Another Deception

by Pamela Carron

  The two men looked at each other and passed a look that Anna missed or just did not stop to consider that in her chattering there could be some interesting tidbits for them. They encouraged her by asking more questions and inserting comments as they migrated to the snack room and found some coffee. After an hour and Jacks still was not awake, Cranford decided he wanted to see where the hit and run took place. He asked Anna if it would be okay to take a look around Sang-mi’s house too.

  “Of course, I don’t mind and I am sure that Sang-mi would want you to find the person who would do such a thing. Anything I can do to help. You know I never expected her to leave that house to me. She always told me that the restaurant was mine if something happened to her first, but the house was a surprise.”

  “I take it her children didn’t mind.”

  He knew Sang-mi had children though he never met any of them, but then his communication with Sang-mi was limited at best. “I wouldn’t think they would as I am the only living aunt they have and they all were like my own. Besides, Sang-mi invested heavily in real estate over the years and they all were very happy with their inheritance. She was a great businessperson and made us both wealthy with her wisdom. I think she just knew I had more of an emotional value as far as the restaurant goes and the house, who knows? I certainly did not expect it left to me. It is way too big and I am perfectly happy where I am, but I will never get rid of the house and she knew it. I think that is why she did it because it was important to her to keep it.”

  “I see. Frank, you coming?”

  Cranford raised his brows at Frank who considered it for a minute but was thinking about Jacks’ involvement with the people he and Cranford were tailing. He was curious as to why they found Jacks so interesting. He had a feeling he knew the answer but he could be wrong.

  Having studied every circumstance surrounding Jacks and the rooftop experience, he wanted to hang around until the man woke up. There were questions he believed Jacks could answer. In turn, he might be able to answer some that Jacks may have.

  “If you don’t mind doing that on your own, I think I would like to wait this out here. He has to wake up sometimes. I would like to talk to him.”

  Cranford agreed.

  “Good idea.”

  Anna was happy to hear the younger man was staying. She needed to go back to Sang-mi’s herself. She hesitantly turned to Cranford. The man was intimidating, but it would save her the trouble of taking a cab back for she had been far too upset to drive to the hospital. She took in his solid robust build and the strength his face showed and decided the intimidation would be worth the ride.

  “Would you mind giving me a lift then, since we are both going to the same place?”

  “Not at all. Frank, call me when he does wake up. I want to see him.”

  They were walking back towards the room and saw a nurse leaving. Speeding up so he could catch her, Frank stopped her and asked,

  “Is he awake?”

  The woman was in her forties with dark brown hair and no nonsense look about her.

  “Are you family?”

  “No, I am not but this should get me any information without any trouble.”

  He flashed his badge and she was immediately cooperative.

  “Certainly, but no, he is still out.”

  “Man. You guys gave him one hellofa shot there!”

  The nurse frowned and looked at the chart she was holding.

  “Shot? There has been no shot given to him since he got to this floor. Maybe they gave him one downstairs before bringing him up. I will check.”

  Cranford and Anna had caught up to them and Anna protested,

  “No, I was here and saw them give him the shot. He was trying to find his wife and that other nurse said it would calm him down!”

  “No ma’am, I have been on duty ever since they brought him up and would have been the only RN here to administer a shot. Are you certain you saw someone give him a shot?”

  “Yes, I am! She was tall and blond and young…yes, she was real young.”

  “There is no one on this floor with that description. Surely you are mistaken.”

  “No I am not, I remember it clearly!”

  A heavy sigh came from the nurse. A security breach was so very serious and she would need to call down and have them send someone up and she would need to get the doctor on this case up too so he could examine the patient……

  “Okay, I just took his vitals and everything looked good a few minutes ago but I’m sure the doctor will want to order blood word done to see what was given to him. If you want, you all can wait in his room or down in the waiting room. Security will want to talk with you.”

  She turned back toward the nurse’s station while the three started walking the other way toward Jack’s room. Once to the door, Frank encouraged the other two to go ahead on.

  “I will stay and answer any questions. You think it could have been a student nurse?”

  Anna shook her head at him, insisting that a student nurse would not be allowed to give shots unsupervised and he shrugged but said nothing back as he already knew this.

  Cranford was ready to go. There was nothing they could do and he really wanted to go to Sang-mi’s before it got dark. He reminded Frank to call when Jacks woke up. He left with Anna who was more than ready to get home after the stop at Sang-mi’s.

  She was not at all sure what she would do with the house, which was now hers. Sang-mi knew she would never live there and wished she had given her a heads up before doing it. Whatever the reason, she did know she was expected to keep it or it would have just been combined with the other properties to be sold and divided amongst the children.

  She and Cranford indulged in idle chitchat during the drive to Sang-mi’s, avoiding anything unpleasant. Cranford felt he needed to gain her trust before she would open up to him about anything having to do with the mysterious side of Sang-mi. He glanced over at the woman from time to time as they talked and wondered why she had never remarried. From an earlier remark, she was around sixty and that meant she had been a widow now for almost forty years. It also meant she had to have been a kid when she married. He looked over at her again and shook his head, for she was still a pretty woman who did not look her age. One minute he was thinking that it was none of his business and the next he was blurting out,

  “Why in the world have you never remarried? I mean, look at you, you are a beautiful woman now and forty years ago you must have been so young. You know you can just tell me it is none of my business and it will be all right. Maybe you just loved him so much you felt you would be betraying him.”

  Anna smiled, but was not bothered by the question she was asked more often than any other.

  “You’re right, it is none of your business, but I will tell you that it was not because I would have felt bad had I. Rory was a kid and my first boyfriend. We married for the wrong reasons with neither of us ready for such a serious relationship. He cheated and we fought constantly. It was never good. Within a year, we separated and when he left for his second tour in Nam, he was living with some woman from the Bronx though we never divorced. We were still married when he was killed in a raid. No, dear Detective Cranford, I can tell you that the year I was married was the worst possible of my life! Not one I ever wanted to repeat and not exactly what you thought you would hear, right?”

  Anna laughed, but the laughter was not heartfelt, rather the sort which could easily turn into a sob. She turned her head away from his intimidating eyes and was relieved to see that they were at the end of the ride to Sang-mi’s. By the time she hopped out of the car, she had her emotions in check, produced the key, and realized she had not even thought to lock the door in her hurry to get out of there and follow the ambulance to the hospital.

  She opened the door and they walked in to find the place turned upside down. Cranford pulled his gun from his jacket and motioned for her to stay back as he searched the whole house to make sure no one was in it. When he came back to
the front room, Anna was trying to right the smaller pieces of furniture and he stopped her.

  “Anna, do not touch anything else! I have called for forensics and they will want to check for prints. Maybe you did not forget to lock the door after all. Who else has a key?”

  Anna’s nerves begin to show and he led her to the foyer and sat her on a cushioned seat while they waited.

  “I have no idea! Beside Jacks and her children, there is me and, oh, I don’t know!”

  “It is okay. When the uniforms get here, I am taking you back to your place. There is no need for you to be here and we will figure it all out. Just if you do think of something…anything or anyone who would do this or what they might have been looking for, you need to tell me immediately.”

  Anna nodded and kept shaking her head. As far as she knew, Sang-mi had no enemies.

  “Maybe it was just a robbery. Sang-mi acquired all sorts of valuable collectables over the years and I have a list from the will if that will help.”

  He nodded,

  “It will. You can give it to me when we take you home. Somehow though, I have a feeling Sang-mi had something of worth to someone and it was not a Ming vase.”

  It was true. Before he stopped her, she had picked up a painting from the floor, which was worth a lot of money.

  Cranford also noted several objects, which could bring a fair amount of money throughout the house. No, whoever did this was looking for something specific. Something Sang-mi had that they wanted badly. It was causing Cranford to wonder how deep she may have been involved in her extracurricular activities she was so secretive about.

  Uniformed cops arrived along with a team of forensic people and after talking a few minutes with them privately, Cranford and Anna left. She was glad to get out of the commotion and was having one of her occasional panic attacks. She kept apologizing, but Cranford assured her that he understood. She had endured a trying time with Sang-mi’s death and now the dramatic events of today were a bit much for anyone. He delivered her to her apartment over the restaurant, insisting on checking out her place to make sure it had not been tampered with.

  When he felt she was safe, he told her that he would come by and check on her later. Meanwhile, he asked that she just give him the list of Sang-mi’s belongings then and to try to think of anything she may have heard Sang-mi say, which would shed some light on the break in. Then he returned to Sang-mi’s house. When he was done there, he went back to the hospital where he found Frank still waiting for Jacks to wake up. Dwight arrived shortly after him and he relayed everything going on at Sang-mi’s house to them both with both agreeing that there was more to her death than was known.

  Frank in turn explained what the doctor told him about the shot Jacks had been given. It was an experimental drug, not approved by the FDA, which given in a high dosage causes memory loss and in some cases could put patients into irreversible comas. In Jacks case, he was not in a coma but in a deep sleep and would come out of it in time. The damage it may have done to his memory however could not be determined until he was awake.

  Cranford uttered a profane word and sheepishly apologized remembering Dwight was a minister. He was shaking his head when he asked,

  “But why, what good will that do anyone? As far as I know he did not know anything solid that could incriminate anyone…or did he?”

  His question directed to Dwight, who answered thoughtfully.

  “I am sure Asa is behind it for whatever reasons and it may be that he thinks if Jacks does not remember anything leading to what happened on the rooftop that night then he has another chance of converting him over. The question I have is why is it so important to him? Why not choose an easier mark?”

  Frank, listening with great attention, felt a twitching in his jaw and anger reflected in his eyes as he said with sarcasm,

  “I think I know, but I need to talk with Jacks before I am sure.”

  Dwight was concerned about Jacks but he wanted to go check on Honey. He had been told that she sustained much worse injuries than Jacks had and needed to be there for her until her crisis was over.

  He excused himself from the other two men and asked if they would let him know when Jacks woke up. Cranford told him,

  “I stopped and talked to the nurse on the way in and she said she was under heavy medication but was in and out. You go on. We will be here for Jacks. There is a guard coming to watch this room at least through the night, just in case.”

  After Dwight left, the two detectives discussed more in detail the facts of the day. Some they were not ready to share with him. It was Frank’s turn to ask,

  “Would you mind if I went off on my own for a bit? I do not think our man here will be waking before morning and there are a few errands I need to get done.”

  “Sure, go on. Charlie will be here soon for the night and after I go see Honey and talk to Dwight a bit more, I am out of here too. See you tomorrow.”

  Frank nodded and walked out of the room. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, opened it up gazing at the contents, he whispered softly,

  “Oh yeah, one errand in particular, that just can’t wait.”

  13

  Hidey went downstairs but after dinner was over and the dishes done, he made his excuses for an early night. Once in bed, he pulled out the novel and before he fell asleep at almost dawn, he had finished the book. It was not his usual kind of book to read but it was an interesting and intriguing book. At least it cleared up the mystery of why Jean was such an enigma to him.

  The reason he felt the connection with her was that he had seen this picture of her when he used the book to fix the wobbling leg of his bed frame. Now, maybe he could put her out of his mind and concentrate again on his work. In addition, he reminded himself not to forget to return the book to Romona’s collection.

  If only it was as simple as forgetting Jean, for the next day the object of his distraction appeared at their front door with all her hiking gear on and wanted to know if he would like to show her the special hiking trails she had not found yet. With Romona in the background smiling in her big way, he accepted the invitation and ran upstairs to throw on his own gear, ignoring the big screen of his computer where his work was waiting. After all, he had told her he would show her the better trails around and he liked to think he was a man of his word.

  After tromping through woods, climbing up hills and wading across streams, Hidey came to the conclusion that the woman was in great shape, for on several occasions it was he who suggested a ‘catch your breath’ sort of rest. He was happy when they climbed to the destination he had in mind for Jean to know he was not exaggerating when he told her he could show her more beauty than she had seen yet in the Poconos.

  She dropped the pack from her shoulders and he knew he had succeeded when she exclaimed with great passion, drinking in the beauty, which surrounded them,

  “It is beautiful! It is just beautiful!”

  Hidey responded by rolling a log over to a spot and gestured for her to sit while she enjoyed the view. As much as he tried to hurry when he packed his gear, he had taken the time to stuff Romona’s favorite picnic utensils and some of the fried chicken they had left over from the night before. When Jean saw him unpacking, she reached for and opened her own bag, producing what she had brought.

  Combined, it made for a nice meal and they munched down as they enjoyed the perfection before them and the quiet comradeship they shared.

  After they had eaten and kicked back, conversation flowed easily, surprising them both, as neither was very talkative. At one point, speaking of family, Hidey shared the story of how his parents died in the crash he survived. Of course, Jean had noticed the limp but was too polite to ask about it. She was touched that he felt comfortable enough with her to discuss it.

  Jean was a realistic, more serious than not, sort of person. She never thought about playing the games some women played starting at a young age, with boys and never understood it when her friends
did. She was not one to have false pride. If you liked her, you had to like her as she was. Just plain Jean.

  Sometimes she wore makeup, but it was the exception, not the rule with her. She would never be a slave to fashion but she was an ever-loyal person and any one she claimed for a friend considered that they were lucky. By the end of this day spent with Hidey, she considered him a friend. She neither wanted nor expected anything beyond that friendship.

  With Hidey, it was different. He dated several girls but Jillian was the only serious girlfriend he ever had and his feelings were those of young passion and lust. What he found himself feeling for the serious minded Jean was beyond anything he was used to feeling. He almost felt he would stop breathing when the day ended and she left him standing at his front door. She declined Romona’s offer to stay for dinner, citing that she had to put in at least two thousand words before bed.

  Romona went about feeling very confident.

  The days went by and Hidey was obviously disturbed. Time was fast approaching for when Jean was due to leave.

  Sensing this and not being the sort to sit around and wait for things to just happen, Romona took matters into her own hands. She went to visit Jean.

  She was not getting any younger and she was sure this was the one.

  Since she could tell that Jean was such a guileless sort of person, she wasted no time getting to the point as soon as she was sitting across from the younger woman with a cup of hot tea.

  “Hidey says that you two had a great day hiking the other day.”

  “We did, it was a wonderful place to hike. I am thrilled that he chose to share it with me.”

  “Good, then you know how special you are to him.”

  “Special?”

  “Yes dear, from the very first time he spotted you in the woods that day until now. Why, I believe he loves you.”

  “You think he loves me?”