Illusive Witness

by S. Y. Thompson

  Ruth wondered if Jordan did her own shopping or had someone do it for her. That last thought caused her to hesitate as she chewed on a piece of prosciutto. As she chewed, she thought back to their conversation. Jordan had stressed the privacy to be found on Ghost Island, mentioning only a few neighbors. She had never said anything about help of any kind.

  Finally, Ruth shrugged off her nagging concerns. No one would intrude on her privacy here. Jordan was too thoughtful for that and if it had been a possibility, she would have mentioned it. With that little problem solved, Ruth opened a drawer looking for a knife.

  Soon, with coffee and sandwich in hand, she settled in at the small sitting area and took a healthy bite. She felt content with the simple meal and the cabin’s comfortable atmosphere. Aside from the serenity, Ruth felt good; better physically than she had in months. Even after the excitement this morning, she felt like things were looking up.

  Ghost Island was just what she needed. Ruth savored a sip from her coffee and glanced around, mentally planning the rest of her day. She still tired easily since the accident and the trip along the coast had taken up a great deal of her reserves. Although she fully intended to explore the rest of the island while she was here, Ruth needed pursuits that were more sedentary.

  A bookshelf full of hard-backed books occupied one corner of the living room. Ruth thought she would take a short walk on the beach to help digest her meal. After that and a decadent soak in the tub she hoped existed upstairs, she would light a fire and do some reading. The fire wasn’t necessary for warmth but she would enjoy it. Ruth only hoped there would be something to read besides medical reference materials.

  Ruth finished eating, rinsed her plate and slipped it into the dishwasher before topping off her coffee. She carried the mug with her to the front door and grabbed her bag from where she’d left it beside the entryway. Hefting the strap over her shoulder, she grabbed hold of the rail for support. Thankfully, there weren’t many steps and it wasn’t as hard as she thought it might be. The mahogany rail was polished to a high sheen and pleasantly cool under her palm. The carpet felt thick underfoot and she couldn’t hear any creaking from loose treads. At the top of the stairs, a door opened to the right before the landing led into a short hallway.

  Unsure of the layout, Ruth figured process of elimination was the way to go. She entered the first room she came to and then closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. She took in the heady scent of Jordan’s subtle perfume. This was clearly her room, but Ruth couldn’t force herself to leave. She allowed the strap to slide down her arm before dropping the bag to the floor and opening her eyes.

  Ruth noticed the white chenille spread on the queen-sized bed and the fine cherry wood furniture as she moved around the room. Her fingertips rested briefly on a wall photo of Jordan and an older couple. Judging by the resemblance and the smiles, they were her parents. The small family seemed close. An ornate porcelain music box sat in the center of the dresser along with a hairbrush and a partial roll of cherry lifesavers.

  A bemused smile rested on Ruth’s face when she found the roll of candy. There was something innocent about it that touched her heart. She turned away and took a deep breath feeling as though her heart would burst.

  “If I’m not in love,” she mused aloud, “I’m not far from it.”

  The knowledge seemed a bit ironic. Ruth had known Jordan for a few months now, but in a strictly professional capacity. Her desire had been present from the start, but it was only very recently that she’d even entertained the possibility of something more.

  Finally, she walked toward an open doorway in the far corner. It was clearly an adjoining bathroom, but she was curious about the layout. The room was larger than she would have expected, housing a large, deep garden tub backed by a stain-glass wall.

  The artist had decorated the glass with a scene straight out of Ruth’s fairytales. Trees grew straight and tall, populated with birds and squirrels. The one-dimensional air of the scene hosted butterflies while nymphs frolicked hand in hand over a wooded trail. Overhead, porcelain fixtures trimmed in gold and pink cast inviting light and a distinctly feminine atmosphere wholly in keeping with Ruth’s impression of Jordan.

  After absorbing the gentle atmosphere, Ruth moved on. She picked up her bag, eager to see what the other rooms looked like. She’d been wrong earlier, assuming that there would be nothing interesting to see on this floor.

  The next room to the left was a small, clean and apparently overly organized office. A computer, printer and scanner took up the surface of the desk and a file cabinet stood in the corner. The impression Ruth garnered from the impersonal room was that Jordan didn’t spend a lot of time in here. Her personality shown clearly everywhere else, but this room was without color, without flavor. Ruth didn’t linger. The hallway ended at another doorway and she entered the guest room.

  She dropped her bag in front of an exquisite low dresser and sighed with relief at ridding herself of the burden before looking around. This chest held a large mirror and she glanced at her reflection, pleased to note a healthy touch of pink in her cheeks. Her eyes held a glow of happiness that hadn’t been present in a long time.

  Ruth looked away to check out the room. The bed here was also queen-sized, covered in a soft, light green quilt. Touching it, she was delighted at the thickness and thought it must be handmade. Heavy curtains covered the windows and Ruth slid them back to gaze out onto the island. She gasped with surprise and delight at the view of the inlet. The sun shone off the water making it sparkle like a jewel. She guessed that Jordan’s room would have an equally stunning view as she considered the cabin’s layout. The glimpse from Jordan’s window would be of the beach and the pier. This was a magnificent place and Ruth could see why Jordan had made her home here. If Ruth lived here, she would never leave.

  The restroom sat to the right of this bedroom and she was curious to see how Jordan had it decorated. She crossed the threshold, simultaneously flipping on the light against the encroaching darkness. She wasn’t disappointed. Sunshine yellow featured as the predominant color, framing the hanging light fixture and shining brightly from the stained glass that featured brightly colored parrots.

  As much as she’d love to stand here admiring the view, Ruth suddenly had an overwhelming urge to be on the beach with the surf washing over her feet. She used the facilities and washed her face quickly before going back into the bedroom and unpacking her bag.

  Ruth laid out her clothing in the unoccupied drawers, smoothing them briefly before removing a pair of shorts, a T-shirt and pair of socks from her supplies. Then she stripped off her traveling clothes, tossing them across the bed to deal with later before changing. Her outfit was complete with tennis shoes and she was ready to go.

  Ruth decided to leave the cane at the cabin for the duration of this excursion. Since she planned to attempt to do without it during her vacation, she might as well start now. She could always fall back on it later if it proved impractical to do without.

  As quickly as possible, she was out of the cabin and retracing her earlier steps to the beach. It was now late afternoon, and the sun was just starting to descend. With a few hours of sunshine left, she was going to take full advantage of it. Ruth reached the edge of the tree line and she stopped to take off her shoes and socks. She left them where she stood. Then she walked quickly toward the surf. She had spent a great deal of time at the beach before the accident, and discovered now how much she had missed it. Maybe she would take the boat out tomorrow, not to fish since deep-sea fishing required a great deal of stamina if she should actually hook something. She just wanted a little pleasure cruise to enjoy the fresh air and get a little sun.

  Ruth considered the sun and thought she should be careful how long she spent outdoors. It had been a long time since she had been out for very long and she would burn easily.

  “I need to put sunscreen in the bag tomorrow.”

  With the sand between her toes and the water washing up to her ankles,
Ruth walked for a while. With each step she took, her feet sank slightly into the wet sand and she felt that much farther from her troubles. She knew that she would be sore later but right now, she felt like she could walk all the way around the island.

  That thought proved impossible a short while later when she came up to a place where the trees grew all the way down to the water. There was a small inlet here and she followed it, unsurprised when the sea gave way to a small tributary. Pleased and feeling on the edge of discovery, Ruth continued to follow where the creek would lead.

  Trees grew thicker here but weren’t so close together as to make things difficult. In fact, she found it charming. A small game trail led the way, twisting and turning as it followed closely beside the water. She rounded a corner and came upon an amazing sight. The tributary ended in a large pond of water that was fed by a waterfall. Fresh water fell over rocks that had been polished like glass over countless eons before crashing into the pond below. Birds sang in the trees undaunted by the human visitor, but the most stunning sight was all of the butterflies. There were hundreds of them in the air, flitting between flowers and resting on rocks and grass.

  Ruth felt almost breathless at the display and dropped to her knees where she was so she wouldn’t disturb anything. A tree trunk behind her made a good backrest and she prepared to spend hours staring at the view. Here in this place with the beauty of the world displayed before her, she could almost believe that there was no evil. She could see the cycle of life in front of her, embodied in the timeless grace of the trees and the waterfall. She had read somewhere that butterflies only lived eight hours after emerging from their cocoon, but they didn’t mourn the brevity of their lives. They immersed themselves in what time they had in unending movement. It was a lesson she took to heart, and with a decision made she looked to the future with a newness of hope that she hadn’t experienced in a very long time.

  In the end, it was the darkening sky and the soreness in her backside that forced Ruth from the wonderful setting she had discovered. It was time to be heading back since she really wasn’t accustomed to her surroundings. If she wasn’t careful, she could still get lost in the gloom. Back in these trees, she couldn’t hear the breaking of surf to guide her back to the beach. Ruth was going to have to move quickly to get back before it became too dark.

  The trip back took a little longer than she expected and she was tired. Still, the strain in her muscles was a good thing. The fatigue she felt was induced from exercise, not from injury.

  Ruth made it to the cabin with little daylight to spare. She took a lengthy soak in the tub, taking time to inspect the line of the scar on her leg. She was pleased with how it was healing. The mark began in the middle of her thigh and ran in a jagged line to the inside of her knee, but it wasn’t the unsightly raised line of a keloid. Once the injury completely healed, Ruth would have a thin scar that would fade and eventually prove difficult to detect. Her doctors had been very good.

  She remembered that she wanted to check out Jordan’s supply of reading material and finally forced herself to leave the hot water. Jordan wouldn’t be in tonight so with no intention of getting dressed, Ruth threw on a nightgown and a robe before heading downstairs. She started a fresh pot of coffee before heading into the living room.

  Ruth knelt down by the bookcase. Her fingertips slid across the spines of the books and she was surprised to discover that not one of them was a medical tome. In fact, from the titles she gleaned they were works of fiction. Ruth pulled a few of them from the shelf to learn that they were of the romantic genre, which was just what she needed tonight. A title caught her eye, Love’s Embrace. Ruth pulled the novel from the shelf to read the summary on the back, but what she found left her mouth hanging open in disbelief.

  The novel wasn’t a typical mainstream bodice-ripper. Instead, Ruth discovered it was lesbian romance. Now this was something she could get behind. Intrigued, she forgot about the coffee and carried the volume to the recliner. The writing was natural and easy to slip into, so easy that Ruth soon lost all track of time as she became engrossed in the story.

  Chapter Six

  AT A LITTLE after eight in the morning, Jordan Pierce had already put in three hours at the hospital. She hadn’t been able to sleep for thinking of Ruth waiting at home for her. When she had slept, it was to dream of walking in on Ruth innocently slumbering in her bed. In the dream, Jordan had slipped off her clothing and climbed into bed with Ruth. Warm skin had pressed sweetly against her as she slipped under the covers and took Ruth into her arms.

  Just as Ruth embraced her, Jordan had snapped awake. Her heart thundered with arousal and her breath came in short bursts. There was no possibility of going back to sleep so she had given up and taken a long, cold shower before dressing for work. As soon as she was fully awake, Jordan’s thoughts turned to work related issues and the missing narcotics.

  Trisha Flanagan had been on her mind a lot, always present in the recesses of her consciousness. Jordan had a hard time believing that she was stealing drugs. She certainly couldn’t believe that Trisha would have been stupid enough to stash them in her locker for anyone to find in an impromptu search. That could only mean that someone else had set her up. The whole conundrum left Jordan with two burning questions. Who would do that and why? Jordan suspected she knew the “who,” but as to the other part of that equation, she hadn’t a clue.

  With that weighing on her mind, Jordan had checked the narcotics cabinet and the pharmacy on the main floor as soon as she arrived at the hospital. Everything had been in order. Since then, Jordan had occupied her time working on the never-ending pile of paperwork that crossed her desk. She wanted to do more for Trisha, but she wasn’t a forensic investigator and didn’t have access to fingerprinting equipment. Even if she did, Mark Fuller’s fingerprints were sure to be present on the chest. Jordan felt sure she would find fingerprints matching several people at the hospital. Just because they were present wasn’t in itself an indication of guilt.

  She kept remembering what Ruth had said. She saw Mark Fuller leaving the hospital at the same time she did. Ruth didn’t believe Mark was involved in the theft and without proof Jordan had no choice but to let the police handle the inquiry. All Jordan could do was concentrate on her work. Her patients deserved a physician who put their welfare before all other concerns, regardless of her personal unease. At eight o’clock, Jordan began her rounds.

  A patient had fractured his leg in four places after a skiing accident in Big Bear. He was the first patient on her agenda and it took only a few minutes to ensure that he was recovering nicely. He refused his medication by reaching instead for her backside and chuckling when she nimbly avoided the contact.

  “Lots of practice dodging sickos like myself?” He sounded cheerful, not at all offended by her evasion.

  “Something like that,” Jordan answered with a smile. “Somehow, I think you do it just to test my reflexes. If you actually meant it your wife would have murdered you a long time ago.”

  Mr. Patterson rolled his eyes. “Boy, have you got that right. If I even seriously looked at another woman, she’d have my family jewels and I’d be singing in the Vienna Boys Choir.”

  Jordan snorted in disbelief. “As if you can sing.”

  She let him know he could go home later in the day and continued on her rounds. Patterson was a good man and she didn’t consider him a serious threat in the sexual assault department. As much as he teased, Jordan had seen him with his wife a few times and witnessed the open adoration on his face.

  Sometimes she wondered why he persisted in his adolescent flirtations when he so clearly wasn’t interested. Did he think that a man worth four million dollars was supposed to act like that? She honestly didn’t know, but it seemed crazy that society expected a man of means to conduct himself like a rogue.

  Crazy seemed to be the theme lately though. Jordan was beginning to think that the world at large was going stark-raving loony tunes and that she was the only sane
person in a sea of madness. Then again, what she was feeling for Ruth Gallagher could hardly be termed balanced. Jordan glanced casually into the medication room as she passed by in the hallway and stopped dead in her tracks.

  Jordan closed her eyes tightly and shook her head thinking that she must surely be mistaken. When she opened them again, the scene seemed surreal and the details were so sharp that she thought that surely she must be in shock. Sunshine streamed into the room so brightly it felt like it was trying to peel the corneas off her eyes. The fizz and crackle of electricity flowing through the fluorescent lights resonated off her eardrums and the cool hospital air caused a chill of dread to trickle down her spine. Still, it was what she saw that generated the overload of her other senses.

  It couldn’t be. She had been here less that fifteen minutes ago and it hadn’t been this way. Trisha Flanagan was no longer working for the hospital. She’d resigned two days ago, so it couldn’t possibly be her. Yet as Jordan looked again, she couldn’t deny the truth. The medications cabinet was open and just from a brief passing glance it looked as though most of the contents were missing.

  Jordan entered the room and approached the cabinet slowly as though afraid something would jump out and bite her. Nothing moved as she approached the sagging glass door, but what she saw confirmed her suspicions. Most of the usual inventory was gone. Jordan reached out to check the lock and stopped. If this were a crime scene, which she highly suspected, she didn’t want to chance leaving fingerprints or DNA.

  All doctors assigned to the hospital had keys to fit the cabinets, but Jordan rarely touched the medications cabinets. She leaned toward writing prescriptions for the pharmacy staff to fill. On the rare occasions that she dispensed medication, she tended to hand out boxes of samples free of charge as agreed by pharmaceutical companies and the hospital board.