Oven Baked Secrets (Eugeena Patterson Mysteries Book 2) (10 page)

I was really concerned about Louise. I certainly wanted to know more about this Chuck Nelson. Did Louise know she was, essentially, in the middle of a love triangle? But only one had lost his life.  Between Bill and Chuck, could one of them or both have been responsible for August’s murder?

Instead of calling, I decided to drive to Hillcrest Manor Nursing Home first thing Saturday morning. To my chagrin, the young woman who was at the desk last Sunday watched me carefully as I approached. I hoped Pat would show up like she did the last time. As I approached the desk, I tried to ease into a conversation. “Hello, how are you? It’s Lexi, right? Do you remember me?”

Lexi looked around me like she’d become uncomfortable and was seeking help.

I decided to cut to the chase before the little woman decided to locate security. I mean I wasn’t any kind of threat. I just wanted to check on my friend. “Is Pat here?”

Lexi said sharply, “Pat no longer works here.”

I opened my mouth and shut it quickly. “You must not be talking about Patricia Brown known to me as Pat. Pat has been working at the nursing home for five years. She loves working in this place.”

Lexi shrugged as if she couldn’t care less. “I only know that she hasn’t showed up to work since Wednesday, so I assumed she quit.”

Wednesday
. I wondered if Pat had gotten sick. “Are you sure? I mean flu season is here. Surely she called in sick.”

“No.” Lexi shook her head. “She said something to upset the director. They were arguing here just the other day.”

Now that I thought back to Monday, Pat was having words with Ms. Saunders. Pat could be a hot head, but she wouldn’t have done anything to jeopardize her job unless there was something that really had her upset. I knew this woman. After getting clean from her heroin addiction, Pat had worked diligently to obtain her nursing license and she especially wanted to work with geriatrics.

What I did know was Pat rarely missed church service.  I would grab her after church on Sunday to get the real deal.

Lexi’s high-pitched voice broke into my thoughts. “If you’re here trying to see Mrs. Hopkins, I’m sorry we can’t allow you to see her.”

“Allow. I’ve been visiting her every week since July. I know she’s grieving her son, please know I understand and only want to do what I can to help.”

Lexi responded, “It’s more than that, Mrs. Patterson. Mr. Hopkins no longer wanted you to see his mother.”

My mouth dropped. “Are you kidding me? Mr. Hopkins is deceased.  I was here on Monday to help deliver the bad news.”

“I have to follow the rules. You can speak to the director.”

“I certainly will. William and I didn’t always see eye to eye, but he was not
that
against me visiting his mother.”

Lexi sighed deeply as though I was annoying her. “I’m really sorry.”

I got the feeling she wasn’t sorry at all.
I frowned, “Lexi, why did Ms. Saunders make all of these rules for visitors?”

“I guess when we let a criminal into the place.”

I sucked in my breath. “What criminal?”

Lexi shrugged, “That young woman who came to visit Mrs. Hopkins on Sunday. I heard the police questioned her about shooting Mr. Hopkins. I knew something wasn’t right about her.”

I leaned forward. “What do you mean?”

Lexi looked up at me wide-eyed. “She’s been here sneaking around and talking to other patients.”

“Other patients? Who?”

Lexi looked past me. “You really need to go now.”

I turned to find Ms. Saunders looking at me from down a hallway. I was really confused so I just whirled around and walked out. Why did it feel like I was being treated like a criminal? I really needed to find Pat. My head was spinning and I couldn’t focus on one single thought by the time I reached my car.  After I sat down and closed the car door, what really bothered me was Lexi’s statement about Jocelyn. Detective Wilkes was low-key and very cautious with her investigations. Jocelyn admitted it took her some time to get up the nerve and it sounded like Pat had helped her get in to see Louise. Were the rules really created because Jocelyn was looking suspicious?

I started my car and decided it was time to do my favorite activity. A few minutes later I pulled into the Food Lion parking lot. Something about pushing a shopping cart up and down the aisle was still calming. Now, my grocery store visits in the past resulted in me filling the shopping cart with items I had no business eating. My Type 2 diabetes has since sobered me.

Like every other time I enter the grocery store, I map out in my head to look past the sweets in the deli section and purposely turn my head towards the fruit. Apples have always been a favorite and not just because they’re symbolic of education, but munching on an apple truly did calm my nerves. That’s what I needed.

I took my time and picked out some Red Delicious apples and then a few Granny Smith apples. I twisted the bags and placed them in my cart, feeling pretty good about my safe start until I turned to see a display of cakes.

Why did they have to put the apples so close to the deli sweets?

Then a thought came to mind.  I’d almost forgotten.

Okay I hadn’t forgotten, I just quietly tucked it into the back of my mind that my birthday was the next Wednesday.  I wasn’t planning on a big celebration. Approaching sixty was in itself a major feat, but I didn’t need to celebrate another whole decade of life with a group of people. I could treat myself to one of those cakes.

No, Eugeena!
I turned away from the cake as visions of fluffy yellow moist cake covered in creamy vanilla icing sent my senses in another direction.

I pushed the cart forward, my mind apparently still on the cake behind me not realizing a cart was in front of me. I cringed as I banged into the shopping cart sending it forward about four feet.

“Eugeena, is that you?”

A split second later, I heard another voice.

“Yep, that’s her.”

I froze in my steps because I really didn’t need to run into those two. After what I’d just heard about Pat, you have to take some chance encounters as God-destined. So I sucked up my discomfort and turned to find the Brown twins staring at me.

Double trouble for sure even though Annie Mae and Willie Mae Brown looked cute in their matching navy blue sweat suits.  Even after all these years that I’ve known them, it was hard to tell the two sisters apart sometimes. I blinked and waited.

Annie Mae’s wandering eye was often a clue. She never disappointed.  I couldn’t tell if she was staring at me or the vegetables behind me.

Willie Mae who claimed to be the oldest by a minute, usually looked younger than Annie Mae, but today I detected that extra minute had caught up with her. I smiled.  “How are you ladies doing today?”

Annie Mae replied, “We’re fine. How are you feeling, Eugeena?” She walked towards the cart that had been pushed by me.

Great! That would be their shopping cart.

Willie Mae stepped closer and asked, “Yes. We heard what happened to your neighbor? It’s not going too well in your neighborhood now?”

Annie Mae rolled the runaway cart closer. “Didn’t Sugar Creek used to be safer? I mean didn’t poor Mary just get killed in her own home a few months ago.”

My head went back and forth from one twin to the other as they slung questions at me. I blinked to recover from the whiplash my neck just undertook. “Yes, it’s been a bit different.”

Willie Mae looked over in my cart. “You’re just eating apples. I hope you’re going to buy more food than that. Although, you have been losing weight.”

Annie Mae made a point of looking inside my cart too.

She commented, “If you add carrots and lettuce, Eugeena, you will be eating just like a rabbit.”

Did these women not know I just walked into the store before they started harassing me? I had several more aisles to cover. “Ladies, I’m so glad you noticed I slimmed down. Losing all that weight has made managing my sugar much easier.”

Annie Mae grinned. “Oh yeah, that’s right. Girl, I’m glad I’m as healthy as a horse at my age.” Annie stepped closer until she was right beside me. “Speaking of sugar, Mr. Jones must like your new look too.”

I blinked again, thinking I never remembered getting this much attention when Ralph was alive.  I guessed because the man I was hanging around wasn’t Ralph.

Annie Mae placed her hand on her chest. “Oh, I’m sorry! That’s none of my business what goes on between you and Mr. Jones. We just thought you two were an item since you sit next to each other at church sometimes.”

It was time to change the conversation. I turned away from Annie Mae and looked at Willie Mae who seemed quieter than usual. “Have you seen, Pat?  When I went by the nursing home a while ago I was told Pat had quit. I thought that couldn’t be true.”

I watched the look that passed between the twins.  The look struck me because it was the first time I think I ever saw genuine worry on either of their faces. They always seemed to be in competition for who could be the better ice queen.

Something is not right.

Pat was Willie Mae’s only child.  Since Annie Mae never had children, she considered Pat just as much her daughter too. Both women could be hell-raisers, but I personally witnessed them pray and intervene for Pat’s life years ago while she struggled to get clean from heroin.

Willie Mae exclaimed, “My Pat didn’t quit. Who said that? She, she…” Willie Mae put her hands to her face and started shaking.

Oh no!
  I turned and looked around us. I was not expecting Willie Mae to start crying in the middle of the grocery store aisle between the apples and oranges. The twins were not known for displaying emotion and certainly not in public. My heart began to race. “I’m sorry, Willie Mae. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Annie Mae came around and patted her sister on the shoulder. “It’s going to be okay, Sister.  Eugeena, we haven’t seen Pat since Thursday morning. Willie Mae and Pat had a bit of an argument.  We tried to calm her down, but she just left. This isn’t like her not to show up.”  Annie Mae seemed to struggle with her own emotions. “At least it has been a while since she’s done this. She’s been a really good girl.”

Pat was almost forty years old, but I knew what Annie Mae meant. Pat was still their little girl and they were afraid something sent Pat off the wagon after all these years.

I looked around as other shoppers were peering at us. I didn’t care about the onlookers, but was clearly disturbed that Pat seemed to be missing. The last time I saw Pat was the Monday when we broke the news to Louise about William’s death.  She’d also left that voicemail. I tried to call her. “Do you mind me asking what Pat was upset about?”

Annie Mae pulled out some crumbled tissues and spread one out to hand to her sister. Willie Mae took it and blew her nose. “She was really upset about something at work. I think she argued with her boss about something.  I told her that wasn’t a good idea.”

“Well, it’s been over forty-eight hours have you told the police?”

Annie Mae rolled her eyes. “Of course we did, Eugeena. They told us she was an adult and after they heard that Willie Mae and Pat had a fight, they really thought she just wanted to get away.”

This sounded way too familiar. It was hard to get the police to take it seriously when an adult took off sometimes, especially if they had a drug addiction history like Pat.  I had a similar problem when Leesa ran off earlier this summer, dumping my two grandchildren practically in my lap. “You have no idea what the argument was about with her boss?”

Willie Mae heaved her chest and stuttered. “Something about changes on her job. She felt like some of the patients were being mistreated.”

Louise. Was that what Pat wanted to talk to me about?

I commented out loud to the twins. “I have been noticing something different in the past few weeks at the nursing home. I used to be able to walk in and talk to Louise, now they’re taking great care in checking out who’s coming to visit. On Sunday, the only way I saw Louise was with Pat’s help.”

Now I was starting to wonder if William would not have really wanted me to visit his mother. If he didn’t, he would have stopped me from the very beginning. It wasn’t like he was taking time out to come visit her. In fact, I had a feeling that William would have been happy if Louise slipped away and left him to live his life with her money.

But something went wrong.  William was gone.

Was Pat a casualty too?
Why?
Nothing was making sense to me.

After I arrived home and put my groceries in the refrigerator, I called Amos. I could’ve called anyone else, but I knew Amos would set my nerves back right. Unfortunately, he didn’t answer so I busied myself by doing my usual Saturday afternoon activities. I cleaned the house a bit more than usual since I had Porgy around.

All the while I vacuumed I thought about Pat and what could’ve upset her. Pat talked to William when he came to visit Louise, just hours before his death.  The next day, I noticed Pat having an animated conversation with Ms. Saunders. Being a nurse, Pat saw to the most intimate details about her patients. Was she showing concern about Louise’s welfare in the wake of William’s death or was there something else bothering Pat? Did the new director think Pat speaking up was not a good thing?

I guess realistically I could see Pat quitting out of frustration if she was not receiving support. I knew Pat was about getting to the truth. She wouldn’t abandon or leave an issue alone. I truly hope she was somewhere thinking about what to do and would reach out to me again. It was the part about never hearing from her that had been worrying me all afternoon.  I knew worrying didn’t do a bit of good, but I’d had uneasiness in my spirit for a whole week. It was hard to shake.

After I cleaned to my heart’s content, I curled up on my couch with my bible. The next day would be Sunday so I turned my thoughts to reviewing the Sunday School lesson.   The reading was from a familiar passage in Acts chapter nine where Paul, known originally as Saul, was knocked down blind on his way to Damascus.  The funny thing was Saul was on his way to persecute followers of Jesus and Jesus stopped him cold on his journey. I’d always liked reading the book of Acts and seeing how God could turn anyone around.

The lessons reminded me of Pat’s turn around over the past seven years from heroin addict to caring nurse. I was a bit ashamed, but I hadn’t thought about whether or not William had also gone through a life changing experience. The way he came back in town and placed Louise in the nursing home, I had my doubts. Though he appeared to look handsome and put together on the outside, I couldn’t be too sure what was going on the inside.

Before heading to bed, I tried calling Amos again. It occurred to me if Louise was still next door and something was on her mind, she would’ve been calling me and vice versa.

“Hello, Eugeena?”

“Now how did you know it was me?”

“Caller ID.”

“Oh.”
I knew that.

“Is everything okay?”

“Yes and no.”  I filled Amos in on my Saturday and then waited for his comments.

“Don’t worry about, Pat. She probably needed to blow off steam. You need to be taking care of yourself. This week has been challenging for you.”

“Amos, I don’t think I’ve ever felt this helpless.”

“I’m going to tell you something my wife used to tell me.”

That made me curious. “Okay?”

“Let God handle it.”

I had to smile. One because Amos had given me the very advice I needed to hear. With both of us being widowed, we only on certain occasions brought up our deceased spouses. I asked, “Did you listen to her advice, Amos?”

He chuckled. “Most of the time I didn’t and I have a feeling you may be just as hard-headed.” His voice turned serious. “Believe me, you will drive yourself crazy trying to figure out people. I had too many cases that really drove me to wonder about the human race. It can be depressing.”

“You’re not kidding and as a former detective, I know you know more than anybody. Are you going to church in the morning?”

“No. I have something that I need to take care of tomorrow.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t you worry about it. You get some rest, Eugeena. Answers will come when it’s time.”

“I know you’re right. Goodnight, Amos.”

“Goodnight, Eugeena.”

I felt a bit better. But I knew what would really help me sleep. I sank to my knees and prayed specifically for protection for Pat.
Lord, you know what Pat has been through and you know her heart. Please bring her back safely to us.

On Sunday morning when I stepped inside Missionary Baptist Church, I immediately noticed the Brown sisters were missing. It was almost ten o’clock. Since the twins had a key, they often opened the church doors making them the first arrivals at church each Sunday. No one owned a church, but Willie Mae and Annie Mae pretty much kept reign over most of the church boards including the usher board. I really expected them to greet me in their own special way when I entered the vestibule.

I walked down the aisle of the sanctuary, thinking it was so quiet without the twins chattering on about a non-issue from the back of the church. When I reached the middle of the aisle, I heard my name. I turned to see Pastor George Jones walking toward me.

Like most of the younger people at church, I’d watched Pastor Jones grow up under the leadership of our previous pastor and his father, Tennessee Jones. Pastor Jones wiped his brow with a handkerchief before asking, “Sister Eugeena, how are you this morning?”

“Not too good, Pastor. Have you heard from the Browns?”

Pastor Jones was tall and massive in size. While he appeared calm, I noticed his eyes were not. He didn’t look directly at me. “I talked to Sister Annie Mae this morning. Sister Willie Mae isn’t doing too well. You know I’ve never known either sister to be sick.”

I exclaimed, “Well I can’t blame them. They’re worried sick about Sister Pat.”

“I know, it’s upsetting, but I told them it’s only been a few days. We can only pray that Pat will return safely. Now I have a favor to ask of you. Since Sister Pat isn’t here, would you mind taking over her Sunday School class this morning?”

I hesitated for just a moment because I knew Pat taught the middle school class. I looked at the pastor. “If that’s what you need me to do.”

Pastor Jones patted my shoulder. “I know you’re the best one for the job. Thank you, Sister Eugeena.”

I was glad I reviewed the Sunday School lesson. When I entered the classroom, there were only five students in Pat’s Sunday School class and they all stared at me as though I was some alien.  A young woman who wore her hair in braids asked, “Is Ms. Pat going to be here today?”

The sadness in her face dampened my spirits just a little. I swallowed, “Not today, honey, but we’re going to have some fun like Ms. Pat would want us too.”

Sunday School passed quickly and I enjoyed being around the teens although I could tell they missed Pat. That spoke volumes to me about the kind of person Pat was if the young people were looking forward to her teaching.

Not seeing the twins sitting in their special corner, where no one else dared to sit was a little unsettling. Despite the missing Brown family, I appreciated Pastor Jones’ word, “Do not despair.”
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair. 2 Corinthians 4:8

After I arrived home, I changed out of my church clothes and then picked up the phone. I had to know what was going on with the Browns.

“Hello. Pat?” Willie Mae sounded worn down and as if she anticipated hearing her daughter’s voice instead of mine.

I was so sorry to disappoint. “Willie Mae, it’s Eugeena. I noticed you and Annie Mae were missing from church today. No word on Pat?”

Willie Mae sighed deeply into the phone. “No, I’m afraid not.” Willie was quiet for a second, before continuing. “Annie thinks she’s regressed.”

“Pat was disappointed about the way things were going with her job, but your daughter was not willing to go back to drugs. She really cared for her patients.”

“I know,” Willie Mae sniffled. “When I woke up the next morning and realized Pat had not come back home, I knew I shouldn’t have argued with her. I should have listened to her.”

“Willie Mae, Pat left me some voicemails. I never got a chance to ever get back in touch with her. I think Pat was trying to tell me something about the nursing home and Louise. Is it possible that Pat gave you a hint about what was bothering her?”

Willie Mae said, “She told me the new director had fired some of the nurses, really accusing people of things they had not done. Pat was afraid she was next because she was always speaking her mind. I told her she needed to keep her mouth closed.”

I really wished I could have heard the conversation Pat had with Ms. Saunders. 
What did Pat have on her mind?
I tuned back into Willie Mae and realized I missed something she had said. “Willie Mae, did you just say Pat left to go somewhere on Thursday. Where was she going?”

“I believe she was going back to the nursing home.”

“This was on Thursday when you last saw her. At what time?”

“She left before noon, I think.”

That was strange. When I talked to that Lexi girl, she’d said Pat hadn’t been back to work since Wednesday. So did Pat ever make it to the nursing home on Thursday after arguing with her mother?

I wanted to question Willie Mae more, but my front doorbell rang. I looked at the clock. Who was that? My first thought was Amos, but since he was so mysterious about what he was up to I figured we were skipping Sunday dinner today.

“Willie Mae, someone is at my door. You and Annie Mae don’t worry. Pat will be fine and we’re going to get down to the bottom of what’s going on at that nursing home.”

I said goodbye to Willie Mae and shuffled over to the door.

When I peeked through the peep hole, I can say I was pleased to see the tall, lanky young man at the door. It had been some time since I’ve had a surprise visit from him.