Etched in Shadow: A Cassie Quinn Mystery

by L. T. Ryan

  Cassie enjoyed the way Jason’s brain worked. He was clearly good at thinking through these situations. And she still relished the fact that she didn’t need to do this on her own. “You’re right.” He beamed, and she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “It’s worth a shot.”

  33

  The bakery was a tiny building that could’ve been a holdover from the 1950s. The striped awning looked new, and the brick appeared as though they’d restored it sometime in the last decade. Everything else about the building retained its original character. The sign that read Flora’s Bakery in delicate script looked original.

  There was no bell as Cassie pulled the door open, but the woman behind the counter noticed when they entered. She looked up with a smile, setting aside her book. “Hi, there! Welcome to Flora’s.”

  “Hi, how are you today?”

  “Can’t complain.” As Cassie approached, she saw similarities between Heather and the woman. They had the same nose. “How about you?”

  “The weather could be better.” Cassie was stalling. “Are you Flora?”

  “Flora was my mother.” She pointed to a black-and-white portrait of a woman draped in fur and a diamond necklace. She looked like a movie star. “This was her pet project while my father was busy designing the city’s infrastructure.”

  Cassie didn’t miss the way she’d said designing rather than building. Though she’d never heard of them, she’d bet the Stephens were from the wealthier part of the city. Especially if Flora Stephens had taken on an entire bakery as a pet project.

  “And now you run the shop?”

  “My husband and I, yes.” She gestured around the store, and Cassie noticed how they had positioned antique lamps and signs next to modern conveniences. Everything about the store screamed money. “Our attempt to keep a little slice of history alive.”

  “That’s wonderful.”

  “Do you know what you might like to try today?” She pointed to a sample tray next to the cash register. “These are peanut butter and jelly cupcake bites. They’re one of our best sellers.”

  Cassie hesitated. They had gone over the plan on the car ride over, but now that she was face to face with the woman, she hated darkening her day. But then Cassie thought of all the people who had died, including Jasmine, and she allowed their spirits to spur her forward. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

  The woman looked delighted Cassie had inquired. “Lily.”

  “Lily, my name is Cassie. This is Jason.” She took a moment to breathe. “We’re looking for your daughter, Heather.”

  Lily frowned. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to help you.”

  “It’s important we find her.”

  “Is she in trouble?” Lily looked from one of them to the other. “Who are you? Police?”

  “No, we’re not the police.”

  “Reporters?”

  “No, it’s nothing like that.” Cassie felt the conversation getting away from her. “Jason’s cousin died recently, and we think Heather might know something. We just want to talk to her.”

  Something in Lily broke. Her lip quivered and she looked down at her hands. “Were they friends?” When she looked up again, there were tears in her eyes. “Heather and your cousin?”

  “No, ma’am.” Jason’s voice was slow and gentle. “At least, not that I’m aware.”

  “Good.” She tried to steel herself, but there was so much pain in her eyes. “We don’t talk much anymore. At all, actually. Heather hasn’t been the same. Not since her sister died.”

  “We read about her. Daisy.” Cassie tiptoed through the conversation. “We know she had back surgery and something went wrong. She got a bacterial infection?”

  The woman nodded. “She was paralyzed. Put into a coma.”

  “My cousin had heart surgery. Something went wrong, too.” Jason didn’t hold back the emotion in his voice. “She died and she shouldn’t have.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” Lily said it like someone who knew how painful that could be. What a far cry from how Marsha had handled their situation. The two of them looked like they could’ve been friends at their daughter’s PTA meetings, but their personalities were worlds apart. “They weren’t sure Daisy would recover. We were willing to wait. We’re lucky money wasn’t an issue. Heather hated seeing her like that, dead and alive at the same time. It wasn’t easy on any of us.”

  Every question had to be asked with the utmost delicacy. Cassie laid a gentle hand on the counter between her and the other woman. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know.” Lily dabbed at the corner of her eye with the tip of her finger. “She was on life support. The doctors couldn’t explain how her ventilator turned off without the machines alerting us. They said it was a glitch. Our lawyer recommended we sue the company for a faulty device.” She hung her head. “But I’m just so tired. I don’t want their money. I want my daughter back.”

  “Were Heather and Daisy close?”

  “They were very similar.” Lily’s smile was sad. “They fought a lot, but they loved each other fiercely. Heather was the one who found her. I don’t think she’ll ever forget that.”

  “No one should ever have to go through that.”

  “She was inconsolable,” Lily continued. “For days. She became a recluse. She stopped going to school. It devastated her.”

  “Did something else happen? Something to make you two stop talking?”

  “We wanted answers. We kept asking her if she saw anything, remembered anything. Our lawyer wanted to talk to her about it, to get her account of what happened. But she shut us out. She packed up and moved out the next day. Told me in no uncertain terms that she never wanted to see either of us again. I haven’t talked to her since. I lost both my daughters within weeks of each other. And somehow the worst part is that Heather is still out there. She’s just choosing not to return my phone calls.”

  Cassie saw a glimmer of hope and reached for it. “She still has the same number?”

  “Not anymore.”

  Cassie deflated. “Do you have any way of getting in touch with her? Any idea where she might be?”

  Lily looked back down at her hands. “I’m not proud of it, but I hired a private investigator to find her.” She looked up again, desperation in her eyes. “I just wanted to know she was okay. My husband thought I was crazy. I didn’t want to bother her, and I wasn’t going to reach out if she didn’t want me to. As a mother, I just wanted to make sure she was still out there somewhere.”

  Cassie leaned forward. “Do you have her address?”

  Lily once again looked between the two of them. “What’s this about?”

  “We’re not sure yet.” At least that was partially true. “We met Heather when she was pretending to be someone named Stephanie. And we think she was also using another identity, Charli.”

  Lily furrowed her brow. “I don’t understand. Why?”

  “That’s what we’re trying to find out.” Cassie looked to Jason, but it didn’t appear as though he had the right words to explain this either. “We know she’s been volunteering at multiple hospitals under these different disguises. There has been a string of deaths due to so-called complications from surgery or other procedures.”

  “And you think Heather is looking into these deaths because of what happened to Daisy?”

  “That’s what we’re hoping to find out.”

  Lily held Cassie’s gaze for what felt like an eternity. When the woman finally looked away, she grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from under the counter. She scribbled something down and handed it to Cassie. It was an address.

  “I only hired the private investigator for about a month, right after our fight. This was the address he gave me. Sometimes I still drive by there, but I’ve never seen her. She might’ve moved.”

  Cassie took the paper and clutched it to her chest. “Thank you so much.”

  “I hope you find what you’re looking for.” Lily’s shoulders drooped. “And I h
ope she’s—” She broke off. “I don’t know. I hope she’s okay.”

  Cassie didn’t know what to say. Lily got up and grabbed a tissue to blow her nose. They took that as their cue to leave. When Cassie and Jason filed through the door into the fresh air, Cassie finally felt like they were one step closer to figuring out what Heather Stephens knew that they didn’t.

  34

  Heather Stephens lived on the first floor of an upscale apartment complex that had its own courtyard, swimming pool, and enclosed basketball court. Every other car in the parking lot was a BMW, and Cassie couldn’t help but feel they stuck out like a sore thumb, even if Jason’s sedan was brand new just a few years ago.

  Jason slid the car into one of the guest spots. “How does she afford to live here?”

  “How does she afford to have multiple apartments?” Cassie peered through the windshield to get a better look at the building. “The other place wasn’t as nice as this, but we know she worked part time at a bar and volunteered at the hospital. She wasn’t making a ton of money on her own.”

  “It must’ve been for appearances then. Or just extra pocket change.”

  Cassie’s eyes lit up. “That was probably the money she used to pay rent and anything else she wanted to use cash for. I bet she still has access to her parents’ bank accounts to afford a place like this. Either that or she’s using a college fund.”

  “You think her parents would let her do that?”

  “Her mom definitely would. She wouldn’t want Heather to be on her own with nothing.”

  “True.” Jason turned to her. “So what’s the plan?”

  “We knock on her door.”

  “That much I figured.”

  “We ask her what she knows.”

  “What if we spook her?” Jason gestured toward the building. “She’s already met us once. She’ll know we figured out her multiple identities.”

  “We’ll tell her the truth, then.” Cassie unbuckled her seatbelt but didn’t move to open the door. “We tell her about Jasmine and say we think something is going on. Maybe we can put our heads together and figure out how much these different hospitals are covering up. If she’s volunteering at two or more of them, she’s probably putting together proof about what she’s seen.”

  Jason’s voice was quiet. “How big do you think this is?”

  Cassie shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t know. I still can’t wrap my head around it. Is it one doctor or nurse moving from hospital to hospital?” Cassie thought back to Langford and how long he’d gotten away with ripping hearts out of people. Then again, he hadn’t done it while he was at work. It had been an after-hours activity. “Or have the bigwigs at these hospitals started working together to avoid malpractice lawsuits?”

  “That’s the thing, though,” Jason said. “They’re not avoiding it. They’re settling out of court, which means they’re paying more.”

  “So, it’s not about the money.” Cassie tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “It’s about reputation. They don’t want to lose public support or government funding. Maybe they don’t know what’s going on either and instead of looking into it themselves, they’re willing to hush it up to protect their own asses.”

  “I think that’d make me even angrier than if one specific person was behind all this.” Jason hooked a couple of fingers around his doorhandle but didn’t push it open. “I can understand murder. Evil. Impulse. But I can’t understand laziness if you’re dealing in people’s lives.”

  Cassie got out of the car and met him around front. She wasn’t sure what to say. She’d seen evil up close. Locked eyes with it. Survived it twice. But she’d never understand it. And she didn’t want to. How could she ever want to understand why one person chose to kill another?

  Silence hung between them as they each were lost in their own thoughts. They approached the building. Each apartment was like a miniature home. It had its own front gate, driveway, and garage. They slipped through the gate and approached Heather’s door. Cassie wasn’t sure how Jason was feeling, but her heart was pounding in her chest. They were so close to the answers they’d been looking for all this time. All she had to do was knock.

  Jason beat her to it.

  They both waited, holding their breaths. Time crept along. They exchanged a look. There was no sound from within. Jason knocked again. More silence. More looks.

  “Maybe she’s not home?”

  The twisting of a doorknob and the sound of keys jangling caught their attention. A woman emerged from the apartment next door. She had dyed black hair, pale freckled skin, and wore yoga pants, a sports bra, and a loose zip-up hoodie. The front of her apartment looked exactly like Heather’s, except the woman had a summer wreath hanging from her front door. She caught them staring at her.

  “Are you looking for Heather?”

  “Yeah.” Cassie put on her most innocent and cheerful voice. “We’re in town on a whim and wanted to surprise her. I guess she’s not home.”

  “She usually leaves for work about this time.” The woman locked up her house and walked around to the driver’s side door of her car. But she didn’t get in. “You probably just missed her.”

  “Darn.” Cassie smiled. “Does she still work at the hospital? I forget which one. Tulane?”

  “UMC.”

  “Right! That’s the name of it. Thank you so much.”

  “No problem.” She opened her door. “Have a good day.”

  “You too!”

  “So, Stephanie wasn’t the persona who worked at UMC,” Jason said. “It’s been the real Heather all along.”

  “I’d hate to corner her at the hospital and bring more attention to whatever she’s doing there.”

  “I’d also hate to wait all day until she comes back home. She might run away again if she sees us sitting outside her apartment. At least at the hospital she can’t go far.”

  Cassie couldn’t argue with that logic, so she and Jason got back in his car, returning to where all of this had started.

  UMC was busier than usual when they stepped into the waiting room for the second time that day. Cassie felt like they were running in circles. The activity around her only added to the chaos. Families were arguing and patients were crying and nurses were trying to calm everyone down. Cassie stepped up to the registration desk, but a single finger held her at bay. The nurse was on the phone, listening intently. She moved the receiver away from her mouth and hissed something into the ear of the nurse sitting next to her. Cassie only caught the end.

  “—Dr. Amos. Find him.”

  “Now?”

  “Yes, now. It’s a Code Blue.” She listened to the other line for a moment. “Send him to 619.”

  Cassie didn’t wait. She knew her way around the hospital now. She punched the elevator button and waited for what felt like eons until it arrived. Four people got off. Two more ahead of her and Jason got on. They stopped at floors three and four and five until finally—finally—they arrived on six.

  Cassie was out the door and halfway down the hall before she heard Jason call out for her to slow down. Hearing Code Blue was enough for her to take a chance that it was happening again, despite how close they’d come for answers.

  She took the corner too sharply, and her feet almost slid from underneath her. Jason had caught up just in time. He steadied her. At the other end of the hall, outside room 619, a group of nurses were shaking their heads. Some were crying. Some were angry. Some stood staring at the ceiling as if asking why God had taken another person in their prime. Cassie’s heart sank as she took in the scene.

  They were too late.

  35

  Cassie hadn’t seen Heather Stephens at the other end of the hall, but Jason pointed her out with a single finger. Cassie followed the length of it and met the eyes of a brunette who wore her hair in a messy bun. She wore slacks and a cardigan and looked much older than Charli or Stephanie. Though she looked nothing like the bohemian beauty they’d seen on Instagram, there was no mistaki
ng who this was.

  As soon as she saw Jason pointing in her direction, Heather took off around the corner. “Cut her off.” Cassie shoved Jason in the opposite direction while she slipped through the crowd and followed Heather. There were only two ways off this floor: Down the elevators, or down the stairwell. They had to cut off her egress points before she could get away for a second time.

  Cassie saw the forest green of Heather’s cardigan disappear around the corner. If Cassie chased her, she’d draw too much attention. But the stairwell was on this side of the building, and she couldn’t risk Heather getting off on another floor. There were a million rooms she could hide in.

  Jason appeared at the other end of the hallway, and Heather skidded to a stop. It was clear she’d been heading toward the elevators. It was the quickest way down, after all. Now she looked to her left and sprinted toward the door that led to the stairs. A few more seconds and she’d disappear forever.

  Cassie made it to the door ahead of Jason and before it had time to swing shut behind Heather. She all but jumped from one landing to the next. One second they were feet apart, and the next they were face-to-face.

  “Heather.” Cassie was gasping for air. “Please don’t run. We’re not here to hurt you.”

  “What do you want?” Her eyes were wide. This close, Cassie could see she was wearing colored contacts to make them look brown. “Who are you?” Dawning spread across her face. “I’ve seen you before.”

  “We came to your apartment. You introduced yourself as Stephanie.”

  If Heather felt ashamed for being caught in a lie, she didn’t show it. “What do you want?”

  “We don’t want to hurt you.”

  “Then why are you chasing me?”

  Cassie’s breath was under control now. “To be fair, you’re the one who ran.”

  “I don’t have to explain myself to you.” She went to move down the stairs, and Cassie threw out her hand to stop her. “I’ll scream.”