Hideaway Hospital Murders (17 page)

“
Good morning,
Ladies.”

“
Morning, Hadley,” said
Macy. She was brushing Mallie Mae’s hair.

“
Good morning, Hadley,”
said Mallie Mae. “Wish you were going with us.”

“
Me too, Ma’am,” he said.
“But Dr. Mobley insisted that I go to Karnack.”

“
To see your brother?” said
Macy.

“
Yes, Ma’am. And do some
fishing.” He held out his fishing hat.

“
I haven’t been to Caddo
Lake in years,” said Macy.

Hadley’s eyes sparkled with excitement.
“It’s fabulous. We’ll spend the whole day out there. And then
tonight for dinner, it’ll be all the Catfish and hush puppies we
can eat.”

“
Sounds delicious, Hadley,”
said Macy. “So, you’re spending the night?”

“
Yes, Ma’am. Dr. Mobley
told me to stay gone until tomorrow afternoon.”

“
Well, y’all have fun,”
said Macy.

“
Oh, I intend to, Ma’am,”
said Hadley with a big grin.

He walked out of the room and down the
stairs to the garage and out the back door. Hadley kept his vehicle
in the old barn, which was also where he worked on the car from
time to time. It was a shiny black 1956 Buick Roadmaster Riviera
with red interior.

He was surprised to see Carnie’s Malibu
missing. She had been parking it in the barn the last couple of
days.

Hadley flipped open his cell phone as he
drove away from the house.

“
Hello?”

“
Is this Horatio’s Fish
Camp?” said Hadley.

“
Hey, Ben. You on your
way?” said Horatio.

“
Yes, Sir. And tell Alma
she’d better be ready to cook up a huge mess of Catfish
tonight.”

“
Oh, you wanna do
some
serious
fishing, huh?”

“
You got
that
right.”

“
Well, I already hitched up
the boat. So, hurry up.”

“
I’ll get there as fast as
I can.”

Hadley never drove his prized Roadmaster
over 50 mph. He changed the oil every 2,000 miles and waxed it four
times a year.

“
Sorry about the late
notice,” said Hadley.

“
No problem. You know I’m
always ready to throw a line in the lake. But why did Dr. Mobley
wait until this morning to give you the day off?”

He rarely had a full day off, and he
couldn’t remember the last time he had done an overnighter. But he
didn’t mind. He was part of the family, after all.

“
Well, just yesterday he
planned an all-day trip to the Dallas Zoo with his mother and Macy,
and I guess he realized this morning it would be a good time for me
to get away too.”

“
Well, that was nice of
him. But I’m surprised he didn’t want you to drive them to
Dallas.”

“
Yeah, me too. It seems
like everybody in the house is acting kinda funny
lately.”

“
Really? What do you
mean?”

“
We just found out this
week that Mrs. Mobley has Alzheimer’s.”

“
Oh, Lord.”

“
Yeah, it’s
awful.”

“
I hope me and Alma never
get it.”

“
Only thing is, I’m not
sure she actually has it.”

“
Well, didn’t she go to the
doctor?”

“
Yeah. Dr. Mobley sent her
to a specialist in Dallas, and he ran a bunch of tests on her, and
they came back positive. But I haven’t seen her having any
problems. Her memory seems fine.”

“
Yeah, but they say the
memory kinda comes and goes. Especially when you first get
it.”

“
I guess so.”

“
Well, hurry up, Man. We’re
burning daylight.”

“
See you soon,
Horry.”

**********

“
I thought we were going to
wear old, worn-out clothes today?” said Greg.

“
This
is
old,” said
Cynthia.

“
It’s just not possible for
you to look bad, is it?”

“
I’m not wearing
makeup
.”

“
See. That’s what I’m
talking about.”

“
Quit.” She nearly
blushed.

“
You wanna go through
McDonald’s on the way out?”

“
Sure.”

“
Didn’t it feel good to
skip the run this morning and sleep a little longer?” he said, as
they walked to his car.

“
Well, I…”

“
You
didn’t
skip. You got up early
and ran without me, didn’t you?”

“
I couldn’t help it. I
never miss my run.”

“
I should have known.
Well,
I
had
no problem skipping it.”

“
I hope you’re not quitting
on me.”

“
No, I’m just going to need
a day off every once in a while.”

“
That’s fine. I’m so proud
of you for getting in to it. I know it’s not easy.”

They picked up some breakfast sandwiches and
coffee at McDonald’s, and headed toward Marshall to pick up the
rental truck, load it, and move Beverly to Cynthia’s house.

“
Did you see this morning’s
paper?” said Cynthia.

“
Just the front page. I
guess the police still don’t have a clue who did it.”

“
It just doesn’t make
sense. They didn’t even take anything.”

“
Honey, shouldn’t we tell
your mom about it? Especially since the murder on her street was
one of the reasons she agreed to move.”

“
Not today. I don’t her to
freak out. Besides, what’s she going to do—cancel the truck and
unpack all the boxes?”

“
Yeah. I guess it’s too
late for her to change her mind.”

It was a mild late-September day—perfect for
moving. It had been an easy decision to put the top down on the
Bonneville. There was not a cloud in the sky. And the bright sun
provided enough heat to compensate for the wind blowing through
their hair. Not that Greg had much hair. He would throw on a
baseball cap for the numerous trips between the truck and the
house. On a day like this, an uncovered, balding head was
guaranteed to get a sunburn.

“
Oh, I forgot to tell you
about the car I saw yesterday.”

“
What car?”

“
When I walked down to
Jane’s for lunch there was a white car parked in front of
Coreyville Copy Shop. And it had a bumper sticker that
read:

“
If ignorance is bliss,
then you must be ecstatic.
”

“
Oh, I’ve seen that one
before. Or I heard it somewhere.” said Cynthia.

“
But do you remember what
that man said? You know—the odd guy who lives across from Nancie
Jo’s house.”

“
No. What?”

“
He said a nurse visited
her in a white car, and something about the word
‘ecstasy.’”

“
Okay…,” said Cynthia, not
sure what he was getting at.

“
Ecstasy. Sounds kinda like
‘ecstatic.’ If ignorance is bliss, then you must be
ecstatic
.”

“
I don’t know, Greg. Seems
like you’re grasping at straws.”

“
But here’s another thing:
I’ve never seen that bumper sticker before. And you know I always
read them.”

“
So, you think it’s
somebody new in town? It could be somebody who’s lived here forever
and just put on a new bumper sticker.”

“
I should have walked over
there to see who it was.”

“
Why didn’t
you?”

“
Because I didn’t think
about the ecstasy/ecstatic thing when I first saw it. And once I
did, the car was gone. But I think I’m gonna go over there Monday
and see if I can find out who was driving that car.”

“
You really think they
noticed? And that they’ll remember?”

“
Maybe. It’s worth a
shot.”

“
Suppose they do remember,
and the person was a stranger—what good will that do?”

“
Maybe they paid with a
check or a credit card. I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve got to
try.”

“
Yeah, it wouldn’t hurt to
ask, I guess. But don’t you think you should tell the
police?”

“
Not yet. Not after they
embarrassed me in front of all those people. They practically
laughed in my face when I suggested they interview the
neighbor.”

“
Well, who knows? Maybe
you’re on to something. You might just solve the case. Then who’ll
be laughing?”

Chapter
22

Jake squinted at the clock on his nightstand
through blurry eyes. What a night! Carnie had nearly killed him
with her insatiable appetite for sex. He reached back to feel the
passenger side of the bed. Of course she’s gone, he thought. No
surprise. But then he smelled the irresistible aroma of fresh
perked coffee. Was she still there?

He was anxious to find out, but as soon as
he stood, he felt the overwhelming urge to drain his bladder. He
could barely hold it until he got the lid up. But when he released,
an intense burning sensation nearly brought him to his knees. It
was a little late to be questioning whether Carnie had any
diseases.

He inspected himself. No wonder he was in
pain—it looked like somebody had taken a couple of pipe wrenches to
the thing. But he knew it would regenerate. It always did. So, he
let go, and the burning began to subside after a few seconds.

Jake walked into the kitchen and saw Carnie
sitting at the table, drinking coffee and reading the sports
section.

“
Hey, Sleepyhead,” she
said.

“
I thought you already took
off.”

“
Nope. We’ve got to talk
about our plans for tonight.”

“
What plans?” Hopefully
she’s not talking about sex, he thought. He’d need a couple of days
to recuperate.

“
The Mobley house is empty
today. Nobody will be home until late tonight.”

“
I see,” said Jake as he
poured a cup of coffee.

“
So this is the perfect
time to go out and get volunteers for our clinical trial. We’ll
wait until dark and then go over to the Wal-Mart parking lot. It’ll
be easy to round up four old women.”

“
Hang on, Carnie. If I walk
up close to an old lady in the parking lot at night, she’s likely
to scream.”

“
You’re right. That’s
why
I’m
gonna
do it,” said Carnie. “I’ll smile and be polite until I get close
enough. Then I’ll show them the knife. All you have to do is drive
and hold a gun on the ladies until I’ve got them all in the van.
That’s easy enough, huh?”

“
I guess. Wait. What
van?”

“
Don’t worry—I’ll get us a
van.”

There must be some way out of this, he
thought. Think harder, Jake.

He picked up the main section of the paper
and read the headline.

Elderly woman brutally
murdered
.

Then he read the details of how Nancie Jo
Gristel had been stabbed to death in her own home. And that no
valuables were taken. And that the police were clueless as to the
killer’s motive. “This is awful.”

“
What’s that?” she said
without lowering her paper.

“
This old woman who was
murdered.”

“
Oh, yeah—I read that
story. Terrible shame.”

Jake’s body felt heavier by the second, as
though he and his chair would soon sink down through the floor. He
didn’t even have to ask. He knew Carnie had killed the woman.

**********

“
Did they really love us,
Grandma?” said Carsie. She was standing in her grandmother’s living
room, looking at pictures on the mantel. Sometimes she seemed more
like a child than a 30 year-old.

Her grandmother looked up from her crossword
puzzle. “Of course they did. Why do you always ask that?”

“
But if they had been home
with us that night instead of…”

“
I know. But they weren’t,
and what’s done is done.”

Sylvia Slitherstone had been babysitting her
grandchildren when her son and daughter-in-law were killed in a car
crash. The girls were both under five years old when she became
their new mother.

Their parents knew they were taking a chance
every time they went out in that old Ford station wagon. The power
steering had grown erratic and the brakes were weak. Otherwise,
they might have been able to avoid the dump truck that veered into
their lane that rainy night. Sylvia knew that if her family had
been wealthy, like the Mobleys, her son and daughter-in-law would
still be alive. She was sure of it.

“
Were Mama and Daddy happy?
I mean, you know—were they madly in love?” said Carsie.

“
They were crazy about each
other. And about you girls. Y’all were a picture perfect
family.”

Carsie turned back to the pictures on the
mantel.