Treasure Uncovered (Bellingwood #3)

by Diane Greenwood Muir

  "I'm not promising anything," Polly laughed. "If she's having fun, we're getting in on that story."

  They pulled into the driveway behind Andy's car. She was standing on the front stoop and ran over to the Jeep, climbing in behind Polly.

  "Before either of you say anything about me being at Len Specek's house, you have to tell me what is going on with Beryl. What happened?"

  Lydia turned around in her seat and reached her hand out to take Andy's. "We don't know anything yet. She's probably at the hospital by now. There was an explosion at the studio. Deena was inside the house when it happened. She heard it and called 9-1-1, then ran back out as Beryl stumbled out the door. Beryl fell down on the path and was unconscious. Bless their hearts; Sarah and Austin were there in only a few minutes. They loaded her up in the rig and took her away."

  "How is Deena?"

  "She's fine," Lydia assured her. "I spoke with her mother and they took Miss Kitty to their house. They will take care of the cat until Beryl is home."

  "She's all alone," Andy lamented. "I need to be there with her. This drive takes forever."

  Polly looked at the speedometer. She wasn't comfortable driving too far over the speed limit, but pushed to sixty-six and set the cruise control. "We're going as fast as I dare," she said.

  "I know," Andy said. "You're fine. I'm just worried. Does anyone know what happened to cause the explosion? Did someone do this to her? Who would hurt Beryl?"

  "We don't know anything yet," Lydia responded. "Aaron will tell me as soon as they know."

  Polly turned a couple of corners and pulled onto Highway 17. Traffic wasn't awful and she was able to keep moving quickly as they traveled south. "I'm not sure how to get to Methodist Hospital," she said.

  Lydia programmed the GPS and chuckling, asked, "Will this help?"

  "You don't know how to get there without a gadget?" Polly asked.

  "Of course I do, but this is better, don't you agree?"

  "Fine," Polly said. "I'll use it. How are you doing back there, Andy?"

  "I'm feeling a little thick in the head. All I can think about is Beryl lying there bloody and broken. It breaks my heart."

  "We have to believe that she's going to be fine. Anything else isn't an option," Lydia said.

  Silence took over in the car as Polly continued to head south, then Lydia said, "What was I thinking? I need to get some ladies on this right now."

  She pulled her phone out and made a call, "Lorna?" She listened. "Yes. You're right. It's Beryl. Can you get the prayer chain started on this? No, we don't know anything more than that." She paused. "No, you're right." Lydia looked at Polly and rolled her eyes, "Would you rather I call Pastor Boehm?" She pulled the phone away from her ear and visibly gritted her teeth. "Thank you. It's the right thing to do," and hung up the phone.

  "What in the world?" Polly asked.

  "Sometimes there are women with more time on their hands than sense," Lydia growled. "Beryl doesn't go to church and since she's a little wild and free-spirited, Lorna thought maybe she should manage some of the information about Beryl's soul, in case she died. She asked me if the woman was saved so she could pass that information down the line. I don't want to curse, but are you freakin' kidding me?"

  Polly chuckled to herself and avoided eye contact with Lydia. Andy swore in the back seat, then said, "You know it's just her, don't you? The rest of the women in that group aren't so judgmental. They'll just want to pray for her to be well."

  "I know that," Lydia said. "But, she is supposed to be in charge of the prayer chain. I don't know who ever thought that was a good idea. It certainly wasn't me! That woman thinks she is in charge of all the souls in the city. I'm pretty sure St. Peter is going to trip her when she approaches the pearly gates, just to see if she can make it in without falling backwards into hell."

  Lydia clapped her hand over her mouth, "Oh! That doesn't make me sound any better than her, I guess. I'm sorry!"

  They all laughed as Polly pulled onto the interstate and began the drive around Des Moines to Interstate-235 through the heart of the city.

  "Now that you're feeling better, Andy, what do you have to say for yourself?" Lydia asked.

  "What do you mean by that?"

  "I mean, what were you doing at Len Specek's house in the middle of the day?"

  Polly glanced in the rear view mirror and watched as Andy wrinkled her face, trying to figure out what to say next.

  "Go ahead, Andy," Polly laughed. "Explain it. We're waiting."

  "I'm an adult. I can have lunch with whomever I want. I don't have to explain myself to you," she announced.

  "Really?" Lydia laughed. "That's how you want to play this?"

  "Well, if I can get away with it, I do." Andy said, a bit petulantly. Polly saw her friend's lips turn up in a smile and then she quickly turned to look out of the window so no one would catch her.

  "You can't get away with it, trust me," Polly said. "You can't get away with anything around here. I've tried and failed."

  "So?" Lydia pressed.

  Polly turned onto Keosauqua Way and saw the medical complex in front of her. "I hate to interrupt, but where do I go from here?"

  "She has to have been taken to the Emergency Room. Let's go there first and we'll find her," Andy said.

  Lydia turned back around in her seat to face the road in front of them and began pointing directions out for Polly. She glanced back at Andy and said, "Don't you dare think I'll forget about this. You have some 'splaining to do."

  She guided Polly into a parking lot and the three women walked into the Emergency Room. Lydia marched up to the receptionist and asked for Beryl Watson.

  "Are you Lydia Merritt?" the woman asked. "And Andy Saner?"

  Andy joined Lydia at the desk. "That's us."

  "Beryl is in with doctors now. She has given you two permission to receive information and make any decisions for her should she be unable to do so. If you will please have a seat, as soon as we can, a doctor will be out to talk with you."

  "She's alert?"

  "Oh, she was very alert," sighed the receptionist, then she smiled. "I'll let the doctor fill you in on the details when she knows for certain what is going on."

  They sat down in the waiting area and Polly drew her phone out to text Henry. It occurred to her that she probably needed to let a few more people know what was going on, so she stood up and walked away from her friends. She turned around as Lydia wrapped Andy in her arms and pulled up Henry's number to call him, watching Andy's shoulders shake.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Fumbling in her pocket for change, Polly wandered over to the vending machines. She could use a Diet Mountain Dew and was glad to see they carried those in the machine. The doctor, a very young woman, had come out and taken Andy and Lydia into a consultation room. She opened the bottle of soda and sighed at the first drink, then smiled as she thought about her life.

  For a moment, she felt a little chagrined that she wasn't as accomplished as the young doctor. Why was it that people thought it was better to be a doctor than anything else? Her friends believed it was doctors and lawyers who achieved the greatest success in life. Sal Kahane's mother was constantly pushing her to find a nice, young physician to settle down with and Drea's parents weren't at all happy that she enjoyed living as a single woman and not delivering multiple babies to them with the help of a nice, young lawyer.

  She sat down, leaned back and stretched her feet out in front of her. The waiting room had ebbed and flowed with people and right now there weren't many around. She shut her eyes and thought about why she'd bothered measuring herself up to a doctor she'd never met before. That was silly. Polly's life was exciting and filled with people who loved her. Every day uncovered something new and she was actually finding success in doing business in small town Iowa.

  As she mused, she shut her eyes. She wondered if the young doctor ever relaxed. Since the horses had come into her life, Polly didn't get many opportunities to stop working, but
since they were responding so well and were becoming healthy again, there was very little stress involved in caring for them. In fact, as she thought about it, spending time with them was quite relaxing. Demi had a place on the back of his left ear that when she rubbed it, he seemed to cross his eyes in joy and turn into mush. She loved knowing that about him. Nan's favorite moment of the day was when Polly opened up the stall door and she could run into the sunlight. Every morning she would circumnavigate the entire pasture before returning to push Nat out of the way in order to get to the hay. He was so easy going, he just moved to another area and left her alone. Daisy was the only one who wouldn't let Nan get away with running the place. She had a tendency to push back. Polly usually let her out last, but took those extra moments to stroke the girl's forehead. That area right above her nostrils was like velvet and Polly couldn't believe she got to spend time with those glorious beasts.

  "Polly?" Lydia's quiet voice brought Polly up out of her drowsiness.

  She sat straight up, pulling her legs back underneath her. "Is everything alright? Tell me what's happening! Is Beryl going to get into a room? Can we see her?"

  "She's going to be fine," Lydia assured Polly and sat down beside her. Andy sat down across from Polly with red-rimmed eyes.

  "What's going on?"

  "The water heater in her back room exploded. She was on her way out the door, so the back of her legs are badly scalded. The upper part of her body was protected from the hot water by all of the weird clothing she wears out there while she's painting," Lydia said. "But, there was a bad gash in her scalp from a piece of the metal that flew across the room. The rest of her back has also been cut up pretty badly by flying shrapnel, too."

  "Her water heater exploded?" Polly gasped.

  "Yep," Lydia nodded. "Here, look." She pulled out her phone and showed Polly pictures. "Aaron sent these to me. I can't believe our girl is alright at all after seeing these."

  Beryl's studio was a mess. It looked as if a tornado had spun itself out from the back to the front, disrupting and destroying everything.

  “Aaron says he thinks that Beryl got knocked to the floor and then managed to pull herself up and out of the building where Deena found her,” Lydia continued.

  Polly glanced at Andy. She had crossed her arms over her chest and shut her eyes. Polly got up and moved over to sit beside her, put her arms around Andy's shoulders and said, "She's going to be alright. If Lydia says so, I believe it. Do you?"

  "I feel so guilty for having fun while she was lying there, hurting and bleeding all over. She was by herself. She shouldn't have been by herself. How am I going to live with this?"

  Lydia crossed over and sat on the other side of Andy, "You stop it right there, Andy Saner. That's poppycock and you're being more than a little overdramatic. She had Deena there, so she wasn't by herself. If Beryl had any idea you were feeling guilty because of a dalliance with a man, she'd swat you up the backside of your head. You've had plenty of time to be all weepy and upset today and it's time to start dealing. Beryl doesn't need weak, scared friends; she needs us to step in and get her back to normal."

  Andy gave her friend a sideways glance, "You can be a real bitch sometimes, you know that?"

  Polly couldn't help herself and snorted with laughter. "The woman's not much for pity parties, is she?" she said through the laughter.

  "Pity is for those who have no hope," Lydia said. "Not for those who want to feel sorry for themselves."

  "Can it be for those who have had the life scared out of them?" Andy asked.

  "Not any longer," Lydia snipped. She looked over at Polly. "They'll let us know when she gets into a room and we can see her. The doctor said that the scalding was bad enough on her legs, they're going to keep her here for a while to make sure that no infection sets in as they blister. Oh, that woman is going to be miserable."

  A nurse came to tell them what room Beryl was in and Lydia made them stop in the gift shop for a hot pink balloon and an arrangement of colorful carnations before getting on the elevator.

  The three approached the room and found the door cracked open. Lydia knocked and pushed it open, "Beryl, honey?"

  "Go way," Polly heard Beryl say.

  "We're not going to go away unless you mean it. We're desperate to see your face," Lydia responded.

  "Face is a mess. Aw shit, come on in."

  Polly hung back, allowing Lydia and Andy to get close to their friend. Beryl was lying on her stomach, her bruised face turned toward the door.

  "You look awful, Beryl. Is there anyone we can punish for this?" Lydia asked.

  "Thanks for the support. Knew I could count on you. Is Deena alright?"

  "She's fine. She’s a little worried about you, but now she has great stories to tell her friends. It isn't every girl who has to rescue her unconscious teacher."

  "I'm gonna hurt like hell, aren't I?"

  "I think you are. But, you're going to live and that's all we care about today, right?"

  "Whatever,” Beryl sneered, then she smiled. “I didn't want to be another one of Polly's bodies."

  "My bodies!" Polly exclaimed. "Stop it!"

  "I don't want to be a statistic."

  "Oh, you are a crazy woman!"

  Beryl laughed, "They told me that my water heater chose today to destroy my livelihood. Did you know appliances were so cruel? Will you kick it for me?"

  "We're on it. Anything you want."

  Beryl lifted her head. "Anything I want? This is a good time for me to suck you people dry, isn't it? I'm pathetic and can get away with murder."

  Polly watched Andy as her shoulders began to shake again. She must have allowed a few quiet sobs to escape because Beryl said, "No you don't. Get over here and hold my hand, but no crying. You don't get to cry. If I was more than half alert, I should be the one in tears."

  Lydia backed up and pulled a chair in close to Beryl. Andy sat down and placed her hand on the bed beside Beryl, so Beryl could lay hers on top.

  "I'm sorry, Beryl. I'm so sorry."

  "Why are you sorry? Did you do something bad?"

  "I can't get the image of you lying on the ground out of my head."

  "Well, I can't get the image of you and Len Specek snogging in front of his house last week out of my head, but you don't see me crying,” Beryl said.

  "What's snogging?" Lydia whispered to Polly.

  "Kissing and making out," Polly whispered back.

  "You were making out with Len Specek?" Beryl asked Andy. "When were you doing that?"

  Polly looked sideways at Lydia, who shrugged her shoulders. Beryl’s drug-induced haze wasn’t helping her stay in the moment. Either that or she was teasing Andy and no one else was following her train of thought.

  "Stop it," Andy giggled. "It's not like that."

  "Oh, it's exactly like that. You were lucky I didn't pull in behind you and start honking the horn."

  "I'm worried about you," Andy responded.

  "Well, so am I. When they start taking me off this happy juice, my life is going to suck."

  "Do you remember what happened?" Lydia asked.

  "Sleep now," Beryl said and shut her eyes. In a split second, she was breathing deeply.

  "Well, that was rude," Lydia giggled.

  Polly sat down in the window sill, attempting to avoid the air vents. Lydia sat in the other chair in the room and there was silence.

  "You people should talk so I can sleep," Beryl mumbled and began breathing deeply again.

  "None of you are going to let me get away with feeling sorry for myself about this, are you?" Andy asked. She turned her chair around so she could see everyone and slipped her other hand under Beryl's.

  "No, we're not letting you get away with that and, oh, by the way, we're not letting you get away with avoiding the question on Len Specek any longer." Lydia announced.

  "Yeah. Are you ashamed of us?" Polly asked. "Is that why we don't get to know about him or why you won't let us be around you two?"


  "No, that's not it at all," Andy said. "We've been spending time together for a little while. It's nothing very serious yet."

  "Snogging," Lydia turned to Polly and said, "Is that right?" Polly nodded and Lydia went on. "Snogging in his driveway isn't hanging out a little. How have you managed to keep this hidden in a town the size of Bellingwood?"

  "Well, it's not like we're trying to keep it hidden. Apparently, you have been too busy to pay attention," Andy huffed.

  Lydia looked perplexed. "Too busy for you? I'm sorry if you felt that way. Honey, I'm never too busy for you."

  "I know," Andy sighed. "I shouldn't be like this. I probably have been hiding it from you and I suppose I might feel a little guilty about that. I haven't told the kids anything either."

  "Is it that serious?" Lydia asked.

  "I don't know," Andy's shoulders dropped, then she looked up and smiled, "But it sure has been fun! I feel like I'm in high school all over again. And maybe we have been sneaking around. I didn't want to say anything because then I might have to figure out where this relationship is going and so far, it's been fun letting it be what it is. We go down to Ames for dinner and sometimes to a movie. We even ended up out in the country on a back road one night talking and watching the stars."

  "Just talking?" Lydia raised her eyebrows.

  "Can't you let me get away with my version of the story?" Andy asked.

  "Okay, go ahead. So, you're not telling us, you're not telling your kids, who are you telling?"

  "She didn't tell me," Beryl's voice came up out of a fog and she raised her head. "Keep talking, girl."

  "I'm not telling anyone and I probably wouldn't have told you for a long time. This has been a bit unexpected." Andy responded. "We, well, maybe I, didn't want it to become a thing. I'm not ready to share this with the whole world. I don't want to go out on couple's dates with people, I don't want to have to take him places with me because I don't want people to look at us and wonder what old lady Saner is doing with a new man. So far, I've wanted to have fun getting to know him, all by ourselves."

  Polly nodded. "It's not easy having a relationship around here."