Margaret Daley - Poisoned Secrets

Lord, what should I do?

What if Maggie had fallen and hurt herself and couldn’t come to the door? What if she needed help now? With her teeth clenched, Edwina twisted the knob and pushed the door open.

“Maggie? Are you all right?”

Edwina stood in the entrance and glanced around. Relieved nothing seemed disturbed although there were still unopened boxes scattered about the living room, she moved a foot into the apartment, leaving the door wide open.

“Maggie,” she called.

A moan sounded from the bedroom. Edwina hurried as fast as she could down the hallway. Her heart pounded with each step against the hardwood planks.

Then Edwina saw Maggie. She lay on the floor, her eyelids fluttering. Books were scattered about her, and a small table sat at an angle across her stomach.

With an effort, Edwina knelt next to Maggie. Edwina pressed her lips together to keep her own moan inside her at the pain in her aching knees. Maggie needed her help.

“Maggie,” she touched the young woman’s shoulder, “what happened?”

Maggie grimaced as her gaze connected with hers. “I’m not sure.”

“Here, let me help you up.” Edwina pushed the small table to the side, slid several books away and clasped the new tenant’s arm.

She attempted to hoist herself up, but pain flitted across her features.

“Where are you hurt?” Edwina’s gaze fixed on the red stain on the wooden floor.

Maggie sank back, drew in a deep breath and brought her hand to her head. “Here.”

“Let me see.” Gently Edwina turned the young woman’s head and saw the gash and her hair matted with blood. “You must have hit your head hard when you fell.”

“No.”

The weakness of her denial made Edwina look back into Maggie’s eyes, dulled with pain, the young woman’s features pale with a gray tinge.

Silence reigned for a good minute, the new tenant’s brow creased as though she were recalling something. “Someone hit me from behind.”

“Someone was in here?”

“Yes,” Maggie said in a more definitive voice. “When I came home from my jog, the person must have been in here waiting for me.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. A robbery attempt?”

Edwina felt the shiver that shimmied down Maggie’s body. “I’m calling my nephew. He’s a detective with the police department. We can’t have this in our apartment building. You lie right there while I get some help.”

“But—”

“Don’t move. I’ll be right back.” Edwina struggled to her feet, her breathing coming in gasps, and started for the door.

With her shock receding, a thought wormed its way into Maggie’s mind. She could have been killed. Suddenly the idea of being by herself in her apartment caused her to blurt out, “Don’t leave me.”

Edwina halted. “Oh, dear me. I’m not leaving. I’m just going to make a few calls.”

Maggie gestured toward the bedside table, finally managing to sit up slowly. “I’ve got a phone over there, and it’s hooked up.”

Edwina spotted it, and her face brightened into a smile. “That you do.” She shuffled over to the bed and sat while she dialed.

Maggie listened to her make two calls, first to Kane then to her nephew David Morgan. Although Edwina’s words were muffled, Maggie heard the concern in the older woman’s voice. And Edwina’s sober expression only confirmed the seriousness of Maggie’s situation.

Maggie tried to think what she should do, but the throbbing pain encompassed her whole head now as though a marching band performed inside her skull. No coherent thoughts materialized, and she wilted back against the wall.

A few minutes later while Edwina was still talking to her nephew, someone entered her apartment. Hurried footsteps resonated down her hallway. Was her attacker returning to finish the job? Maggie tensed, that slight movement pulsating a warning to her brain she ignored. She labored to sit straight up, but the action increased the hammering pain in her head until she could no longer ignore her plight.

Kane appeared in her bedroom doorway. Exhaling her pent-up breath, Maggie wished she was anywhere but sprawled across the floor, her hair a tangled mess, her workout clothes askew. There was nothing dignified about her position, but she was so glad it wasn’t the intruder returning.

“Edwina told me someone broke into your apartment.”

Kane bent over and lifted her up into his arms as though she weighed ten pounds. As he walked to her bed, his clean scent of soap with a hint of pine wafted to her. She resisted the urge to lay her head on his shoulder and surrender to the blackness that edged closer with each jarring motion.

Gently, as though she was precious to him, Kane placed her on her coverlet. Its softness cocooned around her legs as she eased back against the headboard. She was careful not to get any blood on her linens, careful not to make any sudden moves or touch the place where her intruder struck her. “Thanks.”

He hovered above her, the look on his face hard and somber. “You need to be checked out at the emergency room.”

“I know.” The pounding against her skull underscored her need to see a doctor. She knew the dangers of a concussion, and if the pain was any indication, she had a doozy.

Edwina hung up. “Kane, can you take Maggie to the hospital?”

“Yes.”

Maggie wanted to protest but wouldn’t. She hated being beholden to anyone, but she really didn’t have much of a choice. She couldn’t see driving herself to the emergency room.

Edwina turned toward Maggie. “I’m having David meet me here to check out your apartment. Then we’ll come to the hospital. He’ll get a statement from you there. Do you think anything is missing?”

So many of her things were still in boxes. Maggie, without moving her head, made a visual sweep of the room. “Nothing looks disturbed, but I’ll need to go through what I have to be sure.”

“I noticed your TV in the living room. Where’s your jewelry? That’s something else a burglar takes.” Edwina pushed herself off the other side of the double bed.

“In the jewelry box on my dresser.” Maggie pointed toward it.

Edwina retrieved it and set it in Maggie’s lap. “You might want to check it.”

She opened the intricately carved box of cherry wood that her father had given her two birthdays ago, right before he’d died. The thought pained her more than the ache in her head.

She didn’t have much but the few valuable pieces—a gold cross on a delicate chain, a cameo pin, a ring with a large red garnet encircled with tiny diamonds and a pair of opal earrings—were all there among her costume jewelry. “Nothing’s gone.”

“Odd,” Edwina muttered as she took the box back to the dresser.

Kane moved close. “Ready?”

Maggie inhaled a deep breath. “As ready as I’m going to be.”

She started to swing her legs over the side of the bed at the same time Kane began to scoop her up into his arms. She held her hand up. “I can walk.”

There was no way she wanted him to carry her to his car. The very thought sent panic through her. The twenty seconds she had been in his embrace earlier was all she cared to experience. Liar, she chided herself. She’d enjoyed the feel of his arms about her more than she wanted to admit.

But as she slowly rose from the bed, her wishes were denied. The room rotated. She collapsed back and clutched the coverlet to keep herself upright. The jerking action, however, swirled the room faster. She closed her eyes, but that only caused the dark to revolve. Her stomach roiled. That was when Kane’s strong arms enveloped her in their protective circle. Again he lifted her effortlessly and headed toward the door.

The exertion of holding her head up was too much for her. She surrendered to her earlier urge and laid her cheek against the cushion of his shoulder. The motion of him walking jounced her so she slid her eyes shut and bit down on her lower lip. Nausea continued to agitate her stomach. This bump on the noggin was worse than she’d thought.