Hideaway Hospital Murders (15 page)

“
What happened?” said
Cynthia.

“
She’s got multiple stab
wounds to the back. It’s pretty gruesome. And we’re going to need
to get statements, so y’all stick around.”

The officer walked back in. They could hear
his partner on his radio, calling for an ambulance.

“
When your mom hears about
this, she may change her mind about moving here,” said
Greg.

“
Yeah, but this woman lived
alone. Mom will have me to look out for her.”

But Greg wondered why anyone would want to
kill this sweet old lady. Knowing the reason behind the murder
wouldn’t bring her back. But it might make him feel better. A few
months earlier, he only had himself to worry about. Now, he had a
girlfriend and a potential future mother-in-law to protect.

**********

Macy Golong liked to take advantage of the
early morning and late evening hours. These were the only times she
knew there would be no interruptions. For the rest of the day, she
had to be on-call to meet every need of her employer, Mallie Mae
Mobley. If the old woman yelled to her and she didn’t respond
immediately, Macy could expect her cell phone to ring within
seconds. Sometimes hours passed between calls. But knowing that one
could come at any moment kept her in a state of uneasiness.

She took another sip of coffee and turned
the page.

Ormando walked onto the porch carrying a
whip. His thick, black locks were blown back to one side by the
warm summer wind. His unbuttoned shirt flapped in the breeze,
revealing his hard, sun-darkened pectorals and abs.

“
You will give yourself
to me—NOW,” he said, in thunderous tones, cracking the whip on the
marble floor.

Jessica wondered how she had gotten herself
into this situation. How dare he command her to yield to his lurid
longings? She would never give in to him. Never. And yet, as she
looked into his smoldering eyes, she was not sure how long she
could resist. Surely, unimaginable pleasure awaited her, if she
would only submit to him. No. She would not give herself to this
savage animal.

“
So? What will it be?”
he said. “Torture or paradise?”

If she resisted, what guarantee did she have
that he would not whip her mercilessly, and then force himself upon
her anyway?

But it did not matter. For she had already
made her decision.

Macy flipped the page. Her cell phone
rang.

“
Macy? Please come to my
room,” said Mallie Mae.

Chapter
19

The old black phone on the
nightstand was coated with a dried up paste consisting of beer and
dirt, speckled with Nacho Cheese Doritos dust. And right now Jake
wanted to take a sledge hammer to it. Not because it was
disgusting. No,
that
he could live with. But the
stupid thing wouldn’t quit ringing. He had no idea how many times
it had already rung.

But his splitting headache discouraged any
movement toward the phone. The mere blink of an eyelid might push
him over the edge, he thought. And, oh how he wanted to avoid what
happened last time, when it felt like a plumber was working his
toilet plunger on Jake’s open mouth until it sucked out the
previous night’s pepperoni pizza and beer, and sloshed it all over
the floor.

He started counting the number of times his
head throbbed between rings, wondering how much pressure the human
skull could withstand. It felt like his was about to blow.

Had the old phone finally gone haywire? he
wondered. No caller would let it ring that many times.

It had to stop.

“
Hello?” he said, choking
back the barf.

“
Jake? Are you
okay?”

“
Carnie?”

“
Yeah. How are you feeling?
You don’t sound too good.”

“
Well, let’s see. I’m 32,
but right now I feel like I’m 102.”

“
Yikes.”

“
In fact, if this is what
it feels like when you’re 102, I don’t want to live that
long.”

“
I guess we had a little
too much to drink last night.”

“
I don’t know how you were
able to drive yourself home,” said Jake.

“
I didn’t have as much as
you did.”

“
And why did you leave like
that? You got me all lathered up and rock hard, and then you took
off. I’m beginning to think you’re just a big tease.”

“
No, not at all. Next time,
Baby. Next time for sure. But I realized we needed to talk about
some things first.”

“
Why do women always want
to
talk
everything to death? Why not just do it, and talk about it
later?”

“
This is important, Jake.
Do you remember telling me your big secret last night? And don’t
say too much—somebody might be listening in.”

Why had he told her? He knew why—because he
had gotten drunk and stupid. “What about it?”

“
I looked it up in the
newspaper archives online and got all the details. But don’t worry.
I won’t tell anybody.”

“
Good. Thank
you.”

“
And you won’t tell
anybody
my
secret, right?”

It took him a couple of seconds to remember
what she had proposed about forcing people to take part in a
clinical trial. “Right. I won’t tell.”

“
And you’ll help me,
right?”

“
Now wait a minute. I told
you I didn’t want any part of that.”

“
But you’ve changed your
mind because you want to be sure I keep your secret.”

Jake wondered how he had fallen into this
trap. “Uh, yeah. Right.”

“
Good. I’ll drop by your
house tonight at around 8:00. See you then, Honey.”

“
Bye.”

Why hadn’t he gone with his gut feelings
when he met her on Sunday night? He knew she was trouble. But her
luscious body promised heaven, and her lurid eyes flickered with
hellfire. A sexy bad girl was always hard for him to resist. So,
he had gambled and lost. Again.

If he was lucky, maybe he could do this job
without landing himself in jail…or the morgue.

**********

It was Friday morning, and Elmo Mobley
realized he had not spoken to his mother since Tuesday. He’d been
working practically around the clock researching Alzheimer’s,
hoping to find some brand new miracle treatment for her. But the
hopelessness of the disease was beginning to sink in. He could not
save his mother. No matter what he did, she would deteriorate into
a pitiful state as she died a slow death. The most he could hope to
do was prolong her current quality of life for a little while.

And although he could never make up for all
their years of estrangement, he wanted to start spending as much
time with her as possible. He loved Carsie, and had been excited
about starting a new life with her, but it would be selfish of him
to get married right now, he thought.

He decided to go up and have a
heart-to-heart with Mallie Mae. She would be surprised to see him,
since he rarely went upstairs. When he reached her room, the door
was closed. He was about the knock, but then he heard Macy’s
voice.

“
Elmo’s still working in
his study day and night,” said Macy.

“
I guess he loves me after
all,” said Mallie Mae.

“
Guess so.”

Elmo felt guilty about eavesdropping. He
raised his hand to knock, but then hesitated when he heard Macy
speaking again.

“
But how long do we have to
go on with this?” said Macy.

“
As long as it
takes.”

“
I don’t know if I can keep
it up, Mallie Mae.”

“
Sure you can—if you really
care about him.”

Elmo knocked.

The conversation stopped.

After a few seconds, the door began to open
and Macy said, “Well, I thought you were going to let her starve.
Oh, Elmo. I thought you were Hadley, bringing breakfast.
Sorry.”

“
Who is that man?” said
Mallie Mae. She looked frightened.

“
It’s Elmo,” said
Macy.

“
Who?”

“
Elmo. Your son,” said
Macy.

“
Oh,” said Mallie Mae. But
she didn’t seem to understand.

Elmo motioned for Macy to follow him out
into the hallway.

“
Tomorrow we’re going to
have a fun day together,” said Elmo.

“
Really? Doing what?” said
Macy.

“
I’m taking y’all to the
Dallas Zoo.”

“
The zoo?” Macy looked
confused.

“
Yeah. Have you ever
been?”

“
No.”

“
You’re kidding. I can’t
believe you’ve never been there. The TV commercial says it’s 95
acres of fun,” said Elmo. “And it
is
. So, have her ready to go by
7:00 AM.”

“
But do you really think
she should be going out in public in her condition?”

“
Sure. She’ll be fine.
It’ll be good for her,” said Elmo.

“
Well, okay
then.”

“
Great. So, I’ve got to go
make dinner reservations for tomorrow night.”

“
Where?”

“
It’s a surprise. But
you’re gonna love it,” he said, as he walked away and went down the
stairs.

As soon as he was out of sight, Macy walked
back into the bedroom, closed the door, and rushed to Mallie Mae’s
bed.

“
What’s gotten in to him?”
said Macy.

“
What did he
say?”

“
He’s taking us to the
Dallas Zoo tomorrow.”

“
What?”

“
And then to some fancy
restaurant for dinner. We’re going to be with him all day. He’s
going to figure it out. He’ll see that you’re just faking. I should
tell him you’re not feeling well enough to make the
trip.”

“
No. This is good. If I can
convince him that I really
am
in bad shape, maybe he’ll go
ahead and dump his fiancée. He’s feeling so guilty about being mean
to me for all those years that he’ll want to spend every waking
minute with me until the day I die.”

“
But you don’t want to have
to keep faking Alzheimer’s forever. And what’s going to happen
when you finally tell him the truth?”

“
I’ll cross that bridge
when I come to it, Dear.”

That’s going to be an awfully tall bridge,
thought Macy.

**********

“
Hello?”

“
Johnny, this is Elmo. I’m
surprised I caught you in your office.”

“
Hey, Elmo. Yeah, I was
just about to see my first patient. How’s it going with your
mother?”

“
That’s what I called you
about. I’ve got a hypothetical for you.”

“
Shoot.”

“
Suppose somebody was
trying to
fake
having Alzheimer’s disease and they came to you for a
diagnosis. Could they fool you?” said Elmo.

“
Well, yeah, in theory. The
only way to know for sure whether someone has Alzheimer’s is to
look for plaques and tangles in the brain tissue. And you can only
do that after the patient dies, in autopsy.

“
So, I run blood tests and
brain scans to rule out other causes of the symptoms, and I talk to
the patient about general health, past medical problems, and the
ability to perform everyday activities. Then I give memory tests,
and check language and counting skills. So, a person could lie
about how he’s feeling, and he could deliberately blow the language
and memory tests, and other tests, I suppose. But why would
anybody
want
to?”

“
Okay, thanks, Johnny.
Bye.”

“
Whoa, don’t leave me
hanging. What’s going on?”

“
I’m sorry. I just didn’t
want to tie you up any longer. I know you’ve got patients waiting
on you.”

“
They’re used to it. Now,
what’s this about?”

“
I think Mallie Mae’s
faking.”

“
Why do you think
that?”

“
I overheard her talking to
Macy this morning.”

“
Macy’s the one who brought
your mother to my office, right?”

“
That’s right. I heard
mother saying that she and Macy would have to keep doing
something
as long as
it takes. And when Macy expressed doubt that she could keep it up,
my mother assured her that she could, if she really cared
about
me
.”

“
That’s interesting. Just
how much
does
Macy care about you?” said Johnny.

“
That’s not the point. I
think Mallie Mae is faking so I’ll feel guilty and call off my
wedding.”

“
Oh.”

“
I’ve already postponed it
because of her. You know how she loves to interfere with my life.
Remember how she drove me crazy when we were in medical
school?”

“
Yes, I do. So, maybe
she
is
faking. But how are you going to prove it?”