Chapter 56

Several people have asked for an updated character list.

IN FLORIDA:

A little earlier in the day, Deputy McCullom found Carla, Jessica and Audrey in the ICU waiting room.

"Any change?" he asked as he walked over to them.

Carla motioned for him to sit in a chair just in front of her. As he did so, "No, they finally have her settled in the ICU. She's still just lying there with the ventilator breathing for her. The hospitalist and another doctor are running tests to find out what she's on, but I think most of the results haven't come back yet." (The hospitalist position tends to vary slightly from hospital to hospital, but most are case managing physicians, just as primary care physicians can be out of the hospital.)

McCullom cleared his throat and looked at each of the women. "Uh, our detectives are tied up on that double homicide, and when I told the detective lieutenant that Ms. Gordon might not make it, he asked me to take your statements."

"I thought you already did that," from Jessica, who was sitting on one side of her mother, with Audrey on the other side.

"Uh, I did. At least I wrote in my wreck report generally what all of you told me. But I need to get a statement from each of you — a written statement. You can just write it out in longhand."

Carla stood. "Okay, let me tell Fred where we'll be, and we can go back to the RV. There are too many people in and out of here to concentrate."

"Uh, that's fine, Ma'am. But I don't need a collaborated statement. I mean, I need each of you to write down what happened in detail just as you remember it — without talking to each other to refresh your memory or anything."

Shortly, Carla went into the unit long enough to tell Fred what was going on, then they followed the deputy through the maze of the hospital toward the back.

"I think they lock this door at seven," McCullom said as he held the back door open for the women. "You'll have to walk around to the front until 6:00 A.M. when the nurses start arriving for day shift."

"Thanks, Deputy, uh, there's something I need to ask you," Carla said as they started toward the parking lot.

"Yes, Ma'am?"

"It's getting close to five, but do you know of a catering service around here?"

"Uh, yes, Ma'am. There are a couple."

"I want some food for the night shift nurses in the ICU, and I would like breakfast served for both shifts in the morning."

"Ma'am, I'll be frank with you. That's going to be a tall order this late in the day."

"I'm willing to pay for their extra work," Carla said as she looked hard at the deputy.

"Well, I'm not supposed to do this, since she's family, but I know the other place will rip you off to get something delivered in the middle of the night. Uh, my sister-in-law owns one of the catering services. I doubt if she would be able to do anything too fancy this late, but I'll bet she could get something here during the night. Whether she could turn right around and have breakfast for two shifts on such short notice, I don't know. She wouldn't be able to get much sleep after you figure in her prep time."

"So she has too much business to work a few extra hours tonight?" Carla said, knowing the answer, but goading him a little.

"No, Ma'am," deputy McCullom quickly replied. "To be frank, she's struggling and could surely use the business. My brother will probably be piss ... uh, be upset when he finds out she is going to have to work late, though — and early. But I can handle him. But, uh, please promise me that you won't tell anyone at my department that I recommended her to you."

"You've got it, Deputy."

As Carla hit the remote and the door opened to the RV, he continued while pulling out his phone, "Let me get in touch with her first thing and give her notice so she doesn't leave work. You can talk to her and tell her what you need. We'll make it happen one way or the other."

Jessica caught her mother's eye and rubbed thumb and fingers together to indicate money, then winked while the deputy was dialing his cell. Carla smiled back at her. Fred said to make these people happy, she thought. First, we fill their bellies.

Shortly, Deputy McCullom closed his cell phone. "She's going to call me back as soon as she gets in touch with her help that has just left. I told her roughly what you wanted, so you can just talk to her when she calls back."

Soon, his phone rang and he answered, then put Carla on.

"Come on Deputy, we can sit inside and get started on our statements while Mom is talking to the caterer," Jessica said, and led him into the RV. "Sit there," she said, pointing to a comfortable chair. "Do you drink coffee? I'm going to make some."

"Cat got a climbing gear?" the deputy teased.

"Have you eaten supper?" Audrey asked.

"Well, no Ma'am, but I'll..."

"Nonsense. We're just going to have sandwiches, but there's no sense your just sitting there watching us eat. So relax. Jessica and I will get some sandwiches going, then we'll boot up our laptops and get your statements done. Unless you just want to come back later and pick them up?"

"Uh, no Ma'am. I'm supposed to stay and make sure you don't collaborate on them," he said, obviously embarrassed. "LT knows it will take a while."

Carla came into the RV and handed the deputy his phone. "She surely seems like a nice lady. And to be honest with you, she didn't charge me as much as I expected."

"What's going on?" Carla asked Jessica.

"Well, we have to eat, and Deputy McCullom was nice enough to agree to eat a sandwich with us. After that, it's statement time."

"Good idea," Carla said, smiling at the deputy.

An hour later, they had eaten, typed and printed out their statements. The deputy had read each one carefully, but had asked for a word or two to be scratched through and changed by hand, then the change initialed. When he left to go have Fred write out his statement, "What did he do that for?" Jessica asked. "And he wouldn't let us make the change on the computer and print it out again. The page looked sloppy when we were done."

"Looked sloppy," Carla chuckled, "but there is no way we could ever deny what we signed after making those handwritten 'corrections' and initialing them."

"Of course that's what he was doing," Audrey laughed. "But he never acted like it. That bashful act is just that — an act. That man is smarter than he first appears."

"Darned good looking, too," Jessica said with a big smile. "If we didn't already have the best man in the world, I would be checking out one Deputy McCullom."

They all giggled like schoolgirls, then, "I guess we need to take Fred something to eat," Jessica said.

"Let's give him about thirty minutes to get through with the deputy, before we go over. He's used a lot of energy today, so we need to take extra food," Carla agreed.

Shortly after 8:00 P.M. the women walked back from the hospital to the RV, Fred having insisted that they get some rest. Carla had agreed but told him she would be back around midnight when the food was to arrive for the nurses.

As they sat in the living room of the RV, Carla put her tired feet up on the couch, looked at her watch, then sighed. "I think we need to talk to Jeff and Diana. I promised to keep them posted, and it has certainly been an eventful day. Besides, I'm worried about our man."

Jeff, his wives, Kayla and the girls were all sitting in the Matthews' bedroom when the phone rang. Nicki was the closest, and Arlene nodded to her. Nicki, tentative but nevertheless previously rehearsed by Arlene, answered, "Matthews' residence, Nicki speaking ... Uh, yes Ma'am. Just a moment," and handed the phone to Jeff.

"Well done," Diana whispered in Nicki's ear. Nicki beamed out of all proportion to what should have been a very simple event. To her, it was not. She, an orphan, was being treated as family and allowed to answer the phone. Nat and Whitney seemed just as pleased.

Jeff listened to Carla for a moment, then interrupted her, "Hold on a minute, Carla. I don't want to have to repeat this. Okay to put you on speaker?" When she agreed, Jeff pressed the button and set the phone back in its cradle near the bed. "Alright, we're all in our bedroom and listening. Start at the beginning, please, and tell us what happened."

When Carla had finished and the questions and comments wound down, Jeff took the phone off speaker and said to Carla, "I want you to do something for me. I know Fred made a good bit of money with his percentage of the take from the insurance companies and the sale of his business, but I also know that hospital could very well blow through a large part of his savings in a hurry."

Carla took advantage of Jeff's slight hesitation to say, "We really can't understand why Brenda is so adamant we stay with this young woman, but Fred is determined we do exactly that. I've tried to reason with him, and with Brenda, but she barely responds. Fred insists that if that is what Brenda wants then that is what is going to happen."

Jeff hesitated a moment, then, "Carla, I don't know what's going on, but I long ago learned to respect Fred's judgment. I'm not going to change now. But I want you to do something for me. You still have that other debit card I gave you just before you left?"

"Yeah, I've got it, but Fred wants..."

"Carla, I don't want this to come across as if I'm talking down to you, for I certainly have no intention of trying to do anything like that." Jeff paused for a moment, then continued, "Fred is my longtime best friend. The man would literally die for me. I won't have his savings wiped out by a hospital. Remember what happened to you and your husband. I want you to use that card I gave you for emergencies. There's enough in the account to make a substantial payment on the hospital's charges. By morning there will be far more in it than the hospital bill will ever be. I want you to use that card. If Fred bitches, tell him we will settle up when you get back."

"Jeff, Fred is a proud man..."

"Indeed he is, and he's my friend, Carla. I'll make enough this week to pay that hospital bill several times over. Please, just do this for me. I promise you that you won't be in any trouble with your man. I'll take care of that. Just do whatever the hospital wants, and back Fred."

"I'm going to back him," Carla indignantly said.

"I know that," Jeff quickly responded. "I just misspoke. I didn't mean anything negative by it. Just please promise me you will use that card."

"Jeff, I..."

"Please, Carla."

Carla sighed audibly. "Okay, but Fred is going to be pissed when he finds out."

"So, don't tell him until you get back. Heck, don't tell him at all. I'll tell him myself. And if he checks his account balance and finds out that way, just call me and I'll talk to him about it."

Jeff could hear a catch in Carla's voice. "Thank you Jeff. You're a true friend."

"I'm a brother Alpha. You guys are family. Enough said. Keep us posted, Carla. I don't care if it's two in the morning, if something happens, call us — please."

"I will," Carla choked out. "Tell the others I said thank you, too. Bye."

Jeff hung up and said, more or less just thinking out loud, "Why would Fred's dead wife insist he stay with someone who has been in a wreck?"

"Dead wife?" Kayla said, sitting up straight. "Did I hear you correctly?"

"Yeah," Arlene said, unable to stop herself, and not trying very hard. "'Dead wife' who is running around in his mind, and is not just a figment of his imagination. She can talk to other people if they're touching Fred."

That led to a long and involved conversation with Kayla, skeptical still, and the girls listening in awe.

In the hospital, Detective Lieutenant Harry Dodson rapped his knuckles against the doorframe of the office of Doctor Daniel Harris.

The doctor looked up from what he was reading and motioned. "Come on in, Harry. When I called your wife, she said you were still at work, so I called there and they said they would get in touch with you. You on the way home now?" Harris finished as Dodson, with a barely audible sigh, slid into a seat in front of the doctor's desk.

"I will never gripe about being bored again," the detective joked.

"I said something similar to that a little earlier today. You know where the coffee is. Help yourself."

"I believe I will," the detective responded. "One of the guys brought me a hamburger and a cup of coffee around 1:00 P.M. I haven't been near a cup since, let alone supper."

Harris chuckled. "I ate something from the machine downstairs. I'm not quite sure what it was, though. I heard you had a double homicide?"

"Hang on a minute," Dodson said as he went into Harris's outer office and poured a cup of coffee. It was strong and had been there a while. Dodson didn't care.