A Crying Shame: A Jesse Watson Mystery

by Ann Mullen

  “It ain’t gonna happen, pal. I have this feeling.”

  “Do you think Claire will come to her senses and realize that she’d be wasting her life on Cole?”

  “No, I think Cole will eventually get tired of her. He’s not in love with Claire. He’s using her to get to you and me. If he doesn’t have her, what excuse does he have to come around? How would he achieve his goal of destroying our marriage?”

  “Has he done something I don’t know about?” Billy asked.

  “Not really; it’s just his attitude. He gets up in my face and acts like he wants to get in my pants… like he’s trying to see how far he can push me. It’s his way of intimidating me. The problem is that I don’t intimidate that easily. I just don’t want to be near him, and the two of you aren’t on the best of terms. But here’s the clincher—Mom’s finished with him; I can see it in her eyes. You hurt one of her kids and you’re on her crap list forever. I don’t think he’ll ever be able to get back into her good graces again. You can say you forgive someone and even make yourself believe it for a while, but the hurt stays forever. It never leaves. Some things a person cannot forgive no matter how hard they try. This is one of them. And if our mom is finished with him, so are we.”

  “Remind me to never get on your mother’s bad side,” Billy said. “I can’t believe she would be incapable of forgiving Cole. Her heart will heal and she will allow Cole back into it. You will see.”

  “There is something else that might affect Mom’s feelings toward Cole.” I hesitated as I looked from Billy to Randy. I didn’t know which one of them I hated to tell this to the most, but I knew it was going to come out sooner or later. Billy would be furious and Randy would be heartsick. “Claire’s pregnant and Cole’s the father.”

  “Say it isn’t true,” Billy said.

  “I guess it’s time for me to close the page on this short chapter in my life,” Randy said. “I don’t stand a chance. I might as well go home.”

  “Don’t go just yet. You never know what can happen.”

  As soon as the words were out of my mouth I got an eerie feeling when I heard Mom scream my name. “Jesse! Come here!” she hollered. She was extremely upset when she came around the corner.

  Isabel and Abby were right beside her.

  We ran up to them and I asked, “What’s the matter, Mom?” She had tears in her eyes and I knew something awful had happened. I felt numb. “What is it?”

  “They made us leave. They told us we’d have to wait out here,” Mom said, She wrung her hands together. “I don’t know why they let Cole stay with her; he’s not family.”

  “Mother, calm down and tell us what happened.”

  “I don’t know,” Mom said. “One minute she seemed fine, and the next, she started having terrible cramps in her stomach.” Mom started crying and couldn’t be consoled. “I want to see my daughter! Why did they let him stay with her? He’s not family; we are. I want to see her!”

  “Mom, I’m sure she’s okay.” I looked at Billy and said, “Take Mom to the nurse’s station and see if Dr. Bryant’s here. If he is, tell them to page him and then have him give her a sedative. She’s losing it.” I looked at Abby and Isabel and said, “Help Billy, please.” They nodded their heads and helped console Mom as Billy led her away. I looked at Randy and said, “I’m going in there. Maybe you can hang around just in case I need a lawyer.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” he said. “I’m coming with you. Do you have your gun on you?”

  “No… oh… I hope not.” I opened my purse and fortunately, Frank had removed my gun before bringing my handbag into the hospital. Smart man! And I told him not to snoop through our things. I’m glad he didn’t listen. “No gun—Frank thinks of everything.”

  “Let’s go,” Randy said. “I’m right behind you.”

  I pushed opened the double doors and walked through as if I was on a mission, and I was. I was determined to find out what was wrong with my sister. Tears welled in my eyes as the realization of what could be happening hit me. I was afraid that Claire was having a miscarriage. I felt as if I had jinxed her the minute I told Randy not to leave because you never know what can happen. I felt sick.

  “I know what you’re thinking, Jesse,” Randy said, walking beside me. “If Claire’s having a miscarriage, it has nothing to do with you or what you said earlier. Put it out of your mind right now.”

  “I’ll try,” I said softly, in between my tears.

  We came to the nurse’s station in a different section of the hospital. The station was set up in the center of a very large area with several separate rooms surrounding it. The rooms had no doors, only curtains similar to the Emergency Room. It looked like we were in the intensive care unit—the same type of ICU where Dad had died—in the same hospital. I froze when I realized where we were. My breathing became labored as I tried to concentrate and take deep breaths.

  “Are you okay?” Randy asked.

  I caught my breath when I heard Claire talking in the room to my right. The curtain was closed, but I could still hear them talking. “I’m okay now. Let’s go…”

  “May I help you?” a nurse asked as she came up to us, blocking our way.

  “My sister was rushed back here a few minutes ago.”

  “What’s her name?”

  “Her name is Claire Benson.”

  She looked at the clipboard in her hand and said, “She’s going to be fine. The doctor is in there with her now. You’re going to have to leave this instant!”

  “Claire, are you okay?” I hollered out.

  The doctor walked out of Claire’s room and snapped his fingers. Two seconds later, Randy and I were politely escorted out by two very large orderlies.

  “You can wait outside the door, but you can’t come in here,” one of them said. “The doctor will be out in a minute.”

  “He doesn’t know…”

  “Trust me; he knows.” They turned and walked away.

  I grabbed the door handle and discovered it was locked. “I wonder why the door’s locked.”

  “See that scanner on the wall? You have to have a card to get through these doors. Somehow the door must not have closed all the way the last time someone went through it, or either the electronic lock was momentarily disabled. It doesn’t matter because we’re not getting back in.”

  “Then I’ll stand right here in the doorway until somebody tells me something.”

  We both stood in the doorway, watching.

  Randy and I were discussing the situation when the door opened and Cole walked out. “Claire’s okay,” he said. The door closed behind him.

  “What happened, Cole?”

  “Claire started having stomach cramps, so they rushed her here. She thought she might be having a miscarriage, but she wasn’t. The pains were related to the back pain caused by the accident. She’s going to be fine.”

  “I’m so glad to hear it,” I said. “I’ll go tell Mom. Oh, I don’t think the two of you have met. Cole, this is Randy Morgan. His mother, Abigail, is Carl’s next door neighbor. Randy and his family are friends of Claire’s, and now they’re friends of mine. Randy is also a criminal lawyer.” I smiled and turned to Randy. “This is Cole James, Greene County Deputy and Claire’s fiancé.” I turned and walked off.

  Randy held out his hand and said, “It’s nice to meet you.”

  Cole said the same thing to Randy as the two of them turned and followed me.

  Claire was going to be all right; that’s all I cared about. I didn’t have the patience or desire to stand around and carry on a conversation with Cole. I did the polite thing by introducing him and Randy, now all I wanted to do was to get back to Billy and the others. I wanted to be surrounded by the people I loved and trusted, and unfortunately, Cole was no longer in that group. I put him in a category somewhere close to Carl. I don’t despise Cole like I do Carl, not yet, anyway, but he’ll have to come full circle before I forgive his bad behavior. And I just don’t think that’s
going to happen for a long time, if ever. I continued walking until I was met in the hallway by Billy, Mom, and the two ladies.

  “Dr. Bryant sat your mother down and talked to her,” Billy said as he acknowledged Cole and Randy with a nod of his head. “She’s fine now.” He reached over and put his arm around her. “He didn’t have to give her anything.”

  “We told her it was a waste of her time to get so upset,” Abby said.

  “Yeah, we told her to chill out,” Isabel added.

  “How’s Claire?” Mom asked. She avoided looking in Cole’s direction. “Can I go see her?”

  “Claire’s going to be fine,” Cole said to Mom. He walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder. “I’d like to talk to you if you can find it in your heart to give me a few minutes of your time.”

  She hesitated for a minute and then said, “I never did get any of that hospital coffee. Perhaps you can go with me.”

  They turned and walked away.

  “That’s a good sign,” Abby smiled and said. She looked at me. “Your mother has been hurt by Cole’s behavior, but she also realizes people can make mistakes. “When I talked to her at Christmas, she told me that when she found out that her son, Jack, is gay; she said it opened a new door for her into what’s real and what isn’t; what’s important and what’s not. She said she realized that it’s important to love people for who they are, and not for what you want them to be. She’s so glad that she didn’t turn her back on her son like so many others would’ve done. She learned something very important by keeping an open mind and by not being judgmental. She said that maybe Cole’s medication was what had made him turn violent. Dr. Bryant suggested that she keep an open mind and give him another chance.”

  “That’s a strange analogy, but if it works for her; it works for me,” I said. “My mother is a very good person. I’m sure Cole will convince her that he’s changed and she’ll give him another chance.”

  Randy stood there with a confused look on his face, but when I explained to him that Cole had slapped Claire and we were mad about it, the confused look turned into a look of anger. His face got blood-red. “Next time he’ll answer to me,” Randy said and walked off.

  Abby followed him; Isabel followed her, and Billy and I stayed behind, staring at each other.

  “He’s smitten with Claire,” I said as I took Billy by the arm and started walking. “I want to talk to you. How’s Brian?”

  “He’s been released on bond. His case comes up in a couple of months. I’m sure Russ will ask for a continuance. Lawyers usually do.”

  “It’s so sad. His wife is murdered, and he’s the one who gets arrested. Now he’ll have to go through the ordeal of standing trial for something he didn’t do. What an awful thing to have to deal with. Not only does he have to try to handle the pain of her death, but he has to deal with the agony of a trial at the same time. It sucks!”

  “There’s more to it,” Billy said. He stopped walking and turned to me. “Whatever went on with Vicki and her doctor just might have produced a baby. The receptionist at his office said that she didn’t think that the doctor messed around, but she knew something was funny when he ordered a paternity test without the patient’s consent. If it’s true, it would have been bad for business, not to mention what would happen if his wife found out. He ordered a paternity test. Vicki never agreed to it but he did it anyway, without her signed consent. He forged her signature.”

  “Are you sure the receptionist was telling you the truth?”

  “Yes, I am. Belinda’s going to get a copy of the paternity test and fax it to me at home.”

  “How friendly did you have to get with Belinda?” I eyed him.

  “I told her I’d take her to a dinner and a movie.”

  I jumped back and was just about to let him have it when he held up his hand and said, “Whoa, `ge ya! I’m just kidding. I paid her a hundred bucks.”

  “You better not take anyone anywhere, except me!” I said, and then calmed down. “I thought they were so much in love.”

  “Sometimes a marriage hits a rough patch. Brian said they had a period where they barely spoke to each other. It was just before Vicki got pregnant. After they found out about the baby, they managed to put their marriage back on course and everything was okay after that.”

  “Does Brian know about the affair?”

  “He’s in the dark. He thinks they worked out their problems and his marriage was sound. He was so happy to have a child in it. He said that for whatever reason they had that bad spell, the baby made everything all right. He said his marriage was solid. He has no idea who would do something like this to his wife. He believes a thief broke into his house, encountered Vicki, and then killed her.”

  “What do you think?”

  “The crime scene showed no sign of forced entry. She either let him in, or the doors weren’t locked. I don’t think it was a thief or that it was random. I think there’s something fishy about that doctor. Why would he have a paternity test done, if he didn’t think he could be the father? That’s a red flag to me. If that test shows that he’s the father, I’d say we have our man. All I have to do is prove it. Belinda said that if his wife found out, she’d divorce him. He was already in financial distress. A divorce would bankrupt him. Belinda also said that he gambles and drinks on the job.”

  “Why doesn’t she report him?”

  “I asked her that and she said she needed her job. She said the medical board wouldn’t do anything to him, but she’d lose her job.”

  “If that doctor is the father and Brian finds out, it’ll kill him. It sounds like he worships Maisy.”

  “Oh, he does.”

  “What’s the doctor’s name?”

  “Benjamin Beard. The girls in the office call him BB—for boobs and butts, because he’s always looking at someone’s boobs, or butt.”

  “That’s lewd and against the law.”

  “It would be hard to prove. He’s a gynecologist, remember?”

  “When’s Belinda going to get the paternity test results for you?”

  “She’s supposed to have them by today. She has to access the file when nobody is around. Today is a half-day at the office and she’s going to be the one who closes. I should have the fax by the time we get home.”

  Detective Trainum came around the corner and met us in the hall. “Sherry Lane’s conscious and the doctors think she’ll make a complete recovery. She has a concussion, a few cracked ribs, and like you, a broken arm.” He winked at me. “Oh, and she has a fractured ankle.”

  “I’m glad that she didn’t die,” I said, relieved. “I surely didn’t want to be held responsible for her death. I can see it now; I try to save my sister and then wind up in prison because I killed her captor.”

  “You’re in the clear,” Frank said. “It’s my opinion that if it hadn’t been for your actions; your sister would’ve been killed by Sherry Lane. That woman swears that she’s innocent, but at the same time, she said that both those other women deserved to die… and so did Claire. Now that’s the ranting of a crazy person. The worst part is that I think she kills without remorse. She should be locked up for the public’s safety. There’s no telling how many people she would’ve killed if you hadn’t stopped her. Once she got the taste; I don’t think she would’ve stopped. In my opinion, she could’ve become another serial killer. I think it was in her blood.”

  “I’m surprised that she has so many injuries and Claire doesn’t. Claire’s back hurts, but the doctor said her back pain was from being jostled around. She’ll be okay. Oh, and she broke a fingernail.”

  Billy and Frank laughed.

  “What?” I said. “What’s so funny?”

  They both ignored my question.

  “The EMT said Sherry Lane wasn’t wearing a seat belt, that’s why her injuries were so bad. She’s lucky she didn’t go through the windshield; the steering wheel stopped her. Fortunately, your sister was wearing a seat belt and that’s what saved her. If she
hadn’t been…”

  “What’s the bad news, Frank?”

  “Sherry Lane said that Carl killed both women and is blaming her. She’s rather adamant about her claim. She went into detail about why and how. Her tale was pretty descriptive.”

  “I don’t believe her.”

  “I don’t either. I guess we’ll just have to let the forensic evidence speak for itself. She’s been placed under arrest.”

  “Is she handcuffed to the bed like you see on television?”

  “You’re still a child at heart, aren’t you, Jesse?” Frank asked.

  “That’s my daughter!” Mom said as she and Cole walked up to us. “You’d think she was still twenty years old by the way she acts sometimes.”

  “I plan to stay that way, too. I don’t want to ever get so old that I can’t see the joy in life and enjoy the fun times. I’d give anything to see that woman shackled to a bed.”

  “The best I can do is to handcuff her to the bedrail. Shackling is saved for when she’s transported.”

  “I guess I’ll have to miss that, because I don’t plan on hanging around here for long. As soon as they say Claire can leave; I’m out of here!”

  “That won’t be very long,” Mom said. “Cole and I went back to see her, and they’re going to release her. They have some paperwork to do first. We were told that it would probably take about an hour.”

  “They’re so slow,” Abby said as she walked up to the group. Randy and Isabel were right behind her. “A person could suffocate from all the paperwork.”

  “What’s going to happen next, Frank?” I asked.

  “I’ll get CPD to post a couple of men at her door, and as soon as the doctor says she can be moved, she’ll be transported to the infirmary at the jail, or to a hospital in D.C., depending on what the captain says. He’ll be the one to have the final say.”

  “What about you? Are you leaving now?”

  “Yeah, my helicopter landed on the hospital’s helipad and they want it removed.”

  “I have an idea,” I said. “Why don’t you all come home with me and we’ll have a nice dinner, and maybe Abby will let you ride back with her.” I looked at Abby and then back to Frank.