“Oh, I’ll get out of bed,” she vowed.
He shook his head and kept his focus on traffic.
Daisy suspected Jazzi was surprised when Jonas got out of the SUV and went to the door. Daisy saw him motion to his SUV.
A minute later, he opened the door for Jazzi and she climbed in the back. Jazzi studied her, and Daisy knew she didn’t look normal.
“What happened, Mom? Is that a bump on your forehead?”
“I don’t want you to be frightened or get upset,” Daisy said.
“Then tell me what happened before I do,” Jazzi returned, like the assertive teenager she was.
Daisy explained what had happened in as little detail as possible.
Jazzi got the gist. “So some bad guy or gal is running around, probably the one who murdered Mr. Masemer, and whoever it is pushed you down the steps.”
“That about sums it up,” Jonas said, as he pulled off of the side street and onto the main road. He headed for Daisy’s house.
Daisy shot him a glare but she knew he couldn’t see it in the dark. “We don’t know who it was or what they wanted,” Daisy conceded. “But whoever it was had to want something in Tessa’s apartment. She just can’t figure out what.”
“Would this person have left a note or a message somehow?” Jazzi asked.
“I’m sure Tessa will be going through her place with a fine-tooth comb once she gets over the shock of what happened. I asked her if she had anything of Reese’s there, but she said all she had was one of his electronic cigarettes.”
“He smoked one of them?” Jazzi asked. “They’re bad for you. I read a whole article about them, how they hurt the lining of your nose, and they cause sinus problems.”
Daisy was glad her daughter kept up with the latest information, whatever it was. She just wondered what else she kept up with.
Less than ten minutes later, Jonas pulled up the driveway that led to the garage at Daisy’s house. “I’ll come in with you,” he said, driving practically up to the sidewalk.
“I have my key,” Jazzi said. “I’ll go open the door.”
“You two are treating me like an invalid,” Daisy grumbled.
“No, we’re not. If you were an invalid, I’d carry you to the house.”
He’d opened his door so she knew this time he’d caught her baleful glare under the dome light. She opened her door before he could come around and stepped out.
She wobbled a little on her feet, and if Jonas saw it, he didn’t comment. He did nevertheless take her by the elbow to walk her to the door.
Jazzi had opened the door and punched in the code to turn off the alarm system. At the door, Jonas stepped inside with her. “I want to talk to Jazzi,” he said.
Now what? Daisy wondered.
Jazzi had taken off her parka and dropped her backpack on the sofa. She’d also switched on a few lights. Jonas met her at the kitchen island as Daisy shrugged out of her jacket and took it to the closet under the stairs. She could feel his eyes on her. Making sure she didn’t lose her balance again?
He asked Jazzi, “You still have my cell number in your phone, right?”
“I do.”
“I want you to watch your mom carefully. I know it’s a lot to ask. But you really need to wake her every few hours and ask her questions.”
“I’ve seen this on TV,” Jazzi assured him. “You mean, like her address and her name, what year it is and who the president is.”
“Exactly. If her thinking isn’t clear, you call me. Any dizziness or nausea, you call me then, too.”
“Jonas, you’re worrying her unnecessarily,” Daisy protested. “I’m going to put ice on my sore shoulder, maybe on the knot on my head, and go to bed.”
“Mom, I’m going to sleep in your bed with you tonight,” Jazzi insisted. “It’s the best way. Don’t worry, Jonas, I’ll take care of her.”
Crossing to Daisy, he took her gently by the shoulders. “If you have a concussion, it’s nothing to mess around with.”
She could see the worry in his eyes and she knew he meant well. “I understand, really I do. The least little symptom, Jazzi will call you or I’ll call nine-one-one. I promise.”
He gave her another long look, then he leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. He glanced at Jazzi. “Don’t forget to turn the alarm on after I leave.”
She nodded.
When Jonas left her house and closed the door behind him, Daisy was almost relieved to see him go. On the other hand, she was disappointed he’d left. Absolutely crazy. Maybe that’s what a bump on the head could do.
* * *
On Monday morning, Daisy was trying to function normally as Jazzi climbed on the school bus and Jonas came down the lane and up the driveway. Although she’d rested yesterday as Jazzi had continued to watch over her and Jonas texted to check in on her, her headache was still throbbing. She supposed that was normal after a bump on the head. Jonas had insisted on picking her up this morning if she wanted to go to work.
She’d just climbed into his SUV and wished him good morning when her phone buzzed. “It’s Tessa,” she murmured to Jonas.
“It might be important.”
Tessa didn’t even give her a chance to say hello. “You’ve got to come over. You’ve got to come over now.”
Daisy tried to calm the pain in her temple so she could concentrate on Tessa’s voice. “What happened?”
“You won’t believe what I found in my apartment.”
“You found something that doesn’t belong there?”
“I’ll say it doesn’t belong here.” Tessa’s voice broke on the word and Daisy heard a small sob.
“What is it, Tessa? Something of Reese’s?”
“No. It was behind one of my paintings up in the attic.”
“What could be behind your paintings?”
“It’s a bronze and fairly heavy. I think it’s the murder weapon. It has blood on it. And I picked it up.”
Tessa’s voice was so loud that Daisy wondered if Jonas could hear it. At the look he gave her, she knew he could.
“Take it easy,” she said, trying to stay calm because Tessa wasn’t.
“You know what this means?” Tessa asked her. “My fingerprints are on it!”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes. We’re on our way.”
After Jonas took a look at Daisy, he decided, “You look pale. I’m not sure you should even go to the tea garden . . . let alone to Tessa’s.”
“Did you hear what Tessa said?” she asked as she brushed his concern away. “She found what she thinks is the murder weapon behind a painting, and it has blood on it. Now it has her fingerprints on it too.”
A grim expression stole over Jonas’s face as he stepped on the gas and sped to the tea garden. They were both silent until they arrived in the back parking lot.
After he pulled up to Tessa’s apartment entrance, Daisy opened her door.
“I’m going in with you,” he said.
This time she didn’t argue.
As Daisy ran up the steps, she felt a little lightheaded. She’d eaten a scone this morning before she’d left but she hadn’t had her usual cup of tea.
Tessa met them in the living room. “I wrapped it in a towel.”
“You have to call Rappaport,” Jonas insisted.
“I did,” she assured him.
At that moment, there was a knock on the door downstairs. Tessa called, “Come on up!”
Detective Rappaport took the steps at a fast clip. When he got to the living room, he saw the bundle in Tessa’s hands. “You didn’t rub anything off, did you?” he asked.
“No. As I told you, I found it behind one of my paintings in the attic. I picked it up the first time, then remembered I shouldn’t touch it. So I just gently wrapped it in the towel.” She held it out to him. “Here.”
He took it and then glared at her. “It’s awfully convenient that you found it. You used the whole intruder incident to find the murder weapon. It was probably i
n your car or somewhere else and you transferred it upstairs.”
Daisy stepped forward then and pointed her finger at his chest. “You’re crazy.”
The detective turned on her and said in a loud voice, “Maybe there wasn’t an intruder after all. Maybe you were covering for your friend, and you had it.”
As Rappaport took out his phone, Daisy’s head began to spin. Rappaport barked orders into the phone. Then he ended the call and said to Tessa, “You’re going to have to come down to the station for more questioning. By afternoon, I’ll have a search warrant to search this place and your car. This is just the excuse I was looking for.”
Now Daisy was seeing floating black spots in front of her eyes.
Rappaport was still talking. “A patrol car will be here in a couple of minutes with an officer to watch your place to make sure you don’t take anything in or out.”
The black spots in front of Daisy’s eyes became a gray veil spread out in front of her and seemed to fold her into its embrace. She felt herself falling and knew someone caught her. But that was her last conscious thought.
Chapter Ten
Four hours later, Daisy lay on the gurney in her cubicle in the ER while Jonas sat in a blue vinyl chair by her bed. He was studying something on his phone as they waited for the results of her tests. The CT scan in particular. Her head still throbbed. But if she closed her eyes, the pain wasn’t as bad. She wished she and Jonas could have a real conversation, but she knew he wouldn’t do that when she was in this condition.
When Daisy heard footsteps, she opened her eyes and caught a glimpse of a scrubs-clad doctor with an electronic tablet in his hands coming into her cubicle. She sat up a little too quickly and put her hand on the bar of the bed to steady herself.
Jonas noticed. “Dizzy?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she said, looking up at the doctor whose ID badge said DR. SUTTON. “Aren’t I fine, Doctor?” Her voice was almost daring him to tell her she wasn’t.
He gave her a small smile. “I’m glad to say your CT scan didn’t show anything troublesome. But you do have a concussion, and you need to keep that arm in a sling at least a few days. Ice your shoulder and give it time to heal. Your brain was bruised and it needs time to heal too. That’s why you’re having headaches and some dizziness. I can give you something for the headaches.”
She shook her head. “No, I’d rather not.”
“Daisy,” Jonas said with a bit of exasperation.
“I’d rather not,” she said again. “I won’t know how I really feel.”
“In the middle of the night when you have a raging headache,” the doctor advised, “you might want something. Let me write the prescription. You have it filled, and if you don’t use it, you don’t use it.”
“That sounds reasonable to me,” Jonas added, in a tone that said if she wasn’t reasonable, he might take measures to care for her himself.
No, that wouldn’t do.
“I can’t just stay home and rest. I own a tea garden. And then there’s Tessa . . .”
Jonas cut in. “I just received a text from Marshall. He got her out of the police station without being charged and Tessa’s back at work. She and Iris called in help to take over for you for a few days. Cora Sue is going to work extra hours and so is Karina. Foster will add more time if you need him to. They’re all pulling together for you.”
“I can’t stay away for three days,” she said, almost with a groan.
Apparently, Jonas believed in negotiation because he suggested, “Promise me you’ll give it today and tomorrow. Then you can assess how you’re feeling and decide if you want to go in.”
Daisy looked up at the doctor.
“You need time to heal,” he repeated. “I’ll write the prescription and it will be with your discharge papers.”
Suddenly Daisy heard a voice in the hall she didn’t want to hear.
“Daisy, I came as soon as Jonas called me. How much damage did that fall do?” her mother asked, rushing to Daisy’s side, concern lacing her voice.
Daisy’s first inclination was to be perturbed with Jonas for calling her mother. She took a quick glance at him and he just raised his brows, as if to say, I did it for your own good. Heaven spare her from a man who did things for her own good.
Her indignation faded away as her mother took her hand. He’d had her best interest at heart. But then she remembered he’d backed away from her for her own good too. Did he really know what her own good was?
The doctor left the cubicle, and as her mother clucked over her and studied her, Jonas rose from his chair to give it to her mom.
Rose said, “I’m going to take you home and you’re going to stay with me. Jazzi can come too. That’s what spare rooms are for. I’ll cook and you can eat and rest. Jazzi can do whatever she likes.”
Daisy was about to protest but she realized she’d better obey doctor’s orders. If she was at her mom’s, she would be resting. The time spent overnight there, Jazzi spending time with her grandparents, would be good for both of them. Her mom had become somewhat removed from Jazzi, not really understanding a teenager’s needs, wants, and pastimes. Maybe this would be a chance for them to catch up.
“All right,” Daisy agreed, giving in to both Jonas and her mom.
However, as always, her mother pushed her concern too far. She warned her again, “You need to stay away from Tessa until the situation is resolved.”
“No, I won’t stay away from Tessa. Don’t push it, Mom, or I’ll just go home.”
Her mother’s face flushed and she looked insulted. Daisy didn’t want to hurt her mom, but she had to defend her boundaries. Her mother couldn’t control her life, and now Daisy was more determined than ever to figure out who was trying to frame Tessa.
Maybe needing a minute to regroup, her mother said, “I’ll find out how long it’s going to take to spring you from here.”
After her mother left the cubicle, Jonas came over to Daisy’s bedside once more and took the chair. Then he reached for Daisy’s hand and held it. “I know you don’t especially want to go home with your mother, but it will be the best for you right now. I called her because I knew you wouldn’t rest on your own. Jazzi’s a great caretaker, but I don’t think she’ll tie you down. Your mother might.”
He was smiling and she couldn’t help but smile back. “Thank you,” she said.
“For what?”
“For coming with me and waiting with me, and I guess for calling my mother. She’s a force to be reckoned with, and I don’t have the energy to argue with her right now.”
“Except on Tessa’s account.”
“Yes. Jonas, I have to figure out what’s going on and who’s framing her.”
“That’s for the police to investigate,” Jonas reminded her.
“You heard Rappaport. He thinks I might have even had something to do with hiding the murder weapon.”
“No, I don’t think he really believes that. He was trying to goad you and Tessa into telling him something he didn’t already know. He went too far, and I think he knows it.”
“How did Tessa hold up with the questioning?”
“She’s okay. Marshall warned her before they went in to give the facts and only the facts. She did fine.” He squeezed her hand. “When you’re feeling better, you and I will have a talk.”
She nodded and wished she hadn’t. Nodding made the pounding in her head get worse.
Jonas must have figured that out. “I’m going to go. Call me if you need anything, but I don’t think you will with your mom taking care of you.” He leaned close to her, ran his thumb over her lips, and pushed her hair behind her ear. “You take care of yourself, Daisy Swanson. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
After a last touch across her brow, he rose to his feet, picked up his jacket from the back of the chair, and left her cubicle. It was odd, but she felt as if her support had just been kicked out from under her. That was impossible. Jonas didn’t want to be her support
.
She lay back against the pillow once more because all of it was just too confusing right now.
* * *
Resting made Daisy tired and frustrated. Her mother expected her to stay in bed in the spare room and do absolutely nothing. That wasn’t Daisy’s nature. At first, any activity did seem to make her headache worse—especially if she used her eyes. So she tried to stay off her phone, electronic tablet, and to keep from jotting notes on a legal pad. Her mother had fed her chicken and dumplings, as much tea as she wanted, and blueberry cobbler. Daisy wondered how much weight a person could gain in just one day. Jazzi was being extra solicitous too. Her dad had waited at Daisy’s house until Jazzi got home from school and then brought her over to her grandparents’ house.
Before bed, she came into Daisy’s room, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and actually had tears in her eyes when she said, “I don’t want anything to happen to you, Mom. I called Violet and she’s worried too.”
Daisy hugged her daughter. “I don’t want you to worry.” She leaned away from Jazzi. “I’m feeling better, really I am. Tomorrow I’ll get up for a bit and see how things go. I’ll call Violet right now, and assure her she has nothing to worry about.”
Jazzi looked reassured as she left Daisy’s room. Daisy vowed to herself she would be careful but she was also determined to find answers. She was just picking up her phone to call Violet when her phone buzzed.
A text had come in from Jonas. How are you doing?
She texted back. I’m tired of being pampered.
Another day, he texted back. Promise.
So she gave him a thumbs-up emoji and texted, I promise.
He texted back, Sleep well.
The warm feeling in her heart wouldn’t go away. She knew that was foolish.
Her call to Violet went in a similar fashion as her talk with Jazzi. When Violet asked if she should come home, Daisy answered, “Certainly not. Concentrate on your studies. I’ll give you an update tomorrow. I’m feeling better already.” She was.
In the morning Daisy insisted on going downstairs for breakfast. Both her father and mother looked her over carefully. “A little pale,” her dad said.
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