The Cinderella Murder

47

Laurie hated hospitals, and not for the usual reasons: the chaos, the smells, the reminders at every turn of our fragility and the ticking of the clock. Laurie hated hospitals because they reminded her of Greg. She could not stand beneath those fluorescent lights, surrounded by the odor of disinfectant, without picturing Greg coming down the hall in sea-green scrubs, a stethoscope draped around his neck.

The doctor who walked into the lobby at the Cedars-Sinai emergency room looked nothing like Greg. She was a woman, probably not much older than Laurie, with blond hair pulled into a ponytail. “Jerry Klein?”

Grace’s jump from the seat next to her woke Timmy, whose head was resting in Laurie’s lap. Timmy rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Is Jerry okay?”

Laurie had called her father as soon as the EMTs whisked Jerry away in the ambulance. Leo immediately cut short their visit to the La Brea Tar Pits, dropping Timmy off at the hospital so he could stay with Laurie while Leo tried to get more information about Jerry’s attack from the police.

Laurie hugged Timmy close to her chest and patted his head. She did not want him to hear any more bad news.

Alex appeared next to the doctor, two cups of fresh coffee in hand, which he delivered to Grace and Laurie. Laurie was truly impressed at how well Grace was keeping herself together. She was desperately worried about her friend Jerry but had been helping to comfort Timmy and had even thought to call Dwight Cook and inform him of the break-in at his house.

“I’ll take Timmy,” Alex offered, seeming to read her mind.

The doctor introduced herself once Timmy was out of earshot. “I’m Dr. Shreve. Your friend is stable, but the assault was quite serious, multiple blows from a blunt instrument. The injuries to his head are the most significant. The bleeding impaired his breathing as well, which has led to a comalike state. He’s showing signs of improvement already and seems to be neurologically normal or near normal, but we won’t know for certain until he regains consciousness.”

Grace choked back a sob. “Can we see him?” she asked.

“Sure,” the doctor said with a patient smile, “but don’t expect too much, okay? It’s unlikely he can hear you, and he certainly won’t respond.”

Despite the doctor’s warning, Laurie gasped at the sight of Jerry in bed. His head was swathed in bandages and twice its usual size. Beneath the oxygen mask, his face was swollen like a balloon and beginning to bruise. An IV drip was taped to the crook of his left arm. The room was silent except for the constant hum and rhythmic beep of a machine next to the bed.

Grace reached for Laurie’s hand, then rested her free hand on Jerry’s shoulder and began to pray. They had just said “amen” when Leo walked in. “I didn’t want to interrupt, but I said my own words from the hallway.”

Laurie gave him a quick hug. “Is Timmy okay?”

“Yep, he’s in the lobby with Alex. He’s a tough kid.”

After his father’s murder and the mayhem at the end of filming “The Graduation Gala,” Timmy had seen more violence than any person, let alone a child, should experience.

“Any word from the police?”

“I just came from the house. The entire block’s covered. The lead detective, a guy called Sean Reilly, seems like a good cop. They’re canvassing for witnesses, but I’ve got to tell you, I’m not optimistic. The lots in that area are so huge, you can’t even see your next-door neighbor.”

“I don’t understand it,” Grace said, sniffling. “How could anyone want to hurt Jerry, of all people?”

“I’ve got a theory on that,” Leo said. “The house was tossed. Drawers opened, luggage rifled through. Laurie, you had your laptop with you, but the rest of the computer equipment is missing.”

“A robbery?” Laurie asked.

“Except they left behind everything else. They didn’t even touch some very expensive speakers that would have been easy to grab. And unless you took the case files with you, I think those are missing, too.”

She shook her head. They had stored the files in two large banker boxes. The last time she’d seen them, they were in the den. “So this is related to the show?”

Leo nodded. “It’s the show.”

“The summit session. We told them all the address for filming.” She was thinking out loud now. “Someone was worried about what we might know. They took the files and the computers to find out what everyone else was saying.”

“Or they wanted to scare you into stopping production altogether.”

Laurie knew her father could be overprotective at times, seeing danger around every corner. But no one would break into a house that luxurious and leave with only documents and a few inexpensive laptops unless they were interested in Under Suspicion.

“Dad, you were worried when Rosemary’s neighbor was killed that it was somehow related to the show.”

“And I still believe that.”

“Can you reach out to the police up there? Make sure that both departments know there’s a possible connection between Lydia’s death and the attack on Jerry?”

“Absolutely.”

She leaned over Jerry, carefully avoiding the tubes and wires, and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. She had spent so much time telling her father not to worry about her while she worked on the show, but she never stopped to think that her production might be putting others in this kind of danger.

She had to find out who did this to him.