I swiveled around in my desk chair so I faced the room. Brandi went back to the couch. Erik backed away from my desk but remained standing.
I stared at Brandi. She showed no embarrassment at all at being caught in her lie, which she even put in her video. Apparently the end always justifies the means in her world. I could hear Gayle’s voice ringing in my head. Brandi, with only a high-school diploma and no responsible work experience, is ill equipped to take care of herself. Brandi desperately needs people to believe Sabrina is only missing, not dead, so she can stay on in Sabrina’s house, controlling Sabrina’s property.
I pushed harder. “If you made up the phone call from Erik, why did you say in the video that Sabrina may have gone off with him?” I asked.
“Because I really thought Sabrina might have gone off with him. She’d keep it a secret because her Moxie friends don’t like him,” Brandi said. “But then, after what you told me about him, I was worried about what might have happened to her if she was with him.”
Erik pointed at me, his hand mimicing a gun. “We need to talk, Cleo. Why are you telling malicious lies about me to Brandi and Ian and anyone else who will listen?”
I ignored him. “So you came to collect the $5,000 reward?” I asked him.
“Maybe. Even if I haven’t seen her, I might know something about where she is,” Erik admitted.
“See, I told you she’s still alive,” Brandi said. “And Erik can help us find her.”
“How can Erik help?” I stood up, pushing my chair out from behind me. “And why are you both here at my house?” I wanted them gone. “If you know where she is, why aren’t you out finding her or giving your information to the police?”
“You know I don’t want to have anything to do with the police,” Erik lowered his head and dropped his voice an octave. “The reason I’m here is to get some help calling off Sabrina’s feminazi friends. Those bitches never liked me. They’re the reason she broke up with me last summer. Then this fall, someone hacked into my online accounts. I know it was them. I know about their website. I got it out of Sabrina when we were together.”
Brandi nodded like a jackhammer. “Erik says those Moxie women are stealing money from his bank accounts and credit cards,” she said. Her eyes darted to Erik, then back to me. “He’s willing to help us find Sabrina once you get them to give back his money. That’s why we came.” Her voice softened to a pleading tone. “Cleo, you know I don’t have any influence with those women. But they like you. You can convince them that they need to give back Erik’s money to help Sabrina. Please say you’ll try.” She sounded like a puppy begging for a treat. “If they care about Sabrina as much as they say they do, they’ll cooperate.”
My head was spinning. I decided to play dumb. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said. “And I have no reason to believe Erik knows where Sabrina is. Why do you believe him?”
“Because he …” Brandi began, but she stopped as the front door swung open, letting in a blast of frigid air, and Pablo loaded down with a backpack and a suitcase.
A shot of energy exploded in my chest. I squealed, sprinted across the room and leaped into his arms. “Hey babe,” he said, dropping the luggage and enveloping me in a bear hug. “I got a last-minute standby seat. Tried to call you from DIA when we got in, but you never picked up.”
I was still locked in Pablo’s embrace when Erik and Brandi grabbed their coats and scurried past us out the front door like the rats they were.
Chapter 25
“Why didn’t you arrest Erik last night?” I asked Pablo the next morning. We were snuggled under my cozy down quilt as winter winds howled outside. We were finally ready to talk. The night before pent-up passion had pushed us to the bedroom, bypassing the all the catching up and explaining I had planned.
We had a lot to talk about.
“I will call Boulder PD to let them know Erik’s in town,” Pablo said, “but I couldn’t arrest him. As far as I know, there aren’t any outstanding warrants for his arrest.”
“What about how he never bought back those starter herb kits he sold people? The whole thing was a scam. He promised the investors big profits and then skipped town.”
“The Boulder PD did want to question him about that, but they never had enough evidence to show probable cause that he had committed a crime. Investment scams require a lot of investigation. Maybe some of his investors have filed civil suits against him, but I don’t know anything about that.”
I pulled back and raised up on one elbow so I could look him directly in the face. “How about the fact that three women he married died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and he ended up with their money?”
“Come on, Cleo. We don’t even have evidence that those women’s deaths were homicides.” Pablo pulled me back down into his arms. “Now it’s your turn to answer questions. What was Erik doing here at your house? And who was that woman with him?”
I told him about Brandi and how she’d lied by telling us that Erik had called her right before Sabrina disappeared. I told him about Brandi’s YouTube video and how it got Erik’s attention and brought him to town. I told him about Erik’s claim that he can help find Sabrina, and how excited Brandi is about that.
The only thing I left out was how the Moxie women had hacked into Erik’s accounts and how he wanted me to get his money back from them. I didn’t want to turn Hana and Diana in to the police. I was very clear that what they were doing was illegal. But I wasn’t so clear it was wrong. If Moxie could punish an evil guy like Erik who had very likely gotten away with murdering several wives for their money, how could that be wrong? He’s a callous, cold-blooded, conscienceless criminal who is clever enough to avoid getting caught. If vigilantism is the only way to effect justice and get some small measure of revenge for the women he’s hurt, I’m good with that.
“So how did you get involved with Brandi?’ Pablo asked.
“Remember I told you that Sabrina Larson’s son Ian is the boyfriend of Elisa’s daughter Maria? Brandi is Ian’s closest relative now and she’s living in Sabrina’s house and taking care of him. Elisa and Maria were stuck in town during the blizzard and came over here to stay. Ian came over to see Maria, and Brandi came along for dinner.”
“So you’ve ended up in the middle of trying to find this missing woman—Sabrina Larson? Does this have something to do with your Contact project? Are you planning to go into your apparition chamber, contact her, and find out what happened?”
“Of course not. The apparition chamber is for contacting the spirits of people who are dead. We don’t know that Sabrina is dead. Plus, I don’t know Sabrina personally, so why would she show up to contact me?”
“Is Brandi going to try and contact her?”
“Definitely not. Brandi believes Sabrina is still alive.”
Pablo squeezed me tighter. “Enough, Cleo.” He laughed. “I know you too well. There’s more to this than you helping Elisa’s daughter’s boyfriend. You’re hiding something and I’m not going to let you go until you tell.”
I struggled, pretending to try to get loose from his muscular arms. Then I joined his laughter. “Okay, Mr. Policeman. I surrender. Here’s the truth. I do have another connection to Sabrina. It turns out that her best friend, Gayle, is the sister of Bruce—the guy who funds my Contact Project. He asked me to help.”
“Help how? Does this involve your apparition chamber?”
“Yes, Gayle has gone in twice trying to contact Sabrina. The first time she didn’t reach her. The second time, she says she did talk to Sabrina, but I’m not totally sure that really happened. She may not be telling the truth.”
Pablo groaned, let me loose, and rolled away. “Good grief, Cleo. Now you have clients lying about seeing spirits? This whole missing person thing looks like a mess you’d be better off out of.”
“I’ll admit I’ve thought that myself lately,” I said. “But what about Bruce? He wants me to do this. I owe him, and he’s never aske
d me for anything. And to be perfectly honest, I need his funding. His money not only keeps me going in this town full of therapists, it makes it possible for me to help people through the Contact project.”
“If he believes in your work, he won’t take away your funding just because you can’t find his sister’s friend,” Pablo said. “Most likely he’ll respect your choice.”
“Bruce is a results guy,” I said. “His way of dealing with issues is to get the facts and find a fast solution. He wants me to solve this for Gayle. He’s willing to pay whatever it costs. He’s made that clear. But I don’t think he’s going to accept me dropping out.”
“Okay, let’s consider the worst outcome. Say he does withdraw his funding. You can still help people without his money. And you won’t be able to work as much anyway after the baby comes. I know that. And I’m expecting to contribute more than you do to our expenses and the baby’s expenses.”
Oops. Our expenses? I didn’t want to get into the living together or marriage conversation right then, so I steered him back on topic. “What about Maria? She’s like my own daughter. She loves Ian. I can’t just back away from helping them find his mother. It would hurt Elisa as well and she’s done so much for me. I have to stay involved.”
He threw off the quilt. “It’s getting late. I’m going to jump in the shower. We can talk about this more over breakfast.”
But we didn’t. In fact we didn’t even have breakfast. When I got out of the shower, Pablo had the TV on to the local news and he was talking on his cell. Newscasters were showing shocking pictures of a twenty-five-car pileup last night caused by what they called a “wall of blowing snow” on U.S. 36 east of Boulder. Three people were killed and thirteen others were injured. Police closed the highway in both directions for four hours. The Colorado State Patrol blamed “ground blizzards,” which occur when fresh snow and high winds create blizzard conditions under clear skies.
I sat mesmerized watching video of smashed cars, vans, and trucks being towed from the pileup. “And this was only the start of accidents and congestion last night in Boulder County,” the TV anchor announced. “Wind gusts that reached 115 miles-an-hour washed blinding waves of snow over other Boulder County roadways, icing streets and creating whiteout conditions. Ground blizzards caused multiple accidents; gusts swept trucks off the road and knocked trees into power lines.”
“Wow, that was some accident on highway 36,” I said. “I’m sure glad you got back from the airport before it got so bad.”
“Me too.” Pablo clicked off his phone. “But here’s a shocker. I just called Boulder PD to tell them that Erik Vaughn is back in Boulder. But—get this—turns out Erik was one of the people who died in that pileup.”
I was stunned. “No way! What was Erik doing out on the highway in that weather?”
“Probably on his way to the airport,” Pablo said. “I’m guessing that after he ran into me, he decided to get his ass out of town ASAP. We’ll probably find out more about that later. But I’ve got to go.” He laced up his boots and grabbed his jacket. “Sorry, no time for breakfast. I have to get out to Longmont, turn in that car I rented last night to drive in from the airport, and get to work. They’re calling everyone in because of all the accidents.” He gave me a sweet goodbye kiss and was off.
As soon as he shut the door behind him, I grabbed my phone and called Brandi. “Have you heard about Erik?” I asked.
“Heard what?” she asked.
I gave her the news. “Are you sure it was him?” she asked.
“Pablo got the news from the Boulder PD,” I said, “which I’d say is a reliable source. So unless someone else was carrying his ID, it was him.”
Silence on Brandi’s end.
“Did Erik tell you where he thinks Sabrina is or what he knows about her disappearance?” I asked.
“He told me one thing, but he said the rest would have to wait until the Moxie women give him back his money.”
Another long silence. I could almost hear the wheels turning in Brandi’s head. Finally words came gushing out. “Wait a minute! He doesn’t need the money now.” The words gushed out of her mouth. “So why wouldn’t he tell me what he knows? I think he would. I’ll go in your apparition chamber and contact his spirit and he’ll tell me everything. How soon can I try it? I can be right over.”
Omigod. Of course she’d ask for this. And of course I’d refuse. “Stop, Brandi,” I said firmly. “No one is going to try to contact Erik in my apparition chamber. Not you, not anyone. It was bad enough having Erik around when he was alive. There’s no way I want to try to bring back his spirit.”
Chapter 26
It was Saturday, a day I usually visit Gramma, so I headed over to Glenwood Gardens. She was in the living room with several other residents and a perky teenage volunteer, all singing along with a CD of “You Are My Sunshine.” It never ceases to amaze me how music reaches residents with dementia who ordinarily sit slumped in a chair, not speaking or moving. When they hear a favorite song, they suddenly come alive, rocking rhythmically and singing along. It’s truly inspiring to watch.
I was ready for a break, so I sat and sang along with them through several more old favorite songs. After the music was over, I sat next to Gramma so we could talk. She’s always more alert and communicative right after music. “Cleo,” she said, “Are you okay?”
“I’m just tired,” I said. “How are you feeling?”
“I miss James,” she said. “He hasn’t come for a long time.” I saw tears in her eyes. What to say next? In fact, Grampa had died before Gramma moved to Glenwood Gardens from Shady Terrace, but I don’t like to remind her that he’s gone. “He’s been busy,” I said. “I’ll tell him you miss him.”
She smiled. “He works hard,” she said. “He’s a good man. He loves me.”
My mind drifted off to Pablo, a good man who loves me. We’re not a perfect couple like Gramma and Grampa, but we love each other. I need to think hard about whether I want to risk losing what we have, especially with the baby coming.
When I looked back at Gramma, she’d fallen asleep in her chair. I gave her a soft goodbye kiss and gathered up my stuff to leave. Sadness hit me as it always does when I leave her, but it’s mostly the familiar sadness about how Alzheimer’s has taken her away.
Just as I got to the front door, Allie Hecht came in. “Cleo, I’m so glad you’re here. I came to talk to Mary Ellen. But it would be great if you could join us. Do you have a minute?”
“I have a bunch of stuff to do,” I said, “so just a quick minute.”
When we were all three squeezed into Mary Ellen’s tiny office, Allie leaned forward and spoke softly. “I told you both I’ve been planning to sue the hospital because I’m not getting anywhere with the complaint I filed about Mom’s death. So this is all totally confidential, just between us, but yesterday my lawyer told me the hospital is offering to settle with me to avoid bad publicity.” She paused to let that sink in, then continued. “They’re not admitting any fault or wrongdoing, just saying they want to put this behind them and they’re willing to offer me a settlement if I sign an agreement not to sue them and to keep all the information relevant to the case confidential.”
“So should you be telling us about this?” Mary Ellen asked.
“I know neither of you will tell anyone,” she said. “You both knew Mom, and I need your advice. What should I do? I figure the hospital must have found some evidence that I’m right about patients being euthanized in the ICU. Otherwise why would they offer to settle?”
“It could really be just like they say, to avoid bad publicity,” Mary Ellen said. “A scandal like that can cost them a lot more than settling the case with you.”
Allie looked at me. “What do you think, Cleo?”
“I can’t really advise you. It has to be about what you think will make you feel better,” I said. “What would you like to do?”
“Basically I’m not inclined to accept the settlement. Money’s not
what I’m after. It won’t bring Mom back—nothing will. I want satisfaction for her death—the satisfaction of them admitting they’re wrong. I want that nurse Sabrina Larson to get the blame she deserves. And I want to prevent what happened to Mom from happening to other patients.”
“It could be very expensive to sue a hospital,” I said. “Are you ready to spend that kind of money to get satisfaction?”
Allie sighed deeply and closed her eyes for a minute before she answered. “That’s exactly what my lawyer asked me,” she said. “He’s recommending I take the settlement. But have I really gotten justice for Mom if I do that?”
“Maybe you could use the settlement money for a memorial in honor of your mom,” Mary Ellen said. “How about a donation to the historical library where she volunteered? That way she’d be remembered for the good work she did.”
“Maybe,” she said. “But if it’s all covered up, if there’s no real investigation, would other older people be safe at that hospital?”
“It sounds like you need to sit down with your lawyer and discuss what’s likely to happen if you settle,” I said. “Then decide whether you can live with that.”
We all sat silently for a minute, tuned into our individual thoughts. Then Allie gathered her things and stood up. “I’ve taken enough of your time,” she said. “Thanks you guys. I’ll let you know how it turns out.”
§ § §
When I got out to my car and turned on my phone, I had three voicemail messages. One was Brandi, begging me to let her try to contact Erik in my apparition chamber. I hit “delete.” The next one was Pablo, saying he was swamped with work, would have to work late tonight and go in early in the morning, so he planned to stay in Longmont for the night. Damn.
The last one was Paige. She sounded shocked. “Cleo, you’re not going to believe what I found,” she said. “It’s Sabrina’s thirty-day plan! You have to see it. I haven’t told anyone else, so please keep it confidential. I want to show it to you. You’re probably not at your office on Saturday but can we meet somewhere this afternoon?”
Lynn Osterkamp - Cleo Sims 03 - Too Many Secrets Page 15