I smiled at my frustrated stepdaughter. “You care a lot about Brenda and her brother—and you haven’t even met the woman.”
“Like I said back when Peyton was talking about her, she’s one of the good guys, Jillian. He is, too. I spent a lot of time sitting in the surgery waiting room with that anguished man. I’ve had enough experience interviewing people to be a pretty good judge of character. Brenda cared about the mentally ill. She cared about her patients almost to the exclusion of all else. What happened to put her in harm’s way? That’s what I need to find out.”
I looked at Kara over my raised mug. “The sheriff’s department offered to help. Should Tom have taken them up on that?”
She raised her eyebrows and appeared interested. “Who offered?”
“Captain Osborne.”
“Oh. Him.” Kara sounded dismissive. “I’ve run into him when I’ve been to crime scenes outside Mercy boundaries. He is a take-charge kind of guy, so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. A few deputies under his command responded first to Dr. Ross’s wreck, but her crash was within Mercy city limits, just like the murder. It was our paramedics and our fire department that took care of her. It’s a Mercy PD case.”
“You didn’t answer my question. Should I try to convince Tom to get over his animosity toward Osborne so the sheriff’s department can help with documenting all the evidence and even do some interviewing?”
Kara seemed distracted now. “I never got a good vibe from Osborne when I would run into him while covering a story in the county. He’s, well, kind of obstructive. Since I once worked for Tom when I first came to live in Mercy, I’m certain he can handle the job of finding out what exactly went down in Dr. Ross’s case—but with my help.”
“You seem worked up. What is going on, Kara?”
“I have knowledge and experience to dig around in what happened to Dr. Ross, yet I feel Tom ignored my offer. There’s no political or territorial agenda for me. All I want is answers.” She smiled for the first time since arriving. “But now that the coffee is kicking in, I know what I have to do.”
“And what’s that?”
“Put on my big-girl newspaper panties and interview people. We still have freedom of the press last time I checked.” She set down her mug and stood. “About time I got busy.”
Before I could say anything but “Wait,” she was gone. No one could stop Kara once she put her mind to something. Unfortunately, one of those people she was about to interview might be a killer. Though it could be considered intrusive of me, I decided Liam had to know what Kara was about to do. He still had his finger on the pulse of the criminal elements in our county. I’d seen that reckless look in Kara’s eyes, the same look as when I’d first met her so many years ago.
I decided to call Liam’s office after his cell went to voice mail. Sue Ann answered with “Liam Brennan, attorney-at-law.”
“Hey there, Sue Ann. It’s Jillian.”
“I see that from the caller ID, but I am sticking with the professional approach. What’s up, Jillian?”
“Is Liam available? His cell went to voice mail.”
“He actually has a client. Not exactly his kind of client, but money is money.”
“Darn. I wanted to give him a heads-up about Kara. I’m a little worried about her—though I’m probably being overprotective.”
“He’s kind of overprotective about her himself. One day, my prince will come, too.” She laughed. “Can I take a message?”
“Ask him to call me when he’s not busy.”
“Oh, that would be ninety percent of the time. For now, anyway,” she said.
“Does that mean more clients are on his agenda?”
“Didn’t he tell you the other day? He’s joining forces with students from the local law school—and local here means what? Fifty miles away? Anyway, he wants to create something similar to the Innocence Project in this area of South Carolina.”
I smiled. “Getting justice for people falsely imprisoned sounds like something Liam would embrace.”
“He also wants Kara on board. She’s a great investigator and has contacts everywhere.”
“She was quick to remind me of exactly that this morning,” I said with a laugh.
“I’ll have Liam call you, Jillian.”
I disconnected, thinking how that project sounded like something the two of them would be quite good at.
I was due back at the Schultz house to help Candace and B.J., but I wanted to fit in a hospital visit. Plus I had two cats downstairs who needed a little more human interaction. When I went to the basement, I found Dashiell crouched at the door to the cat room. Maybe they’d been playing the paws-under-the-door game, a kitty favorite around here. Before saying good morning to Simon and Otto, I cleaned litter boxes that belonged to the upstairs crew. I couldn’t help but hear Dashiell’s continuous low growl. No paws-under-the-door game, then. Not yet. Merging cats while I was away today obviously wasn’t an option.
I gathered up our grouchy tabby and took him upstairs. A stressed-out Dashiell could mean his blood sugar would rise, so when I went down again to visit with Simon and Otto, I closed the basement door to keep him distanced from his obsession with the cat room. A half hour later, I returned upstairs, having satisfied myself that the two newest additions were content to stay with each other in the basement—at least for now.
The trip to the hospital seemed to take longer than ever. It wasn’t until I arrived at the information desk that I learned Minnie was also in the ICU, her bed perhaps right alongside Brenda’s. I took the elevator to the third-floor ICU waiting room.
Greta sat with two young men who had to be Henry and Harris, since they looked exactly alike aside from their hair. One had his pulled back in a messy bun with strands loose around his face. The other twin had a preppy style with clean-cut sandy hair. He wore a thin V-neck sweater over an expensive-looking collared shirt. Long-haired guy wore a T-shirt and jeans. Despite the difference in grooming and style, their features told me they were identical twins.
A coffeepot sat on a small table against one wall. The grimy liquid inside the glass container looked like it might grow mold right before my eyes if I stayed here for the next hour.
Greta waved at me, looking weary. She had her feet propped up on the seat of a straight-back chair and I saw that her ankles were swollen. Long-haired brother whispered in her ear while staring at me.
Might as well deal with this straightaway, I thought. I didn’t like people whispering about me while I was five feet away. I walked over and introduced myself, glancing back and forth between the two young men. I learned that Harris had the bun and Henry was the preppy type.
“Greta says you’re the top cop’s wife,” Harris said. “Did you come here to finish what he started?”
“He was here?” I ignored his question, sensing I might be ignoring much of what he said if he didn’t take the insolence out of his tone.
“You just missed him.” Greta slapped Harris’s knee. “And be nice. She’s been good to Mama.”
“How is your mother doing?” I asked Brenda.
“They got the whole tangled mess out of her head,” she replied. “It took them a long time but apparently the swelling in her brain will go down and she might be her old self again after rehab.”
I smiled. “What a relief for all of you.” Even if y’all pretty much abandoned her when she needed you the most, I thought. I could never picture Tom or Kara or Candace or Liam or any of my family . . . well, they’d never do what these siblings had done.
“Greta says you’re taking care of Otto,” Henry asked. “He was small the last time I saw him. I’ll bet he’s grown.”
So we talked about Otto, obviously a safe subject, until Peyton entered the room. His rumpled trousers and wrinkled shirt, not to mention his unshaven face and tired eyes, told me that he probably hadn’t
left the hospital.
“Hi, Jillian.” He eased into a chair on the other side of the room and patted the chair next to him. “Can I give you an update?”
Harris said, “What are you? Hospital lady? Do you know everyone here?”
I wasn’t about to explain the relationship between these two families. I found myself wondering if Tom realized they’d all been here together.
I sat next to Peyton and turned my chair so I could see his face. “Did Brenda have a good night?”
“I just went in to see her. She’s still in the coma but they will start bringing her out today. It’s great news.”
“Did you get to talk to my husband and tell him this?”
“Yes. Captain Osborne, right?”
I must have appeared as confused as I felt because Peyton said, “No. I’ve mixed things up. I haven’t slept and—”
I rested a hand on his arm. “My husband is Chief Stewart, but the mix-up is understandable. You’re saying Captain Osborne came here?”
“His deputies were the first to respond to my sister’s accident. He was concerned. I told him they probably saved her life. But your husband came after the other police officer left. I saw him in the hallway and we talked briefly. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to walk off this haze of exhaustion created by worry. It didn’t work, I’m afraid.”
Henry Schultz had approached us so quietly, he surprised me enough to stop me from replying. I blinked in surprise as I glanced up at him.
He took in Peyton and then said, “You’re here for the doctor who helped my mother?”
“Yes. I’m Peyton Ross, her brother.” He rose with effort and extended a hand.
The two men greeted each other.
“I’m Henry Schultz, Minnie’s son. I saw you sleeping in that corner when we arrived but I had no idea you were related to the woman we’ve heard about. She’s the one who figured out Mama wasn’t nuts.”
I watched as Peyton recoiled at the word nuts. “My sister takes care of those nut jobs pretty well.” He nodded, his lips tight with irritation.
Henry reddened. “Sorry. But you know what I mean.”
“Yes. Brenda is an excellent physician. Went to medical school and everything.” He looked down at me. “This lady here was quite a help to your mother and to my sister as well. She’s here visiting all of us waiting for good news.” He refocused on Henry. “By the way, I don’t know anything about your mother’s case aside from the fact she actually had a medical issue rather than a psychiatric one.”
“Brain tumor. In a coma. But they say the operation was a success.”
The chill between them seemed to recede. Meanwhile, Harris busied himself by playing a game on his smartphone and Greta leaned back against her balled-up sweater, hands resting on her pregnant belly. It dawned on me I hadn’t ever seen her husband. Perhaps he was caring for other children or simply hated hospitals.
Henry went on to say, “I’ll leave you two alone now. I wanted to make sure my guess was correct. Thank your sister for helping Mama.”
Peyton offered a weary smile. “I’m grateful that I’ll get the chance to do that.” He sat down again.
“Remember how you talked about Brenda’s phone?” I said quietly. “Did anyone ever bring your sister’s belongings to you?”
“Oh, Captain Osborne took them—but there was no phone. I mentioned this to Chief Stewart, by the way. He seemed a little bothered about the whole thing, said something about chain of custody being down the toilet now.”
“What did you give Captain Osborne?” I asked.
“Bloody clothes and shoes. Nothing more.”
“I remember Brenda said she wanted to give Minnie a journal since she seemed to be a woman who liked to write everything down. Her daughter said Brenda may have picked up one that Minnie had been writing in while she was in the hospital, a notebook that I assume Brenda gave to her. They didn’t find anything like that in the car?”
“Not that I know about. The car went to wherever they take wrecked cars that might be considered evidence. Maybe something like that got left behind or was even tossed from the vehicle during impact. I hear it was a twisted mess. Seems she went off the road and hit a gigantic tree. But that darn tree saved her from careening into the creek not too far down the embankment. She would have drowned.” His lip quivered with emotion.
I leaned forward and put my arm around his shoulder. “But she didn’t. It wasn’t her time.”
His swimming eyes met mine. “No. Not her time.”
Twenty-one
On my way back to Mercy, Kara called. But if I thought I’d get away with warning Liam about her quest to make sure Brenda’s case received as much attention as Chester’s Winston’s death, I was wrong.
“Jillian, I know you mean well,” came her tinny voice through the phone. “But I will be fine. Liam even offered to help, if it makes you feel better.”
“The reception on this call is pretty bad, Kara. Where are you?”
“Liam and I are at the scene of the crash. Pretty isolated area. I’ve also learned where the wrecked car was taken—a garage Mercy PD has a contract with—and we’re headed there next.”
“I’m glad Liam is with you. Sorry to be a worrywart, but someone tried to kill Brenda and—”
“I understand. You love me and you care and that means a lot.”
I said, “One thing I learned when I went to visit the hospital patients—or rather offer support to their relatives—is that Captain Osborne came by and he took away the clothes Brenda was wearing when she got run off the road.”
“I know. When I called Tom he told me Osborne dropped them off at the station.”
“Oh. That’s good, right? But there was no phone or anything else? Things that might have come from Minnie.”
“Nope. Just clothing. Apparently even her purse was missing, so Tom thinks she could have been robbed. Since Osborne brought everything to Tom straightaway, I may have judged him too harshly,” Kara said. “He is trying to help and Tom told me that even though Osborne still believes this is his case, if he’s relegated to the sidelines, that’s okay.”
I smiled. “Tom’s pretty good at steering people to his way of thinking.”
“He sure is. Listen, we have to get moving. I promised Tom that all I would do is talk to the wrecker drivers who pulled Brenda’s car off that tree. I don’t want to mess with evidence. But those drivers see every kind of smashed-up vehicle and they might tell us a lot about exactly what they think happened.”
“I’m glad you’re working with Tom and keeping him informed. I’m certain that’s all he wants.”
“We’re family, Jillian. We talk things through. I would never do anything to damage the honesty we all share. Tell Candace what I’m up to when you see her. I did a little venting to her last night on the phone and she’ll be relieved to know I’ve taken her advice and let Tom know up front what we’re doing rather than after the fact.”
“I will. I’m on my way to meet her at the Schultz house now. I’m glad Liam is with you. Still, you know me. I’ll worry no matter what.”
Surprisingly enough, I beat Candace to the Schultz house, but then again, I’d left my house early. It gave me a chance to pull up the cat cam and watch Merlot and Syrah wrestling while I considered the twin brothers I’d just met. No doubt Tom had talked to them since that’s why he’d gone to the hospital, but had they given him any real information? There’d been no mention of any conversation, even though they knew who I was. That seemed odd. But then, the twins had been elusive since day one. I didn’t trust those two, even if Henry tried his best to seem friendly.
Candace and B.J. pulled up and I noticed B.J. was driving. How had he ever convinced her to let him take the wheel of her squad car? But B.J. could be charming in a naïve sort of way.
Candace held two to-go cups of coffee bearin
g the Belle’s Beans logo. Maybe B.J. had said the coffee would be all over the place if she drove—and that was definitely the truth. I met them at the front door and she gave me a vanilla latte bearing my name in black marker on the side of the cup. They knew what I always ordered and I couldn’t have been more grateful. Peyton Ross’s outpouring of emotion had sapped me after such a sleepless night.
“Let’s hope no more cats are hiding in closets,” Candace said as we entered the house.
I was pleased the corridor of boxes was gone. Yesterday’s items had been hauled away to Mercy’s evidence locker. The house almost seemed huge now.
“What will we find today?” B.J.’s mustache of foam from his coffee almost made me laugh. “I’m hoping for the latest video games.”
“Which will all head to the evidence locker, too,” Candace warned.
“Of course,” he said. “But I might see something I don’t know about yet and will have to buy.”
We headed to the kitchen, our first room to tackle today. It smelled so fresh and clean—like the lemon verbena cleaner I used myself—despite the fact this home had housed dozens of cats in the last few months.
“I swear Minnie spent all her time cleaning.” I set my already half empty coffee on the kitchen table.
“Something that makes our job more difficult, unfortunately,” Candace said. “We found almost no fingerprints, although the lab called and said they definitely matched Chester’s in various places.”
“That’s not a real surprise, is it?” I said. “The man was found dead here, after all.”
“Those prints showed that he’d been in almost every room, though,” B.J. said. “It confirms that he made himself at home.”
Candace perused the kitchen, probably wondering where to start. “Too bad those prints could have been left anytime. How I wish we had a way to time-stamp fingerprints. Maybe that technology is in the works. It sure would help clear cases quicker.”
The Cat, the Collector and the Killer Page 15