Kill Six

by C. E. Nelson

  “Hi. How’s lunch?”

  “I have to say it holds no candle to a meal prepared by you. But then again, few meals do. You are definitely a good cook.”

  “I am already planning your welcome home dinner.” Dave leaned over and kissed her.

  “I can’t wait.” Dave was smiling like the corners of his mouth might split open. “What?” She hadn’t noticed that Dave had set something on the floor by the bed.

  Trask leaned down and lifted their daughter out of the carrier, placing her on Linda’s chest. “I brought you a visitor.”

  Tears immediately pooled in her eyes. “Oh my, God.” She held Lilly up and kissed her on the forehead.

  Trask pulled a tissue from the box at the side of her bed and wiped her cheeks and then blotted his own eyes.

  “She’s beautiful. And she looks nothing like you.”

  “Thank God for that.”

  Linda laughed and then grabbed Dave by the front of his shirt, pulling him close, kissing him. “I love you, Trask.”

  Chapter 52

  Farmer called Carlisle at the hospital on Friday. James Maples had died from the gunshot wounds, but his sister was alive and singing, saying she had no idea what her brother had been up to. At first. Eventually, she had revealed the extent of the drug operation, naming the facilities and people involved. There would be a lot of arrests. And an immediate shortage of nurses at the facilities. Farmer wasn’t sure how that was going to be handled.

  When she asked how Farmer had found her at the Maples’ house, he told her about the ring, remembering too late that Pearson had asked him not to say anything.

  “There’s a homing devise in my ring?” she said, looking at the ring the nurse had returned to her earlier in the day.

  “Sometimes technology is a good thing.”

  And it was good she hadn’t thrown the ring into the lake, she thought. And then she wondered if she would be wearing it anymore after today.

  Berger called a short time later. He told her about Canton and the plants they had found in her greenhouse, along with a few extra cookies.

  “Wow. So, this little old lady killed all those people?”

  “That’s what we’re going with right now,” he said. “She was apparently like this introverted hermit lady. It’s weird.”

  “Why?” she said.

  “Don’t know yet. Amy is looking into it. She’s figured out just about everything else in the case, so I suppose she’ll figure it out, eventually. Right now, though, no clue.”

  Carlisle was dressed when Jeff showed up late in the afternoon pushing a wheelchair into her room.

  “I don’t need that.”

  “I think you better get in.”

  “Why?”

  “The way I hear it, the nurses all petitioned the doctor for your release. He wanted to keep you another day. The nurses said his patient might experience a mysterious death if she didn’t leave. He agreed as long as you ride out of here in a chair.”

  “I wasn’t that bad.”

  “They caught one nurse trying to put a pillow over your face when you were napping yesterday.”

  “Seriously?”

  “I guess. Another nurse walked in on her and got all upset that she wasn’t the one doing it. They got into a big fight just as the doctor walked in.”

  Pearson wasn’t smiling, and Carlisle wasn’t sure if he was serious. She got in the chair.

  He helped her into his Escalade, practically lifting her in, Carlisle complaining she didn’t need any help. After putting the chair in the back of the vehicle, they left.

  Carlisle looked at Pearson as they drove, trying to work up the best way to tell him what she had done. She’d thought about it a million times over the last few days but hadn’t settled on how to break it to him. She looked down at her ring, twirled it on her finger, wondering if she should just take it off now.

  “Jeff, I –-"

  They’d only gone a few blocks, and he’d pulled to the curb. Carlisle looked out the window to see the mission.

  “We’re stopping at the mission?” she said.

  “Of course. Where did you think you were going?” he said.

  “I thought you were taking me home,” she said.

  “You’re up for this aren’t you?” he said.

  “Well, I guess I could serve potatoes if you really need me but --”

  “No, no. There’s no meal tonight. Well, there is, but you don’t have to serve. It’s our party. Our engagement party.”

  Carlisle looked at the dirty brick building and then back at Pearson. “Jeff, I need to tell you something.” She looked into his eyes and knew this was going to kill him, kill her, kill them. She ached. “That night, that night I was abducted.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I was at your house before it happened. I saw you and your sister on the steps, and I thought you were with another woman. I’m sorry.”

  “I kind of guessed that was you. I couldn’t make out the vehicle, but it looked like yours. I was hoping you had been called to some emergency, but I figured that wasn’t the case.”

  She twirled the ring and then started to pull it off. “If you don’t want to go on, if you want to end our relationship, I understand.” She heard herself say the words, but they sounded far away, like echoes in an empty heart. Tears were coming now.

  Pearson turned to her. “Danny, I love you. But if we’re going to make this work, make us work, we have to trust each other. Forever. On everything.”

  “Really? So, you still want to get married?”

  “It’s too late to turn back now. I’ve already rented the place for the party.”

  “You own this place.”

  “That’s a technicality.”

  “I love you too, Jeff.” She leaned over and kissed him. “But there’s just one other thing.”

  “Uh, OK?”

  “This ring,” she said, sliding it back on her finger and holding it up between them.

  “You don’t like it?” he said.

  “Oh, I like it. I just don’t know that I like the homing device in it as long as we’re being truthful. What does that say about trust?”

  “That’s an entirely different thing. That was only put there to find the ring in case you lost it.”

  “You don’t trust me with it?”

  “Well, a few people mentioned you have the tendency to lose things.”

  “Like who?” she said.

  “Um, well, I forget exactly.”

  “You forget? Really?” she said.

  Jeff pushed open his door. “We should go. I’ll get the chair.”

  Jeff helped her into the chair, Danny wincing at the pain as he did, thankful she wouldn’t have to walk. But as they started to move, she also started to panic. She wasn’t ready for this. “Wait. I can’t go in. I have to go home.”

  “What do you need?”

  “The game. I need to watch the game.”

  “What?”

  “The World Series.”

  “Rain delay. No putting this off, Carlisle.”

  The place was packed. Everyone blowing plastic horns when they entered, throwing confetti. Hillary Thomas came up and gave her a hug right away, her husband shaking Jeff’s hand. Lerner was next for a hug with his wife, Farmer and Berger close behind. And then there was Bennie. Somewhere he had found a tux, she guessed with Jeff’s help, and had even combed his hair.

  “Congratulations, Danny.”

  “Thanks, Bennie. You’re looking sharp.”

  “Well, it looks like you’re taken, so I’m going to have to find someone else,” he said as he leaned close.

  Carlisle was sure she could smell alcohol on his breath as he gave her a kiss on the cheek. She was about to mention it to him when she saw them, her parents. And her sister and her family. She had never called them. Never told them about the engagement.

  “Hi,” she said as her mom came and gave her a hug.

  “Hi, yourself. How are you feeling?”
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  “Oh, a little sore, but all right. Um, how did you know about this?”

  “Well, Jeff called and said that he was going to ask you to marry him and if that would be OK. I told him for sure.”

  “And did you also tell him that if he gave me a ring it might be possible that I might lose it?”

  “Well, Danny, you know how you are. Ever since you were little. Why I had to sew strings from your mittens onto the sleeves of your winter coat.”

  “I was just a kid!”

  “And how many phones have you lost?”

  Carlisle thought about the last time, a few days ago, and tried to count the number before that. A lot.

  “And he told you about the party?”

  “Well sure, when he called back and said that you had said yes. He’s really special. You’re very lucky to have found him, sweetheart.”

  Carlisle looked over at Pearson and caught his eye. “Yes, I am.”

  Thanks for reading KILL SIX. You can find links to my other books and a little about me at www.cenelsonbooks.com. If you’d like to join my mailing list just go to the Contact tab on my site and put “Mailing List” in the subject line. (I will never share your email with anyone and I send very few emails. I’m too busy writing and fishing.) And if you enjoyed this book, please click on the link for the book on my website to go to its page on Amazon, scroll down to “Write a customer review”, and leave a brief review. Thanks!

  C.E. Nelson