“I wasn’t completely honest with you about some things,” Tina continued. “I’m getting a divorce.”
Black spots swirled in Penelope’s vision. They sat in silence as Tina’s iced tea arrived at the table.
“I’ve been spending time with Dr. Gordon . . .”
The room began to spin. Penelope willed herself to stay upright. She clutched her iced tea glass so hard she thought it might break.
“It’s my husband,” Tina said. “He’s an alcoholic. I’m divorcing him. Dr. Gordon has been helping me work things out.”
“Helping you?” Penelope managed to ask.
“Yeah. He listens mostly. I’ve seen him work with alcoholic patients and drug overdoses at the hospital. He’s so good at talking with the families.” Tina took a sip of her iced tea. “He’s given me the strength I needed to leave Norm. He even came with me to rent an apartment. I was too scared to go alone.”
Penelope’s battered heart pounded. Jacob never mentioned helping Tina. Why had he kept it a secret? She tried to keep her voice even as she asked, “Is that what you two were doing at the Hilton yesterday? Talking?”
A blush rose in Tina’s cheeks. “You know about that?”
“I do,” Penelope said, her voice hardening. “I saw the twirl, the tango. I saw the kiss. I saw the whole thing.”
“He’s doing it for you.”
“Really? Doing it for me?” That’s a new one.
“Yes. He’s learning to dance.”
“Dance? Wait, what are you talking about?” Penelope’s cop instincts were waking up. Did she overlook something?
“He wanted to surprise you for your wedding dance. There’s a ballroom dance class at the Hilton every Friday. I’ve been helping him practice . . .” Tina’s big brown eyes filled with tears. “It was supposed to be a surprise. I think I just ruined it.”
Christene sidled up to the edge of the table, took one look at Tina, then turned to Penelope and said, “I’ll just come back for y’all’s orders.”
“Penelope, say something. Please say you forgive me.” Tina burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably.
What was she supposed to say? This was the last thing she expected to hear. It all made sense now, the mysterious meeting at the park, the hotel, the twirl, and the kiss. The memory of the kiss on the cheek had changed—now it seemed perfectly innocent.
“I don’t know what to say,” she told Tina. She reached into her purse to find a tissue for Tina, but she had used them all. She grabbed some of the rough, brown napkins from the dispenser on the table and handed a wad of them to Tina.
Tina pressed the entire wad into her face, smearing her makeup and choking a little on her sobs. Penelope reached out for her hand. If someone had told her yesterday that she would be comforting a crying Tina Shifflett today, she would have thought they were crazy. The absurdity and the relief of the moment flooded her emotions, and she started to laugh.
That only served to intensify Tina’s sobs. “I’m so, so sorry! I’m such a fool!”
Penelope squeezed her hand. “You’re not a fool,” she assured her. I was the fool.
“But I ruined your wedding . . .” Tina’s mournful, makeup-smeared eyes met Penelope’s.
“You did nothing of the sort,” Penelope said.
She had jumped to conclusions based on inadequate evidence, let her emotions take over, and judged her suspect guilty without due diligence. That was bad police work and even worse fiancée behavior. How could she have ever thought Jacob was capable of having an affair? If she had just been open with him from the get-go, she would have saved herself so much heartache.
Tears began to well up, but Penelope stifled them. She waved a hand at Christene, summoning her to the table. “We’ll have an order of the sweet potato hush puppies and two chocolate chip cookies.”
Penelope moved to Tina’s side of the table and waited for her tears to ebb.
Several long minutes later, Tina blew her nose loudly into the damp wad of napkins and turned her red swollen eyes to meet Penelope’s.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Penelope assured Tina. “I understand why you didn’t want to say anything.”
“I didn’t wa—” Tina took a deep breath and started over. “I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.”
“I know. Is there anything else you were holding back?”
“No, just that.” Tina blew her nose one more time.
The food arrived at the table, and Tina went straight for her cookie. She ate it with the innocence and vigor of youth, getting a smear of melted chocolate on her lip and leaving crumbs on her brightly printed scrubs.
Tina finished her cookie and glanced at her watch. “I have to get to work.”
Penelope stood to let Tina out. “Of course. And Tina, I’m sorry to hear about your divorce. Thanks for being honest with me.”
Tina put a five-dollar bill on the table, hesitated, and then gave Penelope a hug before leaving.
Penelope ate her hush puppies in silence and planned her next move. She’d always trusted her faith and she trusted God now to help her put the pieces together. He wouldn’t let a man like Jacob into her life only to rip him away. The sooner she could sort out this whole mess the better. She dialed Jacob’s number and it went straight to voice mail. “Jacob, call me when you get this. There are some things I need to tell you. I love you.”
Penelope knew what she had to do. She had to start from the beginning—reexamine the evidence. She’d be disobeying a direct order and putting her career on the line, but it was a chance she had to take. She took a deep breath and blew it out again. “Lord, I trust You to help me through this and show me where all the clues lead. By Your strength alone. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
CHAPTER 71
Forty-five minutes later, Penelope parked her MGB in one of the few empty spaces at Grace Memorial Hospital. She pulled out her cell phone and found Gabriel’s number. “Gabriel, it’s Penelope. Can you meet me in the lobby?”
Gabriel was already waiting in the lobby when Penelope walked through the front entrance. “What’s going on, Penelope? Is everything okay?”
“No. Everything is not okay. I want to run over a couple of things again.”
Gabriel looked at her with concerned eyes. “Penelope, you’re not supposed to be investigating this case. Detective Greene and I got an earful from your chief yesterday.”
“I can’t just sit by while they build a case against Jacob.”
“You can look at the same thing a million times, but it’s never going to change. The police have been over the evidence.”
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked for your help. It was selfish of me. You’ve done more than enough already. I can do this on my own.” She turned to walk away.
“Now wait a minute . . . I said I’d help and I’ll help. Jackson is your boss . . . not mine.” Gabriel placed a hand on her shoulder. “But don’t get your hopes up. Just because you want something to be there, doesn’t mean it will be. You have to face the fact that your fiancé may be guilty.”
She nodded, but her gut told her things weren’t going to play out that way.
“So where do we start?” Gabriel asked.
“With the surveillance footage,” Penelope said, pointing toward Dave Sayre, the security guard from the night of the robbery.
Dave watched people walk past as he stood at his post in front of the glass double doors that led to the hospital clinic. Some walked by quickly, like they had somewhere to be, and others sauntered along like they had hours to spare. Dave’s eyes followed the people until he saw Penelope and Gabriel.
“Hi Dave,” Penelope said, approaching the security guard.
Dave tipped his hat. “How are you, Officer Chance? What brings you here?”
“Dave, I was hoping you could help us. Any chance we can have one more look at those surveillance tapes from last Friday?”
“Well, sure. I don’t see what harm it can do.” He turned and b
eckoned for them to follow.
Gabriel glanced at Penelope, but she looked straight ahead. They followed Dave down the hall to the security surveillance room where he pulled in a couple of extra chairs and cued the tape from the Friday before. “Coffee?” he asked.
Penelope nodded, and Gabriel shook his head no.
Dave picked up a receiver and asked someone to bring them coffee. Penelope didn’t notice who brought her coffee, and as she took a drink, she realized she probably hadn’t thanked them. Her hand froze with the coffee in front of her mouth.
“Um, Penelope, you okay?” Dave looked mildly concerned.
“Yeah, I’m just tired,” she said and took a drink of coffee to illustrate her point.
“So I’ll show you the clinic video,” Dave said. “I’m sure you’ve already seen it, but it’s a good place to start.”
He played the video Penelope had seen the night of the robbery. When Jacob entered the frame, her heart shuddered, but she managed not to make a sound. After the attack, the video played a little longer, but she could see nothing that she hadn’t noticed the first time she watched it. “What about the lobby?” That’s what she needed to see.
“What are you thinking, Penelope?” Gabriel asked.
“I want to see Kevin Scott and the other suspect exit.”
Dave closed the clinic video. “This isn’t as high quality, and there are four angles shown on one screen.” He opened another file, hit the play button, and she saw what he meant. The screen was divided into four small screens, and even though the monitor was large, it was hard to tell what was going on in the video. “We’re watching it at ten times the speed of the action.”
Penelope leaned in and put her elbows on the desk. The whole scene lasted about thirty seconds. She watched one quadrant of video for one full loop, and then she randomly focused on the bottom left video for another full loop. This video showed five people in the lobby at the time of the robbery—one male and three female figures. During the last ten seconds of the loop, the fifth person enters the screen. She paused the video. “Is this you, Dave?”
“Yes, that was right after I got the call about the robbery. As you can see, they got the jump on me. Not my proudest moment.”
Penelope pressed play. As Scott and his partner ran past, Scott stuck his arm out and clotheslined Dave to the ground. “Look at this,” she said to Gabriel.
“I’m looking,” he said. “What am I looking at?”
“There,” she said pointing to the screen. “Where did she go?”
“Where did who go?”
Penelope played the video again. After Dave gets knocked to the ground, the video jumped to one less person in the lobby. “Donny has statements from four people in the lobby. Dave, Donald Hernandez, an orderly, Betty Jo Tillman, a nurse, and Ruth Clark, the main lobby receptionist. Who is our fifth person?”
Dave saw it, too. “I’ll get someone to confirm the staff on duty at that time,” he said. “See if we can identify that fifth person.” He picked up the receiver and relayed his request.
The loop had started again, and Penelope noticed something strange. One of the individuals looked familiar. She couldn’t see their face, but she didn’t need to. This person was identifiable by shape alone. She watched to see if the shape disappeared after Scott and his partner ran by. Sure enough, it did. “Gabriel, I think that’s Genny.”
“Who?”
“Nurse Genny Taylor.”
Gabriel leaned in closer. “Nurse Taylor?”
“She works at the Franklin Clinic.”
“What makes you think that’s her?”
“Her shoulders, the way she is standing. Her shape. The way she moves.”
Nurse Genevieve Taylor was unforgettable, in a way. She moved with military purpose. It had to be her.
The loop started over, and Gabriel leaned in to watch. “That could be anybody.”
“Watch,” Penelope said, as they neared the part of the video when Kevin and his partner ran through. “Now you see her. . . Now you don’t. Dave, any footage from the exit?”
“We only have one angle outside at the front entrance. Let me pull it up.” He clicked the play button and sat back in his chair. An older model car sped into the frame and then disappeared. Dave paused the video. “We couldn’t capture a license plate, but that’s definitely Kevin Scott’s Oldsmobile.”
“Could you press play, Dave?”
“You want me to rewind it?”
“No, just let it play.”
“What are you thinking, Penelope?” Gabriel asked.
Penelope held her breath and sat silent. After a few seconds, a small, mid-size car drives past. A few moments later a dark sedan passes. Then she saw it. “There! Pause the video.” The video frame flickered with the image of a light colored, Toyota 4Runner. “That’s Taylor’s SUV. I’m sure of it.”
“Are you positive? Could be coincidence,” Gabriel mused.
“I don’t think so. Dave do you recall seeing Nurse Taylor from the Franklin Clinic here Friday?”
“I don’t think I’ve met Nurse Taylor.”
“If you saw her again would you be able to identify her?”
“Sorry, Penelope. Everything happened so fast. I don’t remember that other person being there.”
“It’s probably nothing, Penelope,” Gabriel said. “It’s a common vehicle.”
Penelope leaned forward again, narrowing her eyes at the screen. It was hard to tell the figures apart because of the quality and size of the images, but she was sure it was Taylor. She’d seen enough of the woman to recognize her from a mile away.
“I get what you’re saying, Gabriel,” Penelope said. “But I think I’m going to call Donny. What harm can it do to double-check our facts?”
“I think you’re grasping at straws here, Penelope.”
“Well, it’s not grasping if I’m right. Besides, if I’m wrong we’re just back where we are now.”
Gabriel breathed in deeply and turned his eyes back to the screen. “Which is supposed to be off the case . . . isn’t that right?” He looked annoyed as he drummed his fingers on the table. “Didn’t Detective Greene already speak to her?”
“He did. But I want to follow up with him.” Penelope turned to Dave and asked, “Dave can you burn me a DVD of the lobby video and the footage from outside?”
Dave nodded and searched for a blank DVD.
Gabriel stood. “If we’re going to do this we should be looking for someone else, someone the police overlooked.”
“You taught me to go where the evidence takes you . . . and that’s what I’m doing.”
CHAPTER 72
Penelope collected her thoughts and then dialed Donny. She stepped out of the small security room just as the detective picked up. “Donny, it’s Chance. You got a minute?”
“Not really, Chance. I’m in the middle of something.”
“I think I’ve found something.”
“You are not supposed to be—”
“I know, I know,” Penelope interrupted. “I’m sorry about yesterday. And I know you don’t want me anywhere near this case . . . but humor me, Don. For old time’s sake?”
She heard a sigh on the other end of the line, followed by, “You have thirty seconds.”
“I’m at Grace Memorial reviewing the surveillance footage, and I noticed there were five people in the lobby during the robbery. Not four.”
She could hear Donny rustle papers on the other end, checking his notes. “We have statements from four witnesses.”
“I know. The fifth person leaves right after the perps exited the lobby. I think you need to get her statement.”
“Her?”
“I think it’s a female,” Penelope said, walking back into the security office.
Gabriel sat next to Dave, fidgeting and looking as if he needed to be somewhere else.
“Are you fishing for something that isn’t really there?” Donny asked. “Detective Ballard is questioning Jacob now.�
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“I know, Donny,” Penelope said, feeling unbalanced. She took a deep breath. “Just check this out.”
Donny remained silent.
“Donny, Please.”
“Okay, Chance. I’ll give you an hour.”
“Great! I’ll be there in ten.” Penelope ended the call and took a deep breath. This was the break in the case she had been waiting for.
“And?” Gabriel prompted.
“And Donny wants to have a look. Let’s go.” She thanked Dave and Gabriel followed her out of the office. “When we get there—”
“Actually, Penelope,” Gabriel interrupted. “I’m going to have to sit this one out.”
“What?”
“I have a patient.” He looked at his watch and nodded as if confirming. “I need to run or I will be late.”
“Oh . . .”
“You will let me know how it goes, won’t you?” he asked, trotting off in a half run, half walk.
Is that why he’d looked so uncomfortable earlier? She’d known Gabriel for a long time, and he often forgot things, and did things that seemed a little odd—another one of his many idiosyncrasies.
“I’ll text you later,” she said, calling after him.
CHAPTER 73
When Penelope arrived at the Gainesville Police Station, Donny’s office door was closed, but she could hear the low rumble of conversation coming from inside. She sat in the only chair outside his office. The chair was uncomfortable and reminded her of elementary school when the bad kids were sent to the principal’s office. The image made her want to laugh, but she knew that if she started, she might not be able to stop, and now was not the time for humor.
Her phone chimed in her purse, and she pulled it out without thinking. It was a text from Gabriel. How’s it going?
For a man that was seeing a patient, Gabriel’s mind was very much on this case. He was back to his usual mentoring self, trying to stop her from being too disappointed when things didn’t go the way she wanted them to go. That was the Gabriel she knew.
Another Chance (A Penelope Chance Mystery Book 2) Page 20
