Killer Moves: The 4th Jolene Jackson Mystery (Jolene Jackson Mysteries) (9 page)

I looked at my phone again, debating on the next number to dial. I had to call Melody and tell her what was going on and get the meds list for Travis, but first, I had to call my mother.

Lucille picked up immediately. “What have you found out?” she said in loud whisper. “Can you prove what they’re up to?”

“Nothing yet. We’re just getting started. It is probably going to take a while. Jerry should be here shortly. After I explain what’s going and find out how long this is going to take, we’ll come back and get you.”

“No! I told you I’m staying. Christine is coming in the morning and I’m going to pump her for information and snoop around. After this, nobody’s going to be doing anything, so I’m safe.”

She was probably right about that, but I wasn’t willing to bet her life on it. “I’ll call you back in an hour. You call me immediately if anything changes. Okay?”

“Yes, Jolene. Now you do your job and let me do mine.”
Click.

I sighed again, heavily. Yes, it was becoming a habit and it didn’t help anything either, but I had to do something. Deciding a few deep breaths wouldn’t hurt, I sucked in air until I coughed, then composed myself and called Melody.

As Lucille suspected, the rehab center had called her in a panic. She’d apologized profusely for the misunderstanding, explaining—very sweetly—that she’d just decided to take her mother home that night rather than wait until the next morning, especially since they’d already done the special blood work. She apologized more for not understanding that she needed to tell anyone and agreed to come in tomorrow morning to sign the appropriate papers. She wasn’t going to, of course, but it satisfied them for the moment.

I asked her to talk to her mother and get all the details she could about when they’d taken her to the lab room, if she’d gone anywhere first, and what they’d done or had her do, such as swallow pills. Melody gave me a list of what Doris was taking, none of which were prescription drugs, just vitamins and natural products.

“Thank you for your help, Jolene,” Melody said, a little emotion catching in her throat. “I don’t know what I’d done if you hadn’t been there.”

“I’m glad I was, but you would have gotten your mother out of there one way or another.”

“I don’t know what’s going on in that place, Jolene, but it isn’t good.” Melody paused for a moment then said, “Do I want to know why you stayed behind in the lab room?”

“Probably not. But Melody, you really do need to keep a close eye on your mother. If you notice anything unusual, get her to the emergency room immediately.”

“Understood. I started detoxing her the minute we walked in the door. She’s really tired right now, says she just feels worn out. She also having some nausea and is a bit confused, but I think she’s okay.”

“Probably just from all the excitement,” I said, hoping it was true. “Just watch for anything unusual.”

I hung up the phone and looked over at Travis, still working intently, totally immersed in his mission. I heard a noise behind me and turned around to see Jerry walking into the room.

The little girl in me wanted to jump up, rush into his arms and let him tell me everything was going to be okay. Instead, I stood slowly, once again wondering how to explain what had happened and how it wasn’t my fault.

There were problems with both approaches. For one, I am not a little girl. And two, it
was
my fault. That vial of blood and those pills hadn’t exactly jumped into my hands on their own. And, oddly, I was okay with it. I didn’t need to apologize or try to convince Jerry of anything. Huh. What was up with
that
? “Thanks for arranging this.”

Before he could respond, Travis opened the lab door and motioned us forward.

“Just so you know,” I said, leading the way. “I stole a blood sample and some pills from the rehab center. I had good reason.”

He groaned.

“Seemed the thing to do after they rolled out the dead body and took my mom’s friend away for unscheduled testing.” I glanced over my shoulder and smiled. He did not smile back. “Oh, for godsake, Jerry, you knew it was bad before you got here.”

“Yeah, I knew, but it’s still always a surprise to hear the details.”

“I also helped the woman’s daughter sneak her mom out of the facility. Lucille refused to leave, because she’s Lucille and that’s what Lucille does. But also because she appointed herself your undercover mole—her words—and is going to get to the bottom of things.” Again, I smiled. It wasn’t a happy smile, just my usual “yes, I know it’s insane but I don’t know what else to do” smile. “Now, when did you say we were getting married?”

Travis had obviously overheard the entire conversation. “I can share a few specifics on the technical side of things,” he said to Jerry, closing the lab door behind us.

Jerry glanced at me then said, “More specifics would be great.”

Travis provided a concise summary of the situation in terms that made everything seem quite reasonable and my actions almost heroic. “Given the age and condition of the typical patient at a physical rehabilitation facility,” he said, “testing anything that would increase the potential for rhabdomyolysis would be contraindicated.”

“That’s logical,” I said, “but it’s sure what seems to be what’s happening to people—muscle damage and even destruction. You called it myopathy too, which I can pronounce. Is that correct to use?” He nodded. “Well, since the heart is a muscle, couldn’t it be affected too—with fatal results?”

“Rarely, but yes, and the risk increases with higher dosages, as well as when used in conjunction with other drugs. Liver and kidney functions would also be at risk.” Travis pressed his lips together for a second then said, “I worked on an R and D project several years ago where the side effects you’ve described were identified and documented for a particular class of drugs.” He looked directly at me. “Again, that’s a hunch, not a scientific analysis, but it does give me some things to check.”

“I really appreciate this, Travis,” Jerry said. “It’s above and beyond the call of duty.”

“It’s no problem, Sheriff. These sorts of unusual situations break up the monotony and I enjoy the challenge.” Travis nodded to Jerry. “It is going to take some time to look at the various possibilities and run analyses, so there is no need to stay here. A quiet dinner alone would seem appropriate.”

“It would,” Jerry said, “if I didn’t have to go capture my future mother-in-law.” He glanced over at me. “She’s not physically able to leave, is she?”

“She’s not supposed to be, but she is—long story—and she was demanding to do just that until this all happened. Now she doesn’t want to, which just screws everything up.” I ran my hands through my hair and pulled. “I want her to be safe, Jerry, really I do, but I don’t know what I’m going to do with her. I wasn’t counting on this. I wasn’t counting on any of this!”

“Jo…”

I twisted my hands and shifted from foot to foot. “I know how this sounds, but if I have to add being her fulltime caretaker to my list of things to do right now, I will go totally and completely insane. The stupid estate thing had me ready to combust before I found out about all of this,” I said, waving my hand around the lab. “And did I mention that I had a run-in with the jackass consultant who’s running the toxic waste project? Or that my ranch manager ran me down on a four-wheeler and tried to shoot me? Of course, then he took me up to see the house, but I froze and couldn’t go in, and now the attorneys tell me I have be living there by tomorrow because of some stupid reason in the stupid trust papers that I never read.” The tears were coming, but I was trying really hard to stop them. “I just don’t know how I can handle everything, Jerry, I really don’t…I can’t…I just can’t.”

Jerry stepped toward me, looped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me to him. “One thing at a time, Jo. One thing at a time.” He held me for a few long seconds. “Let’s go have a chat with your mother then we’ll decide what to do.”

Chapter 11

I’d left the Tahoe parked at the gas station and had ridden with Jerry in his new truck—a black shiny tricked-out four-door with those sneaky incognito blue lights—that had arrived while I was gone. He’d told me it was coming, but with the litany of other things on my mind, I’d forgotten until I saw it at the morgue. It gave us something to talk about in the sixty seconds to the parking lot other than what was once again on the agenda—dealing with my mother.

In light of the earlier incidents—and my roles in both—Jerry had gone in alone to see Lucille. That was a relief on a number of levels, at least for me. Not so much for the sheriff, who was striding toward the truck with a scowl. Apparently things had gone as they usually did with Lucille—poorly.

He climbed in and closed the door, giving me that familiar look of dismay. “Apparently, I have a mole on the inside. At least until tomorrow afternoon. I told her we would both be back to discuss what to do next.”

“You think she’s safe until then?”

He nodded. “We took a walk down the hall and every person within earshot now knows her future son-in-law is the Bowman County Sheriff. That should keep her out of immediate danger tonight, but we need to have a plan for tomorrow.”

“Yes,” I said, adding yet another heavy sigh with it. “She seems like she’s doing very well, but I can’t just take her home and leave her alone. And if I have to stay there with her twenty-four-seven, I’ll have to kill her myself. And besides that I have to—” My cell phone rang, so I picked it up from the console, looked at the ID and said, “Deal with all the estate crap.”

“You don’t have to answer it,” Jerry said, watching me not rush to answer. “However, the attorney probably wouldn’t be calling this late unless it was important.”

“Yes, and that is exactly why I don’t want to answer it.” But I did. “Hey, Ed, what’s up?”

“Jolene, this is Grant. I just had an email come in from Doctor Waverman. It was sent earlier today, but I just now got it.” I rolled my eyes. “Let me guess…oh, hell, I can’t guess and I don’t want to. What does he want?”

“The equipment he needs for the second phase of work became available sooner than expected and he wants to start in the morning. He’ll be onsite at seven.”

“Okay, and?”

“He can’t do anything unless you approve. You took the contract to review this afternoon, remember?”

“Yes, I remember, now, dammit.”

Grant chuckled. “Rough day?”

“It was a rough day before I got to your office. It became amazingly worse after I left.” I sensed he was about to ask questions or offer condolences, so I said, “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

“Perhaps, but it might still be prudent. Still, that’s for another time. For now, we need to keep the project moving.”

I felt manipulated, but in reality I didn’t have much choice but to go ahead and approve whatever Waverman wanted to do. His proposal looked professional and did seem to be keeping the environmental police happy, so I promised to review it—or at least sign the damn thing. “Tell him he can stop by my mother’s and pick up the contract before he goes to the site.”

“No.”

“No?”

“That’s why you have to be living on the property. Trying to run things from your mother’s house isn’t a good idea.”

Again, I had plenty of reasons to support that theory, but I doubted they were the same as his. I preferred not to discuss either though. After I hung up, I said, “Seven in the morning, Jerry. I have to be at the property at seven to sign a contract with the consultant.”

“You could let the attorneys handle it.”

Could I? Oh, I suspect if they could have they would have just as they were with the plastics factory stuff. “Shit. I thought I was being all possessive with ownership and whatnot on the land, but that wasn’t it at all. They were letting me think that, then glossing over all the other business dealings because they
could
handle those.”

Jerry ran a hand through his dark wavy hair. “You think they’re handling things improperly?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I think it’s all spelled out in the terms of the trust.” I saw his look and answered his unspoken question. “It’s an inch thick. I skimmed it…sort of. And I was in shock. Seriously, Jerry, I think I still am. And I am not having any warm fuzzies for my mother or Bob Little over this mess either. And then let’s talk about what’s going on at the rehab center and what if Travis’ tests show she’s right? Then what? And how am I going to get my stuff moved, especially when I don’t want to, and I have to do it by tomorrow.”

Jerry reached over and placed his hand over mine. He had the nicest hands, strong yet gentle, neat with long firm fingers. His simplest touch said far more than words. “It’s going to be okay, Jo,” he said, his deep voice adding a different layer of comfort. “Just take things one at a time and do your best, whatever that may be. I’ll help however I can.”

I swallowed down the emotional overwhelm that had tried to lodge in my throat. “I really don’t know what I’d do without you.”

He smiled and his eyes softened. “Can you think of anything you’d like to do
with
me?”

“Well, I’d really like for you to just hold me.” The center of the truck was filled with all kinds of gear, so I would not be snuggling up to him at the moment. “Tonight.”

“I can do that,” he said, squeezing my hand again.

And with just that simple gesture, for just a moment, everything seemed okay.