Hit and Run (36 page)

‘Yes,' Rose said. ‘I was having a little late-night smoke and, as you know, my room was closest to the elevator. I thought I heard something and rolled out into the hallway, and there were Sugar and Lacey. No way was the girl getting off that elevator under her own power. I couldn't be much help physically, but I did,' she tapped her armrests, ‘let Sugar use my wheelchair to get Lacey to their room.'

‘Did Sugar tell you what happened?'

‘She did.' Rose took AnnaLise's hand. ‘I apologize that suspicion had to fall on you. I just felt so sorry for the two of them. I … well, I'd been there. On my own, like Sugar, with a child to protect. And needing to anesthetize myself, as Lacey did, against my only option at the time. Once the two of them were safely away, I'd have gone to the police. There was never any intention on their side or mine to let you take the punishment for this.'

AnnaLise remembered how Rose had looked at her and not her son, Eddie, during the ‘hand-to-mouth' exchange at the ‘Last Supper.' ‘It's OK, Rose. And I do appreciate your telling me now.' She leaned down and kissed the woman's musk-scented cheek.

‘It's the least I could do,' Rose said, rolling over the threshold and out onto the porch before executing a one-eighty in her chair. ‘We have to stick together, you know?'

‘Because we're family?' AnnaLise asked, wondering what Bobby Bradenham would have to say about that sentiment after weathering the visit by Grandpa Smoaks.

‘Because we're women.' Rose grinned. ‘And don't worry, dear. My Eddie's not your half-brother.'

‘But you told me you weren't sure.'

‘Ach, I was being melodramatic. Fact is Dickens couldn't get up his nerve, much less his
kielbasa
that night.'

‘But his diary said—'

‘Dickie probably remembered his sexual “debut” as he chose to. Who am I to crush a young man's wet dreams?'

With that and a wave, discreet cougar Rose Boccaccio rolled down the ramp and off into her proverbial sunset.