by Ann Mullen
“He probably had a hard time adjusting to his surroundings, or his new school. You know how mean kids can be to the new kid in school. It doesn’t matter where you live. It happens everywhere.”
“I’m curious to know why they selected Stanardsville.”
“They could have family here.”
“We can speculate all day long. What we need to do is get out and find the kid.”
“Before he kills someone else. Mom said that he’s going after his shrink next according to Savannah Kelley’s book.”
“I don’t think I’d put too much stock in a murder mystery book. Besides, if Savannah Kelley really believes someone is committing crimes according to her book, why hasn’t she gone to the police?”
“She was going, but she got scared when Eddie told her that the cops might turn on her and believe she was the one behind the killings.”
“That wouldn’t surprise me.”
“Why don’t we talk about this when you finish your plowing? Do you want me to fix you a sandwich before you go? There is still a lot of food in the refrigerator from Robert’s restaurant.”
“No, I’ll get something when I’m done. The day will be gone before you know it. Helene should be here soon.” Billy looked over at the dogs lying buy the fire. “Do you want me to let the dogs out before I leave?”
“That might not be a bad idea.”
Athena and Thor rose to their feet and walked over to the door to answer nature’s call. I noticed that Athena’s limp was less noticeable. Spice Cat stood as if he planned to go with them, but I immediately told him to lie back down and forget it. He already had his fun for the day.
“The litter box is in the laundry room, pal.”
Billy grabbed his coat, opened the door, and the three of them went outside. I heard their footsteps as they descended down the steps, and then they were out of earshot.
Spice Cat meowed as if he wasn’t too happy, but he lay back down by the fire anyway. He licked his coat and a minute later I’m sure that I was nowhere in his thoughts.
I snatched the keys off the counter and walked over to the desk to put them in my purse. I wanted to make sure that we had them when we left for our shopping and snooping excursion. I picked up the phone with the intention of calling Savannah Kelley, but was distracted by a noise upstairs. Spice Cat must’ve been bored, because he arose from his crouching position and followed me as I stealthily climbed the stairs. I tiptoed through each room, opening closet doors and checking bathrooms.
“I guess I’m turning into a nutcase, Spice Cat. I keep hearing things.”
Spice Cat hissed and then backed up.
A crushing blow to my head sent me to the floor. I tried to open my eyes, but when I did all I could see was a blurry figure leaning over me. I could smell the putrid smell of his breath as if he hadn’t brushed his teeth in a while. He bent down closer and whispered, “I killed the psychiatrist this morning while he slept in his bed. Aren’t we having fun?”
He laughed a sinister laugh. “Heed my warning. I’m not finished, and you’d do well to stay out of my way. If you don’t, the next ones to die will be your precious kids.”
I tried to scream, but the words wouldn’t come. I felt as if I was having a terrible nightmare, and as hard as I tried, I couldn’t make myself wake up. I felt a warm flow of blood run down the back of my neck as I turned my head to follow the image of the person who had done this to me. I caught a glimpse of his brown boots and the word, Leatherneck, imprinted on the side just before I passed out.
I don’t know how long I lay on the floor, but when I came to, I was on a stretcher being shoved into an ambulance. I shivered from the cold as I opened my eyes.
“Where’s my husband?” I asked, my voice harsh.
“I’m right here, Jesse,” Billy said as he held onto my hand.
“The kids… he said he’d kill our kids.”
“The kids are fine. No one is going to hurt them.”
I tried to sit up, but the pain in my head was horrendous. “Who’s watching the children?”
“Don’t worry about the children,” he replied. “They’re being taken care of. Just lay back and rest.”
“I can’t rest!” I screamed. “He’s going to kill our children! He said so!”
Billy leaned in close to me and said, “Relax, Jesse. You have my word that nothing is going to happen to them. I promise.”
I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I was in the emergency room.
“Hello, Mrs. Blackhawk,” a man said. “I’m Dr. Staton, and you’re at Martha Jefferson Hospital. I’m going to fix you right up. You took a terrible blow to the head. We’re going to put in a few stitches.”
“Make it fast, Doc. I have to get home.”
“We need to run some tests…”
“Stitch me up, give me something for this headache, and then I’m going home.” I looked around the room. “Where’s my husband?”
“He said he had to make a call. He’ll be back shortly, but for now, we need to get started on you. You’re going to feel a little sting.”
I felt a sting to the back of my head, and then I closed my eyes while the good doctor did his job. When he was finished, he asked, “Would you like to see my handiwork?”
“Thanks, but I’ll pass, Dr. Staton. Put a Band-Aid on my cut and let me go home.”
“I think we’re going to need more than a Band-Aid, Mrs. Blackhawk. I had to put six stitches in your scalp. You’re going to have a headache to go with that wound.”
“Okay, but put the smallest bandage you can on my head. I have a funeral to go to tomorrow, and I’m not going with a big bandage wrapped around my head.”
“I’ll tell you what. I’ll fix you up, and you can wear a scarf tomorrow. It’s going to be cold anyway.”
“That sounds good to me.”
At the time, I would’ve agreed to anything just to get out of the hospital. My vision was beginning to clear up, but I had a terrible headache. “May I have an aspirin?”
“I have something here for your headache. Don’t take aspirin.” He handed me a small paper cup containing two pills. I downed the pills, and then took the paper cup filled with water and gulped it down. I sat the cups down on the metal tray next to the bed.
Billy walked into the room and said, “How’s she doing, doctor?”
“She’ll be fine. Don’t let her take aspirin. Aspirin thins the blood. She needs to take Tylenol.”
“Sounds good to me,” I said. “Are we done here?”
The doctor looked at Billy and said, “We really need to do a CAT scan when there’s a…”
“No! I want to go home.”
I slowly sat up and inched my way off the bed. “See, I’m fine.” I felt a little dizzy for a second, so I moved slowly. I looked at Billy and said, “Let’s go home.”
“I can’t make you stay, Mrs. Blackhawk, but it would be in your best interest to let us do a CAT scan before you leave. You have a head injury and you…”
“Okay. You can do your CAT scan, but only if you do it right this minute and don’t make me wait. If I have to wait, I’m leaving. I mean it. I’ll leave if you put me in a room and tell me you’ll be right back.”
Billy looked at the doctor and threw up his hands. “She has a mind of her own. I can’t make her do anything.”
The doctor motioned to a woman dressed in scrubs and said, “Take Mrs. Blackhawk down for a CAT scan STAT.”
The woman retrieved a wheelchair, and within ten minutes, I was having a CAT scan. After the scan, I was wheeled into the hallway where the doctor was waiting. “Give me ten minutes and then you can leave.”
“Ten minutes, and that’s all.”
Dr. Staton turned and walked down the hall to another room. Ten minutes later he returned with the results. “You have a concussion and you’ll need to take it easy. This injury isn’t something to take lightly. I would suggest bed rest, but I know that’s out of the question.”
�
��Then I can go home now, right?”
“Yes, you can. I have an information sheet here for you. Read it, and if any of the symptoms appear that are listed on this paper, call 9-1-1. Your life could depend on it. Sign here. I’ll have someone get you a wheelchair.” He motioned to the woman next to him. He held out his clipboard and pen.
“No wheelchair.”
He pulled the clipboard back and said, “No wheelchair, no pen.”
I smiled. I knew that I could just turn and walk away, but I also knew that if I didn’t sign the form and leave in a wheelchair, his butt could be on the line. I signed on the dotted line, and then handed the pen and clipboard back to him. “Thanks, Dr. Staton.” I grabbed the piece of paper he held out to me, folded it, and stuffed it into my jeans pocket. I flopped down in the wheelchair and started wheeling myself down the hallway, leaving the two of them standing there.
Billy caught up with me, grabbed the back of the wheelchair and said, “Slow down, Jesse. You’re acting insane. You have no idea how bad your head injury is. You could pass out anywhere, or have a stroke.”
The word stroke stopped me in my tracks. “What do you mean, I could have a stroke?”
“You need to read that paper and then if you want to go off half-cocked, help yourself. I won’t try to stop you.” He walked around and stood tall in front of the wheelchair with his arms crossed across his chest. He looked like one of those big Indian chiefs you see on television. He stooped down to my level and said, “But I won’t be a part of your killing yourself.”
“Okay,” I said, winding down. I took a deep breath before speaking again. “Listen to me carefully. I don’t think it was Wayne Avery who struck me on the head. I didn’t see his face, but I heard his voice, and I’m telling you that it wasn’t him. That’s what really scares me. When I thought Wayne was the killer, I wasn’t so scared. I don’t know why, but I just wasn’t. I know that sounds crazy, but there was something familiar about Wayne, and it wasn’t intimidating. Now that I know there’s someone else in the picture, I’m terrified. Push me out of here, Billy.”
“People disguise their voices, or when they’re nervous they sound differently.” Billy got behind the wheelchair and pushed me down the hall to the entrance.
I looked around, but didn’t see anyone from the family. “Where is everyone? How are we going to get home?”
“Cole is waiting for us. Here he comes now.”
I looked up to see Cole getting out of his Jeep and heading to the front entrance. “What is he doing here?”
“Your mother called him as soon as she heard what happened.”
“Who told my mother?”
“I did. I had to. Your mother would have a fit if I didn’t call her. If she found out about it from someone else, I would be in big trouble.”
“Who’s watching the kids?”
Billy didn’t say anything.
I got up out of the wheelchair when Cole walked through the door.
“Are you ready to go?” he asked as he handed me a coat. “You might need this.”
I looked at the two of them stand there with a guilty-as-sin look on their faces. I knew they were plotting something. I took the coat from Cole, slipped into it, and then the three of us walked out to the car and crawled in. As soon as Cole pulled out into traffic, I turned to Billy in the back seat and asked, “Is Geneva watching the kids?”
“Yes, but it’s only temporary until Helene arrives. I didn’t want to ask my mother, so I called Geneva.”
“I understand.” I didn’t have the energy to argue.
“She rushed right over. She even got there before the ambulance arrived.”
I looked at Cole. “What are you doing here? I know you must have something up your sleeve. Did Sheriff Hudson send you to spy on me? I hate it when you keep things from me—and stop looking at my head like that!”
“I think that bump on your head has made you crazy,” he replied. “Actually, I was at the hospital when they brought you in. My mother took a nasty fall.”
“I hope she’s going to be all right.”
“She broke her hip, so they admitted her. She’s been sedated, and won’t be awake for several hours. For now, I’m all yours.”
“How did that happen?” I asked, trying to sound concerned.
Truth be told, I wasn’t any fonder of his mother, Elsie, than I was of Geneva. Both women had left a sour taste in my mouth for one reason or another.
I’ll never forget the time Elsie had the audacity to call my mother and tell her to keep her girls away from her son. Cole and I had a relationship, and when it was over, he started seeing my sister, Claire. He was on the rebound and out to make me jealous, but I knew that relationship was as ill-fated as the Titanic, so I didn’t say or do anything. I just let it play out.
Elsie was jealous of anyone who dated her son, and when Cole dated two different women from the same family, she went crazy. She blamed us for trying to break her son’s heart.
“It’s not enough that one of you used my son. Now the other one’s after him, too. Can’t you just leave him alone?” she had said.
It was all I could do to keep my mouth shut about it, but Mom said the old biddy didn’t bother her, and there was nothing Elsie could say that would make a difference about anything. People are who they are. Mom found Elsie to be a sad, lonely woman who tried to keep her son from having any kind of relationship with a woman. She wanted him all for herself. She didn’t think there was a woman on Earth who was good enough for her son.
I thought she was sad. Fortunately, Cole knew how she was and refused to let her interfere with his love live.
“I saw Billy,” Cole said, breaking my train of thought. “He explained what happened. I told him not to call anyone; I’d give you a ride home. And I’m not staring at that huge bandage on your head.”
Cole snickered. Billy was in the back seat doing everything he could to keep from laughing out loud at Cole’s remark.
“Okay, I’m sorry for being so hateful,” I pouted. “I guess I was a little suspicious of you two, and acting a bit crazy.”
“That’s all right,” Billy said, chuckling. “We know you’re nuts.”
“You can’t help it,” Cole agreed as he laughed right along with Billy.
They both stopped laughing when I said, “He killed the psychiatrist.”
Chapter 19
Nothing clears out a room or silences it quicker than announcing that someone has been murdered. Billy and Cole were speechless when I blurted out the news. Cole pulled his Jeep off to the side of the road and asked, “What did you say?”
“You heard me. After the guy hit me on the head, he took great pleasure in telling me that he had killed the psychiatrist. I can only assume that he meant the one who treated Wayne Avery. I think there are two killers out there and they’re working together.”
Cole pulled the Jeep back out onto the road. He was silent and it appeared that he was deep in thought.
I glanced in the back seat at Billy and then looked back at Cole. “Why do I feel as if I’m the only one here who is in total darkness?”
Billy reached up, put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Why don’t we save this until we get home? You just got hit on the head and you’re not thinking straight.”
I knew Billy had something bad to tell me, but didn’t want to do it in a confined space. I pace when I’m upset and he probably figured I would need room to let off steam. We were only minutes from the house. I could wait until then.
Even though there was plenty of snow on the ground, the main roads had been plowed and were almost back to normal. The ride wasn’t as treacherous as I had expected. I relaxed and laid my head back on the seat. I closed my eyes for a second, and before I knew it, we were pulling up in front of the house. A white Dodge Durango was parked next to the garage. I figured that must belong to my new nanny, Helene.
The walk up the porch steps proved to be more difficult than the ride. I slipped my way up them
and was relieved when the front door opened. I was greeted by a woman who had to be Billy’s cousin. She had the same Cherokee features: long, black hair pulled back in a braid down her back, dark olive skin and deep brown eyes. She was my height, but weighed twenty or thirty pounds more than me. She had a kind face, and when she smiled, her manner was infectious. She reminded me of my mother.
“Hello, Jesse,” she said. “I’m Helene. I’m so glad to meet you.” She gave me a big hug, and then closed the door behind us. “It’s so cold outside. Come on in by the fire and warm up.” She looked up at Billy and Cole and said, “I’ve made coffee if anyone’s interested. I thought I’d fix a snack once everyone’s had a chance to warm up.” She put her hand on my shoulder and walked me over to the fire. “I hope you don’t mind, but I made myself at home. Jonathan introduced me to your beautiful children. They’re in the den with Geneva. How’s your head?”
They say that you only have one chance to make a good first impression on someone, and Helene had done that. I took a liking to her right off the bat, and knew that she would be a welcomed addition to our family.
Billy and Cole took off their coats and made their way to the kitchen. I couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but that was okay. For now, I wanted to get to know Helene.
“I guess I’ll make it. Is that your Durango out there?”
“Yes, it is. I just love that car.”
“It’s cool.” I looked around. “Where are the dogs and the cat?”
“They’re in the den, too. Geneva’s been telling stories to the kids and it seems that the dogs and the cat have taken an interest. You’d think they’d get bored after a while, but they’ve been hard at it.”
“I appreciate your coming here, and I hope you’ll like living with us.”
She laughed. “After what happened this morning, I guess I need to ask for hazard pay.”
