Sweet Tea and Secrets (32 page)

Alone, Jill found it impossible to control the tears. The doors opened on the ground floor in front of the chapel. She stepped into the dimly lit area and took a seat in the back pew. No one else was there. She cried for Garrett, for Pearl, for Clyde. Everything was unraveling. Pearl had been the glue that kept everything in rhythm. Now that she was gone, nothing made sense. The whole darn town was in chaos.

Jill peeled a handful of tissues from the small box sitting on the pew in front of her.

When she stepped out of the chapel, Scott Calvin stood in the lobby dressed in shorts and a ‘PIG OUT’ t-shirt, holding the fruit basket.

“Nice shirt.” Her mind raced first to Pearl’s mantel, then to Garrett’s desk.
If the ‘PIG OUT’ t-shirt is some kind of a sign, Lord, it had better be a good one.

Scott handed her the handkerchief from his pocket. “Here.”

“Thanks.”

“Now tell me what’s going on and why I needed to bring a puked-on fruit basket to the hospital. I had to dumpster dive, by the way. Garrett’s dad had already pitched it.”

“Sorry about that. If I’m wrong, you did that for nothin’”

“What is all this about?”

She emptied the contents of her back pocket and sat down.

Scott slid the fruit basket under the chair and took a seat next to her. “What do we have?”

“I’m not sure. I got that fruit basket earlier today, delivered to the house. This is the card that was on it.” She snapped the card onto the table in front of them.

“Okay.” He shrugged, encouraging her to continue.

“And I found this,” she said, holding up the matchbook, “between the screen door and the front door when I went to go inside after the fire started this afternoon. Someone wanted me to know that the fire was intentional.” She placed the matchbook next to the card, ‘you lose’ side up.

“Any idea who might be behind these things?”

“Bradley is pretty mad at me. But he’s in Georgia. I talked to him this morning, and my assistant said he’d spoken to him from the bank there this morning.”

“I’ve seen people do worse over less. Carolanne told me about the restraining order.”

“Yeah, and you heard about the conditions of the will. I haven’t told him, but who knows what he’s heard. He could still have connections here.”

He nodded.

“Bradley says he wants me back in Savannah, but I won’t lie to you. He said some pretty threatening things toward Garrett on the phone yesterday.”

Scott listened intently.

“Garrett ate one of those bananas,” she pointed toward the basket. “I hate bananas. Bradley knows I don’t eat them.”

“You think Bradley Kase might have poisoned the fruit basket?”

“Not the apples. I ate one of those, and Clyde did too. I think the bananas were poisoned.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess anyone that knew me could have done it. Or maybe I’m just reaching.”

Her bottom lip trembled. “You should see Garrett. He’s the color of a rain cloud. He can barely move.” Her hands shook. “If I’m right, maybe they can figure a way to make him well.”

Scott grabbed the fruit basket. “Who is his doctor?”

“Dr. Banks.”

He grabbed her hand and they jogged to the elevator. He pressed the button for the ICU floor. As sheriff, he made more than an occasional visit to folks in ICU and he knew the staff well.

When they stepped off the elevator, Dr. Banks was walking by. Scott stopped him. They spoke low, heads down and nodding, while Jill stood down the hall, just outside Garrett’s room.

Patsy came out and hugged her. “You okay?”

“I can’t lose him again.”

“Tell him that. If that won’t cure him, nothing will.” Patsy pushed Jill toward Garrett’s bed. “He loves you, you know. Never stopped.”

I really messed everything up
. She squeezed Patsy’s hand. “Thanks. I’m sorry about everything.”

“Go, honey.”

Jill went in and slid the wooden-framed chair close to the bed. She knelt in the seat and leaned over to kiss Garrett on the forehead. “This is my fault. I’m so sorry.”

He shook his head and mouthed ‘no.’

“I don’t think this was an accident. Scott’s here. He’s checking it out now.”

“We’ll need to ask you to step outside,” a nurse said from behind her.

For the next hour, nurses rushed in and out of Garrett’s room. Patsy and Jill sat in the hall outside.

Jill sat silent, unsure of how to tell Patsy what she knew.

After a while, Garrett’s father stepped out of the elevator. Worry etched his face.

Jill greeted him then excused herself to the visitors’ lounge to call Carolanne and Elsie with updates. Scott came in with coffee cups in a cardboard tray while she was on the phone.

“Thanks,” she whispered, twisting one out. “I’ve got to go. I’ll call you back when we know more.” She turned back to Scott.

“You were right,” he confided. “When I explained the scenario, Doc said there was a good possibility that Garrett had been poisoned. The lab just confirmed it.”

She held the cup to her chest. “Is he going to be okay?”

“Yeah.”

Relief flooded every tense muscle in her body so much so that she thought she might collapse.“Thank goodness.”

“I’ll check with the florist in the morning to see if they can tell us who sent that basket.”

“The florist didn’t deliver it. Macy did.”

“I’ll check with her then. By the way, I just got word that the fire is out. They’ve got one truck on standby to insure nothing flares up over night. You might want to stay somewhere else tonight.”

“I’ll probably be here anyway. Thanks for helping me.”

“Don’t thank me. I’m just glad you put everything together so quickly. Your fast thinking probably saved Garrett’s life.”

Her heart swelled.
If anything had happened to him...
“I can’t believe any of this. It doesn’t even feel real.”

“I think I saw them let his mom back in the room,” Scott said. “Why don’t you get back down there?”

Jill headed back down the hall then into Garrett’s room. His mother and father stood off to the side. Garrett’s color had started to come back already.

Patsy crossed the room and put her arm around Jill’s shoulders. “He’s going to be okay, dear. They’re going to keep him overnight, but they say he’s going to be perfectly fine. We’re going to head on home. You should do the same. Let us give you a lift.”

“Y’all go on home. I’m going to stay here for a while.”

Jill watched Garrett’s parents walk to the elevator, then pushed the recliner next to Garrett’s bed. He didn’t stir. His color was good, and he appeared to be resting well. She climbed into the chair with her feet underneath her and leaned her head on the side of the bed, snuggling his arm against her body.

When she woke, he was stroking her hair with his hand.

She lifted her head. He looked better. “Thank goodness you’re okay. How do you feel?”

“Like a truck ran over me.”

“I’m so sorry, Garrett.”

He put a finger over her lips. “No sorries. Let’s just put the past behind us.”

“But…”

“Sh…” He gave her a half grin. “All of the past.”

The nurse came in and checked Garrett’s IV while the doctor flipped through his chart. Jill scooted her chair out of the way and excused herself while the nurse took Garrett’s vitals.

The elevator dinged and Elsie stepped out. “Hi, Jill. I talked to Patsy. She said you were still here.”

Jill tipped her head toward Garrett’s room. “The doctor’s in with him now, but he’s doing so much better.”

Elsie hugged her and sat in one of the upholstered chairs outside Garrett’s room. Jill took the other.

When the doctor came out of the room he said that Garrett was now stable and would probably sleep most of the night. He encouraged Jill to go home and get some rest, too.

Jill poked her head in Garrett’s room and he was, as the doctor had said, sleeping. She scribbled a note and left it on the table for him.

Elsie gave her a ride back to Garrett’s house since the fire trucks were still at hers. She needed quiet if she was going to rest. Elsie offered to let Clyde stay with her until everything settled down.

Mr. Malloy had dropped Garrett’s cleaned-up truck off in front of the house. That gave her a vehicle to drive if she needed to get back to the hospital.

Jill watched Elsie drive off and stood looking at Garrett’s house. The country home flaunted a covered wrap-around porch, steeply pitched rooflines, and shuttered multi-pane windows. The house still looked as warm and inviting as it had when she and Garrett had worked on the original plans for their dream home. They had fought for two weeks over the exterior colors. She’d won, and the historic color combination still looked great.

The front door was unlocked. She knew it would be. You had to practically drive right through Garrett’s folks’ front yard to get here. The odds of anyone getting back here unnoticed were slim to none.

Jill felt a little odd returning this house after being gone so long. She kicked off her shoes and stretched out on the sofa. After switching sides twice, she gave up. She was exhausted, but couldn’t get her body to slow down and rest. Frustrated, she gave in and went into the kitchen to see what she could find. In the cabinet next to the microwave there was a good selection of her favorite teas that she’d left behind.

While the tea brewed, she went back into the living room. The photo albums under the coffee table caught her attention. She flipped through the first couple of pages. The stiff pages filled in the blanks on some of the things she’d missed while she’d been away the past year.

Jill took the photo album with her back into the kitchen. She poured herself a cup of tea in a Malloy’s Country Designs mug and then sat at the kitchen counter, looking through the album.

There were pages full of pictures of Clyde. Not exactly a puppy, but a younger and clumsy looking Clyde. Running, fetching, rolling and, of course, slobbering. Lots of pictures of Pearl with Clyde too. Pearl really loved that dog. You could see the sparkle in her eyes as she stood next to him, looking so tiny. His head had to be twice the size of hers. The next set of pictures showed a woman assisting Pearl and Garrett with Clyde at dog obedience school, or some kind of class.

She flipped the page, but something made her turn back.

Lifting the book, she looked closer at the woman in the pictures.

Jill straightened in her chair. The pictures had been taken from pretty far away, but that woman—she sure looked familiar. Jill’s hand hovered over the page, hesitating, but there wasn’t anyone here to stop her. She tugged the photo from the four corner mounts, and carried it to the corner under the lamp for a better look in the light.

The woman looks so familiar.

Her phone rang and she ran to answer it, praying Garrett hadn’t taken a turn for the worse.

It was Carolanne, checking in. Her flight would be landing around five tomorrow evening. She’d come straight to Pearl’s.

Following that moment of panic, Jill called to check on Garrett.
The nurse said that his status had been upgraded to stable so he could accept a phone call. She connected Jill’s call to the phone in his room.

Garrett was still groggy, and told her not to come to sit with him in the hospital. He’d be sleeping and he didn’t need any distractions, not even beautiful ones.

Chapter Sixteen

Bright and early, Jill drove Garrett’s truck over to Pearl’s. Everything looked dull from the layer of soot that had settled. The fire had been contained to the woods, but the acrid smell of smoke hung in the air outside and even inside the house.

At least the house had been spared. Opening windows wouldn’t do any good, just cycle in new smoky air, so Jill stuck to wiping everything down inside to get the sooty film off and hopefully freshen the place. She sprayed the inside of a window and wiped it with a piece of newspaper until the smearing mess was clear. Newsprint worked best. No streaks and no lint. Pearl had always sworn by it, and they saved stacks of newspapers just for that purpose.