Shadows Wait

by Denise A. Agnew

  As he led her toward a door on the right, a cold lump formed in Lilly’s midsection. “Where are you taking me?”

  “Sheriff wants to talk to you.”

  His voice neither condemned nor comforted, his hand around her left upper arm guiding rather than restraining. He pushed open the swinging door to their right. A desk to the left held a petite old woman with white hair scraped into a severe bun. Her black dress reminded Lilly of mourning wear.

  “Mrs. Gamble, take her to the back room. Sheriff has a few questions for her when he gets here.”

  “Will do.” The woman took over as the deputy planted himself at one of six empty desks. “Get outta that desk Holsten. You know Baker hates it when you take his place.”

  “He ain’t here to complain, now is he?”

  She smirked. “Suit yourself, but he’ll be back in two licks.”

  The woman’s wrinkled face and pale green eyes stayed impassive as she waved Lilly toward the back of the room and down a very dimly lit dark hallway. Sconces along the walls burned half-burned tapers.

  “What’s your name sweetie?” the woman asked.

  “Lilly Luna.”

  Mrs. Gamble continued walking past several doors on left and right. “Well isn’t that amazing. Never thought I’d meet you. Adding to your reputation?”

  Baffled, Lilly asked, “I have a reputation?”

  Mrs. Gamble opened a room at the very end of the hall, gestured for Lilly to enter ahead of her, and closed the door behind them. A small window on one wall kept the room dim. A single table with two chairs sat in the middle of an otherwise barren room.

  Mrs. Gamble finally answered the question. “Darlin’ people have known of you for years. Now I hate to ask this, but it is my job. Strip down to your unmentionables.”

  Chapter 23

  Morgan seethed as he strode toward his father’s office at the asylum. In his gut, Morgan knew what his father had done. Though he didn’t believe his father capable of murder, his respect for the man had dipped another notch. He knew what he’d planned with regards to Lilly, and it made Morgan madder than hell.

  “Mr. Healy.” Nurse Summit’s voice cut through the air as she hurried toward him from out of Ward One. “Thank goodness.”

  Morgan stopped in his tracks, but only with difficulty. “Nurse Summit. I must speak to my father.”

  “Of course. What a terrible storm last night. We wondered if the sheriff would find you safe. The blizzard dumped at least six inches. But where is Lilly?” The woman wrung her hands, her eyes filled with unusual anxiety. “Is she well?”

  “She was with me last night.” He explained how the sheriff had found them and taken Lilly into town.

  “Why on earth would he do that?”

  “He said he wanted to take her in to ask questions.”

  She wiped her hands on her apron. “That makes no sense.”

  Morgan sighed. Christ, he didn’t want to tell her this. “Lilly was looking for Oleta, and she found her.”

  “What?”

  Slowly, and as gently as he could, he explained. Nurse Summit’s eyes filled with tears and swam in misery. She wiped at her eyes. “Oh my goodness. Lord save us. I’d feared she’d be found, but how horrible.”

  He handed the woman his handkerchief. “I know. I understand she was a good woman.” Seeing the nurse’s genuine grief tempered his anger for the moment. “Lilly is taking it hard.”

  Nurse Summit dabbed at her eyes. “Oh, my goodness yes. She would. Nurse Franklin was a dear friend to Lilly. A mother to her, really.”

  “I must speak to my father.”

  “Of course.”

  Morgan left the woman; he knew he could do nothing more to comfort her. Once in the administration area, Morgan swept into his father’s open office and closed the door just as his father looked up from paperwork on his desk.

  “Morgan, I’m glad to see you’re safe.”

  Morgan stood in front of his father’s desk and planted his palms on the dark wood. “I believe that like I believe the sun rises in the west rather than the east.”

  Pure exasperation entered Masterson Healy’s eyes, an expression Morgan had seen so many times over the years whenever anyone defied him. Arrogance. The man is beyond arrogant. He’s as cold as a glacier. It wasn’t as if Morgan hadn’t known this all along, but the way Lilly was being treated somehow gave Morgan more proof than he needed.

  “Morgan, don’t be ridiculous. Of course I was concerned.”

  “So damned concerned you came looking for me yourself?”

  “I don’t have the skills to hunt for people caught in a blizzard.”

  Morgan knew the futility of arguing with a man with as few feelings as his father. Whether his father’s logic was sound or not didn’t matter. In that moment, his father’s distance and lack of feeling proved everything to Morgan. Morgan hadn’t wanted to admit, until this point, that his father cared more for himself and for appearances than he did anything else. Morgan hated that he’d held on to the illusion for so long.

  “Sit down Morgan.”

  Defiance ripped through him. “No, thank you.”

  “Stop acting like a boy and act like a man.”

  Whatever reasonableness Morgan might have maintained seeped away. “You were so concerned you sent the sheriff to arrest Lilly. That was your real reason for sending him out. Or maybe it was the appearance of giving a damn.”

  His father’s eyes reflected no surprise whatsoever. “Arrested? Well, if she’s been arrested, the sheriff must have good reason to believe she should be.”

  “That’s bullshit and you know it.”

  Meanness flared from within Masterson Healy’s eyes. “I understand now why you failed medical school and why they tossed you out. But, as you said, appearances mean everything. Apparently something you know nothing about. Yes, I told the sheriff about Lilly and how she’s been acting. And yes, even though you’ve sullied your reputation by going to look for her and staying with her overnight, everyone will forgive you for that. You’re Masterson Healy’s son, and any number of women will want to marry you regardless of your dalliances. You can still be this asylum’s superintendent despite your judgment problems and the fact you’re not a doctor. Because I’m not going to allow this asylum’s legacy to be destroyed.”

  Anger trembled through Morgan, and the fierceness and violence of it seared him. He straightened slowly. “You and I know the state won’t approve my succession to superintendent. After today, I relinquish all desire to become superintendent.”

  Masterson Healy rarely showed overt anger, but he stood and matched his son’s stance. “You’re doing this because of that chit.” His voice faltered, but didn’t break.

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Lilly Luna. I saw the way you first looked at her at that ball. I’ve seen the way you’ve treated her with gentleness and respect ever since. You’re infatuated with her. Marrying her would be a huge mistake, but when it gets around that you spent all night with her in that cabin, you’ll pay the price. I don’t think anyone will expect you to marry such a woman, but the scandal it creates will be quite the stink.”

  Morgan took a deep breath to calm the thunder in his ears. “Lilly Luna is a decent, kind, and gentle woman. And I don’t give a damn what anyone thinks about me. What did you tell the sheriff about her?”

  Morgan’s father glared. “I explained how she acted in our household, how she appeared to be trying to corral you into compromising positions. How she acted when I hired her to be Patricia’s companion. It’s obvious to me that I was wrong to hire her. The woman is not competent.”

  Morgan unbuttoned his coat, emotion making him hot. “Lilly is the most competent, extraordinary woman I’ve met. She knows things about life you couldn’t begin to understand. As for compromising positions, she’s never tried to trap me into anything.” Morgan turned to leave.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To the sheriff’s depar
tment.”

  “Morgan!” Masterson Healy’s angry voice snapped.

  Morgan didn’t look back.

  * * *

  After Mrs. Gamble left, locking the room as she did so, Lilly refastened the last button at her neck. Humiliation could have overwhelmed Lilly, but she’d decided she wouldn’t allow it. According to Mrs. Gamble, Lilly had to strip so the woman could search her and make sure she had no weapons on her.

  “I’m the matron. That’s what I do here,” the woman had said.

  “I have nothing to hide,” Lilly had said as she stripped.

  And she hadn’t. The woman had glanced at the necklace in the bag, which Lilly had completely forgotten about. She’d handed it back to Lilly and didn’t say a word about the jewelry.

  Now that she’d completed that experience, Lilly recalled how much different it had been to remove her clothes in front of Morgan. Granted, she’d been entirely naked in front of him; Lilly had kept her unmentionables on in this cold and impersonal room. She understood why the sheriff wouldn’t want to chance a person coming in here with weapons. What she didn’t understand was why she was here at all. Obviously someone, perhaps Masterson Healy, believed she’d committed a crime. Perhaps murder?

  Genuine fear coiled in her stomach, and this time she could not reason it away. What she’d read of the law and policing had always comforted her. She’d always believed that most lawmen were good people with a genuine need to enforce the laws and keep the peace. They helped people. This sheriff ... well, she couldn’t say for certain. The man had an edge, a raw intensity that came as much from meanness as anything. That didn’t bode well.

  Lilly started as the doorknob rattled and the door swung open. Sheriff Tanner entered, the spurs on his boots jangling, and his leather belt creaking as he walked. His gleaming white shirt and denim trousers looked crisp, and new. Without his hat, his busy white hair stuck up.

  “Miss Luna,” he said with a nod. “Please have a seat.”

  She took the chair closest to the door, which he didn’t dispute as he took the other. Her long coat lay over the back of the chair and acted as a big lump in her upper back, but she didn’t want to place it on the table. She resisted the riot of questions racing around in her head.

  “You are a composed woman.” The sheriff crossed his arms and stared at her.

  Keeping her face neutral, she locked eyes with him. “Yes.”

  “Interesting for a woman who was locked up in an insane asylum for twenty years.”

  What could she say to that besides, “Yes.”

  He sighed and pursed his lips. “You’re here because we want to know what you know about Oleta Franklin’s murder.”

  She hovered between telling him the absolute truth and lying. Until she’d become companion to Patricia—since she’d become involved with the entire Healy family—she hadn’t understood the true cost of lying. She hadn’t understood the cost of revenge. Oleta’s death had brought it home.

  “Miss Luna?”

  Lilly made a choice she hoped she wouldn’t regret. “Of course. I’ll help any way I can.”

  “First thing, you can tell me who that necklace in your pocket belongs to.”

  “Me. Oleta Franklin gave it to Nurse Summit at the asylum and told her to give it to me for safe keeping.”

  “You didn’t steal it?”

  Lilly wanted to scream and allow the anger inside to rage. Instead she ignored the desire to rail against the accusation. “I don’t steal.”

  “Hmm. Well, I’ll be checking your story with Nurse Summit.”

  “As I imagine you should, Sheriff.”

  Shifting back in the armless wood chair, he placed his hands on the edge of the table. “Let’s start at the beginning, then. I understand you knew Oleta all your life.”

  “Yes.”

  “And did you get along with her?”

  “Very much.” Lilly felt the tears threaten, but shoved them away. She couldn’t afford tears. It would make her seem weak to this man. “She was like a mother to me.”

  “You didn’t have a mother.”

  She wanted to scream at his insolence. “Of course I did. She died when I was seven.”

  He nodded. “I knew that. So this nurse was like a mother to you.”

  “Yes.”

  “So you had the same relationship with her. You fought?”

  She understood which way he intended to head. “Never. She was a reasonable woman, and I am a reasonable woman.”

  “Huh.” He tilted his head back slightly. “Never fought. Now that seems a likely fib to me.”

  She shrugged. “It may seem so to you. But I know the truth. Oleta was a ...” She swallowed hard around grief. “An extraordinary woman.”

  “I did hear that about her, though I never met her. But in my line of work I only tend to meet criminals, you understand.” When she didn’t answer, he continued. “Do you know if she had any enemies?”

  “None that I’m aware of.”

  “Anyone have something against her because of her color?”

  Lilly considered it. “If they did, I never saw anyone on the staff act so towards her or say anything about it. But what people think is another matter.”

  Sheriff Tanner eyed her with that continuous suspicion that must have worked on criminals for years. “So you didn’t have anything against her because of her color?”

  Lilly decided then and there that he planned to ask as many tiresome questions as he could. She relaxed her entire body. “I would never. Things like that have never mattered to me. I don’t judge a person that way.”

  “How do you judge them?”

  “By their sincerity. Their actions.”

  “Hmm. What if I told you that someone told me that you are a liar and manipulator?”

  The sheriff wanted her to say or do something to put her credibility in danger. She wouldn’t allow it.

  “That’s unfortunate,” she said.

  His eyebrows went up. Clearly he hadn’t expected her statement. Sheriff Tanner stared her down again, and a knot grew within her stomach. He obviously didn’t intend to show his entire hand until she’d done something to incriminate herself. Lilly wouldn’t allow the knot in her stomach to grow larger. She continued her stoicism. He would have to tell her what he wanted to know.

  “Miss Luna, you aren’t taking this seriously. You’re in the sheriff’s department, in a place where dozens of men over the years have been sentenced for their crime. Made crazy in their cells before they could even get to trial. Some used to be hanged out back. If that doesn’t sober your thoughts, nothing will.”

  “The moment I lay eyes on this building, I knew this was a sober place, Sheriff Tanner. A grim place where evil has happened. It’s in the stonework. In the wood. In the leather and paper. There’s no escaping it.”

  Ah, Lilly. He will think you a madwoman now.

  He chuckled softly. “You been hearing ghost stories about this place?”

  She hadn’t expected his light-handed reply. “No.”

  “Do you believe in ghosts, Miss Luna?”

  “Yes.”

  “In here?”

  She glanced around. “In this room? Right at the moment? No.”

  He laughed again. It wasn’t a menacing cackle, but a genuine humor-filled sound. “I once had a man go stark raving right in this here room.” He leaned on the table, lowering his voice to a softer, more conspiratorial tone. “Weirdest damn thing I’ve seen. He’d been beating on his wife, you see, and I don’t take kindly to that sort of thing. Brought him in here, sober as the day he was born. Acting defiant. A real bastard. But as sane as you ... well, as me anyway. Seconds later, he began to change. I was sitting right where you are and questioning him when I noticed his eyes starting to roll back in his head. He was a shakin’ and babbling and shrieking like the devil were after him. People told me he was having an epileptic fit. But see, he were talking and drooling and babbling. I’m not so sure that’s what was wrong with him.
”

  “I’ve seen that before at the asylum. It was treated as mental, not physical.”

  His eyebrows rose again, and this time he peered closely at her. “I’ve seen those fits before where someone is crazy as hell. No, this was different. He started shriekin’ that this demon was after him. A big hairy monster demon with long dark hair and blue eyes if you can believe it. Silliest thing I ever saw. At first.”

  Curiosity mingled with a strange anticipation, as if she sat around a campfire listening to tales. “At first?”

  “The man came out of his fit, but he didn’t look like the same man I brought in here. Eyes bugged a little, the structure of his face seemed out of proportion to what it was before. Don’t mind telling you that made me want to run outta here. Ever see anything like that, Miss Luna? That’s what lives in here. We have to watch out every day it doesn’t happen to one of us. Thing like that, as I see it, is like a bloody infection. Once bit, you’re a goner.”

  She waited, hovering in indecision. “I’ve seen what you describe, Sheriff Tanner. At the asylum. The doctors tell me it’s all in the person’s head. None of it is real.”

  One of his bushy white eyebrows lifted. “You believe that?”

  “No.” He smiled, and she felt a weird connection to him, as if he wasn’t as strange or unsavory as she’d first suspected. “What does that have to do with why I’m here, Sheriff?”

  He sobered and cleared his throat. “Not a damn thing. But see, I have feelings about people. I don’t tell everyone about it. Don’t tell anyone really, or they’d want to put me in that booby hatch you lived in for twenty years. I suspected you’re a good person Miss Luna, but I had to be sure. Had to get my feelings about you sorted out.”

  Relief didn’t overwhelm her. She wouldn’t allow her guard down yet. She had enough suspicion in her heart. “And what are your feelings about me?”

  “Like I said.” He nodded to her. “You’re a good person. A little strange perhaps, but I would be too if I’d stayed with people like that up on the hill. I needed to make certain you wouldn’t lie to me. I know you wouldn’t hurt Oleta Franklin. Question still remains, though. Who did?”