The Scholarship

by Jaime Maddox

  Ella shook her head. “No. As I said, I didn’t see him at the park, and then the police officer said we should keep this to ourselves.”

  “Yes, they did. So how’d he know Cass was pushed?”

  “What?” Ella asked, turning her body and her head toward Reese, as if that would help clarify her confusion.

  “He asked how Cass was, said she must be freaked out. He might have meant about nearly drowning, but I assumed he was talking about her being pushed. I told him we were keeping the news from her, and he agreed. But he wasn’t surprised to know she’d been pushed. He already knew.”

  “You’re sure?”

  Reese replayed their conversation in her mind, and she was convinced. Suddenly, adrenaline chased the fatigue she’d been feeling, and she stood.

  “Ella, listen to me. I mean, this is absurd, but you’re a reasonable person, so just listen before you tell me I’m nuts. First, Josh tells the DA that Steph and I were lovers, giving me a motive for murdering her. Then he shows up at the park when someone tries to murder the only person who can prove my innocence. My alibi. Then he has knowledge about the attack that he shouldn’t have.” Reese shrugged. “Do I sound crazy to you, Ella? Because I sound crazy to me.”

  Ella scrunched her face as if the words had formed an unpleasant taste in her mouth. She adjusted again and felt a sudden chill. “If you’re asking if all this is a coincidence…maybe. But if you’re asking if Josh Nathan looks suspicious, I’d say you’re not crazy at all.”

  “Why in the world would Josh want to hurt Cass, Ella? He loves her. They get along great. As a matter of fact, he even takes her to lunch a few times a year.”

  “Yes, I know. That’s when I saw him the first time. He had the Phillies hat on, and he looked like a criminal. I was actually nervous when I saw him walking toward your parents’ front door.”

  “He probably didn’t want anyone to recognize him.”

  Ella shrugged. “Well, it worked. I had to ask your mom about him. But why hide? Because he’s famous and doesn’t want to be bothered? Or because he was up to no good? Why don’t we talk to Cass? She’s pretty smart. Maybe she knows what’s going on.”

  Reese glanced toward the fireplace, where a clock sat on the mantle. “Are you up for a trip? Because we can’t do this on the phone.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Reese startled her mother when she knocked on the back door before using her key to get in. “I’m concerned about Josh Nathan, Mom. Ella saw him in the park yesterday just before Cass was attacked, and he’s the one who told the DA about me and Steph.”

  “You think Josh pushed her?” Sharon asked, not sounding surprised, but she brought a hand to her mouth to hold in any further reply.

  Ella shook her head emphatically. “It definitely wasn’t him. But he was there.”

  “Mom, the police are questioning everyone, and he didn’t admit he was there. Why? What was he up to? And how did he find out Cass was pushed? The police told us to keep that part quiet, but when I talked to him at Roba’s, he seemed to know.”

  “He’s a very important man, Reese. Don’t you think someone may have shared that information with him?”

  Suddenly, Reese felt foolish. Her mom was right. What was she thinking? Just because Josh might have turned on her, did that mean he was suddenly some sort of homicidal maniac? It was ludicrous. But still…

  “Why don’t we just talk to Cass? I mean, we’re here.” Ella’s voice of reason calmed Reese a little.

  “Where is she?”

  Mrs. Ryan called Cass, eight times, before she finally appeared in the kitchen for questioning. Reese started the probe. “Cass, when you and Josh go out for lunch, what do you talk about?”

  Cass shrugged. “I can’t remember.”

  Sharon shook her head and smirked. “Do you ever talk about Reese?”

  Cass nodded enthusiastically. “Sometimes he tells me stories about when Reese was bad in school.”

  Reese was shocked. “Like what?”

  “Like when you didn’t go to class in college because you didn’t like to get up early.”

  Shaking her head, Reese laughed. “Well, that’s true. What else?”

  “He said you were a good president, and he wants to be president one day.”

  Reese smiled. She, Steph, Josh, and Bucky had all worked together so well as student council leaders that they had rotated positions. All four of them had held major offices at one time or another, but Josh and Bucky were the only ones who went into politics.

  Reese was baffled, but her sister was on a roll now. “He likes to know about baseball. He likes the RailRiders. He always asks if I can get him a ball. And yesterday, I let him meet Champ and Quill.”

  “It sounds like you and Josh are good friends, Cass,” Ella said. Suddenly, she had an idea. “Friends always do fun things together, like having lunch or baking cakes. Sometimes, they have secrets. Do you and Josh have any secrets?”

  Cass grew still, and Ella caught Reese’s eye, then Sharon’s. She might have hit on something here.

  “Cass, I know Josh is your friend, but can you tell us your secret? Please?”

  Cass frowned. “It’s a secret, Reese. I can’t tell.”

  Sharon patted Cass’s hand. “Sometimes it’s okay. You should never have secrets from your mom.”

  “Okay,” Cass said. “Josh borrowed my two dollars, and he told me not to tell Reese because he borrowed money from a girl.”

  Talk about a disappointing reveal, Ella thought. Two bucks was hardly worth murdering someone.

  Reese took the lead, though, and kept probing. “Did he pay you back?”

  Cass smiled. “Yes. He gives me two dollars every time I see him.”

  “Did he give you two dollars yesterday?”

  Cass looked impatient. “Yes. Every time.”

  Ella had another idea. “Cass, do you know why Josh borrowed the two dollars?”

  Nodding, she was silent.

  “Why?” Reese asked.

  “For car gas.”

  “Car gas?”

  “Yes. Not grill gas.”

  “He needed gas in his car?” Reese asked.

  Now they had it. Cass nodded happily. “Yes. Gas for his car, so he could go see his mom in the hospital.”

  Reese’s heart thumped, and she leaned forward. Josh’s mom had been in the hospital many times since her cancer was discovered years ago. The time that stood out in Reese’s mind was when she was first diagnosed, back when they were in high school. Josh’s mom was in the hospital in Philly when Steph was murdered. Reese knew that with certainty because it was Josh’s alibi for Steph’s murder. While everyone else was considered a suspect, Josh never was, because on the day of the murder, he had given his bone marrow to his mom and had ended up fainting or something, and he’d been admitted to the hospital right along with her.

  Reese had a bad feeling, though, with all that was going on. “When, Cass? When did you give him the money?”

  “When you were sick with a migraine and Steph died.”

  Cass told them the story of how she’d been bored. Her parents were out and Reese was sleeping, so she was sitting in the window watching for her parents to come home, and she saw Josh. She went outside to talk to him.

  “Cass, are you sure? Are you sure it was that night?” Josh and his mom had told the story about the bone-marrow transplant so many times over the years, it was like gospel. But had it ever been proved? It must have been, right? The police would have checked out the story.

  “Yes. Because then I didn’t have enough money to give for Steph’s flowers.” As they listened patiently, Cass did her math equation and explained how Josh hadn’t returned the money until the night of their graduation.

  Reese hugged her sister and sent her back to bed, but not before Sharon and Ella hugged her, too.

  Reese sighed. “Mom, I need a drink.”

  “I think we all do,” Sharon said, and she retrieved three short glasses and the ingredients to f
ill them.

  “So, Josh was in Scranton on the night Steph was murdered. And he’s been lying about it ever since. And Cass knows it. And now the investigation has been opened again, and suddenly someone tries to kill Cass. Does this sound crazy to anyone but me?” Reese asked.

  “It sounds crazy,” Sharon said as she put the vodka tonics on the table. “But crazier things have been true.”

  Ella squeezed the lime into her drink. “So, Cass can blow his alibi for the night of Steph’s murder. But does it really matter? I mean, if he didn’t murder her, it’s irrelevant. So the next, biggest question is—did Josh murder Steph?”

  Reese shook her head. “That’s the craziest part of all. They were friends. Good friends. There is absolutely no reason I can think of—and I’ve had twenty years to think about it—for anyone—including Josh—to murder Steph.”

  “Yes, I understand that. But even with no motive, Steph is dead. And at the moment, Josh looks like a suspect to me. Let’s disregard the motive for a moment and talk about the alibi. If he was lying about being in Philly, can we prove it? A credit card? Or phone records? Do they still exist? They can track cell phones, but did we even have them back then?”

  Reese nodded. “Steph’s dad had a bag phone. Remember those? But Josh certainly didn’t have one. They were kind of poor after his father died.”

  “Hmm. How about the hospital records? Would they go back that far? Could that prove Josh is lying about giving the bone marrow?”

  Reese sat upright and pointed her finger at Ella. “Bingo. Millie Nathan has a stack of charts two feet high, and they reach back all the way to her cancer treatment in Philly. Also, I happen to have access to them. We might find something in them to indicate who her bone-marrow donor was.”

  Ella downed the last of her drink and stood. “Let’s get to work.”

  Chapter 26: Prove It

  Reese parked in a spot near the ER designated for doctors and used her ID badge to gain access to the building. Once inside, she picked up a phone and dialed medical records. “This is Dr. Ryan,” she said into the phone. “I need Millie Nathan’s chart. The whole thing, with the old records in it. Can you bring it to the ER doctors’ lounge, please?

  “Easy enough,” Reese said as she disconnected the phone.

  A moment later, Reese used her access card again and opened the door to a small lounge. A couch sat in front of an old-model television. A battered desk, covered with papers, napkins, and condiment packets, sat beside it.

  “This is the life of an ER doctor,” Reese deadpanned as she waved her arm across the room.

  “Is there cable?” Ella asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t usually have time to watch television at work.”

  “What’s the plan?”

  “I’m not sure.” Reese grinned. “Just kidding. There has to be some sort of record of the bone-marrow donor, especially after the reaction he supposedly had during the procedure.”

  “And if his alibi doesn’t pan out, we can turn the DA on him, right?”

  Reese shrugged. It was going to take something significant in the medical records to convince anyone that Josh Nathan had done anything wrong. He was a local hero and one of the most powerful men in Washington. No one would dare point a finger at him unless they were certain he was guilty.

  A knock on the door caused them both to flinch, and they both laughed. “We’re a little jumpy, aren’t we?” Reese asked as she opened to door and accepted a cart loaded with medical charts.

  “Here you are, Dr. Ryan,” the clerk said, and Reese thanked her before dragging it into the room.

  “I’m walking the ethical fence with these charts, Ella. I don’t think you can read them. It would be a total HIPAA violation.”

  Ella nodded. “I understand. Maybe I can just organize them, help you find the right time frame?”

  “Sounds good. Look old and battered first. Millie Nathan was in perfect health until her cancer, and she’s been sick since, so the relevant charts will be the oldest ones.”

  Ella scanned the piles and reached for one that looked kind of ragged. Opening up the manila folder, she found the papers inside bound with a large clip at the top. Scanning the top lines, she found the date. “This is from 2005.” She zipped through to the last page, and just as she suspected, the documents were in chronological order.

  “Do you think I can write on this?” she asked.

  “I’m surprised no one’s done it already,” Reese answered.

  Reaching into her purse, Ella retrieved a pen and wrote the date on the edge of the file, then opened another. “We’re getting closer. 1998.”

  After a few more tries, Reese found the one she was looking for. “Here it is. 1993.”

  Ella stopped her own efforts and slid closer to Reese. “What does it say?”

  Reese flipped through several pages. “This is her initial consultation, where they recommend the high-dose chemo followed by a bone-marrow transplant. It states she has two sons who are potential donors.”

  “Good, good.”

  Reese continued to page through the chart. “Okay, here it is. This might be what we’re looking for. It says both sons could give the bone marrow, but Jeremy is the closer match.”

  “Jeremy! They’ve been lying all this time?”

  Reese gave Ella a scolding look. “Easy, girl. We’re not done yet.”

  “It’s hard to sit here while you have all the fun.”

  “Oh, this is a real party I’m having. I wish you could join me.”

  Ella punched her playfully.

  “Okay, here it is. Bone-marrow-harvest consent form. Date, name, date of birth, description of procedure…”

  “Wait. What’s a harvest? Is that the same as the transplant?”

  “No. The harvest is the collection of bone marrow from a donor. The transplant is the ‘planting’ of the collection into the recipient.”

  “Okay. What’s it say? Who gave the bone marrow?”

  Reese couldn’t hide her disappointment. If the document said Jeremy, she would have had the evidence she was looking for. Not that Josh had committed any crime but that he’d been lying all these years about giving his bone marrow to save his mother’s life. And if he was lying about that, and in Scranton on the night Steph was murdered…well, it still meant absolutely nothing. But it was something.

  Yet it was nothing. The consent form was for Joshua L. Nathan, and it was signed the day Steph had died.

  Reese sighed in frustration. Could Cass’s memory be faulty? Was Josh really in Scranton that night? What if it was the night before, or the night after Steph’s murder? Yet Cass seemed so clear about it—remembering how Reese had been suffering from a headache and how her parents had gone to the movies. How the money she’d leant Josh left her short for her flower donation.

  “Josh. The consent is from Josh.”

  “So, he gave the bone marrow after all.”

  “It looks like it.”

  Ella sighed in frustration. What were they even doing here, in the doctors’ lounge at the ER at nine o’clock at night, when they could have been relaxing at Reese’s house, getting to know each other better? Yet, how could they relax, with everything going on? Reese had been practically accused of a murder Ella knew she didn’t commit, and an attempt had been made on Cass’s life. And the one who’d turned Reese in was not only a trusted friend, but perhaps a liar with secrets of his own.

  Feeling the defeat, she rubbed Reese’s shoulders. “Let’s call it…”

  Her words and her thoughts were halted when the room went black. The hum of the small refrigerator stopped, and the digital readout on the clock radio faded. Since the room was in the interior of the hospital, with no ambient light, the darkness was complete, and shards of fear shot through Ella. Josh Nathan knew they were investigating him, and now he was back, not for Cass this time, but for her and Reese.

  “Oh, God,” she said, just as the power came back on.

  “Emergency gene
rator,” Reese said.

  The lights didn’t assuage her fears. “Let’s get out of here. I’m spooked.”

  Even with the power outage, Reese hadn’t closed the chart in front of her, but she had flipped the page. “Holy shit! Would you look at this?”

  “What is it?”

  “Another consent form. This one’s for Jeremy.”

  “So they both consented to give their bone marrow?”

  “Yes. That’s correct.”

  “Why? Would they need both?”

  Reese pondered the question. “They wouldn’t, but I guess the doctors were covering their bases.”

  “So, it could have been either one of them, huh?”

  “Yes.”

  “And we’ve learned absolutely nothing.”

  Reese sighed. “That is also correct.”

  Chapter 27: The Motive

  Never in her life had Ella felt so emotionally drained. The high of Reese was not just tempered, but truly negated by all that had happened. It was rare for her to second-guess herself, but she almost wished she and Reese hadn’t slept together. While the sex had been delightful, Reese wasn’t in a good place at the moment, and Ella hoped the fragile bud of their relationship could withstand all that Reese was going through.

  It hadn’t been easy on her, either. First Reese had pushed her away, and then she’d witnessed firsthand the attack on Cass. Those moments between when the baseball player pushed Cass and the Scouts pulled her from the water were some of the longest of her life. Not to mention the most stressful.

  Even though she’d had the night with Reese she’d hoped for, it had been a quiet one, and they’d both slept in late on Sunday. And although Reese made breakfast for her, she felt as if Reese was going through the motions and was almost relieved when Ella told her she needed to get home.

  It was a total lie. She didn’t need to get back on a Sunday afternoon, but she’d gone anyway and felt a twinge of sadness when she saw Reese’s car in the Ryans’ driveway later that day. It was the first time since she’d arrived in Scranton more than a month earlier that she hadn’t been invited to Sunday dinner.