I parked the Honda in the closest spot I could find at the Pine Valley hospital lot, shouldered my tote, and sprinted toward the doors. I heard my name being yelled and stopped and turned.
Mick was running after me. “Hey, sorry, force of habit,” he said, putting an arm around me and kissing me.
“Why are you arresting Carlos?” I couldn’t help but ask immediately after kissing him back.
“You know I can’t say anything to you at this point.” He looked hard at me.
I nodded and pulled my cell from my jeans pocket and dialed the Leavensport lawyer realizing he should share part of his retainer with me for all the business I throw his way. “Hi Mr. Mecurio, this is Jolie Tucker, again. As you know, Carlos Hernandez is our employee. He is at Pine Valley hospital and about to be taken into police custody. I’d like you to represent him. I’ll take care of the cost. Can you meet him at the police station now, please?” I looked up at Mick, who nodded in agreement to what I was doing. I hung up and sighed.
“Well, when we walk through those doors, you do what you need to do and I will do what I need to do but we’ll meet up at home later, regardless.” He bent down to kiss me again.
I reached up around him and hugged him tightly, feeling tears spring to my eyes. “I hate being on the opposite side of you.”
“Me too, baby. Me too.” He pulled back and we shared one last look, then he took off through the revolving door.
I waited a minute or two to allow Mick to get an elevator before me. I didn’t want us walking in together and have anyone think he wasn’t doing his job the right way.
When I got up to the delivery floor, Carlos had already been taken in to be with Mary while she gave birth.
“Please let him have time to see his baby be born,” I said, putting an arm on Mick’s arm.
“You know I can’t do that.” He pulled out his badge and went to the head nurse.
I stayed in the waiting area after letting someone behind a desk know who I was and who I was here for. They informed me that Mirabelle was sitting by a TV set with Spy sitting faithfully next to her. She was rubbing long strides down his furry golden back as he sat watching the cartoon with her.
“Hey lady,” I said.
Mirabelle turned around and squealed, “JOLIE! I’m getting a baby brother!”
“I know you are! This is SO exciting!” I put as much enthusiasm in my voice as I could muster on Mirabelle’s behalf. She was Mary’s twenty-something-year-old daughter with Down Syndrome who had sight issues and a seeing-eye dog named Spy. She was also Cast Iron Creations’ best hostess ever.
“My mom is going to call him Georges, I think.” Mirabelle started then startled me by yelling, “Carlos! No! You can’t leave now. Mommy needs you.”
I turned as she got up and ran to her stepfather with Spy right by her side.
“It’s Jorge, precious girl.” Carlos helped Mirabelle pronounce his son’s name after overhearing while his hands were cuffed behind his back. Mick stood near him, holding one of his elbows.
I noticed Mick had taken a blanket from a nearby cart and placed it over the cuffs on Carlos’ hands, and moved from holding his arm to putting a friendly arm around him for Mirabelle’s sake. I knew he was only doing his job and I knew it was killing him to do it. He liked Carlos and he loved Mirabelle as much as everyone in Leavensport did.
“But why are you here? Did Mommy have my brother already?” She looked from Carlos to Mick and gave Mick a huge smile. “Hi, Mick!” She hugged him.
I saw my husband wince. “Hello, beautiful!” I could tell he was trying to keep his voice from cracking.
“I need your stepdad to come with me and help me on a case right now, Mirabelle,” Mick said.
Carlos nodded in agreement. “That’s right. It’s real important, otherwise you know I’d never go.”
Okay, I wasn’t going to be able to be strong much longer and I wanted to blurt out What on earth is going on here anyways? But I kept my mouth shut and swallowed my emotions. I saw Ava and Delilah walking toward us and waved them over.
“Um, should I be with Mommy?” Mirabelle looked worried.
“No sweetie, you can stay with me,” Delilah said, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
Spy was whining sitting next to Mirabelle feeling everyone’s tension.
“She’s got Jolie’s grandma and aunt in there with her,” Carlos said, nodding and smiling at Mirabelle.
“I didn’t know they were here?” I questioned the group.
“I called them before I called you,” Mick said looking at me wistfully.
As Delilah took Mirabelle and Spy back to the TV in the waiting area, Ava said, “I’m texting them to see if I can come back and give them a break.”
Mick started to take Carlos out but not before I cut him off. “I called a lawyer. They are meeting you at the station. I know he’s your friend,” I nodded toward Mick, “but don’t say anything at all—nothing. Don’t even be friendly. Just be quiet until you see Mr. Mercurio at the station.”
“I can’t afford—” Carlos started.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it,” I said.
“But no—” Carlos protested.
“She has her own checking account. It won’t be a conflict of interest,” Mick whispered.
“It’s not that. She’s done too much for me. I don’t know when I could pay you back,” Carlos pleaded with me.
“I don’t care. Just please do not say anything. He likes you, but he has to do his job. So, no matter what he says, do not speak to him, Teddy, Keith, no one from this point on except Mr. Mecurio. Got it?”
Carlos nodded as Mick nodded at me and pushed Carlos toward the elevator.
I looked around. Ava must have gone back to be with Mary and my family and Delilah was watching over Mirabelle. Mirabelle loved Delilah. Delilah had done some art therapy with Mirabelle for the past several years and she was turning into quite the budding artist.
Bea Seevers came trotting in before I could return to Delilah and Mirabelle. “Jolie, how is she? Is Carlos with her? Does he know?”
I bit my lower lip. “Ava’s in there with her now. Mick just arrested Carlos but I’m not sure why. I wasn’t around when he read the charges.”
“What? That’s horrible!” Mrs. Seevers declared.
Before she could ask me a hundred more questions, my family came bumbling towards us from down the hall. “What on earth is that son-in-law of mine think he is doing?” My Grandma Opal added a curt ending to each syllable. I knew that was never a good sign.
“Grandma, he’s doing his job. He doesn’t like it, either,” I said, using my hands to signal her to be quiet, then pointed to Mirabelle.
“How is she doing?” Aunt Fern asked. She loved Mirabelle so much. She always called her our hostess-with-the-mostess which always made Mirabelle giggle.
“She was here when Mick took Carlos, but they hid what was really going on, so she doesn’t know,” I said seeing my mom come running down the hall. I filled her in quickly on what we knew so far.
“Well, we can—” my grandma started then stopped, staring behind me, slack-jawed.
I turned around to see my best friend standing there, her eyes as wide as I’d ever seen them. She looked to be in a daze and her beautiful adobe skin had gone pale.
“Ava.” I moved toward her.
“Mary had Jorge, but—” Ava started and looked around for Mirabelle.
“She’s with Delilah over there.” I pointed seeing Delilah get up to move toward our group.
Ava’s head bobbed up and down automatically, then she finished her sentence. “But Mary, she’s, well, she lost a lot of blood. They took her off for emergency surgery. I heard a doctor telling a nurse to have Mary ready to go in less than two minutes. He wasn’t sure if she’d make it.”
All six of us women stood as still as trees for several moments allowing the realization of what Ava had just said to sink in. I looked over toward Delilah and thought about Carlos. I swallowed hard. Then I shook myself out of it.
“Okay, Mirabelle cannot know this yet,” I said, biting a fingernail. “Aunt Fern, you call Converge Life and Faith Church and talk to every clergy person there, putting Mary on a list for good thoughts, prayers, and vibes. Mom, you go be with Mirabelle while Ava explains everything going on to Delilah. We need to figure out what to do with Mirabelle during all this and what to tell her.”
“First off, she’ll stay with us,” Ava said firmly.
Wow, my bestie was going to make a wonderful mother.
“Delilah probably has the strongest relationship with her outside of Carlos and Mary,” Ava said. “She’ll know how to best take care of her.”
“And me and my girls will take Carlos’ shifts at the restaurant,” my grandma said as my aunt and mom nodded in agreement.
“We can also help watch Mirabelle and be with Mary when Delilah can’t be with her or when you girls need help,” my mom said.
“Count me in that too,” Bea said.
Bea startled me as I turned around. I had forgotten she was there. She normally wasn’t so silent.
As much as my family and the people in this small town could drive me batty, this is exactly why I loved living here. When life got tough, we all rallied around each other.
My mom went to be with Mirabelle while Ava explained what was going on to Delilah and Aunt Fern was off making her phone calls to summon the angels to watch over Mary.
“They said she wants the baby’s name to be Jorge,” I told my grandma, who sat next to me. I put my head on her shoulder as she reached an arm up to smooth my hair.
“That’s after Carlos’ great grandfather,” Grandma said.
“How’d you know that?” I pulled back from her shoulder, looking into her dark Cherokee eyes.
“Carlos and I talked at the restaurant one evening when things were slow. We got to talking about recipes and he told me about his family in Mexico. I told him about your grandpa’s ancestors who came from the hills of Kentucky and my family’s tribe from West Virginia.”
“Wow, that’s nice,” I said. “I didn’t know they were naming the child after his great-grandfather. I bet he would have loved to be here for that.”
“He’s hoping to get them here to meet Jorge,” Grandma said. “He’s doing everything he can.”
“Wait, did he tell you what’s going on?” I asked carefully.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Grandma said.
“Okay.” I didn’t believe her, but I knew that with Mary in the hospital fighting for her life, Carlos facing jail time for who knows what, and Mirabelle’s happiness at stake, Ava and I needed to get to the bottom of Janelle’s death ASAP!
It had been a long night at the hospital and Mary had made it out of surgery, but when I left at two in the morning, she hadn’t gained consciousness. Aunt Fern took Grandma home so she could sleep in her own bed, then she went home to get some rest so she could open the restaurant this morning. Delilah felt strongly that we needed to be honest with Mirabelle. If she found out from someone else, it could be a lot worse later. She and Ava took Mirabelle and Spy to their house to break the news to her there.
I was at Kwani’s Fillin Station filling up my gas tank before running to the bank. I finished pumping the gas, headed into the station to get a Big Gulp and pay when I saw Tom Costello, Grandma Opal, and Aunt Fern in a heated argument in front of the ice machine.
My grandma looked shaken. I walked up in front of Aunt Fern, who had just finished giving Tom a piece of her mind, “—absolutely disgusting. You should be ASHAMED of yourself.” She pointed a bony finger at him.
“Fernie.” My grandma reached for her daughter’s arm, but Aunt Fern jerked away from her.
“Bea Seevers is married. Good Lord, what are you thinking, man?” Aunt Fern raised her large, heavy, rhinestone-studded white faux leather purse over her head to get more leverage, then took a strong swing at Tom’s head.
I made the mistake of stepping in the middle of the two of them. Before I realized what was happening, I felt a scratch on my forehead as the large white shark of a purse scraped along my head then smacked me square in the cheek. I felt some liquid rush from somewhere on my head as I felt the sting of what a rhinestone stud felt like. My body jerked in rhythm with my head and did a partial spin into Mr. Costello, who helped me keep my footing.
“OH, are you okay?” My grandma ran to me and took my face in her hands, looking me over, then saying, “It looks okay, honey. You’ll have a mark on your cheek and you got a little scrape that caught you right smack in the center of your forehead, but you’ll live.”
“LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO TO MY NIECE!” Aunt Fern screeched at Tom, who looked helplessly from the ground to Grandma to me to the ground again, then he turned away, slumped shouldered, and drug his feet off slowly.
I kind of felt sorry for him, then I remembered what I heard Aunt Fern say. “Did he and Mrs. Seevers have an affair?” I asked, aghast.
“No, good Lord, she has enough sense not to do that,” my grandma said.
“Margie told me he was hanging all over her last night at M&M’s restaurant. He was hitting the hooch at the bar and she had to ask him to leave, when he started putting the moves on her,” Aunt Fern said.
“Ew, gross,” I said, then looked at my grandma, who looked devastated.
“I guess he’s moved on,” she said.
“You go on home,” I said to Aunt Fern. “I’ll take Grandma home.”
Aunt Fern nodded, bent down to kiss Grandma on the cheek, lightly kissed the booboo she made on my head, then gently leaned her head against me and whispered, “Sorry I clocked you, sista.”
I grinned and slapped goofily at her.
“Grandma, I have to go pay for my gas,” I said. “Let’s get a cup of tea and sit in the back for a minute.” I put a hand on her lower back to lead her inside Kwani’s.
“It’s a good thing you used to live so close and I saw you so often or I’d think you were trying to steal gas from me,” Kwani, the owner, said with a jolly smile.
Ava and Delilah still lived close to his shop, but my place now belonged to Marissa, I thought indignantly to myself.
Grandma and I got to-go cups and I got a Big Gulp Blue Raspberry Slurpee while Grandma got a large coffee.
“You’re going to have a blue tongue,” Grandma said.
I grinned. For as long as I could remember, I loved anything that gave me a blue tongue and my grandma loved to give me grief over it.
“You have never told me what really happened with you and Tom. Don’t you think it’s time?”
Grandma Opal chewed her coffee stirrer. “There were so many rumors about him back in the nineties. I’d heard some back then but didn’t think much of it. Bea told me that Tom had cheated on his late wife, Wanda, back in the day. I never knew that.”
“Oh, wow. I mean, I can see why that would create trust issues for you, but at the same time, he was a different age and a different man back then. Don’t you think people can change?” I asked.
Grandma Opal shrugged her shoulders. “I thought about that, but then she told me who he slept with.”
“Who?”
“Ellie.” My grandma’s eyes filled with tears.
I felt my purse-wounded cheek grow even sorer with anger. “Betsy’s aunt. No WAY!”
“I can’t really ask her now, can I?”
“Oh, Grandma, I wish I would have known what you were going through! Now I feel horrible thinking while you were miserable, I was up at the altar where you should have been with Tom but I was marrying Mick.” Now tears were welling up in my eyes.
“Don’t you dare feel bad. You did nothing wrong. I’m happy it all happened the way it did—well—other than not being there to witness it. Your happiness is the most important thing to me and your mom. You know that.” She put that bulldog stern look back on her face then said, “Now, you get me home and get home to that hot detective of yours.”
I grinned after dropping Grandma Opal off at her house. She went on and on about Mick the entire ride. I was happy she wasn’t holding it against him about arresting Carlos anymore. At least she’d stopped flirting with him since we got married.
My cell rang and I pressed the button for Bluetooth. “Hello?”
“Hey, Jolie, it’s Missy Smith. Just reminding you that the prom is this coming weekend. Could you and Ava be at the high school gym around six to help finish up decorations and set up the snack area?”
Oh crap! “Um, sure, of course,” I said, pulling into a driveway to turn around.
I hung up from Missy and looked back to make sure no one was coming either way, then pulled out, turning around to head to Ava’s house. I thought the stomach flu was coming back. I still hadn’t told Ava about the chaperoning this weekend. This was not going to be fun.
I looked down as my phone buzzed again. What now? I thought. It was my mom.
“What’s up, mom?”
“Jolie, I’m at the hospital with Mary.”
I gulped.