Deep Fried Trouble (Eugeena Patterson Mysteries)

by Tyora Moody

  Then another thought sent my heart pounding. Who’s to say Louise was completely out of danger now. Someone might not be too happy about Louise waking up.

  Chapter 33

  I sprinted through the hospital door. Had the police even considered Louise was in the hospital because someone intended to kill her? It was imperative to find Louise’s attacker, who I’m pretty sure had to be the same person who murdered Mary.

  Sitting in my own kitchen in the morning, it occurred to me both of these women were attacked in their kitchens. Did Mary’s murderer attack Louise with similar intentions? But why? And who was this person both of my neighbors so willingly let into their home?

  I entered the elevator almost bumping into a family. It appeared to be an older woman flanked by her two daughters, one on each side. As the elevator doors closed, one of the young women reached out and held down the open elevator button. I’m not sure what went on between them, but with some coaxing the two women seemed to convince the older woman she had to leave the elevator. As they walked out, the older woman turned her head, catching my eyes. There was a deep sadness there, like she’d lost her best friend.

  The elevator beeped as it passed a floor finally arriving on the sixth floor, intensive care. I scanned the hallway area and the small waiting room. As far as I could tell, William wasn’t anywhere to be seen, which was just fine with me. I didn’t want to run into him because I would have to tell that boy, I mean man, how I really feel about him sticking his mother in a nursing home. I knew it was none of my business and not my decision to make. Louise was doing just fine.

  I rounded the corner and headed towards a door. I pressed the button setting off a buzz from the other side. A second later, a voice said, “Yes, who would you like to see?”

  “Louise Hopkins.” A longer buzz produced a click in the door latch. The heavy wide door swished as it opened.

  A nurse greeted me, “What’s the relation?”

  “Next door neighbor. How is she?”

  The nurse ignored my question. “Your name?”

  “Eugeena Patterson, I was here the other night.”

  The woman scanned a list. “I have your name listed. You have fifteen minutes with her.” She pointed to the room. “Her condition is stabilized, but she is still heavily medicated. As you know with her age, we need to keep her comfortable and keep a close eye on her recovery.”

  I nodded. “Thank you for the report.” The image that met me as I entered the room was slightly better than Friday night. Louise looked so frail, her head framed by her white halo of hair. As she lay with equipment beeping around her, her wrinkles seemed to have deepened and her cheeks more hollow. Something about hospitals added ten or more years on a person.

  I pulled up the chair and sat down. As I gazed at her face, I noted the bruising around her temple, once very purplish, now faded. An IV snaked from around her arm up to the pouch hanging on a hook. Her attacker hit Louise across her head. Could my old friend recover from this injury?

  I sure wanted to see her eyes open. But maybe that was a good thing at least for now. Whoever did this knew as long as Louise couldn’t talk, they couldn’t be identified.

  I couldn’t wrap my head around who would hurt either woman. But something happened to provoke an insane rage. The attacker grabbed whatever he or she could get their hand on and proceeded to cause damage. To human life.

  I looked up at the clock on the wall. Where was William? It was still kind of strange to me he showed up out of the blue. And just when something bad happened to his mother.

  Louise always tried to highlight the good things that William did, but most people knew that William had a tendency to do all the wrong things. In the late eighties and early nineties before he took off across the United States, Louise had to keep an eye on her pocketbook and her possessions to ensure her own son wouldn’t walk off with them to support his drug habit.

  The more I thought about it, the more I started to wonder was William involved in this somehow. It seemed like Louise would’ve mentioned if he was back in town. She was just as lonely for family as I was, even more so with William being her only living child and rarely visiting. Suppose all the time William was the one who committed robberies in the neighborhood that he knew so well. He certainly knew Mary.

  Mary would not just let him into the house. Before she lost her family, she was the kind of person that always tried to see the good in people. Unlike me, I was always suspicious or overly cautious. Mary became such a recluse in recent years; I imagined she would have been more cautious especially knowing William’s history.

  But Mary reached out to Leesa. Which made me wonder, who was the person purposely trying to mislead the police by implicating my daughter as a suspect?

  I looked at Louise. Suppose she was protecting her son all that time. How many times did Louise inquire about Leesa?

  Wait a minute stop all this, Eugeena. First of all, this is Louise we are talking about here. The one who couldn’t keep her mouth closed.

  No, if Louise knew something she would have told me. This whole thing was making me crazy. I even wondered about Amos. Everyone seemed to be a suspect.

  A noise startled me. I expected to see the nurse, but all I saw was a flash of white clothing. That’s weird. Most nurses just walked right in while you’re visiting and do whatever they have to do.

  I got up from my chair and headed towards the intensive care desk area. The same nurse who greeted me when I came in was busily tapping on a computer keyboard.

  She looked up when I leaned over the desk. “Was someone just at the door now?”

  The woman peered over her glasses at me. “Yes, but I told her only one person allowed in the room at the time.” The nurse shrugged, “I guess she was concerned about her grandmother.”

  Grandmother? I decided to keep my mouth closed. What I knew that the nurse didn’t know was that Louise didn’t have any grandchildren. That is unless William had a few surprises on the side. “I hate to bother you but can you describe her?”

  The nurse described the woman and then frowned, “Why all the questions?”

  “You do know Mrs. Hopkins is in intensive care because someone attacked her?”

  “I’m familiar with her situation.”

  “Then you should also know her attacker hasn’t been found.”

  “Well, you don’t think ...”

  I looked at the woman like she’d lost her mind.

  “Now that I think about it, she was acting nervously.”

  “Call the police. Tell them someone needs to be here looking after Mrs. Hopkins.” I stormed out the door into the waiting area and drove like a mad woman back toward Sugar Creek. How did I miss this? None of it made any sense.

  Grown folks talking, children screaming and a dog barking in delight were the sounds that met me as I entered the house. On the way home, I had cooked up a plan and Porgy was going to help me, but first I needed to talk to Amos.

  “Mama, is that you? How’s Louise doing?” Junior called out.

  “She’s still in intensive ... what are you doing here? And you?”

  Amos and Wayne sat across from both of my boys; all had cards in their hands. “Junior asked me if I knew how to play spades. Couldn’t resist. I hadn’t played in years. I needed a partner. Wayne here was available.”

  Wayne, still looking clean-cut, grinned. “Hey Miss Eugeena. Like old times.”

  Maybe that was my imagination, but my two sons seemed to have taken to Amos. Wayne seemed to look upon the man as a father figure in the past few days too. I couldn’t sit and ponder that for long, I was on a mission.

  “Louise still hasn’t woken up enough to talk.”

  Amos looked thoughtful. “That might be a good thing for now. Police still need to catch who attacked her.”

  He was so right about that, but I didn’t know if I could interrupt their game and pull Amos to the side to tell him what I knew.

  So, I continued with Plan A, not even quite
sure of the full plan. I went off to find my four-legged roommate. “Porgy, you ready to go for a walk?” The dog started bouncing around as soon as he saw the leash. I snapped it on his little collar. I headed back down the stairs to see the men folks were still tied up with their game. Amos eyed me. “You’re going for a walk this time of day?”

  I stared blankly. Did he know what I was up to? “Porgy’s been cooped up for a while.”

  “Still, it’s really warm out.”

  Junior and Cedric were both looking at their cards, but I could tell their ears were cocked to our conversation.

  “Oh I will be fine. Porgy and I will take a little walk and we will be right back.” I emphasized right back and looked at Amos. I didn’t want to come right out and say I suspect one of our neighbors had been hiding something. “If I don’t come back, call in the troops.” Amos stared at me. I know my smile was wobbly. I’m not good at hiding things. Hiding was just as bad as lying to me. In the case of what I was about to do, I figured it might be a good idea to drop some clues.

  I shut the front door behind me and headed down my driveway in the direction of Mary’s house. As I walked, Porgy panted and trotted along my side, he didn’t seem as chipper, maybe because he was nearing his old home. As I passed the array of snapdragons and lilies, a picture started to come together in my mind. How did I miss this?

  Chapter 34

  The garden. Until today, I never noticed the small garden on the side of the house. Could have been a coincidence, but the flowers looked like “children” from Mary’s garden.

  Tamara answered the door. She looked like she needed a good night’s sleep. “Mrs. Patterson?”

  Porgy lurched forward on the leash so hard he almost yanked my shoulder out the socket. I pulled the little Corgi back.

  Tamara grabbed the door. “What’s going on?”

  “Porgy, calm down. What’s wrong with you?” I’d never seen the dog react quite that way to anybody. He seemed pretty friendly to almost everyone. Did he react this way before to Tamara? “I’m sorry. He’s been cooped up in the house. I don’t know what’s got into the little fellow.”

  I bent down and picked the dog up into my arms. “Do you mind if we come in?”

  “You want me to let that thing into my house? Suppose he attacks me.”

  Porgy growled. My little furry friend was definitely trying to tell me something. He clearly didn’t like Tamara. All those times that Tamara was over, Porgy had been trying to tell me something.

  I looked at this woman who had been in my house. My kitchen.

  Mary’s body was in her kitchen. Louise was attacked in her kitchen.

  “You have some beautiful flowers.” I petted Porgy’s head, hoping to sooth his nerves, but his little muscles were tight with tension. So were mine. I continued blabbing. “Looks like you have some of Mary’s favorites. Did she give you some gardening tips? I know she tried to help me learn. I was a lost cause.”

  Tamara cleared her throat and gazed at me, well mostly at Porgy, “Miss Eugeena, can I help you?”

  “I wanted to check on you. I haven’t seen you in a few days.”

  Tamara’s face crumbled, but she regained her composure. “Thanks for taking the time to check on me.”

  “Honey, are you okay?” I did feel for this lonely young woman.

  “My husband left. Just like everyone does. They all leave.”

  Porgy whimpered. Right then and there, I should have walked off. But I couldn’t. I moved the small dog to under my arm. “I’m sorry to hear, honey. Why don’t you come over, we’ve got plenty of food at my house. My whole family came in this weekend.”

  “No, no thanks. I wouldn’t want to barge in on you. I guess everyone is upset about Leesa.”

  Leesa. Tamara doesn’t know Leesa is back.

  I needed to get that girl closer to Amos. And away from her home. My pitiful plan had already fizzled.

  “You sure you don’t want to come over. I don’t want you to be by yourself.”

  “I appreciate it, Miss Eugeena, but that’s exactly-” her voice caught for a second. Then she swallowed. “I need to be by myself for awhile.”

  “No, Tamara, I insist. I don’t tell many people this, but my marriage wasn’t all that great for several years. Honey, the Lord can work it out.”

  Tamara’s eyes flooded with tears. “I don’t think God can fix this. It’s too late.”

  “Okay, if you don’t come over, I’m going to bring the feast to you.” I planned to bring back Amos.

  She stared at me for a few minutes, like she heard me speak my plan out loud. “I appreciate you being so kind. All of you have been kind to me.”

  “All of us?” I responded. Before I could think, I inquired, “Mary and Louise too?”

  Tamara’s eyes grew wide, and then narrowed with a deep anger. “What did you say?”

  Too late to turn back now. “That night when you went to see Mary. What happened?”

  “What are you talking about? I didn’t go to see Mary.”

  “Are you sure? You sure you didn’t make friends with your neighbor across the street? Maybe you were angry and something terrible happened.” I couldn’t seem to stop interrogating the woman.

  Tamara’s body trembled. Her fists tightened. Her small stature seemed to shrink before my eyes. “You can’t prove anything.”

  My stomach was churning on the inside. Good Lord! Was that a confession? All the time Porgy whimpered. I placed him on the ground and let the leash slip from my hand. That dog took off down the street. I turned to head after him, but heard Tamara squeal “No!” behind me.

  Then I heard a click.

  I watched Porgy’s little body getting smaller and smaller. I hope with all my heart he would have sense enough to head toward the house he’d called home for only a week.

  I turned to Tamara and put on my meanest look. “Look, you are in enough trouble already.”

  Her hand holding the gun trembled. She hissed, “Get in here. We don’t want to attract attention from the neighbors.” As I glided past Tamara into her house, my thoughts flashed to what a good time I had with my family and how they may never see me alive again.

  Chapter 35

  Tamara shoved me towards the couch. “Sit down over there so I can think.”

  Lord knows if that child didn’t have that gun, I would’ve backhanded her. Better yet, if the Lord had given humans the ability to kill by looking at somebody, Miss Tamara would have been one dead chick right now.

  I sat down, not taking my eyes off Tamara. I exhaled, “I can’t believe I trusted you and let you into my home. Looks like you made a fool out of me. Chile, what is your problem?”

  Tamara paced back and forth. “I didn’t mean to become friends. I liked Mary. It was an accident. It really was ... she fell. Louise and you. All of you took me under your wings.”

  She fell. Or was she pushed? I opened my mouth to ask the questions racing through my head. “Chile, why didn’t you call for help?”

  Tamara shrugged. “I don’t know maybe because I had no business being there.”

  The doorbell rang before I could inquire about what Tamara meant. Tamara pointed the gun in my direction and placed her finger against her lips.

  I don’t know who was at the door, but I hoped God sent the cavalry after me. I leaned forward as Tamara opened the door. Too bad the couch was positioned behind the door.

  “Hey Tamara, how are you? I was wondering if you’ve seen Eugeena. Porgy came back without her. Her family is out searching for her. You know she has diabetes.”

  Amos! Praise God for that little furry wonder dog. He did head back to the house. Oh I wasn’t going to complain about him sleeping on the bed ever again.

  Tamara’s voice oozed with sugary sweetness, “No, I haven’t seen her.”

  I opened my mouth to protest, but then I remembered the gun behind Tamara’s back. I certainly didn’t want harm to come to Amos.

  I swallowed and prayed. Lord Jesus, I
don’t know what’s going on here. You taught us how to be a good neighbor. I’m not the best neighbor, but I reached out to this woman. I trust you and your plan right now.

  I shifted in my seat and tried to see if I could catch Amos’ attention.

  “Why don’t you join us out here? We could use all the help we can get. I know how special Eugeena is to you,” Amos coaxed Tamara.

  The woman stuttered her reply. “Well, I’m kind of in a jam right now. I’m sure Miss Eugeena will be back soon. She probably just walked a little farther and Porgy being difficult just ran off. She’s probably looking for him.”

  There was a moment of silence. Amos must have been thinking about what Tamara said. Finally he spoke, “You’re right, she could be out looking for the dog. Well, I will let you know when she’s back.”

  “Okay. I hope you find her.”

  Tamara closed the door, but something blocked her from closing it all the way. “What?” The woman swung the door open and pointed the gun towards Amos.

  I yelled, “No, don’t you dare.”

  I placed my hands against my face and watched in horror as Amos lunged forward to grab Tamara’s arms.

  An explosion of noise from the gun caused me to throw my heavy body to the floor. On all fours I crawled as fast as I could to the back of a nearby chair. Screaming radiated in my ears.

  Wait that was me screaming.

  I shut my mouth and listened to Tamara crying hysterically now. “No, let me go. I didn’t mean to do it.”

  Then, a voice from above me said, “Eugeena, you alright?”

  I pulled my arms from where I had them wrapped tight around my head and looked up into a face I’d come to enjoy seeing. “You’re okay. What happened?”

  Amos reached down and I took his hand. He pulled me up from the floor in one swoop. Pretty strong for an old guy too. He asked me. “Are you okay?”