Home Free (22 page)

Faulty wiring? I wondered if Danny would
concur. “Hmmm. Well, thanks. I better go check on Sherry now.”

I walked the block and got back in the
Element, turned north onto McKinley and drove the couple of miles
to Mercy Hospital. I wanted to check on Sherry early, in case my
mom was working later today. I went to the information desk.

Luckily, the information lady was no one I
knew, which would facilitate lying.

“Hi, I’m here about a patient. Sherry
Henderson.”

“Name?”

“I’m her sister, Alex Henderson.”

“She’s in two-oh-three, and she’s scheduled
to be released this morning. Oh wait, it says here we’re doing an
interagency transfer.” The woman tapped her pencil on the desk and
flipped some pages on a chart. “Right. She’s going to Minter Villa.
Twenty-eight day program. Your folks came in this morning and took
care of the paperwork, so there’s nothing you need to do. You can
visit your sister until they come to move her.” She checked her
watch. “Shouldn’t be too long now.”

“Minter Villa? Isn’t that the loony bin?”

The information lady looked over her glasses
at me. “Minter Villa is a psychiatric facility. They also provide
rehabilitation services for drug and alcohol addiction. It is
not
called a loony bin.”

“Can’t my sister just check herself out when
she decides she wants a fix?”

“She was under the influence of narcotics
when they brought her in last night. The cops gave her the choice
of completing the program or being charged. So yes, she can check
herself out. But it wouldn’t be smart.”

I thanked her out loud, and God silently, and
turned to leave. Minter Villa was a locked facility. Nobody would
be able to finish the job while Sherry was there. The wiring at her
place probably was faulty, but I suspected it had had help. And I
had a feeling that if I knew who the helper was, I’d probably know
who did Chambers. As I reached for the door handle, my heart
stopped. The Music Man car was parked just outside.

Dammit, I thought, what the hell was he doing
here? There were plenty of explanations, I reminded myself as I did
a little backwards skip-step, turned and ran for the stairs. The
information lady gave me a look, but she didn’t say anything. He
could be visiting my mom at work. I glanced at my watch. Nope, she
wouldn’t be here for another couple of hours at least. I took the
stairs two at a time and was grateful Sherry was only on the second
floor. I was definitely going to join the gym soon. He could be
visiting any number of patients, for any number of reasons. I
exited the stairwell onto the second floor, ignored the questioning
glances from the nurses at the nurses’ station and followed the
arrow that indicated Sherry’s room was down the hall to my left.
The fact that his car was here didn’t prove that he even knew
Sherry, let alone that he was the faulty-wiring-helper or that he
was here to finish the job.

So why did I have this sick feeling in my
gut?

I skidded to a stop in front of the door, my
sneakers squeaking on the linoleum floor. Angela stood outside the
room.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, huffing a
little.

“I brought Sherry some clothes since hers got
all burned.”

“But why are you out
here
, in the
hallway?”

“The doctor’s examining her now and told me I
had to leave.”

I had no idea how long ago the “doctor” had
kicked Angela out of the room, but I assumed I had no time to
waste. I flung open the door and barged into the room. The bed to
my right was empty. The bed to my left was hidden behind the
privacy curtain. I flung that open as well.

“Get away from her, you jackass!” I
yelled.

Ginger Jorgenson looked up at me over her
chart. She gave me a bemused expression and waited to see what
cleverness I would come up with next. Sherry was asleep in the bed.
A couple of large bouquets of flowers adorned the window ledge.

“Oh, hey Ginger, I thought you were someone
else.”

“Like who?” she asked, still enjoying my
idiocy.

I shrugged. I had known Ginger my whole life.
Most of our teachers, at least in elementary school and junior
high, had arranged their classrooms in alphabetical order, which
put Ginger directly behind me almost every year. She was the one
who always knew the correct answer when I fumbled with the Spanish
for
boat
or couldn’t come up with any of the current Cabinet
members. She also had a knack for getting me in trouble by passing
notes to the person next to me, making it look like I did it. Once
she farted loudly, then patted me on the shoulder and said, “It’s
okay, Alex. Everybody gets gas.” I never knew why she disliked me,
but I had a feeling it was a Darwinian thing, where she felt like I
was the weak member of the species and it was her duty to get rid
of me for the well-being of the rest of the clan. Of course, my
reasons for hating her were obvious and legion.

And now, it seemed, God had gotten in on the
game. Ginger was a doctor. Great.

“Well?” she pressed.

“Never mind. I made a mistake. See ya.” I
made for the door, but I wasn’t fast enough.

“So, the rumors of your mental decay are
evidently true.” She had finished her examination of Sherry, who
still appeared to be asleep, and came around the bed to face me.
She closed the privacy curtain. “What about the other rumors? Are
you really seeing Jack Murphy?”

There was a little hint of envy, or at least
grudging respect, that I could get a guy like Jack. She’d probably
cough up a lung if she knew I’d been involved with Danny, and had
in fact been kissing him in public a couple days ago. She wouldn’t
believe the truth, though. So I told a more believable lie.

“Actually, Jack and I eloped this weekend.
Went to Tahoe and tied the knot.” I grinned like a happy
newlywed.

“What? You didn’t! Let me see the ring.”

“We don’t have rings yet. It was a spur of
the moment thing, and we decided to get rings and have a big
ceremony later on. For New Year’s.” I didn’t know where this was
coming from, but I was thoroughly enjoying the shocked expression
on Ginger’s face. I wondered if she had a thing for Jack, or if
they’d actually dated or something.

“Well, congratulations,” she stammered. “Tell
Jack I wish him all the best.” She left to continue her rounds, and
I followed her out the door, feeling pretty darn pleased with
myself until I realized the rumor of my marriage to Jack would
probably reach all points by lunchtime.

Angela was still waiting where I’d left her.
Brian was beside her. Crap.

“That was thoughtful of you,” he was saying.
“How did you know Sherry’s clothes had been burned?”

“Well, I live - ”

“Here,” I said, stepping into the space
between them. If he was the helper, he sure as hell didn’t need to
know Angela had been spying on Sherry’s place.

“What?” Angela asked.

“What?” Brian asked. “She lives here? In the
hospital. What are you talking about, Alex? And why are you
here?”

“Well, I meant she practically lives here,
she’s so dedicated to her volunteer work. She’s a
candystriper.”

Angela stared at me for a beat, then nodded.
“Right, and I found out Sherry’s house had burned and so I came by
with some clothes for her.”

Brian turned to face me now. “But why are you
here, Alex?” I was wondering the same about him. When I hadn’t
found him in the room with Sherry, I’d been relieved. But it looked
like his intention had been along those lines and he just hadn’t
got here in time.

“You know, I went by to ask her about Lonnie.
There was no house there, and the firemen told me she was here. So
I came to check on her. You?”

Brian looked from me to Angela, then glanced
at the wall clock. “And how do you two know each other?”

Shit. Good question.

“She’s my mentor,” Angela replied.

Yeah, I thought, I’m teaching her to lie.

“She’s your mentor?” Brian obviously thought
exceedingly highly of me.

“Yeah. She called the high school to see if
any art students wanted a mentor. They gave her my name. She’s
teaching me graphic design.”

Now Brian looked at me with a grudging
respect. I thought he and Ginger might have to form a support group
for people forced to think better of Alex Jordan than they were
inclined to.

“Your turn, Brian. Why are you here?” There
was no newspaper article about Sherry. How the fuck did he know she
was in the hospital?

He stumbled on his words, stammering
unintelligible syllables like, “I, uh, oh, well, um,” until Angela
saved him.

“Insurance, right?”

“What?” he snapped.

“I’m sure your brother came by to do
something with Sherry’s insurance claim from the fire, right?”

“Right, of course. I have paperwork that she
needs to sign so we can process her claim.”

Angela and I both looked around for
paperwork, briefcase, anything that might lend support to the
obvious lie, but there was nothing. He didn’t seem to notice. He
kept checking his watch.

“Are you late for something?” I asked.

Just then, two orderlies wheeled an empty
gurney off the elevator and headed in our direction. Brian’s face
fell.

“Excuse us, please. We’re transferring this
patient. Are you family?”

“No, we’re her family,” came a voice from the
opposite direction. Evidently Sherry’s parents. They looked nice.
Normal. But then so did my parents.

“Well, let us get out of your way, then,” I
said, moving Angela and Brian aside. The orderlies and Sherry’s
parents went into her room. Brian had no paperwork and no reason to
go inside, but I wasn’t leaving until he left. I made small talk
with Angela. Finally, Brian seemed to conclude there was no point
to hang around, so he said goodbye and turned to leave.

“I have to leave, too,” I told Angela. She
nodded and went her own way. “I’ll walk out with you, Brian.”

We walked to the elevator and pressed the
down button, waiting in tense silence. The elevator came and the
two riders got off and Brian and I got on, and I remembered Mikey’s
advice not to be alone with my brother and I began to mentally
hyperventilate. But he didn’t hit the stop button or attempt to
strangle me with his necktie or anything, so I decided to push my
luck.

“So you do know Sherry, then,” I said, as
casually as my fear-constricted throat would allow.

Brian’s jaw clenched a couple of times and he
swallowed audibly. “She’s a customer. I don’t know all of the
company’s customers personally, Alex.” He was creeping me out, and
the sick feeling in my gut was intensifying. Although that may have
been hunger. A granola bar and coffee wasn’t exactly a hearty
breakfast.

“Did you forget the paperwork in your
car?”

“What paperwork?”

The doors opened on the first floor. I was
still alive, and Brian stalked across the lobby and out the door
without so much as a goodbye. I watched until the Music Man car
disappeared, then I went outside and got in the Element, turned on
the engine so I could turn on the air, and wondered.

Was Brian the faulty-wiring-helper? Had he
come to the hospital to finish the job? Was he a concerned friend?
Did he simply forget the insurance paperwork in the car? There were
two bouquets of flowers in Sherry’s room. I assumed one was from
her parents. Maybe Brian had sent the other, then come by to check
on Sherry in person because he was worried about his mistress?

I checked my watch. The police station was
just across the street, but I still had a while before my meeting
time with Jimmy C. I pondered my options, then put the car in
reverse and backed out of the parking spot.

My next stop was Jenkins’ Auto Body. I passed
the gravel yard and pulled into the body shop parking lot. There
was yellow crime scene tape around what was left of the office. The
explosion had blown out the front windows, which were now boarded
over, and there was a padlock on the front door. A blue tarp was
stretched over the roof. I walked around the building, trying to
see inside. My cell phone began playing the theme from
Love
Story
. Every time it rang, it played something different. I
couldn’t seem to control it.

“What?”

“You wouldn’t be tampering with a crime
scene, now would you?” Mikey.

I looked over at the gravel yard. The office
door opened and he stepped out and nodded in my direction. I waved,
and he went back inside.

“I didn’t do anything. I’m just looking.”

“Well, you’re not wearing your breaking and
entering outfit, so I guess I believe you. Any word on Sherry?”

How the hell did he know about that? I
wondered.

“It’s not a big mystery, Alex,” he said,
reading my mind again. “My brother called me last night and asked
if I knew anything about it.” I didn’t say anything, so he went on.
“I didn’t.”

I wasn’t getting a bad vibe from him, and my
gut felt fine, so I gave him the update about the rehab and Brian
being at the hospital.

“I think it might be my fault, Mikey. I told
Brian I was going to go back to Sherry’s to talk to her about
Lonnie.” I felt a little shaky, but I refused to let myself cry
again.

“So you think your brother did it? Lonnie, I
mean.”

I didn’t want to think that. Who wants to
think their brother is a psycho? Even if I’d never liked him, I’d
never thought of him as evil. And my parents would be devastated if
it was true. But if he was letting Danny and Kevin squirm over
something he’d done, I wouldn’t feel the tiniest bit bad about him
getting caught.

“I’m starting to think it’s a
possibility.”

“We need to push him, get him excited so he
fucks up.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. I need to think. I’ll call you
back.”