Goodbye to the Dead (Jonathan Stride Book 7) (31 page)

58

Cat fidgeted on the hospital bed.

‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to be here. When can I get out of this place?’

Stride held her hand. ‘You’re not going anywhere until the doctors check you out. You and the baby. We want to make sure you’re both okay.’

‘I want to go home
—
’ she began, but then she stopped nervously. She looked away, not meeting Stride’s eyes. She wasn’t sure if she had a home anymore. She didn’t know whether, after everything she’d done, Stride would let her stay.

‘Don’t worry, you’ll go home soon,’ he told her. ‘Maybe tonight, definitely tomorrow.’ Then he added: ‘And we have a lot to talk about.’

Her pretty face was unusually pale, her long hair dirty and matted. ‘What’s going to happen to me?’

‘I don’t know,’ he replied honestly, ‘but I can tell you a few things. You’re going to make a list of every house you were in and everything you and Anna stole. You’re going to go to every one of those homes in person and apologize. You’re going to return anything you still have, and you’re going to make restitution for anything you don’t. You’re going to do community service every weekend from now until you graduate from high school. And that’s just my punishment. A judge will have more to say.’

She nodded. ‘Okay, Stride.’

‘I’m the easy one,’ he added. ‘Serena will be much tougher.’

Cat gave him a tiny smile, and it was good to see that smile lighting up her face again. When he’d first met her, he’d thought she had a magical smile. Then her lips bent down in genuine confusion. ‘Why the heck aren’t you kicking me out?’

Stride thought:
Maybe because you keep telling me to.

‘Let’s make a new rule,’ he said. ‘You never ask me that again. Okay?’

She nodded. ‘Okay.’

Serena joined them in the hospital room. She sat next to Stride, and he slid an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. He could feel her exhaustion, emotional and physical. He was sure that some of the bullets that killed Bernd Frisch were hers, and she knew it, too. It didn’t matter who was on the receiving end or how justified it was or how much the man deserved it, firing a weapon into another human being took a bit of your soul and never gave it back. It wasn’t her first, but it wasn’t something that grew easier with experience.

‘Erin Tierney?’ Stride asked.

‘The doctors say she’ll make it,’ Serena said. The relief in her voice was palpable. ‘She was conscious for a while, but she’s sleeping now. She doesn’t remember much, which is a good thing. I talked to her parents, who are flying in tomorrow. We’ll get a therapist here, too.’

‘I’m glad she’s alive,’ Cat said from the bed.

She didn’t ask about Anna Glick. She knew Anna was dead. Stride realized that Cat had seen way too much death this year – more than anyone should face in a lifetime. And yet fate played out strangely. If Cat hadn’t made her mistakes, things would likely be different for Erin. Other women would still be in danger. By accident, Cat had led them to an evil that was far worse than stealing jewelry or cash under the guise of painting houses. Which didn’t excuse what the girl had done.

They’d linked Bernd Frisch through his passport to the
Ingersstrom
. The ship was on lockdown in the harbor. The feds and Interpol would be asking questions, and hopefully, the answers would blow open a European crime syndicate and save more lives overseas.

Strange fate.

Cat stared at Stride and Serena. ‘Can I ask you two a question?’

‘Of course,’ they said together.

She played with her fingers and then placed both hands over her stomach. ‘Am I really ready to be a mother?’

Stride looked at Serena, not sure which of them should answer. Finally, he said: ‘That’s your call, Cat, not ours.’

‘I want your opinion,’ she said. ‘And I want you to be honest with me.’

Serena leaned forward and put her hand on top of Cat’s. ‘Honestly?’ she said. ‘No, you’re not.’

‘I knew you’d say that. You’re right.’

‘Not because you’re a bad person,’ Serena went on, ‘and definitely not because I think you would be a bad mother. It’s just that you’re too young to take on that kind of responsibility. It will cheat you and cheat your son.’

Cat suddenly looked older than her years. ‘I’m thinking now that maybe adoption would be a better way for me to go. Are there ways to adopt where he can know who I am?’

‘Yes, open adoption is becoming more common,’ Serena said.

‘What about you two? Would you two consider adopting him?’

Stride and Serena both stared at her, wondering what to say. ‘Cat, that’s a sweet thing to suggest,’ he began, ‘but we can’t
—
’

‘I mean, you two are going to get married, aren’t you?’ Cat continued, as if she hadn’t already taken away enough of their emotional hiding places.

Serena waited. And watched him. As if she were very interested in the answer he would give. She could have let him off the hook. She could have smiled or made a joke. But no. They’d left the subject of marriage off the table ever since getting back together, but sooner or later, they would have to decide what this relationship was.

In the end, Cat gave him an out.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I know it’s none of my business.’

He hadn’t said a word, and he felt the faintest cool breeze of disappointment blowing toward him from Serena. He got up and went to the hospital window. Behind him, he heard Cat whisper: ‘Did I say something wrong?’

He heard Serena’s reply. ‘No, he’s just not ready.’

Stride let their hushed conversation go unanswered, even though he wanted to turn around and gather both of them up in his arms. All he could think about was how much he hated hospitals.

‘Can I see Al?’ Cat asked suddenly.

‘Maybe a little later,’ Serena told her. ‘You should get some rest.’

‘No, no, I’m fine. I want to see him. He saved my life, too, you know. I don’t want him thinking that I hate him.’

Stride turned back from the window. ‘Al’s lucky. The bullet went through his shoulder muscles but nothing vital. He’ll be okay.’

‘Please, can I see him? Five minutes.’

Stride and Serena both nodded. ‘Five minutes.’

Cat didn’t waste time. She slid out of bed and pushed her toes into slippers, and the three of them went into the hospital corridor. At the nurse’s station, Stride checked on Al Pugh’s room. When they reached the boy’s doorway, and Cat saw Al in bed, she flew to his side.

‘Al!’ she exclaimed. She bent down and hugged him, then let go as he flinched in pain. ‘Oh, sorry! Sorry!’

He laughed, which made him wince again. ‘That’s okay. Don’t worry about it. Wow, you look good. I’m so glad you’re okay.’

‘You, too!’

Al was propped up in bed. His hospital gown was tied loosely at his neck, and the bandages on his left side extended from his neck to his elbow. Otherwise, his eyes were bright. Stride saw him for the first time as a handsome young man, with his neatly trimmed hair and beard. Friendly smile. The lanky physique of a basketball player. He understood Cat’s attraction to him.

Cat danced on the balls of her feet and stared at the floor. ‘Listen, Al, I’m sorry about all sorts of things. Lying to you. The things that Anna and I stole. I was such a jerk.’

‘Hey, I was a jerk, too. I just hope someday you can forgive me.’

Cat nodded. ‘How’s your shoulder? Are you okay?’

‘It hurts,’ he admitted.

‘You heard about Anna?’

‘I did.’

A nurse came into the room, and Serena touched Cat’s shoulder gently. ‘Come on, we should go and let Al rest. Trust me, I know what it’s like to get shot. It takes a lot out of you.’

‘Yeah, okay.’

She bent down and kissed Al lightly on the lips. Stride could see the kid’s face bloom with happiness. Al took Cat’s hand and didn’t want to let her go. It was a little gesture that made Stride realize that Cat had actually chosen well in finding her first real boyfriend. Al was solid. Hard-working. Not perfect, but no boy could be nineteen years old without doing stupid things. Something about the two of them made Stride smile and think about being nineteen himself. With Cindy. Back when he believed in the future.

He was still watching them when it happened.

The nurse undid the knot at Al’s neck to check on the bandage, and the fabric of the hospital gown slipped down, exposing his bare torso. Exposing something that didn’t belong on the chest of a healthy teenager. It took Stride a moment of shocked disbelief to understand exactly what he was seeing. Then, with the swiftness of a bullet from a decade-old gun, everything in the present and past made perfect sense.

This innocent young man. He was the key. He was what they’d all missed back then.

‘Jonny?’ Serena asked, watching his face.

The nurse retied Al’s gown, but Stride had already seen the zipper scar.

The scar of someone who’d had heart surgery.

59

They found Al’s mother in the hospital cafeteria.

She was with her three daughters, who ranged in age from ten to sixteen. When she saw Stride, Serena, and Maggie converging on their table, her lips puckered into a frown. Under her breath, she spoke to her children, and the girls picked up their trays and moved.

She continued eating calmly as the detectives joined her. She didn’t even look up when Stride said: ‘Janine Snow operated on Al, didn’t she? She saved his life.’

Toiana Pugh put her knife and fork back on the tray and folded her hands in her lap. She took a long breath, and a tear wept from her eye.

‘Yeah, she did. That woman was an angel sent from heaven. My little Sherman Aloysious was going to die. We were going to lose him. And that beautiful woman gave him back to us.’

‘Why didn’t you tell us this before?’ Stride asked.

Anger flashed on Al’s mother’s face. ‘So you could give her more trouble? Haven’t you done enough? That woman doesn’t belong in a jail cell. She should be helping other families. Other kids.’

Stride leaned back and ran his hands through his hair. The front legs of the chair came off the floor. He looked around at the cafeteria. Most of the people eating there were nurses in scrubs, but there were families, too. He knew what it was like to spend hours in a place like this. Waiting. Praying. Crying.

‘I understand,’ he told her. ‘Really, I do. But we need to know exactly what happened.’

Toiana jabbed a finger with a long purple fingernail at him. ‘You know how many docs we talked to back then? I can’t count. No insurance? Sorry, we can’t help you. My boy could turn blue in front of them for all they cared. But not Dr. Janine. She said she’d take care of Al. We had no money, no insurance, and she said, don’t you worry about that. I’m not ashamed to say, I was on my knees crying. Seymour, too. And Dr. Janine was as good as her word. She did the surgery. She saved him. Never asked us for one penny.’

‘I can hardly imagine how grateful you must have felt,’ Stride said.

‘Grateful? That’s not half of it. We owed her everything. Seymour and me, we told her, what can we do? How do we pay you back? She said, you just make sure Al lives a good life. That’s all. But we told her, if there is anything –
anything
you need – you call us. No matter what.’

There was a long silence at the table.

Finally, Maggie said, ‘And did she call you?’

Toiana grabbed her fork and picked at the lasagne on her plate, but she’d lost her appetite. ‘There were lots of follow-up appointments after the surgery. Dr. Janine talked about that husband of hers. What a beast he was. How trapped she was. Smart people can be the absolute worst when it comes to relationships. Here’s this amazing doc, but in her personal life, she wasn’t any different from the wives and girlfriends who end up at the shelters.’

Or that’s what she wanted you to believe
, Stride thought
.

‘We knew things were bad,’ Toiana went on, ‘but what happened next
—
’

She stopped.

‘Mrs. Pugh?’ Maggie murmured.

‘Not sure I should tell you any more.’

‘Do you want to talk to a lawyer?’

‘I don’t trust lawyers. Besides, I didn’t know a thing about what went on back then. I don’t blame Dr. Janine for what she did. Guess I don’t blame Seymour either. He felt he had a debt to pay. We owed her in ways you can’t measure.’

They didn’t press her, but they waited.

‘Dr. Janine came by our house,’ she told them. ‘This was a couple weeks before Christmas. It was a surprise. She’d never been there. Said she wanted to see how Al was doing. Me, I felt like it was a visit from the queen, you know? Everybody was so excited. And then she and Seymour – they went out and sat in her car. Talked. Must have been an hour or more. She left after that, and Seymour came back inside, and that man had some kind of big burden on his shoulders. I asked him what they talked about, but he put me off. Said it was nothing. The thing is, he was never really the same man after that. Never ever. He had secrets.’

It wasn’t hard to imagine how that conversation had gone. Janine asking for help to get rid of her husband. Seymour Pugh feeling like he had no choice but to do what she wanted. This doctor who had saved his son’s life wanted repayment in blood. A killing. A murder. And the next time Seymour Pugh was in Chicago, he bought a gun on the street.

‘After Jay was killed, did your husband tell you what happened?’ Stride said.

‘Eventually, he did. Like I said, it was after that cop came to see us. It all made sense then, how Seymour had been acting. I screamed at him until he told me the truth. Chilled my bones, that’s what it did. But would I have said no if he’d told me before he did it? I don’t know. Al was alive because of that woman.’

‘Did he tell you exactly how the plan worked?’

Toiana nodded. ‘It was supposed to look like a burglary gone bad. Kill the husband, steal some jewels. Dr. Janine didn’t want him to stay long, so she said she’d put some jewelry in a bag and leave it in the mailbox for him. She had a party to go to. That was when she wanted him to do it. She knew her husband would let Seymour into the house if he said our boy was one of Dr. Janine’s patients. It was all supposed to be done before she got home, but things went wrong. I mean, you can’t fool God, can you? She didn’t pull the trigger, but she went to prison anyway. Seymour wanted to help when they arrested her. Pawn the jewelry or something, or make sure the gun got found. I said no way. I mean, I felt bad for Dr. Janine, but I wasn’t going to let Seymour throw away our lives. He’d get caught. I knew it. And you people would put her in jail anyway. How was that going to help anybody?’

‘So what went wrong?’ Stride asked. ‘Janine was already back home when your husband arrived at the house.’

‘Seymour didn’t know that. He was real late getting there, and he thought about scrapping the whole thing, but he figured he’d better try to do it. He didn’t think he’d have the stomach to go back some other time. Her car wasn’t in the garage, so he thought she was still at the party. He figured it was safe.’

‘Why was he late?’ Maggie asked, and then she pounded the table. ‘The bridge.’

Stride looked at her. ‘What?’

‘The bridge! The bridge was closed that night. A semi overturned. We were up there for a couple hours, remember? Seymour Pugh must have been sitting there in his white Rav. Stuck. I bet if we grab the news photos, we’ll find his car. He was supposed to be at Janine’s house hours earlier, when she was at the party, but he couldn’t get there because of the bridge. So when it finally opened up, he drove to her house. He didn’t know that Cindy had already taken Janine home.’

Stride realized that Maggie was right. He also felt a new wave of resentment against Janine Snow, because he realized that Janine’s plan had relied on manipulating Cindy from the beginning.
His own wife
was supposed to be Janine’s alibi that night. The wife of the city’s chief detective – who could argue with that? Janine would ask Cindy to take her home, and they’d find Jay’s body together. Instead, Jay answered the door, alive, and the whole plan went to hell.

Janine must have figured that Seymour got cold feet. Except when she went to take a shower, Seymour showed up after all, took the jewelry out of the mailbox, shot Jay, and disappeared. Exactly as they’d arranged weeks earlier. And he could imagine Janine’s horror, discovering the body, and realizing that her plan for the perfect murder had made her the prime suspect instead.

‘Where is she?’ Stride asked Maggie. ‘Where’s Janine?’

‘Archie has her in a suite at Fitger’s.’

Stride stood up. ‘I think we should welcome her back to Duluth.’