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“Suzanne, we had an incident here a few minutes ago, and I knew you’d want to hear about it,” Bo said.
“Is Gabby okay?” I asked, suddenly realizing how much I’d risked by putting her in jeopardy, even if she had approved it after the fact.
“Relax, Suzanne. She’s fine. Manny Wright just left here, and he wasn’t very happy about being turned away, I can tell you that.”
“What happened?” I asked as I put the phone on speaker.
“He tried to force his way past me and get into her room,” Bo said with a hint of laughter in his voice. “Can you imagine that? I told him to stop, and when he wouldn’t listen, I had to persuade him that his current course of action wasn’t going to work out too well for him.”
“Did he say why he wanted to see your cousin?” Grace asked. “Hi, Bo, it’s me.”
“Hey, Grace. Yeah, if you can believe it, he kept saying that she was the one he loved, that he’d made a huge mistake with the other women, and that he needed to see her. He said that almost losing her was more than he could take, and it made him realize just what he’d thrown away.”
That certainly sounded like a different story than we’d ever heard from him. “Did you believe him?” I asked.
“No, not a chance. He clearly had an ulterior motive, but I wasn’t about to risk finding out what it was. I sent him packing, and then I told Gabby what happened.”
“What did she say?”
“That I did the right thing,” Bo admitted. “It was nice hearing that from her. Anyway, I just thought you should know.”
“Thanks for calling, Bo. Keep us posted, okay?”
“Will do,” he said, and then he quickly added, “Here comes Penny. Gotta go.”
“Ask her out, you big dweeb,” Grace shouted, but it was too late. He’d already hung up.
I looked at Grace and smiled. “Dweeb? Really?”
“It was the only thing I could come up with on the spur of the moment. Do you believe Manny’s story?”
“I’m with Bo. We haven’t seen anything from Manny to make me think that he cares about Gabby one way or the other. There has to be another reason he was so determined to see her.”
“I’m not completely convinced myself,” Grace said.
“What do you mean?”
“What if he was telling the truth? I know, I’m supposed to be the hardhearted one, but it’s possible, isn’t it? If Manny wanted to hurt Gabby, he wouldn’t have tried to push his way past Bo. Not only would that make him a witness that Manny was even there, but I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want Bo angry or upset with me.”
“No, I wouldn’t, either,” I said. After giving it a moment’s thought, I said, “I can see another reason it might have played out that way. Let’s say Manny came to the hospital to finish the job, thinking he could slip in and out without being seen. Maybe he saw Bo too late, so he was committed to doing something, and knowing Manny, using love as a cover sounds exactly like something he would do. He forced the issue by claiming his love for Gabby to hide the fact that he was really there to hurt her. It’s at least possible, isn’t it?”
Grace nodded. “I hate to admit it, but I think you’re right. I must be getting soft.”
“I’d never say that about you,” I said as I patted her hand. “That was supposed to be a compliment, in case you weren’t sure. Grace, your pragmatism is part of your charm.”
“Thanks. I guess being in love has affected my way of looking at the world lately,” she admitted. Before taking a bite of lasagna, she quickly added, “And that’s all that we need to talk about that.”
“Got it,” I said as I took a bite myself. It was really rather good, though not as tasty as it had been fresh out of the oven. Then again, it was there, it was free, and I was hungry, so everything worked out for the best in the end after all, at least as far as lunch was concerned.
As we were cleaning up, I got the call I’d been expecting earlier.
It was Jake again.
“Can you talk this time? What was that all about earlier?” I asked him.
“Suzanne, I have some news you’re going to want to hear.”
“Fire away,” I answered as I put my phone on speaker so Grace could hear, too.
“Buster Breckinridge is on the run.”