Миранда Джеймс - Digging Up The Dirt

“Holding her own.” Hadley rubbed a hand across his eyes. “Lord, I need coffee and a hot shower.” He yawned. “Sorry. I told the doctor and the nurses that I’m her stepbrother, otherwise I was afraid they wouldn’t tell me anything.”

“Has anyone called her sister in Jackson?” Barbie asked.

“I did,” Hadley said. “She’s on her way. She ought to be here any minute now.”

“Does the doctor think she’ll make it?” Lottie asked.

“It’s touch and go,” Hadley said. “She has multiple broken bones, and she hasn’t regained consciousness yet.” He glanced at his watch. “At least, not that I’ve heard. Last time I talked to a doctor was about two o’clock.”

“I’m going to get you some coffee,” Barbie said. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She left the waiting room. Hadley called his thanks belatedly after her.

“Do you have any idea when the accident happened?” An’gel asked.

“Must have been shortly after ten thirty,” Hadley said. “We had dinner at Ashton Hall, and then we watched a movie. She left right about ten thirty.” He shuddered. “It must have happened within five minutes or so after she left, and I think she was lying there in the wreckage for a good half hour before someone saw it and reported it.”

“Thank the Lord someone did see it and called 911,” Lottie said. “Poor Arliss. It’s a wonder she didn’t die on the spot.”

“Did she hit a deer?” Dickce asked.

Hadley shook his head. “Not that I know of.”

“She was probably drunk,” Lottie said. “Poor Arliss does have a weakness for drink. We’ve worried about her a lot, driving after she’s had too much.”

“That wasn’t the case last night,” Hadley said, his tone sharp as he walked over to Lottie and glared down at her. “So put that right out of your mind. We had a couple of glasses of wine with dinner, but that was all. She was not drunk, do you hear me?” His voice rose on the last few words until he was almost shouting at her.

Lottie shrank back in her seat. Her lip trembled, and she started crying.

Hadley sighed and sat down beside her. He put his arm around her and patted her awkwardly on the knee. “I’m sorry, Lottie. I’m exhausted and upset. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings or frighten you.”

Lottie cried for a moment longer, then pushed Hadley away. “I’m okay.” She dug in her purse for tissues and dabbed at her eyes.

Hadley got up and moved toward An’gel and Dickce. “Right after we hear from the doctor again, I think I’d better run home and have a shower. Try to get myself together.” He paused for a deep breath. “Will y’all stay here until I get back?”

“Of course,” An’gel said. “I think that’s a good idea. Make sure you eat something, too.”

Hadley nodded. “I had a sausage and biscuit from the hospital cafeteria when it opened at six, just to keep me going for a little while. I could use something more substantial.”

Barbie returned with the coffee, and Hadley accepted it with a smile of thanks.

An’gel waited until he’d had a few sips before she posed the question that had been troubling her ever since she and Dickce had seen the site of the accident.

“If Arliss hadn’t had too much to drink, and she didn’t hit a deer, why did she run off the road?”

Before anyone could respond, Kanesha Berry walked into the waiting room. “Good morning, everyone.” She approached Hadley. “Mr. Partridge, how is Mrs. McGonigal?”

“Holding her own, the last I heard,” he said.

“Good.” Kanesha nodded.

“Do you have any idea what caused the wreck?” An’gel asked.

Kanesha again nodded. She glanced at each person in the room before she responded.

“I’m pretty sure she was deliberately run off the road.”

CHAPTER 20

An’gel felt sick to her stomach, even though she had been expecting this news. She could see her own shock mirrored in the faces of her sister and her friends.

“Hello, everyone, sorry we’re late,” Reba Dalrymple said as she walked into the waiting room, her son Martin right behind her. “We were having car trouble this morning, otherwise we’d have been here half an hour ago.”

An’gel stared at Reba in shock. Car trouble?

“How is Arliss?” Reba said. “Oh, hello, Deputy Berry.” She hesitated. “What’s wrong? Why is everyone staring at us like that?”

“Good morning, Mrs. Dalrymple,” Kanesha said. “Mr. Dalrymple. What kind of car trouble were you having?”

An’gel felt the tension in the room as they all waited for Reba’s answer.

“Dead battery,” Reba said, still obviously puzzled. “We had to ask our next-door neighbor to jump us off. Why are you so interested in that? What’s going on here?”

“Right before you and Martin came in,” An’gel said, “Deputy Berry informed us that she’s pretty sure someone deliberately ran Arliss off the road.”

Reba paled. “Oh my Lord. How horrible.” She glanced around the room, and then she apparently figured out why they had all been staring. “Surely you didn’t think . . . ?” Her voice trailed off. She found an empty chair and dropped into it.

“You certainly couldn’t blame us for wondering,” Barbie said tartly. “You walk into the room talking about car trouble right after we hear that terrible news.”

Martin moved to stand beside his mother and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Mama would never do something crazy like that.” He laughed. “She has really bad night vision, anyway.”

“Do you?” An’gel asked before she stopped to think.

Martin blinked at her. “What? Do I have bad night vision?” He shook his head. “No. Why?”

Reba glared at An’gel. “Martin would never do such a thing. He never even left the house last night. How dare you imply anything of the sort, An’gel Ducote.”

“If Miss An’gel hadn’t asked, I was about to,” Kanesha said. “Look, folks, I don’t know what’s going on here. First, Miss Hetherington dies under suspicious circumstances, and now Mrs. McGonigal is severely injured in what appears to be a deliberate attempt on her life. I swear to you, I will get to the bottom of this, and the person responsible is going to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Despite her cool professional manner, Kanesha was furious. An’gel knew her well enough to see that. She didn’t blame her. These cold-blooded actions sickened her. Who was behind them? And why?

“If you’ll excuse me now,” Kanesha said into the dead silence that followed her last words, “I need to find Mrs. McGonigal’s doctor. Under the circumstances, I am going to insist that no one other than immediate family be allowed access to Mrs. McGonigal. The police department and the sheriff’s department will be taking turns guarding her until this matter is resolved.” With that, she nodded, turned, and left the waiting room.

An’gel looked around the room to gauge reactions to Kanesha’s parting words. Everyone seemed stunned, and that was to be expected. She did not see anything she could interpret as fear, however.

She exchanged an uneasy glance with Dickce, and she knew her sister was thinking the same thing. One of the other five people in the room was the murderer. But which one?

They waited in silence for several minutes, though An’gel could see the others were restless, casting sly looks at one another. The tension was palpable.

A young man in scrubs and a white coat strode into the room. He stopped for a moment, then approached Hadley. “Mr. Partridge, if I could have a word with you, please.”

Hadley nodded. “Of course, doctor, but whatever you have to tell me, you can tell everyone here. We’re all concerned about Mrs. McGonigal.”