Pushing Up Bluebonnets

clearly everyone did, including JoLynn, who had closed her eyes and in her calmer, sedated slur said, 'Is that my phone?'

I almost smiled until the wrath of Nurse Norman was fully visited on me. 'Turn that thing off,' she whispered.

Having been busted for illegal use of a cell phone in the hospital—not intentional, just a product of what I rationalized had to be memory loss again—I pulled the phone from my pocket. It had already gone over to voice mail and stopped quivering, but I dutifully powered it down.

'Sorry,' I said.

'I think it's time you both left anyway,' Norman said.

JoLynn again reached for my hand and I put my fingers in hers, saying, 'Do you want us to stay?'

'Don't . . . don't go.' But she was already drifting off, her hand going limp, her head lolling to the left.

Cooper said, 'She obviously needs her rest. We'll be back later.'

I didn't want to leave, since we'd gotten next to nothing, but he was right. JoLynn was only beginning to come around. She had smiled when I mentioned her grandfather, though, and seemed happy simply saying the word.

When we emerged from the ICU, Elliott Richter was standing in the waiting area, while Simone was slumped in a chair fiddling with a small camera. A tense-looking Adele stood by her brother. Simone was dressed like she'd just come from a rock concert in her wide-legged cropped cargo pants and black T-shirt, whereas Adele had the Ann Taylor thing going.

Richter greeted us, introduced Simone and Adele to Cooper, then said, 'How is she?'

'A lot better,' Cooper said.

Richter's face relaxed into a genuine smile. 'Good. That's very good. Did she say anything?'

'A few words. She seems a little frightened, but then, waking up in a hospital has to be scary.' Cooper scanned the waiting area. 'Security is more important than ever now that she's coming around, so where's your man? You send him on break?'

Gosh. Joe Johnson had disappeared. Guess I'd been too distracted by Simone taking pictures of the waiting room, the double ICU doors and all of us, the repeated snicking and flashing of her camera finally irritating Adele enough that she'd mouthed 'Stop it.'

Richter said, 'A staff member told us you were with JoLynn. I assumed you sent the guard on a break.'

'I didn't send him anywhere,' Cooper said. 'Can you call his agency and have him paged to get back up here? Or I could stay until he shows up.'

'I appreciate the offer, Chief Boyd, but I'm paying him damn good money to be here. And he's not where he's supposed to be.' Richter took out his cell phone. 'Excuse me while I find somewhere to make a call.' He strode off down the hall, anger evident in every step.

'Guess we'll wait.' Cooper smiled politely at Adele.

Her expression didn't change. 'My brother has been very stressed by this . . . incident. What time frame do you have for bringing the culprit to justice?'

Yup, same snobbish Adele I'd met earlier this week. But I wondered if she was the one stressed-out. She looked a little haggard, despite the perfect makeup and expensive clothes.

'Culprit, huh? Sounds way too nice for a wannabe murderer.' Cooper wore a tight smile. He wasn't taking to Adele, but then who would, besides husband Leopold? He said, 'The more information I get, Mrs. Hunt, the quicker I can find this culprit. You have anything to offer?' He walked over to where Joe Johnson had been sitting.

Adele blinked and said, 'Why would you think I—'

'Do that again, Mom.' Simone's camera was fixed on her mother's face.

'What in hell are you doing, Simone?' Adele was way out of her comfort zone now, even though I recalled Leopold saying she could handle anything.

Simone took her mother's picture, then said, 'I thought I'd be the nervous one coming here. But you are definitely off your game, Mom. I love it. Makes me think you might be human.'

I could tell Adele wanted to offer a comeback in the worst way, but her mouth stayed half open, apparently no words readily available. Meanwhile, Simone turned her smile on Cooper.

'Do you think they'd mind if I photographed the staff working inside the ICU—that is, if they let me in? This place is so different than anywhere I've been and I'm working on facial expressions, trying to improve my work, move beyond your average sunrise. Everyone moves so fast here, looks so serious, seems so full of purpose. That would be an awesome capture.'

'I don't know, Simone.' He carefully folded the newspaper Joe Johnson had left behind. 'Ask the staff. They might not mind. I think the patients would be offlimits, though.'

'I'm cool with that.' Simone held up the camera for a second. 'I wouldn't bother JoLynn with this thing, that's for sure.'

'Then why are you bothering me?' Adele said.

'Because it's fun, Mom.' Simone left us and approached the only other visitor, a lone man sitting in a far-off corner, who was staring at his clenched hands hanging between his knees.

'Can we please sit down?' Adele said in a clipped tone.

'Sure. Maybe you should take a few deep breaths, relax a little.' Despite Adele's attitude, Cooper sounded plain nice. He saw what I saw—a woman obviously very uncomfortable. Simone was right—Adele was off her game.

Adele and Cooper sat next to each other on the black vinyl chairs, but I remained standing. I'd discovered those seats were like a block of ice.

Cooper said, 'Your daughter's serious about her picture taking, huh?'

I glanced over and saw that Simone was sitting near the visitor, talking to him.

Adele sighed. 'I suppose. Elliott encourages her, buys her cameras and lenses practically every other week, sends her to amateur-photographer camps and workshops. It all makes me very . . . wait a minute. Why the hell are we talking about this?'

'Because you seem uneasy and I wondered if the issue was your daughter,' Cooper said.

'What if I am uneasy?' Adele snapped. 'Simone could fail. I mean, what kind of career is photography anyway? She'd work for newspapers or magazines? Travel all over creation. I don't like the idea one bit.'

'This is about your daughter, then, and not about visiting JoLynn?' Cooper said softly.

I almost smiled. Cooper was smooth. He could get beneath a person's top layer as quickly as a car salesman.

Adele closed her eyes briefly, then looked Cooper in the eye. 'If my coming here can make things easier for my brother, then so be it. I haven't seen him this devastated since he lost Katarina.'

I said, 'You're here for your brother, then? Not Simone and not JoLynn?'

Cooper shot me a reproachful glance that asked the question I was asking myself. Why couldn't I keep my mouth shut?

But apparently I didn't do as much damage to his gentle probing as I thought, because Adele didn't seem upset by the question. In fact, Cooper had obviously settled her down nicely, because her tone was even when she said, 'I'm trying to understand Elliott's . . . attachment to this young woman, Ms. Rose. I truly am.'

'It's Abby.' I offered a small smile.

Cooper was about to ask her something else, but Richter was back, his neck reddened by anger. And he had that look of fear in his eyes again, the one I'd seen at his ranch when he began to understand that JoLynn might have many more secrets than he'd ever expected.

Richter said, 'Someone called up the agency pretending to be me and canceled my twenty-four-hour security.'

'That explains why the guy left,' I said. 'Someone called and sent him home.'

'Not exactly,' Richter said through clenched teeth. 'Apparently the people I hired have been off this job for two days.'

'Th-then who was that guy we talked to not a half hour ago?' I said.