Dying to Tell (21 page)

Then he turned and stalked toward the door.

“Wait a damn minute,” Jake said. “I have an assignment for you.”

Mike hesitated, his look wary. “What?”

Jake explained about the questions surrounding Grace Granger’s death. “Go to the hospital, talk to some of the nurses on staff, and see if they saw or heard anything out of the ordinary.” Mike’s charms could come in handy there. “Find out if anyone saw Grace fall, and if anyone talked to this guy Herbert Foley.”

“Who’s he?” Mike asked.

“The orderly who supposedly found her after the fall.”

“You think he might have been the one to push her?”

Jake nodded. “He disappeared that same night.”

Mike’s brows arched. “I’ll get right on it, boss.”

Jake glanced down at the phone log as his deputy left. Maybe he and Waterstone would learn to work together after all.

Still, he didn’t like the fact that Mike had kept information from him. But knowing Viola had been sleeping around raised more questions.

What if Walt had discovered she was taking lovers? Maybe Walt confronted her and a man, and they killed Walt in the heat of the argument.

Sadie settled on the sofa with a cup of hot tea and skimmed through several more letters in the keepsake box. Each one disturbed her more. It was as if Amelia had left a box of darkness behind.

Still, she had to read them to help her understand her sister.

Dear Sadie,

You have to get me out of here. Last night it happened again. They took us in the night.

Ting. Ting. Ting
.

It’s time for the chimes to ring.

They line us up all in a row. Like robots, they make us follow them into the long dark corridor. One of the chimes is crying so loud the walls shake. Another one pounds his feet up and down like he’s marching to death camp. Another one makes a hideous noise, over and over and over...

It’s cold and damp and something claws at my arms.

I try to hang on, to tell myself to be strong. But I hear Bessie crying somewhere inside me. And I’m scared...

The door creaks open, and it’s a sea of black.

They’re going to kill us this time.

The awful humming starts in my head. The hollow sounds echoing through the tunnel.

No one knows about this place but us.

I tried to tell one of the nurses, but she said I made it up.

It’s not real, a voice inside my head whispers. But if it’s not, then why am I here? Why can I feel the metal snapping around my wrists when they force me to lie down? The prongs poking
into my chest and head. The tightness around my ankles when I struggle to get up.

The sharp sting of the needle as it pierces my skin.

The light they shine in my eyes is so bright I close my eyes and shut it out. But I can’t close my eyes. They hold my eyelids up with wires.

Ticktock. Ticktock. Ticktock.

Seconds tick by as the darkness swallows me.

The medicine burns as it seeps through my veins. I fight it, but it swirls inside me so I feel its warming lull. My head swims, my throat feels dry, then the colors come.

And the voices.

Don’t fight it, Amelia
.

You belong to me now
.

It’s another man’s voice. He’s in my head. He won’t go away.

I’m the Commander
, he says.
I can bring the others back to you, or I can make them disappear.

No! I scream. But the sound comes out a hoarse, pitiful sound instead of a scream.

I don’t want the others to leave. Then I’ll be all alone.

I need them.

Viola tries to make a deal with him. She offers him our body in exchange so she can live. Bessie cries and cries and says she’s going to hide.

Skid cusses and flails to shake off the restraints, but the Commander tightens them and Skid collapses. I try to shake him and wake him up, but he’s so quiet and still I’m afraid he left me for good.

No...

I can’t do it alone.

But they’re gone.

And I’m left alone with the Commander...

W
inter had definitely set in, the chill forcing Jake to crank up the heater as he drove home. When he reached his house, the scent of fried chicken and gravy wafted through the kitchen, and he forced himself to leave the investigation at the door.

Ayla jumped from the table where she’d been working a Cinderella puzzle and raced toward him. “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!”

He swung her up in a hug and nuzzled her neck, planting kisses all over her face until she squealed and giggled for him to put her down.

Gigi laughed and set a pan of biscuits on the table with butter and honey. Jake’s stomach growled, and he and Ayla practically jumped into their seats. Ayla chattered all during dinner, her sweet voice sidetracking him from the troubling case.

He spent the next two hours playing with Ayla, then they read bedtime stories and said prayers.

Ayla threw out her arms in a bear hug. “I love you this much.”

He grinned and threw his arms around her, once again kissing her until she laughed and begged for him to let her go.

But he never wanted to let her go. He wanted her to stay his baby so he could protect her forever.

“Daddy!” she cried. “You’re squeezing me too tight!”

He laughed, then tucked her in.

Finally, she settled back on her pillow and hugged her rag doll to her. “Don’t leave me, Daddy.”

Jake tweaked her nose. “Don’t worry, I’ll be right down the hall.”

Her lower lip formed a pout. “I mean, don’t go away like Mommy did.”

Jake took a deep breath. Damn his ex for cutting all ties with Ayla. He didn’t understand how a mother could abandon a child.

“I’m not going anywhere.” He would never do that to his daughter. “You and I are a family, and no one will ever change that.” He tucked her in tight, kissed her again, and then made a show of hugging her doll, earning him another giggle. But as he left the room, his mind drifted back to Sadie and Amelia.

Amelia had been a child when she was first treated at the sanitarium. Her family had trusted the doctors.

How would he feel if someone had mistreated his little girl?

He balled his hands into fists. He’d kill them...

Gigi was finishing the dishes when he entered the kitchen. “Gigi, you’ve lived in Slaughter Creek all your life, haven’t you?”

She nodded, dried the cast-iron frying pan, and stowed it in the cupboard. “Yes, why?”

He couldn’t tell her everything, so he hedged. “I’m trying to help Sadie figure out why her sister killed her grandfather. Both the twins were treated at the free clinic in Slaughter Creek as babies. So were Grace Granger and Joe Swoony.”

Gigi’s penciled-in eyebrows narrowed. “All so sad. Those kids having trouble so young.”

“Do you remember the doctor who ran the clinic, Dr. Coker?”

She sat down at the table with a cup of coffee. “Yes, he seemed like a real caring man. At least, he was when I lost my Pearl.”

Jake frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Pearl, my baby girl.” Gigi’s eyes blurred with tears, and she wiped them away. “She was born with a heart defect and only lived a few days.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you lost a baby.”

“It was a long time ago,” Gigi said.

“Do you remember anyone else who worked at the clinic?”

Gigi tilted her head in thought. “There was a nurse. Patty Mandolin. Real sweet and caring woman.”

“Where is she now?”

“Lives in the retirement community in town.”

Jake squeezed Gigi’s hand. “Do you mind if I go out for a while? I’d like to talk to her tonight.”

She agreed, and retired to her room while Jake rushed to his squad car.

He’d pass the Nettleton farm on the way. Maybe he’d stop by and check on Sadie. She might even want to go with him to see the doctor.

Hopefully the nurse could give them the answers they needed.

The sound of a knock on the door jarred Sadie from the letter. She tensed and glanced at the clock. Eight p.m. Who would be coming to see her?

Maybe someone wanting to offer condolences over her grandfather’s death?

Or maybe it was the person who’d made that threatening call?

She stuffed the letter back inside the box, hurried to the door, and checked the peephole. Relief whooshed through her when she saw Jake. But the memory of that threatening call made her anxious as she opened the door. What if the person who’d phoned had called Jake?

“Sorry to bother you this late,” Jake said, “but I talked to Gigi tonight—”

“Gigi, the woman who babysat you and Nick when you were little?”

He nodded. “Yes, she keeps my little girl now.”

Sadie’s heart fluttered. “You have a child?”

Jake’s expression closed. “Yes, she’s five.”

Sadie released a breath. “I...heard you were married—”

“Not anymore,” he said gruffly. “But I got Ayla out of it.”

Sadie didn’t know what to say to that. Jake was a father...

Irrational jealousy traipsed through her. Years ago, she’d dreamed of the two of them getting married, having children—but that dream had died...

She wanted to tell him about the threatening phone call. But then he would ask questions about what the caller had meant. Questions she wasn’t ready to answer.

“Where is Ayla’s mother?” Sadie asked. “Does she live close by?” Was he still in love with her?

“No,” Jake said in a clipped tone. “She left when Ayla was just a baby. Said she wasn’t cut out for motherhood. She doesn’t see Ayla at all.”

Sadie’s heart suddenly ached for the child.

“Anyway,” Jake said, “Gigi mentioned a nurse who worked with Dr. Coker at the free clinic. I thought she might know something about what happened years ago. Do you want to go with me?”

“Yes,” Sadie said. “Let me grab my coat.” She snatched it from the coatrack on the wall, then grabbed her purse and followed Jake.

“This nurse’s name is Patty Mandolin,” Jake continued as Sadie fastened her seat belt. “She lives in a retirement community close by. Gigi said the records from the clinic were destroyed in the fire that burned down the building a few years ago. Hopefully, Patty remembers something about the patients’ treatments.”

Sadie twined her hands together. “I found some letters in Amelia’s keepsake box.”

“What kind of letters?”

“Letters to me. She was begging me to rescue her from that hospital.”

Jake cut his gaze toward her as he drove from the farm. “Of course she wanted out, Sadie.”

“It’s more than that, Jake. I never received any of those letters. She asked Papaw to mail them, but he never did. She told me she found them, and she and Papaw argued about them because she thought he’d mailed them to me.”

“You think that’s the reason she shot him? The argument got out of control?”

Sadie ran a hand through her hair. “I don’t know what to think now.”

“What was in the letters?” Jake asked.

“Amelia described different episodes that sounded like abuse. In one of the letters, she wrote about being taken into a dark tunnel, tied down, and drugged.” Sadie’s voice cracked. “She described having a bright light shining in her eyes, and that she tried to close her eyes, but that they held them open.”