have to say it’s a definite maybe. I know when she worked at the shelter workshop she used small tools. The question is whether she could put together a plan that involved finding Beth’s car and waiting until no one was watching her. I’d say she’s more impulsive than that.”
“But what if she happened to see it sitting somewhere? I think that car is the only silver Beetle in Foggy Point. And I was doing errands today in it. I was parked in various locations all over town.”
“You’re assuming that whatever was done took a while to fail?” Mavis asked.
Harriet thought for a moment.
“I guess so.”
“I’m with Connie,” Beth said. “Juana is jealous of my relationship with Jorge, but I’m not sure she could plan and execute something like this.”
“She could have done it after I dropped it off. Was your garage door still open?”
Aunt Beth sagged against the raised end of the bed.
“I didn’t close it when you left because I knew I was going out to get dinner.”
“Could she be stealthy enough to pull that off?” Mavis wondered.
Connie pressed her lips together and shook her head.
“Anything’s possible, but I’m just not seeing it.”
“If it isn’t her, who could it be?” Harriet asked.
Aunt Beth and her friends were quiet.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. If not Juana, we don’t have a clue.”
The curtain was pulled aside, and a nurse leaned into the cubicle.
“There is a very anxious man in the waiting room asking for you. Since he isn’t a relative, I told him I’d have to ask you first.” She looked at Harriet, Connie and Mavis. “And some of you will have to step outside to make room.”
Harriet did so, followed by Connie. Mavis sat on a wheeled stool in the corner. The doctor had finished wrapping Aunt Beth’s foot.
“You’re going to have to use a knee scooter for a week or so,” he told her. “You need to keep your weight off your ankle, but your arm isn’t going to let you use crutches. I’ll have someone bring one by to see if you can manage it.” He continued with instructions about pain medication and how she needed to stay home for a few days.
Harriet held the door for Jorge as she went back into the waiting room.
“She’s fine,” she told him. “I think she’ll be glad to see you, though. Mavis is with her.”
“Diós mio,” he said and stormed down the curtained aisle.
Lauren stood as Harriet approached the reception area. James was across the room plugging quarters into a drink machine.
“Since you’re out here and letting other people in, I’m guessing your aunt is going to be okay.”
“She sprained her ankle pushing on the brake and has some sort of soft-tissue injury on her opposite arm, but otherwise, she’s fine.”
Lauren’s shoulders visibly relaxed.
“Well, that’s a relief.”
Connie pulled her keys from her purse.
“I’m going to go over to Beth’s and make up the hide-a-bed in the TV room. The doctor said she isn’t to climb stairs for a few days. I’ll take her dog out, too.”
Harriet turned toward her.
“Thank you so much. I know she’ll will be grateful for the help.”
Lauren followed Connie with her eyes as she departed.
“So, what do you think happened?” she asked when Connie was out the door.
Harriet noticed that James was lingering at the drink machine, clearly gi
ving them time to talk.
“Maybe an accident, maybe not.”
“I’ll wait till later to hear about why you’re here with the cute chef.”
Harriet rolled her eyes but didn’t take the bait. She felt her silenced phone buzz in her pocket but ignored it.
“The police towed the car to the impound lot, so I think they’re treating it as a crime until they prove otherwise.”
“The police have looked, and it appears it was intentional,” said Detective Morse. Harriet and Lauren had been so intent on their conversation they hadn’t noticed her come through the automatic entrance doors.
“The tow-truck driver took a quick look as he was loading the car and pointed out a cut serpentine belt to the on-scene officers. It was cut about three-quarters of the way through, so it would drive a little way before it broke. He says the belt was nearly new and showed no signs of wear to account for the break. He also said the break was too clean to be anything else but on purpose. Of course, we’ll have our forensic people double-check his conclusions, but in my experience, if Marco says it was cut, it was cut.”
“It’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to hurt my aunt.”
Lauren smirked.
“You mean except for the crazy lady who slashed her tires?”
Morse looked at Harriet.
“With all the trouble you and the Loose Threads have gotten into in the year or so you’ve been here, you can’t think of anyone who might want revenge?”
Harriet’s eyes got wide.
“Relax,” Morse said. “I think that’s unlikely. But you need to stay mindful of the dangers of involving yourselves in other people’s troubles.
“Even though current cases are not my responsibility right now, I did follow up with the officer dealing with Juana. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Foggy Point is following some of the larger cities in developing a behavioral health unit to better deal with people who commit crimes as a side effect of mental illness. The hope is we can get them appropriate help before they end up in jail. So far, we have one officer and one counselor, but it’s a start. Anyway, I know they put a tracker on Juana yesterday, and they’re following up with trying to get her working again.”
Harriet sighed.
“I drove Aunt Beth’s car today. I was all over town doing errands.”
“Welcome to my world,” Morse said. “You think police work is all car chases and shoot-outs, but really we spend a lot of time at our desks combing through data and out in the neighborhoods talking to people. Give me your best estimate of where you were and when, and I’ll match it to what Juana’s tracker says.”
“Can she take the tracker off?” Lauren asked.
“No, it’s the same model that’s used for Alzheimer’s patients—a shoe insole that has the device embedded in it. They put it in her shoe after she went to bed last night, so she doesn’t even know it’s there. And just to be safe, they attached another under the seat of her tricycle.”
“Will you let us know?” Harriet asked.
“I will when I can. Since I’m not officially on the case, I’ll be getting it secondhand. Your aunt could call and ask tomorrow, and they might tell her. I’m going to go in now and talk to her, so I’ll suggest she call.” She disappeared through the door to the treatment area.
Harriet looked toward the vending machines and saw that James was on his phone. He noticed her watching, ended his phone call, and picked up the three bottles of water he’d purchased.
“Water anyone?”
Lauren took two and held one out to Harriet, and they both sat down.
“Let me check my phone first. I silenced it, but it’s been buzzing away in my pocket.”
Lauren smiled.
“Probably all the Threads who weren’t invited to the party.”
Harriet tapped the unlock code into her phone and found texts from Carla, Robin and DeAnn asking for updates on Aunt Beth. There were three voicemail messages, all from Molly.
“Texts from the Threads, and voicemails from Molly.”
“She sounds like she’s getting to be a bit of a stalker,” James said.
“Let’s see what she has to say,” Harriet put her phone on speaker and pressed the first message.
Harriet, I’ve got amazing news! Call me. Harriet erased it and started the next message. Call me. She deleted it as well and moved on to the last one. I can’t wait until you call back. I had a psychic come today, and she just told me how to find Amber’s body. And Harriet—I remember. I’m going to go look.
Detective Morse rushed out into the waiting room.
“Duty calls,” she said as she hustled past James, Harriet and Lauren. She turned on her unmarked car’s blue and red flashers and sped out of the unloading area.
Lauren leaned forward in her chair to watch until Morse’s car disappeared from sight.
“I wonder what that was all about.”
“Must be pretty serious if she put her lights on this soon,” James observed. “I mean, there’s a lot of highway between here and Foggy Point.”
Harriet stared out the glass doors and sipped her water.
“It’s especially curious since she works cold cases now. If they called her, it must be an all-hands-on-deck situation.”
Lauren pulled out her phone.
“I’ll text the group if you want to answer Molly’s.”
“Only because she’s related to DeAnn am I going to do this. I don’t want to be any more involved in Molly’s delusions than I already am.”
James’s brow furrowed.
“Her message said ‘how to find Amber’, not ‘where to find Amber’, right? Doesn’t it seem like if the person really had psychic powers, they could tell her where?”
“Good one, James,” Lauren said. “We’ll make a detective out of you yet.”
“No, thanks, I’m but a humble cook. No detecting for this boy.”
They laughed.
Harriet set her water bottle on the floor by her chair.
“Would you two hush so I can call her?”
Harriet tapped Molly’s number into her phone. She was startled when a man answered.
“Who is this?” he said.
“Harriet Truman. Who’s this?”
She held her phone out and pressed the speaker button.
“Detective Dane, Foggy Point Police.”
“Why do you have Molly’s phone?” Harriet’s stomach clenched into a knot. She leaned forward in her chair.
“Are you a relative?”
“I’m a friend of her sister.”
“What’s her sister’s name?”
Harriet told him and he thanked her and hung up.
The color drained from Lauren’s already pale face.
“This can’t be good.”
Harriet stood up.
“I’m going to go tell Mavis. Can you call Robin? If this is what we think, DeAnn’s going to want her.”
Mavis had stepped out of the curtained ER room and was headed for the lobby when Harriet opened the door.
“I’m glad you’re out here. Something weird just happened, and I’m afraid we’re about to have some more bad news.”
“Honey, you’re not making sense.”
“Walk with me, and I’ll explain.”
Mavis followed her into the lobby and over to where James and Lauren sat, and Harriet explained as they went. Mavis listened thoughtfully until Harriet had finished speaking.
“As you were talking, I was trying to come up with an innocent explanation for your facts, but nothing good comes to mind. If a police detective has Molly’s phone and won’t tell you why, it can’t be as simple as her losing it.”
Lauren tapped her phone off.
“I just spoke to Robin. She hasn’t heard from DeAnn, but she’ll call her and go wherever she is. I texted Carla with an update on all fronts.”
“Did the doctor or anyone else come back to Aunt Beth and say anything about when she can leave?” Harriet asked Mavis.
“Maybe I should go back to your house and get my car to transport her in,” Harriet said to James.
Mavis chewed on her lip.
“That might not be necessary. She and Jorge were talking about putting the scooter in the back of his truck. I think they may be planning on him driving her home.”
“What!” Harriet all but shouted.
A trio of young women two chair rows over stopped talking and stared at her.
“Am I being replaced?” she said in a loud whisper.
Lauren laughed.
“You are. You are so being replaced by the dashing Jorge. Good for your aunt.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about that,” Harriet huffed.
“It may surprise you, but we old people have social lives, too. You aren’t the only one who likes to go out to dinner with a handsome man once in a while,” Mavis scolded.
“Do you have a boyfriend, too?” Lauren asked.
“After this reaction, I wouldn’t tell you if I did.” She narrowed her eyes and glared at James.
“Hey, what happens in my restaurant stays in my restaurant.” He mimed zipping his lips. “My lips are sealed.”
“You do have a boyfriend,” Lauren chortled.
“This isn’t about me, missy. We need to figure out what’s going on with DeAnn as well as figure out who sabotaged Beth’s car.”
Lauren’s face became serious.
“I’d almost forgotten about that part.”
Harriet sipped from her water bottle.
“We’ll have to wait for Morse to finish with whatever took her out of here so fast before she can check up on Juana. Then, I guess we’ll have to make sure Aunt Beth isn’t alone until we get to the bottom of this.”
Lauren laughed again.
“With you and Jorge fighting over her here, and Connie waiting for her at home, you probably have more coverage than you need.”
James twirled his empty water bottle between his palms.
“If you want, I can take you by your aunt’s house when she’s released and then back to my house for your car when she’s settled. Or, if you want, my mom can help me bring your car to you.”
Harriet sighed, “I don’t think we need to bother your mom with this. It sounds like Connie and Jorge will be there with her. I would like to go by and make sure she has everything she needs, though.”