Page 55 (1/2)
I tucked her into bed and wrapped ed, as it always did, when I felt how frail she was getting, how narrow her shoulders seemed She had always been solid, a rock of comfort and warmth who had eclipsed my distant mother and overly busy father inher battle, and nothing in the world could help her
After I walked out her door, I was all business I drove to the library and waitedhands hoe, I found it The salance of Jonah Goodwill, two hands foret me on a plane, but the two-hundred-er than I would have liked I scribbled down the nuht nurse said, "Helping Hands Ho the care to you This is Terry Ann" She sounded bored I could al a crossith her TV on low voluround
"Hi there, Terry Ann," I said with the kind of sh phone lines "I’ht, but I’ot a patient na to find a Mr Grove somewhere near Greenville She said that he’s on home care after a head injury, and he’s one of your clients Is there any way you could help me find him?"
"Ma’am, we don’t release the personal information of our patients," she droned
"I understand that, and I’m so sorry to ask, but I pro care of her for a feeeks, and her oes, and Mr Grove is all she ever talks about She can’t even remember his first name, and she doesn’t seeive him a keepsake, her husband’s Purple Heart froive it to him?"
There was a pause, and I could hear her reserve cruet rid of s worked Nurses work in nursing because they like helping people, after all
"Honey, I ain’t supposed to do this," she said, her voice low "Butdeal that is to old folks I believe you’re talking about Mr Jonathan Grove of 1655 Sycamore Lane in Anderson But you didn’t hear that froushed "You have just o to her eternal rest now"
"Good luck,up
I felt a little bad for heartlessly killing the fictitious Louise Shepherd, but it was for a good cause And I was pretty sure she didn’t feel a thing
I progra I listened to my favorite CDs and enjoyed the safety and silence of ht through the plan over and over again into work out every detail For all of his own planning, Jonah Goodwill had missed a lot of details hi He was a man of power and influence, but doctors didn’t see froht in my world Or maybe he’d just started out plumb crazy
It was pitch dark as I zooated past fields and strip malls and trailer parks until I turned onto Syca and barely lit and lonely, but I eventually saw the brick wall fro brick house was needlessly huge, and I iined that the lawn-care staff was even
All that trouble for a vegetable who’d never wake up What a waste
I stopped in a dark spot a hundred yards away and straightened love compartment and tucked the locket under my shirt I didn’t knoould be in the house, whether a nurse stayed around the clock or Mr Goodwill had a housekeeper or a housesitter or an entire extended faht Or nosy
For the tenth time, I checked tobefore I rolled the car into the driveway No Helping Hands van, which was good A layperson would beon the door, I put on htest smile
Time to channel the talented and charismatic Lady Letitia Paisley
The first knock didn’t raise anybody, so I rang the doorbell There wasme And then I heard a click I’d heard only ininto the barrel of a shotgun After all, it was the ht on a lonely road in the country
"Can I help you?" said a teenage boy in an open bathrobe and boxer shorts His glasses were s sadly to a couple of hairs above his lip
I looked over the gun and s Hands tell you I would be co? I’un dropped, and the boy sniffed "Nobody called Sorry ’bout the gun It’s late"
"I know it is," I said apologetically I heldin His usual nurse forgot to switch out the IV bag, and they also wanted to start him on IV Zosyn It’s an antibiotic It’ll just take me a minute"