A Christmas to Die For_Mrs. A 1

by Kristine Frost

  Mrs. Arbuthnot stood looking down at her for a moment, then began patting her shoulder. Then she climbed up on the bed, wrapping her body around Mary. Mary tried to resist for a moment, but Mrs. A said firmly, “Mary, darling, it’s me, Grandma Ruth. Don’t fight me, hon. Please don’t fight me.”

  Mrs. Arbuthnot could feel Mary shivering against her. “Get me a blanket,” she commanded.

  One of the nurses ran from the room. She quickly returned with a soft, warm white blanket.

  “This was warming in the autoclave, Mrs. Arbuthnot.” She said.

  “Thank you, but please call me Ruth.” She said as she tucked the warm blanket around Mary. Gradually the warmth penetrated. Mary stopped shivering, but she began making little moans.

  “Mary,” Ruth said firmly. There was no response. “Mary, stop that. I’m here now. Everything will be alright.”

  Mary shook her head, then grabbed Ruth’s hand. “Grandma Ruth, you’re here.” She looked around, “That horrible man tried to kill me. I couldn’t get away from him. I tried and I tried but I couldn’t get away.” Her last words were a terrified scream.

  “Mary, I’m here now. No one is going to hurt you while I’m here. I want you to let the doctor examine you. I’ll be just outside. I’m going to call your mother. She needs to be here.”

  Mary grabbed Mrs. A’s hand. “Grandma Ruth, please don’t call her. Her doctor said that any excitement would kill her. You can’t tell her about this. Please don’t call her.”

  “If you don’t want me to call her, then you need to calm down and let the doctor examine you.”

  Mary took a deep sobbing breath. Then she sighed and let go of Mrs. A’s hand. “I’m better now. I’ll let the doctor examine me.”

  Mrs. A sat up, then slid off the bed. “She’s all yours, doctor.”

  Mary looked at Mrs. A. “You’re not leaving, are you?”

  “No. I’m going to step outside to talk to the officer in charge of your case until the doctor is finished examining you.”

  As Ruth turned to leave, Mary said, “Why is this happening to me? Why did he try to kill me? I didn’t do anything, none of us did anything in the parking lot. I haven’t done anything since.”

  “I don’t know, yet.” Ruth said, “You’re caught in a bunch of circumstances that none of us can understand yet, but I’m here to help you. I brought Inspector Lepley with me. He’s here to help you, too. I want you to answer his questions so that we can keep you safe.”

  Mary stiffened and started to protest.

  Mrs. A said, “Darling, I’ll be here the whole time he talks to you.”

  “I can’t answer any more questions. I just can’t.”

  Mrs. Arbuthnot frowned. “Who’s been asking you questions? The doctor just barely called and said we could come and talk to you. No one else should have asked you anything.”

  “It was a young doctor who came in late last night. He was very nice and handsome. I was having a hard time getting to sleep. He said that I would feel better once I talked about my experience. He rubbed my fingers.”

  Mrs. A looked at Dr. Gordon who shrugged his shoulders.

  He looked up from cleaning one of the gashes on her arm. “Can you describe him? Maybe I can figure out who it was.”

  Mary said, “He looked like a doctor. He wore a white coat and had a stethoscope around his neck.”

  Ruth said, “You must be able to do better than that. Your mind is like a camera. Just think back and try to develop the film.”

  “What’s going on?” Inspector Lepley asked from the doorway.

  Mrs. A looked up at him. “A doctor came in last night and questioned Mary very thoroughly on her experience at the Caverns.”

  Lepley raised his eyebrows as he frowned. “I had a man on duty last night. He wouldn’t have let anyone but a bona fide doctor in to see her.”

  The doctor said, “That’s not necessarily true. Did you tell the guard to ask to see the doctor’s credentials? We have almost a thousand doctors that have patients here. He couldn’t possibly know all of them by sight. I’ll bet that he admitted a man who was dressed like a doctor.”

  “But maybe he was a doctor. He took my pulse and listened to my heart. He read the chart at the bottom of the bed.”

  Lepley smiled. “Maybe he was. You said he was handsome. What color of hair did he have?”

  “It was a dark brown.” She smiled in a dreamy fashion. “You know tall, dark and handsome.”

  “Okay. Did you notice what color his eyes were?”

  “They were brown—a really deep, warm brown.”

  Mrs. A frowned to herself. Mary sounds like she’s falling the handsome young imposter.

  “Was he tall or short?” Lepley continued.

  “It’s hard to tell when you’re laying down. Everyone looks tall, but he did have a scar on his thumb that looked like a lightning bolt.”

  “That’s a good identification mark. What else?”

  “Well he was really well built, like he worked out a lot.”

  The nurse said, “Greta was on last night. She’s on the early shift today. I’ll go see if she’s available. She should remember which doctors or residents were assigned to this floor. She’s very observant and she would probably know which doctor has a scar on his thumb.”

  Lepley nodded, “Mary--”

  Dr. Gordon said quietly, “I don’t think it’s wise to question Mary right now. She’s had a bad shock on top of the trauma from the shooting and the surgery. This could set her back.”

  Mrs. A said, “Dr. Gordon, we all realize that Mary has had a terrifying experience, but I’m afraid that these attacks won’t stop until she has been questioned. Once the police know what she knows, she’ll be a lot safer.”

  Lepley added, “Mrs. Arbuthnot is right. I promise that I will be very careful and gentle during this interrogation.”

  “All right. I’ll permit it on the condition that we monitor the patient continually during the questioning. If she becomes agitated in any way, the questions will stop until she feels better.”

  Mrs. Arbuthnot looked at Inspector Lepley who nodded. “Okay, Dr. Gordon. We accept your terms.”

  Lepley looked around the room. “I want this young lady moved to another room. She doesn’t need to be reminded to the attack.”

  Dr. Gordon nodded. “I’ll have her moved ASAP. I just wanted to make sure she was okay before we did anything.”

  “Understandable.” Lepley said, “I want her in a room opposite the nurse’s station. No one is to know where she is. I want her name removed from the door. I don’t want the hospital operator to have the number to her room. She needs to be here, but no one knows that she is here. The hospital operator needs to tell anyone who calls that she has been released. Understand?”

  Dr. Gordon scratched his head. “I do understand. What do you think if we put her in the maternity ward? Since she’s not sick that wouldn’t be a problem. We often put surgery patients there because it’s so clean. I can’t imagine that anyone would guess we’d put her there.”

  Mrs. A grinned. “Doctor that is a scathingly brilliant idea. Being around babies and new mothers might help her to heal faster, too. How fast can you arrange it?”

  “I’ll have to clear it with the hospital administrator. I’m not sure how she’ll take the idea, though. She’s pretty protective of our new born patients.”

  Lepley said, “She should be. I would suggest taking Mrs. Arbuthnot with you. She’s on the hospital board. I think if anyone can convince your administrator, she can.”

  “Mrs. Arbuthnot, if you will go with Doctor Gordon to talk to the hospital administrator, I’ll stay with Mary. She and I will just visit until you get back.”

  As the door swung shut behind Mrs. Arbuthnot, Lepley walked over to Mary’s bed and sat down on the foot of it. “I hope you don’t mind, but I don’t think that chair would hold me.”

  Mary giggled. “I don’t mind. You are different from the other detectives I’ve m
et.”

  “Other detectives?” Lepley asked.

  “Yes. The ones that came to investigate Daddy’s death. They were angry about the IRA and Daddy’s supposed involvement. They yelled at me and my mother. That’s why Mother had a nervous breakdown.”

  “Well, I promise that I won’t yell at you. I have a daughter who is about your age. I’d probably ring the neck of any cop that yelled at her. That would get me thrown in jail which I wouldn’t like at all.”

  Mary smiled. “Those detectives arrested us and put us in jail for a while. It was awful.” She paused for a moment. “You know what’s really sad?”

  “What?”

  “My Dad wasn’t a member of the IRA. He was working undercover for MI-6 but they didn’t say anything. Aunt Ruth got the United States ambassador to help my mother because she was a US citizen before she married Daddy.”

  “It sounds like both you and your mom had a pretty rough time.”

  “We did.” She sighed. “Now all this happened. I’m beginning to feel like a jinx.”

  He smiled. “You’re not a jinx. You’re a good person that bad things have happen to.” He patted her hand. “What made you decide to go to Carlsbad Caverns? I know that Britain has some fantastic caverns up in the Peak District.”

  “That was Antonia’s idea. We want to be geologists. We were taking an upper division class in geology that required a huge project. Since Antonia wants to specialize in cave systems, she thought that it would be fun to visit Carlsbad since it isn’t a normal cavern.”

  “Normal?” Lepley asked.

  “It wasn’t made with water like the caves in the peak district.”

  “I remember one of the ranger’s telling us that. I think his name was Dave Evans.”

  Her face lit up. “I remember him. We talked to him twice. He was interested in our project and gave us a lot of ideas. We taped all our conversations with the rangers because we were afraid we wouldn’t remember everything they said. He came into the lunch room when we were there. He brought us a bunch of pamphlets and books that looked like they would really help us.”

  “Can you tell me just what happened in the Caverns the day you were there? Just go slow and try not to forget anything.” Without saying anything more, he turned on his recorder.

  “You want all the details.”

  “Yes. We never know which details will be helpful as the case progresses.”

  “Well, we left about 6:30 the morning before the--” She paused. “I can’t think what to call it.”

  “Let’s just call it the incident for right now. We both know that we are talking about what happened to you and your friends, right.” She nodded her head.

  “We took our time because Antonia wasn’t used to driving on the right side, but she sped up as she got more comfortable. We got to the Visitor’s Center just after 8:30.”

  “Did you notice anyone following you?”

  “No, but I wasn’t looking. But Allison and Tony, well, Antonia read tons of detective books and they might have noticed, but I think they would have said something.”

  She told him about the first and second days had been uneventful. “We decided to go back the next morning to get some more pictures. We also had a few questions that we needed to ask one of the rangers.

  “We got some breakfast and then checked out of the motel. Antonia and Allison wanted to get to the Caverns as soon as they opened because we had promised Grandma Ruth that we’d be home early. She worries about us, you see. We had been there for two days so we didn’t have much left to see—just a bunch of questions.

  “We went through all the exhibits at the Visitor’s Center, again, checking our notes. Then we went to the ladies’ room and had just come out when Tony noticed a man who looked like Bob Black.

  “Bob and Tony had dated a few times when she was visiting her grandma, she said he was nice but they didn’t click.

  “Anyway, Tony hurried over to say ‘hi’. She tapped him on the arm, but when he turned around we saw that it wasn’t Bob. Tony was really embarrassed, but she managed to apologize. He had been really nice until another man who was wearing a bright green plaid coat came up. The man in the coat told us to go play with our dolls, then the man who looked like Bob told us to get lost so we left.”

  Mary stopped talking. “The whole incident kind of shook us up, although it shouldn’t have. But it was like talking to a ghost, a very rude ghost. I mean the man really, really looked like Bob. We tried to laugh it off but it was hard. It kind of ruined the day.”

  Lepley nodded, “The man you talked to is Bob’s half-brother. They do look alike. We had Bob’s secretary identify the body and she told us that it was Robert, Bob’s half-brother.” He smiled at her. “She had to look twice to make sure that the dead man wasn’t her brother.”

  He asked quietly. “Can you describe the man in the plaid coat?”

  She thought back and she could see him in her mind’s eye. “He wasn’t very tall, shorter than Tony and Allison, but taller than me. I’m five feet twp inches tall and Tony is about five feet eight inches tall.” She frowned. “When he said ‘get lost little girlies’ his voice was kind of high pitched but rough and gravelly like he smoked a lot. Tony opened her mouth to annihilate him, but Allison and I grabbed her and hurried her toward the elevators.

  Mary looked at Lepley and said, “I don’t know who his barber is, but he’s lousy. You could use his hair as a pot scrubber and his coat for a flash light.”

  When she paused, Lepley said, “Can you think of anything distinctive about him?

  She closed her eyes. “He was built like a beach ball on stilts. I’d guess he was about fifty or fifty-five, maybe a little older.”

  Lepley said, “You’ve give me a really good description of everything but the man’s face. What was that like?”

  “I never saw it.” Mary said simply. “He always stayed turned away from us.”

  “Even when he told you to go play with your dolls?”

  “Even then. He was pretending to blow his nose. He held a handkerchief to his face.”

  “Do you think he was trying to hide his face?” Lepley asked.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t think about it then, but I guess he could have been.”

  Mrs. A had been standing quietly in the doorway. “You didn’t see it when you were going down the zig-zag?”

  “Not even then. The lighting isn’t very good and he kept his back to us.”

  “That’s too bad,” Lepley said. “I was hoping for a positive ID so we’d know who we were looking for. Oh well, whoever said a detective’s life was easy, wasn’t one.” He smiled at Mary. “Go on with your story.”

  “We didn’t see him again until we left to go to the parking lot.” She paused thinking.

  “If you do remember anything else, I don’t want you to tell anyone.” Inspector Lepley cautioned her. “Don’t even tell my men. Call me at my office or better yet call Mrs. A. No one would be suspicious if you called her. Tell her what you remember and she will pass it on to me.”

  “Even if it isn’t important?” Mary asked.

  “We don’t know what’s important and what’s not. We aren’t taking any more chances with you.” He smiled at her. “Now can you tell me about the attack in the parking lot?”

  Mary’s eyes filled with tears.

  Dr. Gordon looked at the displays next to Mary’s bed. Then he felt her pulse. “Inspector, I’m afraid she’s getting too upset.”

  Mary looked up at him. “Please, doctor. Let me get this over with. I don’t want to have to talk about it again.”

  “All right.” He said. “But I want you to lay back against the pillows and relax. You seem to be holding up better than I thought you would, but we don’t need any more setbacks.”

  The nurse handed him a small plastic cup with a white pill in it. “I want you to take this,” he said.

  Mary swallowed the pill, took a deep breath and wiped her eyes. “We were getting ready to go b
ack to Grandma Ruth’s house. We’d stopped in the gift shop and bought some souvenirs and some gifts for our friends back in England. We were just leaving the gift shop when we saw the man in the plaid coat again. He was alone this time.

  “Allison said that we should hurry so we could avoid him so we hurried to the ladies’ room and then we left the Visitor’s Center.”

  The doctor kept his fingers on her pulse as she repeated what had happened in the parking lot. He looked a little worried, but he didn’t interrupt her.

  As she spoke, they could visualize what she said. They could see the man in the plaid coat point at them and then the men broke into a run. They could see the girls dodge between the cars and finally lose the battle to the three men.

  “I got away from the man who had grabbed me, but as the car went by he leaned out the window and shot at me. That’s all I remember until I woke up here.”

  “You did very well, child,” Mrs. Arbuthnot said. “Don’t you agree, Inspector?”

  “I wish all my witnesses had your eye for detail and your flair for tell the story.”

  Mary’s eyes began to close and the doctor motioned for them to leave. He followed them into the corridor.

  “That white pill was a sleeping pill. She needs to rest after all this trauma. I trust you’ll have a man on duty here tonight?”

  “When are you moving her?” Lepley asked.

  “As soon as Miss James gives the okay.”

  “She already has.” Ruth said. “She was quite reasonable once Dr. Gordon explained Mary’s needs. She does know that I’m on the hospital board.”

  Dr. Gordon smiled. “It’s good to have a little pull. Let me call down to maternity and find out the room number.” He stepped from the room.

  Lepley said, “Did you have a hard time getting Miss James to agree with our request.”

  “After she got finished yelling at me for the damage done by those men, she decided that the less anyone knew about anything to do with Mary the better things were going to be. I think she would liked to have Mary moved to another hospital, but she didn’t dare ask.” She smiled. “Of course, she was very agreeable when I said I’d pay for the damages. The agreement is that she will be listed under a false name. She will be known on the records as Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Orman, a surgery patient, who is recovering from cancer surgery. She will be kept in the maternity ward until she can be released. However, if there are any more attacks, the hospital will release her. Ms. James suggested Bellevue for mental patients. She tells me that they are able to deal with attacks like these we’ve had to deal with.”