by June Shaw
Dave is really a prisoner. That thought slammed into my mind while I reached the entrance doors and yanked on one, but a moving large object to the far end of the building grabbed my attention. It was a bus, a fairly large one that had stopped and made a rumbling noise from near that rear door. A few people were streaming out of the building and getting on that bus. What if one of them was a person I needed to see?
I let go of the door and ran toward the bus.
“Ow!” a female’s voice cried behind me, making me glance back a second to see a nurse who’d been entering the place obviously right behind me, and I had let the door go. It must have hit the hand she was shaking while she frowned at me.
“I’m sorry,” I called to her and returned my attention to the bus and its occupants.
I stopped a woman using a walker while she exited the building. “Where are y’all going?”
“I’m going to my doctor,” she said, not slowing. “And I need to go because I like to get a good seat.” She allowed the bus driver, a large woman with tiny glasses, to take her walker and hold her hand while she gripped the rail inside and moved up the steps. The driver folded the walker and placed it with others in the open cargo holder. And then the driver looked at me, scanning the others who came out the building. “Can I help you?”
“Are they all going to doctor’s offices?” I asked, although the answer to that question actually didn’t matter.
“A few of them are. One has an appointment with his dentist.”
I knew the manor provided this service to its clients. What I really needed to know right now was who was leaving here. “I’m looking for someone. Maybe she’s going with you.”
The driver lifted a pad with names listed. “Who is it? I can see.”
“Sorry, right this minute I can’t think of her name.” The second I said it, she gave me a look. Did she think I was going to steal one of her riders? “I have to get on here and take a look.” I scrambled up the steps, heard footsteps right behind, turned and saw the driver had come up with me. Maybe checking to make sure I wasn’t going to plant a bomb or hurt any of the occupants.
I watched the news too much and wasn’t thinking right. Rushing down between the rows of moldy-smelling seats, I didn’t find either of the people I was looking for. I slowed to check each one again. There really were few people. Elderly men and women stared back at me. Two of them gave me a little smile.
At the rear of the bus, I spun around, ready to rush back to the manor and check in it. The driver was in my face when I turned. “Did you find who you were looking for?”
“No, I’m sorry. I really have to talk to this woman, and I can’t remember her name. I’ll just go check inside there. Didn’t want to miss her and thought she might be going with you.”
She pressed back against an empty seat to let me get by and then followed me out of her bus. As I moved away, I glanced back. She was still standing in the doorway of her bus, watching me. After I was a few yards away, the door to her vehicle closed, and she drove away.
I could have gone into the entrance on this far wing of the building but figured the person I wanted would go through the main door. Scanning vehicles, I didn’t find the maroon truck. There were a couple of small white cars. I hurried into the building. Just as I did, my phone rang. Eve.
“Where are you?” she asked, and I slowed.
“Getting to the manor.”
“Oh.”
Her tone made me stop. She wasn’t pleased for some reason. “Yes, I’m running inside to see if I can find the girl who got pregnant or Ms. Grace with her picture.”
The pause kept me in place. “I’m in front of your house. I thought we’d go together.”
Why hadn’t I contacted her before coming out? Ah, I’d rushed off after I received a phone call, an important one. It came from Dave’s sister. “I just wasn’t thinking about us getting together yet. Figured I’d hurry and discover a name here and get it to Detective Wilet.”
“I see.”
Hmm, she and I had been together since we played footsies in our mother’s womb. We normally knew when the other one wasn’t giving the entire truth.
“Did anybody call you today?” I tried to make my tone innocent while mentally crossing my fingers about her answer.
“No. Why?”
Good. Dave’s sister only phoned me. “Just wondering,” I said, walking farther into the place and knowing she would doubt that fat fib. And then I remembered another call I’d received. “So Cherry didn’t contact you?”
“Not if I didn’t receive a phone call today.” The annoyance in her voice let me know she still doubted whether I was saying everything.
Okay, so I wasn’t. I’d left out the part about Dave and now scooted through the foyer and into the large central gathering area. Lingering smells of breakfast sausage started to be overwhelmed by stronger aromas that came from cabbage the cooks were preparing for lunch.
Uh-oh, lunch. The detective required info. I needed to find the woman with the phone but scurried around and didn’t see her or my mother to ask about her.
“I’m still here.” Eve’s voice was cold. “So, what did Cherry say?”
“Ooo, she and especially her husband didn’t seem too thrilled with the color—yes, I know that was my fault. I can’t recall which color I’d pointed to while I ran out of that store, so we’ll need to get to her house soon and straighten things out.”
Another pause. “Is that all?” Again with a chill.
“No. There she is.” I started to run but realized how that would look and slowed my speed to a walk toward the large room’s distant wall.
“Who?”
“The person who could have killed Royce.” I clicked off my phone, not wanting to speak into it while I accosted the slender woman wearing navy.
Chapter 25
Two female staff members in navy blue that I had seen together staring at me on previous days stepped toward each other. This was the first time I’d seen them up close. One was a bit larger than the other with short-cropped coarse black hair that probably wouldn’t move if she were out during a storm. The one I aimed for with curly hair was really slim except for the little bump around her middle that the drawstring belt of her pants created. All of the staff members wore name tags, although they seemed to have a choice of where to place them. The larger woman had hers pinned to her chest. Her friend had hers hanging from the bow she’d made with her drawstring. It hung at an angle so I couldn’t read the thing. The two were on the side of a table where three male residents played cards.
I stood next to their table and watched them play a little, trying to decide what I would say to both of those women. I had planned to compliment the one who aborted Royce’s baby and introduce myself so she would tell me her name that I could relay to Detective Wilet. But now the other one was here. I could do the same thing with both of them. I just had to come up with nice things to say about the pair.
“No, I wouldn’t discard that one.” The female whose name I wanted leaned over a wrinkled man’s shoulder. She flattened her fingers over the card he had pulled from his hand to stop him from throwing it away. “Do that one instead.” She placed the tip of a finger on a different card.
He slid his gaze toward her and back to his hand. Then he did as she suggested.
“Darn it. That’s not what I wanted,” another player said, and she patted the one she’d instructed on the shoulder as though letting him know he’d done a good job.
The larger woman moved away, and I stepped closer to the person I wanted.
“You did a great job there,” I told her, tilting my head toward the group of card players.
She backed away from the table a little. “Thanks. We try to help our residents.” An endearing faint blush touched her cheeks. Maybe she had a difficult time accepting compliments. Her gaze darted to the side, to the path her friend had taken. Her pale eyebrows folded in crinkles when she let h
er gaze sweep over me. Was I staring at Royce’s killer?
I swallowed hard and wished it weren’t so. Second thoughts struck—the accused might be her—or me. I put out my hand. “I’m Sunny Taylor, by the way.”
Her small handshake was weak. “Rayne.”
I grinned. “Excuse me? Rain?”
“I know, it’s unusual. It’s spelled R-a-y-n-e, not like the rain outside.” Her gaze shot away from me almost like she was seeking an escape route.
Moving closer to block any movement in that direction, I said, “That’s a lovely name. Unique. But what about your last name?” She couldn’t get away without giving me that.
“Adams.”
Okay, Rayne Adams. Rayne Adams. I needed to remember the whole name. Surely I could. My dyslexia sometimes caused me to confuse written words, but these were not. Her name was all I needed.
“Sunny. Hi, Sunny.” It was my mother walking with a couple of her friends toward me.
“Hey,” I called out and waved. I glanced at the woman in navy now starting to scoot away from me in a different direction. “That’s my mom,” I told her, also recognizing other residents or visitors I wanted to place but could not. This was much more important at the moment.
Rayne might have been a gazelle the way her lithe body did its swift move away from me. She knew who my mother was and who I was. Therefore it was easy to figure out the reason she and her fellow worker had stared at me and Eve before. She must have known Royce lived next door to Eve. If Rayne murdered him, she probably was frightened that Eve or I might discover her connection to him. And report it?
That’s exactly what I was about to do.
“Hey, Mom.” I stepped up to my mother and gave her a kiss.
“Hello, sweetheart. How nice to see you here again.”
Her buddies and I exchanged greetings and then I leaned closer to my mother and hugged her, placing my lips close to her ear. “I really need to go.”
When she withdrew from the hug, she gave me that tight-lipped small smile with deeper creases outside her eyes that had saddened. “Come again later, okay?” she said, not knowing the reason I’d rush off but accepting it.
I placed my fingers around her gnarled hand that the rheumatoid arthritis had taken over and gave it a slight thank-you squeeze. With another kiss on her cheek, I was gone.
Surely Mom was getting hit with questions from her cronies about why I wouldn’t stay to visit with her, but that didn’t concern me. Our mother was proficient in letting her daughters do what they needed to do. She had long ago stopped asking where we were going and what we were up to unless there was something she felt she needed to know to protect us. My time for being able to give birth was quickly depleting, but if I were ever fortunate enough to have a child, I would want to raise him or her the way Mom raised us. Maybe I could help do that with Eve’s new grandson.
That thought brought a smile to my lips as I rushed toward the main exit, a couple of administrators glancing at me while I went past. I didn’t concern myself with them but hurried outside, away from everyone, my fingers hitting Detective Wilet’s number while I moved.
“Wilet,” he said on the second ring.
I came to a complete stop. “I found out her name.” I was so excited, my voice sounded thin.
“Who?”
Enthusiasm dumped out of me like a cement mixer. “That woman. The woman at the manor who got pregnant by Royce but didn’t let him know until after she had an abortion and he really wanted that baby and she probably killed him.”
“You know all of this for sure?”
“No.” My body calmed. Eve came trotting from her car toward me. She would hear this conversation, which was okay, but I didn’t put my phone on speaker since I wouldn’t want anyone who worked here or visitors to take note of my accusations. “But I really believe that’s what happened.” The pause on his end was long, so I said, “This is Sunny Taylor.”
“I realize that. So give me whatever information you have.”
“Okay, first, here’s her name. Rayne Adams.” I saw Eve’s lips quirk to the side in a questioning frown when she came next to me. “The woman’s first name is unusual. It’s Rayne.” I spelled it for him and repeated that and her last name.
“Right, got it. Now what else?”
I let my mind run to a scene I’d envisioned before and hoped it was true. “Probably they were in his backyard when she told him about the whole thing, and they got in a big argument, and he was furious with her because he’d always wanted a child. And things got rough. Maybe he pushed her around or hit her. And she saw something hard out there—maybe a shovel or whatever—and grabbed it and struck his head.” I ran out of breath. And the story.
Eve watched me. Her eyes widened while my tale had unfolded. She looked at my phone.
“I’ll check on it,” Detective Wilet said in a curt tone.
“Wait. What did y’all learn about—” I stopped when I realized he’d hung up. My gaze closed in on Eve’s face.
“It’s fantastic that you discovered all that information,” she said.
“Mm.” I grimaced.
“Sunny, that is really fantastic.” She gave me the biggest hug, and I leaned into it, not ready to tell her I had made up most of what I’d said—although I hoped the officer determined it was all true. “Did you learn anything else?” she asked, pulling out of the hug.
Dave asked about me slid across my tongue. I tightened my mouth and kept the words inside. Running my thoughts to another area, I said, “We need to get to Cherry’s place and see what we can do with the damage.”
Eve frowned again. “You still can’t remember what granite you picked?”
I shook my head. “I’m certain I didn’t really choose anything. I just pointed back in the building and ran out.”
“Uh-uhn, I hope the manager didn’t just send something ugly that they couldn’t move.”
That was my hope, too, but I kept it inside while I went with her to her car, pleased that I had gotten one stumble out of the way. If we were extremely fortunate, we would find the situation at Cherry’s house easy to fix.
Something told me we wouldn’t be.
Chapter 26
“Oh no,” Eve said, but at least kept the words soft. Maybe Cherry, standing across her kitchen from us, didn’t hear.
“What?” Cherry’s eyes widened with fear. “You don’t like it either?”
We were all in her kitchen, Eve, her, and me. And that horrible, uglier than sin or anything resembling it might be granite top that now lay newly installed on the island we had planned to make the showpiece of her remodeling.
“Oh, no,” Eve said louder than before, “I just realized my nose started to run.” Give one to my sister. She recovered from that goof-up nicely. She reached into her purse and dug inside it while our customer gave her worried eyes.
“I can get you some tissue,” Cherry told her.
“No, that’s fine. I’m good. Yes, here it is.” Eve’s attempt at making the time pass while we could think up some explanation for that eyesore in the room was admirable, but made me sad for her. I needed to help out.
While she took a small pack of tissue from her purse, pulled one from the pack, and wiped her already dry nose with it, I gave Cherry the most open-eyed incredible stare I could muster and forced out words, using the best acting I could muster. “You mean there’s someone who doesn’t like this?” I moved to the granite and set my hand on it. The gross blend that made me think of avocado and lemons squashed together with baby poop made me want to pull my hand away.
Cherry’s eyes moved closer together, her face sincere. “So you really like it.”
“Who couldn’t love this?” I tapped the granite and hoped nothing came off on my fingers. With only a little struggle, I kept my face straight.
A long exhale blew out of her nostrils. Her shoulders sank lower, and her whole body relaxed. “See? That’s what I told C
harles. He didn’t think it was so pretty.” Her lips twisted to the side in a half smile, yet also a half frown. “But what does he know? He operates in people’s stomachs after all.”
“Ah, and what he finds in there isn’t the same as what’s here.” Again, I rubbed the granite top, trying to feign appreciation.
“Are you okay?” Cherry spoke to Eve, concern in her eye. “You’re still blowing your nose. Maybe you need something else. A cough drop. Cough syrup.” She scurried across her kitchen and yanked a cabinet door open. Inside sat lots of meds. She grabbed a handful. “Look, we have something for sinus problems if that’s what you have, or if you think you’re getting a cold, here’s a pill for that. Or, let me see.”
While she flipped back around, tip-toed and perused her medicines, Eve rolled her eyes at me.
“Oh, look, this.” Cherry thrust everything back in that cabinet, shut the door, and came toward Eve with water she’d retrieved from the front of her fridge and an orange pill. She held them both out to Eve. “Take this with a little water. It’s a kind of heal-all pill that will stop noses from running and clear up sinuses and stop coughs.”
Eve’s eyes at me over the rim of the glass while she sipped after swallowing the pill showed concern. Neither of us usually took meds that weren’t prescribed for us or over-the-counter medicines unless we read the labels well first. This time seemed like an emergency of sorts with a client we needed to satisfy. Besides, her husband was a doctor. He shouldn’t have anything in that cabinet that would hurt her. I was certainly glad he wasn’t here, and we didn’t know him. I hoped I never had to face the man. He probably wasn’t nearly as easy to appease as his wife.
She watched Eve with hopeful eyes, leaning forward, watching so closely it was as though she expected my sister to sing, “Alleluia, I’m healed,” the moment the pill slid down her throat.
“Thank you. I almost feel better already,” Eve said, and Cherry’s eyes lit with pride. She reached out for Eve’s used tissue.
