“Maybe we can hold off on that,” Nick said. “They’re leaving on that safari to Africa the day after tomorrow. How long will they be gone?”
“Three weeks. Good point. All we have to do is keep them safe for a couple of days without telling them what’s going on. Otherwise they’ll worry about me and cancel their trip. Jack’s waited all his life for this, and with me ranch sitting, he and Amah can finally enjoy a worry-free vacation. I couldn’t stand to disappoint them.”
“Then here’s the plan,” Nick said. “I’m flying them to San Francisco the day after tomorrow to catch their flight to Africa. I’ll ask if I can stay in their guest room tomorrow night, since we’re leaving early the following morning.”
“That takes care of tomorrow night. What about tonight?”
“Call Harry. Fill him in and ask him to think up an excuse to stay over with them. I’d do it myself, but I have something else to take care of.” I didn’t ask what his something else might be.
Nick drained the last of his coffee and set the cup aside. “You might want to stay somewhere else at night while your grandparents are away, at least until we know if this character might come looking for you.”
“I should be safe in my apartment. No one would think of looking for me in the barn.”
“Not true. If you’re burning your lights, it’ll be pretty obvious someone’s living out there. Why not sleep over at Harry’s until we get this sorted out?”
“No. I won’t do that. I’m supposed to be ranch-sitting in exchange for free rent. I can’t leave the place unprotected every night.”
“Then Ginger and I will sleep in the main house until your grandparents get home.”
I knew it was futile to argue. “Okay. The cockatiel and Fanny can stay in the bunkhouse with me, but you have to babysit Jack’s king snake.”
“Fine with me,” Nick said. “The bird’s loud and that cat’s crazy, but I get along fine with snakes. Now can we get back to what we were doing? There’s another word on this notepad.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know. I thought you might. It looks like the first letter is a D or a P.” He used the pencil again, gently coaxing the indentations to reveal themselves.
“Looks like Pat,” he said.
I studied the page. “Pat. You’re right. It says Pat, but there’s something else at the end.”
He took another look and went to work again with the pencil. After a minute, he cocked his head and said, “Huh. Looks like a question mark.”
“Let me see.” He was right. I saw the same thing he did: Pat?
“So who’s Pat? Someone who works at the hospital?”
“No one comes to mind, but it’s a pretty common name.”
“Check it out. Considering all the staff members and doctors who work there, you’re bound to find at least one named Pat.”
“I’d probably find more than one. How am I supposed to know which one Laurie meant? And why is this Pat’s name on her notepad, along with my name and phone number?”
“Maybe she wanted you to get in touch with Mystery Pat.” Nick tucked the pencil and notepad in his pocket. “Maybe Mystery Pat knows what’s going on.”
“Or maybe Laurie’s hiding out with a friend named Pat.”
“If she is, let’s hope it was Laurie who ripped off the page and not the person she’s running from.”
Nick walked over to the counter and asked for coffees to go, bought two peanut butter cookies, and stuffed a few bills in the tip jar. He handed me my coffee and a cookie. “Let’s go.”
Nick pulled into the parking lot at Harry’s office and lowered his windows to catch the cool night breeze. We sat eating our cookies and sipping coffee until a cat jumped on the hood of Nick’s SUV with a muffled thump and stared at us through the windshield. Nick tapped the glass, and the stray dropped down and ran off under a hedge.
“Poor cat. I’ll bet it’s hungry.”
“Tomcat.” Nick said. “I’ll bet it’s not looking for food.”
I wrapped the last half of my cookie in a napkin and stuffed it in my purse. “Let’s get back to Laurie Popejoy. I’m going to work on finding out who Pat is, but we need to do more than that. Do you have any other ideas?”
“A few. Too bad we don’t have Laurie’s laptop.”
“You’re the one who said to leave it.”
“I know,” Nick said. “But I wish we’d had time to take a look.”
“I wonder why the intruder didn’t take it.”
“He was chasing after her. I doubt he had time.”
“But he didn’t go back for it, either.”
“Either he didn’t think of it, or he didn’t need to.”
“You mean he might already have her?” I thought of Laurie gagged and bound somewhere. Or worse, Laurie’s body buried in a shallow grave in the foothills. I flashed on Dr. Phyllis Poole replacing Laurie in Code Blues. How far would the doctor go for a place in Tobias Fausset’s combo? Or in his life?
“The intruder may not have Laurie yet,” Nick said. “If he’s lost her trail, he might decide to come back for the laptop. But we’re guessing, and we have little to go on except a lot of assumptions.”
“True. But I’m convinced Laurie’s in trouble. And I’m not sure it’s a man who’s after her.”
I reminded him of how Dr. Phyllis Poole’s life had intersected with Laurie’s. Laurie had been Cody O’Brien’s nurse the night he checked out AMA. She was the last hospital employee to see him before his scheduled surgery the next morning with Dr. Poole. Laurie had also made hot, urgent love to Tobias Fausset in their onstage duets, which led to speculation at the hospital about their private relationship. I described Dr. Poole’s obvious infatuation with Fausset.
“You think she’d kill for love?” Nick asked.
“I don’t know, but I’ll bet she’d play dirty.”
“Then you concentrate on identifying Mystery Pat, and I’ll follow up on your answering machine tape. Maybe something will turn up there.”
We sat a moment in silence until the evocative whistle of a freight train sounded in the distance. A lonesome cry in the night. It triggered a need to connect with Nick, if only for a moment. I reached out and touched his hand where it rested on the steering wheel.
“Thank you for coming tonight. And for helping in spite of your reservations.”
He gave my hand a quick squeeze and released it. “Don’t thank me. It’s not like I have a choice.”
He didn’t explain his remark and I didn’t ask, for fear we would enter into territory we weren’t ready to explore. I got out of Nick’s car and into mine. He followed me until I reached the exit toward Coyote Creek; then he flashed his headlights and headed off in one direction while I went in another. Going our separate ways? I told myself it was only temporary. We’d work things out.
I stopped at the Four Corners Market in Coyote Creek to pick up a few groceries. While I was there I put in a call to Harry from the parking lot and filled him in. He agreed to come by Jack and Amah’s and stay the night. He said he’d come up with a reason, and I knew whatever it was, they’d believe him. He’d been a master of the innocent face and the little white lie ever since we were kids. His subterfuge worked on everyone except me.
In my apartment I found a message blinking on the answering machine. Not Laurie, but Amah. I called her back and feigned surprise when she told me Harry’s condo had been sprayed for termites and he was spending the night in their guest room.
I put Ivory Joe Hunter on my portable CD player and took it out on the west-facing side of my little deck along with the last half of my peanut butter cookie and a cup of instant decaf. I didn’t know much about blues, but the mystery surrounding Laurie Popejoy’s leaving TMC and dropping out of the Code Blues combo triggered my interest in the genre. I hoped the music might inspire me somehow.
While Ivory Joe played piano and sang, I searched my memory. Had I met anyone at Timbergate Medical Center named Pat? And what
did that scribbled name mean to Laurie? Was it a friend offering Laurie a safe place to hide? Or was it Cody O’Brien’s killer?
Footsteps on my stairs and a knock on my door set my heart pumping. I sat still in the dark. Would a killer knock?
“Hey, Sis. Where are you?” Harry. He’d walked down the lane from the main house.
“I’m in back on the deck. Come around.”
With a bottle of beer in one hand and a sandwich in the other, he strolled around the corner of my little deck and leaned against the rail. “They bought it. The termite thing.”
“Of course. They’d believe you if you said you’d been abducted by aliens.”
He plopped down into a chair next to me. “So have you figured out who Pat is?”
“Not even close. Any ideas?”
“The only Pat I know is a seriously hot electrician. She moved to Kansas last month.”
“I’m sure you’ll get over it.”
“I already have. Want to talk about your love life?”
I answered too quickly. “I don’t have one.”
He chuckled. “I heard different. According to Amah, you’re juggling Nick and James O’Brien. What’s that about?”
“Wishful thinking on her part. There’s nothing going on with either of them. James is an old family friend whose brother has just died. I can’t just turn a deaf ear if he needs someone to talk to. And neither Nick nor I want to move ahead until I’m comfortable with his working relationship with Rella, so just let the two of us work it out.”
He gave me a long look. “I know that’s your official story, but I’m beginning to think Rella is an excuse.”
“What do you mean?”
“You were with at least two other guys before you met Nick. I’m pretty sure they had ex-girlfriends too, but you never went through the kind of BS that’s going on with Nick. You always seemed to be in charge, and as I recall, you were the one who did the dumping without shedding a tear.”
“I didn’t dump anyone. I was younger then, and those relationships ended because they weren’t serious.”
“So what are you saying? You don’t want a serious relationship with Nick?”
I stared down at the floor of the deck, avoiding his penetrating gaze. “I don’t know if this will make sense to you—I’m not sure it does to me—but I’m afraid of how I feel about Nick. I didn’t realize it until the incident with Rella in Paris. Even though I believe now that nothing happened between them in that hotel, my reaction at the time was a level of shock that seemed to stop the world. I’ll spare you the details, but believe me when I say I won’t put myself through that again.”
“What makes you think you’ll need to? Do you really think Nick’s going to cheat on you if you get back together?”
“All I know is that Nick is the only man I want to be with, and I’m afraid to be with him. It makes no sense, but somehow Rella has become the face of that fear.”
“Whatever you say, Sis. I just hope you’re doing the right thing. Nick’s a patient guy, but I can’t believe he’s put up with your indecision this long. He’s not going to wait forever.”
Harry bit into his sandwich. I sipped my coffee and finished my cookie. A cool breeze sent a shower of oak leaves rattling down across the deck and a shiver across my bare shoulders.
“Time to go in,” I said.
“Right, it’s getting late.” Harry drained the last of his beer and stood up. “I’d better get back to the house. The folks will be going to bed soon.”
“Thanks for coming. If you think of—”
“I know. Mystery Pat. I’ll let you know if I come up with anything.”
I went inside and crawled into bed, avoiding thoughts of Nick by thinking about Laurie Popejoy’s broken door and wondering about the name on her notepad. Pat? Too bad we left the laptop behind. We might have found Mystery Pat in Laurie’s emails. Then I thought of Cleo. This whole thing had started because of her darling Siggy’s iffy prostate. If Nick wouldn’t go with me to steal the laptop, I had a hunch Cleo would.
Chapter 10
Quinn didn’t beat around the bush. When I got to work Monday morning, he was waiting for me in the library, parked in the chair at Lola’s desk.
“Did you and your litigious date enjoy the music last Friday?”
“I knew you’d be upset, but I can explain.”
He got up and glanced at his watch. “All right. What the hell you were doing at Margie’s with one of the O’Brien clan after I told you they were suing?”
It occurred to me that I should start a swear jar. Quinn’s hells and damns and other profanities would add up pretty fast.
“Okay, here’s the thing …” I said. “Before you told me about the lawsuit, I had already decided to invite James to go with me to Margie’s. I know the family, and he’s a friend of mine, as you recall. It still seemed like a good idea. I thought I could find out why they decided to sue.”
“Go on. What did James tell you?”
“Nothing. He swore he didn’t know about it. He said he’d look into it and get back to me.”
“And you believed him?”
“I had my doubts, but he had already asked about getting a copy of Cody’s hospital record before I brought up the suit. Why would he ask me about that if he knew the record had already been subpoenaed?”
Quinn scrubbed a hand against his chin. “If you see him again, be damn sure you come to me with anything he tells you.” Another damn. Another quarter. If I worked for the man long enough, I could pay off all my loans and buy a new car.
“Pat?” Cleo dropped her spoon beside a steaming bowl of Margie’s Chocolate Chili and dabbed at the corners of her mouth with a paper napkin. “That’s all you got from your home invasion caper with Nick? The name Pat?”
“It was written on the same notepad as my name and phone number. Do you have any idea who that is?”
“You mean someone at TMC?”
“I don’t know, but it seems likely.”
Cleo stared at the restaurant’s acoustic ceiling. “I can’t think of any men, but there are three women. There’s a Patty in Dietary, and Pat and Patricia in the business office.”
I cut off a bite of my bean burrito and dabbed it in a pink puddle of mixed salsa and sour cream. “Do you know if any of them were Laurie’s friends?”
“I doubt it, and I’m afraid if we start asking people if Laurie is hiding out in their attic, they’ll think we’re nuts. Or worse, they’ll spread it around. If it gets back to the wrong person, Laurie will have an even bigger problem.”
“I thought of that. I have a plan, but I need your help.”
Cleo sighed. “You’re going to tell me something I’d rather not hear, aren’t you?”
“You want this whole thing resolved before Sig’s prostate surgery, don’t you?”
“Of course.”
“Then here’s what we need to do.” I told Cleo about the laptop Nick and I left behind at Laurie’s little cottage in the alley.
“You left it? Why, for heaven’s sake?”
“That was Nick’s call.”
“So what’s your plan?”
“We’re going back for it.”
“You and Nick?” Cleo said. “How’d you change his mind?”
“Not Nick. You and me.”
“No thanks.” Cleo drew back. “I’m not cut out for sneaking around in dark alleys.”
“Remember, this whole thing was your idea.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll do it. If Phyllis Poole is a nut case or a kidnapper—or something worse—we have to know before she takes a sharp instrument to Sig’s manhood.”
“Or anyone else’s. I’ll pick you up tonight around ten o’clock. If Laurie is home—which I seriously doubt, since her back door is broken—we’ll say we stopped by to see how she’s doing. If her place is still the way Nick and I left it last night, we’ll take the laptop.”
Cleo pushed her chili away. “I’ll be ready.”
“Be s
ure to wear something comfortable. Dark colors.”
“Good idea.” Cleo looked down at a piece of paper with scribbling on it. “Now let’s get to work on some hospital business that could help us get a handle on Dr. Poole.”
“You’re talking about the Surgery Department’s CME program?”
“Of course. The urologic surgery case review.”
“I’m still suspicious about the timing of that particular topic. You engineered it, didn’t you?”
Cleo squared her shoulders. “It’s a valid and timely topic. That’s all you need to know.”
“It’s scheduled for October thirty-first. That’s the night before Sig’s surgery. Why don’t you ask him to postpone?”
“I already have. It’s been put off for a month.”
“Too bad we can’t postpone the rest of Poole’s cases.”
Cleo peeked at her phone. “We need to get back. For now, just tell me you’re making progress with the review. Did you get all the stats from Rocky in QA?”
“She sent them this morning.”
“Has Dr. Beardsley been around? He should be looking at them.”
“Dr. Beardsley might as well be hiding out with Laurie Popejoy. I haven’t seen his face for at least two weeks. He’s dropped everything in my lap.”
“Is Dr. Fausset okay with you handling the CME program on your own?”
“He seems to be. Dr. Poole is another story, but so far she’s willing to go along with whatever Fausset wants.”
“No kidding,” Cleo said. “Poole has the mother of all crushes on that dark, delicious hunk … in case you haven’t noticed.”
“It’s hard to miss.”
We split the tab and walked across the street to my building. I was about to head into the library when I realized I hadn’t told Cleo about Seamus O’Brien’s failing health. I gave her the nutshell version of what James told me about the O’Brien patriarch and asked if we could get a look at his medical record.
“Another chart? I don’t know. That’s really pushing our luck. I have no good excuse to be snooping in any of them.”
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