“At least another day. More tests. More observation.”
The hospital was the best place for John right now. My mother would run herself ragged taking care of him when he came home. Aida Brattle Teagarden Queensland had high standards for everything, and maintaining a husband was included under that banner.
“Please let me know what I can do,” I said. “Cook or run errands, whatever.”
“Thanks. By the way, John David tells me he saw Carter Redding in the ER after that awful thing in the parking lot. Carter said he was sheltering with you and Cathy Trumble. Is that true? Are you okay?” I wasn’t getting the full Aida laser-focus questioning only because John had higher priority right now.
“You don’t need to worry about me,” I said. “I was safe the whole time.”
“Thank goodness,” Mother said. “I don’t think I could take more bad news. You’ll have to tell me all about it soon.”
“You didn’t hear the shots?”
“No. The nurses just told me I couldn’t leave, but I wasn’t going to, anyway, and I stayed in John’s room until they told me the situation was over. They didn’t tell me what had happened. I was actually in the hospital, but I never knew a thing.” She sounded a bit bemused … but not really concerned.
I wanted to keep it that way. “I’m fine,” I said stoutly. “If you can, find out how Mr. Redding is doing. He didn’t look so good when they took him into the hospital, and he was really brave during the whole incident.”
“He told John David it was like being back in the war.”
“I hope he’s okay.”
“I’ll try to find out, honey.”
“Thanks, Mother. Tell John I said hello.”
“I’ll do that.” The joy was back in her voice.
Now I felt too restless to read. I roamed around the living room, picking up discarded newspapers and putting them in the recycle bin, throwing away outdated magazines, reshelving some books in the library in Robin’s office. As my mother would have put it, I was “piddling.”
I was completely taken aback when Phillip emerged from his room with Sarah in tow.
They didn’t seem self-conscious or embarrassed, and I tried to be the same. I called myself an old stick-in-the-mud, and several other names. It was just that I didn’t know she was here, I told myself. I hoped that was true.
“Hey, I’m running over to Sarah’s,” Phillip said. “I’ll be back by suppertime. Seven?”
I glanced at the clock. “Sounds about right.”
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Sarah said. “I heard about what happened in the parking lot.”
“Do either of you know Duncan?” I had a possible source of information right here at hand, and I hadn’t even thought about it.
“I do,” Sarah said. “Not well. I didn’t like the people he was friends with. You know how that is.”
“Sure,” I said, wondering if I really did remember how that was. “So, did people talk about him? Was he very strange or something?”
She hesitated, looking at Phillip as though communicating with him.
“There was that thing,” he said, maddeningly.
“Sure. Duncan was at the last big party I went to, two or three weeks ago. He didn’t usually come, even when he was welcome to. But he was there with a couple of … boys I don’t like, because they’re posers. Like they’re so dangerous.” She looked mildly contemptuous. “Well, after Duncan turned out so crazy, maybe they really are.” She shrugged. “Anyway, this other guy showed up, an older guy. Maybe in his twenties. None of us had ever seen him before. And Duncan left with him. I didn’t see the older guy again, but Duncan came back all smirky, and you could just tell he’d done something he thought was really radical. He told a couple of friends of mine that he’d bought a rifle. Duncan said he was going to give it to his dad for Christmas. So the next weekend, when the shooting happened at Carly’s, we were all kind of wondering. But no one really believed it was Duncan, because he’d always acted so … so meek.”
“Carly is Dr. Clifton’s daughter?” I was trying to put this all together in my head. I wondered if Dr. Clifton was going to recover fully. He was a consulting psychiatrist at the hospital and he had a busy private practice, I’d heard.
“So now I can’t ever go back to Carly’s.”
“Oh?” I was trying to keep up.
“But it’s okay, because I don’t really like her anyway. She can be okay, but she’s mean to people she thinks aren’t popular.”
That I could relate to. Even back when dinosaurs had walked the earth (when I had been in high school) there had been girls—and boys—like that, aplenty.
“So you think it was Duncan who fired into the house?” Brad Rodenheiser had thought it was likely.
She nodded vigorously. “I didn’t think about it then, but after Tuesday, well, it seems likely, huh? Carly’s party gets shot up, and then Carly’s dad gets shot?”
Yes, it did seem likely. Really likely.
I debated whether or not to say anything to Phillip and Sarah about letting me know when they were together in the house, about leaving Phillip’s door open, about … but then I thought, I either trust them or I don’t. I took a deep breath and said, “Good to see you, Sarah. Tell your mom I said hi.” She nodded amiably.
“Back in a while,” Phillip said, and they were gone.
In five minutes or less, the carport door opened. Robin came in with his hands full of bags.
I jumped up to help him put the groceries away. It took quite a while, since our cupboards had been pretty bare. Then I got out what I needed for supper, and I began pounding chicken breasts thin while the butter melted in the microwave. I asked Robin to turn on the oven, but he didn’t seem to hear me.
I turned around to see that Robin was rummaging through the “miscellaneous” drawer, a messy catchall for things I couldn’t place logically elsewhere. After watching this in silence for a long moment, I realized this was my cue to say, “What are you looking for?”
“I still haven’t found my keys. I’ve been using my spare car key since I got back.” He sounded very irritated.
I said mildly, “I looked for them the day John went to the hospital. Obviously, I didn’t find them. I know a lot of places they aren’t.” With everything that had happened, the keys had been low on my list of things to worry about.
“Why don’t you check your purse?” Robin was very careful not to delve into my purse without asking. He’d had two sisters. “It’s the only thing I haven’t searched.”