Nervous butterflies gathered in Shirley’s stomach as they walked down the dark, low-ceilinged basement hallway. She never imagined that less than two weeks after moving to Raleigh she’d be embroiled in such a wild adventure. But here she was, about to help expose a murder in a big-city research hospital. And her plan to do it might not be sophisticated, or even foolproof—but it was her chance to atone for a major wrong she’d done. Only now was she truly making a clean break from her small-town life back in Statesville.
The only question was, what would happen if her plan failed?
She didn’t want to think about that.
The hall dead-ended into another, wider one. The steel freight elevator loomed before them. “Well, this is where we part ways,” Randall said. “Take the elevator to the third floor. It’ll drop you off about twenty yards from The Dragon Lady’s office. I don’t know if she’s back in today, but if she is, snoop around and see what you can find out. I’ll head to President Chalmers’ office and see if I can scope out when Bob arrives.” He pulled a small black plastic device out of his pocket. “I’ll try to plant my voice-activated digital recorder somewhere near Chalmers’ office if I can. Maybe now it’ll be good for something other than making grocery lists.”
“How will you manage that without being seen?”
He squeezed her hand. “Oh, I have my ways. It also helps that Chalmers’ secretary has a crush on me.”
“Everybody has a crush on you,” Shirley said. The elevator arrived, and she stepped onto it. “Well, I guess this is goodbye, then.”
He nodded. “Goodbye, Shirley.”
As the doors slid closed, Shirley said a silent prayer. With any luck, she wouldn’t be saying goodbye to Dr. Randall Hamm for long.
****
Shirley walked the halls surrounding of the Nurse-Anesthetists’ department, and found it almost entirely deserted. The state’s shutdown on all surgeries at the hospital was still very much in force. The duty board said that the only nurse-anesthetist currently on duty was assigned to Labor & Delivery.
She peeked around the corner and was surprised to see the light on in The Dragon Lady’s office. She must be back from suspension, Shirley thought. She made a beeline for Beth Peking’s open door.
When she made it to the threshold, Shirley had to stifle a laugh. The Dragon Lady was there, all right. But she did not look happy. More like miserable. Beth Peking stood perched on her trademark spike heels, wearing yet another one of her red silk Mandarin-collar pantsuits as she packed a banker’s box full of her belongings.
She looked up when she heard Shirley approach. “Well, today your lucky day, Shirley Daniels,” the tiny woman chirped in her thick accent. “I got fired.”
Shirley cleared her throat and tried to feign sympathy. “I’m sorry to hear that, Dra—Ms. Peking. But I promise you, I didn’t have anything to do with it.” At least not directly. But Shirley knew better than to elaborate.
“Oh, don’t you give me that,” The Dragon Lady hissed, wagging her scarlet-lacquered finger at her. “When you show up, all kind of problems start to happen. You bad luck! Stupid country girl, up to no good.”
“But—“
The Dragon Lady set down her now-overloaded bankers’ box on the empty desk. “I do research on you, Shirley Daniels. I Google you. You know what I find out? You are criminal. You are bad woman. This hospital never should have hire you. And then they fire me instead! Make no sense.”
Shirley’s mouth went cotton-dry. “I’m sorry,” was all she could think to say.
Beth Peking started packing another box. “You know there a lot of cops here today? A cop just came by this morning, asking all kind of questions. I don’t know what he talking about. Probably they looking for you, since you are criminal.” The tiny woman picked up her boxes, carried them out in front of her in a stack that was almost as tall as she was. “This place going to hell in handbasket,” she sneered. Then she disappeared down the hall.
Well, so much for that, Shirley thought. The Dragon Lady obviously wasn’t going to be much help. And being the new girl in town, she didn’t exactly know many other people around the hospital. With Beth Peking gone, that left only two other possible sources of inside information—Dr. Joseph Chalmers, who was out of the question, of course. And Marla Crabtree.
Marla Crabtree. The crotchety old nurse who had ratted her out to the cops.
Shirley wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Sure, Marla Crabtree knew everything there was to know about everybody at the hospital. But Marla had already betrayed her once. She could hardly be counted on to keep her mouth shut about something as important as exposing a murder, let alone a murder orchestrated by the most powerful man at the hospital.
Then again, Shirley supposed the older woman’s busybody personality could be an asset. Maybe she could use Marla to create some kind of distraction while she helped Randall get the evidence they needed.
As if on cue, Marla appeared out of nowhere. She seemed so adept at knowing the exact moment to show up, Shirley wondered if the woman had ESP.
“Hi hon,” Marla said in her trademark gravelly drawl. “Whatcha been up to the past couple days? Ain’t seen ya around. Then again, ain’t seen hardly anybody around these parts.”
“Talking to the police, mostly,” Shirley seethed. “So have you, apparently.”
Marla’s wrinkly, blue-veined face blanched. “Guilty as charged, hon. I suppose that means ya know I talked to the cops ‘bout ya.”
Shirley folded her arms across her chest and frowned. “Yeah, I sort of figured that out.”
Marla held up her hands in defeat. “Before ya get too mad, hon, let me explain. I only did what I did to help ya out.”
Shirley scoffed. “Yeah, likely story.” She didn’t want to believe a word Marla said, but something in the old woman’s pale gray eyes told her that she should.
“Hon, the only reason I went to the cops was ‘cause I heard through the grapevine that Prez Chalmers was gonna try to pin the whole Enola Higginbottom thing on you.”
Shirley felt the bottom fall out of her stomach. “What? How?”
“I dunno all the details, hon. But you gotta figure, it prob’ly makes a lot of sense from Prez Chalmers’ side. I mean, you’re the fresh-faced girl from outa town, you don’t know nobody, an’ you’ve got that, well, checkered past o’ yours. That’s right, I know all about what happened back in Statesville. Chalmers prob’ly figured it’d be easy fer him to pin the whole insurance scam on you, since ya had a past history o’ gettin’ in on that sorta thing. Not murder, o’ course, but the scam side o’ things, ya know. Once I got wind o’ that, I went to the cops an’ told them what I knew. I knew fer a fact that ya didn’t have nuthin’ to do with it, an’ I wanted to take the heat off ya. That’s all.”
Shirley sighed and stared at the floor. Was there no escaping her past? Even now as she tried to atone for her past crimes, they kept getting her into trouble.
Marla put a gnarled hand on her shoulder. “Don’t be embarrassed, hon. We all make mistakes. Even me. Ya know, I never did tell ya the reason I joined the Army way back when.”
“Why did you?”
Marla closed her eyes and fiddled with her hands, remembering. “This was back in, oh let’s see, sixty-four or sixty-five. I was fresh outa high school, workin’ days at the phone company an’ goin’ to nursing school nights. Money was real tight, an’ my good-fer-nuthin’ husband had just run out on me. We was only married a coupla months before he ran off, dontchya know. Anyhow, one thing led to another, an’ I sorta got into some trouble passin’ bad checks. Got arrested, got dragged before the judge. The judge thought he’d get creative an’ offer me a sentence he usually only gave to the wayward young men back in them days. Jail, or the Army. I chose the Army. Uncle Sam helped me learn right from wrong, picked up the tab on the rest of my nursin’ school bill, an’ the rest is history.”
Shirley couldn’t help but smile. It seemed that she and Marla weren’t al
l that different. She began to understand the older woman’s motherly attitude towards her for the first time. “That’s a wonderful story, Marla,” she said. “It gives me hope. I’ve been wanting to turn my life around here in Raleigh, but something tells me I won’t be able to do that completely until I right some past wrongs of my own. And I was hoping that maybe you could help me.”
Marla took Shirley’s hand and squeezed it. “Be happy to, hon. What can I do?”
Shirley squeezed back. “What you’re best at doing. Come on.”
Twenty-Two
Marla led Shirley down a series of damp, dusty passages. A small flashlight Marla had produced from her scrubs pocket provided the only light. “I’m prob’ly the only person left alive who knows ‘bout these old supply transport halls,” she said. “Time was, we used to send our soiled instruments up an’ down these little halls in little carts that ran on pneumatic pressure. We used to have to steam-sterilize all our equipment in the main hospital autoclave way back, years ago. When they went to almost all disposable stuff an’ packaged sterile instruments, they didn’t need to autoclave nuthin’ no more, so they stopped runnin’ the carts. But they never did shut up the passageways.”
“Is this how you stay on top of all your gossip, then?” Shirley asked, turning sideways to fit through a very narrow section of passage, which by now was more like an oversized heating duct than an actual hallway.
“It’s one way, hon. Though I don’t come through here unless there ain’t no other way around it.”
“Well, today is probably one of those times,” Shirley said. “Where does this tunnel end?”
“Oh, they go all over,” Marla replied. “Every department in the older part of the hospital has an outlet for these tunnels, though most of ‘em got sealed over years ago. But it just so happens that one o’ the last remaining exits leads right into the hospital executive offices. Might surprise ya to know this, hon, but before they did the big remodel back in eighty-six, the President’s office was the hospital laundry. Dr. Chalmers don’t know it, but he sits right in the same spot where we used to drop off the soiled sheets an’ diapers.”
Shirley giggled. “That seems appropriate.”
“Well, he’ll be knee-deep in shit for real when we’re done with him,” Marla cackled. They came to a fork in the passage. Marla shined her light down both. “If I remember right, the left one’ll take us right into the back of Chalmers’ office. We can listen in on whatever’s goin’ on there through the air vent. An’ if by chance things don’t go the way you an’ Randall planned ‘em, I can mosey right into Chalmers’ office myself an’ get him talkin’ up a storm. Gimme five minutes, I’ll have a full-blown confession outa him before he even knows what hit him. An’ you’ll be my witness.”
“How on earth will you manage that?”
Marla turned to her and grinned. “Oh, I got the gift o’ gab, hon.”
Shirley just shrugged. It was probably better just to stand back and let Marla do what she did best.
They came to the end of the narrow passageway. A large air-conditioning vent filled part of one wall. “Peep right through them cracks there,” Marla instructed her. “Tell me what ya see.”
Shirley obeyed. She pressed her eyes up against one of the tiny metal slits in the grating and peered through. She could see Dr. Chalmers sitting behind his huge desk, but not much else. He appeared to be talking to someone, but she couldn’t tell who. “I can’t see much of anything,” she said.
“Ya gotta angle yer head more, hon. Look under the slits, not through ‘em.” Marla spoke as if she’d done that very thing many times.
Shirley did as she was told, and the view improved instantly. Now she had a full view of the room, and she could even hear what was going on a lot better. Dr. Chalmers was talking to someone—and that someone was Bob Watson.
So far, so good.
Shirley strained to hear what they were saying. She couldn’t make out much of what Dr. Chalmers said, but Bob’s voice came through loud and clear. “Wellsir, I’ve seen a lotta insurance deals in my time, but this one takes the cake,” he said in his deep, thick Carolina twang, unmistakable anywhere. Good, Shirley thought. He’s taking the bait. Now all he had to do was to get Dr. Chalmers to say the right thing at the right time, and hopefully somehow either get it on tape or get at least three eyewitnesses to overhear it—not including Bob, who couldn’t exactly be trusted. Shirley prayed that Randall had managed to drop that digital recorder somewhere nearby.
Bob leaned into Dr. Chalmers’ richly paneled desk, ran his fingers back and forth over its surface, admiring the grain and finish of the expensive wood. “I’d sure like to get in on the ground floor with you on your next deal if I can. And I know the perfect target. The hospital insures its employees, right?”
Dr. Chalmers nodded and muttered something unintelligible.
“Good,” Bob said, his voice growing ever louder and bolder along with his bravado. “’Cause I’ll let ya in on a little secret. My ex-girlfriend works here at your hospital, and it just so happens I’ve just bought a nice little life insurance policy on her. Five hundred grand. Nobody knows ‘bout it but you an’ me. If ya can manage to get her bumped off while she’s here at work, how ‘bout you an’ me split the difference?”
Shirley yelped.
He was going to have her killed. Bob wanted her dead.
And probably not for the money, either. Shirley didn’t believe Bob’s life insurance story for a minute. Bob just wanted her dead.
But why?
Ha. What a question. She could think of at least a dozen reasons why.
Marla tapped her on the shoulder. “You all right, hon? Yer awful pale all of a sudden.”
Shirley suddenly felt very cold. She wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered. “I can’t do this anymore,” she whispered. “I’m done playing games. We need to get the cops over here. Now.”
“But I thought the cops wanted y’all to get them the proof they needed.”
Shirley scoffed. “That was before I knew I was about to become a murder victim myself.”
Marla’s eyes flew wide. “Good gracious, hon. You sure?”
“I know what I heard,” she seethed. “Only question is, will Chalmers go for it?”
“We prob’ly don’t wanna wait around to find out, hon. Let’s get ya outa here.”
“Just me? What about you?”
Marla patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry ‘bout me, hon. I’ll just keep everybody busy ‘til the cops get here.”
Marla shooed her down the tiny hallway and opened a small metal door that led into an empty broom closet. “This’ll let ya out right by the main elevator. Get the cops, bring ‘em right into Chalmers’ office. I’ll use my gift o’ gab to make sure he an’ your little friend Bob don’t go nowhere.”
Marla disappeared back towards Chalmers’ office, and Shirley headed back out into the main hospital with a purpose.
****
Shirley dashed into a secluded part of the hospital garage, hoping her cell phone would be able to pick up a signal. She pulled Officer Reynolds’ business card from her purse and dialed her number.
“Hello, Officer Reynolds? I think I have all the proof you need now. Get the hell over here before I end up dead, too.”
It took a little convincing, but Officers Reynolds and Doyle finally agreed to send a team out to the hospital. Shirley promised to meet them in the hospital lobby, along with Randall.
Now she just had to find Randall.
Shirley was about to head back into the hospital building when she ran into him. Literally. She would have toppled flat onto her back if he hadn’t caught her just in time. The feel of his hands on her body was pure electricity, white-hot heat that warmed her belly and melted her crotch.
Damn it, there was just no escaping this man.
“You always seem to know exactly where to find me,” she remarked. “How is that?”
“I make it my business to kn
ow where you are at all times,” he said, pulling her close. “Especially now that there seems to be a pretty hefty price on your head.”
“So you heard. What are we going to do? I can’t stay here anymore.”
He planted a kiss on her forehead. “You can and you will. The cops are on their way, and I’ll make sure they protect you. Hell, I’ll protect you. I’ll even get my twelve-gauge rifle out of the trunk of my Lexus if need be.”
She chuckled. “So I guess that’s what you meant last night when you said you were packing heat.”
“As the Boy Scouts say, be prepared,” he said.
“But what about the cops? Do we have enough proof to get them off our backs?”
“Yep. I got the whole conversation on tape. Planted my digital recorder in one of Chalmers’ potted ferns while Chalmers was in the bathroom. I told his secretary I left something in his office, she let me right in. Gullible woman.”
“It’s easy to be gullible around you. You do have quite an effect on people.”
“So I’m told. Well, we better get to the lobby before all hell breaks loose.”
They sped off to the hospital lobby, arriving just as the police did. Randall led most of them off to Chalmers’ office, while a smaller detail stood by as a precaution to protect Shirley. Even if it was unlikely anything would happen to her in a busy hospital lobby in front of dozens of bewildered, staring witnesses, they were taking no chances.
Officers Reynolds and Doyle, who’d switched from their usual plainclothes attire to dress blues, both shook her hand. “Looks like you did some nice police work for us, Shirley,” Reynolds said with a wry grin. “Thanks. I hope what you’ve gone through here these past few days doesn’t put you off living in Raleigh, though. Things aren’t usually this exciting around here.”
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