Daddy's Gone a Hunting (15 page)

K
ate’s condition did not improve over the weekend. Hannah knew that Dr. Patel considered that to be a setback. Hannah spent most of Saturday in the hospital, finally leaving when Jessie dragged her out for dinner.

Sunday morning she was back. Dr. Patel had also stopped in to check on Kate. Seeing the dark circles under Hannah’s eyes, he said emphatically, “Hannah, you can’t sit here all day again. If there is any meaningful change in your sister’s condition you will be notified promptly. After all the rain we’ve had, it’s a beautiful day. Go for a walk and then go home and rest. I doubt if you’ve had much sleep since Thursday.”

“I’ve already decided that I’ll leave, at least for a few hours,” she told him.

That was not enough to satisfy the doctor. “Hannah, Kate could go on in this condition for months. I’ve had other cases like this, patients in a deep coma, and I tell all families to live as normally as possible. Go to work tomorrow. Don’t cancel your usual activities.”

“But Kate spoke to my father on Thursday afternoon.”

“Even if she seemed to be able to say a few words, I would suggest that they were probably meaningless.”

If they were meaningless, Kate didn’t know what she was doing
when it sounded as if she admitted to setting the fire, Hannah thought with a faint ray of hope. Is that possible?

She realized she was fighting back tears of exhaustion and worry when she thanked the doctor for his care of Kate.

“I’ll stop by again in late afternoon,” he assured her. Then with a smile he asked, “Which part of my advice are you taking, a long walk or a rest at home?”

“I’m afraid neither,” Hannah said. “It occurred to me that I had better check Kate’s apartment. There’s probably food in the refrigerator that should be thrown out.”

“Yes, I suppose there is.” As Dr. Patel nodded, his cell phone rang and with a slight wave of his hand, he stepped outside.

For thirty agonizing seconds, Hannah was sure that he was being summoned back to Kate’s bedside, but then through the large interior window she could see out to the corridor. She watched as the doctor, speaking on his cell phone, broke into a smile as he walked away. It is time I got some fresh air, she thought. I’ll walk through the park to the West Side. It will do me good. Then I’ll come back here later to check on Kate.

After the mostly cold and rainy week, Central Park was filled with joggers, strollers, and bicyclists enjoying the sunshine even though the temperature was still a brisk fifty-four degrees. As she walked, Hannah inhaled deeply, trying to force her mind to restore some sense of balance. As Dr. Patel had warned, Kate’s condition might stay the same for a long time, she reminded herself. If the police try to blame the explosion on Kate, I’ve got to have a clear head to work with Jessie to defend her. Yesterday Jessie gently suggested that I might want to have my own lawyer in case they try to drag me in, too. She recommended another attorney that she says is tops. I’ll look into it if I need to in the next few days.

Involuntarily she smiled at the sight of a pretty young mother pushing her two children in a double stroller. The smaller one
was about two years old, the taller one about a year older. Hannah thought about the pictures of her and Kate with their own mother when they were little. Some of them had been with her in Central Park. In all of them, their mom, like this young mother, had been so pretty and looked so proudly happy of her babies.

What would it have been like if she had lived? Certainly Dad would have been much more involved with us instead of being out or away so much. Yesterday he had stopped at the hospital in the late afternoon, staying only a half hour or so. He had told her then that his big concern has been whether Kate might have muttered anything more about the fire within hearing of the hospital staff. If he shows up when I’m there this afternoon, she reminded herself, I’ll tell him that Dr. Patel said that anything Kate might say while she is still in the coma is probably meaningless.

She left the park at West Sixty-seventh Street and walked up Central Park West to Sixty-ninth, then turned left. A block and a half later, she was in front of Kate’s building, a few doors west of Columbus Avenue. She and Kate had given each other a spare set of keys to their apartments, and it was a good thing we did, she thought. Kate’s shoulder bag with her keys inside had not been found. It had probably been torn from her and destroyed by the force of the explosion.

The doorman opened the door for Hannah. She did not recognize him. Over the past year she had gotten to know some of the regular staff. The desk clerk recognized her at once, and by rote, she gave him the same answer she was giving to everybody: “Kate’s condition is serious. We’re hoping and praying for the best.”

She picked up Kate’s mail and stuffed it in her shoulder bag, then took the elevator up to the apartment. At first glance everything was still in its usual pristine order. Jessie had warned her that it was very probable that, as the investigation developed, the police would regard Kate as an active suspect in setting or planning the
fire. In that case, they would certainly obtain a warrant to search her apartment. And Gus’s home, too. Poor Lottie if that happens, she thought.

She shook off her coat, and as she walked around the living room, she saw a folded blanket and pillow on the couch. The Bose radio that was usually in the kitchen was on the end table next to the couch. She pushed the alarm button and could see that it had last been set for 3:30
A.M.
That made sense, she thought. The explosion happened an hour later. She walked into the bedroom. It was in immaculate order. She opened the walk-in closet. At the hospital they told her that Kate had been wearing a running suit and an outer jacket when she was found in the parking lot of the complex.

She must have changed into the running suit when she came back from dinner with Doug, Hannah thought. Then she got a blanket and pillow, set the alarm, and lay down on the couch. But why did she meet Gus at that ungodly hour?

She looked around Kate’s bedroom seeking answers. Even the way it was furnished was a rebellion against the Connelly fine reproductions décor. There were three white throw rugs on the polished fruitwood floor. The four-poster metal bed held a white comforter. The navy blue and white dust ruffle was repeated on the pillows that were propped on the headboard. White valances with narrow blue and white panels framed the two wide windows, one of which gave Kate a bird’s-eye view of the Hudson River.

Modern bedside tables, a television set on a swivel, a desk, and a large club chair with an ottoman were the only other furnishings in the room. The walk-in closet had been custom-designed to hold shelves of sweaters, scarves, and gloves, and racks of shoes. And God knows what else, Hannah thought. Kate could not abide clutter.

Feeling like an intruder, Hannah walked over to Kate’s desk. The narrow drawer under the surface was a study in perfection. The usual trappings were there. A letter opener, an extra pen, a roll of stamps,
personal writing paper, an address book, the kind people used before email and text messaging.

The large bottom drawer contained the kind of files used by any bill-paying adult, except the last file. It was marked
WILL—COPY
.

Her hands trembling, Hannah took out the file and opened it. On the inside cover was the name and address of the attorney Kate had used for estate planning purposes. She had written underneath it “original in safe deposit box.” Besides the copy of her will, there was a sealed envelope marked
HANNAH
in the file.

Careful to open the envelope so slowly that she could reseal it, Hannah began to read:

Dearest Hannah,

If you are reading this it is probably because I am dead. Except for some charities, I have left everything I have to you, including, of course, my ten percent interest in the company.

I hope this will be read by your eyes only but I must warn you that I don’t trust Dad. He is a spender and out for himself always. If anything happens to me, be sure to have my fellow CPA, Richard Rose, keep an eye on the company books. I don’t want you to be cheated.

I cannot understand why Doug will not face reality, unless by forcing the company into bankruptcy he hopes to have a financial gain for himself at the expense of the employees. The antiques in the museum are separately owned, eighty percent by him and ten percent each by you and me, and would not be an asset of the company.

I know you have always been glad to let me handle our business interests but now you must take over.

Hope you don’t read this for fifty years or so.

Love you my little sister,

Kate

Her eyes brimming with tears, Hannah put the letter back in the envelope and resealed it. Then she hesitated. Face it, she told herself fiercely. What if Kate doesn’t fully recover? Who will be her guardian? I wouldn’t put it past Dad to come over here and take a look at her personal records. I don’t think he has a key, but the desk clerk might let him in.

She took the envelope out. I can’t wait to put this back if Kate gets well, Hannah thought, but until then it’s safer with me. She had the combination to Kate’s small safe. It was on a wall in the closet. She opened it and took out Kate’s jewelry from their boxes. In her will their mother had left all of her jewelry to her daughters, to be given to them at age twenty-one. Kate had rings and necklaces and bracelets that were quite valuable. Anyone knowing that the apartment was empty indefinitely might find a way to get in. Hannah knew these small safes were easy prey for a professional thief.

She did not allow herself to complete the thought that her father might try to make a claim on the jewelry, given his out-of-control spending habits. Hannah put the letter and the jewelry inside her large shoulder bag. She then went to check on the second bedroom, which Kate used as a den.

The room contained a pullout couch, a comfortable chair, end tables, and a sixty-inch television. Hannah knew that after a long day at her office, Kate loved to sink into her favorite chair, relax, and have a late supper as she watched TV. I hope so much that she gets home soon, Hannah thought, her eyes stinging with tears.

Her last check was the kitchen. She looked for the phone number for Kate’s every-other-week cleaning woman, Marina, to ask her to take all of the perishables out of the refrigerator. She found it on the refrigerator and called her. Since she said she would not be in until Thursday, Hannah glanced into the refrigerator to make sure nothing was already spoiling. Her final concern was the leafy plant
Kate had on the windowsill. In the four days since Kate was last at home it had begun to wilt without water.

That’s another thing I know nothing about, Hannah thought. Kate has a green thumb. I look at a plant and it dies. It was at that moment that Kate’s phone in the kitchen rang. Hannah picked it up. It was the desk clerk. “Ms. Connelly,” he said, “a Mr. Justin Kramer is here. He sold his condo to your sister. He was inquiring about how to reach you and I told him that you were here. It seems he gave a plant to your sister as a housewarming gift, and he wanted to offer to take care of it until she gets back home.”

Until she gets back home!
Words Hannah desperately needed to hear from someone else’s lips.

“Please send Mr. Kramer right up,” she said.

34

W
hen Justin Kramer came upstairs to Kate’s apartment, Hannah had immediately liked what she was seeing. He looked to be in his early thirties. Trim, about five feet ten, with hazel eyes, a firm jaw, and a head of curly dark brown hair, he reminded her of a boy she’d had a crush on when she was sixteen.

His concern for Kate was genuine. He explained, “I got in over my head when I bought this condo. Then when I lost my job in the Wall Street fallout two years ago, I knew it would be wise to sell it. My father drilled into us that you trim your sails when there’s a financial pinch and you don’t dip into savings. The investment firm I’m with now is even better than the one I was with before. But I’ll never forget how concerned your sister was about me. That was why when I read about the accident, I thought of the plant I had given her and that if she still had it, it would need care. I know that with everything that has happened, it’s a very small gesture, but I wanted to do something.”

“That’s just like Kate to be concerned about the other guy,” Hannah said simply. “She’s that kind of person.”

“I understand that she’s badly injured, but, for whatever it’s worth, I have a strong feeling that she’ll make it through. I obviously have seen the hints in the media that Kate might be implicated in
the explosion. As little as I know her, I absolutely cannot believe that Kate could ever be involved with something like this.”

“Thank you for that,” Hannah said, “and thank you for believing that she’ll make it through all this. Right now, being in her home and wondering if she’ll ever see it again, I needed to hear that.”