Hideaway Hospital Murders (16 page)

“
It’s hard to trip her up
while she’s lying in bed. So, I’m taking her and Macy to the Dallas
Zoo tomorrow.”

“
Get her out of her comfort
zone.”

“
Right.”

“
Well, Buddy, I hope it
works.”

“
Me too.”

Chapter
20

Greg and Cynthia had remained at the murder
scene for nearly an hour, watching the police, giving statements
and talking to neighbors. So, Greg had arrived at the church later
than usual, and stayed later, and now he was in a hurry to eat
lunch at Jane’s Diner before his first lesson at 1:00.

But as he rushed down the sidewalk to
Jane’s, he still made the effort to look for new bumper stickers.
It was an addiction. He could not pass by a car without checking
its bumper. It was always fun to find one he’d never seen
before—like the one on the car in front of Coreyville Copy
Shop.

If ignorance is bliss,
then you must be ecstatic
.

Not very nice, he thought, but it was a new
one for his collection. He filed it with hundreds of others in his
mental database. Not the best use of a brain, but they say most
people only use 10% anyway.

“
So, I hear you’ve had
quite a morning,” said Jane as Greg walked through the door. She
was standing behind the counter at the soda fountain, filling
glasses with various soft drinks.

“
You could say that.” Greg
wasn’t the least bit surprised that Jane had already heard about
it. By now, he thought, everybody in town knows. He walked over to
the counter. “She was one of my piano students.”

“
Yeah, I know. But why were
you and Cynthia at her house at 6:30 in the morning?”

“
We were
jogging.”

“
Oh, yeah. Your new health
kick. But why did you stop at Nancie Jo’s house? What tipped you
off?”

“
Nothing, really. I was
concerned about her because she missed her lesson last night. And
she didn’t call to cancel, so I called her. But I got no answer.
Now I wish I’d gone to her house last night. Maybe I could have
done something.”

“
Yeah. You could have got
yourself killed.”

“
That’s true. But I still
feel bad about not checking on her sooner.”

“
Well, from what I hear,
she was already dead by noon. So, there was nothing you could have
done. Do the police have any leads?”

“
You tell
me
,” said
Greg.

“
Hey, I don’t know
everything
that goes
on in this town,” she said with a sly grin.

“
Well, I talked to the
neighbor across the street, but he wasn’t any help. I told the
police what he said, but they didn’t bother to interview
him.”

“
Oh, I know who you’re
talking about. No wonder the police didn’t care what he had to say.
He’s crazy.”

“
He did seem kinda
off
.”

“
Not
kinda
off.
Way
off.”

“
Anyway, he said a nurse
came to visit Nancie Jo on Thursday and that she was driving a
white car, and something about the word ‘ecstasy.’”

“
See? The guy’s wacko,”
said Jane as she walked away with the tray of soft
drinks.

Greg mulled it over. A nurse…white
car…ecstasy… How awful it must be living in a fog, never making any
sense. Ignorance is bliss, they say. Maybe not. Where had he just
read that slogan? Oh, yeah—the bumper sticker on the white car in
front of the copy shop.

If ignorance is bliss,
then you must be ecstatic
.

Ecstatic. ECSTASY. The bumper sticker on the
white car in front of the copy shop! He ran out the door to look at
the car.

But it was gone.

**********

It was nearly 8:00 PM, and Carnie was
driving to Jake’s house when her cell phone began to ring.

“
I miss you. And I want to
get married,” said Carsie.

“
I know. I miss you too.
But don’t worry. The wedding will be back on track before you know
it.”

“
Really? Is Mallie Mae
doing better?”

“
Not that I can tell. But I
think he’s about ready to marry you in spite of her
condition.”

“
Why? I talked to him
yesterday, and he didn’t
sound
any different.”

“
Uh…I don’t think you can
tell over the phone.”

“
I should come
back.”

“
No. I mean, you need to
give him a little more time. He’s missing you more every day.
Eventually, he won’t be able to stand it. Then he’ll beg you to
come back and marry him.”

“
Wow. I hope you’re right,
Carnie.”

“
Just be patient, Sis. I’ll
talk to you tomorrow.”

“
Okay. Bye-bye.”

Carnie parked in the driveway and walked up
to Jake’s front door.

When she knocked, Jake swung the door open
immediately. His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw
her. But it was almost too much—like looking directly at the sun.
He wasn’t sure whether she was wearing a dress or a long, stretchy
shirt. But she was definitely not wearing a bra.

“
You’re on time,” said
Jake.

“
Of course.”

“
How are you doing
tonight?”

“
I’m fantastic.”

Yes, you are, thought Jake.

“
Because everything’s
working out perfectly,” said Carnie. “Sit down and I’ll tell you
about it.”

They sat on the couch.

“
For our clinical trial I
had planned to gather four volunteers. The tricky part was that
they had to have Alzheimer’s disease. So, I got some records from
the local pharmacy and picked out a few patients. But most people
with moderate to severe cases don’t live alone and they certainly
don’t go out by themselves.

“
So, that meant taking them
from their homes and having to deal with a caretaker, which could
get messy. But then I realized I could just round up four older
women who
don’t
have the disease, and make them pretend they
do
. The whole
clinical trial thing is a farce anyway.”

“
Then why are you doing
it?”

“
Okay. If you tell anybody
any of this, I’ll have to kill you. And we wouldn’t want
that.”

Jake had no doubt that Carnie was capable of
murder.

“
My sister, Carsie, is
engaged to Dr. Elmo Mobley. They were supposed to get married
tonight, but he postponed the wedding after he found out his mother
has Alzheimer’s.”

“
Okay. But what does the
clinical trial have to do with it?”

“
Because, if I can get Elmo
to believe that we’ll try all of his different treatment ideas to
find the best one for his mother, then he will have done all he can
to help her. And then he would feel free to marry my
sister.”

“
I don’t know, Carnie.
That’s sounds kinda crazy.” He really thought it sounded absolutely
insane. What Carnie was planning was unethical and probably
illegal. A respected doctor like Elmo Mobley wouldn’t go along with
it—even if he thought it would save his mother. But Jake needed to
be careful what he said. He couldn’t afford to make Carnie
angry.

“
No, you’re wrong. It’s
going to work. And anyway, if it doesn’t, I have a sure-fire backup
plan.”

“
What’s the backup
plan?”

“
You know what? I’m getting
bored,” said Carnie, standing up. She turned her back to Jake and
bent over.

He didn’t know what to expect.

She grabbed the bottom of her dress and
pulled it up and over her head as she spun back around. She was
completely naked. “Let’s do it.”

And they did. Many times and many ways,
throughout the night.

After a couple of hours,
Jake began to wonder if there was such a thing as
murder by sex
. He
knew he had sold his soul to the devil. But for the time being, he
just didn’t care.

**********

Macy Golong didn’t have a love life—at
least, not in the real world. She loved vicariously, through her
romance novel heroines and her dream-life alter ego. If it were not
for her job, she might well have been swept away by her intense
fantasies, never to be seen again in the physical realm.

A few years back she had
purchased
Total
Dreamcall
, written by some doctor in
Australia according to the internet site. In it, he described a
technique for recalling dreams in great detail. He claimed that
dreams could be replayed, as though they were movies. She had
learned to focus on remembering her dreams immediately upon
waking—to think of nothing else until she had total recall, or as
the doctor put it, Total Dreamcall.

The so-called doctor might have been a
quack. But regardless, she had become an expert at recalling her
dreams. They were quite vivid, and included talking and sometimes
even background music. So real were her dreams and her
recollection of them, that they were beginning to overshadow her
waking life.

How do we know what we really did, and what
really happened to us yesterday, for example? We know because we
remember it. But what would happen if our memory of dreams was the
same as our memory of real events. How could we tell the
difference? We could ask somebody else who was there. But what if
there was no one to ask?

Suppose you remembered
breaking into your neighbor’s house last night and slitting his
throat. And then going home, taking a shower and going to bed. If
your neighbor is alive the next day, you know it was a dream. But,
what if he’s dead? And what if his throat has been cut? Are you
certain you only
dreamed
killing him?

This is how real Macy’s dreams had
become.

The church had been decorated beautifully.
And it looked as though every resident of Coreyville was in
attendance. The pipe organ was proclaiming the glorious entrance of
the bride.

Macy beamed as she walked down the aisle.
She noticed Carsie in the crowd, on the groom’s side. What was she
doing there? Macy had won Elmo. Carsie had lost, and should not
have been at the wedding. But nothing would spoil her special
day.

She stood with Elmo proudly before God and
man. She glanced at her handsome groom. Her dearest dream had
finally come true.

But she started to feel a laser-like burning
at the back of her head. She whipped around and located the source.
It was …HERSELF. The person staring at her was HER. But how could
that be?

She blinked and she was looking at Carsie.
But they had swapped places. Carsie was now in the wedding dress,
standing with Elmo. Macy was in the congregation, looking at
her.

No!

She woke up. It took a full five seconds for
her to realize it had been a dream.

Sometimes her dreams were no better than
real life.

Chapter
21

Hadley was a proud man, and rightly so. He
had joined the army as a teenager and served for five years,
including two years in the Korean War. Segregation in the armed
forces was ended during that war. He had served admirably, and left
the army as a decorated Sergeant.

Following his military service, he returned
to a segregated society that gave little respect to African
Americans. He took a job working for Elmo’s grandfather, Milstead
Mobley, as a manservant. The salary was more than adequate, but he
had planned to look for something better. He dreamed of owning an
automobile dealership some day.

But soon, he felt like he was right where he
belonged. And when he married, his wife came on staff as a maid.
The couple didn’t have children, although they tried. But they were
never lonely living with the Mobleys. They were family.

And the thing that had kept Hadley there for
all those years, even after the passing of his dear Eloise, was
respect. A mutual respect. Henderson Benjamin Hadley placed a high
value on respect. So, even at age 77, he never had thoughts of
leaving.

These days, Hadley was primarily a cook, but
readily accepted any duty that was entrusted to him. However, when
Dr. Mobley had started to tell him about the trip to the Dallas
Zoo, he was less than thrilled, though he didn’t allow his
feelings to show. But then the doctor had surprised him by saying
that Hadley wouldn’t need to accompany them.

Dr. Mobley had suggested
that Hadley take the day off and go visit his brother. And when he
balked, the doctor
insisted
that he take a fishing
holiday, and that he was not to come home until Sunday afternoon.
Elmo knew Hadley loved to fish.

It was now 6:45 AM. Hadley whistled a tune
as he finished arranging the clothing and other items in his old
tweed suitcase. He turned to the full-length mirror on the inside
of his closet door and checked his attire. Oops. He removed the
brown fedora and replaced it with his fishing hat.

His bedroom was upstairs, at the rear.
Mallie Mae’s door was open, so he decided to stop by. He took off
his hat and looked in.