Sinking Suspicions

by Sara Sue Hoklotubbe

  Lance pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed, talked for a moment, and popped it back into his pocket. He continued to talk to her, finally steadying her against the car to keep her from losing her balance and falling to the ground. Before long a police car pulled up. Lance helped the woman into the backseat, closed the door, and pitched the keys to the officer. The police car drove off and Lance returned to his truck.

  “Okay, let's go,” he said. They jumped into his truck, traveled a short distance to the main gate, and stopped. He rolled down his window and leaned out to speak to a short Indian woman wearing an orange vest directing cars to available parking slots. He pulled his badge out of the console and showed it to her. “There's a blue Ford sedan about midway down the row by the fence. The driver won't be back until sometime tomorrow. Will it be okay where it is?”

  The woman looked past Lance in the direction he'd indicated. “I'll tell security,” she said. “Can't be responsible if it gets ripped off, though.”

  “I understand,” he said. “Just wanted to let you know.”

  The woman nodded and motioned to an incoming vehicle to turn right into an open parking space. Lance pulled out onto the highway and headed back toward the hospital where they'd left Sadie's car earlier.

  “Did you have to send her to jail?” Sadie felt concern for the unknown woman.

  “She's not going to jail. She's on her way to ‘detox.’ They'll give her a ham-and-cheese sandwich and a cup of coffee, and let her sleep it off. Then when she's good and sober, they'll let her out.”

  “Oh.” Sadie turned an air vent toward her face and lifted her long hair off her neck. “So she's okay, just had a little too much to drink?”

  “Too much to be behind the wheel of a vehicle. I certainly don't want her driving on the same road I'm on.”

  “Do you really think her car will be okay there?”

  “Probably. And she's already got enough problems without trying to come up with enough money to get a car out of impound.”

  Sadie thought for a moment. “Why didn't you just offer to take her home? I could have followed you in your truck.”

  Lance looked at Sadie. “From all indications, it appears that her car is her home.”

  “Oh, you mean she's homeless.”

  “I'm not sure.”

  “What's with all the mystery? Who exactly is she, anyway? You act like you know her.”

  “I don't exactly know her. She's part of an investigation.”

  “What investigation?” she said. “Don't you think it's time for you to tell me what all happened while I was gone?”

  Lance sighed. “We found Buck's identity thief.”

  “Yeah, I know. Charlie told me.” She brushed her hair out of her eyes and looked at Lance. “He thinks Buck killed him…which is absolutely absurd.”

  “The woman I just sent to ‘detox’ lived in the trailer where we found the dead identity thief. Turns out he was a friend of hers and he'd been murdered while she was gone, before she got home from work.”

  “Oh, Cynthia Tanner? The woman Charlie was asking about?”

  Lance nodded.

  Sadie raised her eyebrow. “I might be having a drink or two myself with that being the case.”

  “She said she'd moved out of the trailer,” Lance continued, “and it looks to me like she's living in her car.”

  “That's sad. Who was the woman she was arguing with?”

  “Her little sister.”

  “Then why didn't you just go tell her sister not to let her drive?”

  “The last words her sister shouted at her went something like ‘I don't ever want to see your drunk ass again,’ so I don't think she'd be very helpful with that attitude.” Lance lowered his chin and looked toward Sadie. “Do you?”

  “I guess not,” she said.

  Lance turned his truck into the hospital parking lot and stopped behind Sadie's vehicle. “At least she's smart enough to know it isn't too productive to argue with a drunk.”

  “You're a nice guy.” Sadie leaned over and kissed him. “I'm going to check on Buck again. Don't you think they'll let him go home soon?”

  “The way the health system works today, I'm surprised they haven't already kicked him out. Let me know and I'll help you get him home. I'm going to the gourd dance at the community center in a little while. I know several veterans who are dancing. Want to go?”

  “No, I'd better not. I've got a lot to catch up on.”

  “I don't plan to stay for the powwow, but we can grab a bite to eat at the gourd dance.”

  Sadie laughed. “I swear, Smith, all you think about is what you're going to eat next.”

  She climbed out of his truck and closed the door. Lance winked at her and backed his truck away. Sadie smiled and waved.

  Bounding up the hospital steps, she saw Jelly hurrying through the sliding doors. “Jelly? Are you okay?”

  Jelly slowed but continued walking toward the parking lot. “Yes, ma'am.”

  Sadie watched as he climbed into his old farm truck and sped toward the street. She dismissed Jelly and made her way to Buck's room. She was surprised to see that the redheaded niece had returned. Only this time, she'd brought backup.

  Dee Dee stood on one side of Buck's bed, and a man Sadie had never seen before stood on the other side with pen and paper in hand.

  Sadie walked to the end of Buck's bed. “You doing okay, Buck?”

  Buck seemed relieved to see Sadie. “Other than being bothered by these two vultures, I'd say I'm getting better all the time.”

  Dee Dee turned to Sadie. “Why do you keep hanging around my uncle, anyway? We really don't need your help anymore.”

  Sadie felt her face burn with anger while she bit her tongue.

  Buck spewed forth a string of Cherokee words that not even Sadie could catch. Everyone in the room froze. Buck began to laugh quietly, and then he looked at his niece. “Go on. Get out of here. You're not too old for me take a switch after you, and that's what I'm going to do as soon as I get out of here.”

  Dee Dee frowned and threw her nose in the air. “You back-country Indians are all the same.” She stomped out of the room, and her companion quickly followed.

  Once Buck and Sadie were alone, they both broke out in laughter.

  Chapter 29

  Sadie parked her vehicle beside Jan's Chevy truck and entered through the rear door of the travel office. One large room housed Jan's desk, a display full of travel brochures, a small kitchenette, and a bathroom. The office was empty except for Jan, who turned in her chair and winked at Sadie before returning her attention to a computer screen while expertly balancing the phone receiver between her shoulder and ear. After a few moments, she cut her conversation short and hung up.

  “That was Bob Johnson over at the IGA,” Jan said. “He's thinking about taking his wife to Maui for their fortieth wedding anniversary. I told him when he made up his mind you'd be here to take care of everything.”

  Sadie smiled. “That's great, Jan.”

  “I can't wait until you take over next week,” she said. “I think I've got a bad case of short-timer's attitude, and it's getting stronger every day. Think you'll be ready?”

  Sadie plopped down in the empty chair in front of Jan's desk. “Are you kidding me? With everything you showed me before I went to Maui and all the things I learned from Pua, I could start today. I think it's going to be exciting.”

  “Good.” Jan shoved back from her desk. “Everything is still the same. You've got three trips here in the pending file, not counting the prescheduled trips for the bank, and that's it. Pua will be very helpful; she has walked me through more than one mess.” Jan laughed and took a drink from a lipstick-stained coffee mug and then held it in her hand for a moment before replacing it on her desk. “You've got to remember the time difference, though, when you're trying to call her.”

  Sadie nodded. Jan spent the next hour reminding Sadie of things she already knew, but Sadie let her talk. She knew be
fore long the conversation would divert to Jan's son and grandkids just like it always did. Sadie was relieved when it was time to lock up.

  The two ladies parted company, and Sadie headed back to the hospital to check on Buck. She pulled into the hospital parking lot and chose a parking space in the row nearest the street. As she walked toward the building, she stopped and watched Buck's redheaded niece, standing next to a car and speaking with great animation. Sadie had disliked Buck's niece from the first time she'd ever laid eyes on her, and so far the woman had done nothing to regain any favor with Sadie. The woman suddenly threw up her hands and wheeled around, climbed into another vehicle, and drove off.

  Sadie got out and made her way into the hospital. Walking past an empty information desk, she rode the elevator to Buck's floor and, once there, walked into a room full of commotion.

  Two nurses and a nurse's aide talked excitedly at each other while one of them, the youngest of the three, stretched her upper body out the open window as if looking for something. One nurse held onto the young girl as if serving as an anchor so she wouldn't fall out. The other began to wring her hands. Sadie glanced into the restroom and saw that it was empty and then realized Buck was nowhere to be seen.

  “Excuse me.” Sadie's words startled the nurses. “Where is Mr. Skinner?”

  The nurse who had been wringing her hands looked at Sadie with wide eyes. “He flew out the window,” she said.

  “What?” Sadie rushed to the window, her heart racing, and pushed the nurses aside.

  Please don't tell me you jumped out the window, old man.

  She pulled the young nurse's aide inside, leaned out, and looked down, expecting to see Buck's twisted body sprawled like a rag doll on the grass below. Instead, the only thing she saw appeared to be life as usual—people walking back and forth on the sidewalk to the parking lot and cars moving about on the nearby street. No Buck.

  Sadie leaned back inside. “What in the world are you talking about? Where's Buck?”

  The nurse's aide spoke first. “The window isn't supposed to be open,” she said. “But every time I tried to close it he told me I had to leave it open in case he needed to change into a bird and fly away.”

  One of the other nurses spoke next. “He told me the same darned thing, but I swear I thought he was joking.”

  The nurse who had been quiet finally spoke. “Indians do that, you know. That old man is a full-blood Cherokee. He very easily could have changed into a bird and flew off.”

  “Right.” Sadie rolled her eyes. “Have you checked to see if maybe he just walked down the hall? He could be visiting another patient.”

  The nurse's aide closed the window and walked past Sadie to the door. “That's what I said. He's around here somewhere.”

  “Don't close the window.” The quiet nurse looked scared. “He won't be able to get back in.”

  Sadie began to laugh. “Well, if the window is closed and he can't get back in, I guess he'll have to use the front door.”

  The other nurse spoke. “He can't leave without the doctor's permission. That's AMA.”

  Sadie wrinkled her forehead.

  “Against medical advice,” the nurse clarified, “and he'll be sorry. The insurance won't pay if you leave before the doctor gives the okay.”

  Sadie chuckled to herself, wondering if the nurse really thought a man like Buck had to answer to anyone, including the advice of a doctor in a hospital or an insurance company. For the next hour, she helped the others unsuccessfully search the hospital for her friend. Finally she decided the most logical answer, since Buck's clothes were also missing, was that Buck had talked someone into taking him home. She was certain he hadn't escaped through the fourth floor window like the nurses seemed to think. Instead, he had probably walked straight out the front door with not one person noticing.

  She gave the head nurse her phone number and asked to be notified if Buck showed up. As she walked out the door, she ran headlong into Charlie.

  “Charlie, what are you doing here?”

  Charlie looked around the room. “I understand your friend has escaped,” he said.

  “Escaped?” Sadie asked, confused. “What are you talking about?”

  “The bank got another threatening phone call today,” he said. “We were able to trace it back to the hospital. The switchboard operator says there's no way to identify which extension it came from, but if I was a betting man I'd bet it came straight from this room.”

  “Why in the world would you think that?” Sadie said, disgusted. “First you try to connect him to a murder and now you accuse him of making threatening phone calls to the bank. You don't know Buck. This is all ludicrous.”

  “Do you know where he is?”

  Sadie raised her chin and spoke sarcastically. “Why don't you ask the nurse? She told me he changed into a bird and flew out the window.”

  Charlie ignored her comment. “Don't you think it's kind of convenient that he turns up missing every time someone wants to talk to him?”

  An officer walked up to Charlie and Sadie. “I'm sorry to interrupt, Sir, but we've searched all the rooms on this floor and he's not here. Do you want us to continue to the other floors?”

  “Yes,” Charlie snapped, “and the outside grounds, too.” The officer disappeared and Charlie turned his attention back to Sadie. “Sadie, you can't always tell a book by its cover. You of all people should know that by now.”

  Anger flared throughout her body. She swallowed the razor-sharp words she wanted so desperately to scream, then wheeled around and marched to the elevator, leaving Charlie standing alone in the middle of the hall.

  As she drove toward Eucha, Sadie's mind raced. She mentally ran down a list of places where she thought she might find Buck. She scanned the sidewalk in front of the courthouse and county buildings, checked out the bank, and then drove slowly past Walmart, searching the parking lot for any sign of him. Realizing he must have caught a ride home with someone, she continued to Eucha. She felt in her heart he was just trying to get home, and it was certainly too far to walk. A smile crossed her face. She could see him in her mind's eye sitting on his back porch watching his horses.

  When she turned off the main highway onto the Eucha road, a thought flashed into her mind. Could Buck really be trying to hide from the law? Could he have had anything to do with the death of the identity thief? Her thoughts disintegrated when she rounded the last curve before Buck's house and saw the redheaded niece's Cadillac parked in the front yard.

  Relief spread through Sadie's body and she grinned. He must have been hiding in Dee Dee's car at the hospital. It was a simple and obvious explanation, and she couldn't believe she'd missed it. Buck had simply talked his niece into bringing him home.

  She parked behind Dee Dee's car and walked onto the porch. She could hear Dee Dee talking on the phone, but decided to knock anyway. She wanted to let Buck know to call her if he needed anything—a thought she was sure would irritate his niece.

  Dee Dee appeared at the door holding her cell phone in her hand. She didn't seem to be in a very happy mood.

  “What do you want?” she said through the screen door.

  “Is Buck here?” Sadie asked.

  “No, he's not here. And before you ask, the answer is: I don't know where the hell he is, either. Anything else?”

  “Oh.” Sadie tried to hide her shock. “I must have just missed him at the hospital, then. He wasn't in his room.”

  “Must have.”

  “Do you know when he's going to be released?”

  “Not a clue.” She looked at the cell phone in her hand. “I can't believe how bad the cell service is around here. You can't even have a decent conversation without the call dropping into oblivion.” She looked back at Sadie. “Now if that's it, I'm busy here.” Before Sadie could answer, Dee Dee turned her back and began to peck at the cell phone with her long fingernails.

  Sadie thought it better to retreat before she said something she might regret. As she
backed her car out of Buck's yard, the man she'd seen with Dee Dee at the hospital drove his rental car into the yard and parked. He eyed Sadie when he got out, but then moved to the front porch and entered the house.

  Sadie continued on toward her house, thinking about Dee Dee and the man Sadie surmised was Dee Dee's boyfriend. They seemed like an unlikely pair. He always dressed in a cheap suit, and Sadie was pretty sure if Dee Dee opened her mouth very far, she'd be able to see fangs.

  She stopped at her mailbox, gathered her mail, and then sat in her car for a moment and thought. If Buck wasn't home, then where in the world was he? She thought about Charlie's words and her anger returned. How dare he be insolent with her?

  She dialed Lance's number. He'd know what to do. He always did.

  Chapter 30

  “Sadie, calm down.” Lance spoke sternly into his cell phone. “Charlie's just trying to do his job…. If Buck's innocent, the truth will eventually come out…. No, I'm not taking Charlie's side…” He listened for a few moments before speaking in a more conciliatory tone. “Look, I'm getting ready to go into the community building. Why don't you come on over. You'll enjoy it…. Okay, okay. Then how about I give you a call later…. Sadie, get some rest. I promise we'll find him. I'm sure he's fine. I'll call you in a little while.”

  Lance sighed, flipped his phone shut, and dropped it in his shirt pocket. He guided his truck into a space alongside the road that promised an easy escape should he need to leave early and walked toward the steady beat of drums and the aroma of fry bread.

  Once inside, he was glad the organizers had opted to use the building instead of holding the gourd dance outside in the oppressive heat. The open windows and multiple electric fans provided a surprisingly pleasant airflow inside the building.