MULTIPLE MOTIVES (The Kate Huntington mystery series Book 1) (2 page)

Rob hadn’t seemed to hear him. His face was turned away again. Kate thought she heard a sniffle.

They walked down the hall. Once out of Rob’s earshot, Eddie slowed his pace. “I’m wondering if I should go home,” he said in a low voice.

She stopped walking. Had she heard him correctly?

“Not that I want to,” he quickly added. “But you two are closer, and a man can open up more readily to a woman than to another man. You know what I mean?”

“That I might be more comfort to him without you here,” she said.

“Yeah. I have an early meeting tomorrow morning. You can give him that as an excuse. Unless you think I should stay?” Eddie now sounded uncertain.

“No, I think you’re right. I’ll drive him home later and call a cab from his house.” Kate reached up and pecked her husband on the cheek. “You know, for an accountant, you’re a pretty darn good psychologist.”

He gave her a brief smile. “Call if you need me, and I’ll be back here in ten minutes. Call anyway as soon as you know anything… if, when Liz….” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.

He gathered her into his arms. They clung to each other for a moment. Then he let go and turned toward the doors at the end of the hall.

Kate walked back to the couch. “Eddie’s going to head home. He’s got a big meeting early–”

Rob’s eyes moved from her face to something behind her. His eyes went wide and he jumped up.

Kate turned to follow his stare. Eddie had frozen in mid-step. Beyond him, a doctor, wearing O.R. scrubs, had come through the doors. His mouth was set in a grim line, his skin gray with exhaustion.

She turned back to Rob just as the cup slipped from his hand, spilling bad coffee over their shoes. He swayed on his feet. His face had gone slack. She grabbed for him, and they tumbled backward onto the couch.

The doctor rushed forward, running into Eddie and knocking the cup from his hand. More coffee hit the floor. They both raced toward her, colliding again just before reaching the couch.

A bubble of hysterical laughter threatened to erupt from Kate’s throat, even as her eyes stung with tears. Rob’s inert body was pinning her to the couch. She struggled with one hand to pull her uncooperative black dress into some semblance of modesty.

“I’m sorry,” the doctor said.

Horror washed over her. It must have shown on her face.

“No, no, that’s not what I meant,” the doctor quickly reassured her. “Mrs. Franklin is stable. I’m sorry I scared you. I probably looked like the Grim Reaper coming through those doors. My mind was on another case from earlier that didn’t turn out so well.”

A rush of relief. The bubble of laughter broke loose.

~~~~~~~~

Rob opened his eyes in an alternate universe. The doctor had come to tell him his Lizzie was dead, and Kate was lying underneath him and
laughing.

He twisted around to look at her face.

Kate’s giggles came to an abrupt end. “It’s okay! Liz is stable. Now get off me, you big oaf.”

He stared up at Ed and the doctor as he tried to process her words. Ed was grinning.

“She’s really okay?”

The doctor nodded.

The ten-ton weight lifted from his chest. Scrambling to his feet, he reached down to help Kate up.

“We successfully stopped the internal bleeding,” the doctor said, “and she’s been given a blood transfusion. No other signs of internal injuries. The femur in her right thigh was fractured. A clean break. We’ve attached a metal plate to the side of the bone to stabilize it until it heals.” He shook his head. “Her left ankle didn’t fare quite so well. It looks like it twisted under her as she fell.”

He explained that an orthopedic specialist had been called in and had put several pins and wires in the ankle. “The good news is her leg twisting under her probably saved her from serious head injury by slowing the momentum of her fall. She’s moderately concussed, but it could’ve been a lot worse. From the nature of her injuries it looks like she bounced off the bumper or fender. If she’d been hit more squarely by the front of the vehicle….”

Rob felt the blood drain out of his face. His knees threatened to give out on him again. Both Kate and Ed reached out to steady him.

The doctor gave him an apologetic look. “She’ll be our guest for a few days, but I have every reason to believe she’ll be fine in due course.”

“Sounds like she’ll be an airport security person’s nightmare from now on,” Kate said with a small grin.

The doctor returned her smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “We’ll remove the plate in her thigh when the bone is healed, but, yeah, the hardware in her ankle will be permanent.”

Ed offered to give blood to replace some of what had been used from the hospital’s blood bank. The doctor sent him to the nurses’ station to set up an appointment.

Rob reached out to shake the doctor’s hand. “Thank…” His voice caught in his throat. “Thank you,” he finally managed to whisper.

“At least this case has a happy ending,” the doctor said, but he didn’t look happy.

Kate’s face morphed into the expression Rob thought of as her
therapist look
–one part sympathy, one part attentiveness. His mouth formed its first genuine smile of the evening.

She just can’t help herself.

Her expression had the desired effect. The doctor shook his head. “Let’s just say that kids on skateboards and teenaged drivers on cell phones are a very bad combination.”

“Oh, no!” Horror joined the sympathy on Kate’s face. She reached out and rested her hand lightly on the doctor’s arm. “That’s got to be as rough as it gets.”

He patted her hand. “I’m glad I get to end my shift on a good note, and next time I’ll take better care to adjust my expression before coming through those doors.” Turning to Rob, he added, “Your wife should be coming out of recovery soon.”

After the doctor left, Ed shook Rob’s hand.

Kate gave him a hug. “I’ll touch base with you tomorrow to see how Liz is doing.”

As they walked away, Rob overheard Ed say, “I’d hoped for a little excitement this evening, but this wasn’t exactly the
type
of excitement I had in mind.”

Rob stifled a chuckle as Kate shot her husband a devilish grin.

CHAPTER TWO

Kate woke to the smell of coffee floating down the hall from the kitchen. She took a deep breath. Her smile faded as she realized the fragrance was faint. Eddie was long gone. One of the many things she disliked about tax season was eating breakfast alone, and all too often dinner as well.

Wednesdays were half days, in exchange for working until noon on Saturdays. But in Kate’s mind, a weekday afternoon off didn’t compensate for losing a quarter of her weekend with Eddie. The only time she really didn’t mind was this time of year, when he worked seven days a week.

It turned out to be a hectic morning. Two clients called with mid-week crises while she was in her first session. Sandwiching return calls between her other sessions was challenging.

Finally, she was gathering her things to leave at twelve-twenty when the counseling center’s receptionist stuck her head in the open doorway. “Hey, Kate,” Pauline said. “Rob’s wife’s accident is on the news.”

Kate hurried out to the reception area. On the television, a toothy anchorwoman was describing Liz’s accident as the lead-in to a story about the rising number of hit-and-runs in the area. “Mrs. Franklin is one of the lucky ones,” the woman concluded. “She’s in stable condition at St. Joseph’s Hospital.”

On the off chance that Rob was in his office, Kate walked down the hall to the law firm of Stockton, Bennett and Franklin. He was there, stuffing papers into his briefcase.

“Hey, they just reported about Liz’s hit-and-run on the noon news,” she told him. “How’s she doing?”

Rob glanced up. “Not too bad, all things considered. She’s been conscious but woozy most of the morning. She even cracked a feeble joke about vampires when the nurse took some blood for tests. I’m gathering up some things so I can work at the hospital when she’s napping. Then I’ve got to swing out to the airport and pick Shelley up.”

“Do you think Liz is up for more company? I thought I’d stop by on my way home. But I don’t want to tire her.”

“She’d love to see you, but you probably do need to keep it brief. She fades in and out. And I should warn you. She looks like a woman who’s had an argument with a truck. She’s pretty scraped up and bruised.”

Kate’s mouth fell open. “She was hit by a
truck?
”

Rob had finished packing his briefcase. He flopped down in his desk chair with a sigh. “Maybe. There were several witnesses, but their stories conflict.”

“Ah, the foibles of human memory.”

“One witness was sure it was a red van. Another thought it was a brown truck. The third agreed it was a larger vehicle but wasn’t at all sure what color it was. None of them got the license number, unfortunately. One lady said she tried to, but the license plate was so dirty she had a hard time reading it. She was only able to make out an R before the jackass took off!”

Anger at the guy who’d almost killed his wife wasn’t far beneath the surface. Kate couldn’t blame him one bit.

“It all happened fast. Liz stepped off the curb at the same time this clown sped up to beat the light. Then he kept on going after he hit her.”

Her own anger surged in her chest. “There are way too many crazies out there on the road.”

The corner of Rob’s mouth quirked up. “You’re falling down on the job, lady. You’re supposed to be making them all sane.”

She snorted. “Yeah, right. Ever heard of the proverbial drop in the bucket?”

His expression sobered. “Actually this guy may be crazier than most. One witness swore he did it on purpose. She said the guy seemed to aim right for Liz.”

“Oh, no! We’re in big trouble if drivers are starting to intentionally aim for pedestrians.”

“Yeah, makes me want to pack up the family and move to, I don’t know… maybe a forty-acre farm, with an electrified fence around it.”

Kate snorted again. “Somehow I don’t see you in denim overalls and a John Deere cap.” Crisply pressed Dockers and a golf shirt were Rob’s idea of casual wear.

He chuckled, then said, “Seriously, between the traffic and pollution and the Type A crazies, Towson just isn’t what it used to be.”

“It’s certainly a lot more crowded,” she conceded. “Hey, how about bringing the girls by the house later for a quick visit, after you’ve been to the hospital? I haven’t seen Shelley in eons.”

“Yeah, once the brats morph into teenagers, they don’t want to hang out with their old fogey parents and their friends anymore.”

“Hey, Bub, watch who you’re calling an old fogey.” Kate punched him lightly on the arm. “You may be one, but your friends are still in their prime.”

~~~~~~~~

The next afternoon, Kate was between her last two sessions when Pauline waved her over to the reception desk and handed her a message slip. A business card was stapled to it. “This guy came in a little after three.” The receptionist dropped her voice so the clients in the waiting area couldn’t hear her. “Had a heck of a time convincing him that one does
not
interrupt a therapy session. I told him unless he was here to report that the building was on fire, he’d just have to wait. He opted to leave a message instead.”

Kate read the message.
Call Detective Phillips, Baltimore Co. Police
. Anxiety fluttered in her chest. Had something happened to one of her clients? She asked her next client to wait a few minutes and hurried into her office to make the call.

“Thank you for calling, Mrs. Huntington. I’m investigating Elizabeth Franklin’s hit-and-run. I understand you’re good friends with the Franklins. Could you tell me if Mrs. Franklin has any enemies?”

“Not that I know of. Why do you ask?”

“From some of the eyewitness accounts, it’s possible the driver hit her intentionally,” Detective Phillips replied. “We’re investigating the incident as a possible assault. What about Mr. Franklin? Do you know if perhaps he’s, as they say, engaged in some indiscretion? Maybe there’s a jealous girlfriend out there.”

Kate’s temper flared. She reined it in. “No, Rob and Liz are madly in love and neither has engaged in any indiscretions.”

“Oh, come on, Mrs. Huntington, they’ve been married a long time. Nobody’s still
madly
in love after a couple decades of staring at each other over the breakfast table. If there’s any sour note in their relationship, I need to know about it. Sometimes spouses decide that a little accident would be cheaper than divorce.”

Self-control suddenly seemed over-rated. “That’s a despicable thing to say. Rob would never harm his wife.”

“Well, maybe you don’t know him as well as you think you do.”

Kate gritted her teeth. “De-tec-tive,” she enunciated each syllable, “Rob Franklin is my closest friend and I
know
he is not having an affair. I have a client waiting, so goodbye, sir!” She punched the end button on her phone and longed for the days when you could slam a receiver down in the cradle and give the obnoxious person on the other end a headache.

Kate took several deep breaths to calm herself. She needed to get to her waiting client.

An hour later, she ushered her client out the door, then called Eddie at his office. She was so pissed she could hardly get the words out as she told him about her conversation with the police detective.

“Not good,” he said, when she finally wound down. “You need to tell Rob about this.”

“You’re right.” Kate looked at her watch. Quarter after five. “I’ll track him down. Love you. See you tonight.”

She punched in Rob’s office number and drummed fingers on her desk as the phone rang in her ear.

His administrative assistant picked up. “Mr. Franklin’s office.”

“Hi, Fran. Is he there, or is he over at the hospital?”

“He just got back here a few minutes ago. He has a deposition we weren’t able to reschedule, at five-thirty.”

“I need to talk to him. I’ll be right there.”

Kate rushed out of the center and down the hall to Rob’s law firm. She waved at Fran as she swept past her desk, then tapped on Rob’s half-open door.