The Lodge at Whispering Pines

by Melissa R. L. Simonin

  Doreen gave us a narrow-eyed look for a moment, her lip twitching. Suddenly her expression changed, and she crossed the room to hug us both. I was suspicious at first, but needlessly so.

  “Good,” she said, looking at Miles. “I forgot until now, but thank you for figuring out what was wrong with me. No one else did, not even all the doctors. They said I was making it up to get out of school.”

  “I know,” said Miles, his eyes serious. “Anika told me.”

  “How did you figure it out?”

  “Lots and lots of time spent studying,” he said. “When Anika told me what your symptoms were, I remembered.”

  “Well… thanks.”

  “Sure,” Miles smiled. “Any time.”

  Doreen turned and walked to the doorway. She paused and looked back over her shoulder.

  “That doesn’t mean I’m going to give up,” she said, her eyes mischievous.

  “I’d be disappointed in you if you did.”

  Miles smiled, and Doreen and I laughed.

  Then, we went to bed. After all, the girl has youth group in the morning and we’ve got an interview with Spence!

  Chapter 21

  “We should come here more often,” I said, looking around at the coffee shop in which we sat.

  The shop’s contemporary style boasted clean lines in its furniture and wall décor, all of which were primarily in shades of cream, brown, tan, and red.

  “What do you like about it?” asked Miles, following my gaze as I looked around.

  “This latte,” I said as I took a sip of the delicious drink.

  “Just that one?” Miles smiled.

  “We should come back and find out. Maybe they’re all this good.”

  “Okay,” Miles laughed. “We’ll do that.”

  He glanced at the door, and so did I. A guy with dark hair looked around anxiously, then his eyes fastened on Miles.

  “It’s Spence,” Miles said, as he waved and smiled. Spence hurried over, and Miles stood and shook hands. “Hi Spence, thanks for meeting with us. This is my wife, Anika. Anika, this is Spence.”

  “Hi Spence,” I said, shaking his hand also.

  There was no cloud of darkness hanging over him. Only anxiety.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Spence said. He had a really deep voice.

  “It’s nice to meet you too,” I replied.

  “Please, have a seat,” Miles said, and he and Spence both did. “We have two questions we first need to ask, and then we’ll get down to how we can help you.”

  “Okay,” said Spence, wondering what was coming.

  “Did you have anything whatsoever to do with the injuries that left Violet comatose?” Miles asked.

  “No! I didn’t hurt her, and I never would.” His eyes were intense, and he was telling the truth.

  “Okay, good,” I said. “Do you have any idea who did?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I really don’t.”

  “Okay. Thank you, Spence.”

  I looked at Miles and he raised an eyebrow.

  “He’s telling the truth,” I said.

  “Excellent,” said Miles, leaning forward in his chair a bit. “So tell us what you remember about the night she was injured.”

  “I had to go to a departmental party,” said Spence, thinking back.

  “Xander told us about Gina Frederick and how she was using your job to get to you,” I said.

  “Yeah.” Spence shook his head as if he still couldn’t believe it. “I don’t get it, I never led her on. Not at all. I tried to be polite at first, but that was all.”

  “It’s okay, Spence. She was the same way with Miles last year.”

  “Anika and I were already engaged at the time. We had a class with Gina, and she joined the study group we were in.”

  “Miles never encouraged her either, and we were always together. But as one of our friends said, she looked at me as if I had something that belonged to her. She’s a troubled girl, and we’re both wondering if she’s also dangerous. Do you have any reason to believe Gina isn’t the one that tried to kill Violet?”

  “Well… Gina didn’t know that I was dating Violet, so… if she was jealous of her, then I’d say she’s extremely dangerous!”

  Hm.

  “Violet’s parents said you didn’t want her to go to the party because of Gina,” I said, frowning.

  “I was told by Professor Frederick that as his TA, my attendance was mandatory. It was part of my job to be there and help out, not to have fun. I was told not to bring a date.”

  “So it wasn’t that you were told specifically not to bring Violet,” I said.

  “Correct,” said Spence.

  “Violet did go to the party after all,” said Miles. “Tell us about that.”

  “Friends of mine, students in the department, were going to be there, so Violet came with them.”

  “Did you know she would be there?” I asked.

  “Yes. I hoped I’d have a chance to talk to her at least some, and after it was over then we’d go out and do something. A movie or dinner. Whatever we had time for.”

  “Okay. So did you get to talk to her very much?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Looking back, I’m positive the reason I was told not to bring a date and that attendance was part of my job, was to keep Gina happy.”

  “So that she wouldn’t do something stupid? Like try to kill your date?” I asked.

  “That’s not what I was thinking,” said Spence. “Now I wonder, though. Someone tried to murder Violet, or the police wouldn’t be asking me questions the way they are, trying to trip me up so that I say something that isn’t the truth.”

  “If you spent any time with Violet at the party, then why wouldn’t Gina become jealous? You don’t seem to think she did,” said Miles.

  “I hung out with Violet and the friends she came with. We didn’t act like a couple, there was no hand holding or anything like that. We were careful not to give anyone a reason to think I was there with a date. I needed that job to pay for grad school. I couldn’t afford to give Professor Frederick a reason to fire me.”

  “Did Gina try and hang out with your group?” I asked.

  “Yeah. She’s not majoring in the department though, and the conversations were way over her head. Some of my and Violet’s friends know the situation and don’t like Gina, at all. The girls made sure Gina knew she was an outsider and not welcome to join us. It sounds mean, I know, but…”

  “We’ve been there ourselves,” I was quick to remind myself, as well as Spence. “Normal polite behavior only encourages some people in their delusions. We get it.”

  Spence nodded.

  “So tell us what happened next,” Miles said.

  “Gina went to another part of the main living area. The house is big, and has an open floor plan downstairs.”

  “Did she watch you and your group?” I asked.

  “Yeah, she did… she had some friends there. She hung out with them, but every time I glanced around the room it seemed like she was watching.”

  “And you are quite certain that Gina did not realize that you and Violet were in some way together?” I asked.

  “Well… Violet and I sort of click. I’m not sure it’s possible to hide that, if you know what I mean. But we didn’t sit together, and we talked to everyone in the group, not just each other.”

  I knew exactly what he meant about clicking, and so did Miles.

  “Okay. So then what? How did you and Violet get separated?”

  “She wanted to leave, and so did I. There were a lot of people there, and in spite of what Professor Frederick said, there was nothing for me to do. The place was so packed it would take until the party was over for him to figure out I wasn’t there, and… I’d had it. If he gave me any problem, I was ready to go straight to the dean and lodge a complaint.”

  “Understandable,” said Miles. “It needed to happen. Did you?”

  “No,” Spence said. “When Violet was found, I
was devastated.”

  He stopped and pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes for a moment. Miles and I were silent, giving him time to collect himself.

  “If Professor Frederick hadn’t insisted I go, if I’d stood up to him, Violet never would have been there. She wouldn’t be in a coma now,” he said, his voice breaking.

  “You really care about her,” I said.

  “Yeah. I like her—so much.”

  He loves her. He knows that, but never had a chance to tell her. My heart hurt for him.

  “Violet is in a much better hospital now,” said Miles. “Her chances of recovery with the doctors there, are greater than before.”

  A ray of hope filled Spence’s eyes, then it vanished.

  “Her parents hate me. They think I did this to her. I don’t understand it! Why do they think that now?”

  “They didn’t before?” I asked.

  “No! They couldn’t get me in to see her, but I called every day and they updated me. Her Mom seemed to like me, and her Dad. I don’t know what happened. And now the police, too.”

  “What’s happening right now is terrible,” I said. “Miles and I are on it, though. We’ll get this sorted out.”

  “We will,” said Miles. “We have experience in this department and the necessary resources. We’ll see that your name is cleared.”

  “Thank you,” said Spence. “I hope you’re right.”

  “We are,” I said. “Count on it. We need your help in setting up a meeting with Gina, though. Obviously there’s bad blood between us. Not only for her many attempts to get between Miles and I, but also because she gave out personal information about our schedules and the layout of my apartment, to a woman determined to murder us.”

  “I’d say she’s more than a little afraid to be near either one of us after that,” said Miles.

  The look of shock on Spence’s face turned to anger.

  “Maybe she did do this to Violet, then!”

  “We need to know one way or another,” Miles said.

  “Knowing her, she’ll probably be willing to meet if you ask her to,” I said.

  “And then what?” Spence asked. He still looked angry, but who could blame him!

  “Work out a time and place, and we’ll be there,” Miles said. “It won’t be necessary for you to see her at all.”

  “Good. Because I do not want to see her,” said Spence.

  ~*~

  Miles and I followed the crosswalk back to the church building where my family attends, and where Doreen’s youth group meeting was currently in progress.

  “Kind of strange she wants us to meet her in the hall outside the room,” I said to Miles quietly, as we walked through the almost deserted lobby toward the stairs leading to the basement.

  “Why is it strange? Where else would we meet her?”

  “According to Mom… the parking lot. Doreen’s mortified otherwise, she thinks it makes her look like a baby if Mom or Dad come in for her.”

  “She wants to be her own person and illogical as it is, she sees your mother as a threat to that.”

  “That makes no sense,” I said, trying to think back to when I was her age. Doreen was about a year old, and Mom was busy with her… if anything, I was jealous I had to share!

  “No, but that’s how she sees it at this age. You however, don’t threaten her identity. She wants to be like you, if anything. She probably wants her friends to meet her really cool sister, that’s why we haven’t been banished to wait in the parking lot.”

  “With the really cool life and the even cooler husband,” I said. “Okay, I guess I get it. Prepare to act really cool then, I’d hate to disappoint her.”

  Miles laughed, and we had a seat on the couch outside the youth group room. It sounded like the kids were playing a game. Or staging a revolt. There was a lot of excited yelling involved.

  “I have good memories of youth group,” I said. “Before Dad lost his job.”

  “You weren’t part of it after that?”

  “I had to work on weekends.”

  The room grew quiet. Every once in a while we heard a faint voice, but whatever they were doing now, they were taking turns.

  “I think they’re wrapping up,” I said.

  “I’m in no hurry,” Miles replied.

  The noise level went up suddenly, and feet pounded toward the door. It was thrown open, and several kids other than my sister streamed out. Others stayed behind, talking and laughing.

  Doreen burst out of the room with a group of girls and a few guys, in her wake. Her eyes were bright and she was smiling. She either had a good time, or was glad to see us. Probably both.

  “Hi, how was it?” I asked, as Miles and I stood.

  “Great! Guys, this is my sister and my brother-in-law, Miles.”

  Again, I have no name.

  “Hello, it’s nice to meet you,” Miles smiled at Doreen’s friends, and so did I.

  The guys said hello in response, but the girls mostly smiled, giggled, looked shy, or a combination of the three.

  “Ready to go?” I asked.

  “Sure,” she said.

  Doreen said goodbye to her friends, and we walked back up the stairs, through the lobby, and into the cold winter world outside.

  And then, she wanted to know.

  “So what did he say!”

  “He’s innocent for one thing,” I said. “That’s the most significant part of what we learned. Violet and her parents are both wrong about some things, too.”

  “Like what?” she asked.

  “Gina didn’t know Violet, and didn’t know that she and Spence were dating,” I answered. “Not before the party, anyway. It wasn’t that Spence was told not to bring Violet; he was told not to bring a date.”

  “Violet’s parents were on good terms with Spence, until Gina came forward claiming to have witnessed Spence assault Violet,” added Miles.

  “Spence loves Violet,” I said. “He’s devastated about everything that’s happened. I feel horrible for him.”

  “I do too,” agreed Miles. “We’ll prove he’s innocent, which will right several wrongs.”

  “The O’Neills won’t hate him anymore,” said Doreen.

  “Maybe he can visit Violet in the ICU,” I said.

  “So what’s next?” she wanted to know.

  “We meet with Gina,” said Miles. “Spence is going to arrange it for us, and as soon as possible.”

  “Where are you going to meet her?” she wondered.

  “Our sitting room!” I laughed. “Wouldn’t that just serve her right, if she did try to kill Violet. It would anyway, since she’s lying and saying Spence is guilty.”

  “When we get done with this, Gina is going to be in real trouble, you do realize that; right?” questioned Miles. “Even if she isn’t responsible for Violet’s injuries, Gina lied to the police. She made a false accusation, a very serious one. She’s interfering with a police investigation. She’s going to experience the consequences of her very poor choices.”

  “She ought to, after what she’s done,” I said.

  “No kidding,” agreed Doreen.

  “She will,” said Miles with certainty.

  “So where are you going to meet her instead?” asked Doreen.

  “We’ll know when we hear back from Spence,” said Miles, as we reached our SUV and he opened the doors for Doreen and I.

  We got in, and so did Miles. He started the vehicle, then looked at his watch.

  “It’s noon… are you two hungry?”

  “Always,” said Doreen. “But what else is there to do?”

  “We could drop by the hospital for a few minutes first,” said Miles, looking to me for my opinion.

  “Sure, let’s do that,” I said. “I’d really like an update on Violet if we can get one. They’ve surely run at least some of the tests Dr. Reeves wanted done yesterday.”

  “Can you live that long before filling up, Doreen?” asked Miles, glancing at her in the rearvie
w mirror.

  “Yes! Let’s do that first,” she agreed.

  Miles drove the short distance to the hospital, and before long, we were standing outside the Neurosciences ICU. Miles pressed the intercom button.

  “How may I help you?” a voice said over the speaker.

  “Miles, Anika, good to see you again!” We turned to see Dr. Reeves walking toward us. We stood back as he came closer and said into the speaker, “Never mind, I’ll take care of it.”

  Miles, Doreen and I looked at each other. I raised my eyebrows, and Miles shrugged.

  “You’re here to see Violet, I assume?” asked Dr. Reeves as he swiped his key card.

  “Yes, that’s right,” said Miles.

  “Walk with me then,” said Dr. Reeves, and as the doors slowly swung open, we did.

  “Thank you, Doctor,” Miles said.

  “You’re welcome. Thought I’d save you some trouble this way. Only two visitors allowed at a time, and I’ll be surprised if Violet’s parents aren’t with her right now.”

  “How is she?” I asked.

  “I’m on my way to update her parents,” Dr. Reeves said. “With their permission, I’ll update you as well.”

  “Great, thanks Doctor,” said Miles.

  We walked through the ICU and past room after room, until we reached Violet’s. Mr. O’Neill looked up as we approached, and Mrs. O’Neill set aside the book she’d been reading aloud. Their faces filled with a mixture of intense hope and fear.

  “Good afternoon,” said Dr. Reeves. “And how is our patient today?” He nodded to the O’Neills, and they stepped out into the hall with the rest of us, while he did a brief examination.

  “Hi, how are you?” I asked as I hugged Mrs. O’Neill, and Miles and Mr. O’Neill greeted each other.

  “Holding on,” she said, looking over at Dr. Reeves, then back at me. “It’s good to be able to sit with her anyway.”

  “I can imagine,” I said.

  “And how are you, young lady?” Mr. O’Neill asked Doreen.

  “Fine,” she smiled.

  Conversation ceased as Dr. Reeves stepped into the hall with the rest of us.

  “The results of the tests run after Violet was brought in yesterday, have come in. I don’t know how to explain this…”