Into the Sweet Hereafter

by Kaye George

  “And instead, Mateo crashed into his partner?”

  “Broke Sawyer’s leg. The shipping company has GPS on all the trucks, so they heard about the crash right away, and sent another truck to pick up the goods and deliver them to us, to Bella’s Baskets. They didn’t know it was stuff being smuggled and that it really shouldn’t go here. They just went by the label.”

  “What are they smuggling?” Yolanda asked.

  “He didn’t even know at the time.”

  Yolanda gave a short laugh. “Your poor cousin. He’s a terrible criminal. I wouldn’t trust him, either.”

  “I know. He’s not the brightest of my cousins.”

  Yolanda and Raul worked together much more easily that day. She was glad they had cleared the air. While still not 100 percent certain that Raul wasn’t the crook that his cousin was, she was 99 percent convinced. Raul had never taken a dime from the shop. She trusted him with shopping, deliveries—everything, really. Just because his cousin was a bad one, didn’t mean Raul was.

  Later in the day she got a frantic call from Tally.

  * * * *

  Molly was in the kitchen dipping caramel-candy squares into chocolate and Lily was waiting on customers as Tally straightened the goods that customers had shifted. She sighed with pleasure. This was what she wanted, to work in her shop. To have the help of Molly and Lily, and Dorella, too. They were all good people. And to be left in peace to make her goodies and sell them. To make customers happy. Why did dark things have to intrude on her sunny days?

  As she tried to push down the thoughts about dark things, her cell phone rang with a call that said it was from the hospital. Puzzled, she answered it. At first she couldn’t understand the slurred gibberish of the person calling her, then the voice changed.

  “This is Candace Gerg’s nurse. Ms. Holt?”

  “Nurse?”

  “She’s in the hospital. She’s having trouble speaking from her injuries, but wants to talk to you.”

  Injuries? What now? “Okay. I’ll try and understand her.”

  Mrs. Gerg got back on the phone, but Tally still couldn’t make out what she was trying to say.

  “Mrs. Gerg? I’m coming over there. Let me talk to the nurse again.” She told the nurse she would be there in a few minutes.

  First she called Yolanda. Her fingers shook as she pressed the keys. “Yo? Something’s wrong with Mrs. Gerg. I’m afraid it might be my fault.” She could feel her voice trembling.

  “Whoa, slow down. Where are you?”

  “I’m at the shop, but I’m going to the hospital to see her.”

  “The hospital?”

  Tally rushed on. “I couldn’t understand her over the phone.”

  “What do you mean, your fault? How can you put her in the hospital? Hey, take a deep breath. I can hear you panting.”

  Tally realized she was hyperventilating. She tried to slow her breathing. The remembered sight of those bruises on Mrs. Gerg’s arms haunted her. She knew Walter Wright had hurt her.

  She cut the call and told her employees she had to leave. It was a couple of hours until closing time.

  “You can leave early if you want to, but I have an emergency I have to take care of.”

  “Is there anything I can do?” Lily asked, handing the customer her purchase and her receipt.

  “No, nothing. Tell Molly, okay?”

  Tally ran out the front door. She had walked to work and didn’t have her car there. She ran most of the way home to get it. When she finally reached the vehicle, she wasted no time and jumped into her car.

  19

  Tally had gotten her car started and was beginning to back out of her driveway when Yolanda called. Tally stopped before she got into the street.

  “Yes? I’m on my way to the hospital. I’ll call you back, okay?”

  “No, not okay! They’ve just taken Raul away.”

  Tally put the car in Park. “Who’s they? Where did they take him?”

  “To the police station. I think he’s being arrested.”

  “For what?”

  “I had just decided, just today, that he was innocent. That all the trouble was caused by his cousin and he had nothing to do with any of this mess. And now this.”

  “I’ll call Jackson. Hang on.”

  She quickly punched the numbers for his cell phone. No answer. She called the police station and asked for the detective.

  “I’m sorry, he can’t come to the phone. I can take a message for him.”

  “That’s okay. Never mind.”

  Tally was torn. Mrs. Gerg was calling out for her. She had to go and see what had happened. Had to make sure she was protected from Walter and Thet and his associate. Or Mateo and Raul? And maybe Ira? Well, not Raul, since he was in custody at the moment. She called Yolanda.

  “I can’t get hold of Jackson.”

  “Of course not. He’s questioning Raul.”

  “But I really have to get to the hospital. I’m afraid Mrs. Gerg might be in danger.” She had an idea. “Why don’t you go to the police station yourself? Maybe someone will tell you something. Or they’ll question him and release him. You could drive him home.”

  “Drive home a murderer?”

  “Yolanda, do you believe that Raul murdered anyone?”

  Tally heard her let out her breath. “No. Of course not. And that’s a good idea. I’ll go down there.”

  Tally let out a breath herself after she cut the call. She shifted into Drive and hurried as fast as she could without breaking too many traffic rules.

  The nurse had left word at the front counter to let Tally up to Mrs. Gerg’s room. She hoped they were being selective and weren’t letting anyone else get to her. She was shocked at what she saw when she entered the room. Mrs. Gerg looked even smaller than she was. Her short curly hair was smashed flat on one side, her scalp shining through the thinness on top under the bright light over the head of her bed. She had an IV in one arm and machines displayed squiggles and emitted high-pitched beeps. She also had a wrapping on the other arm and bruises on one side of her face. The room smelled even more medicinal than the hallway had.

  Tally stopped in the doorway, shocked by her frail appearance.

  A woman in scrubs appeared beside Tally. “Are you Tally Holt? I’m the nurse who called you, Ann Davids.”

  Tally shook her extended hand. “What happened to her? When did she get here?”

  The nurse went to Mrs. Gerg’s bedside, examined her IV bag and started checking the readouts on the beeping machines. “A bad fall. She’s been to X-ray and had some scans. There’s no internal injury. We can be thankful for that. Mostly the fractured ulna and two phalanges.”

  Tally saw the brace on her forearm and the splints on two of her fingers then. Her injuries were all on her right side. She knew Mrs. Gerg was right-handed.

  An announcement of a Code Blue came from the hallway.

  “I’d better go see if I can help,” the nurse said, and vanished.

  Tally approached the bed. The head of Mrs. Gerg’s bed was reeled up and a television on the wall ran with the volume low.

  “What happened? Did someone do this to you?”

  The poor woman smiled. “Like she said, a bad fall.”

  Tally could understand her now. Her voice was soft and slurred. Maybe she was on powerful painkillers. That would account for her speech. It didn’t seem that her jaw was broken. “Where did you fall? In your house?”

  She nodded. “Basement stairs.”

  Tally felt a chill creep up her spine. “Were you pushed?” She remembered how careful Mrs. Gerg always was on her steep basement stairs.

  Mrs. Gerg looked at her full-on. “I don’t know.”

  Tally knew, though.

  “They’re letting me go home tonight. I’m all fixed up.”

&n
bsp; “No. You can’t go back there. Walter was trying to kill you.”

  “It wasn’t Walter. He wasn’t in the kitchen.”

  The door to her basement stairs was in the kitchen. “Where was he?”

  “I’m not…sure.” Her eyes tried to close.

  “Who was in the kitchen?”

  Mrs. Gerg grinned. “I was.” She seemed awfully dopy. Could she have been pushed from behind and not realize it had happened?

  “Were those other men in the house? Thet and Arlen?”

  She studied the ceiling a moment. “Maybe Thet. Maybe Arlen. He’s so tall. Don’t remember. Three of them, I think.” She frowned. “Or two.”

  Tally leaned close to her and spoke softly. “You can’t go back home tonight. Come stay with me.”

  “Why on earth would I do that?”

  Tally put a hand on the shoulder of her good arm, the one with the IV. “Just until we figure out exactly what happened. I don’t want anything else bad to happen to you.”

  “Oh, don’t worry. They’ll take good care of me.”

  Tally took a seat in the one guest chair. She would wait until they discharged her, then take her home. At least there was no sign of any of the suspect men here. She wondered how Mrs. Gerg had gotten to the hospital. Had the men in the van brought her? Walter was still not walking. She wasn’t sure whether he could walk or not, but he wasn’t doing it very much.

  “Ms. Holt?”

  Tally jerked awake. The nurse stood in front of her, smiling. “You fell asleep.”

  She checked the bed. Mrs. Gerg was still there. “Do you know when she’s being discharged?”

  “We’re ready right now. That’s why I woke you. Do you know who is taking her home?”

  “I am.” Tally stood and gave Mrs. Gerg what she hoped was a look of reassurance.

  “There are some papers you need to sign for us to release her in your care. Follow me.”

  Tally followed Nurse Davids down the hallway and around the corner to a station where she filled out what seemed like a lot of unnecessary forms. One of them looked useful: the release instructions. When she had signed the last one and gotten copies to take with her, she made her way back to the room.

  Mrs. Gerg was gone.

  20

  Tally dashed back to the nurses’ station where she’d signed the release papers.

  “She’s gone! Mrs. Gerg isn’t there.”

  The nurse, Ann Davids, was still there doing paperwork. She looked up, a puzzled look wrinkling her brow, and followed Tally as she rushed back to the room.

  “Did you see anyone in here?” she asked.

  “I was going to ask you. I’m afraid maybe the man who pushed her down the stairs has her.”

  “Someone pushed her? That’s not what she told us.” The nurse stood still and turned, alarmed.

  Tally started hyperventilating.

  “Are you sure?” the nurse asked.

  “Not positive,” she said in between breaths. “But…what if he did?”

  “She might still be here.” The nurse checked Mrs. Gerg’s bathroom, then left to check out some other places.

  But Tally could see the IV needle dangling at the end of the tube. A large, empty plastic bag that had probably held her clothes lay on the bed, the hospital gown thrown there beside it.

  Eventually, the nurse came back. Tally pointed out the clothing bag and the gown and the nurse agreed she was probably gone. “I called her but didn’t get any answer. Can you check her home?” the nurse asked.

  Tally said she would and drove to Mrs. Gerg’s house.

  * * * *

  At the end of a long, hard day alone in the shop, Yolanda got a call from Raul asking her to pick him up at the police station. Since he had been taken there from the shop earlier in a police car, he didn’t have any transportation with him. He had tried Lily, he said, but she wasn’t answering. Yolanda hadn’t gotten anywhere trying to see him or the detective earlier, so she had returned to work, then ended up closing her shop early. It had been such a difficult day. She couldn’t have been more distracted.

  “Sure, I can do that. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” She had been home for an hour, and had already eaten a light supper. She had been settling in to watch an old movie to take her mind off things. She had to admit she was relieved when Raul finally called. Eager to talk to him and learn more, she picked up her purse and car keys and headed for her front door, still on the phone.

  “Thanks so much. I really appreciate it. You can drop Mateo at my place if you don’t have time to take him home.”

  “Mateo?” She stopped at the door. Did she want to take him home? Did she want him in her car? “Raul, I have to do a couple of things first, then I’ll be there. It won’t take long. Hang on, okay?”

  She called Tally. “I need a favor.”

  “When?”

  “Well, right now.”

  “Yo, this is a bad time. I have to find Mrs. Gerg.”

  “She’s missing? I thought you went to talk to her at the hospital.”

  “I did, but she disappeared. She’s not here.”

  Yolanda retraced her steps and sat on her couch while Tally told her about the injuries and about the disappearance from the hospital. “One of Walter’s friends probably got her,” Yolanda said. “What can you do?”

  After a moment of hesitating silence, Tally admitted she didn’t know. “The nurse asked me to check her home, so that’s where I’m headed now.”

  Yolanda tried to calculate how long that would take.

  “What did you want from me?” Tally asked.

  “Oh, man. This is such bad timing. Raul wants me to drive him and Mateo home from the police station and I’m kind of afraid of Mateo. I don’t mind driving Raul, but he asked me to drop Mateo, too.”

  “Have either of them been charged with anything?”

  Yolanda told her they’d both been picked up for questioning. “That’s all I know. Raul didn’t say anything about charges.”

  “At least they’re not being held, right? They’re letting them go.”

  “That doesn’t mean they’re not guilty. Does it? Does it?”

  “Yolanda, calm down. I thought you trusted Raul.”

  “I do, but I don’t trust Mateo and I don’t think Raul does, either.”

  “You’ll be okay with Raul there, though, won’t you? Drop Mateo off first so you’re not alone with him. Look, I’ll see if Mrs. Gerg is home. I’m almost to her house. I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”

  Yolanda started pacing, hoping for a call from Tally before she had to leave.

  * * * *

  The call renewed Tally’s unease about Lily and Raul’s budding relationship. She was getting whiplash from swinging her opinion of Raul, flailing right and left inside her head, over and over, up and down, every which way. She was glad Raul hadn’t called Lily for the ride. She was younger and, maybe, more innocent, easily led. A small wave of guilt washed over her for thinking that it was perfectly all right for Yolanda, but not for Lily. But why hadn’t he called Lily? Did he want to protect Lily from Mateo?

  Tally was almost to her destination. She would help Yolanda out as soon as she could.

  She slowed her car down coming up to Mrs. Gerg’s house. The shiny white van with the blue sign crouched at the curb in front of her house. Those awful men must be there. She had no desire to see Thet or Arlen or Walter, but she had to find out where Mrs. Gerg was and if she was okay.

  Squaring her shoulders and marching more confidently than she felt, she got to the front door and rang the doorbell. Her heart was doing double time and her finger shook a bit on the doorbell button.

  Mrs. Gerg herself opened the door.

  “Tally, what are you doing here?” She sounded chipper, like her old self.

  Tall
y tried to see around her, to peer into the room. “Is someone here with you?”

  “Yes, yes—see, I’m fine.” She threw the door open and Tally saw all three men, sitting on her living room furniture, right at home, looking like they belonged there. A fourth man sat on the couch with them, a short, stout, dark man who looked like an older version of Thet Thura. Both men had darkish skin, brown eyes, and straight black hair, with similar noses and chins. Knowing that the jade came from Myanmar, she surmised both men were Burmese. They had to be involved in the smuggling. Didn’t they?

  “This is Mr. Thura’s uncle, Mr. Win,” said Mrs. Gerg, gesturing to the frowning man whose eyes were attempting to bore a hole through Tally’s head. “Do you want to come in?” She swept her arm toward an upholstered chair that was perilously close to Mr. Win and the rest. It was also the chair Mrs. Gerg had probably been sitting in.

  Mrs. Gerg swayed with her gesture so that Tally stepped forward to catch her if she fell. The splints on her fingers and the brace on her arm looked heavy. She had to feel lopsided.

  Tally did want to come in, but she also needed to help Yolanda. “Maybe a little later? Could you just tell me one thing?”

  Mrs. Gerg smiled her usual warm smile. Was she in danger? She didn’t seem to think so.

  “When you fell down the stairs, what happened? Who called the ambulance?”

  “Why, I did. Aren’t cell phones wonderful? No one else was here, so I just pulled it out of my pocket and called.”

  “Yes, they are wonderful. I’m glad you had it on you.” What if she had lain on the floor of the basement for hours, injured? At least that didn’t happen. She stepped as close to the older woman as she could and tried to talk so the men couldn’t hear her. “Are you going to be all right here by yourself?”