Dolled Up For Murder

15

While Gretchen drove to the hospital, Nina dialed several phone numbers before reaching someone who could help. Larry Gerney agreed to meet them in the visitor’s parking lot and arrived at the same time they did. Hurrying, they transferred Tutu and Nimrod to Larry’s car. Gretchen handed over the key to her mother’s house. “It’s much closer for you than driving them all the way to Nina’s,” she said. “Leave the dogs there.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Larry said and pulled away as they ran into the hospital.

Nina’s ability to think in a linear path under duress amazed Gretchen. By the time they arrived at the hospital, Nina had notified most of the Birch family members across the country, arranged for pet care with Larry, and had even left a message for Steve to return her call. Gretchen, on the other hand, had driven in silence, almost paralyzed by fear and shock.

Now she wanted to stand up and scream at everyone-at the dispassionate receptionist attending the waiting room desk, at the nurses strolling through in their impenetrable groups, quietly murmuring among themselves and consulting clipboards. She wanted to scream at Nina for her endless chatter.

This couldn’t be happening. She stared out a hospital window at pavement and parked cars and at nothing at all. Nina forced her to take a cup of coffee, but her one good arm felt too weak to lift it to her lips. Instead of drinking the coffee, she clutched it like a lifeline.

Hospital sounds whirled around her. An overhead paging system called for Dr. Kay. Mechanical noises created by massive generators churned, and carts creaked down harshly lighted halls that smelled faintly of chemicals and sanitizers.

Someone walked by and stopped. Gretchen turned her head.

“She suffered a subdural hematoma,” a woman in scrubs said. “A severe head injury. She’s in surgery now to relieve the pressure and control the bleeding. We won’t know anything for several hours.”

“Did anyone speak to her?” Nina asked.

“She was unconscious when she arrived.”

“Is the bleeding in her brain?” Nina said while Gretchen remained speechless.

“No,” the woman explained. “It’s the area external to the brain, below the inner layer of the dura.”

Nina nodded and gripped Gretchen’s fingers below her cast.

“Thank you,” Gretchen murmured and the woman walked through doors clearly labeled No Admittance.

In novels, the heroine never cries, Gretchen thought, watching Nina dab her eyes with a balled-up tissue. Gretchen looked away, wondering who the heroine could be in this real-life drama. She didn’t know why, but the sight of other people crying always brought tears to her own eyes.

Two uniformed police, stationed at the end of the hall, stood guard. Because of Caroline’s arrest warrant status, they would remain at the hospital until she awoke and was able to be questioned.

If she awoke.

If. If. If…

Larry returned from taking the dogs home and sat down beside them, visibly agitated. Detective Albright appeared and strode purposefully across the waiting room toward them.

“I headed here as soon as I heard,” he said. “I don’t have much information. We don’t have any witnesses to the accident, at least not yet. A passing motorist observed the car lying upside down in the ditch on Pima Road and called nine-one-one. It took quite a while to extricate her from the vehicle, and she lost consciousness during transport in the paramedic unit.” He looked at Gretchen. “Have you heard anything yet?”

“She has a head injury,” Gretchen said faintly. “She’s in surgery. Were you at the scene?”

“Of the accident? No. I didn’t hear about it until they had time to run the plates. She was on her way to the hospital by then.”

“Did anyone talk to her?” Larry asked, blinking wildly.

“She was in shock,” Matt said. “She didn’t make much sense.”

“Nina asked the hospital staff the same thing,” Gretchen said. “But no one had an opportunity to ask her about the accident. She was unconscious when she arrived.”

“Why don’t you take a break,” Matt said. “Go home for awhile. I’ll call you when she comes out of surgery.”

“I’ll stay, too,” Larry said.

Gretchen shook her head. “I couldn’t possibly leave.”

“We had to turn off our cell phones when we entered the hospital,” Nina said. “Let’s go outside and try to get through to Steve again, and I’ll update the family.”

“Who’s Steve?” Matt asked.

“Her fiancé,” Nina replied, stretching the truth even in time of crisis. “He’s an attorney, so you better watch yourself. No more illegal moves while he’s round. I think I might have a lawsuit against you for searching my car.”

“I’ll be on my best behavior,” Matt said, displaying the palms of his hands. “Promise.”

Gretchen had lost all feeling. Her body and mind were numb. Nina took the coffee cup from her hand, placed it on the table, and led her outside. She didn’t feel the heat. She shuffled along like a woman without hope, like the homeless men and women wandering the streets.

“Turn on your phone,” Nina said harshly. “Snap out of it.”

Gretchen numbly dialed Steve’s office number. “No one’s answering at the office.”

“It’s Sunday,” Nina said. “Call his cell phone.”

She gazed into Nina’s frightened eyes and listened to the third ring. She chewed her lip.

“Gretchen,” Steve said when he answered. “What’s going on?”

Mechanically, she related the events surrounding her mother’s accident as they had been told to her.

“I don’t know what to say,” Steve said. “This is awful. Are you okay?”

Gretchen wanted to say No, I’m not okay. Nothing is okay. How could I be okay? Instead she said, “I’m with Nina. We’ll be at Scottsdale Memorial until we know the outcome of the surgery and I get a chance to see her. I can’t use my phone inside. You’ll have to call the hospital if you want me.”

“Just do whatever you need to do. And call me as soon as you know anything.”

Gretchen signed off. She wanted to scream at him, too. Why hadn’t he offered to come? Didn’t he know she needed his support, needed him at her side? Calm down, she scolded. Stay cool. You’re overreacting. It’s the stress that’s making you feel crazy.

“I have your aunt Gertie on the line,” Nina said with distaste, covering her cell phone with her hand. “She’s willing to catch a flight today if you want her to. She said your mother has to be exonerated and needs help now more than ever because she can’t defend herself.”

Gretchen took the phone from Nina. “Hey, Aunt Gertie. I can’t worry about the murder investigation right now. All I care about is whether or not she’s going to live.”

“Quality of life counts, too, you know,” Gertie said. “She isn’t going to be happy in prison. She needs you to keep working for her because she can’t do it herself.”

“Don’t come yet. I’ll let you know if I need you.”

“We’re a crusty line of women,” Gertie said. “You have what it takes. Keep me posted, and stay strong.”

Gretchen heard her disconnect.

Stay strong. Good advice from Aunt Gertie.

Larry continued to make himself useful. At eight o’clock, he drove back to Caroline’s house to check on Tutu and Nimrod and feed Wobbles. “I confined them to the kitchen. Not Wobbles,” he said quickly when he saw Gretchen’s expression. “The two dogs. I had to. They were behaving like a bunch of teenagers who discovered the parents were away. What a mess.”

He caught Nina’s look. “Don’t worry. I cleaned it up.”

Matt paced the hall, drinking coffee and occasionally huddling with the officers on duty in the hall. At some point, he thrust a tuna sandwich into Gretchen’s hand and forced her to take small bites.

Three eternal hours after they had arrived at the hospital, the doctor appeared.

“She’s in recovery,” he said. “The surgery went well. She’s not out of danger yet, though. The next twenty-four hours are critical.”

Gretchen and Nina fell into each other’s arms and let the emotions that had been boiling under the surface escape. Damp-eyed, Gretchen asked to see her mother.

“She’ll be in recovery for a while. Go home, and we’ll call you when she wakes up. That won’t be any time soon.”

Gretchen glanced at Matt. At least he had the good sense to refrain from requesting an interrogation. She wondered how soon the attending physician would allow police officials to question his patient. When Matt sat down next to the coffeepot and crossed one leg over his knee, Gretchen knew he was in for the long haul. So was she.

“I’m staying,” she said to the doctor, with a piercing glance at Matt. She sat down hard in a chair and crossed her arms. “And I expect to be the first one notified when she is able to have a visitor.”

The doctor approached the detective. “It’ll be some time before you will be able to interview her. Her family will be the only ones allowed in initally.”

Matt looked over at Gretchen. “I understand. I’m staying anyway. After all, I’m almost like family.”

How quickly he went from family friend to family member. A charlatan, our craggy detective.

“I’m staying, too,” Larry said.

Another round of waiting began. Gretchen watched the sun go down from a chair next to the window. The officers standing guard resorted to playing cards. Nina left to monitor her pets with Larry in tow, and Gretchen found herself alone with Matt. He glanced up from a magazine.

“What did she say?” Gretchen asked.

“Excuse me?”

“You said she was in shock at the scene of the accident.”

“Schmidt,” he said, calling to one of the officers. “You talked to Caroline Birch?”

The taller of the two officers looked up from his card hand. “Yah, but she talked gibberish.”

“What did she say?” Gretchen said.

Officer Schmidt lowered his cards and folded them into his beefy palm and frowned in concentration. “Let’s see. She musta thought she was auditioning for a part in a movie or something. She said she was waiting forever to be discovered, and this was her big break.” He fanned the cards and threw one down. “What do you expect? She was in shock.”

Gretchen sat up straight in her chair. She felt a wave of dizziness and clutched the side of the chair. “How did you identify her?” she asked slowly. The answer was important, more important than they knew. “How did you know she was Caroline Birch?” she demanded, rephrasing the question.

The officer continued to scowl. “We ran the plates.”

Matt leaned forward and abruptly dropped the magazine on a side table. “What?”

“She wasn’t carrying identification,” the officer said defensively, sensing he’d said something wrong.

“No purse?” Matt asked.

Officer Schmidt shook his head. “Not a scrap of paper anywhere. No purse. No wallet. Just a paper bag with a few dirty clothes wadded up inside.”

Gretchen jumped up. She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs. Instead she shouted to no one in particular, “That isn’t my mother in recovery. She didn’t have a car accident.”

“What are you saying?” Matt said.

“The car accident. It wasn’t my mother in the car. It was Daisy, the homeless woman.”

Gretchen and Matt stood beside her bed. The nurse in charge of the recovery room watched to make sure they obeyed the rules. Their instructions had been clear. No speaking to the patient. One minute, no more, to make the identification.

This was highly irregular. Frowned on by administration. But under the circumstances…

She seemed small and helpless wrapped in hospital linens and gown, and her eyes were closed. Her head was wrapped in white bandages, and tubes snaked from beneath the bedding and traveled up into a maze of equipment and monitors.

The woman who was her mother. But wasn’t.

If Daisy were conscious, she would be pleased at the attention, the part she unwittingly played. She had finally received top billing to a sold-out audience.

Gretchen struggled between feelings of intense relief that she wasn’t viewing her injured mother and overwhelming guilt because of that relief. A woman lay before her, struggling for life. Whatever distance Gretchen had felt from Daisy and her way of life was now shortened. Her possession of Caroline’s car had established a connection, and Gretchen vowed to do whatever she could to help Daisy. If only she would live.

Where was her mother? Gretchen’s search led her in a circuitous path, and with each loop she found herself traveling closer to Nacho and Daisy. How did a ragged collection of indigents get to occupy center stage?

Gretchen felt a gentle nudge and looked up into Matt’s questioning eyes.

She nodded.