Chapter Twenty-Two

I shoved open the door and careened down the walk, wildly waving. A dark sedan pulled away from the curb. I stumbled into the gate and fumbled with the latch, calling out to Detective Padilla.

The car stopped, she leaned to peer back at me, and then she stretched across the front seat to push open the passenger door.

I threw myself into the seat and slammed the door behind me. “We need to get to Sunshine Haven. Now!”

Her eyebrows rose. Steering with one hand, she pushed the button to lower her window with the other, then reached down and grabbed a portable light. She slapped it onto the roof of the car and set it flashing.

My phone squawked. “Kate? Are you there?”

“I’m here.”

“Should I follow him? He’s in the grocery store parking lot, getting into his truck—”

“Zinnia, listen. Forget him. I need you to go back inside and find out where he was.”

“Okay.” After a moment, she said, “How do I do that?”

“Ask June if she saw him. The receptionist. Hurry.”

“All right, hang on.”

Padilla slowed at a red light. Two cars crossed in front of us, but the next driver saw the flashing light and stopped so we could dart through the intersection. We swung around the corner so hard I fell against the side door.

Padilla kept her eyes on the road. “Care to explain?”

“He’s there. Hicks. He was. He just left.” I sounded as rattled as Zinnia had at first. I sucked in a breath and slowed down. “Steven Hicks left Sunshine Haven a minute ago.”

She frowned. “He went inside? My guy should have stopped him!”

“I guess that didn’t happen.”

Zinnia was back on the phone. I put it on speaker so Padilla could hear. “June didn’t see him. He went out the emergency exit, so maybe he came in that way. It should have been locked so no one could come in from outside, but it should have set off an alarm when he left, and it didn’t.”

“You’re sure it was him?” Padilla asked.

“I only got a glimpse, but I think so. No, I’m sure.”

“You said he was wearing overalls and carrying a toolbox.” Was it merely a disguise or had it hidden something?

“June said nobody was scheduled to do work today.” Zinnia’s voice rose. “What do I do now?”

I said, “Find out exactly where he went. Which room or rooms? The emergency exit, which one was it?”

“In the Alzheimer’s unit.”

“Start there. Ask the patients, or anyone else who’s there, family members or staff, if they saw a man in overalls.” Would patients with memory problems have already forgotten? Would they understand what they had seen? “Ask June to help you. No, have her call an ambulance first.”

Maybe I was overreacting. Maybe it was all a mistake. But maybe we’d need that ambulance. I was sure now that Hicks was a killer. Had he killed again? Instead of stopping him, had we set off his murderous rage?

Who would he choose as a victim? Did he know my mother was there?

He had my card, with my name. Mom’s name was on her door.

“We’ll be there in a few minutes,” I said.

“Okay.” Zinnia ended the call.

We were halfway there. At the rate Padilla was driving, we’d arrive in another five minutes.

“Seat belt,” Padilla said.

“What? Oh, right.” My cane was tangled between my legs and digging into my foot. I sorted myself out and fastened the seat belt. While most of my focus was on the problem ahead of us, I had a nagging sense that I’d forgotten something behind me.

The phone rang again. I answered it and said hello before my mind registered that this time the screen had identified the caller as Dad.

“Kate, what’s going on? I heard yelling. The front door was open.”

That’s what I had forgotten.

“Dad, sorry.” What should I tell him? Sending him into a panic, having him race after us and maybe get into an accident, wouldn’t help. I tried to keep my voice calm. “I wanted to catch the police detective before she left. Something came up, and we’re heading back to Sunshine Haven. Would you mind heading over there as soon as you can? I’ll need a ride home.”

After five seconds of considering silence, Dad said, “I’m on my way.”

We were only a couple of blocks from Sunshine Haven. Bands of tension squeezed the air from my body, leaving me light-headed. How could I plan the next step when I couldn’t even breathe?

We pulled into the parking lot. Ambulance sirens wailed in the distance.

Padilla swung up to the entrance. “I’ll let you out at the door and call for backup.”

I fumbled with my door handle. My hand felt clumsy, as if it wasn’t properly attached to my body. Finally, I shoved open the door and launched myself out.

I lurched toward the automatic doors and squeezed through as soon as they opened far enough to admit me. My phone rang and I lifted it to my ear.

“Kate?” Zinnia’s voice seemed to echo.

I glanced up as she burst into the lobby from the far end. Her voice carried across the lobby as it came through the phone. “Kate, he was in your mother’s room!”

The phone fell from my numb hand. I clung to the cane as my legs turned to water. When my vision cleared enough to see Zinnia’s pale, worried face, I dodged past her toward the hallway to the Alzheimer’s unit. I wobbled rounding the corner and smacked my shoulder against the far wall before finding my balance enough to stumble down the hallway.

At Mom’s room, I grabbed the doorframe and jerked to a stop.

Mom sat in her chair, her knitting lying in her lap. She glanced at me, as did the woman in scrubs kneeling beside her.

“Mom! Are you all right?”

She gave me a puzzled look. “Of course I am. I don’t understand all the fuss.”

The other woman stood and turned to me. “What’s going on? June called for an ambulance but couldn’t explain why, and then that girl raced out of here like her hair was on fire, but Mrs. Tessler seems fine.”

“You’re a nurse?”

She nodded. I stepped toward Mom and bent over a little. I wanted to get closer to eye level, but I if I crouched I might not be able to get back up again.

“Mom, a man was in this room a few minutes ago. What did he do?”

She frowned. “He was very pushy. He kept telling me to take some medicine.”

The sirens were loud now.

I turned to the nurse and mouthed the word, “Poison.” I whispered, “Should we make her throw up?”

“Not if the ambulance is here. Some substances do damage coming up as well as going down. They might want to pump her stomach instead.”

I winced and turned back to my mother.

“Stop whispering,” she said. “It’s rude.”

“Sorry, Mom. What happened with the man?”

“He kept saying my daughter wanted me to take the medicine. ‘Tell them your daughter gave it to you,’ he said. He didn’t look like a nurse.” She glanced at the other woman’s scrubs, lavender with teddy bears on them. “It’s hard to tell sometimes. No one wears uniforms anymore.”

“In here.” Zinnia’s voice came from the hallway.

A moment later, two EMTs pushed into the room. “What’s the problem?”

“My mother was—someone gave her something—the wrong medicine.” I didn’t want to worry Mom with the word poison, but I turned my back on her and whispered it.

One of the EMTs, a muscular young man, asked, “Do we know what she took?”

The other attendant, a woman, squeezed between us and knelt beside Mom, starting an examination.

“Mom, what did the stuff look like?”

“A funny green color. It was sweet, but I didn’t like it.” She giggled. “I held it in my mouth and when he went away I spit it out.”

“Mom! I love you!”

“I love you too, sweetie.”

“Did you swallow any of it?”

“Maybe.” She made a face. “I can still taste it.”

My mother had been poisoned. But she hadn’t taken all of it. She might have gotten some, though. My emotions zigzagged.

The woman EMT handed Mom a glass half-full of water from the nightstand. “Rinse and spit it back out.” She glanced at me. “She seems stable, but we’ll take her in. It would help to know what the substance was.”

“Mom, where did you spit it out?”

“The wastebasket.”

I grabbed the trash and peered in. Green liquid soaked some tissues at the bottom of the can, the smell cloyingly sweet. I twisted toward the man and lowered my voice. “The guy who gave it to her works in an auto shop, so it might be something to do with cars.”

He looked into the trashcan and sniffed at it. “Antifreeze. We’ll take this to be sure, but it sure looks and smells like that.”

I could barely force my next words out. “Can you save her?”

He nodded. “Leave it to us.”

The woman helped Mom to her feet. “Let’s get you on the stretcher.”

“Really now, I can walk. I’m old, but not that old.”

“You wouldn’t want me to get in trouble for not doing my job, would you?”

“Of course not, but I’m not an invalid.”

I squeezed out the door behind them. “Mom, please do what they say. Trust me.”

As the two ambulance attendants eased her onto the stretcher, Mom smiled at me. “I trust you, sweetie. But you don’t need to fuss. That’s my job.”

I clung to the doorframe, willing the adrenaline-rush numbness to leave. Experience told me I’d be shaky for a while yet.

The staff nurse stood with her hand over her mouth. From behind it, she whispered, “I can’t believe this happened.”

Zinnia was pressed against the wall of the hallway, letting the EMTs pass. When she turned to me, her eyes were damp with tears. She handed me my phone.

I slipped it in my pocket. “Thanks. You did good.” I glanced from her to the staff nurse. “You two make sure he didn’t visit anyone else, all right? I doubt it, but let’s be sure.”

I headed after the EMTs. As I followed them out the main entrance, I came face-to-face with Dad. He went gray when he saw who was on the stretcher.

“Dad, it’s all right. We got to her in time. She’ll be fine.” Maybe I shouldn’t have made that promise, but I couldn’t bear the look on his face.

He gripped my arm as he swayed. After a couple of gasping breaths, he said, “I’m going with her.” He shoved the car keys into my hand.

I’d be more help staying at Sunshine Haven, but tears blurred my vision as the doors closed behind him. I leaned against the building while the flashing lights sped away and the sirens faded into the background noise. I tipped my head back to gaze at the clear blue sky. A perfect day. I shivered. The sun slowly warmed my chilled skin but couldn’t reach my numb heart.

I was done. No more thinking I could do the job of the police. No more putting my family in danger for my own ego. Maybe I had lost my journalistic instincts. Maybe I wouldn’t be able to get back to the work I loved. Better to accept that and move on than to kill my own mother trying to prove something.

Detective Padilla joined me, and Heather approached, looking pale and shocked. “What happened?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “He gave her antifreeze. My mother.”

Padilla smiled. “I love stupid criminals. He might as well have checked himself into prison.” At my look, she said, “I’m sorry, I know it was your mother. But you got her help quickly. They’ll take care of her before the poison does much damage.”

I would’ve preferred the word any to much. “Are you familiar with antifreeze poisoning?”

She nodded. “It’s one of the most common poisons, since it’s easy to buy antifreeze without arousing suspicion. Antifreeze is sweet, so it’s not that noticeable in food. It takes time to work, but at first the victim may only seem drunk.”

She waved toward the entrance and the three of us headed inside.

I tried to put my thoughts into logical order. I had to make sure Padilla knew everything, so the police could do their job, and I could get to the hospital with my parents. “I suppose if he gave antifreeze to Brit Egland, any drunken behavior might have been blamed on the Alzheimer’s.”

“Tests would show the presence of the ethylene glycol, but someone would have to think to test for it. Didn’t you say one woman got sick but recovered after her dialysis? Dialysis is one of the treatments used in severe cases of ethylene glycol poisoning.”

I collapsed into a chair in the lobby. “So maybe Hicks was testing his poison on other patients. He wanted to get the dose right, or make sure it worked or something.”

“Horrible,” Heather said.

“But reasonable from his point of view,” Padilla said. “If anyone had been suspicious about the first illness or death, they wouldn’t have suspected him, because he wouldn’t benefit.”

I rubbed my face and ran my hands through my hair. “It didn’t work the first time, so he tried again, maybe giving the next victim more. Once he’d successfully killed Penelope Valentine without arousing suspicion . . .”

“He thought he was home free to kill his girlfriend’s mother so she would inherit,” Padilla said. “Then he’d either live off her money or find a way to steal it from her.”

“Maybe marry her and then kill her too.” I shivered to think of what might have happened to Lisa and Ryan.

“Why on earth did he think hurting your mother would help him?” Heather asked.

“He told Mom to tell everyone her daughter gave her the medicine.” I turned to Padilla. “He suggested I’d been harming patients in order to get a good story. He must have thought that killing my mother would make me look guilty. If she mumbled something about me and the medicine before she died, I might have been blamed.”

Padilla frowned. “It’s twisted logic, but he’s a twisted man. I suppose it goes back to the idea that if multiple people died, it’s harder to find the motive.”

I shook my head. “Did he really think anyone would fall for that? He should have kept quiet and hoped we couldn’t get enough evidence for what he’s already done.”

“Fortunately, most criminals aren’t that smart. They’re convinced they’re clever and the police are dumb, and they don’t realize they’re leaving a trail of evidence right to their door. Sometimes literally. Last week, a meth addict broke into a house, and we followed the trail of dropped stolen goods five blocks to his house.”

I pressed a hand into my stomach, nausea churning. “So Hicks was foiled by his own arrogance?” What would have happened to Mom if Zinnia hadn’t seen him and thought to call me? “Where was the cop who was supposed to be watching him?”

“Hicks ran a red light and caused a traffic accident. The police car following him stayed to help the victims. They called it in, but by that time, Hicks was out of sight.”

“Was anyone hurt?”

“No fatalities,” Padilla said. “But Hicks is keeping the ambulance drivers busy today.”

I huddled in my chair, weak and trembling after the long minutes of panic. “At least we have more evidence against him now. Poor Zinnia, though. I hope she won’t be in danger, since she’s the only real witness besides my mother. Even if Mom remembered everything long enough for Hicks to go to trial, a good defense lawyer would be able to cast doubt on her testimony.”

“No,” Heather said.

When we both turned to stare at her, she gave a grim smile.

“There’s a camera in the corner of the lobby, behind the front desk.” She pointed to it. “It used to cover the lobby, but last week, when I started to get worried about what was happening in the Alzheimer’s unit, I turned it to focus down that hallway. Everything that happened today is recorded.”

Padilla laughed. “Perfect! Hicks might’ve known where the camera was originally. He thought he could avoid being seen by parking next door and breaking in through the emergency exit. They’re dusting for prints now, but even if he wore gloves, we’ve got tons of evidence against him. Chances are the prosecutor will try for a plea bargain, attempted murder of your mother in exchange for not trying to prosecute the other deaths, which would be hard to prove.”

I sighed. “He’s going down.”

Padilla nodded. “At least for a few years. But we have to catch him first.”