Suture Self : A Bed-and-breakfast Mystery

offered his wife a feeble, though fond, grin.

“Joe!” Judith cried. In her excitement, she instinctively leaned forward to touch him, then screamed and

doubled over in pain. “Oh, my God!” she cried through

her misery. “I think I’ve dislocated my hip!”

TWENTY

JUDITH LET OUT a terrible cry of anguish. Joe tried to

reach out to help his wife, but weakness overcame

him. It was Mike who rushed to his mother’s side as

she moaned in pain.

“Mom!” He attempted to move her into a sitting

position, but she resisted.

“I can’t move!” she gasped through tears. “Get a

nurse! A doctor!”

Corinne Appleby and Heather Chinn both

showed up almost immediately. Then, in a haze of

agony, Judith saw Pearson, the orderly, arrive with a

gurney. Though the slightest movement was agonizing, she endured being moved onto the gurney,

rushed down the hall and into the elevator, which

obviously had been repaired, and hustled to a room

with bright lights. Staff members she’d never seen

before were at the ready.

Despite a fresh dose of painkillers, the next half

hour was a nightmare. At last, after X rays had been

taken and Dr. Alfonso had arrived, her self-diagnosis

was confirmed: She had indeed dislocated the new hip.

It would take only a couple of minutes to put it back,

but Judith would have to be virtually unconscious during the procedure. She welcomed the oblivion.

SUTURE SELF

309

An hour later, Judith awoke in her own bed on the

third floor. Through a haze, she saw the same people

who had been there when disaster had struck.

“Joe . . .” she murmured.

“I’m here, Jude-girl,” he said, taking her hand.

“So cunning, so cruel . . .” she mumbled.

Joe looked at Renie, who was sitting in Judith’s visitor’s chair. “Does that mean me? ” he asked with a

worried expression.

Renie, however, shook her head.

“Threes . . .” Judith murmured, squeezing her eyes

shut against the bright, setting sun. “Everything in

threes . . . Three lives saved . . . three patients dead . . .

three homeless men stabbed . . . three inedible salads . . .”

“Salads?” Joe looked at Bill.

Bill shrugged.

“Is she delirious?” Woody whispered.

“Must be,” Joe muttered. “My poor little girl.”

“Planned in advance . . . Surgical instruments

stolen . . . Should have guessed . . . to kill homeless . . .

Poor souls, set up with bribes to provide iron-clad alibis and drive car . . . Bill and Renie’s car . . . stolen because the snow starting, couldn’t get to usual