by Ava Mallory
She stood next to the table, refusing to sit in the only remaining seat, next to Lou. He rolled his eyes and moved his chair closer to the wall next to him, letting the legs squeak on the floor.
Adrienne sat down, pulling her chair toward the edge of the table. "Is it true," she asked. "Was my son set up?"
I nodded. "We believe so."
"Was it his father? Please, don't tell me that it was. I don't know if I'd be able to stop myself from killing Simon. Eli's my boy. He's my world." Emotion welled up in her throat as she spoke.
Charlie tried to console her. "We didn't look at this lightly. We checked every angle, and, quite honestly, it did start to look like Eli did this, but what we couldn't understand was why he chose Mike. Of all the people that your son had... had issues with, why Mike? What did he have to gain by killing him?"
Adrienne answered immediately. "Nothing. They didn't like each other, but it wasn't so much that anyone had to die. If anything, we were always afraid that Mike would do something to him."
We sat in silence for a few minutes, not knowing how to proceed with this grieving mother. She spoke first, breaking the silence.
"I knew you were up to something." She said to me. "That's why I photographed you. I wanted to remember your face in case you got my son convicted for something that he didn't or would never do."
Charlie answered to that. "We saw you, so naturally I checked into you and your background. When I found out who you were, I couldn't blame you for looking into Mercy's background. What I don't understand though, is why did you steal her laptop? What did you think you would find? It's not like Mercy is tech savvy. She barely knows how to use a cell phone, so I think that move was probably a waste of your time."
"What? Excuse me, but I know how to use more than my phone and how did you know that she took my laptop?" Now, I sounded like I didn't have a clue what was going on.
Adrienne clapped her hands together. "So, what happens now? How do we save my son?"
I looked at Charlie.
He asked, "Shall I, or do you want to?"
"I'll do it." I said.
*
Eli looked like he hadn't slept in days. The stubble on his face hid his true age. He had bags under his eyes and his pallor was ghostly. Another few weeks in lockup and I'm convinced he would have been hospitalized for dehydration and malnutrition.
"We can't let your mom see you like this." I said, grabbing his wrist to take his pulse. "Have they given you your medications?"
He didn't look at me. His eyes were trained on Lou's gun and Lou's angry eyes were locked on him.
"Don't get any crazy ideas, Pardo. I'm here to help you. Now, follow us and let's get you out of here." Lou ordered him.
He was sluggish, but cooperated. "Where are we going? Are you taking me to the electric chair now?"
I see he hadn't lost his smart mouth. That was a good sign.
"We're taking you home." I told him.
His eyes lit up for a second. "I don't have a home. The old man kicked me out and this jerk had me committed." He pointed to Lou.
"I'm helping you and you're calling me names. That's appropriate." Lou groaned.
We walked him out of the building through the back door without incident. No one questioned Lou. I didn't know what he'd told the staff, but whatever it was, it worked. They let it happen and even unlocked the doors for us in the process.
*
We'd discussed where our next stop would be, but I don't think any amount of preparation could have prepared me to see his face. I was hurt and angry. It didn't have to be this way.
"Are you ready?" Charlie asked as Lou pulled the car over.
Eli groaned. "Why are we here? I thought that you were taking me home. This isn't Jill's house."
"She'll be here." Charlie said. "Just sit tight. This is a good thing."
We waited a few minutes for the others to arrive. Adrienne arrived first, anxious to see and hold her son in her arms.
Eli softened at the sight of her. "Mom?"
She ran to the car. "Eli, son, are you okay, my love?" She hugged him and kissed his face and his hair over and over again, taking time to look him over for any sign of injury.
"I'm good, Mom. I'm fine. Why are you here?" Eli asked.
The next car to pull up caused a bit of an uproar among the group. Apparently, she wasn't a favorite with anyone and for good reason.
Adrienne's eyebrows furrowed. "What is she doing here?"
I looked at Brandi, who waved at me with a huge smile splashed across her face as if she was showing up for a family reunion. "We asked her to be here. She's the one who helped us solve this case."
Adrienne turned her back on Brandi as soon as she stepped closer. "I have no words for that vile woman."
Eli asked, "Why are we here? I don't know these people. They are above my pay grade."
Lou chimed in. "You don't have a pay grade. Do you even have a job?"
"Leave him alone!" Both Adrienne and Brandi defended Eli.
Interesting turn of events. Brandi did truly care about this kid.
Charlie explained to everyone that they needed to keep cool heads and stick to the plan to go in as a united front or none of this would go away. After everyone reluctantly agreed to work together, we made the decision to go on without the last piece of the puzzle.
I tugged on Charlie's arm. "What about Alma?"
He shrugged. "I told her what time to be here. We don't have very long. If we don't do this now, we may lose our chance."
I didn't want to go inside without her. She seemed like the nervous type, even if she had been the first to point the finger at someone other than me and Eli.
I asked, "What if something happened to her?"
Charlie reminded me, "She has that man-eating dog. Nothing is going to happen to her."
Lou stopped and asked, "Alma is going to be here? Why?"
What was it with men? Did they have selective hearing? He sat right there when Charlie and I explained who would be in attendance.
"Yes. She has to be here to say what she knows." I said, noticing the scowl on Lou's face.
Eli started laughing like he'd heard the funniest joke he ever heard. We all turned to look at him, then, his mother.
"Is he okay?" Charlie asked her.
She shrugged.
I answered. "He's been through a lot. Let him be." To Eli, I said, "Tell me what's going on, Eli. What are you thinking?"
"I think you caught a killer." He replied before walking up to the gate and pushing the buzzer.
Karen's voice answered, "Come on up."
We looked at each other to see if everyone was ready and made our way to the door. Behind us, I swore I could hear Phoebe, the nurse hater, barking in the distance.
Did she walk?
The door was open. We walked in, Charlie leading the pack. "Hello?" He called out. "Mrs. Bauer?"
She answered, "In here!"
We walked in, one right behind the other. Rollie sat with his hands in his lap. He looked directly at me, then, looked away. Everyone else filed in behind me.
He asked no one in particular, "How did you find out?"
Sirens blared in the distance.
Adrienne clutched her chest. "He's alive?"
Karen began to whimper. Instinctively, I moved to comfort her, but Charlie held me back with his hand.
When no one answered him, Rollie asked, "Well, what happens now?"
I was so angry, I blurted out, "Why, Rollie? What happened to you?"
He still wouldn't look me in the eye, but he answered. "The truth is the hospital is in trouble. We were in the hole millions of dollars and all the clients we'd come to rely on stopped seeking our help. With all these new found cures and treatments, they are shying away from traditional medicine and therapies. I thought.. I figured that..." He stopped.
Karen finished for him. "We needed a media sensation. Pleasant Cove would become the place to be and people would want to seek out more
information. Maybe people would remember all the care they received here and would want to come back. Death is in. The Hollywood types would come calling for interviews or tours or who knows? A reality show?"
Adrienne was livid. "So, when... no offense, but Mike wasn't interesting enough, you framed my son and, then, faked your own death? Who does that? What kind of sick freak does that?"
Rollie spoke. "I didn't know it would get blamed on Eli. I'm sorry. When that happened, the story became more interesting and things got out of control."
"Was it worth it? You almost ruined Eli's life and my reputation." My voice shook with anger and hurt feelings.
He answered. "I'm sorry. You weren't supposed to be blamed for anything. I didn't know that Amy was going to say you loosened the restraints and Lou had no idea that I jimmied the door so that it wouldn't seal properly. I didn't think it through properly. I had no idea that Eli would try to escape. It all just sort of fell into place after that. When I saw the footage and saw that Amy had been the one who loosened the restraints, I didn't know what to do because by then she'd already lied. I didn't know for sure that she'd undo anyone's restraints, but because she'd always done that before, especially when a male asked her to, I took a chance that she would. It just so happened that it was Eli. I made the calls to his father and to Lou to make sure that there would be a police hold and it would look like one of the patients escaped and killed Mike. Eli wasn't supposed to take the fall. I just needed him to be there to set the other things in motion."
"What about the cameras from the guard house?" I asked. "Why couldn't anyone see that Alma had been there too?"
"I don't know anything about that." He said.
Brandi spoke up, clearing her throat first. "I'm afraid that was my fault. I am ashamed to admit this, but I used to visit him at night sometimes and I didn't want people to know, so I asked him to adjust the cameras so no one would see me."
Eli asked, "You were still seeing Mike?"
Her face reddened. "Only a couple of times. Your dad and I were having problems. He was angry all the time and I felt like I had no one, so I went to talk to him and would have dinner with him sometimes."
Dinner? I thought about the food on his desk.
"Did you take him dinner the night he was killed?" I asked Brandi.
She blushed again. "Yes, but it's not like I cooked or anything. Anyway, when I got there, he was already eating."
"What time was that?" Charlie asked.
She shrugged, thinking back. "Before I went to work. I had the early shift that day, so I don't know. Five maybe."
"He was already eating at five?" I asked. I looked at Lou, "Was he allowed to leave for a meal?"
Lou looked at Rollie. "No, I don't think so."
Rollie hung his head low. "I took it to him on my way into work that day."
This still didn't make any sense to me. "He died of a gunshot wound, right?" I asked Lou.
Lou looked at Charlie before answering. "No. I never said that. He was shot, but that was after he'd been..."
"Poisoned?" I asked. I looked at Rollie. "You poisoned him, then, shot him? Why?"
"I shot him." Brandi said, shocking us all. "I thought he was cheating on me again, just like he did when we were married. I didn't know that he was already dead. Oh my God!" Charlie caught her before she fell to the ground.
There was loud barking outside.
"Who is that?" Karen asked.
I ran out of the room to open the door for Alma and her beast. When I returned with her, there was shouting in the room. The anger had mounted, everyone against everyone else.
I yelled, "Stop!"
Lou turned to us first, noticing Phoebe. He immediately started sneezing and coughing, his face turning red. "Get that thing out of here!"
"This thing saved an innocent woman from being accused of a horrible crime." I said.
Lou continued to cough violently while the others watched our exchange.
"Are you going to let her go to jail for this? I thought you were in love with her?" I asked Lou.
Alma removed Phoebe from the room, while Lou tried to recover. "What are you talking about?"
I had him now.
"If Brandi had been the one to shoot Mike, she would have left pet dander all over the scene, correct?" I asked, but didn't wait for a response. "If that were true, there is no way that you would have been able to be anywhere near the crime scene. Your allergies would have gone crazy. You'd have ended up in hives."
Lou looked at Brandi. Her lip began to quiver.
I continued. "She didn't shoot Mike. You did, didn't you?"
He jumped up to leave, but Eli had a sudden burst of energy and stopped him.
"You don't know what you're talking about." He hissed.
"There's no way Brandi would have ventured out in a storm, not with those nails and all that hair." I informed him.
Charlie rolled his eyes. “Mercy.”
“Oh, sorry. You know what I mean. So, it looks like you shot a man who was already dead, Captain Benetto. Just like a man, your selective memory caused you to gloss over the fact that Mike had allergies too, and a bit of a sweet tooth, but Rollie hadn't forgotten. Did you Rollie? Allergies would have been listed in his employee file.” I was feeling pretty proud of myself.
Lou looked confused. He looked at Brandi for confirmation.
She said, “He had a peanut allergy. All of my kids inherited that too.”
“Right,” I started. “That's another reason why you couldn't have committed this crime. No mother worth their salt would have anything with peanuts in their home, so you couldn't have possibly killed your ex without possibly jeopardizing your kids' lives. Lou, on the other hand, owns a restaurant, but the fact that you mentioned his horrible allergies told me that you couldn't have worked together on this. He would have died in the process.”
Charlie beamed with pride as I continued.
Rollie spoke up. “How did you know it was me?”
“I didn't, at first.” I answered, unsure if I could trust myself to not cry while I spoke to him. He'd faked his death and shut me out of his life and essentially used me to further his agenda. “When Karen took an interest in Eli's chart, I became suspicious. Why would a grieving widow care about some kid, she barely knew? It didn't make sense. I had to figure out what would possess her to want that information and the only logical answer was you. Then, when she offered me food from your mini-fridge, I noticed a sandwich – a fresh sandwich – like the kind you get from a convenience store. I'm not the healthiest eater because I'm on the road, so I happen to know that those sandwiches are made fresh daily and a grieving widow wouldn't have stopped to get a sandwich because her home would be filled with a variety of casseroles from mourners.”
Karen whimpered again. I couldn't allow myself to feel sorry for her. She helped cover up a crime.
Alma spoke up behind us. “I'm so glad that Phoebe needed to go out for a walk that morning, otherwise I wouldn't have seen Lou leaving the parking lot and poor Eli would be sent to prison.”
“You did this!” Lou lunged for her, but fell into another coughing fit as he neared her.
Thank goodness for pet dander!
Eli spoke. “You faked your own death because you wanted attention? And, they say I'm a narcissist?” He looked at Lou. “And, you got caught because you cough. Ha! That's rich!”
Lou glared at him.
Charlie chimed in. “Seems like everyone around here had their own agendas. Too bad a good cop had to die in the process.”
The flashing lights and sirens outside finally reached the estate.
I said to Rollie, Lou, Brandi, and, unfortunately, Karen, “Your ride is here.”
Reggie and Jill came running with Detective Arnold and another detective behind him. Lou's chin fell to his chest. Rollie stood up, ready to face the consequences.
Soon, the media followed and Rollie finally got what he wanted – fame, but at what price?
Epi
logue
“I can't believe I missed it!” Ruby said.
I laughed. “You have to move fast in the cutthroat world of crime solving.”
Charlie waved the waitress over. “We're ready to order.” He looked at us. “Order what you want. Dinner is on me.”
Eli ate like he hadn't eaten for days. I thought he'd make himself sick, but Adrienne assured us that he'd be fine.