MULTIPLE MOTIVES (The Kate Huntington mystery series Book 1) (8 page)

A cop stepped in front of her, his hand in the air, palm out.

“I live here,” she said breathlessly.

He let her go and turned to hold back the surge of neighbors craning to witness the next scene in the unfolding drama.

At the bottom of the steps, Kate looked up at the half dozen people on her porch and froze. In the middle of the group was her sister, strapped to a gurney, her head covered in blood.

Kate reeled, grabbing for the railing. “Is she okay?” she cried out.

One of the paramedics glanced up without answering.

“I’m her sister,” she managed to push past the lump in her throat.

The paramedic glanced up again from the bandage he was wrapping around Mary’s head. “She’s unconscious, but she’s breathing. Gotta get her to the hospital. Docs will be able to tell you more.” His eyes dropped back to the task of securing the bandage.

“Comin’ through, lady.” His partner, who looked like a football linebacker, started down the steps backwards, lifting up his end of the gurney to keep the patient as level as possible.

Kate jumped back and collided with another cop. He tried to block her way as she started toward the ambulance. “We got some questions, ma’am.”

“I have to go with my sister.” She dodged past him.

The ambulance ride to the hospital was the scariest eight minutes of Kate’s life. The siren screamed outside. Equipment beeped inside. Mary lay pale and still. The paramedic looked bored. Kate wasn’t sure how to interpret that.

At the hospital, she was stopped by a firm but friendly hand on her arm as she tried to follow the gurney into the treatment room. A nurse, about Mary’s height with
café au lait
skin, gave her a sympathetic smile. “You can’t go in there. She’s in good hands. Come with me, please. I need to get some information.”

Kate turned to comply and almost collided with the same young cop, who’d apparently followed the ambulance to the hospital. “Still got those questions, ma’am.”

“In a minute.” Kate stepped around him and went to the ER counter. The nurse asked Kate about Mary’s identity, health history, marital status and insurance. Kate answered as best she could.

The nurse nodded at the chairs. “Have a seat. The doctor will be out to tell you how she’s doing as soon as he can.” Her voice was gentle.

Kate glanced at the no-cell-phones sign on the wall and headed for the door. The cop stepped in front of her but she brushed past him, her fingers already punching Rob’s number into her phone.

It went to voicemail. “Something’s happened to my sister. We’re at GBMC, in the ER. Cops have questions. Please come.” She heard the shakiness in her voice and took a deep breath as she disconnected.

Gotta get the voice a lot calmer than that
.

She punched in her sister’s home number in California, and got voicemail again. “Pete, there’s been an accident.”

Better, not quite normal but not borderline hysterical either.

“Mary’s going to be okay,” she lied. “We’re at GBMC, uh, Greater Baltimore Medical Center on Charles Street. The doctors are taking a look at her. Let’s see, I can’t leave my cell phone on inside there and I don’t know the number of the ER nurses’ station, but you can call information in Baltimore for it. Call when you get this and I should know more by then. Bye.”

She disconnected and let out her breath. Turning around, she jumped. The cop was standing right behind her.

“You gotta stop doing that. I know, I know, you’ve got questions. Come on.” She marched back inside and headed for some chairs far from the other people waiting in the ER. She didn’t want to discuss her business in front of curious strangers.

He asked the obvious–who was Mary, why was she at Kate’s house, did she have any enemies–writing the answers in his little notepad.

Kate pointed to the pad. “They must buy those by the gross for you all. Every time I see a police officer, he or she is scribbling in one of them.”

He gave her an odd look.

Oookay
, said the rational side of her mind to the semi-hysterical side,
probably shouldn’t be admitting that I’ve been hanging around cops who needed to write down things about me
.

“Do you know what happened?” she asked the officer.

“Still investigating.” Then in response to her glare, he added, “Probably burglars. There’s been a rash of break-ins around Towson lately, during the day while people are at work. Might have seen you leave. Didn’t realize you had a house guest.”

“Were there any signs of a break-in?”

“None that I saw,” the officer said. “Neighbor spotted your sister lying on the porch. Went up to investigate. Called it in when she saw the blood.”

Kate clenched her teeth. She was trying hard not to think about the blood. She reminded herself that head wounds bleed profusely. It didn’t necessarily mean the injury was severe.

“How would she have ended up on the porch if someone broke in?”

The cop shrugged. “Burglars might’ve rung the doorbell, to make sure no one was home. She came to the door. They panicked. Hit her with something.”

Kate was debating whether to fill him in on a different theory when Rob came through the ER doors. He spotted Kate and barreled across the room. Grabbing her by the shoulders, he lifted her out of her chair. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She struggled to breath as he enveloped her in a bear hug.

“My voicemail garbled your message,” Rob said into her hair. “All I heard was ‘something’s happened’ and then ‘GBMC.’ You sounded terrified.”

“That’s ’cause I am.” Kate pulled back to look up at his face.

The cop cleared his throat. “Your husband?”

“No, a friend. Could we have a moment? Don’t go away.” She led Rob out of earshot and quickly filled him in, including her temptation to tell this cop the whole story and maybe get someone with a new perspective involved in the case.

Rob shook his head. “That’s not what will happen. This kid’ll write it all down and turn it over to the detective who’s already working the burglaries. Then that detective will come question us and we’ll repeat the whole miserable story all over again. He or she will compare notes with Phillips but they won’t get involved in Ed’s case. It’s more likely that the investigation into Mary’s attack would be turned over to Phillips.”

“Crap!” Kate said.

“Let me deal with the officer. I’ll tell him to have the detective contact me. Be right back,” Rob said.

Kate flopped down in one of the chairs around the perimeter of the waiting room.

A few minutes later, Rob came over and sat down beside her. “You okay? You seem a little too calm.”

“Clinical detachment. I can sit on my feelings when I have to. I was trying not to lose it in front of the cop.”

“Well, he’s gone now so feel free to lose it whenever you want.”

“Urge has passed for the moment, but I’m sure it will come back at some point.”

Rob took her hand. She put her head back against the wall, closing her eyes. “Thanks for coming.”

“That’s what friends are for,” he said.

They sat–her eyes closed, her hand gently encased in Rob’s, her stomach tied in knots–for what seemed an eternity.

The swish of an automatic door opening. Kate opened one eye. The ER doctor was at the nurses’ station. The nurse was pointing in their direction. He headed their way.

Kate jumped out of her chair, startling Rob. He followed as she rushed over to meet the doctor halfway across the room. “Is she awake? Is she going to be okay?”

“Hopefully to the second question. No to the first,” the doctor answered. “Sit down, please.” They all sat in the nearest chairs. “Your sister’s still unconscious. Whoever hit her, with whatever, got her on the top of her head. That’s good news and bad news. The top of the skull is pretty thick. We did a CAT scan and there are only a couple of hairline fractures. No signs of bleeding or swelling in the brain.”

Knowing there was an unspoken
yet
at the end of that last sentence, Kate prompted, “And the bad news?” She understood the brain well enough to suspect what was coming.

“That’s the part of the brain where some pretty important stuff is. Sensory and motor control centers, memory, upper level reasoning, even our personalities are centered in the frontal and parietal lobes.” The doctor’s voice was gentle but matter-of-fact. “It’s hard to tell at this point if there’s any permanent damage. She’s being admitted and will be going up to intensive care soon. It’s on the third floor. The chief neurologist is on his way in. He might be able to tell you more after he examines her.”

He paused. “It would be good if you went in to see her as much as the ICU allows. A lot of research indicates there’s still some level of awareness in people who are unconscious. Talking to her, holding her hand, may help bring her around.”

Kate nodded and was thanking the doctor when the nurse called over, “Mrs. Huntington, your brother-in-law’s on the phone.”

Kate ran over and grabbed the receiver the nurse was holding up. “We’re not allowed to release information over the phone,” the nurse whispered. “But
you
can tell him what’s going on. I can’t have my line tied up though.”

Kate nodded. “Pete, she’s okay,” she lied into the phone. “Are you home? Good, I’ll call you right back on my cell.”

She handed the phone to the nurse. “Thanks.”

She turned toward the outside doors. Rob was already in front of them, triggering the automatic opener.

~~~~~~~~

Standing on the sidewalk next to her, Rob was impressed with how well Kate handled the conversation with her brother-in-law. She lied through her teeth when necessary to keep him from panicking, but still managed to convey the need for him to get there as quickly as possible. She finally disconnected.

“He’s calling his mom to come watch the girls and he’ll get on the first plane he can. Tonight hopefully.” She dropped her phone into her purse.

“You sounded quite calm,” Rob said.

“Lots of practice. Unfortunately, it’s a skill I’m only able to apply sporadically in my personal life. Right now, I’m calm. I make no promises about the future…. The doctor wasn’t telling the whole truth, by the way.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“If she was hit hard enough to produce even hairline fractures, and she’s still out cold, that’s not a good sign. As the doc implied, she may have memory loss, personality changes. She may end up with the IQ of a monkey. She may be paralyzed….”

And with that, Kate burst into tears. He gathered her up in his arms.

“What was I thinking?” She sobbed against his shirtfront. “How could I let her come here knowing somebody’s trying to kill me?”

He held her, searching for something helpful to say. He opted not to voice the first thing that came to mind. It was understandable that she wasn’t thinking straight right now. She’d just lost her husband.

“This situation isn’t exactly something we’re used to dealing with.” Not exactly brilliant but it was the best he could come up with.

Her sobs subsided. He stepped back to fish out his handkerchief and handed it to her. “It’s also possible that Mary will wake up in an hour or two with nothing worse than a bad concussion.”

Kate nodded slightly, then wiped her eyes and blew her nose.

He almost laughed at her expression as she looked ruefully at the make-up and other disgusting things now smeared on his handkerchief.

“You really don’t want this back, do you?” she said.

“No, I think not.”

She stuffed the handkerchief in her purse.

“Let’s go find the ICU,” he suggested.

“Oh, my God, I’ve got to call my folks, and my brothers!” Kate fumbled in her purse for her phone.

He turned her around toward the doors and snatched the phone from her hand before she could protest. “You find the ICU. I’ll make the calls. I’ll be up in a little bit. I need to call Liz, too, and let her know why I’m not there to wait on her hand and foot.”

At Kate’s guilt-stricken expression, he said, “Stop it. Samantha’s home today. That was my feeble attempt at a joke about her Highness, the Queen.”

“Humph. If I know Liz, she’s hating every minute of being waited on.”

“Got that right. Thought she was gonna bite my hand off when I brought her coffee this morning. At this point, grouchy is winning out over gratitude most of the time. But the doctor said in a few more days she can ditch the wheelchair and hobble around on crutches. There’ll be no stopping her then.”

Kate actually smiled a little at whatever mental image that had conjured up… probably of Liz knocking over her throne with her crutches and beating it into matchsticks.

He made a shooing gesture, and Kate headed back into the hospital.

Deciding he needed some moral support himself, he called his Lizzie first.

CHAPTER NINE

While Kate sat in the ICU holding her sister’s limp hand and talking to her, the family was once again converging on Towson.

After filling Liz in, Rob had called the elder O’Donnells at their retirement condo in St. Augustine. They’d immediately headed for the Jacksonville airport. When he called Jack’s number in Chicago, his girlfriend answered. Jack wasn’t home but she promised to track him down and get him on the next available flight.

Then Rob called Michael’s home number. Phyllis answered. He told her what had happened, then where to find the spare key to Kate’s house hidden in a fake rock by the front porch steps.

“Uh, Phyllis, hang onto that key for now.” Having a key where just anybody could find it probably wasn’t a great idea at this point.

~~~~~~~~

Phyllis dispatched Michael to once again make the airport runs, while she headed for Towson.

Retrieving the key, she walked up onto the porch. The sight of the rusty-red blood soaking into the floorboards hit her like a fist in the gut.

How could anyone do this to dear, sweet Mary?

Pulling herself together, Phyllis stepped over the still sticky puddle and unlocked the door. She went in search of fresh sheets and started making up beds everywhere she could, including the sofas in the living room and study. There would be no driving back and forth to Silver Spring this time. Everyone would want to be near the hospital.