by Kay Hadashi
“Anything else you can tell me about him?”
“Keep one hand on your wallet the whole time you’re with him. Detective, I was wondering about something. Remember Ozzy Simpson?”
“Your lifelong nemesis. What about him?”
“Do you think he could be behind the meth that was stuffed in the teddy bear that was delivered to my office? That sure sounds like something he’d do, just to try and get me in trouble.”
“That was my first idea. But it would be a very expensive way. There was well over twenty thousand dollars worth of meth in that teddy bear, and I’ve always had the impression Ozzy wouldn’t be able to afford something like that. Reason number two is when we tried matching the partial prints from the plastic baggies of meth to his prints, they weren’t even close. In fact, the closest match we had was something of a surprise.”
“Don’t tell me. The dead couple?”
“No, not the Taylors or the Gubler-Steinhoeflers. There was enough of a match to cause reasonable suspicion to exactly one person on Maui,” he said.
“Detective, I have a busy schedule and I’m already a few minutes behind from talking with you. Please get to the point.”
“On two of the prints, there was a three-point match out of seven common points to your fingerprints. Most specifically, your right index finger and right thumb. You are right-handed, yes?”
Melanie felt the blood drain from her face. “Well, yes, but how in the world…Look, I had nothing to do with…”
He waved her to calm down. “You’re not a suspect, at least not yet. There are potentially thousands of people here on Maui that could have the same three points. We would need at least one full, clear print to get someone in an interrogation room.”
“But…”
“Just go about your day. I’ll give you a call if I learn anything new.”
Chapter Eight
By the time Melanie was done with work that evening, she was exhausted, more from thinking about potentially being implicated in the deaths of two con artists than from her work. She had visited Dottie twice during the day and saw improvement in her thinking and her color, but not enough for her to go home yet. Just as she was leaving the clinic, her phone rang with a call from Josh.
“Can you come to Dottie’s room?” he asked.
“I’ve been to see her twice today already. I used my lunch break to visit her, so I’m a little hungry.”
“Her social worker wants to have a family meeting. She wants to discuss her discharge care.”
“Which social worker is it?”
“Samantha Graves.”
“Oh, I know her. Some of the nurses have a nickname for her.”
“Do you know everybody at the hospital?” he asked.
“Pretty much. But you’re taking me out to dinner after. And not to the Island Breeze.”
***
“What’s best for patients like Dottie is that she gets back to her usual routine and the surroundings she likes and is most comfortable in,” Samantha said during the family meeting. It was held in Dottie’s room, with Pop, Josh, and Melanie there, along with one of Dottie’s nurses.
“Well, she’ll no longer have to worry about being our nanny, nor does Pop,” Melanie said. “She can have whatever schedule she wants, and they can use the nanny’s car whenever our new nanny doesn’t need it.”
“Surroundings such as her own home in Wyoming.”
“Oh, I see.” In a way, Melanie would be glad to get Dottie out of the house. But she also felt sad that it had come to a near health disaster to do it. In fact, she had lost count of all the times she’d offered to take her in-laws to the airport.
“According to her doctor, she shouldn’t travel right away,” the nurse said.
“We were thinking in June, once Josh’s academic school year is done so he could accompany them home,” the social worker said.
“I think that’s a great idea,” Melanie said. “Knowing about it now, I can schedule in a few days to go with them.”
While Dottie and Pop looked away, and Josh looked constipated, the social worker answered. “They’re thinking just the three of them would go.”
Melanie felt her face flash red. The meeting was less about Dottie than it was about dealing with her. “Yes, I suppose that would be best. Josh could get a vacation from the college and a break from me for a week or two. By then, Dottie will be settled into her home life again.”
“I’d probably be there for a while, Melanie,” Josh said.
“Oh? How long?”
“The summer, maybe longer. It depends on how quickly I can find a teaching job there.”
“A job? In Wyoming?”
“I might be there for a while.”
Melanie was able to clamp her teeth to keep from speaking but there was nothing she could do to keep her eyes dry. She didn’t bother to look away when a tear ran down her cheek. “Is there anything else to discuss?”
Dottie, Pop, and now Josh continued to look away, while the social worker and the nurse looked in pain. “No, I think that should be enough for this evening.”
Melanie bolted for the door, Josh following along after her all the way to her pickup in the parking lot.
“Josh, just leave me alone.”
“Melanie…”
“You had your chance to say whatever you wanted when there was a referee, but you didn’t. That means you have to leave me alone.” She got in her pickup and slammed the door.
“Are you coming home for dinner?”
“I’m going home to eat dinner with my children and their nanny. Whatever you do with your mommy and daddy is just fine with me.”
Georgie already had dinner started when Melanie got home. The four of them ate together at the kitchen table, and Melanie was glad for the quiet.
“Is Daddy and Grandpop coming home pretty soon?” Thérèse finally asked.
“They’re visiting your grandmother, Sweetie.”
“Be home pretty soon?”
“I don’t know. Eat your peas.” Still having a hard time keeping the tears back, Melanie focused more on feeding the baby than on her meal or what Thérèse and Georgie were talking about.
After half an hour of dead silence, Thérèse began to squirm. “Momma…”
“Time for your bath, isn’t it?”
“It’s not Wensday.”
“Maybe take one anyway.”
“Momma…”
“Thérèse!”
Georgie got up from the table. “I’ll help her get started with a bath.”
Once she was alone, Melanie took Chance from his highchair and held him close. She listened to the activity in Thérèse’s bathroom, of twenty questions why she had to take a bath if it wasn’t Wednesday, and where was her daddy. The bath ended, and the girl was shooed into bed and told a bedtime story. While the baby dozed against her chest, Melanie’s tears finally flowed.
“She sure is a cutie,” Georgie said, coming back to the table.
Melanie wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. “Stubborn, too. Just wait till you have to deal with that.”
“Should I keep this food warm for them?”
“I don’t care.”
“Everything okay?”
“As good as can be expected.”
“Pardon me for saying so, and I’m only seventeen, but when a crying woman says everything is fine, I know it’s not. Do you want to talk about it?”
Melanie heard a car door slam and waited. When no one came into the kitchen, she knew Trinh had just got home.
“No offense meant, but not with you, not this time.” She stood from the table, keeping Chance in her arms. “Just leave this stuff on the table for Josh and Pop. If they don’t eat it tonight, they can have it in the morning for breakfast.”
Melanie went over to Trinh’s side of the house, knocked once, and went in. “Worked some overtime?”
“Busy day in the gynecology room. What’s up? You look like a wreck.”
“A wreck is better than how I feel.”
Trinh brought iced teas for both of them. “What’s going on?”
“Josh is leaving me…us.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I guess I should’ve seen it coming. He’s been bored out of his mind living here. The charm of Maui has worn off with his parents. And I get the idea the only reason any of them want to take care of the kids is to do me some big favor.”
“Seen it coming? I thought you guys were happy?” Trinh asked.
“We are. Or were. Then that canker sore of a mother-in-law showed up and everything changed. She treats Josh like he’s still a kid at home and the kids are toys to her. It took her nearly having a stroke for anyone to realize how ill she’s become. Or just plain weird. ”
“She’s not weird. You know that. When I went to visit her this afternoon, she seemed quite well.”
“Did she know it was you and not me? Because at their family meeting entrapment a couple hours ago, she called me Trinh and asked why I was there. At this point in time, with the state of her mind and the level of her pathology, she might not know who her son is married to, or even that she’s a grandmother.”
“She didn’t actually say. She just seemed happy to have a visitor.”
“She’s covering, and has been for quite a while. But the big problem is that Josh and Pop are covering for her also. There’s more going on with her than meets the eye and they’re unwilling to admit it. They even have her doctor and that social worker convinced she’s well enough to come home.”
“All she had was a basic X-ray and a CT scan, right?” asked Trinh. “Maybe they need to do an MRI with contrast and fine cuts? Wouldn’t that show more?”
“That’s what I said, but who wants to listen to a thoracic surgeon?”
“Forget all that. Did Josh actually say he was leaving you?”
Melanie started to cry again. “He said…no, the social worker said that at the end of the academic school year, Josh would take his parents home. Then he said he would stay for the summer, maybe longer if he could find a job there in Wyoming.”
“Did he invite you to join him?”
“He said nothing about me or the kids going along. In fact, the social worker said it would be best for Dottie if I didn’t join them.”
Trinh sat next to Melanie now and put her arm around her. “That’s pretty harsh. Who put her in charge of your guys’ stuff?”
“Not me.”
“When was the last time you guys, you know?”
“Since before the baby was born.”
“That’s too long, Mel.”
“I know.” Melanie heard a car park next to the house and two car doors slam. “That must be them.”
“Going to go talk it out with Josh?”
“Going to go give both of them a piece of my mind.”
“Maybe just talk it out this time and save the aggressive stuff for when you’re not holding the baby, Mel. What’re you going to say?”
Melanie stood. “I’ll figure that out when the time comes.”
Georgie was watching TV in the living room while Josh washed dishes in the kitchen. Thérèse was singing quietly in her bedroom. Melanie kept the baby and went to Pop’s closed bedroom door.
“Pop, can you come out for a few minutes? Time for a real family conference.”
Pop followed Melanie into the living room.
“Georgie, the three of us need to talk. You mind letting us have the living room for a few minutes?”
“It’ll take longer than five minutes to resolve things, Melanie,” Josh said.
“No, it won’t.”
The nanny turned off the TV and hurried away.
Melanie tried smiling at her father-in-law but it didn’t work. “Pop, I like having you and Dottie here, honestly I do. But enough is enough. When Josh is done with his school year and classes are out, he’ll take the two of you home.”
“Melanie…” Josh started.
“Quiet. You had your chance to talk this afternoon when you guys sprung some sort of intervention on me by calling it a family conference. Now it’s my turn.” She looked at Pop again. “Josh grew up in your house and your family and that’s fine. But his family now is me and his two children. This is his home. He lives here with us now, not in Wyoming. You and Dottie and the rest of Wyoming will just have to deal with that. Now, if you and she want to stay on the island after her recovery, fine. I’ll get you a good realtor so you can find a condo to live in, but it won’t be here with us.” She looked back and forth between her husband and her father-in-law. “If either of you can’t deal with those conditions, you can clear out right now. There’s a hotel right across the road.”
“What about Dottie?” Pop asked. “You want me to take her home when she gets out of the hospital?”
“That’s your decision to make, not mine. But I have to tell you, she would not survive that flight to Wyoming if she were to go home too early.”
Pop muttered something that Melanie couldn’t hear on his way back to his bedroom.
“What about me?” Josh asked.
“Are you staying or leaving? Because I need a husband, the kids need a father, and the house needs a man in it.”
“Maybe you can hire one the same way you hired a stand-in mother for the kids.”
Melanie decided it was safest if she slept on the couch that night.
***
In the morning, everybody pretended things were back to normal, eating breakfast together cheerfully, even if it was forced. Maybe things really were on their way back to normal, when Melanie drew Trinh to be her nurse in the OR that day. At least that much was going to go well.
Until Detective Nakatani showed up wanting to talk with Melanie between cases.
“It can’t wait? I need to be back in the OR in just a few minutes for my next surgery.”
“If you can give me an assurance you had nothing to do with the bags in the teddy bear.”
Melanie took him out to the hallway to talk privately. “Back to that thing again? What’s this about, Detective?”
“Along with the two partial prints from the outside of one baggie, we’ve found at least one full print that is a perfect match for your right index finger on the inside of one sandwich bag. Do you have any way of explaining that?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. How the heck could my fingerprint get on the inside of a bag of drugs?”
Trinh came out right then. “Mel, we’re ready for you in the OR.”
Nakatani had kept his eyes on Melanie the whole time. “That’s what we want to know, of how your print got inside that baggie. Believe me when I say we’re checking all the rest of those one hundred packets, and the other sandwich bags. But before you go, do you have an alibi for where you were last Saturday night, from late evening until Sunday morning?”
“You mean where was I when the Taylors died? At home, mostly in bed, pretending I was sleeping.”
“Josh could confirm that?”
“Yes.”
Trinh came out again. “Mel, we’re waiting.”
“I’ll let you go, but we’re talking later,” Nakatani told her.
“I’ll give you a call when I get home from work this evening.”
“No, I’ll drop by so we can talk in person. You won’t mind, will you?”
“Not at all. I’ve got nothing to hide.”
“Maybe by then we’ll have pulled a few more useful prints off those sandwich bags,” he said.
“Even if you haven’t, maybe you’ll have pulled your head…”
“Mel!” Trinh said, interrupting. “Time for work.”
By the time Melanie got home from work, dinner was done and all that was left were scrapings from the bottoms of the pans and cold rice. Putting all the pans in the kitchen sink and running water over them, she filled a large bowl with rice and tossed it in the microwave. While that worked, she followed the sound of innocent singing to Thérèse’s room
where she and Georgie were playing a game. Her next stop was in the living room, where she found Josh and Detective Nakatani, sipping from cans of beer. The baby was in a playpen in the middle of the living room floor, scooting around on his elbows and knees. She picked him up and gave him a half-hearted tickle.
“Did your mother get home okay?” she asked Josh.
“She’s still there. Pop talked to her doctor about doing more tests like you said. He scheduled her for some fancy MRI tomorrow. More like they found out our medical insurance would pay for it.”
“Pardon me?”
“Pop said that’s how hospitals make a profit, to dream up tests for diseases that don’t exist, and then over-bill for them.”
“Josh, you and your father can take your foolish ideas and…”
“What exactly is wrong with your mother, Josh?” Nakatani asked, interrupting.
Josh gave the short version of his mother’s illness. “But she isn’t getting any better with the aspirin or oxygen. I guess that’s why Hennessey wants to do more tests.”
Melanie decided to take the high road and not be sarcastic by saying, ‘I told you so.’
Instead, she muscled out a smile. “Good. I’m glad she’s having it done. We’ll all have a much better idea of how to proceed going forward. And for the record, I hope it’s nothing at all and she’s discharged very soon.” She turned her attention on Nakatani, who was pretending to be watching a basketball game on the TV. “No avoiding you, is there?”
“Not really. I got a chance to talk with Josh for a few minutes while waiting for you to come home. You usually work this late?”
“Wednesdays are my longest days, typically. Mind if I go change my clothes or do you want to beat a confession out of me while I’m wearing a skirt and blouse?”
“I can wait.”
Ten minutes later, Melanie came back wearing an old Air Force Search and Rescue T-shirt and shorts, something that hadn’t fit in several years but did again after all the swimming she’d been doing since Chance’s birth. Since the weather was calm and the evening balmy, she invited him to sit outside.
“Since you’re drinking beer, does that mean you’re off duty?”