I was glad to see that she was alone, that Meredith wasn’t lurking around anywhere.
161
“This is horrible,” Kate said when she spotted me. “Who would do such a thing?”
“It could have been natural. You’re always hearing about stories of people who’ve been married forever dying days apart. Of broken hearts.”
“With a ransacked house?”
She had a point. Still, I hadn’t seen any signs of a struggle inside Greta’s room. And nothing on her body that suggested she’d been killed.
Actually, I’d been thinking about it, and it seemed more likely with those bathroom odors that she had gotten the flu going around and maybe died from that.
After all, Russ had had it. It would seem likely Greta would get it too. Maybe she had other health issues that made it too hard to fight the bug. I wished I had snooped through the medicine cabinet when I’d had the chance.
“Do the police think this was a random break-in? One of those home invasions?”
I could see her presidential wheels spinning. If there were a burglar in the neighborhood . . .
“I don’t know.” I had my doubts about the randomness of it all but kept them to myself, per Kevin’s strict orders.
I heard a car door slam and saw Dale Hathaway striding across his driveway toward his wife. She must have called him away from work.
My phone rang. Tam. I stepped aside to answer it.
“Did you kill someone else?”
I dropped my voice. “I didn’t kill anyone!”
“I heard there was another dead body.”
Dear Lord. “How’d you hear that?”
“Lindsey Lockhart called Bill at Growl. Riley heard about it and called you at work, but got Ursula, and Ursula called me.”
My mind spun trying to keep up with it.
162
Heather Webber
“Well,” I said, “do you know if Bill was coming home?” I really wanted to ask him about those accounting books.
“Riley said something about him leaving early.”
“Wait, you talked to Riley?”
“I needed more information, Nina. This hospital room isn’t exactly control room central.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Better. The doctor says I might be able to go home soon.”
“Really?”
“I’ll still be on bed rest, though. How’s Ursula working out by the way? Isn’t she perfect for the job?”
Depended on what job. Driving me crazy, definitely. I wasn’t sold on the receptionist part. Not yet at least. “She’s doing better than Coby.” Which was true.
“I knew you’d be happy to have her.”
“Tam, get your head checked while you’re at the hospital.”
“Now, Nina, I know you two aren’t the best of friends, but she’s really a nice—”
“Gotta go,” I said before I threw up. “ ’Bye!”
I snapped my phone closed, wandered back to Kate and Dale.
Suddenly I was hearing Disney’s chipmunk song in my head. I definitely needed food.
My phone rang again. I sighed, stepped away and answered it, wondering if Tam had figured out what was going on from her hospital bed and was calling to let me know.
“Mom? What’s wrong?”
“Wrong? Wrong? Nothing’s wrong. What makes you say that?”
“The tone of your voice.”
“Tone? What tone?”
“Mom.”
