Who’s That Girl

by Carol Cox

  Kate noticed Mrs. Sedberry’s liver-spotted hands as the woman pushed a sheet of paper toward her. “You’ll have to fill this out. Bring it back up here when you’re finished.”

  Kate completed the form, pleased that she’d done her homework and knew most of the answers to the questions. After she returned the form, she sat in one of the hard plastic chairs that lined a section of the far wall.

  Eventually, the clerk called her back to the counter and handed her a sheet of paper. “I made a photocopy of the record you requested.” The lines between her eyebrows deepened. “You didn’t specify that you wanted a certified copy. Will this do?”

  Kate did a quick scan of the paper in her hand and saw the information she’d hoped to find. “Yes, this will be fine. Thank you very much.”

  She carried the document back to her Honda and sat in the driver’s seat long enough to gather her thoughts. She could still squeeze in a quick trip to the hospital before she went home to start supper.

  No, she decided. It would be better to wait until the next day. When she talked to Casey, they would have a lot to discuss, and she wanted to make sure she had all her facts in order first.

  Besides, she wanted to have a hearty meal ready and waiting when Paul got home. She owed him that much after forgetting to feed him the night before.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Well, look at you,” Kate said the following morning when she entered Casey’s hospital room.

  The girl was sitting up in a chair in the corner of the room, wearing a light pink T-shirt and jeans instead of a hospital gown. Kate studied her, pleased at the difference in her appearance.

  Her hair was pulled back and held in place by a plastic clip. It made her look far less vulnerable, Kate thought. And the last of those awful tubes was gone. Only a small bandage in the crook of her left arm remained.

  “Melanie came by and dropped some of my stuff off last night. It’s good to be back in my own clothes again.”

  Kate nodded. “It won’t be long before you’re back to normal.”

  Casey’s lips pulled back in a fleeting smile that faded almost as soon as it began.

  “The doctor said he’d release me sometime today, so I thought I’d be ready whenever he came.”

  Kate laughed softly. “You sound anxious.”

  “Yeah, I guess I am. I can’t wait to get out of here.”

  “Then I suppose this will be the last time I’ll be visiting you here.” Kate nodded toward a vinyl chair that sat near the door. “Do you mind if I sit down? I can keep you company while you’re waiting for the doctor.”

  Casey’s face brightened. “Sure, I’d like that.”

  “Thanks. There’s something I wanted to talk with you about.” Kate pulled the chair over closer to Casey’s and sat down, praying for wisdom on the best way to begin.

  “Maybe it would be easiest if I start off by telling you a story.”

  Casey leaned back in her chair and gave Kate a puzzled look. “I’m a little old for bedtime stories. Besides,” she added with a small laugh, “it’s the wrong time of day.”

  Kate smiled. “True, but this is a story you need to hear.”

  A guarded expression settled over Casey’s face. “I don’t know. We probably won’t have time. The doctor may show up pretty soon.” She placed her hands on the arms of the chair as if getting ready to stand, but Kate held out her hand.

  “Please,” Kate said. “Bear with me. This is important.” She held Casey’s gaze with hers and breathed a sigh of relief when the girl settled back into her chair.

  Without waiting for a further response, Kate began recounting the story she had told Paul on Thursday evening.

  Casey sat listening, chewing on her lower lip and jiggling one knee up and down. “Does this story have a happy ending?” she asked at one point with an attempt at a laugh that didn’t quite come off.

  “We’ll see,” Kate told her. “Maybe you can help me figure out how it ought to end.” She reached the point where she’d ended with Paul, where Nathan Henshaw cut ties with both his father and son and moved with his wife to Florida.

  “That was really harsh, don’t you think?” Casey asked in a solemn tone.

  “You mean moving away like that?”

  “Yeah.” Casey got out of her chair, and Kate held her breath, certain she was about to flee out into the hallway. Instead, the girl walked to the window and stared out of it, with her back to the room.

  Without turning around, Casey continued, “It was the end of them living like a family. Couldn’t he have figured out a better way to deal with it?”

  Kate prayed for the right words. “Sometimes it’s hard to know the right thing to do when you’re in the middle of a situation like that. It isn’t always easy to see when you’re making a big mistake.”

  Casey’s only response was a barely audible sigh.

  “Jack made his share of mistakes too,” Kate said. “He kept right on living on the wild side. The one positive thing I learned was that he got married and had a little girl.”

  She watched Casey intently as she spoke. “And that little girl is the real focus of this story. Her dad was always trying to stay one step ahead of the law. They kept moving from place to place, and the little girl never felt like she belonged anywhere. Things went from bad to worse, and eventually her father wound up in prison. Her mother divorced him, and the little girl started using her mother’s maiden name.”

  Casey lifted her hand to swipe a tear from her cheek. “This isn’t a very happy story,” she said softly.

  “You’re right, it isn’t. And there were even more problems ahead. The girl’s mother, Ellen, had gotten involved with the drugs Jack sold, and they ruined her health. When she grew too ill to be able to care for the little girl, she left her with some of Jack’s cousins. They provided a home and shelter but didn’t do a thing to nurture the child’s spirit.

  “I feel very sorry for that little girl,” Kate said in a gentle tone. “She must have grown up dreaming of the family she’d never known. It would make sense, then, that when she was ready to go to college, she chose a school near the place where her father had grown up.

  “But the only relative remaining in the area was her great-grandfather, Willis, who lived in an assisted-living facility near the college. She made a point of visiting him regularly, but he never responded with the acceptance or affection she sought.”

  A faint whimper rose from Casey’s throat. Kate rose and crossed the room to stand behind her. “The girl never talked about her family with her classmates. She was afraid of what would happen if they found out about her background. The one place where she found a bit of the acceptance she longed for was in the company of a professor who seemed to take an interest in her.”

  Kate took Casey by the shoulders and gently turned her so they stood face-to-face. “What do you think, Casey? Am I getting most of this right?”

  Wrapping her arms around her waist, Casey swung her head from side to side and stared straight ahead while tears poured down her cheeks. “I have no idea. I don’t know anyone like that.”

  “Don’t you?” Kate hesitated a moment, then lifted her hand from Casey’s shoulder. With a gentle mother’s touch, she placed her fingers under the girl’s chin and raised it until their eyes met.

  “Don’t you?” Kate repeated.

  Casey’s lower jaw trembled, and she seemed to have trouble catching her breath. She let out a groan and buried her face in her hands.

  “How did you know?” The words came out between her splayed fingers. “Do you run some kind of background check on everybody you meet?”

  “No.” A soft laugh escaped Kate’s lips. “But there’s been something intriguing about you from the very beginning—like the way you asked the doctor to notify me, even though we’d never met. And yet the more I tried to help you, the more things didn’t add up. I needed to find out what was going on. I needed to learn the truth.”

  Kate put her arms around the
stricken girl, and they rocked back and forth for a minute. Keeping one arm around Casey’s shoulders, Kate walked the girl back over to her chair and helped her sit down.

  After she got Casey settled, Kate sat in the chair next to her and clasped Casey’s hands loosely in her own. “I have a friend named Nehemiah Jacobs, and he happens to live at Orchard Hill, where your great-grandfather was. He recognized the yearbook photo I found of you and told me enough to get me started.

  “All I knew at that point was that there was some connection between you and one of the residents there. I didn’t know what it was at the time, but when I learned from Dr. White that you had a great-grandfather living in Chattanooga, things started coming together in my mind.”

  Casey pulled her hands away from Kate, and she looked at Kate in wonderment. Tears splotched her cheeks, and her eyes were puffy. She swiped at her nose with the back of her hand.

  Kate rose to get a box of tissues from the bedside table and carried it back to Casey, setting it next to her on the chair. Casey pulled out a handful of tissues and used them to mop her face and blow her nose. “I still can’t believe you dug up my whole family history like that. I didn’t even know some of that stuff myself.”

  “I’ll admit that I spent quite a bit of time researching your family the past couple of days, but I’m not quite the supersleuth you give me credit for.”

  Casey’s head snapped back. “What do you mean?”

  “We haven’t heard the end of the story yet,” Kate told her. “There are still a few things I haven’t been able to piece together completely.”

  Casey plied the tissues again and looked at Kate with a wary expression. “Like what?”

  “Well, like what happened at the campground, for instance. I’ve heard your version, of course. But I’ve also heard Dr. White’s.”

  Casey’s mouth dropped open, and she stared at Kate with wild eyes.

  “Yes, I’ve talked to him,” Kate said. “More than once, as a matter of fact. As you can probably guess, his version of what went on that day is quite different from yours.”

  “But...you said you believed me.”

  “I did. Until I talked to Dr. White and realized that your story and his didn’t match. Then there was Martin’s description of your relationship. In talking to you, I didn’t get the feeling that the two of you are anywhere near as close as he’d like to think you are.”

  “Martin!” Casey sniffed and swiped at her eyes with her fingers. “How did I get mixed up with such a loser in the first place? He keeps calling me here, even though I’ve told him not to. This morning, he was bragging about how he’d tipped a reporter off that she ought to talk to Dr. White.”

  Kate gasped. “Martin did that?”

  “Yeah, like that was supposed to impress me. I guess he was jealous. I keep telling Martin to leave me alone, but he didn’t pay any attention the first time I said I didn’t want to go out with him anymore. Why should I expect he’d start listening to me now?”

  Kate breathed a sigh of relief at knowing that she hadn’t been responsible for spreading suspicion about the professor. Then she turned her attention back to Casey. “So, in your mind, you had already ended your relationship with Martin?”

  “There really wasn’t much of a relationship to begin with. I thought he was kind of cute at first, in a geeky sort of way, but when he started acting all possessive, I told him I wasn’t interested anymore. But he wouldn’t back off. Even now, he keeps talking about me like I’m his girlfriend. Martin lives in a dream world.”

  Kate stared at the girl, thinking that Casey’s assessment was a perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black.

  Casey crumpled the tissues in her fist, and her eyes darted from one end of the room to the other. “I don’t know what you want me to say. I’ve already told you—”

  She broke off when a knock sounded on the door. When she looked over Kate’s shoulder, her jaw went slack and her eyes grew round.

  Kate turned around to find Deputy Spencer standing in the doorway.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Skip stepped into the room wearing an unusually somber expression. Kate saw that he carried a paper bag in one hand.

  “Morning,” he said to Casey, then he glanced over at Kate and dipped his head. “Missus Hanlon.”

  “Good morning, Skip. What brings you here today?”

  “I need to have a word with this young lady.” He nodded toward Casey, who still hadn’t uttered a sound since he walked into the room.

  “In that case, I’d better step outside.” Kate started to rise, but Casey reached out and clutched her arm.

  “No! Don’t go,” Casey burst out. She looked up at Skip. “Please let her stay.”

  After a moment’s hesitation, he nodded. “Okay, I guess that’d be all right.” The look in his eyes told Kate that he’d come for a far more serious purpose than a casual chat. “I got an interesting phone call this morning, just after I came on shift. It seems that a crew from the highway department was doing some work out east of town on Hamilton Road. Guess what they found?”

  Kate shot him a puzzled glance, then felt the pressure of Casey’s fingers digging into her right arm. She turned to look at the girl, whose whole body had gone rigid. Other than that, Casey showed no response.

  “Why don’t you tell us, Skip?” Kate said evenly.

  The young deputy hooked one thumb in his duty belt. “While they were working, one of them noticed light reflecting off some chrome in a small ravine just off the road. A big mass of kudzu was covering whatever it was, so he went down and dug around in the vines to check it out. He found a VW Beetle lying on its roof.

  “He called for help, and they cut the kudzu away to see if anybody was still inside. The car was empty, except for this.” He reached into the paper bag and pulled out a small handbag.

  Kate heard Casey’s sharp intake of breath.

  “They also dug in the glove box and found the registration,” Skip said. The corners of his mouth pinched together. “It turns out that the car belongs to you, Miss Barnes.”

  He hefted the purse in his hand and looked at the motionless girl. “So does this handbag, which explains why you didn’t have any identification on you when you were found on the side of the road. Those bruises of yours came from a wreck and not from a beating, didn’t they?”

  Casey stared as though she couldn’t take her eyes off him. “No, I—”

  Skip held up his hand. “Save it. You didn’t get the bruises from anyone attacking you. And you didn’t jump out of any moving car, either.”

  Casey lifted her head and squared her shoulders, like someone about to face a firing squad. “You’re right. It’s my car.”

  Skip held the handbag out to her. Casey took it and cradled it against her chest.

  “And everything you told me about Dr. White?” Skip asked sternly.

  Casey bowed her head and stared down at the floor. “It was a lie. All of it.” She lifted her eyes and cast a plaintive look at Skip, then looked down again.

  Skip shook his head, and the muscles along his jaw tightened. “And yet you signed a sworn statement affirming it to be the truth. Do you realize I have every reason to arrest you for filing a false report?”

  Casey seemed to shrink inside herself. Kate was reminded of a turtle retreating into its shell, relying on the heavy armor to protect it from the dangers of the outside world.

  “What happens now?” the girl whispered.

  “I’m going to go talk to Dr. White and let him know that his name has been cleared, and he’s off the hook. Then I’ll talk to Sheriff Roberts and see what he wants to do about charging you with making a false statement. And there’s always the possibility Dr. White may want to press charges himself.”

  Casey pulled her feet up onto the seat of the chair, with her knees under her chin, looking far more like a little girl than a college-age woman. “I never thought it was going to be like this.”

  Kate reached out and
gently stroked her hair. “What did you think?”

  “It was only supposed to make him want to be with me. I didn’t think about...” Casey waved her hand in a wide arc.

  “About how many other people it would affect?” Kate shook her head. “Honey, everything we do is like dropping a pebble into the water. It creates a ripple that keeps on moving outward. Our actions and words have an effect on more people than we probably ever realize.”

  “But why would you do a thing like that to your professor in the first place?” Skip’s face was a study in confusion.

  Casey broke out into loud sobs. “I just wanted him to love me,” she wailed.

  A frown darkened Skip’s features. “You’ve sure got a funny way of going about it. Maybe you’d better try a different approach with your next boyfriend.” He nodded at Kate as he turned to make his way out. “Take care, Missus Hanlon.”

  After he left, Casey closed her eyes. Finally she asked, “Are you ready to hear the end of that story now?”

  “I’m listening,” Kate told her.

  “You were right,” Casey began. “About everything important, anyway. I really thought there was something special between Dr. White and me. When he told me I had to quit coming by his office, I thought he was kidding at first. Then when I finally realized that he didn’t want to have anything to do with me anymore, I got angry. And I figured out a way to get back at him.”

  Kate frowned. “Is that where I come into all this?”

  A tinge of pink colored Casey’s cheeks, and she gave a brief nod. “Like I said, Melanie talked about you a couple times. I started thinking that it might be really great if I could get you to solve a mystery for me.”

  Kate looked at her steadily but didn’t interrupt.

  Casey swallowed hard, then went on. “I started talking about somebody following me, not making any big deal about it at first, just enough to get Melanie and Martin and some of the others all concerned. After a while, I almost started believing it myself.”