A Crying Shame: A Jesse Watson Mystery (26 page)

“I know what you’re thinking, Jesse,” Randy said, walking
beside me. “If Claire’s having a miscarriage, it has nothing to do with you or
what you said earlier. Put it out of your mind right now.”

“I’ll try,” I said softly, in between my tears.

We came to the nurse’s station in a different section of the
hospital. The station was set up in the center of a very large area with
several separate rooms surrounding it. The rooms had no doors, only curtains
similar to the Emergency Room. It looked like we were in the intensive care
unit—the same type of ICU where Dad had died—in the same hospital. I froze when
I realized where we were. My breathing became labored as I tried to concentrate
and take deep breaths.

“Are you okay?” Randy asked.

I caught my breath when I heard Claire talking in the room to
my right. The curtain was closed, but I could still hear them talking. “I’m
okay now. Let’s go…”

“May I help you?” a nurse asked as she came up to us,
blocking our way.

“My sister was rushed back here a few minutes ago.”

“What’s her name?”

“Her name is Claire Benson.”

She looked at the clipboard in her hand and said, “She’s
going to be fine. The doctor is in there with her now. You’re going to have to
leave this instant!”

“Claire, are you okay?” I hollered out.

The doctor walked out of Claire’s room and snapped his
fingers. Two seconds later, Randy and I were politely escorted out by two very
large orderlies.

“You can wait outside the door, but you can’t come in here,”
one of them said. “The doctor will be out in a minute.”

“He doesn’t know…”

“Trust me; he knows.” They turned and walked away.

I grabbed the door handle and discovered it was locked. “I
wonder why the door’s locked.”

“See that scanner on the wall? You have to have a card to get
through these doors. Somehow the door must not have closed all the way the last
time someone went through it, or either the electronic lock was momentarily
disabled. It doesn’t matter because we’re not getting back in.”

“Then I’ll stand right here in the doorway until somebody
tells me something.”

We both stood in the doorway, watching.

Randy and I were discussing the situation when the door
opened and Cole walked out. “Claire’s okay,” he said. The door closed behind
him.

“What happened, Cole?”

“Claire started having stomach cramps, so they rushed her
here. She thought she might be having a miscarriage, but she wasn’t. The pains
were related to the back pain caused by the accident. She’s going to be fine.”

“I’m so glad to hear it,” I said. “I’ll go tell Mom. Oh, I
don’t think the two of you have met. Cole, this is Randy Morgan. His mother,
Abigail, is Carl’s next door neighbor. Randy and his family are friends of
Claire’s, and now they’re friends of mine. Randy is also a criminal lawyer.” I
smiled and turned to Randy. “This is Cole James, Greene County Deputy and
Claire’s fiancé.” I turned and walked off.

Randy held out his hand and said, “It’s nice to meet you.”

Cole said the same thing to Randy as the two of them turned
and followed me.

Claire was going to be all right; that’s all I cared about. I
didn’t have the patience or desire to stand around and carry on a conversation
with Cole. I did the polite thing by introducing him and Randy, now all I
wanted to do was to get back to Billy and the others. I wanted to be surrounded
by the people I loved and trusted, and unfortunately, Cole was no longer in
that group. I put him in a category somewhere close to Carl. I don’t despise
Cole like I do Carl, not yet, anyway, but he’ll have to come full circle before
I forgive his bad behavior. And I just don’t think that’s going to happen for a
long time, if ever. I continued walking until I was met in the hallway by
Billy, Mom, and the two ladies.

“Dr. Bryant sat your mother down and talked to her,” Billy
said as he acknowledged Cole and Randy with a nod of his head. “She’s fine
now.” He reached over and put his arm around her. “He didn’t have to give her
anything.”

“We told her it was a waste of her time to get so upset,”
Abby said.

“Yeah, we told her to chill out,” Isabel added.

“How’s Claire?” Mom asked. She avoided looking in Cole’s
direction. “Can I go see her?”

“Claire’s going to be fine,” Cole said to Mom. He walked over
to her and put his hand on her shoulder. “I’d like to talk to you if you can
find it in your heart to give me a few minutes of your time.”

She hesitated for a minute and then said, “I never did get
any of that hospital coffee. Perhaps you can go with me.”

They turned and walked away.

“That’s a good sign,” Abby smiled and said. She looked at me.
“Your mother has been hurt by Cole’s behavior, but she also realizes people can
make mistakes. “When I talked to her at Christmas, she told me that when she
found out that her son, Jack, is gay; she said it opened a new door for her
into what’s real and what isn’t; what’s important and what’s not. She said she
realized that it’s important to love people for who they are, and not for what
you want them to be. She’s so glad that she didn’t turn her back on her son
like so many others would’ve done. She learned something very important by
keeping an open mind and by not being judgmental. She said that maybe Cole’s
medication was what had made him turn violent. Dr. Bryant suggested that she
keep an open mind and give him another chance.”

“That’s a strange analogy, but if it works for her; it works
for me,” I said. “My mother is a very good person. I’m sure Cole will convince
her that he’s changed and she’ll give him another chance.”

Randy stood there with a confused look on his face, but when
I explained to him that Cole had slapped Claire and we were mad about it, the
confused look turned into a look of anger. His face got blood-red. “Next time
he’ll answer to me,” Randy said and walked off.

Abby followed him; Isabel followed her, and Billy and I
stayed behind, staring at each other.

“He’s smitten with Claire,” I said as I took Billy by the arm
and started walking. “I want to talk to you. How’s Brian?”

“He’s been released on bond. His case comes up in a couple of
months. I’m sure Russ will ask for a continuance. Lawyers usually do.”

“It’s so sad. His wife is murdered, and he’s the one who gets
arrested. Now he’ll have to go through the ordeal of standing trial for
something he didn’t do. What an awful thing to have to deal with. Not only does
he have to try to handle the pain of her death, but he has to deal with the
agony of a trial at the same time. It sucks!”

“There’s more to it,” Billy said. He stopped walking and
turned to me. “Whatever went on with Vicki and her doctor just might have
produced a baby. The receptionist at his office said that she didn’t think that
the doctor messed around, but she knew something was funny when he ordered a
paternity test without the patient’s consent. If it’s true, it would have been
bad for business, not to mention what would happen if his wife found out. He
ordered a paternity test. Vicki never agreed to it but he did it anyway,
without her signed consent. He forged her signature.”

“Are you sure the receptionist was telling you the truth?”

“Yes, I am. Belinda’s going to get a copy of the paternity
test and fax it to me at home.”

“How friendly did you have to get with Belinda?” I eyed him.

“I told her I’d take her to a dinner and a movie.”

I jumped back and was just about to let him have it when he
held up his hand and said, “Whoa, `ge ya! I’m just kidding. I paid her a
hundred bucks.”

“You better not take anyone anywhere, except me!” I said, and
then calmed down. “I thought they were so much in love.”

“Sometimes a marriage hits a rough patch. Brian said they had
a period where they barely spoke to each other. It was just before Vicki got
pregnant. After they found out about the baby, they managed to put their
marriage back on course and everything was okay after that.”

“Does Brian know about the affair?”

“He’s in the dark. He thinks they worked out their problems
and his marriage was sound. He was so happy to have a child in it. He said that
for whatever reason they had that bad spell, the baby made everything all
right. He said his marriage was solid. He has no idea who would do something
like this to his wife. He believes a thief broke into his house, encountered
Vicki, and then killed her.”

“What do you think?”

“The crime scene showed no sign of forced entry. She either
let him in, or the doors weren’t locked. I don’t think it was a thief or that
it was random. I think there’s something fishy about that doctor. Why would he
have a paternity test done, if he didn’t think he could be the father? That’s a
red flag to me. If that test shows that he’s the father, I’d say we have our
man. All I have to do is prove it. Belinda said that if his wife found out,
she’d divorce him. He was already in financial distress. A divorce would
bankrupt him. Belinda also said that he gambles and drinks on the job.”

“Why doesn’t she report him?”

“I asked her that and she said she needed her job. She said
the medical board wouldn’t do anything to him, but she’d lose her job.”

“If that doctor is the father and Brian finds out, it’ll kill
him. It sounds like he worships Maisy.”

“Oh, he does.”

“What’s the doctor’s name?”

“Benjamin Beard. The girls in the office call him BB—for
boobs and butts, because he’s always looking at someone’s boobs, or butt.”

“That’s lewd and against the law.”

“It would be hard to prove. He’s a gynecologist, remember?”

“When’s Belinda going to get the paternity test results for
you?”

“She’s supposed to have them by today. She has to access the
file when nobody is around. Today is a half-day at the office and she’s going
to be the one who closes. I should have the fax by the time we get home.”

Detective Trainum came around the corner and met us in the
hall. “
Sherry Lane
’s conscious and the doctors think
she’ll make a complete recovery. She has a concussion, a few cracked ribs, and
like you, a broken arm.” He winked at me. “Oh, and she has a fractured ankle.”

“I’m glad that she didn’t die,” I said, relieved. “I surely
didn’t want to be held responsible for her death. I can see it now; I try to
save my sister and then wind up in prison because I killed her captor.”

“You’re in the clear,” Frank said. “It’s my opinion that if
it hadn’t been for your actions; your sister would’ve been killed by
Sherry Lane
. That woman swears that she’s
innocent, but at the same time, she said that both those other women deserved
to die… and so did Claire. Now that’s the ranting of a crazy person. The worst
part is that I think she kills without remorse. She should be locked up for the
public’s safety. There’s no telling how many people she would’ve killed if you
hadn’t stopped her. Once she got the taste; I don’t think she would’ve stopped.
In my opinion, she could’ve become another serial killer. I think it was in her
blood.”

“I’m surprised that she has so many injuries and Claire
doesn’t. Claire’s back hurts, but the doctor said her back pain was from being
jostled around. She’ll be okay. Oh, and she broke a fingernail.”

Billy and Frank laughed.

“What?” I said. “What’s so funny?”

They both ignored my question.

“The
EMT
said
Sherry Lane
wasn’t wearing a seat belt, that’s why her injuries were so
bad. She’s lucky she didn’t go through the windshield; the steering wheel
stopped her. Fortunately, your sister was wearing a seat belt and that’s what
saved her. If she hadn’t been…”

“What’s the bad news, Frank?”

“
Sherry
Lane
said that Carl
killed both women and is blaming her. She’s rather adamant about her claim. She
went into detail about why and how. Her tale was pretty descriptive.”

“I don’t believe her.”

“I don’t either. I guess we’ll just have to let the forensic
evidence speak for itself. She’s been placed under arrest.”

“Is she handcuffed to the bed like you see on television?”

“You’re still a child at heart, aren’t you, Jesse?” Frank
asked.

“That’s my daughter!” Mom said as she and Cole walked up to
us. “You’d think she was still twenty years old by the way she acts sometimes.”

“I plan to stay that way, too. I don’t want to ever get so
old that I can’t see the joy in life and enjoy the fun times. I’d give anything
to see that woman shackled to a bed.”

“The best I can do is to handcuff her to the bedrail.
Shackling is saved for when she’s transported.”

“I guess I’ll have to miss that, because I don’t plan on
hanging around here for long. As soon as they say Claire can leave; I’m out of
here!”