Coughing & Donuts: A Mercy Mares Cozy Mystery (14 page)

The guard looked at me wide-eyed. “You're surrounded by them. This isn't Hollywood. This is where they come to get away from that scene. Everyone and I do mean everyone, is somehow connected to Hollywood. The crush I was telling you about isn't really a star yet, but she's trying real hard to be. She's got her claws into some big movie producer and is holding on for dear life. He foots the bill for her and her kids. Word is though, that the kids have money that they inherited from some rich dead relatives and they are trying to create some kind of clothing line that all the kids will want to wear. I don't know the whole story, but just so you know, once you step into Pleasant Cove, you've essentially landed in good old Hollywood, U.S.A.”

I thanked her for the information and slowly drove in, trying to wrap my mind around what she'd said. Of all the people I'd seen on the street, I would have never guessed that I was in the presence of a star. Everyone looked so normal. I really needed to start paying more attention to people in movies and on television.

Brandi stood outside her building as I pulled up the hill. She waved frantically. I followed the guard's directions and pulled around to the back of the building and parked. Brandi ran to meet me.

“Hi, did you have any trouble finding me?” She asked, pulling me in for a hug.

In the getup she was wearing, I'd be willing to place my bets that NASA satellites could spot her light years away. I'm all for sparkle, but a silver sequenced jumpsuit at this or any hour of the day was a bit much.
Where was she going? To perform on stage somewhere?

“No, no trouble at all,” I answered, leaving the conversation I'd had with the security guard out of the equation.

“Good. Good. Well, come on in and see my dump.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the front entrance.

“I'm on the top floor. We'll just hop on the elevator, I guess. I just got back from the gym and my glutes are killing me,” she said.

Of course they are. They are probably begging for relief from that hideous outfit
, I thought.

When we stepped inside her apartment, my jaw dropped. It was immaculate from top to bottom. Everything was starch white. From the tiled floors to the overstuffed L-shaped sofa that sat in the middle of the expansive room, with a full view of the spectacular scenery out past the terrace.

“Sorry, I haven't had a chance to clean today.” Brandi said, throwing herself onto a hammock that was suspended from the ceiling. “Sit down. Put your feet up. Tell me what other questions you had.”

I chose a seat that pulled up to the most enormous marble dining table I'd ever seen in my life. How many people live here, I wondered.

“This place is gorgeous. It's like something out of a magazine.” I couldn't find a single thing that I didn't like about it, other than I'd never have enough room or enough money in my life to be even remotely close to being able to afford a knickknack in the room, let alone an actual piece of furniture.

“It's a step up from my old life. That's for sure.” She said. “So, have you been able to find anything out?”

You mean like the fact that you have a wealthy boyfriend who pays for an apartment worth more than my entire neighborhood, then, yes, I have found out some interesting facts.

“I actually had a few more questions for you.” I smiled. “It seems like every time I turn around new information lands in my lap.”

She pulled a cigarette out from behind her ear and lit it. “Yeah, this place will do that to you.”

There was no skirting the issue. She'd asked me to help, so she had better have prepared herself for some hard questions from me.

“Are you and Lou in a relationship?” I asked.

She flinched, sitting up awkwardly in the hammock. “No. Why would you ask me that?”

I didn't want to tell her in case I was dead wrong, so I had to come up with something that sounded plausible.

“I'm just asking because I don't know where an investigation could lead. For all I know I could stumble onto someone close to you being the killer. Aren't you the one that said to look into Lou in the first place?” I reminded her.

“Yeah, but I didn't say anything about having a relationship with him. Not now. Not ever. I know his ex-wife. I like her. They have their problems. That's for sure, but I'm not one of their problems.” She assured me. I was inclined to believe her.

One question asked. A million more to go.

“Does Lou want to have a relationship with you?” I asked, suspecting that I knew the answer already.

I think I'd touched a nerve. Her eyebrows twitched as she contemplated how to answer my question.

Finally, she said, “I don't think he really did. I think he was just feeling lonely. His marriage was on the rocks. I'd just asked Mike to leave. It was a crazy time...” Her voice trailed off.

“Brandi? Is there something else that you want to tell me?” I got the sense that there was so much more that she wasn't telling me.

“Okay, so he still finds excuses to stop by and he drives by a lot, but that's just because he is being protective of us. It's not like Mike ever really was. He just wanted to make sure that I was miserable for the rest of my life.” She said.

I glanced out the window at the view, remembering what she'd said about Lou leaving because of her dog. She said he'd gone to sit outside and watched her place. Why? She had security. She lived on the top floor and, as far as I could tell, she didn't have a dog.

I looked around for a food bowl, a dog bed, any dog toys and there were none in plain sight.

I asked, “Where's your dog?”

She opened her mouth, then, shut it again, following my gaze. “What?”

“Your dog? You said that Lou left because he was allergic to your dog, but I don't see a dog. Where is it?”
Why would she lie about her pet? Who lies about the family pet?

“They are at the groomers. Lou is deadly allergic to dogs and all kinds of other things. He and Mike had that in common too. I think I told you that already. They were allergic to everything under the sun.” She explained.

I stood up and walked over to the window to look out.

Interesting.

“Any other questions? I could show you the dogs' room?” She asked.

The dogs have their own room? How rich are these people?

“I do have some actually.” I answered.
Time to get it all out in the open.
“What is your relationship with Eli Pardo? Even if it doesn't seem like much of a big deal, it could be important. How long have you known Alma? And, tell me about your boyfriend.”

“Boy, when someone tells you to dig for information, you go for the jugular, don't you?” She laughed nervously. What was it with her? I wanted to believe that she had nothing to do with Mike's murder, but she wasn't making it easy for me.

“One more – what was your relationship with Rollie?” I didn't think I wanted to hear the answer to this question. I feared she'd make me see Rollie in a different light and I didn't want to do that. It would put me in a really strange predicament and possibly break my heart. Rollie and Karen were good friends. I didn't want to know if he did anything that would jeopardize everything I thought I knew about him.

She pulled her hair back and tied it up in one fell-swoop. “I've told you this before, everyone knows everyone around here. If you spend any amount of time here, you are bound to run into darn near everyone. To answer your question about Rollie, I met him and his wife at the restaurant. They were regular customers. He had a standing reservation every Sunday morning for brunch.”

That made sense.

“Okay, and what about Lou and Eli?” I couldn't let her off the hook just yet.

She stopped, seeming to become angry. She stood up all of a sudden and walked to the adjoining kitchen and pulled out a bottle of wine.

I glanced at my watch. “Is it wine o'clock?”

“It has been lately. I'm barely hanging on by a thread here. Mike's dead. The kids are heartbroken. Lou is more hostile than normal. My boyfriend is mad at me. I'm telling you, my whole life is in shambles. If someone doesn't find out what happened to Mike and Rollie soon, I don't know what I'm going to do.”

“Why is your boyfriend mad?” I asked, hopeful that she'd fill me in as to who he was when she answered.

“He's a little older than me and his whole family has been making our lives difficult ever since we got together, but we don't choose who we fall in love with, you know. It just happens.” She paused, taking a drink of her wine. “He's a producer, mostly action movies and stuff like that. His youngest son is adding a lot of stress to his life right now. That's really all I could say about that without it becoming a big thing.”

“What kind of big thing?” I asked.

She took another drink. “Murder.”

“What are you saying? Your boyfriend killed Mike?” I stood up, my heart beginning to race. If that were true, I needed to get out of there and do so quickly.

Brandi put her hand up. “No, he's not a murderer. Forget what I said. I'm just getting stressed from all sides. His kids hate me. Lou is angry because he thinks I had something to do with Mike's death. My kids blame me for what happened. Of course, Simon doesn't like any of what's going on because of what it could do to his career. Everything is just falling apart.”

“Is Simon your boyfriend?” I asked, trying to make the connection between his first name and names I'd read in the rags. “Wait a minute! Simon Pardo is your boyfriend? Are you kidding me? So, that means that Simon is Eli's...”

She finished my sentence for me. “Eli's father.”

I was flabbergasted. I stopped cold, clutching a chair to steady myself. “Isn't Simon Pardo married to that actress from some soap opera?”

Her face turned red. “She's not on the soap opera anymore. She's a Hollywood correspondent for some news program now. Her name is Adrienne, but she goes by her stage name – Paula Kay.”

I put my head in my hands, trying to wrack my brain to remember where I'd seen her last.

“Wait! She lives here?” I asked, all of this new information sinking in.

Brandi nodded.

“She was taking my picture one night when I was at Lou's restaurant and, I might be mistaken, but I think she tried to interview me at the hospital the day Rollie was killed. She's so young. She's Eli's mother?” I couldn't believe it.

“She's had a lot of work, but yes, if we're talking about the same woman, she's Eli's mother.” Brandi answered. “I think I have a picture of her somewhere.”

A few minutes later, Brandi pulled a photo out of a frame and put it in my hand. “Is this the woman you saw?”

I was staring at the face of the reporter who had questioned me at the hospital.

“Well, Chevy, if you ask me, I say that you can't trust an ex-wife. Not one single bit, so your problem is solved.” This was the third phone call I'd received from my favorite former patient within a week.

“I hear what you're saying, but honestly, I don't know what to believe. It seems like everyone had issues with him, but what I don't get is if he didn't have any money or anything of real value, then, why kill him?” At any other given time, I might have tried to avoid having this conversation with an elderly man, but these circumstances were so bewildering, I figured he'd be as good as anyone to speak to about it.

That's what I told myself anyway when I looked at my phone and decided to answer it, instead of knocking on Alma's front door.

“Nova, the thing is, murder never makes sense. People do things for all kinds of reasons. If you keep wanting everything to make sense, you're going to die waiting.” Nubbin warned me.

He was right, but I wasn't ready to admit that. In my mind, things had to make sense. At least that's how I thought I'd be able to cope better with the information I was receiving. I'd all but run out of options as to which person had more incentive or a better motive because from where I was standing, the only person who could have gained anything by having him dead was Brandi, but at the same time, that didn't make sense. Why would she want to hurt her children this way?

“Then, there's the other murder or whatever it is. No one had confirmed anything publicly yet. I still haven't seen his wife and I feel so bad about that, I mean, I know her. I know her well.” I said.

“I don't get that. You're telling me that this man – your friend – was murdered too, but no one knows why or by who and no one has said anything about it?” Nubbin basically restated what I'd just said, but I didn't care. Hearing him say it, confirmed that I wasn't obsessing for nothing. This whole town was full of secrets. I could understand why the police wouldn't necessarily want to say anything . They weren't required to give anyone any information, but I did wonder why someone else hadn't disclosed what they knew or what they thought they knew. I figured, hopefully, that someone at work would tell me something, so I could get over this notion that there was a serial killer among us or I could have some insight into whether or not we had a copycat killer or the same killer had killed both men for reasons that I still had to figure out.

“I don't get it either, but I intend to keep trying to find out.  Anyway, enough about me, what's going on with you?” I asked, wanting to change the subject. Things had been feeling rather heavy lately and I needed to get back to a mundane life and a few laughs.

“Well, I ain't dead yet, if that's what you mean. “ Nubbin always said something morbid. It was kind of his thing and I was used to it.

“How's Tina? Is she working today?” I asked.

“Nope. That's what I was calling you about. She up and quit on us. I was wondering if you knew what happened to her?” Nubbin sounded sad about her being gone. She was  a wonderful person and a good friend.

“I didn't know that. When did she quit?” I didn't have the heart to tell him that I was glad she had finally made a bold move and decided to seek employment elsewhere. That place didn't deserve her. They weren't exactly known for having the friendliest nursing staff.

“That's what I'm asking you, Tundra!” Nubbin snapped at me, but I didn't take it personally. I knew he meant no harm.

“Did you just call me fat?” I teased.

“Oh, that's it. Now, you've gone plum crazy. That's what happens when they send you to work in a looney bin. What I'm saying is if you hear something about the young one, tell her that I don't appreciate her leaving us high and dry. Who knows what kind of Nimrod they are going to stick us with. This might be the last time you talk to me because I'm sure whoever they get is going to be the death of me. I might have to fetch my cane, just to make sure they don't cross no lines with me.” Nubbin came into my life with a real bang. The day I met him, he was threatening nursing staff with a cane, so I understood his joke.

“No beating the nursing staff, Nubbin Schmeckpepper.” I teased.

“I ain't, but if they get too rough or too you-know-what, I'm going to let them have it. Besides, they need to be riled up real good every once in a while, Suburban.” Nubbin laughed a hearty laugh.

“Well, my friend, I better get some shut eye before I have to go take care of my patients. I'll try and remember to give Tina a call tomorrow and see what's going on with her and, yes, I'll tell her how much you miss her.” I said.

“I never said that, but you can tell her what you want, Camry.” Nubbin said.

“Good night, my friend.” I said, knowing he'd come back with a comment that would make my night.

“Yeah, hope I'm alive when I wake up.” Nubbin joked. “Hey, when is your future husband heading back this way?”

I cringed. Me and the word 'husband' didn't go hand in hand. That reminded me of what my daughter had told me about my ex-husband. I couldn't believe he was getting married. Not that I wanted him back in my life like that. I just never thought he'd marry again. I had to admit, I was a little sad about that and probably even more upset because he hadn't told me himself.

“You still there, Sunbird?” Nubbin asked, bringing me out of my thoughts.

“Oh, he's supposed to be leaving sometime tomorrow. He's not my future anything, by the way. Love you, my friend.” I waited for him to say goodbye.

He muttered. “Now, don't go starting that nonsense. Can't you just hang up the phone and let me get back to watching my life flash by before my eyes.” He hung up after that, but I knew what he really meant to say. At least, I had a good idea of what he wished he could say. He was fond of me and our friendship too. I don't know what I'll do when he passes away someday. We'd become so close. Life without him wouldn't be the same.

*

Pulling into the hospital parking lot, I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Even though this wasn't my home base, so to speak, I still felt like it wasn't the same. I'd been to many places and met a number of wonderful people and some not-so-wonderful people, but the nursing profession was a sort of sisterhood, even if we didn't always get along well and there was a lot of cattiness between people, not just the female staff, we were a family.

Walking into a facility or hospital following a death – any death – was always ominous, but when that somebody was your boss and, in my case, my dear friend, my feelings were all that much worse. I needed to work. I was contracted to work, but the last thing I really wanted to do was work. I couldn't deny that my sole motivation was to see what I could find out. With Amy now talking to me, I thought I'd have a good chance to dig into Eli's background and see what she knew and I'd finally discover how Rollie had been murdered. I wasn't looking forward to that part of the conversation, but I was hopeful that it would answer some of my questions.

I'd already made the decision that I would seek Karen out, but only after I knew what I would be walking into, not before. I don't know why. I probably should have known better, but I got it into my head that she was going to be different with me and I think a part of me wasn't ready to face that just yet. I had few allies and couldn't risk another one. She'd fought so hard to ensure that I remained employed. Maybe, a part of me believed that if I continued to lay low that she would have forgotten about me, along with everyone else and I wouldn't be tossed out of here on my behind.

“Photo ID.” A guard that I didn't recognize said as he glanced into the back seat of my car.

“Sure. I'm Mercy. I'm a traveling nurse,” I started, but he interrupted.

“I know who you are. Your picture is on the wall in there.” He pointed to the guard building.

“It is?”
Great! I was on some kind of list. That's all I needed. With my luck, it was probably a suspect list.

“Yeah. Every employee's picture is on there.” He answered the question that I was afraid to ask.

He waved to the other guard, who opened the barricade and waved me into the lot. I found the closest spot I could get and readily jumped out, paying special attention to my surroundings. Who knew what kind of monster would be lurking just waiting to claim his or her next victim?

“Psst.” I heard right behind me.

I about jumped right out of my skin.

“Psst.” I heard the sound again.

Frantically, I tried my car door handle to jump back into my car and lock the doors, but my hands wouldn't cooperate and I dropped my lunch bag and my purse in the process.

“Mercy? It's me.” A male voice said.

I looked around and, for the life of me, couldn't figure out where the voice was coming from. I wasn't that far from the guard tower. If I screamed, there would be a good chance that someone would hear me.

I jumped up, waving my arms and tried to scream, but a pair of arms, grabbed me and pulled me to the ground. I wrestled with them to no avail.

“Mercy, it's me. Will you calm down?” Charlie hissed at me as he pulled me into the car I'd parked next to.

“What are you doing? Trying to kill me?” I asked, as I struggled to pick myself up and sit on the seat.

He pushed my head gently, telling me to stay down.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered.

“Trying to catch a killer.” He answered.

I looked around me. This car wasn't his rental.

“Who does this car belong to and how did you get in here without them seeing you?” I asked.

He smiled. “Rose. Do you know her?”

I thought I'd heard him wrong. I whispered, “Did you say Rose?”

He smiled again, nodding. “Before you go in there, I need to tell you something.” He said.

“Oh, now you want to tell me something! After you give me a heart attack and drag me into a strange car, making me think I was being kidnapped? What were you thinking?” I couldn't contain my anger.

“I'm starting to rethink my theory that you might want to live another day. I swear, if you don't stop your temper tantrum, I'm going to let you walk in there and spend the night working side by side with a killer.” He warned.

I sat straight up, forgetting that he'd told me to keep my head down. “I work with a killer? Who?”

“I can't tell you yet, but I think I am onto something here, but I'm going to need your help.” He said.

“What are you doing with Rose's car? Is she the killer?” The thought terrified me. I'd spent a few nights working with her and never suspected that she was anything more than a sleep deprived nurse, who did her job.

He peeked up out the window to see if anyone was on to us and answered, “I'm not sure yet, but I hope we are about to find out. You just have to do what I tell you and quit bellyaching about everything or this plan won't work.” He warned me.

“Two things – I don't bellyache unless I'm provoked and what plan? Why didn't you tell me about this plan yesterday or you could have called me before I drove in to work.” I said.

He sighed. “I can't tell you everything. You knew I was here to help you whether you liked it or not, so will you please just trust me on this? I don't think anything bad will happen to you.”

“Excuse me if I don't find that reassuring, Sheriff Wagner.” I said, glaring at him.

“I'll ignore that, but listen. All you have to do is go inside like nothing is wrong and do your job. Listen to anything that seems off and find some paperwork. I know that when a patient is discharged the paperwork gets filed. I'm going to need you to find that for me and make copies.” He acted as if that would be an easy thing to accomplish.

“That's illegal.” I said, suddenly feeling defiant.

“Mercy!” He scolded me. Lowering his voice, he said, “Will you just listen to me on this? I need to know what's in Eli's file. I need to know how they charted his escape.”