The Wager (11 page)

with Esther and once to Frank and Virgie at the piano. He gave a nod to Gloria and she stepped on the gas and the vehicle picked up speed as it made its way out of the driveway.

"Where to?" Gloria shouted.

"My place," Turk ordered. He pulled Bea Broughton out of the laundry cart and held her tenderly in his arms.

"You're all right now, Sweetie," he informed the unconscious woman.

Gloria turned left and headed for the gated community they all lived in.

Moments later at the care home Frank Simpson stopped playing, folded up his music, placed it into his attache case and stood up.

"Thanks so much," he told the receptionist. "This piano is in remarkable shape. We'll see you again the night of the conference."

The receptionist nodded and Frank and Virgie went out the door just as Art and Esther reached it. The four of them jumped into Turk's Porsche. Frank drove them off in the Porsche without a hitch. The Construction workers who were still milling around the parking lot did not seem to suspect a thing.

At three a.m. the fourth floor nurse entered Bea's room to give her another syringe full of medicine. Her heart pounded fiercely as she encountered the empty restraint vest and bed. She shot out the door, went to the centre and pushed the emergency button. A shrill alarm bell joined the dirge of the construction sounds.

Within minutes fire department personnel and two police were at the Reception area.

"One of our patients has wandered off," the Receptionist told them. "Couldn't have gotten far even if she has somehow

gotten outside. She'd be dressed only in a hospital gown and was without her cane."

"Are you sure she's not inside somewhere?"

"We're searching the whole place. Even have the construction workers searching for her."

"How in Hell could this have happened?" Dr. Jim complained to his staff the next morning. "How am I going to explain this to the family?"

"Tell them everything is being done," Dr. Jim's Head Nurse told him. "We've notified the authorities and her picture will be everywhere across the state, maybe even the country, by this afternoon."

The Dog Walking Club members were gathered in Turk O'Brien's living room. Bea Broughton had still not reached consciousness but she was showing signs of doing so. Linda Daniels and Turk were watching her closely in Turk's heart-shaped, King-Size bed.

Honey Pratt felt much warmth around her heart as Tyler Thompson sat down beside her on Turk's couch. She looked over and realised that he was no longer displaying body language that discouraged closeness. He was sitting back relaxed and gave her the welcoming smile that she had originally found so charming. He had been a perfect gentleman at the Dixieland Jazz Concert and had only insisted on a discreet kiss when dropping her back at her house.

"I want to apologize to you, Honey, for whatever it was I did that sent you into such a fury that day at the funeral parlour."

Honey stared at the Funeral Director in disbelief. The man was being downright submissive.

"He can be very nice. Maybe it is possible to win that wager."

"There's a special Dixieland Concert coming to the Opera House in New Orleans next week. Perhaps you would consider flying down and attending with me?"

Honey could not believe her ears. She was detecting pleading in the man's voice. Honey suddenly realised that a lot of her lady friend's eyes were staring at herself and Tyler. Gloria's wager came into her mind. Impulse suddenly struck the still beautiful lady. She recalled the astrological compatibility analysis that concluded that she and Tyler were likely to have an excellent and long lasting relationship. She repressed her thoughts about dating far too attractive men.

"Why thank y'all, Tyler," Honey could not believe her reply, "I'd love to attend the Dixieland Concert."

Her heart throbbed unexpectedly as Tyler's face broke into a beaming smile.

"After all, Honey rationalised, "it was good of him to come along to rescue Bea. He can't be all that bad."

"Next Tuesday morning. We'll fly direct to New Orleans and stay at my favourite hotel in the French Quarter. I'll pick you up at 6:30 a.m.?"

"I'll be looking forward to it, Sugar. Y'all really do know how to live, y'know."

"The trouble with America is that everything is run for the youth these days. We've been conditioned to believe that by the time we get to seventy or eighty years of age yet alone ninety we're going to die soon."

"Y'all don't believe that do you, Sugar?"

"I believe that every day we're given in good health late in life is a gift and that one should enjoy it to the fullest. My mother lived to over one hundred in good health and then died peacefully in her sleep. I don't see any reason why I can't do even better."

Honey realised that every person in the room was looking at Tyler Thompson with great interest. He was making them think about their own possible longevity.

Turk suddenly burst into the room.

"Bea's regained consciousness," he shouted to the assembly of dog walking friends. "Linda says she's all right, just badly frightened."

Gloria and the ladies went into the room.

"What are you going to do now, Turk?" Gus Gustafson inquired. "The police will have a full scale search going on for Bea."

"Figure her relatives will fight if she contests that 'Power of Attorney'. Think I'll just take her down to my property in Arizona for a while. Keep her safe until the heat's off."

A full scale discussion broke out amongst the men about the perils of Turk's proposed course of action. Gus Gustafson warned him that he had better not try going out of the state for some time as pictures of Bea would be all over the newspapers, at the airport, and everywhere else. Art Maloney, the stockbroker, warned Turk that Bea's extensive stock holdings would likely be sold by her son if it was thought that she had perished as under the 'Power of Attorney' he could do so.

"You're right Art," Turk acknowledged. "The bastard's already got her house for sale."

Tyler worried that the relatives should be told that Bea was still alive as soon as she was in a safe place. "What about her grandchildren, for God's sake? She's going to want to see them."

Frank Simpson warned Turk that he had better not continue to keep Bea in his house as the laundry man Turk had replaced that night might have realised something funny was going on when he was not there when he got back from his break.

"You're not exactly easy to forget," he advised the former race car driver. "Police might track you down from your description."

"What about the rental van, if someone saw it?" Tyler wondered.

"I paid cash," Frank replied. "No way they can trace it to me."

The ladies came back into the room and joined in the discussion.

"Bea's all right. She's very grateful to us for getting her out of that place," Gloria told them.

"We trying to help Turk decide what to do now," her husband replied.

Honey Pratt solved the problem for them.

"Y'all had better move Bea around from place to place for a while. You never know. Someone at that home might clue into what actually happened, particularly when they don't find her or her body."

"Bring her to my place," Tyler suggested. "No one's going to think she's hiding in a Funeral Home. But she'll need a companion. I'm out of the apartment taking care of business most of the time."

"That's very good of you, Ty," Turk O'Brien agreed.

"We'll take turns staying with her," Gloria volunteered, "starting tomorrow, first thing."

Gloria worked out a schedule for the ladies to sign up and Tyler told Turk to bring Bea over in the morning before 7:00 when his employees started turning up for work.

"I'll discuss this with Malcolm, "Gus promised. "He's got a team of lawyers that might be able to come up with a way out of this. In confidence, of course."

After the members of the dog walking group left Turk

had a long talk with Bea Broughton in his bedroom. Angus, her little Pomeranian was next to Bea on the bed. He would not let anyone remove him.

"So sorry I didn't check on you and Angus sooner," Turk confessed.

"No matter, I'm so grateful you got me out of that horrible place. And you even kidnapped Angus for me. I was so worried about him. In the times I was conscious, that is."

Bea told Turk all about her desperate attempts to escape from the place.

Turk drew Bea toward him and they embraced closely and intimately.

"Will you marry me?" Turk O'Brien asked impulsively as they disengaged. "When we're somewhere the police and border officials aren't looking for us?"

Bea nodded affirmatively. Turk pulled out a ring box from a bedside drawer and placed it on her finger.

"Brought that for you the day after we met," he confessed.

"You're such a romantic. The ring is beautiful."

Turk sighed and launched into a discussion of the possibilities the dog walking group had raised.

"I'd like to take you to my property in Arizona, but several of the group think we would be recognized on the way. They say you'll have to stay out of sight until we can manage to legally get that Power of Attorney nullified."

Tears came to Bea's eyes.

"It's your grandchildren, isn't it?"

"Yes. There must be some way we can reach a compromise with John."

"Gus says that he'll have Malcolm Brooks get his team of lawyers looking at the legal ramifications. Until then, we're going to have to keep you hidden."

"You can't know how much I appreciate that. Here's no way I'm going back to that place alive," Bea vowed.

Turk told Bea that Tyler was going to hide her in his residence above the Funeral Parlour and that he would drive her and Angus over there first thing in the morning. Bea agreed and Turk gave her a kiss on her forehead and got up to leave to give her some rest for the night.

"Please stay."

Turk could feel the fright in Bea's voice and reached for his pajamas under one of the pillows. He climbed in beside her and she positioned herself in his strong arms. Angus hung onto his place at their feet. All three of them quickly went to sleep from exhaustion.

J
ohn Broughton had difficulty drinking his coffee as he stared at a recent picture of his mother on the front page of the morning paper.

"Missing from nursing home," the headline read.

His wife Orphelia came into the dining room and John could feel his anger surging.

"How could this have happened?" he demanded. "How could the staff of the nursing home just let one of their patients just walk out the door?"

"We should sue them!" Orphelia stated. She sensed the possibility of a large settlement.

"There's something very odd about this. The Director says that they still had mother under heavy sedation. And that she's never managed to remove a restraint vest before."

"We should just sue the home, John. I'd be willing to bet they would pay a large settlement just to avoid the publicity."

John ignored his wife's words.

"There's mother's dog disappearing out of the back yard, too. And that car driving out of her driveway so early in the morning. I wonder if that man mother was with at the restaurant had anything to do with this. Do you remember his name?"

Tension shot through John's already stirred up emotions as Orphelia launched into one of her temper tantrums. She

told her husband that he should be thankful that his mother and her dog had done them all a favour by disappearing. That he should speak to their lawyer immediately to transfer any remaining assets into his name and initiate a negligence suit against the care home.

"She might be lying unconscious somewhere under a tree," John complained. "It's all your fault, you're the one that convinced me that mother would be better off in that home."

"Pull yourself together John. I'll make an appointment with the lawyer today."

Bea's son felt his emotions overcoming him. A strange mixture of anger, fear, concern for his mother, irritation at his wife's unchanging avarice, and the glare of publicity that was coming at them surged through him. He decided to take a stand even if it resulted in Orphelia's temper reaching full arousal.

"I'm going to hire a private investigator," John decided in his mind. "We need to know what really happened and the truth about whoever was in the driveway that morning."

He reached for the phone. Orphelia calmed down as she heard him call their lawyer's name and went off to the kitchen.

"Lawrence," John spoke to their lawyer. "I want to hire an investigator to get to the bottom of my mother's disappearance. Do you know of anyone?"

John wrote down the name and phone number of the private investigator his lawyer had recommended. He dialled the number and set an appointment for 3:00 p.m. that day.

"I know it will be expensive," he told himself, thinking of Orphelia's anger when she learned of the additional expense. "But I have to make an effort to find her. Or at least to find out what happened."

At three o'clock John Broughton was admitted into Norm Dixon's office.

"Looks quite professional," he thought, staring at the mahogany desk, the fling cabinets and the large, middle-aged detective behind the desk.

The detective quickly grasped what John was telling him.

"You don't think your mother wandered off?"

"No. It's possible that her disappearance had something to do with a man she had met recently. An odd fellow, large and very casually dressed."

The detective drew out a pad and paper.

"Describe him more fully."

John stared at the pad as the detective picked up a drawing pencil. He gave the man some more descriptions of the man's appearance. Norm Dixon asked him several questions about his looks. Gradually the image came more and more to resemble Turk O'Brien.

"That's him," John said abruptly as the detective added the tattoo of a naked lady to his arm. "Think he must be the fellow I saw leaving mother's house at 8:00 a.m. the morning we took her to the nursing home. The car he was driving was a red Porsche."

"Do you know his name?"

"Odd name, Turkey or something like that is his first name, can't remember the second. We met him in the Tyneburst Cafe, the one down by the water."

"I'll check out that cafe and show that composite to the staff at the Care Home."

"Mother's dog disappeared out of the back yard just before she disappeared too."

"What kind of dog?"

John responded and before long the detective had a composite of Angus as well as Turk. He had the detective draw a composite of the other two dogs that had been at the restaurant. John gave him descriptions of the large Rottweiler and the Sheep Dog who had been tied to the table.

"Mother belonged to some seniors dog walking club that met regularly at the Dog Park down by the ocean."

"I'll check that out."

John instructed the detective to do everything within his power to find out exactly what had happened to his mother.

"What about money?"

John told the detective that his mother was very wealthy and to spend whatever was necessary. He gave the detective a retainer before he left the office. He had already been granted access to Bea's accounts. They shook hands and he left the office with a feeling of optimism. He decided he had better admit to his wife the action he had undertaken.

"She'll be furious!" John shuddered as he psyched himself up to deal with his wife's temper. "But I have to know what happened."

"You gave a private detective a blank cheque to investigate your mother's disappearance!" John Broughton winced several hours later as he finally found the courage to tell his wife what he had done.

"I have to know what happened to my mother."

John braced himself as Orphelia's face turned a pasty white and she launched into a full-blown temper tantrum. He waited until the volume had lessened somewhat to tell her that he wanted her to seek counselling for her anger. She choked noticeably and then went into a coughing ft. John brought her a glass of water.

"Your temper is starting to affect the children," John told

her in a soft but determined voice. He pointed at his oldest child in the living room. Tears were running down the four year old's face.

"I'm trying to establish complete financial security for us John. Goodness knows your job won't accomplish that."

John Broughton looked at his wife in amazement. It was the first time she had ever gone into a defensive position. He frowned as he knew what she said was right. He was only a substitute teacher and they were dependent on his inheritance from his mother funding their children's university education. But he was determined to find out what happened to his mother.

"The children will want to know what happened to their grandmother when they are older, Orphelia, and I want to know now."

"What happened to Granny?" John's daughter, Melissa, demanded tearfully. She was only four years of age but John realised his daughter was following every word they said.

"I'll find out," he promised, hugging the child.

Orphelia gave them both one of her deadly glares.