Mary Daheim - Suture Self - A Bed-and-breakfast Mystery

eyes. When she finished, she blinked several times to

bring her vision into focus.

Then she screamed.

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A man’s hand appeared from the other side of the

shower curtain and was reaching out to grab her.

As strong masculine fingers wrapped around her

wrist, Judith screamed again.

EIGHTEEN

“MOM! WHAT’S WRONG?”

Judith’s mouth hung open as she gaped at her son.

“Mike?” she gasped, squeaking out his name as if

she were more mouse than mother.

“Didn’t you hear me call to you from outside?”

Mike asked, gallantly trying to avoid peering into

the shower stall.

“Ah . . . No.” Judith swallowed hard, then did her

best to wind the towel around her body. “The water

was running.”

“Hang on to me,” Mike said, looking sheepish.

“I’ll help you out. Gee, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Judith gingerly stepped out of the stall. Her

knees wobbled and she had to lean against her

son. “Give me a minute to collect myself. This is

the first time I’ve been able to take a—” She

stopped, her heart suddenly in her mouth as she

realized what Mike’s arrival could portend.

“Joe . . .” she said with difficulty. “Is he . . . ?”

“He’s doing okay,” Mike said. “I talked to him a

few minutes ago.”

“Oh!” Relief swept over Judith. “You’re sure? He

really seemed to be on the mend?”

Before Mike could answer, Renie reappeared. “I

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see you got your mother out in one piece,” Renie said.

“It’s a good thing—Corinne was called off to help

some post-op patient.”

Judith stared at her cousin. “You knew Mike was

here?”

Renie nodded. “I met him when I went to get

Corinne. Aren’t you tickled to see him?”

Judith started to laugh, a gust of relieved tension that

verged on hysteria. Renie put an arm around her

cousin. “Take it easy, I’ll help you get dressed. Then

we can talk.”

Ten minutes later, Judith was back in their room,

where she gratefully let Mike help her get settled.

“Now,” she said, finding the least painful position in

the bed, “tell me about Joe and how you got here.”

“I saw the story on the news,” Mike explained after

pulling Renie’s visitor’s chair over by Judith’s bed so

that both he and his aunt could sit down. “The snow

had stopped up at the summit around midnight, and the

highway crew started clearing the pass not long afterward. I’d called the hospital to ask about Joe, but they

wouldn’t tell me anything, even when I tried to get

tough with them. What really bugged me was that they

wouldn’t put me through to you. They said it was too

late. I guess it was, maybe twelve-thirty.”

“I can understand why they don’t want to disturb patients that late,” Judith said, “but I’m sorry I didn’t get

to talk to you.”

Mike shrugged his broad shoulders. “Not talking to

you made up my mind—as soon as the roads were

clear, I headed for the city. I’ve got four-wheel drive,

chains, everything except skis on my forest service vehicle. When I arrived at the hospital, they wouldn’t let

me come up to the third floor. No visitors, they said at

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the front desk, because of some dumb press conference. So,” Mike continued, lifting his hands, “I went to

the fourth floor, to see how the other Flynn was doing.”

Judith smiled fondly at her son. “I’m so glad. I

haven’t seen Joe since they brought him in here. It’s

been terrible. How did he look?”

Mike laughed ruefully. “Like hell. And bitching like

crazy. I guess he was in a pretty bad way, but the surgeon who worked on him was some kind of wizard.”

“Dr. Garnett?” Judith put in.

Mike shrugged. “Whoever. Anyway, they moved

him out of intensive care last night.”

“We know,” Renie said dryly. “We thought he’d

been kidnapped. Or worse.”

“What else did he say?” Judith asked eagerly. “Does

he know who stabbed him?”

Mike shook his head. “I didn’t want to wear him out,

so we didn’t talk much.” He paused, his gaze wandering around the room. Maybe, Judith thought, Mike was

aware that since her marriage, he and Joe didn’t ever

talk much.

‘So,” Mike went on, “I left and came down to this

floor. Whatever they were doing here was over by then,

and I was able to see you. But you weren’t in your

room, and somebody told me they thought you’d gone

to the shower.” He shrugged again. “That’s where I

went, and found Aunt Renie. I feel bad that I scared

you.”

“It’s been a scary kind of hospital stay,” Renie said.

“You don’t know the half of it.”

Mike looked unsettled. “Do I want to?”

“Probably not,” Judith said with an ironic smile.

“It’s a long story, and really doesn’t have anything to

do with us. I don’t think.”

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Mike eyed both Judith and Renie curiously. “What

does that mean?” Mike asked.

Judith winced. “Nothing. Have you had lunch? It’s

almost noon. How are Kristin and little Mac? Will you

take me to see Joe?”

Mike grinned at the onslaught of queries. “Kristin

and Mac are great. I’ll get some lunch in the cafeteria.

I didn’t have much breakfast this morning because I

wanted to get an early start.” He hesitated and grew serious. “I don’t know if I can take you to see Joe. I had

to sort of sneak in to see him myself.”

“Why?” Judith demanded. “Is his condition still

critical?”

“No,” Mike responded, “it’s not that. It was more

like a question of security or something. In fact, there

was a cop outside the room. Officer Boxx, I think his

name was.”

“Woody!” Judith grinned. “That must have been his

doing, thank goodness. But Officer Boxx let you in

when you identified yourself?”

“Not at first,” Mike replied. “I had to prove we were

related, and having different last names didn’t help, so

I—”

Torchy Magee appeared in the doorway. “Mrs.

Jones? I got a crazy question for you.” He glanced at

Judith and Mike. “Sorry to interrupt.”

“What kind of crazy question?” Renie asked.

Torchy laughed. “I know Jones is a real common

name, but all the same . . . This sounds stupid, but . . .”

“But what?” Renie was impatient.

“We’ve been clearing off the cars in the parking lot

this morning,” Torchy explained. “We can’t get into

most of them, so we don’t know who they all belong

to. But this one car, a beige Toyota Camry, had a work

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order from the dealership on the front seat that had the

name Jones, William on it. Any relation?”

Renie was speechless.

After Renie got her keys out of her suitcase, she insisted that Torchy Magee take her to the parking lot.

The security man wasn’t happy with the idea.

“I want to make sure it’s our car,” Renie insisted.

“Too risky,” Torchy argued. “The lot’s real slippery.

You might fall and hurt yourself. Let me take the keys.

I can check the registration.”

“But is Cammy okay?” Renie demanded.

Torchy looked puzzled. “Cammy?”