by Susan Harper
“I’m sure learning that your husband is going to be paralyzed from the neck down is a lot to take in,” Autumn said.
Dr. Roberts shook his head. “No, no, no. Not like that. That’s not what I meant. I’ve been doing this for a very long time, Autumn. You know that. Over the years, you start to sort of pick up on things. Sometimes you can give patients good news, and it’s a wonderful thing. Then there are cases like this where you have something terrible to share. I saw the look in that woman’s eye when we brought him in for surgery. She’s frightened for him, of course. But something just told me that she’s the type that won’t stay with him.”
Autumn frowned, and she felt a pain in her chest. “You mean you think when she finds out her husband is going to need her to take care of him that she’ll bolt?”
“It’s an awful thing for me to think, but yes. Yes, I do,” he said. “I only spoke with her briefly before the surgery, but I just got that awful vibe from her. I’ve seen it before, you know?”
“How often is that gut feeling of yours correct?” Autumn asked.
“Quite often,” he said. “She said something about not wanting him to suffer; that maybe it would have just been better if he had just died right when the bullet hit him than to have to deal with the pain. A part of it could be sincere, you know? That she really doesn’t want to see him in pain, but it felt so forced. I felt as though she was more concerned about what’s going to happen to her than whether or not her husband was going to make it out of the surgery. It was all about her. She hardly asked me anything and when she did, she managed to veer the brief conversation back to herself. A sort of ‘oh poor me, my husband was shot’ instead of actually being worried about her husband. If that makes sense at all.”
Autumn did not care for where this conversation was headed. Veronica and Dawn were friends with Whitney, after all. Would she really leave her husband when he needed her the most? Surely Dr. Roberts was just being paranoid, but what if he wasn’t? What kind of woman was Whitney, really? Autumn couldn’t be sure. “What else can you tell me? Anything at all?” Autumn asked.
“Not much,” Dr. Roberts said. “I can tell you that I pulled a forty-caliber bullet from his neck. The police are taking it down to be analyzed to see if they can ID the gun. Now that’s all I have for you, Doctor Smitz. I do hope everything works out with your friend.”
Autumn smiled and thanked him for speaking with her before heading back out. She offered Maria a friendly wave before slipping into the waiting room. Veronica, Dawn, and Whitney were no longer there, so she headed down toward the hospital’s main entrance where they had decided to meet back up.
She wound up waiting around for several minutes before she saw Veronica and Dawn coming out of the hospital’s gift shop. Autumn rolled her eyes slightly. “What are you two doing?” Autumn asked, but she noted that they both seemed very pale and anxious. “Everything okay?” Autumn asked.
“Not really,” Veronica said. “You’re not going to believe what we learned about Jefferson.”
Chapter 9
Dawn watched as Autumn hurried into the back of the hospital to locate Nick’s surgeon. She sighed; she and Veronica had known Nick since high school, after Whitney had transferred to their school. They had never really gotten to know Nick too well since they only knew him through Whitney, but he was still a face from her past. The thought that someone would actually try to kill him put Dawn on edge.
She and Veronica spotted Whitney in the corner of the waiting room; the woman looked a bit shaken, but who could blame her? “How do we even approach this?” Veronica asked, the two of them hiding out near the waiting room entrance. Whitney had yet to see them.
“I don’t even know,” Dawn admitted. “This is normally Felicity and Jefferson’s cup of tea.”
“She’s our friend,” Veronica said. “I feel weird about trying to interview her. Maybe Felicity should have chosen someone other than us to come here and talk to Whitney.”
“You’re right, she is our friend, but that is exactly why Felicity wanted us to come and talk to her. If she’s going to open up to anyone, it’s going to be us,” Dawn said. “As far as how we approach this, I say we just do what we would have done if anyone else had been accused of this apart from Jefferson.”
“And how is that?”
“We go console her,” Dawn said. “Her husband has just been shot. We want information, sure, but she’s still our friend, right?”
“Right,” Veronica agreed. “We’ll push for information, but not too hard. There’s no reason to get her any more upset than she already is.”
“Exactly,” Dawn said, then led the way over to the corner.
Whitney glanced up as they approached, and forced a smile as she stood. “You two are too sweet to come all the way here for me,” she said and gave each of them a hug.
Whitney’s eyes were only slightly watery; she seemed to be holding herself together fairly well. Dawn could imagine the whole ordeal was quite a shock and that it likely had not sunk in just yet. They sat, each of them on either side of Whitney. “They’ve been back there for a while now,” Whitney said with a slight moan in her voice, and she pulled out her phone to check the time. “I’m getting nervous,” she admitted.
“I’m sure he’s going to be okay,” Veronica said. “Nick is a strong man, and they got him here really fast. Do you know who’s operating on him?”
Whitney thought for a moment. “I think he said his name was Roberts. Honestly, I was only halfway listening to the man when he was talking to me. It’s all a little overwhelming.” Whitney started scrolling through her social media pages.
Dawn sensed Veronica looking her way. She glanced up to see this dissatisfied look on Veronica’s face as Whitney played on her phone. Dawn shook her head at Veronica. People dealt with grief in many different ways. Whitney was clearly upset, but she was using her phone to distract herself. “Well, we’re here for you,” Dawn said.
Whitney smiled. “Thanks, you two, really,” she said. “Ugh, Kristopher should be here by now. He told me he was on his way like twenty minutes ago. I don’t know what’s keeping him. And my dad and sister too. Everyone is just taking their time.”
“I’m sure they’ll be here soon,” Dawn assured her. “So, have the doctors and nurses given you any information on Nick yet?”
“Yeah, and they certainly haven’t told me any good news,” Whitney moaned. “The bullet got him in the back of his neck, right in the spinal cord. Between the blood loss and the extent of the injury, they’re not sure if he’s going to make it out of the surgery. And even if he does, he’s probably going to be paralyzed from the neck down. Can you imagine?” Whitney’s face paled. “How terrible of a wife am I to prefer he just…” She cut herself off and put her phone away. She became very serious, and a few tears trickled down her cheeks. “I’m a terrible person.”
“Whitney—” Veronica spoke softly and reached over to grab her friend’s hand.
“I’m not strong enough,” she said. “I’m not strong enough to take care of him. I’m not, and I know I’m not. And what’s so awful is I know without a doubt that if it were reversed, he would be so concerned about me and wouldn’t even be thinking about what it might mean for him. And here I am shaking at the thought of having to be his nurse. I’m a terrible, terrible person for even thinking that way, aren’t I?”
“You’re scared,” Dawn said. “It’s okay to be scared right now, Whitney.”
“I don’t want to see him like that,” she said. “I really don’t. I don’t think I’ll be able to handle seeing my Nick bedridden, but thinking like that is making me feel guilty. I feel so guilty because a part of me wishes that it had just killed him instead of him having to go through all of this. And I know Nick. If it had been me, he’d be on his hands and knees praying I made it out okay, but I’m just sitting here moping about myself. There’s something wrong with me.”
“You’re still in shock, Whitney,” Veronica said.
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“Yeah,” Dawn agreed and reached over and placed her hand on her friend’s knee. “Everyone reacts to this sort of thing differently. Veronica and I have worked in this hospital long enough to see all sorts of things like this, and every loved one has a different reaction. You’re scared, and that’s okay. It doesn’t make you a bad person. It just makes you human. You love Nick, don’t you?”
“Of course!” Whitney exclaimed. “I just feel very helpless right now. There’s just nothing I can do to try to…try to make sure this has a better outcome, you know? I just have to hope the surgeon knows what he’s doing, and that scares me because I just can’t fix it!” Whitney took a deep, calming breath. “I think I need some coffee or something.”
“I’m on it,” Veronica said perkily and jumped up, heading across the room to where a coffee table was set up for people stuck in the waiting room.
“Thank you so much, Veronica,” Whitney said, leaning back in her chair to force herself to calm down.
Once Whitney had her coffee and had settled a bit, Dawn decided to take the conversation in a new direction. She treaded carefully; Whitney was an old friend, after all. “Whitney, do you mind if I ask you a very personal question?” Dawn began after Veronica had found her seat again.
“Okay?” Whitney said, taking a sip of the coffee.
“It’s about Jefferson—”
Whitney huffed, loudly—not allowing Dawn time to ask any sort of question. “You know what? I hope he spends the rest of his life in prison for this! Honestly, I had no idea he was still so resentful from our breakup that he would actually try to kill Nick!”
Dawn could see Veronica getting angry, so Dawn shook her head ‘no’ in Veronica’s direction to let her know to keep her mouth shut. Veronica was known for her lack of verbal control. “I guess we’re just trying to make sense of it all,” Dawn said. “You see, Jefferson is a very close friend of ours. It just seems so out of character, you know? He was always so kind-hearted and funny and just really sweet. A gentleman. The idea that he could do something like this has me really freaked out. Veronica too. Being as close to Jefferson as we are, well, I guess we are having a hard time believing that he’s the one who could have possibly done this.”
Whitney nodded, but she still looked angry. “I suppose I can understand that,” she said. “But obviously you two don’t know Jefferson the way I did.”
“How do you mean?” Veronica questioned.
“Well, this, for instance,” Whitney said, propping her leg up on the ottoman in front of them. She pointed to a large scar on her leg. They had been friends for a long time, so Dawn and Veronica had both seen the scar at one point or another, but they had never really gotten a straight answer from her about how she had gotten it.
“What? Your scar?” Dawn questioned. “You’re telling me that Jefferson gave that to you?”
“Yeah, he did,” she snarled. “He gave that to me during our breakup.”
Dawn could see Veronica shaking her head. “You cheated on him, right?” Veronica asked, her voice raised.
“Veronica, easy,” Dawn warned.
“No, it’s okay, Dawn,” Whitney said and then turned to look at Veronica. “Yes, I did, Veronica. With Nick. And I regret it. I should have just broken up with him if I wanted to be with Nick, and I realize that now. I was scared to, though. He used to hit me all the time.”
Veronica shook her head. “I don’t know if I can believe that Jefferson—”
“Believe it or don’t,” Whitney hissed. “I don’t really care anymore. I cheated on him, so I guess that makes me the bad guy, right? Forget that he smacked me around. And forget that when he found out I was planning on breaking up with him, he beamed me in the leg with a garden sprinkler. Or that he broke Nick’s nose. And forget about how Jefferson’s gun was found in my house after my husband was shot in the neck! Forget about all that, Veronica! Forget about it because I wouldn’t want to taint the image you have of sweet little Jefferson Scotts!”
Veronica had sunk in her chair during Whitney’s tirade. “I’m sorry,” Veronica said. “I didn’t mean to get you so upset.”
Whitney checked her phone. “Kristopher is here,” she said with a relieved smile. “I’m going to go meet him. Thanks for coming here, you two, but I’ll be all right.” She rose from her seat and exited the waiting room.
Dawn glanced in Veronica’s direction as Whitney disappeared. “Did she seem…off to you?”
“She’s lying about Jefferson,” Veronica said firmly. “I mean… I guess what they say about every woman deserves to be believed when it comes to stuff like that is true. But…I really do think she’s lying. I mean, can you imagine Jefferson actually laying his hands on a woman?”
“No, I really can’t,” Dawn agreed. “But Whitney sure did seem pretty convincing, didn’t she? And that scar… She did tell me once an ex gave it to her. And if she and Nick started dating early on in high school—possibly even sooner, since she was cheating on Jefferson—then who else could have given it to her? I doubt she had a lot of boyfriends in middle school. I mean, she started dating Jefferson back then, but it sounds like the only other guy she’s ever really dated other than Nick was Jefferson.”
“She could just be making it up entirely,” Veronica said.
“You know one thing I noticed?” Dawn mentioned. “She sure did seem eager for Kristopher to get here.”
“Kristopher is Nick’s best friend,” Veronica said. “Maybe she just wants the support.”
“Or maybe something more is going on,” Dawn said, rising to her feet. “Let’s follow her.”
“Ooh, fun,” Veronica giggled, and the two women hurried down the hall and onto an elevator.
“Be careful,” Dawn said. “We don’t want Whitney to see that we’re following her.”
They headed toward the main entrance when Whitney suddenly turned a corner. Dawn felt Veronica grip her arm, and the two of them dove into the hospital’s gift shop and hid themselves behind a collection of “Get Well Soon” teddy bears. They watched from the shop window as Whitney paused to redo her makeup.
“See what I mean?” Veronica whispered. “That sort of thing is weird. Why is she getting all dolled up to go meet Kristopher?”
“Excuse me?” the cashier working the gift shop’s register said, and Dawn and Veronica turned in her direction. “What are you two doing? Are you hiding from someone or something?”
“No, we’re not doing anything, just browsing,” Veronica mumbled, and when the women turned back to continue watching Whitney, they saw that she was gone.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Dawn griped. “Man, we aren’t any good at this sleuthing thing, are we?”
“Not really,” Veronica said, and the two of them casually slipped out of the gift shop. “I really don’t like any of this,” Veronica moaned. “Dawn… What if what Whitney was saying about Jefferson was true?”
“It’s not,” Dawn said, but she stopped walking for a moment. “At least…I hope it’s not.”
They spotted Autumn waiting for them near the main entrance. Autumn was giving them a peculiar look, obviously having just spotted them exiting the gift shop. She crossed her arms as they approached. “What are you two doing? Everything okay?”
“Not really,” Veronica said, glancing in Dawn’s direction before looking back at Autumn. “You are not going to believe what we learned about Jefferson.”
“Oh?” Autumn questioned.
“We don’t think it’s true, but it’s certainly disturbing,” Dawn said. “According to Whitney, Jefferson was really abusive during their relationship.”
“Bull,” Autumn declared.
“She even showed us that scar on her leg and said Jefferson was the one who gave it to her,” Veronica said.
“You two really think our little Jefferson would ever hurt someone like that?” Autumn asked.
“No,” Dawn said. “But…you know…everyone has a past.”
“I can’t bel
ieve you two would entertain that thought for even a second!” Autumn exclaimed. “Jefferson is your friend.”
“Yeah, well, so is Whitney,” Veronica said, and Autumn’s shoulders seemed to slump.
“Let’s just get out of here and get back to the event shop,” Dawn said and began to lead the other two women out the door. “Did you at least manage to speak to the surgeon?”
“I did,” Autumn said. “I actually did manage to get a little information. I know you two are friends with Nick. I hate to tell you, but it’s not looking good for him.”
Dawn sighed. She had always liked Nick, despite only having hung out with him a few times. He and Whitney always seemed so in love. As they entered the parking lot, Dawn felt Veronica suddenly slap her arm. The three of them all stopped walking to see what it was Veronica was freaking out about. “Look,” she whispered.
Dawn followed the direction of Veronica’s finger where she spotted Whitney and Kristopher standing between some cars wrapped in a seductive embrace. “Oh!” Dawn gasped. How would Felicity handle this, she thought for a moment and then fumbled for her cell phone. She started recording a video just in time to catch Whitney and Kristopher smacking lips. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Whitney,” Dawn mumbled.
“Well, that sure doesn’t look good for either of them,” Autumn said under her breath. “You got it, Dawn?”
“Oh, I got it,” she said, double-checking her video. “Yeah, you can see them both plain as day.”
“Okay, good,” Autumn said. “Let’s get out of here before either of them sees us.”
Dawn nodded in agreement, and the three of them bolted for the car, eager to get back to Overton’s Events.
Chapter 10
“I’m about twenty seconds from losing my mind,” Monte mumbled after spending close to an hour inside the Overton’s Events shop during the dead hour. He was beginning to wonder if Felicity had left him in charge of the shop simply because she knew no one would be there and that he would not be capable of handling any of the actual investigative work. He decided to sweep up, but that had been half an hour ago. Felicity and Jefferson always kept the shop in tip-top shape, so it was not as though he could spend his time cleaning up or straightening sample books.
