Goldy Bear - Sticks And Scones Part 6

"It's okay."

It was not a bad apology, as apologies went. Obviously, he was afraid to ask about Tom yet. I answered the rest of their questions by giving the barest details of what had happened. Tom was almost certainly coming back to the castle the next morning, I said. The Hydes would just have to understand. After all, where else could we go?

We took turns seeing Tom. With his slack, jaundiced face, IV streaming under the bandage on his arm, and his heavy snoring, he looked and sounded terrible. At eight forty-five the priest from St. Luke's showed up. He saw Tom alone, and then the five of us prayed together briefly in the waiting room.

At nine-thirty, a yawning Marla announced that the boys should come back with her to the Brown Palace. Arch protested that he couldn't, that all his bags, clothes, and "stuff" were at Hyde Castle, and by the time they drove to Aspen Meadow, picked up his paraphernalia, and schlepped back to Denver, it would be morning and he'd have to leave for school. Julian jumped in to say he had a sleeping bag in his Range Rover and could drive Arch back to the castle. And, he added, he could find the castle at night with no problem. He was willing to sleep on a couch or even on the floor of Arch's room, if the Hydes would allow it. Then he could take Arch to and from school and help with the historical cooking. "I'll stay for as long as you want," he concluded in a tone that brooked no argument.

"Thanks for the offer," I told him. "But it's up to the Hydes."

Marla left to call Eliot and Sukie about Julian's request to be housed at the castle. When she returned, she said she'd talked to Eliot, who couldn't have been nicer.

"'Yes,' he gushed," Marla said, imitating Eliot's sonorous voice, "'bring the injured policeman, bring the college student, we'll have a grand household here just as they did in medieval times.' He was slightly freaked out that you'd found the body of Andy Balachek," she added. "Apparently, Andy used to come to the castle quite a bit when he was little, because his father, Peter-the excavator, do you know him? - rebuilt the Hydes' dam after Fox Creek flooded. Eliot didn't know 'poor little Andy' might be involved in illegal activity. So he's spooked."

"Great," I muttered.

"Oh-kay," Marla went on, "Eliot also asked if you would be able to cater the labyrinth-donor lunch in three days, on Thursday. The police should be finished with the crime scene by then, he figures. Oh, and the St. Luke's staff is going to call all the donors, to notify them of the change." She raised her eyebrows at me. "Eliot was also worried that doing both the lunch and the fencing banquet on Friday might be too much for you." She grinned mischievously. "I knew you didn't have any catering events until Sat.u.r.day night's Valentine's Day dance. So I told him Thursday would be fine. Hope that's okay. I also offered Julian's services both days. The king of the castle," Marla said with a toss of her head, "was able to retire in peace."

"Wearing his nightcap, no doubt."

"Are you kidding? Wearing a crown." She frowned. "So you're all right with that catering schedule?"

"Absolutely, thanks. Tom needs to rest. Julian and I can do big-time cooking. It'll be good for us."

"Really," added Julian.

"Come on, guys," Arch pleaded wearily, "I've got a ton of English homework, and I've got to use the binoculars to see what phase Venus is in. The teachers don't excuse missed a.s.signments unless you yourself are in the hospital. Maybe not even then," he added glumly. Poor Arch!

We made sketchy plans. Elk Park Prep had a late start the next day, so if the hospital released Tom early enough, we might return to the castle before Arch and Julian left for school. After Tom was settled in our castle suite, I'd finally go home for the disk that had my recipes and notes on historic English food, plus information on how castles were run, and background on labyrinths - all areas Eliot had asked me to research. I'd also find a photograph of the Jerk, I added silently, for the benefit of castle security. Then Julian and I would plunge into finis.h.i.+ng the planning and doing the cooking for the luncheon and dinner. Before the three of them left, we gave each other one last rea.s.suring hug.

When they'd gone, however, I felt a flood of loneliness, as if the events of the day were just now catching up with me. I changed into the gift-shop sweat suit. But dozing on the waiting-room couch did not seem to be in the cards. The bright overhead lights, intercom announcements, and shuffling and buzzing of folks in the hall, not to mention my own awareness of each upcoming ten-minute visit, all conspired against it. Charde Lauderdale, I found out from a nurse who was an old friend, had indeed been in with baby Patty for a visit to the neurologist. To my relief, Charde did not appear again.

Finally, near dawn, slumber overwhelmed me. Bad dreams brought visions of Andy's body in the creek, the crack of a gunshot, Tom falling toward me, his arms outstretched. The expression on his face... I unintentionally shouted myself awake, only to look up into the eyes of Captain Lambert. He'd brought me a still-hot, four-shot latte, bless him, made just the way Tom had once told him I liked it. Chilled and stiff from my restless night, throat sore, eyes gummed from crying, I gratefully sipped the rich drink. The captain waved my thanks away and pointed to a brown paper bag.

"I brought a department sweat suit Tom's size. And we had your van towed up to the castle. Workmen's comp is paying for everything, including an ambulance to take Tom back to the castle with you, unless you want to go someplace else. We've had lots of offers from his friends. Tom has lots of friends," he reminded me gently.

"Thanks, but all my cooking equipment is at the castle, and I'm doing two events for the Hydes this week. If Tom's up to it, I'd love to get out of here ASAP."

Lambert obligingly pulled strings. I received my instructions about caring for him once he was released. Tom was discharged ten minutes later. That's the great thing about cops. Even doctors are afraid of them, almost as much as they are of lawyers.

An orderly piloted Tom to the discharge doors and then into the waiting ambulance. Captain Lambert strode along next to the wheelchair and told me Boyd and Armstrong would be up to the castle that afternoon to talk to me. Once Tom was strapped into the back of the ambulance and the wheelchair was folded and stored beside him, I climbed in. A moment later we were b.u.mping out of the parking lot.

"I'm sorry to put you through this," were Tom's first words. Nonplussed, I blurted out my own apology. How wrong I'd been not to leave that area by the creek when he'd told me to. How I shouldn't have run to welcome him.

He shook his head. "I should have waited till backup arrived." His voice was hoa.r.s.e, his breathing labored. "Then you never would have jumped out. No... blame." When he stopped talking, I knew better than to reply. "Andy," he added fiercely.

I squeezed Tom's hand. "Don't think about him. In fact, Tom? Don't talk at all."

"I want to get on with this." He spoke slowly, insistently. "I need to get back to - "

"Tom, please. You've got to heal."

"Working heals me."

"Tom - "

"Where was I?" He squinted at the beige ceiling of the ambulance interior. "Oh, yeah Andy just makes me so d.a.m.n mad. Made me mad. And now he's got himself dead."

I didn't care about Andy Balachek; I cared only about Tom. Clearly, he wasn't going to follow doctor's orders and stay quiet. He didn't want that. He wanted to talk about the corpse in the creek. "Okay," I said. "Balachek's death was avoidable. Why?"

"That kid was the king of communication. Loved e-mail. Sent me a letter with no return address telling me to set up thus-and-such new e-mail address, operated only out of my home. So I did, with the D.A.'s blessing. Balachek said he'd tell me who killed the truck driver if I could get him off." Tom's eyes closed. I clasped his hand in mine.

The ambulance began the winding, westward ascent up Highway 203. When we'd left the hospital, s.h.i.+mmering white clouds had been hovering over the forests blanketing the foothills. Peering through the ambulance's winds.h.i.+eld, I could see that the cloud cover had now turned the color of ash. A freezing fog misted the pine tops. More snow was on the way.

"Andy wouldn't tell me who his other partners were," Tom announced abruptly, startling me. "I mean, besides Ray Wolff. Andy wouldn't divulge information about the stamps. The home address linked with his e-mail was his father's, who'd kicked him out when Andy stole his excavation truck. And you know we thought Andy was in Atlantic City when he called last Friday."

I nodded. Andy, frantic, had called our house from a cell phone in Central City, Colorado, where gambling was legal. He was calling from a bathroom, because he'd stolen some body's cell phone and wanted to talk to Tom. I'd said Tom was in Atlantic City, looking for him. Andy had bitterly replied that he guessed he'd have to go to New Jersey to see Tom, because his partner threw his computer into the lake. Then he hung up. With no leads materializing in New Jersey, Tom had decided to come home. And now he was determined to talk about the case. I sighed.

"Did you ever figure out who the partner was?" I asked. "Are there more than three people in the gang?" I paused. "Ray Wolff is in prison. Whoever the third person is, he or she or whoever couldn't have known Andy was talking to you over the Internet, or Andy would have been killed right then. I mean, if we're talking about the same person who did kill him in the end."

"I'm willing to bet," Tom said with great effort, "that the 'other partner' is the third hijacker witnesses saw. Maybe there are more people in the gang, but you usually don't use the word 'partner' unless you've only got a couple of them."

"So somebody got wind of Andy's e-mails?"

Tom grimaced. "Don't know."

Talking had exhausted him. He closed his eyes as the ambulance pa.s.sed the sign indicating that Aspen Meadow was only ten miles away. I was glad he was finally asleep. Every time he opened his mouth, I was afraid he was going to confess to some terrible sin that I couldn't bear to hear.

Andy wouldn't divulge information about the stamps. I felt a pang of envy. Would I ever get to see those Victorian wonders? Like every other eleven-year-old on my block, I'd been a voracious stamp collector. My mother had gotten tired of all the philatelic packets pouring in "on approval," which meant stamp clubs sent stamps every month and I had to send them back by a certain date, or pay. Unfortunately, I never had the heart to return the beauties, and I'd ended up babysitting around the clock to fund my hobby. When my grades fell and I slept through a baby's sobbing, my mother canceled all my stamp club subscriptions. Heartless! And that, unfortunately, had rung the death-knell for my stamp-collecting hobby.

We rounded a sharp corner and Tom's stretcher shook. He groaned but did not awaken. Andy sent e-mails. Andy called. Andy got himself dead.

Maybe Tom did not blame himself for what had gone wrong in the hijacking investigation. Maybe he didn't love some other woman. No matter what, it sounded as if he'd gotten himself emotionally connected with hapless, "gotta-talk-to-you" Andy Balachek. And if there's one thing they teach you in cop school, it's that you shouldn't let a criminal live rent-free in your brain.

-10-.

The ambulance made a slow, wide turn onto the castle drive, then moved through the open gates. I checked my watch: eight-ten. We thumped over the causeway across the moat and stopped in front of the gatehouse, where the medics swung open the back doors. With a glance at Tom, I scrambled out. Michaela Kirovsky, her white cloud of hair and pale face the picture of concern, stood by the portcullis. She disarmed the castle security system and helped the medics set up a portable ramp for all the stairs inside the castle. After much grunting, heaving, and clicking of ramp parts, Michaela and one of the medics managed to get Tom inside the castle. An eternity later, they pushed Tom's wheelchair toward our a.s.signed suite.

Following them, I felt light-headed with fatigue and hunger. I was thankful we had not run into the Hydes. Still, goose b.u.mps raced down my skin. Why did I feel we were being watched? I glanced around for closed-circuit cameras, but saw nothing except stones, windows, and fading tapestries. Once I thought I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, but whatever it was disappeared before I actually saw anything. Just the day before, though, I'd decided I'd imagined a noise only seconds before our picture window was blown to fragments. I hadn't believed I'd seen something in the creek, and it had turned out to be poor Andy Balachek. So if I was persuaded I'd seen something out of the corner of my eye, then perhaps I had. I stopped and looked all around again: Nothing. Maybe I was just tired.

Michaela told me that Eliot and Sukie were out having breakfast, even though Julian had offered to make them his vegetarian Eggs Benedict. She brightened, and added that Julian was making breakfast, anyway, and had promised to go grocery shopping after he left Arch off at Elk Park Prep.

"I'll tell you," Michaela said with a wide grin, as I finished straightening the covers over Tom. "I love having that kid around. He works. You stay here much longer, I'm going to get lazy."

I smiled. Yes, Julian was a blessing. But hale-and-hearty Michaela drifting into laziness was impossible to imagine.

After Michaela and the medic left, Tom murmured, "I feel helpless."

"You're not helpless, you just need rest," I replied. My hands traced circles on the green-and-pink coverlet. I prayed that Tom wouldn't start up again on the subject of Andy Balachek.

"I've been here before, you know," he said mildly. "The castle."

"Investigating a case?" I asked, surprised.

"Not exactly." He chuckled. "Checking to see if the owner was a loony bird." He raised his jaunty, sand-colored eyebrows at me.

"What do you mean?" I demanded.

"It's a long story. I'll tell you later." He tried to s.h.i.+ft his weight. "You stayed in a client's home once before," Tom reminded me. "Didn't turn out too well, as I recall."

"That was a family thing," I replied. Arch's and my brief stay with Marla's sister had indeed not turned out well. "This is business - "

My protest was silenced by twin thudding knocks at the door: Arch and Julian. They tumbled into the room, cl.u.s.tered around Tom, and demanded to know how he was feeling.

"Need chocolate?" asked Julian. "I was thinking of making cookies or cake after I get back from the grocery store. Plus I just put a frittata and some rolls into the oven. They'll be done in about ten minutes."

"Maybe later." Tom's smile was thin. My heart squeezed in sympathy. "Arch." He tilted his head at my son. "I need to laugh. I need to hear some jokes. It'll make me feel better."

"I just had to write a poem for my Shakespeare and His Times cla.s.s," Arch piped up, straightening his gla.s.ses. "I could read that to you, if you want."

"I do," Tom said, with a small grin. Arch pulled a sheet of paper out of his backpack. He warned, "It's, you know, aa, bb, cc, dd, like that." He poised himself at the foot of the carved four-poster bed. He cleared his throat twice, then read: Two enemies met in a foreign field, Each pointed his spear; each clasped his bright s.h.i.+eld. I watched from afar; to see the pair fight, Chivalry would bind them! Each was a knight. Their horses raced forward, a cold wind blew; One knight was gored, the spear went right through! Bloodied, he fell; the terrain was rocky. "Wow!" I thought. "This is worse than hockey!"

It was nice to have a laugh; it was great to be together. After a moment, Tom said he needed rest. Julian and Arch raced off for the kitchen, while I sat at Tom's side. By the time Julian poked his head back into the suite to invite me down for rolls, frittata, fresh fruit, Ches.h.i.+re cheese, and tea, Tom was asleep. The Elizabethans hadn't eaten frittata, I was pretty sure. Nor, I'd been surprised to learn in my research, had they drunk tea. But having subst.i.tuted packaged crackers for regular meals for the past twenty hours, I was ravenous. The heck with food history. Besides, I couldn't remember what the Elizabethans had for breakfast. That's what I was going back to our house for, right? To get the disk with all my research. I promised Julian I'd be right down.

When I entered the enormous kitchen moments later, Julian, Arch, and Michaela were already sitting at the oak trestle table. A cozy fire crackled in one of the kitchen hearths. Soon, I was slathering one of Julian's hot rolls with soft b.u.t.ter and homemade plum jam that Michaela had retrieved from Eliot's backup stash in the dining room. Heaven. The creamy, custardlike texture of the frittata provided a tangy complement to the sharp cheese. Relis.h.i.+ng the delicious breakfast, I recalled that, indeed, Queen Elizabeth herself had indulged in enormous breakfasts - before she went hunting. I told Arch, Michaela, and Julian as much as I could remember of one menu: cold sausages and powdered neat's tongue. Arch asked what a neat was, and I replied that "neat" was an archaic term for cow or ox. Michaela grinned and served us steaming cups of strong English Breakfast tea. I asked Arch how the fencing was going.

"Pretty well," he answered cautiously, wary of appearing boastful in front of his coach.

"He's done brilliantly," Michaela declared as she split her third roll and piled the center with cheese slices. "I'm going to have him be part of our demonstration Friday night."

Arch blushed. Julian slyly added, "That's not because your former girlfriend is on the team? Maybe Lettie - "

"Stop!" warned Arch. His face had turned scarlet. I decided to say nothing. Arch had kept me in the dark about his post-Christmas breakup with Lettie, also fourteen. When he'd told me after the fact, he said that he wasn't going to tell me the reasons, because then I would try to argue with them. Oh-kay, I'd said. Now I wondered idly if the breakup had been so bad that Lettie might have shot at our window.

I took another sip of tea and told myself not to be ridiculous.

"Couple of messages for you," said Michaela as she gathered up the dishes. "One, your tables were delivered yesterday morning to the chapel. Or rather, they weren't delivered. The police turned the delivery guys away. Eliot asked them to come back early on Thursday."

I sighed. If I hadn't had so much on my plate, I would have called Party Rental and told them what was going on. "Thanks."

"No problem. The police have given me the go-ahead to setup the chapel tomorrow. I'll be unpacking our s.p.a.ce heaters, opening our own serving tables and folding chairs, and setting up our screen for Eliot's slides." She paused. "Eliot wants to review the menu with you this afternoon. If you're up to it."

I nodded. "No problem. And the second message?"

"Two detectives want you to call them." She handed me a note with the names of Boyd and Armstrong, as well as their office and cell phone numbers. Then she loaded the rest of the dishes into the wood-paneled dishwasher, one of the kitchen's numerous disguised amenities. I thanked Michaela again for helping. She looked at the floor and said it was the least she could do, after what we'd been through.

After the boys had been a.s.sured that Tom and I would be fine, just fine, they gathered up Arch's gear and Julian's grocery list - he insisted he was making dinner tonight for everybody - and hustled down to Julian's Rover. From one of the narrow windows in the well tower, I watched them roar away.

Back in our room, Tom was still sleeping. I knew I had to go back to our house. I needed to check on the animals, too, and so I used the phone - a portable device placed in our magisterial bathroom, which I hadn't seen when we'd first arrived - to call Trudy. She reported that Jake the bloodhound and Scout the cat were in good shape. She'd collected today's mail and would continue to do so until we were home again. The police had come by early this morning, she said, and told her that deputies were working hard on the Balachek murder and the window shooting.

"Everybody on the street's watching the place till then," Trudy added. "We're even keeping track of unfamiliar license plates."

I murmured that that wasn't necessary. But Trudy interrupted me, her voice insistent. "There's a strange car out there right now. It looks as if the driver is keeping a close eye on your place."

"Is it someone from the sheriff's department?"

"I don't think an unmarked car would be covered with rust, Goldy. Plus, a cop would be more obvious. This guy is being very surrept.i.tious. Actually, it's a woman."

My skin turned to ice. "Trudy, are you sure she's watching our house - "

"Goldy, she's been sitting in her car for two hours now. She's hiding behind a newspaper. I know she's not reading it because when I took out my binoculars, I could see her eyes peering over the top of the paper. I'm telling you, she's just staring at your broken window."

-11-.

Did you c-call the sheriff's department?" I asked, cursing the choke in my voice.

"Not yet. The woman hasn't actually done anything. I took Jake out there on a leash, though, so I could talk to her. I said we'd just had a shooting on our street and that there were cops all over."

"What did she say?"

"She asked if anyone had been hurt. I said no and very obviously looked inside her car for a weapon. She didn't have one, or at least, not one that I could see. She said she was waiting for someone. When I asked who, she just drove away. Then a while ago, she came back."

It was as if I'd been punched in the solar plexus. Could it be Viv? If the Jerk's new girlfriend was haunting our street, I would sic Jake on her myself. "Is she skinny, with white-blond hair, big b.o.o.bs, and a sort of rock-star face? Late twenties?"

"Nah, she's older," Trudy replied promptly. "Probably fifty. Dark hair. Pretty face, but weathered. Looks like she might be tall and slender. Maybe she's an ex-model who wants Tom to do some investigating for her. Anyway, she doesn't look like one of John Richard's bimbos, if that's what you're worried about."

I thanked Trudy and told her I'd be home soon. Then I replaced the receiver, filled a gla.s.s of water for Tom, and went back into our room. Holding the gla.s.s, I stared out the leaded-gla.s.s windows lining the wall of the suite. A snow flurry sent swirls of thick flakes into the moat. She didn't look like one of John Richards bimbos ...

"I'm awake," Tom said from the bed. Was that a suspicious note in his voice, or was I being paranoid again? "Miss G.? Want to tell me what's going on?"

"I need to get my computer disk with the research for this week's food prep," I replied lightly. I didn't mention the woman lurking on our street. Why worry Tom when he was immobilized? On the other hand, I was not going back to our place without giving the cops - that is, the cops who could do something - advance warning. I needed to call Sergeants Boyd and Armstrong. I went on, "I also have to get a picture of the Jerk, so that the Hydes can know not to let him in." And I have to check out that woman, I added silently. Not to mention that my curiosity was demanding a trip down to the creek. If the sheriff's department was no longer processing the crime scene, I wanted to have a look at the place myself.

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to go home alone," Tom replied. "And did you talk to A.D.A. Gerber about visitations for Arch?" So he was worried about John Richard Korman, too. Good old Tom.