by Beth Ziarnik
She blinked away the moisture gathering in her eyes and looked down. What was that? Crouching, she reached just under the bed and picked it up.
A leaf? Yes, it was from one of Lillie’s plants. As she stood to examine it under the lamp, the door to the room opened. Jill hid the leaf in her fist before she turned around.
Alice gasped and held her hand over her heart. “Oh. It’s only you. You should have told me you wanted to see John.” The nurse drew near and studied his sleeping form. “I’m afraid he’s not much company tonight. You’d better run along and get some rest. No sense in both of us losing sleep tonight.”
“Alice, before I go, may I ask you a question?”
The nurse tilted her head. “What do you want to know?”
“About Lillie.” The leaf warmed in Jill’s hand. “Why would Dora think her granddaughter could pose a danger to Dad? She’s a sweet person and seems quite normal.”
“But you’ve seen some of her odd behaviors.”
“Yes.”
“The easiest way to explain Lillie’s problem is that her brain occasionally makes a turn—like a switch. For a while, she’s not entirely normal. We’re never sure when it will happen. Her mother was the same way until one day her brain never switched back. Eventually, Carolyn became violent. The family fears the same may happen to Lillie one day. Does that answer your question?”
Jill rubbed her forehead, not sure as she had never heard of anything like it. But Alice’s explanation did help her to understand. She turned to leave and then paused at the door. “You will let me know if there’s any change in Dad’s condition, won’t you?”
“Of course.”
When the door clicked shut, Jill opened her hand and studied the leaf. Was it evidence of Lillie’s presence, or had someone else brought it into the room? And for what purpose?
Lord, I have more questions than answers. Help me find my way through this maze.
Jill remained outside her father’s door for some minutes, the tug on her heart growing more insistent and blocking her from returning to her room. Alice’s strained eyes and tense shoulders betrayed how worn out the woman had become. No doubt she was deeply worried. But what could Jill do to help?
Her father’s sitting room had a door to the hall. She moved toward it. Did she dare enter and keep a prayer vigil in the shadows? Would Alice consider it an intrusion? Perhaps even be insulted? It didn’t matter. Jill wouldn’t sleep even if she went to her room, and she couldn’t deny the urging in her heart.
She turned the knob, slipped into the room, and returned to the chair in the deepest shadows. This might be for the best. If Alice were as tired as she appeared, she might fall asleep. Jill could then act as a back-up, keeping an eye on her father.
The soft ticking of the clock on the fireplace mantle lulled her as she prayed. Then a rustling sound brought her to her feet. Was he struggling? Having a nightmare? Had Alice fallen asleep?
Jill hurried forward and stopped within the arched doorway.
“No!” Her father’s voice, weak but insistent, protested. His arms flailed without effect. He turned his head away from Alice.
“You must drink this, John.” She moved the glass with a bent straw toward him. “It’s this or an injection.”
Her father continued to protest and flail, in spite of his obvious weakness.
“Very well. This is for your own good.” Alice put the glass down and opened the drawer of the bedside table.
“Do you need help, Alice?”
The woman jumped and twisted in her direction. “Oh, my goodness! You’re here again?”
“I hope you don’t mind.” Jill moved into the room. “I had to be near Dad, and you looked so overtired before I left. I thought you might need me.”
“As long as you’re here, I could use your help.” She began filling a syringe. When she had tested it, she set it down on a white cloth and picked up a length of rubber tubing. “If you hold John’s arm still,” she said, “I’ll get this positioned.”
When Jill took her father’s arm, he settled down, though it disturbed her to see how distraught his eyes appeared. He moved his head from side to side and then focused his wild eyes on her.
“Alice, why does he seem so frightened?”
She tapped the vein at the crook of his arm. “Contrary to appearances, he’s not fully awake. It’s like a sleepwalking state. He may be seeing something entirely different than reality. When I get this in his system, he’ll calm down and rest comfortably again.”
Jill didn’t know how to respond, but Alice was the expert. She didn’t question her further.
Alice withdrew the needle. Within seconds, Jill’s father relaxed and closed his eyes.
“John was a sleepwalker as a child,” Alice said as she set the needle down and removed the length of rubber tubing.
“I didn’t know.” She had so much to learn about her father.
“When I first came to this house, he told me about it to comfort me while I had trouble with sleepwalking.” Alice taped a sterile pad over the injection site and cleaned up her workspace. “Give me a minute to dispose of this syringe. Then we can go in the other room where we can talk without disturbing John.”
A few minutes later, Jill took a chair in the sitting room alongside the one Alice selected. From just beyond the arched doorway, they could both see her father sleeping.
Alice glanced in his direction before she spoke. “John’s mother and my grandmother were close friends. For years, my mother called John’s mom Aunt Leora. Mom was a grown woman before she discovered she and John weren’t cousins. By that time, Mom felt so much like family that when our situation became critical, she turned to John. He did his best to help her and even promised to take care of me until Mom could.”
Jill reached out and touched her shoulder. “I’m glad he could be there for you and your mother. But what about your father? Surely, if he had known, he would have done something for his little girl.”
Sadness pooled in Alice’s eyes. “I never knew him, and his name wasn’t on my birth certificate.”
Jill felt the weight of the woman’s anguish. “Like me,” she whispered.
Alice blinked. “Yes, we do have that in common, don’t we? Except that my mom had to struggle alone to support us.”
“Her family didn’t help her?”
“We didn’t see them often, so Mama didn’t ask. They were like strangers, and when she died, none of them offered to take me.” Alice sat very still and swallowed hard. “I don’t know what would have happened to me if John hadn’t stepped in.”
“No wonder you dropped everything to take care of him.”
Alice nodded. “It’s the least I can do.”
“Thank you for all you’re doing. And when this is all over and Dad’s well again, I’m sure he and the family will thank you as well.”
“Maybe.” She stood up. “Anyway, it’s time you get some rest. And don’t worry. John will sleep through the night. I won’t leave him.”
Jill rose from the chair, reluctant to go but knowing she must. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Entering her room, Jill stopped short. Lillie stood in the middle, trembling.
“Lillie? What’s the matter?”
“I was afraid Grandmother might find me in the hall and send me upstairs, so I hid in here.” Her sister’s eyes pleaded for understanding.
“Of course. Come over here.” She led Lillie to the chairs by the windows where they might talk in comfort. “Why are you so upset?”
Lillie fidgeted, rubbing one hand and then the other in continuous motion. “Kat argued with Grandmother, insisting that Father go to the hospital whether he wanted to or not. I think she would have found a way to make it happen tonight, but someone called from one of her fitness centers. A trainer didn’t show up, and Kat had to cover her shift. She was so angry about Father’s failing health that I can’t stop worrying.”
“I understand,” Jill soothed. “But since h
e’s sleeping now, don’t you think you should try to rest too?”
Lillie wagged her head. “I wish I could, but I feel as if I need to be near him.”
Jill studied her sister. How alike they were in some ways. “I felt the same way tonight.”
“You did?” Lillie searched her eyes. “But I thought you saw him earlier.”
“Just for a moment. Then Alice shooed Clay and me away.”
“How is he?”
“Very ill. Most of the time he doesn’t open his eyes.”
“But when I stood outside his door, I thought I heard him.”
“Alice said he was in a sleepwalking-like state, not really awake though seeming to be.”
Lillie’s confusion was evident. “My father doesn’t walk in his sleep.”
“Alice said he used to when he was a child.”
Her sister’s frown deepened. “I don’t like Alice.”
“But she’s good to Dad and grateful that he took care of her when her mother got into trouble.”
Lillie’s head jerked. “Trouble is right. She went to prison for selling drugs. That’s when Alice came to live with us, but it didn’t work out. She and Kat fought a lot, and she wasn’t nice to me either.”
“Maybe she was frightened and angry about losing her mother.”
“I suppose,” Lillie said as if she hadn’t considered the idea before. “But we were glad when Father sent her away to boarding school. Then her mom died, and we were stuck with her. Even Grandmother said we couldn’t throw her out in the streets. Besides, Father felt sorry for her.”
“What changed that your family asked Alice to care for him?”
“That was Grandmother’s idea.”
“You all seem to get along fine now.”
Lillie muttered, “She hasn’t changed much.”
“She’s mean to you now?” Jill hadn’t seen any evidence of that.
“No, but I don’t trust her.” Lillie wrinkled her brow. “You won’t tell her, will you?”
“Never.” But she would think about this encounter with Lillie. Was this another example of her sister showing early evidence of the fragile mental state her family believed she had inherited from her mother?
“Oh, Jill, I don’t want anything to happen to Father, and I don’t know what to do.”
“About all we can do now is pray,” Jill offered. She couldn’t invite Lillie into searching for whoever was behind their father’s declining health.
Lillie stood. “Yes, I can pray. I will pray, but I have to go now. If Grandmother checks on me, she will wonder where I am. I don’t want to worry her.”
Jill followed her sister to the door where she turned around before opening it. “Don’t forget what I told you, Jill.”
“I won’t.” Jill hugged her sister again, and then Lillie was gone.
Pausing in her doorway, Jill looked across the hall to her father’s room. She pulled the leaf from the pocket of her jeans. Whatever it meant, Lillie was not involved. Matters were more complicated in this house than Jill had guessed, but she would keep her promise to Lillie. She would say nothing about how her sister felt regarding Alice.
Except to Clay.
She grabbed her phone to connect with him. Please answer.
“Yes?” His voice sounded groggy.
“We have to talk.”
“Go ahead. I’m listening.”
“Not like this. Meet me downstairs in the music room. Everyone else is in bed. We should be able to talk in private.”
“Give me a few minutes to get dressed.”
Chapter Twenty
Inside the darkened music room, Clay whispered, “Jill?”
“Over here.” A shadowy figure emerged from the far side of the Christmas tree. Jill turned on a low-wattage lamp hidden in the corner as he walked toward her.
Tension radiated from her as he reached for her hands. He gently massaged her chilled fingers. “What’s this all about?”
“In the last couple of hours, I learned some important things and need to know what you think.”
“Go ahead.” As he listened intently about her encounters with Alice and then Lillie, he was more and more certain her instincts were right. “You suspect that Alice was forcing your father to take something harmful to him?”
“At first, I wasn’t sure, which was why I let her know I was there. When she told me he was in a sleepwalking state, it seemed reasonable. I felt I should trust her professional expertise. But later, when Lillie insisted Dad never had a sleepwalking problem and said she didn’t trust Alice, I began to wonder if she might be right.” Jill trembled. “If Lillie is right, Dad might really have been trying to fight off Alice. I can’t stop thinking about the look in his eyes as if he was frightened and appealing to me. That look haunts me.” She sagged suddenly. “If Alice is slowly poisoning Dad, that means I actually helped her tonight.”
A chilling prospect. Clay slipped an arm around her and tugged her close. “You would never purposely harm anyone—much less your father.”
She looked at him with watery eyes. “What if he doesn’t wake up in the morning?”
He blew out a heavy breath. “Even if Lillie’s right, it’s not likely Alice would murder your father in front of you.”
Jill perked up and blinked her tears away. “You’re right. She wouldn’t want a witness. Oh, Clay, I feel awful talking about Alice like this.”
He honed in on Jill’s new information. “What I find interesting is that the most guileless person in this house doesn’t trust Alice.”
“Everyone else is content with leaving him in her care. They believe that after all he’s done to help her, Alice using her nursing skills is a good way for her to repay him.”
“And it is.” The intruding hard voice jerked Clay to attention.
A tall shadow advanced into the pool of light in their corner.
“Kathryn.” Jill breathed her sister’s name.
“Obviously.” Her sister sneered. “And obviously you two are up to something. Or you wouldn’t be hiding down here, discussing family matters that are none of your business.”
Jill swallowed hard. How much of their conversation had Kat overheard? The glistening droplets of melted snowflakes in her sister’s hair indicated she hadn’t been inside long.
Kat focused narrowed eyes on them. “I’ll make it easy for you. Don’t pay any attention to my sister’s mistrust of Alice. Lillie doesn’t always get things right. As for Alice, she’s long overdue in paying her debt. Not that she could ever repay all Father has done for her.”
“You don’t think it was hard for Alice when her mother went to prison?” Jill asked.
“Going to prison was the best thing for that woman. Destroying herself with drugs and dealing them? Father had no choice but to turn her in.”
“Did Alice know he turned her mother in?” Jill’s heart stilled at the startling thought.
“Not until she was old enough to confront him. Of course, he admitted it. What a scene she made, screaming and slamming him with all sorts of unfounded accusations. He tried to explain that when her mother came to him for help, the law was already closing in, and she was afraid of what would happen to her daughter. He tried to make Alice understand that her mother agreed it was best if she went with him to turn herself in. But Alice refused to believe him. Not even when others told her Father did everything he could to help during and after the trial.”
“Why are you telling all this to us?” Clay asked.
“I want you to understand how things really were. My father visited Alice’s mother in prison every week. In those last months before the end of her sentence, she was drug-free and doing well. They planned her new life with Alice. We were all excited for the two of them.”
Though seeing the situation from Kat’s perspective, Jill still couldn’t help thinking about a child in Alice’s position. “Maybe the shock of her mother’s death was too much for Alice.”
Kathryn snorted. “Don’t try to defe
nd that woman. Father gave her the best of everything, but she never appreciated the time and expense he invested in her.”
“But she didn’t have her mother, and when her mother died—”
“Died? She didn’t just die. She was murdered!”
Jill gasped, noting that Clay rocked back as if struck.
“No wonder she acted out,” he said.
“Acted out?” Kathryn smirked and rolled her eyes. “That little holy terror took most of her anger out on our father.”
“Then why,” Clay said, “weren’t you afraid to put him in her care?”
Kat shrugged as if it were a moot point. “Why should we be? She was a child back then. She’s had plenty of time to grow out of her anger. She’s thanked Father repeatedly for all he’s done for her, including college and nursing school. Because of him, she’s a highly skilled nurse with an excellent reputation who has successfully nursed him through several past illnesses. As far as we’re concerned, Alice is a part of this family. She belongs. Which is more than we can say for you two.”
Jill stiffened. Her sister could not have hurt her more if she had slapped her. She heard Clay grind out. “Jill is your sister.”
“She will never be my sister!” Kathryn set her jaw. “Which brings me back to what you two might be plotting.”
“We’re not plotting,” Jill said. Why did Kat insist on being so difficult?
“And if you were …” Her sister drew out the last word in biting sarcasm. “Why would you tell me?”
Arguing with Kat would get them nowhere. Keeping her eyes on her sister, Jill remained silent.
Kat sneered. “If anyone’s not to be trusted in this house, Jill, it’s you.” She jerked her head toward Clay. “And your accomplice.”
Jill still didn’t answer, refusing to let her sister bait her.
“Just as I thought.” Kathryn eyed them as if they were bothersome vermin. “Now, if you will excuse me, I’ve had a long day.”
When Kathryn’s footsteps on the stairs died out, Clay leaned back into the loveseat, digesting this new information. “That sure sheds new light on Alice’s relationship with your father. She has motive and opportunity—plenty of both.”