“No, but she shouldn’t for quite some time. The lady who was going to relieve me can’t until early tomorrow morning, so I’m staying, but Lexie I don’t want you to. I called Sadie, and she said you’re welcome to stay at her house tonight. I’ll swing by and get you in the morning then you can go to work with me. I’m not leaving you alone.” Beth peered at Ethan. “I figured you would be working part of the night, especially with Luke’s death. Cord called and said he was pushing the ME to do an autopsy right away. In the meantime, they are processing Luke’s items from the car.”
“I’ll take Lexie to Sadie’s house, then go down to the station. If you need me, you know how to reach me.”
Lexie hugged her mother before following her uncle outside to his SUV. Settled into the passenger’s seat, she asked, “Wasn’t Luke’s death an accident?”
“Don’t know. Something made him go off the road and into that tree.”
“I’m scared.”
He started the engine, cocking his head to look at her. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. You’ll be with someone at all times until we have this figured out. It’s probably not necessary. Just something we need to do as a precaution.”
“Because we don’t know who spiked my drink?”
“Right, or why.”
When he pulled into Ms. Thompson’s driveway, he accompanied Lexie to the porch. When Ms. Thompson opened the door, Lexie thought her uncle would leave, but instead he came inside.
“You both are in time for dinner. I hope you’re hungry.”
Uncle Ethan glanced back at the closed door. “I can’t stay too long.”
Ms. Thompson slid her arm through the crook of Uncle Ethan’s. “You’ve got to eat, then you can go to work. Cord called. He’s gone to grab something for dinner, so he won’t even be at the station for a while.”
“Why did he call?”
“He knew I had Luke in class. Then I received another call from Maxwell Howard about Luke’s death. This is going to hit the student body hard. Luke, like Jared, was on the football team and looked up to by the underclassmen. Come on. Steven and Ashley are starving. Well, Steven is. He’ll be glad you all are here so we can eat.”
Mary Lou stumbled out of bed, her room dark except a slither of light from under her door. She walked a couple of steps and clasped the top of her dresser to steady herself. She hadn’t had anything to drink, but she felt drunk.
What time is it? What day is?
Slowly memories intruded into her mind. Sitting in the living room with Dr. Wells standing over her. He gave her something. She had been upset. Why? She tried to grasp onto the reason—just out of reach.
Leaning over, she laid her head on the top of the dresser, closing her eyes. Kelly. It had something to do with her daughter.
Then she remembered why Dr. Wells was in her house earlier.
Kelly’s gone.
How dare her leave me to deal with everything on my own.
Mary Lou brought the flat of her hand down on the wooden top. Pain shot up her arm, but she didn’t care.
She turned back to the bed and found the nightstand. Fumbling around, she finally grasped the lamp’s chain and pulled it down. Light flooded the room. She blinked, then closed her eyes to the brightness assaulting her.
She fell onto the bed, needing to sleep more. But something niggled her thoughts. She needed to do something. Rolling over, she spied the digital clock and the time. Still a few more hours of night.
Through the haze that clouded her mind a picture of the medicine cabinet at Greenbrier came into view. She struggled to sit up. The vision wavered. She squeezed her eyes closed, trying to latch onto what she needed to do. She imagined reaching out touching something through the mist. She felt something solid, smooth.
Painkillers. She only had one left. She had to get to the nursing home. Thanks to Dr. Wells, she had some tranquilizers, but she still needed to find another source for her medication.
The time was now. She staggered out of bed and toward her bathroom. For a moment, she thought about taking a shower but something kept nagging at her not to. Instead, she splashed cold water on her face. Peering into the mirror, a stranger stared back at her. A wild mass of blond strands about her gaunt face. Eyes bloodshot and sunken.
She swayed into the counter, clutching the edge with one hand while opening a drawer with the other and rummaging for a brush. After barely bringing order to her hair, she pulled out another drawer—the one that held her prescriptions. They weren’t there. Panic drenched her. Sweat beaded her forehead and underarms.
No! I still have some left. Where are they?
Then she recalled she’d hidden them in the kitchen and linen closet.
Still unsteady, she practically fell against the linen closet doors. Tearing through the stacks of towels, she finally located her bottle of uppers she’d bought from one of Kelly’s classmates six weeks ago for times she had to be extra alert. What was his name? She tried to remember and came up blank. She’d think of his name when she wasn’t so stressed.
She needed the painkillers, and the stimulant would make her alert enough to break into the medicine cabinet and not get caught. Then she could turn all her energy to getting Kelly back safely. She dug into the bottle for one of the uppers.
Kelly, baby, doing this for you.
After swallowing the pill, Mary Lou reentered her bedroom, her steps and movements slow. She changed into black sweats and a long sleeve shirt, then sat on her bed and waited for the medication to take effect. Once she felt more stable and clear, she would leave for Greenbrier. She’d gone over how to get into the nursing home undetected. She’d practiced last night opening the lock with her homemade picks. And she knew the perfect time.
When her senses became sharper, Mary Lou made her way into the hallway and down the stairs. A lamp still on in the living room lured her to its entrance. It should be off. There on her couch lay Beth Alexander with a blanket thrown over her. Snatches of conversation that had occurred earlier in this room invaded her mind. Dr. Wells saying she shouldn’t be left alone. Ethan talking about calling his sister. Why hadn’t she protested more? She didn’t want Lexie’s mother here.
Beth moved, fighting the blanket that had ridden up on her legs. Mary Lou ducked back into the foyer, listening to the creaking of the couch as Beth settled into another position. Mary Lou rotated toward the hallway to the kitchen and garage. She needed to hurry and get back before Beth woke up and came upstairs to check on her.
When the sounds of the garage door going up and her car starting resonated through the quiet night, Mary Lou cringed, her gaze glued to the entry into her house. She’d rather not have anyone know she’d left in the middle of the night, but if she got caught, she would say she had driven around searching for Kelly. As she backed out of the driveway, leaving the garage door up for her return, her heart rate increased.
She was going to be successful. Then she could deal with Kelly missing.
14
The lack of comfort in the lumpy cushion beneath Beth demanded she give up trying to sleep. She pushed to a sitting position, her neck aching, her left arm tingling from the lack of blood flow. Shaking it, she scanned the living room, orienting herself to her surroundings—Mary Lou’s house. One lamp on the table by the lounger glowed, illuminating the area in a soft, warm yellow light.
Beth checked her watch. Four in the morning. Although her stiff body didn’t feel like it had gotten any sleep, she must have. She hadn’t looked in on Mary Lou for several hours and decided she’d better. Over the years, she’d known the woman through Lexie’s friendship with Kelly, she’d seen Mary Lou change and became more intense—desperate. They used to work the same shift at the nursing home, but a year ago, Beth received a promotion to head nurse and began working the daytime hours.
Beth plodded up the staircase to the second floor and headed toward Mary Lou’s room to peek in and make sure she was all right. A slit of light from under the door indica
ted Mary Lou might be up. Beth stopped in front of the door and knocked. Nothing. She rapped again, a little louder. When there still wasn’t a response, she turned the handle and pushed into the bedroom, worried something might have happened to the woman. She could have gotten up, and with the medication Dr. Wells had given her, she could have become disoriented and fallen.
The sight of the rumpled covers on the bed, which might have concealed Mary Lou beneath them, forced Beth to go further inside to make sure Mary Lou was all right. Beth tiptoed forward until she stared down at the bunched sheets, no Mary Lou in sight. She tossed them back then slowly made a full circle searching for the woman. When she covered the distance to the bathroom, she checked in there, too. Towels from the linen closet, still open, littered the floor.
Concern for Kelly’s mother lent urgency to her step as Beth left. She went from room to room upstairs. She couldn’t even explain why she felt something was wrong, but she did. She could imagine how she would be if Lexie was missing. The medication must have worn off. Mary Lou might be in a bad place mentally. Frantic. Desperate to find Kelly. She’d need a friend.
She strode toward the staircase to walk through the rest of the house. At the top, Beth’s gaze fell on Mary Lou starting up the stairs, hugging a large black tote bag against her front. When Mary Lou saw Beth, the woman’s eyes became so big they dominated her face.
“Are you all right? I came up to check on you, and when you weren’t in your room, I got worried.” Beth came down halfway.
“I’m fine. It’s Kelly who isn’t. I decided to drive around and see if I could find her. Go to some of her favorite places.”
“In the dark?”
Tears welled into Mary Lou’s eyes. “I had to do—something.” Her voice choked on the last word.
Beth closed the space between them. “I can understand. I know how I’d feel if anything like that happened to Lexie. I went through it with my oldest daughter, but she turned up fine. She just didn’t want to live at home. In the end, it was the hardest part to get through.”
“Kelly would never do that to me. Something bad has happened to her. Those girls weren’t very nice to her.”
“What girls?”
“Part of Jared’s crowd—Missy, Carrie, and Zoe. You know how they can be in high school. Downright mean.”
“Yes, I know,” Beth murmured, recalling what they did to Lexie the day someone slipped her the tranquilizers. The rumors going around the school had hurt Lexie as much as a fellow student spiking her water bottle. “I’ll make some coffee, and we can talk. It’s been a while since we sat and talked about our girls.”
Mary Lou took a couple of steps. “Maybe later. I think the fresh air and activity has caught up with me. I’m going to lie down.”
“I’m here if you decide not to. Marge Livingston from church will be relieving me in a couple of hours.”
“Really, no one has to stay with me. I’m better now. Call Marge and tell her she doesn’t need to come.” Mary Lou continued to mount the steps.
“Are you sure? Dr. Wells—”
“No.” At the top of the stairs, Mary Lou whirled around. “Dr. Wells has good intentions, but I don’t need anyone. I’m sure your brother and Cord will find Kelly today.”
“Okay, but if you need anything call me.”
“I will. Just lock the door as you leave.”
This clearly meant to Beth she was not to go home in a few hours, but now.
After dropping Lexie off at church to work in the office, Beth headed for Greenbrier and walked into the building only a few minutes late. Instead of going to her office, she decided to make her early morning rounds to check on each wing and assure herself there was adequate staff. Chaos greeted her when she arrived at her first stop, the west wing. Cord and Ethan stood in the small room to the left of the nurses’ station where the medicine cabinet was located. She entered, her gaze immediately zooming in on the empty shelves usually filled with multiple bottles of various drugs.
“What happened?” Beth moved between Cord and Ethan. “Were we robbed?”
“Yep,” Cord said around a toothpick clamped between his teeth. “As you can see the thief practically wiped you out.”
She looked closer at the bottles left on the shelves. “The person who did this knew what he wanted. What’s left are the drugs for things like blood pressure and urinary tract infections that wouldn’t be popular on the streets.”
Ethan frowned. “We’ll need a list of what was taken and the names of all your staff as well as their shift time.”
“You think it’s someone who works here?”
“Possibly. There was no break-in, no entrance compromised. We’ll check all the ways in and make sure, but it appears the person was either here or had a key to get in.” Ethan rotated toward the doorway and stared into the hall.
Beth followed his line of vision. Staff as well as patients and visitors crowded the hallway outside the room. She walked out into the corridor. “Y’all need to get back to work. We have patients to see to.” Then she pulled Patti Shea to the side and said, “I’ll be reordering the medication, and as soon as the pharmacy brings it, we need to get it to the patients. Try to do what you can until then to keep our patients calm.”
“I can’t believe someone broke in here last night. What have the police said?” Patti peeked into the small room.
“They’ll be investigating. I don’t have a lot of information right now. When they’re through with processing the room, you should be able to give out the medication still left.”
After the nurse walked away, Beth stayed in the corridor until all the people had moved along, then she returned to tell Ethan, “I’m going to be in my office working on that list for you and what I need to reorder, but first, I want to list what is left. Is that okay?”
Positioned in front of the cabinet, Cord glanced over his shoulder at Beth. “Yes, so long as you don’t touch a bottle or anything. If you need to turn a medication to see its name, let me know. I’ll do it. We’re going to fingerprint everything, then get fingerprints from all the staff.”
“Good. This was thousands of dollars of medication.”
One side of his mouth tipped up. “We’ll find who did this. I hate thinking of all those drugs on the street.”
The warmth from his look melted some of the tension inundating her from all sides. One good thing was going right. Cord. They had only been on a few dates, but then so much was happening in Summerton in the past couple of weeks, he was working nonstop, like her brother. Still, she felt there was something there between them.
As she walked into the hallway, Ethan followed her and pulled her over to the side away from any people. “Where’s Lexie? I thought you were going to bring her to work.”
“I’m glad I didn’t with this happening. I’m going to meet myself coming and going. I dropped her off at the church to answer phones in the office. I think it’ll be good for her. She’s so upset about Kelly, and if she needs to talk with the pastor, she’ll be able to.”
“After we process the room, Cord and I will come to your office and talk about toughening your security, especially where the drugs are kept. It looks like there are scratches on the lock as though someone tried using a pick at some time.”
“So no key?” The earlier tension came back in full force, drilling through her head and into her skull.
“Possibly. But those marks may be old. I don’t want to rule anything out.”
“You’re going to work this case?”
“Yes. We think this could be connected to what’s happening concerning the kids. Drugs are involved in both.”
“A kid could have done this?”
“What if one of the staff with a key had a child who stole it so he could sell the drugs at school?”
“The key to the medicine cabinet doesn’t leave the building.”
“That’s good to know, but that doesn’t rule out a teen.”
“You really are going to look at
everything.”
“We have to. As you said thousands of dollars are involved, but worse it’s the prospects of all those drugs being on the street and used in ways not intended.”
“Like what happened to Lexie?” The thundering beat of her heart clamored through her head. With little sleep last night and now this, she didn’t know if she could do what she needed to do.
“Exactly. Luke’s death is tied to an overdose of tranquilizers. He fell asleep at the wheel. The amount he had in his body didn’t take long to go into effect.”
“Suicide?”
“No indication it was. I think murder. His water bottle was laced like Lexie’s with the same kind of medication.”
Beth inhaled a deep breath then held it for a few seconds before slowly releasing it out through pursed lips. What if instead of falling asleep in class, she’d fallen asleep behind the wheel? She could be going through what Jared and Luke’s parents were handling right now if her daughter hadn’t gotten help right away. “Lexie may never return to school.”
“Another thing I think you should do. Do a secondary audit on your drug inventory. Make sure on the other wings everything is where it should be. I remember you telling me about that patient who died.”
“Lucy was on this wing.”
“I’m asking the ME to rush that autopsy. If you think something isn’t right, it might not be.”
“Have you looked at the security DVRs yet?”
“No. But that’s where I’m going right now while Cord and his officers finish with the room. After that, Cord and I will talk with the people who worked here last night. Maybe someone saw something.”
“I hope so,” Beth murmured, still thinking of what happened to Luke. So similar to Lexie but she hadn’t been driving a car. Thank You, Lord, for that.
“Go take care of your patients’ needs. See you in a while.” Ethan headed down the hall in the direction of the main office where they kept the security DVRs.
Beth made her way to her office for the first time that day with her purse clutched to her side under her arm. As she crossed to her desk, something nagged at the back of her mind. What was she missing?
Severed Trust: The Men of the Texas Rangers | Book 4 Page 24