Marked Down for Murder (Good Buy Girls) (11 page)

“Hush!” Ginger shushed him. “You’re here in a support capacity only.”

“Okay,” Michael agreed, and clamped his mouth shut.

“Now think of this pragmatically,” Claire said. “The closer you are to your due date when you deliver, the stronger your baby will be.”

“And,” Ginger chimed, “when the time comes, you get the awesome push diet.”

Joanne sniffed. “Push diet?”

“Yeah, you push that baby out and you lose an immediate twelve pounds,” she said. “And the bigger the baby is, the bigger the weight loss for you.”

Joanne chuckled while she wiped the tears from her eyes.

“And the baby will have built up all of its immunity,” Maggie said. “Which will be excellent timing given that we’re on the tail end of the flu season.”

“You’re right. I know you’re right,” Joanne sniffed. “I just feel like such a boob. I swear I really thought it was the real deal this time.”

“Not your fault,” Claire said.

“Yeah, the baby is probably giving you a few practice runs so that by the time it is really happening, you’ll be all, ‘No big deal,’” Ginger said.

This time Michael laughed. “That baby has our number.”

The huddle broke up as the rest of them started laughing. Michael hugged Joanne close and said, “Come on, let’s get you home so you can try to get some sleep.”

“I’ll walk you out,” Ginger said.

“Me, too,” Claire said.

They looked at Maggie and she said, “I think Sam is still in the building. I’m going to try and find him.”

She gave Claire and Ginger a meaningful look and then looked at Joanne. She didn’t think Joanne needed to hear about people being gunned down on the street. She had enough on her mind as it was. They both nodded. At the main floor, Maggie left them to go back to the ER.

She was just pushing through the swinging doors when she saw Dot entering from the other side with Summer Phillips beside her.

“You!” Summer cried when she saw Maggie. “What did you do to my mother?”

Maggie looked at Dot. “She did not just say that,
did she?”

“She’s a little distraught,” Dot said.

“My mother has been shot!” Summer cried. “I am more than distraught.”

“Summer, I am sorry about your mother, but when I spoke to her—” Maggie began, but Summer interrupted.

“You spoke to her? When?”

“Just a short while ago,” Maggie said. “She asked me to tell you that she loves you and that she knows she wasn’t the best mother but she tried.”

“Oh, my god,” Summer cried. “She’s dying, isn’t she?”

“No, she isn’t,” Dot said. “We would have had you over here a lot earlier if the situation were critical. Your mother will be fine.”

Dot gave Maggie a reproving look. Maggie shrugged and said, “I’m just telling her what Blair told me to say. It’s not my fault she was feeling dramatic.”

“And it didn’t occur to you to filter it? Shoot, from what you just said, even I thought she was dying, and I know better,” Dot said.

“Sorry,” Maggie said. “I wasn’t thinking. I was here because Joanne was in labor—”

“Did she have the baby?” Dot asked. She looked so excited that Maggie hated to dash her hopes.

“False labor,” Maggie said.

“Aw, man,” Dot said. “Again?”

“Hello? People? My mother!” Summer said.

“Oh, yeah, come on,” Dot said. “Sheriff Collins told us to meet him in room 132.”

Maggie started to walk with them, and Summer scowled at her. “Why are you coming along?”

“To see Sam,” she said.

“Oh, yeah, that’s right,” Summer sneered. “You’re in looove.”

Somehow she managed to make it sound cheap and tawdry, as if Summer had any call to criticize her relationship. Maggie felt her temper beginning to heat.

“Says the woman who was found in a motel with Tyler Fawkes in his underwear,” Maggie scoffed.

Summer whirled on her, her bleached-blonde, extension-enhanced hair flying. “Don’t you say anything bad about Tyler!”

“It wasn’t Tyler I was insulting,” Maggie said. She gave Summer a pointed look.

“Why, you—” Summer’s hands extended like claws and Dot had to hold her back before she sank them into Maggie’s face.

“Will you two quit it!” Dot snapped. “Good grief, you’d think you were still in kindergarten. Wait, I take that back. That’s an insult to five-year-olds, as they certainly behave better than you do. Now let’s go.”

Maggie moved to walk on the other side of Dot so that she wasn’t in clawing range of Summer. She felt badly about tiffing with the other woman. Summer had been having a rough couple of days and Maggie should be more understanding, but oh, that woman could get under her skin faster than a tick on a dog’s ear.

When they reached the room where Blair was being treated, Sam was standing by the door. He looked surprised to see Maggie with Dot and Summer, and his eyebrows lifted in question.

“False labor,” she said.

He gave a pained look as if he knew that it hadn’t been received well by the parents. Maggie shrugged, and he nodded.

“How is my mother?” Summer asked. “Is she . . . is she dying?”

“No!” Sam said. His reaction was so strong that Maggie suspected he’d been getting quite an earful from Blair. “I think the doctor will let you in to see her now. In fact, I could use your help in getting her to talk to me about what happened.”

Summer gave him a quick nod and started toward the door.

“I’ll wait right here,” Dot said. “Remember, I’m your ride home.”

From the way she said it, it was clear to everyone that “home” meant “jail.”

Maggie stood beside Dot while Sam and Summer went in to see Blair. A nurse came out while they waited, and Dot took the opportunity to wedge her heel in the door, leaving just enough of a gap so that they could hear what was being said.

“You are sneaky,” Maggie said.

“Shh,” Dot hushed her. “The preferred terminology is ‘innovative.’”

“Mama, are you all right?” Summer asked. “Where were you shot? What did the doctor say? Are you in a lot of pain?”

“Summer! Thank goodness you’re here. Oh, and look at the two of you,” Blair cried. Her voice was slurred, as if she’d had a martini or two, which made Maggie think they’d loaded her up on pain meds. “It makes a mama’s heart full to bursting to see her baby with the man of her dreams.”

Maggie exchanged a glance with Dot, who put up her hand as if to say, “Wait for it.”

“Mama, Sam is not the man of my dreams,” Summer said. “And you really need not to be thinking of my love life when you were very nearly murdered.”

“Blair, I need you to tell me everything you remember from right before you were shot,” Sam said in his most officious sheriff voice.

“Oh, dear Sam, look how intent he is upon finding the person who harmed his lady love’s mother,” Blair said. “You should hang on to him, Summer. He’s a keeper.”

“Mother!” Summer sounded as if she was finally at her wits’ end. “Sam is not mine to hang on to.”

“Of course he is, dear,” Blair said. “Just look at the two of you. You make such a lovely couple—not like you and that knuckle-dragger Tyler Fawkes. Honestly, what were you thinking shacking up with him?”

Maggie couldn’t stand it. She had to peek. Sam was standing on one side of the bed and Summer on the other. Sam looked irked, Summer had her eyes shut as if praying for patience, while Blair swiveled her head between them, looking delighted.

“Ladies, could we please stay focused on what happened tonight?” Sam asked. “Blair, about the truck that stopped in front of the shop—what do you remember?”

“It was a dark-colored vehicle,” she said. “It was clearly not an import; just big and clunky, nothing worth noticing.”

“Yeah, except that your shooter was driving it,” he said. “So, anything you can remember, anything at all, would be really helpful.”

“Tyler is not a knuckle-dragger!” Summer burst out as if completely unaware that they had already changed the topic. “He is a good, kind man, and any woman would be lucky to have him.”

“Uh-oh, them’s fightin’ words,” Dot said. She squeezed in under Maggie to get a glimpse of the action through the crack in the door.

“Now you listen to me, Summer Phillips,” Blair said. If she was feeling weak from blood loss or woozy from meds, it did not show. “I did not raise you to settle for some no-account, minimum-wage-earning loser. What does that man even do?”

Summer opened her mouth to respond, but Blair never gave her the chance as she continued her tirade.

“You are a beautiful young woman who was bred to find a man who can care for you and provide for you in the manner to which you should become accustomed.”

“No!” Summer snapped. “That’s enough, Mama. I care for Tyler Fawkes. No, he may not be incredibly attractive or have a lot of money, but he makes me feel special and he makes me a better person, and I—well, I love him!”

The room went silent for the space of a heartbeat, and then Blair went apoplectic.

“Nurse!” Blair cried. “I need a nurse!”

Summer and Sam scrambled around looking for the call button. They were too late.

A woman in pale blue scrubs came rushing into the room from a door that connected to the next room. She was hobbling, favoring her right leg as if she’d hurt the left one in her hurry to get to Blair. She had her hair tucked into a surgical cap, and a mask covered her lower face. She moved it aside as she asked, “What is it, Mrs. Cassidy?”

“The pain, oh, the pain,” Blair cried. She clutched her chest.

“Is it your wound?” the nurse asked. She frowned. She did not appear overly sympathetic, and Maggie couldn’t blame her if she’d injured herself on her way here only to find Blair in the middle of a dramatic episode. “Your pain medication should have kicked in by now.”

“No, it’s not my
gunshot
wound, it’s my heart,” Blair said. “It’s breaking.”

“Oh my god,” Summer said. “I need a drink.”

“There’s a water fountain in the hall,” the nurse said.

“Well, unless it’s spitting vodka, it’s of no use to me,” Summer snapped.

“We need to take your mother up to her room,” the nurse said.

Sam had finally located the call button. While putting it on the bed, he accidentally pressed the button.

“What are you doing?” the nurse barked at him.

“Sorry,” Sam said, and raised his hands in the air as if she had a gun on him.

The nurse glared at Sam and Summer. “You can come back tomorrow.”

“I’ll be dead by then,” Blair said.

“Mama,” Summer whined.

Another nurse passed Maggie and Dot as she joined the group in the small room. “Is everything all right in here?”

“Yeah, thumbs here hit the button by mistake,” the first nurse said, gesturing toward Sam.

The other nurse nodded and then glanced around the room. “It’s just as well. Your room upstairs is ready, Mrs. Cassidy, so I’ll take you up now.”

“I can take her,” the first nurse said.

“I’m on rotation up there. It’s fine,” the second nurse said.

She began to prep Blair’s bed while Summer stepped close to hug her mother good-bye. Blair refused to hug her back.

“I’ll be posting a detail outside your door, Blair,” Sam said. “We’ll be keeping a close eye on you until the shooter is caught.”

Blair heaved a deep sigh. “At least
someone
cares.” Then she rolled over on her good side, facing away from Summer.

The nurse began to wheel Blair out of the room, and Sam gestured for Summer to come with him.

“Good night, Mama,” Summer said.

Blair did not respond. It was then, as Maggie watched Summer’s face crumple with guilt and remorse, that she finally understood what Bruce had told her before about Summer’s life. Summer had been expected to be the prettiest and snag the richest boyfriend or husband, and suffered guilt-laced silence if she didn’t. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.

“Scooch,” Dot said, pulling Maggie aside as Summer and Sam pushed through the door.

“Deputy Wilson, I’ll take Summer back to the station if you’ll take the first shift watching over Mrs. Cassidy,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” Dot said. “Don’t you worry, Summer. I’ll keep her safe.”

“Thanks, Dot,” Summer said. Then she threw herself into the smaller woman’s arms and gave her a crushing hug.

Maggie could tell Dot was taken aback, as her eyes went wide and it was a moment before she returned the hug with an awkward pat on the back.

As Dot followed the stretcher that carried Blair Cassidy down the hall, Sam walked Summer and Maggie out. They paused by Maggie’s car, where Sam gave her a quick kiss and said, “I’ll call you later.”

“We can order a pizza,” Maggie suggested.

“Fully loaded?” he asked, and she nodded with a smile.

“You two make a cute couple,” Summer said. “Sickening, but cute.”

“Thanks, I think,” Maggie said. She wasn’t sure what to make of Summer like this. Then again, she wasn’t sure what to think about Summer’s declaration of love for Tyler. She wondered if Tyler knew.

Yeah, she knew it was none of her business, but still, the romantic side of her refused to let Summer’s mother destroy whatever might be happening between Summer and Tyler. And wouldn’t Sam be happy that she was butting out of murder and butting in to romance?

She waved to them as she drove off, wondering how she was going to engineer a meeting between Tyler and Summer with Summer still behind bars. There simply had to be a way.