Hideaway Hospital Murders (21 page)

Then Macy thought about Mallie Mae. She knew
Mallie Mae would be happy about the breakup of Elmo and Carsie. But
how would she feel about Elmo and Macy? And what about the
accident at the restaurant? Had Mallie Mae faked it? If so, she
had left Macy out of the loop. And that would be a first.

Mallie Mae lay content in the back seat with
her eyes closed. Now maybe she really would go to sleep.

**********

“
Where are you taking us?”
said one of the women.

“
You two are going to spend
the rest of your lives in prison,” said one of the
others.

“
Unless you let us go—now,”
said another.

“
You old hags better cool
it back there. Or I’m gonna let my boyfriend go ahead and shoot
you,” said Carnie. “He’s just itching to blow your heads
off.”

The women studied Jake. He looked like he
really might do it.

Jake was living a
nightmare. He should have just gone to the police and turned
himself in for the hit and run. He hadn’t meant to kill that man.
And he didn’t want to kill these women. But now he was in deep.
Carnie had killed a woman in the parking lot, and he knew by Texas
law he would be charged with murder too—as though he himself had
plunged that screwdriver into that poor woman’s chest. He wouldn’t
be any worse off if he shot all four of the old women
and Carnie
right
now. He almost wished he could pull the trigger and get it over
with. Maybe after that he’d turn the gun on himself.

Then he remembered the gun was not loaded.
And why was he kidding himself? He couldn’t kill anybody. Not on
purpose.

“
Hey, I know this place,”
said one of the women. “It’s the Mobley estate.”

**********

“
I should have gone with
her,” said Cynthia.

Greg was driving above the speed limit. “I’m
sure she’s fine. Probably decided to browse around for a
while.”

“
But why isn’t she
answering her cell phone?”

“
Maybe there’s no signal.
I’ve had trouble with that in certain areas of the store.
Sometimes a call just doesn’t go through. And it can be noisy in
there. She might not hear it ringing.”

“
Oh, no,” said
Cynthia.

Red lights were flashing in the Wal-Mart
parking lot. When they got closer they could see the ambulance and
three Coreyville police cars. There were at least a hundred people
trying to get a look.

Greg parked the car and they hurried toward
the spectacle.

“
No, no, no,” said
Cynthia.

“
I’m sure it’s not
her.”

They made their way through the crowd.

“
Look,” said Cynthia,
pointing. “There’s her car.”

It was inside the roped area.

“
What happened?” said Greg
to a man standing with his wife.

“
I heard it was an old
lady. Somebody stabbed her.”

“
Oh, Greg,” said Cynthia as
she clutched his arm.

“
Come on.” Greg held the
rope up while they bent down and went under it.

One of the cops saw them approaching and
started walking toward them, holding out his hand, ordering them to
stay back.

“
We think it might be her
mother,” said Greg.

Cynthia started crying. “You’ve got to let
me see her.”

“
Alright, come on,” said
the cop.

When the other officers and paramedics
opened a path for them, they could see the body lying on the
pavement with a sheet over it.

“
No!” Cynthia threw her
arms around Greg and pressed her face into his chest. She was
sobbing uncontrollably.

“
We think it might be her
mother. Could you let us see?” said Greg.

Cynthia cried harder.

One of the paramedics uncovered the
face.

“
It’s not her, Sweetie,”
said Greg.

“
What? Are you sure?” She
turned around. “Oh, thank God.”

A woman had just broken through the crowd
and run to the body.

“
Oh, Mom!” She knelt down
beside the bloody corpse and began to cry.

Greg and Cynthia turned and walked away.

“
But where is she?” said
Cynthia.

Chapter
27

Carnie drove the van into the barn and
killed the engine. She and Jake had successfully abducted four
women for her fake clinical trial.

“
What are you going to do
to us?” said one of the women.

“
I’m checking you into
Hideaway Hospital,” said Carnie.

“
I don’t need to go to the
hospital. I want to go home,” said another woman.

“
I need volunteers for my
clinical trial,” said Carnie.

“
So, we’re gonna be the
white mice in your laboratory?” a woman said.

“
Something like that. Now,
let’s go,” said Carnie.

Jake got out, opened the sliding door and
motioned for the women to exit the van. He held the gun on them as
they stepped out. His hand was getting so shaky it seemed as though
it might fire accidentally at any second.

“
Okay, let’s get your names
and ages,” said Carnie.

“
Betsy Holsom. 72.” She was
slightly stocky, and appeared to be quite strong and healthy.” She
glared at Carnie as though she might try to grab her at any moment
and wrestle her to the ground.

“
My name is Ellen Pinkly,
and I’m 88.” Ellen was skinny and frail. Her skin was whiter than
baby powder.

“
Marcia Cleggmore. 79.”
Marcia was nearly six feet tall, and stood erect and
proud.

“
Cleggmore, huh? said
Carnie. “Aren’t the Cleggmores that wealthy family? Yeah. Y’all
have that fancy clothing store in Coreyville, right?”

“
That is
correct.”

“
Yeah. What’s the name of
that store?”

“
Cleggmore’s.”

“
Oh, right. Of course.”
said Carnie with a smart-aleck grin.

Carnie looked at the last woman. “And
finally, we have?”

“
Beverly
Sonora.”

“
Age?”

“
67.”

“
67? Why you’re just a kid.
Looks like I messed up, Jake. This one’s too young.”

“
Then why don’t you just
let me go,” said Beverly.

“
Nope. Can’t do that.
You’ll just have to
act
older
.”

“
Act older for who?” said
Beverly.

“
For Dr.
Mobley.”

“
What? I can’t believe Elmo
is involved in this,” said Marcia.

“
Dr. Mobley is trying to
develop the best possible medication for his mother, who has
Alzheimer’s. So, we’re going to pretend to have a clinical trial
using the various concoctions he comes up with. The big difference
in our clinical trial is that we’ll have only four participants and
that you’ll be
residents
in the clinic for the
entire trial. And I know what you’re going to say. None of
you
have
Alzheimer’s.”

“
Actually, I think I
might,” said Ellen.

“
Anyway, it doesn’t matter.
You will fool Dr. Mobley by pretending to have the disease. And
then one of you will be miraculously cured.”

“
This is crazy,” said
Betsy.

“
Yes, it is,” said Carnie
with an evil grin. “But you will do as I say…or you will surely
die. Follow me.”

Carnie led them to the tool shed. Jake
followed up the rear with the gun. Carnie turned the knob and
kicked the door a couple of times to open it. She stepped in and
walked across the dirt floor to the other door.

She opened the door and said, “Follow me.
And watch your step.” She walked through the door and down the
stairs. “Come on—we haven’t got all night.”

As Betsy took the first step down, she
thought about slamming the door behind her, jumping down on
Carnie, and snapping her neck like a twig. Then the other women
could take care of Jake. He was so nervous he might drop the gun.
But then she looked back and saw Ellen already stepping down behind
her.

Ellen was working on a plot of her own. What
would happen if she fainted or fell down a couple of stairs? she
wondered. She might end up breaking an arm or a leg. Then what
would they do with her? Would they take her to a real hospital? Or
would they shoot her like a lame horse in an old western? Maybe she
needed a better plan.

Marcia looked back at Jake and whispered,
“Young man, you don’t have to go along with that crazy woman. Why
don’t you release us before you get yourself into more
trouble?”

“
Sorry,” said Jake. “I’m
already in it up to my eyeballs. Didn’t you see her stab that woman
back there in the parking lot.”

“
But
you
haven’t killed anybody, have
you? I’m a very good judge of character, and I’m quite certain that
you’re not capable of murder.”

“
You don’t know what you’re
talking about,” said Jake. “Now, hurry up and get down those stairs
before I shoot you in the butt, Old Lady.”

“
Mercy!” said Marcia as she
turned to go down. She was more offended by his rudeness than his
talk of shooting her.

Beverly thought it best to keep her mouth
shut. What must Cynthia and Greg be thinking right now? Surely they
had gone to Wal-Mart looking for her. She felt as much concern for
her daughter as for herself. Cynthia would be worried sick.

Carnie led the group through the curvy
wooden corridor, which seemed to lead to a dead end. But then they
began to see light in the distance, growing brighter as they got
closer.

They walked into the large room and looked
around.

“
Welcome to Hideaway
Hospital,” said Carnie with pride.

It was a four-bed ward, like one you might
see in a real hospital. Each bed had a nightstand, but they were
missing one standard item: a telephone. There was a couch on the
far wall and a table in the corner stacked with various medical
supplies and linens.

Carnie picked up a stack of gowns and threw
one to each of the women. “Change into these.”

“
Is there a dressing room?”
said Ellen.

“
Yeah,” said Carnie.
“You’re standing in it.”

All four women looked at Jake.

“
Give me the gun,” Carnie
said to Jake. “Now turn around while these ladies
change.”

Jake turned around, but the women didn’t
move.

“
Hurry up!” said
Carnie.

Sensing they were in more danger than
before, now that Carnie was holding the gun, they quickly selected
their beds and began to take off their clothes and lay them on
their beds.

“
Now fold your clothes and
put them on the shelf under your nightstand and get in your bed,”
said Carnie.

“
Jake, grab that bag and
start handcuffing them,” said Carnie.

“
Is that really necessary?
What if there’s a fire?” said Marcia.

“
Then you’re toast,” said
Carnie.

Jake picked up the bag, walked over to
Carnie and talked softly to her with his back to the women. “Do we
really need to handcuff them? They’re not going anywhere.”

“
Not as long as somebody’s
holding a gun on them. But how about at 3:00 AM when you fall
asleep?”

Jake walked over to Betsy’s bed, set the bag
down on her nightstand and pulled out a set of handcuffs. He cuffed
her right wrist to the stainless steel bedrail and then went to
Ellen’s bed.

“
Jake? Both hands,” said
Carnie.

“
Ah, come on!” said
Betsy.

“
I think you’ll find that
your stay here will be more enjoyable if you learn speak to me in
the proper tone of voice,” said Carnie.

Jake had just handcuffed Betsy’s other wrist
when Carnie walked over to her bed and slapped her hard in the
face.

It gave Betsy such an adrenalin rush, she
tried yank the bedrails free and slam them together like crash
cymbals against the sides of Carnie’s head. But the only thing she
accomplished was to bruise her wrists.

While Jake handcuffed the other women,
Carnie walked to the table that had medical supplies sitting on top
of it. She picked up four syringes and four vials. She walked to
Betsy’s bed and prepared to give her an injection.

As Carnie prepped Betsy’s arm for the shot,
Betsy said, “What is that?”

“
Just something to help you
rest,” said Carnie. “It won’t hurt you.”

“
How do you know? Are you a
doctor?”

“
No. But I’m a Registered
Nurse. Or at least I used to be,” said Carnie.

“
I need to pee before you
put me to sleep,” said Ellen.

“
No, you don’t,” said
Carnie. “I’m going to catheterize you.”

Jake winced. He
definitely
wouldn’t
be helping with
that
.

**********

Elmo and Macy spoke softly so they wouldn’t
wake up Mallie Mae in the back seat. They were about an hour from
home.

“
I can’t wait to tell Mom
the good news,” said Elmo.