Page 124 of The Secrets We Hide
Emmy was too shaken to protest. She looked down at the watch. Her thumb worked the crown. She took a deep breath. “I’ve been hearing this ticking sound since Mom’s funeral. I thought it went away, but then it came back and I—I don’t know.”
Jude remembered the sound of the winch lowering the casket into Myrna’s grave.
Emmy snorted a laugh. “I Tell-Tale Hearted myself.”
Jude smiled. The Edgar Allan Poe story had been one ofMyrna’s favorites. A murderer is driven mad by the imagined sound of his victim’s heartbeat. She quoted, “‘And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses?’”
Emmy managed a half-smile. She turned over the watch, looking at the details. “Mom would be furious at me for being so weak.”
“Grieving is not a weakness.”
Emmy sighed. “Cole’s waiting for me.”
“Wait.” Jude didn’t want to let go of this moment. She knew it could be one of the last. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“That I don’t have time for this.” Emmy looked up at the building. “I’ve got a suspect on the loose. Half my force is out looking for him while I’m freaking out in my car. My son thinks I’m too scared to arrest Bill Garrison because he beats women. You keep trying to leave and I keep needing you to Humpty-Dumpty me back together. I hate delegating. My second-in-command calls me Hellbitch behind my back. The mean girls I went to high school with are trashing me online. There’s a little girl in a hospital room fighting for her life and I’m sitting in a car holding a watch.”
For once, Jude knew exactly what to say. “You know, Hellbitch was the name of one of the horses on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.”
Emmy laughed so loudly the sound bounced around the car. Jude laughed, too. This was the trap of their closeness. Jude had always known she loved her daughter. She hadn’t realized how much she would genuinely like her.
“Okay.” Emmy wiped her eyes. “Let’s get this over with.”
Emmy tucked the watch into her pocket as they got out of the car.
Jude looked at Taybee’s Mercedes. She knew she should leave, but she followed Emmy to the building. They both slowed as they crossed the threshold. It was the smell. The heavily scented cleaning agents, plug-in deodorizers and floral arrangements that provided a sickly-sweet cover to the underlying odor of sickness.
“Mom?” Cole rounded the corner at the end of the hall. Hemust’ve seen them on the CCTV. “I got the APB on my phone. Did you find Shane Russell?”
“Not yet.” Emmy tightened the Velcro on her duty vest as if she was refastening her armor. “Report.”
“I spoke to a nurse, Teena Nixon. She took care of Mitch Bellingham while he was in hospice. She couldn’t give me information on his health because of HIPAA, but he was in hospice, so it’s not like it was a surprise when he died. I asked security to see the visitor logs. There’s only one name on Mitch’s list.”
Cole took a dramatic pause.
“Allison Vickery.”
Jude smiled at his clever work. He’d earned the drama.
Emmy asked, “How many times did Allison visit?”
“Couple times a week starting back in August. Usually stayed around an hour each time.”
Emmy looked at Jude. “She started talking to him two months ago.”
Cole said, “Mitch was still on the senior living floor when the visits started. Then she followed him up to hospice. Teena’s working up there now. I cleared it with her supervisor for you to talk to her.”
“Okay,” Emmy said. “What else?”
“I asked the security guard to put together CCTV clips of Allison’s visits. Mitch was in a wheelchair toward the end. Once he was in hospice, they kept to the break room. The cameras have microphones, but the sound’s not great because they usually took a table in the far corner, but you can see them talking.”
“Good,” Emmy said. “Who else visited?”
“He’s got a son and some grandkids, but it looks like the last time they were here was over a year ago. I emailed you their contact details. They had a service clean out Mitch’s room after he died last week. The guard told me everything went to the thrift store.”
Emmy nodded. Her hand went into her pocket. She was holding on to the watch again.
Jude said, “Good work. Is that all?”
