by R E Gauthier
Chapter Twenty-One
Monday September 5, 2011
“When you carry anger in your heart, you’ll have little room for love.”
Miranda hadn’t slept very well because she kept thinking that Agent MacGregor would come and talk to her last night. Waking up at dawn in a strange hotel room, alone only made her feel more miserable. Self-pity was one of her worst traits and she berated herself for not going to thank the agent after finding the flowers, bath salts and a snack platter in her room. Overhearing the agent tell someone on the phone that she wasn’t her friend or anyone who mattered made her feel sorry for herself. She stayed in her room, ordered soup to go with the crackers and cheese and had a long soak in the tub with the bath salts.
Her mood had only brightened slightly after her daily routine of hot lemon drink and yoga practice. She took another long soak in the tub with the bath salts and listened to her soothing music on her iPod anything to calm her mind. She wasn’t looking forward to the FBI questioning with Agent MacGregor but at least after it was over with she could leave this hotel and all this unpleasantness and get on with her life. She had texted Jess to tell her that she would call her once she finished answering the agents’ questions.
Dressing to go, downstairs for breakfast, she ignored her phone ringing once again. I don’t want to talk with anyone right now. The phone chirped and they were ignored as well. The agent had requested she stay in her room until after they had questioned her but she chose to ignore that as well. That’s just how she felt this morning: disagreeable and antisocial. I don’t want to be here and I’ll be happy when I can leave this all behind me
Once she had dressed she grabbed her key card and left her room, leaving the chirping phone on the bed.
***
Kelsey swore once more when her phone call wasn’t answered yet again, she had already left four messages and she wasn’t about to leave another. Where are you Miranda?
Kelsey had texted the author a few more times over the next hour or so as she walked back from her Tai Chi practice on the waterfront. All of her texts went unanswered. She took a quick shower and got dressed and decided she’d knock on the door, when she still didn’t get a response she called the phone and distinctly heard it ring from inside the room.
“Pick up your phone Miranda.” She said out loud. Then her phone indicated that she was getting another call. She clicked the end call and went to the new one coming in. “Hello,” she barely got out before a loud voice caused her to pull her phone away from her ear.
“She hasn’t answered her phone all morning, where the hell is she?” An irate Jess Harrington yelled in her ear.
Kelsey found it funny that she hadn’t even met the woman but she knew her voice immediately. She was about to reply when the tirade continued.
“Agent MacGregor, I believe you owe me some explanation for making my friend go to Baltimore, to a place she said she would never return to and now she’s there and not answering her phone. She only doesn’t answer her phone when she is VERY upset so what has made her upset?”
“Please Miss Harrington; I can assure you I have done...well I haven’t...oh Christ.” Kelsey hated being yelled at especially when she knew that she had indeed done something to make the author upset. But didn’t understand why Miranda would be so upset when she obviously didn’t care much about her.
“Agent MacGregor, I don’t feel very confident about your response. Do you know where Miranda is right now? Is she okay?”
“I am outside her hotel room, I have called her four times this morning, and texted her five times, to no avail, she hasn’t responded once.”
“Wow, I only called twice. She texted me and when I texted her back she didn’t reply, so I called her. She may have left her phone off or she doesn’t have it with her. She doesn’t like taking it with her on walks or in the shower.”
“Her phone is not off, I heard it ringing in her room and she isn’t responding to my knocking on the door, I can’t hear a shower on. I’ll head down to the restaurant to see if she is there having breakfast.” I told her to stay in her room.
“Do that and then call me back to let me know if you have found her,” Jess Harrington said.
Kelsey frowned and made her way to the restaurant to find the missing author. As soon as she walked in she saw her immediately, talking to an older woman who sat at the same table. She took a few moments to surreptitiously watch the author as she spoke and saw that the smile or her face wasn’t reaching her eyes and that she took deep breaths like someone who as trying to calm her nerves or keep from getting upset. At least she was okay and not in harm’s way. Still she was supposed to stay in her room. Angry that the author had clearly ignored her request she tried to calm her nerves.
She was about to go to the table when she saw the look in the author’s eyes it was not welcoming, so she turned away and found a seat at the bar. She felt a hand on her shoulder from behind that startled her.
“Sorry to spook you Mack you looked like you were in deep thought or boring a hold in that woman’s back. You don’t look like you’re in a better mood this morning.”
Kelsey turned around and smiled stiffly in Nikki’s direction never really meeting her friend’s eyes.
“I am sorry about last night Nikki, I was just having a bad day and I didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Well it doesn’t look like you want to talk about it now either, what is going on?”
The hostess came and asked if they wanted to be seated and Nikki looked over at her.
“Yes a table for two, over by the window would be nice,” she said despondently.
As they passed the table where Miranda was seated, Kelsey clearly heard a harsh intake of breath from the author. Keeping her eyes forward and well above her head she didn’t make eye contact.
Sitting several tables over, she sat and stared at the rigid back. Anger rising unbidden from her depths, why am I so angry with her? You’re angry because she didn’t listen to you, because she didn’t say goodbye, and because she doesn’t care.
“Is that Miranda Gauthier at that table?” Nikki asked. “You have been staring a hole into the back of her head since I arrived.”
“Yes it is.” Kelsey said in a clipped tone. Annoyed that the author had just chose to ignore her request to stay in her room, she didn’t want to invite a conversation about her. Not wanting to make a scene here, she made a mental note to make it imperative that the author stay away from anyone who may know her especially the rest of the taskforce.
“We should go over there and...”Nikki started to say.
Kelsey stopped her friend immediately.
“No we should have breakfast and then go upstairs to prepare for questioning a potential witness.” Hoping her tone left Nikki knowing that anymore talk about speaking to the author unofficially would fall on deaf ears.
Miranda sat at the table knowing she should have stayed in her room and ordered room service as the agent had asked she do, but she still felt hurt by overhearing once again she was only here because of the case. Agent MacGregor had entered the restaurant and ignored her and then walked past with a petite red-headed woman moments later. The agent’s mixed signals confused her; she did one thing and said another. Maybe she sends all of the FBI witnesses welcome gifts. Besides you wanted to put her off, it would seem as though you have done an excellent job doing so.
Her head pounded relentlessly, the headache that had haunted her for almost the last six weeks was back with a vengeance. Only the day she met the agent at the airport and the night she spent at Nanna’s had been pain free. Now that pain and the knowledge Agent MacGregor sat only a few feet away annoyed with her put her on edge. She tried to smile as best as she could as the mother of a friend from New Jersey continued her story about her trip in Rio. She had only wanted to sit unnoticed; eat breakfast and look at the beautiful view of the harbor. Not wanting to draw attention to herself, she sat down and let Mrs. Buckley ramble on about her trip.
When Agent MacGregor walked past with a red-haired woman she had hoped they’d at least acknowledge her but when the agent clearly ignored her, remorse for her actions made her embarrassed f how she had acted. You acted like a child and now she’s punishing for it.
Breakfast sat in Kelsey’s stomach like a stone, she called Jess Harrington and left a message saying that her client was safe and would call her herself in due time. She knew her tone had been cold but she didn’t feel much like being cordial or friendly this morning. Before she left the restaurant she asked their server to give a message to the author to call Jess Harrington. She had a job to do and she wasn’t holding anyone’s hand or worrying about hurt feelings.
***
In a vacant smaller room down from the meeting area on the fifteenth floor, she and Nikki prepared to question the author. She had hardened her resolve to get down to questioning a potential witness and find out where Miranda Gauthier fit into their case. She glanced over at her best friend and decided it was best to smooth ruffled feathers and apologize for her rude behavior earlier.
“Sorry Nikki, I have been horrible company and I must apologize. My emotion-filled weekend and the stress of having the author there to witness it on top of the fact she ran away from me yesterday has my nerves stretched pretty thin.
“Hold on, what? She ran away?” Nikki asked looking concerned.
“Yeah hurt Nanna’s feeling too. She had been so ingratiating to offer her a place to stay and she just took off while we were out and ran off to Pittsburgh to catch a bus to get here last night. She never even said goodbye.”
“Well by the looks of it, it wasn’t just Nanna’s feelings that were hurt,” Nikki said staring into her eyes.
“Nikki I’d rather not talk about that right now I’d...”
A throat clearing notified the two agents that they had company.
“Where would you like me to sit?” Asked the visibly shaken woman who stood inside the room and looked like she wanted to be anywhere else but there.
When she walked into the room unseen or heard, Miranda watched the two agents talking and although she couldn’t see the taller one’s face she heard the hurt in her voice. She cleared her throat notifying them she had entered the room. Two sets of eyes fell on her and she looked into the eyes of two strangers. Only the red-head’s eyes and smile conveyed a polite welcome. She cringed under the dark stare; she knew she deserved the agent’s obvious displeasure.
“Please Miss Gauthier, you can sit here.” A very pretty red-headed woman indicated as she pulled the chair out.
She smiled at her, recognizing her as the woman who was seated with Agent MacGregor at the restaurant earlier.
“Thank you and you can call me Miranda if you like, I know saying my last name is not that easy for most people, although you said it perfectly” Miranda said with as cheery a tone as she could muster. The tension rolling off the taller agent threatened to crumble her to the ground; she couldn’t bring herself to look at her directly yet.
“For the official records we will be using your full name and we ask that you call us Senior Special Agent or SSA MacGregor and Special Agent or SA Hyland.” Kelsey said in a curt tone not looking at her once.
“Yes I’m sorry I should have introduced myself, I am Nikki Hyland or SA Hyland.” She winked and looked at her sympathetically. Then she whispered conspiratorially, “I’ve wanted to meet you for so long “
“Well I wish I could say it’s a pleasure to meet you Nikki or I mean SA Hyland, but I’m afraid I’d really rather be anywhere else but here,” Miranda said only glancing over briefly in the vicinity of the glowering agent.
The questioning started with the customary introduction of the members in the room and the summary of the case. Miranda had been sure she wouldn’t have much she could tell them. The two agents asked her questions about what had happened leading up to the night she had broke it off with Kate and then left the condo they had shared for a few months. They also asked her when the last time she had talked to Natasha Beardsley and what she remembered about the night Jeremy and Cynthia had been murdered. She didn’t know how this would help them but she answered every question quickly and concisely. Through the entire process Agent MacGregor never once looked her way.
Kelsey had a hard time keeping herself distant from Miranda but she kept reminding herself that the author was there in an official capacity, after questioning she was free to go and they would likely never see each other again. She found it easier to think it than to accept it as her heart kept skipping a beat when the petite author spoke in her even, clear voice never making eye contact with her once.
The inquiries went from how she knew everyone to then coming right to the question Kelsey had been dying to ask her.
“Where were you during the hours of eleven and one on the night of July 15th?” she asked and willed the author to look at her while she answered. She missed seeing those grey-blue eyes look into her own when she talked.
“Well I ahhh...ummm I don’t remember.” The author said in a broken and confused tone. I was at the Holiday Inn near the bus station at 1am. I have my check-in receipt. But I don’t remember much before that
She paused because the answers up until now were always clear and forthcoming, now it was if the author was being vague or evasive.
“Did I hear that correctly Miss Miranda Gauthier? You are saying you don’t have an alibi for the night your lover was murdered,” she said and ignored her friend and colleague’s sharp intake of breath “How did you get to the hotel?”
“I don’t remember. I know I took a cab from Patterson Park but don’t know how I got to the...the park. I think I may have walked…?” The author looked confused and her face pale, sweat forming on her brow even though the room was quite cool with the air conditioner on.
Kelsey felt her patience slipping as the author continued to act odd. A sudden pain tore into her head making her almost gasp. The infernal headache was back and with it feelings of dread, anxiety and terror hit her. Recognizing they were not her own she looked at the author and saw her face contort; brows furrowed, mouth set in a grim line and eyes blankly staring. What the hell is wrong with her?
Impatience, her own, made her ask the questions she hadn’t wanted to ask.
“Were you in the house when Katherine Montgomery was killed in the bedroom you shared with her? Did you know who killed her? Did you kill Kate Montgomery that night in a fit of rage?” Kelsey rushed the questions out before she lost the nerve to ask them. Over the years she had earned her nickname for the blistering manner she questioned a witness, especial one who sounded unsure and ambiguous. She looked intently at her hands when she directed her forthright interrogation at the author but she suddenly was struck with a sense of foreboding and the stabbing pain in her head grew worse so she looked into the author’s face. She saw the petite woman’s face go from white to ashen and then she flew to her feet to catch the author as she slumped and nearly fell to the floor.
“What the hell Mack?” Nikki said switching off the recording equipment.
She just hung her head and lifted the small woman into her arms and carried her to the nearby leather sofa.
“Don’t yell at me, I feel bad enough. Get her a glass of water. And a blanket she’s shivering like mad.”
Once she had Miranda on the sofa and had the blanket over her she tried to rouse the unconscious woman, who shook so badly it made keeping the blanket on difficult.
“Maybe we should get Doc or call 911, she seems like she is having some sort of fit, a seizure maybe...” Nikki’s voice was laced with worry.
“She’s starting to come around.” Kelsey interrupted her friend’s frantic rant. “Miranda can you hear me, it’s Agent MacGregor. You passed out do you know where you are?” she asked while she held her hand on the author’s damp forehead.
Both agents heard the author mumbling and shaking her head and the words coming out in great sobs were broken but they clearly heard the author say,
“I’m sorry...so sorry. How could I do it...I’m sorry Kate...I’m so sorry.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“When you ignore the signs, you lose your way.”
Nikki’s pacing only made matters worse for Kelsey, who sat sick with worry over Miranda passing out and not coming to. At least she no longer sobbed and said she was sorry to Kate. Hearing the pain and suffering voiced only echoed the deep regret she felt. I’m sorry too.
She decided that taking Miranda out of the FBI’s makeshift interrogation room would be best, so she carried her to her own room on the fourteenth floor. She deposited the prone woman in her king-sized bed so she could rest in a darkened, quiet room. Then she closed the door adjoined to the sitting area and looked at Nikki helplessly.
“What would you have us do now our fearless leader?” Nikki asked looking as worried as she felt.
“I’m going to call Doc and have him come look at her and see what he thinks. I want you to head up to the briefing this morning. Just don’t say anything about our author in there, not yet.” She didn’t want to say she needed to be close to Miranda and be there when she woke up, she could trust Nikki to keep her presence on the down low until it was absolutely necessary to reveal her to the rest of the taskforce.
“Mack she could be our ...” Nikki tried to say but she cut her off.
“Don’t say it Nikki,” she warned her with a snarl. “I can’t say why but I just have a gut feeling she isn’t the killer, but I needed to get her to tell me what happened. I know now I should have been more careful, Doc did say it may be possible she was traumatized by what she witnessed. We need her to tell us what it is she saw.” I already feel like a jerk for what I did.
“Mack, call Doc and I’ll go get set up for the briefing. I’m also going to call Jess Harrington and ask her if there are any medical reasons why Miranda would have fainted. Are you sure we shouldn’t call an ambulance or take her to the hospital?”