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The officer left the desk and made his way over to us through the crowd. “Mrs. Scott?”
Margot looked horrified. “Yes?”
“Mrs. Scott, I need to ask you a couple questions about your sister. Would you mind following me to the hospital’s security office? It’s just down the hall.” Now we had the attention of every person in the room, and no one pretended to read their magazines anymore.
Margot got up slowly and turned to her son. “Jon, you better go with me.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, I need to speak to you alone.”
It was all he needed to say. Suddenly, the color was back in her face and the old Margot was back. “It’s either my son or my lawyer. I’ll let you choose.”
“Uh, well I guess it will be okay.”
She turned to me. “Come and get me if you hear anything before this keystone cop is finished, will you, Jake?” She said it so nicely that no one would have guessed she had just chewed me up and spit me out. “I’ll leave word at the desk to get you if the doctors come out before I get back.” Her face exposed her joy of being in charge again; she had that smug smile that set her apart from her sister.
***
Margot and Jon weren’t gone five minutes before a nurse came looking for me. “Mr. Martin?” I could tell without asking that it was good news. I spent enough time in hospitals last year when Julie was dying to be able to read a nurse’s face.
“Yes.”
“Mrs. Jones would like to see you.”
***
I had expected to see tubes sticking out of Bo
“How you doing, Bon Bon?” I asked with a forced smile. “Fred said to say hi, and wants to know when you’ll be home to feed him your leftovers.”
She wanted to answer, but her tears wouldn’t let her. I cautiously reached out for her hand to hold it, and waited for the tears to stop.
“What the hell are you doing in here?” Margot had thrown open the curtain that separated Bo
“I told you to come and get me! Haven’t you done enough damage for one day?”
The policeman from the waiting room was standing behind her, so I didn’t bother to tell her off. Instead, I turned back to Bo
I gave Bo
“Like hell I will! Get out of here before I have you arrested.”
***
Jonathan didn’t see me when I walked past the waiting room. His thumbs were working the virtual keyboard of his cell phone and it took all his attention. I wanted to ask him what the police had to say, but didn’t need another confrontation so I kept on going.
***
I tried to call Bo
Fred didn’t seem to mind that my scrambled eggs were no match for Bo
I checked the time on my cell phone while watching Fred sniff ground he had smelled a thousand times. It was too soon to impersonate Jonathan, so I decided to sit out on my back deck with my notebook and do some work. No sooner had I sat down than I saw a car on the lower part of the road.
With only four other houses on Columbine Circle, I rarely see any traffic, so it’s always a good excuse to stop writing whenever a car drives by. However, this time I didn’t recognize the car that pulled into Bo
Bo
She disappeared again when she reached the deck and headed for Bo
I gave up trying to listen and went to let Fred in. He looked at me, barked, and ran down the stairs when I opened the door. “It’s not Bo
We should have gone straight down the path between the two houses, as it was the shortest and quickest route, but I didn’t want to be seen trespassing in case the woman had been sent there by Margot. I would have to stay on the road and take the long way down to her house. All I got for being so cautious was a glimpse of the woman’s car in a cloud of dust when we finally made it to the lower road.
Fred and I continued on the road until we reached Bo
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Beethoven was playing on my cell when Fred and I made it back to my cabin. Bo
“Jake! Where have you been? I’ve been trying to get you all morning,” she said when she heard my voice.
“I’m sorry, Bon. Fred and I went on a walk around the circle. You know what lousy reception we get up here. I didn’t get your calls.” I neglected to tell her why we went on the walk. “How are you doing? I wanted to check earlier but figured you needed your rest.”
“Don’t worry about this old broad. It’ll take more than a little heart attack to keep me down.”
“So it was a heart attack?”
“So they say. They also say you saved my life. I don’t know how…”
Her voice broke up, and I thought I heard a muffled sob. “Bon, are you sure you’re okay?”
I waited what seemed like minutes for her to come back on the line. In reality, it was only a few seconds, but if I were a nail biter, my fingers would have been bleeding.
“Oh, Jake, I hate to ask you this after you’ve done so much for me, but I think they’re going to arrest me.”
“Is that why the cop was there? To arrest you?”
“No. He wanted to know if I had a personalized manicure kit. I need you to get the kit from my bedroom and put it someplace where it can’t be found.”
“Did he mention your initials on the file?”
“No, but I’ll tell you, Jake, I came this close to confessing.”