The Prune Pit Murder

by Renee George

  "The police have video of people going in and out of Abby's apartment for the past week. They'll find you on the night of Abby's death, and they'll find you sometime after her death when you went back to retrieve the book Abby had taken from you. They'll know it was you, and if you kill Deputy Booth," I emphasized the fact that Nadine was a police officer, "they will hang you for it." Not literally, of course, but Missouri is a death penalty state.

  Annie shook her head. "I won't let them take me."

  I cried out when she stuck the syringe into Nadine's arm and depressed the plunger. "I was saving that for Jane, but since you already know who I am and what I've done, my only hope is to escape. Your friend will be okay if you can get her help, so you have a choice. Follow me. Or save your friend."

  She kept the gun trained on me as she inched out of the room. When the doors swung close, my knees almost buckled beneath me. I ran across the room to Nadine.

  “Lily,” Nadine mumbled. “Something’s…wrong.”

  “I’m here.”

  “What’s…wrong…with me?” Her words were slurred. “I can’t…I can’t…”

  Insulin alone wouldn’t take down a healthy adult this fast.

  I saw a small glass tube on the floor next to Nadine. I pricked my finger on the end when I picked it up. A syringe, the kind that comes prefilled, but is was empty now. On the side was written, Lorazepam 2 mg/ml.

  No wonder Nadine was out of it. Lorazepam, the stuff Lacy had talked about. She had said it was a sedative.

  “Hold on,” I said. “And stay awake!” I ran to the door and screamed, “Fire!” because I thought it would get more attention than “help.”

  I searched the wall until I found a light switch. There was a refrigerator next to the coffee machine. Inside was chocolate and vanilla pudding, along with red gelatin cups. I needed sugar, so I grabbed one of each and raced back to Nadine. “Hang in there, pal,” I said, using my claw to rip the top off. “I’ve got you.” I scooped a big finger of pudding out of the cup.

  “What’s…that?” Nadine asked.

  “Eat up. It will make you feel better.”

  “Ew,” she whined. Swatting at my finger. “I can’t eat chocolate. Makes…me…sick.”

  “Since when?” I scooped up the red gelatin next. “Here.”

  “Mmmm. Cherry.” She swallowed. I gave her some more. A nurse finally made her way into the room. When she saw us on the floor, her mouth gaped open.

  “She’s been injected with one hundred units of insulin and at least two milligrams of Lorazepam,” I said.

  “Is she a diabetic?” the nurse asked.

  “No,” I told her. “She needs help. Now.”

  The nurse grabbed her phone from a hip holster, pushed a button, and said, “Code Blue in the step-down visitor room. Code Blue.”

  Within minutes, a team of nurses and an emergency-room doctor rushed in with a cartful of stuff.

  Nadine’s voice was already getting stronger—and I didn’t mistake a single word when she said with more panic than I could bear, “I’m pregnant. The babies! Are they okay? Please tell me they’re okay?”

  Babies. As in more than one.

  The procedure had worked. It had actually managed to produce embryos from a shifter and a human!

  I wanted to be happy for Nadine and Buzz, but all I could feel was cold fear. I wanted to stick around for Nadine’s sake, but she had all the help she needed to survive now, and Opal was still alone.

  “You need to post someone with Jane Davidson,” I told the nurse, “and call the police. The person who did this to my friend is also after Jane.”

  Nadine and I had disrupted the killer’s plan, and Nadine had ended up the next victim.

  I lit out down the hall with my phone in hand. I called Buzz. “Nadine needs you,” I told him. “Get your butt over to the hospital. They’re taking her to the emergency room.”

  “What happened?” he asked, but I didn’t have time to answer.

  I hung up and called Bobby Morris next. “Opal’s kidnapper is Annie Blankenship. She's at the hospital,” I told him. “And she,” my voice caught as I said the next, “almost killed Nadine, and she still has Opal, or at least, I hope she does. I’m tracking her, but I need you to get your deputies to shut down access out of here.”

  “Don’t go after her on your own, Lily. You’re not a deputy. You’re not trained for this.”

  I hung up on him, too. I might not be trained in police work but growing up in my community had given me all the experience I needed to make her pay.

  Chapter 17

  I ran up the hall, not caring if anyone thought I was moving too fast or too gracefully for a human. I allowed my cougar to flood my senses, and my vision, my hearing, and my sense of smell all heightened to the point of overwhelming. I stopped in Mrs. Davidson’s room first. I didn’t smell lemons or sweat or the killer’s desperation. Was she waiting to take her shot? Or was she plotting to come back later to finish the job?

  I went back out into the hall, searching for anything to point me in the right direction. I picked up traces of her here and there, a touch on a counter, a handrail, three long hallways, and finally a door marked “Stairs Level 2,” where the scent trail ended. Inside the stairwell, it was two floors up to the roof and two floors down to the basement parking garage. Would she have headed up or down?

  A door slam echoing from below sent me jumping over the edge to the next flight down. I would have jumped both flights, but the design of the stairwell made it impossible to see down more than one flight at a time. I landed with my knees bent to cushion the impact, then ran the rest of the way to the basement. I slammed through the door, my shoulder taking the brunt of the blow, and let out a painful roar.

  Too wild. My mind raced as my animal senses, the ones that drove me to track my prey at any cost, overwhelmed my human good sense.

  There was a narrow corridor with a sign pointing ahead for the garage. I recognized this place for some reason, but I couldn’t put it together in my head. I just knew that my only hope to save Opal had fled in this direction.

  A door rattled just ahead. My claws slid forward, my fangs elongating as I readied myself to pounce.

  Reggie walked out of the room, her head down, wearing a white lab coat and carrying a clipboard.

  Of course, I knew this place. This was where the hospital’s morgue was located. Frustration ripped a wild noise from my throat.

  Reggie snapped her gaze to me, her eyes wide with disbelief. “What’s…what’s wrong with you?”

  I’d blown it. In my fear for Nadine and my drive to find Opal, I hadn’t played it safe.

  “Did you see her?” I asked. My voice sounded strange since my vocal cords were half human, half cougar now, but I forced it back to normal. My senses receded with my claws. I asked Reggie again, “Did you see her run through here?”

  “Lily, I don’t know what’s happening,” she approached me slowly. “But let me help you.”

  “I can’t do this right now. I need to find her.”

  “Who?”

  A car door slammed out in the garage. I heard an engine start. I wanted to explain everything to Reggie, but it would take too long.

  I took off, again not bothering to modify my speed. I heard Reggie in the distance, shouting for me to wait.

  I didn’t. Opal couldn’t wait.

  The parking lot was mostly empty this time of night, so I easily spotted the red coupe backing up out of a space near the far end. And when it was facing my direction, I could see the face of the murderer as she gawked at me with disbelief.

  Annie's gaze grew hard and determined right before the car accelerated toward me.

  “Look out!” Reggie shouted, but I was already moving, running toward the vehicle in a game of chicken that I might not survive.

  I could see Annie’s eyes widening with surprise then fear as I closed the distance between us. It was only seconds, but it was as if every moment was playing out in slow moti
on.

  I wasn’t fool enough to think that I would win in a head-on collision with a twenty-five-hundred-pound hunk of metal speeding in my direction. There was a concrete support pillar to the left of me at the halfway mark, and it gave me an idea. I angled to that side of the aisle, forcing Annie to veer to her right if she wanted to mow me down.

  Her eyes darted maniacally as she leaned forward in her seat when the car was only feet from me. I reached the column before her, and when the car was inches away, I launched myself into the air.

  She swerved, her face aghast for the split second before I rolled over the roof of the car, tumbling to the asphalt on the other side, and she smashed into the unforgiving concrete.

  I’d hit my head and blood dripped down into my eyes as I tried to get up. My ears felt stuffy, but I could hear a horn blaring like an alarm.

  Then Reggie was there. “Don’t try to move,” she said. “Keep still. I think your arm is broken.” She had her lab coat off and was pressing it to my head.”

  “Annie,” I said.

  “She’s alive,” Reggie said. “But unconscious.”

  “Opal?”

  “I didn’t see her in the car.”

  Sirens wailed. Red and blue lights swirled around the garage walls and ceilings. My hearing returned and the full blast of all the noise hit me. I winced.

  “The police are here,” Reggie said. “Whatever’s going on with you, you need to fix it before they see you.”

  I blinked at her, a slow dawning of comprehension. My arms were covered in a fine layer of dark-golden fur, my nails were thick, hard, and sharp. I had changed into my half-form when Annie had charged me. No wonder she’d looked frantic and scared.

  The pain was duller when I was shifted, and I knew when I pulled my cougar back, the pain would be extreme. But I’d survived extreme before, I’d survive this.

  I wasn’t wrong about the pain. I whimpered as I shoved my cougar back inside. The sirens had stopped. I heard Bobby Morris hollering at his deputies for someone to shut off the car alarm. Paramedics were on the scene, and I forced a smile when a familiar face knelt down next to Reggie and me. It was Robyn Patterson.

  “We have to stop meeting like this, Lily,” she said.

  “Every friendship needs a thing,” I told her. “This is ours.”

  She handed Reggie a wad of four by fours. “Here, Doc. This might work better.”

  Reggie took the lab coat off my head wound and pressed the area with the gauze pads.

  “Her arm is broke,” Reggie said. “We need to get it stabilized.”

  I knew I was still in shock, because everything happening felt almost dreamlike. My head was in Reggie’s lap. I knew that now. I’d been partially shifted when she’d ran to me. I must have looked like a monster to my friend, and yet, she had stayed. She hadn’t left my side.

  I met her gaze. She didn’t smile, but she didn’t look away. Her expression told me we would have a long talk later, but right now, my health was her only concern.

  “You’re going to be okay,” she said. “I’ve got you.”

  I believed her.

  “Is she conscious, yet?” I heard Bobby say.

  “Did they find Opal?” I asked Robyn.

  “Not yet, but I heard they found her car abandoned out by the old Safeway.”

  Dread tightened in my chest. “If Annie’s awake, I want to talk to her. I can make her tell us where Opal is.”

  “You aren’t doing anything,” Robyn said. “Stubborn mule.” Her brown eyes were warm and pitying. I must have looked pretty bad.

  It was difficult with all the commotion around me, but I swore I heard a slight thump. Then again. Thump thump. It was faint, almost like a heartbeat, but not steady or regular enough.

  Thump. Thump thump.

  “I hear something,” I said to Reggie.

  “There’s a lot going on,” she said.

  “It’s not that.” I rolled off her lap, crying out as I yanked my arm free from Robyn’s ministrations.

  “What are you doing?” Robyn asked, grabbing me by the shoulder as I stood up. “You’re going to do yourself a world of harm.”

  I shrugged her off and stared at Reggie. “I hear something.” I put as much meaning into the words as I could to make her understand.

  She nodded.

  “I need everyone to be quiet,” I said.

  But none of the deputies would stop their incessant talking.

  Thump.

  “Quiet,” I said again.

  A high-pitched whistle shrilled, echoing off the concrete walls. Everyone stopped moving then. We all looked a Reggie, who removed a coach’s whistle from between her lips. “Lily hears something, so, everyone settle down,” she commanded.

  Thump thump.

  It was coming from the crashed vehicle, but Reggie had said Opal wasn’t in the car. Then I noticed the taillight was missing on the left side. “The trunk,” I said, suddenly dizzy. “Check the trunk.”

  Deputy Shobe reached inside the driver door. “The button isn’t working,” he said.

  “Get something to pry this open,” Bobby ordered. He was standing at the back end now. It took all my willpower not to walk over and rip the trunk open like a pop-top can. I’d already risked so much.

  Bobby knew what he was doing, because within seconds of being handed a crowbar, he’d broken the latch and opened the trunk.

  Inside, Opal Dixon was bound and gagged. She lay with her back to us.

  “She’s here!” Bobby shouted. “She’s alive.”

  I stumbled back, as the adrenaline that had fueled me before gave way to relief.

  “Medic,” Reggie yelled as she lowered me to the ground. “Someone get me a damn gurney over here so we can get this woman treated.” To me, she said, “Relax now, Lily. Opal is safe. You did it. You saved her. Now let me take care of you.”

  “Parker,” I said. My voice sounded weak, and I struggled to get enough air to speak. “I want Parker.” And Smooshie. I’m not sure I ever needed either of them so much.

  “I’ll make sure he’s the first one called.”

  “Thank you.” I gripped her wrist. “I mean it.”

  “I know. Now stop talking. I think you might have a punctured lung.

  That would explain the sharp pain when I inhaled. “Reggie.”

  “Hush now.”

  “If I don’t make it.”

  “You’re not dying, Lily Mason.”

  “I know,” I said, “but if I don’t make it…there’s a box in my hall closet under the guest towels.” I smiled wanly. “Burn on death.”

  She snorted a laugh, tears brimming her eyes. “That’s what friends are for.”

  Chapter 18

  A week had passed since the night in the hospital garage, and I was finally getting out of the hospital. A broken rib had, in fact, punctured my lung, and my right ulnar bone had been snapped just above my wrist. Because of my circumstances, Reggie had performed both surgeries. I’d needed a doctor who wouldn’t get too excited when I healed several times faster than the average patient.

  So, I had a cast over my hand and wrist up to my mid-forearm, but at this point, I wasn’t having any swelling or pain. Reggie had taken an x-ray and said the bone looked as if it had been in a cast for several weeks.

  Opal had been banged up and bruised, but other than that, she’d been able to go home and be with Pearl.

  I’d gotten a good giggle when they’d come to visit me a few days ago.

  Apparently, Bob Tolliver hadn’t left Pearl’s side since the night of Opal’s kidnapping, and Opal blamed me for the “Canker sore on her ass,” as she’d called Bob, “that wouldn’t leave.” Although she’d confided in me that she was glad Pearl had the distraction. Pearl had spent her entire adult life as the sister who had needed rescuing, and now that the shoe was on the other foot, Pearl had become entirely too fussy and bossy. “She makes me get up and stand every waking hour, she won’t let me lift anything, and she keeps forcing pr
otein and vitamin C down my throat because Reggie Crawford told her it was good for wound healing.”

  In other words, Pearl was doing everything possible to take the best care of her sister and get her back to fighting form.

  Nadine had been put on bedrest at home for a couple of days, so I hadn’t seen her since that night. Buzz said she was doing well, but I didn’t think I’d rest easy until I saw for myself. Reggie visited me every day, and she never asked me about my hairy condition. She just accepted that I would tell her about it when I was ready.

  I’d had several discussions with Parker and Buzz, and we decided as a family that Reggie and Greer should be in the know. “But no one else,” Buzz insisted. “I don’t want to have to move Nadine away from the town she loves because everyone knows our secret.”

  I’d agreed with him.

  Also, Reggie had said that Greer never got around to telling Parker about the engagement because of Opal’s kidnapping.

  As to Annie Blankenship, she was in jail. She’d confessed to everything, though she still didn’t believe it was her fault. Abby had found out about her stealing and abusing narcotics. Annie said she hadn’t planned to kill Abby, she’d only gone over to the apartment to beg her not to tell. She’d even joined a twelve-step program to quit. But, she’d complained, Abby wouldn’t hear her out and was determined to turn her in. Mostly because of Annie trying to send Jane Davidson into a hyperglycemic coma.

  So, Annie, who was bigger than Abby, held her down and slapped a high-dose fentanyl patch on her until she was compliant, put her to bed, then injected her with a hundred units of fast-acting insulin.

  It’s hard to claim there was no premeditation when you bring the murder weapons with you. And that’s exactly what the prosecuting attorney said when he levied the charge of murder in the first degree against her.

  Poor Jane Davidson. She’d been in the hallway when Annie stole some drugs. She’d just injected herself with half a syringe of Lorazepam, and in her drug-addled stupor, she’d been certain that Mrs. Davidson had seen her.

  Jane Davidson hadn’t seen a thing! And Annie’s first attempt on the elderly lady’s life had been what had made Abby suspicious. If Annie hadn’t been paranoid enough to do something so impulsive, Abby might not have ever found out.