CHAPTER 33
Hospitals were loud places. The beeps and buzzes and the sound of trolleys being pushed along the hallway had kept Lily up most of the night, along with the constant intrusions of the nurses stopping by to take vitals, or change an empty saline bag. But somewhere along the way, sleep claimed her, and she’d had the most amazing dream. At least she thought it was a dream. It had been so real. Coming back to waking life was harsh and unwelcomed, because in her dream, Mrs. G. had come to see her. Could be the pain meds, but that didn’t explain the authenticity of it.
In the “dream,” Mrs. G. was sitting beside her on the hospital bed. The weight of the woman made Lily’s legs slide toward her. How peculiar to dream something so precisely. Then her friend took her hand and kissed it, in much the same way Lily had done with hers not that long ago.
“Angel, you’re going to be just fine,” the old woman said, only she wasn’t old. Lily knew it was Mrs. G., but she looked thirty-something. The same jet-black hair framed a pretty, delicate face. However, her complexion was no longer a stark contrast to the pallor she’d developed in her later years, but olive and sun bronzed. Her hair too, was thicker and longer. Eyes shining with the brightness of youth stared down at Lily.
“What are you doing here?” Lily asked.
“Just came for a visit.”
“Will you be staying a while?”
“No, angel, I can’t. I came to thank you for being so kind to me over the years, for being my friend, and to tell you that fella you brought to meet me the other night, well, he’s a nice young man. Good looking too. You’ll be happy together.”
Mrs. G. smiled and Lily saw straight white teeth, not the dentures time had yellowed. She was about to ask how she managed to come see her. After all, Mrs. G. wasn’t in the best of health. And how did she know she and Aiden would be happy together? She sounded so certain.
Before Lily could get the questions out, her friend began to fade. At first, she thought it a trick of the eye, but soon Lily saw the green-and-brown design of the curtain around her bed through the old woman’s figure. She continued to dissolve, growing brighter yet more transparent by the second until, finally, all that was left was a small wheel of light that seemed to spin itself down an unseen drain. The soft echo of the word “good-bye” played in Lily’s head.
Someone kissed her forehead. It was Mrs. G. come back to continue their visit, Lily thought with a spark of hope, but when she turned toward the kiss, she saw it had come from Annie.
Slowly, she shifted around to her friend. Her face was swollen and tender, her jaw stiff and sore but not broken. She’d been damn lucky.
“Hi. Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you. You OK? Need anything?”
“No. I’m fine. Have you seen Aiden today?” Her words were slow and she mumbled because of the limited mobility of her jaw.
Annie set down a paper bag on the wheeled tray at the foot of Lily’s bed and took out a cinnamon bun dripping with frosting, as well as a large coffee.
“I stopped in to see him before coming to visit you. The poor guy.” She frowned.
Lily sighed. “It’s just so hard being away from him.” She picked at a piece of the bun and gingerly placed it in her mouth. Eating was an uncomfortable but necessary challenge, and the bun was a nice change from the soup and Jell-O diet she was on. She sipped her coffee, thinking nothing ever tasted so good.
Annie laid a gentle hand on Lily’s arm, her brow furrowed. “I have some news and I’m afraid it’s not good.”
“What is it?”
“I’m sorry, hon, but your friend from the center, Mrs. G., passed away last night. Gail called the diner first thing this morning.”
Relief washed over Lily, not grief or sadness. A smile played on her lips as her eyes met Annie’s. “I already knew about Mrs. G., and it’s OK. I know she’s fine now. She’s in a better place.”
Annie cocked her head and grinned. “Really? How did you—”
“Let’s just say it’s a long story.”
She splayed a hand over her heart. “You have no idea how relieved I am. The last thing I wanted was to add to your troubles. Rex is doing well. He’s happy at my place,” Annie said. “I just might not give him back. He’s so sweet.”
“Thank you for taking care of him, Annie. You’re a great friend.”
“Too bad about Natalie though.”
Lily huffed a sigh of displeasure. “Don’t know how I feel about that. Is it awful a part of me wished she’d died? I know it’s horrible she’s burned so badly, but the anger I feel toward that girl… I don’t know if it’ll ever go away.” Lily gave her head a slow shake. “She shot Antonio right in front of me, Annie. I saw his brains splatter on the wall, the back of his head blown right off, and then there’s what she did to Aiden.”
“Shhh. Hush. I’m sorry for bringing her up. Last thing I want is to upset you. She’s a very disturbed girl. What she did wasn’t just wrong, it was despicable.”
A rap at the door caught their attention. Sheriff Wilkins stood, hat in hand, in the entranceway. “OK if I come in?”
Lily nodded, not sure how she felt about visiting with Wilkins. Seemed there were a lot of uncertainties in her life at the moment.
Annie got up. “I’ll leave you two alone. Your cell phone’s right there beside you, Lily. Call me if you need anything. Best I get back to the diner anyway. Denise is probably having a nervous breakdown by now.”
Annie kissed Lily on the cheek. “I’ll be by in the morning to pick you up.”
Wilkins stepped into the room as Annie exited.
“Mind if I sit?” he asked, lowering himself into the plastic chair beside her. The tall, lanky man placed his hat at the foot of the bed and then leaned forward and clasped his hands. “So, how you feelin’? Any pain? Need me to getcha anythin’?”
“Not so good but better than Aiden, I imagine.” Her tone was bitter.
“Yup, I suppose so.” He cleared his throat. “I stopped by to see how you’re doing and, well, to say sorry. I put you through a hell of a time.” Wilkins shook his head. “Us lawmen are a special breed, always followin’ our noses and going where the evidence takes us. I shoulda known better than to suspect you, Lily, but when your daddy left all that money to Sara and nothing to you, I had to put myself in your shoes. Hell, if my dad did that to me and my brother, I’d be spitting mad. And Antonio, rest his soul, had me convinced it was you.” He ran a hand over his day’s worth of scruff. “Damn, in all the years I’ve been sheriff, I’ve never lost a deputy in the line of duty. Hell of a loss.”
A throb began in Lily’s temples. She had to tell Wilkins the truth about Deluca. No sense in waiting. After a deep breath, she began, “Sheriff, seeing Deputy Deluca get shot is a sight that will never leave my mind, but he wasn’t the man you think he was. Natalie told me she’d been paying him off and that he was doing her bidding. She killed him because she had no more use for him.”
His head turned, almost in slow motion, his eyes growing wide and his mouth falling open like a gate on a busted hinge. “No. I don’t believe it.”
“Think about it. Natalie had just killed Deluca and shot Aiden. She was planning on killing me and then taking her own life. What did she have to lose? She was telling the truth.” Lily expected a reaction, but he sat still as a statue, gaze fixed on the wall in front of him.
Finally he spoke. “I’ve worked side by side with Antonio for years. I know he didn’t make a helluva lot of money, but he didn’t have a wife and kids to support. He had plenty to live on. Why would he do such a thing?” Wilkins shook his head in disbelief.
To Lily, the answer was simple. “Greed.”
He threw his hands up in a shrug. “I knew the man. Trusted him. I never thought he’d do something like that.”
Lily let her gaze fall to her hands and said, “You knew me too and for a lot longer than you knew Deputy Deluca. Still, you thought I was capable of murdering my own sister.”
Wilkins dropped his head into his hands. Long, thin fingers rubbed at his temples. “You’re right.” He sighed and looked up at her. “How careless I’ve been and how stupid!”
Damn right, she wanted to say, but bit her tongue.
“There’s more.”
Wilkins’s eyes widened before he got to his feet and began to pace in a small orbit at the foot of her bed. “Tell me.”
Lily took a deep breath then blew it out. “You’d better drop the murder charges against Gabrielle Lyons as soon as possible, sheriff. She didn’t kill my sister. Natalie did.”
Wilkins stopped pacing and stared down at her. He couldn’t have looked more shocked if red ants were marching from her ears. He opened his mouth to speak, then shut it again, jerked away from her as if he was about to leave, then turned back. “Why do we have a murder weapon with Gabrielle Lyons’s prints on it?”
“I don’t know, but Natalie made it crystal clear she was the one who shot Sara. She confessed to me and was more than happy to do so.”
“You sure she wasn’t just trying to protect her mother?”
“Absolutely not. It still gives me chills thinking of the joy in her eyes when she told me she killed my sister. She was happy to be torturing me with the truth.”
He sat back down. “Shit,” was all he said for several seconds. Then, “To tell you the truth, I have to admit I was shocked about Gabrielle’s prints being on that gun.” He heaved a sigh. “I gotta say it again, Lily. I’m so sorry. I really am.”
“It was frustrating that no one believed me. That was the hardest part.” She kept her voice even, not allowing the emotion bubbling under the surface to rise.
“I know. I know.” His head bobbed furiously as if in time to some unheard song.
“No, you couldn’t possibly know, sheriff. I’m pretty much a pariah in this town. This town where I’ve lived since I was twelve. This town where I own a business and used to have friends. Now, I can count the number of friends I still have on one hand.” Despite her resolve, tears began to well in her eyes, threatening to fall.
He looked at her sheepishly, then reached behind him for the small square box of one-ply tissue sitting on a counter and placed it on the tray in front of her.
Lily plucked out a few to blot her eyes.
Wilkins dared to let a small smile play on his lips. “I did do one thing right though.” He waited a beat, then said, “I hired Aiden.”
She didn’t understand. Yes, he’d hired him, but all that did was get Aiden shot. She threw Wilkins a puzzled look.
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat once he realized Lily hadn’t gotten his meaning and said, “If Aiden hadn’t come to town, the two of you never woulda met. Guess I’m a better matchmaker than I am a sheriff.”
That made Lily smile and prompted her to ask, “How is Aiden? You’ve got to know more than I do. Please don’t spare my feelings. I need to know if he’s going to be OK.”
“I’ve got an idea. Be back in a minute.” Wilkins loped out of the room and not thirty seconds later was back pushing a wheelchair. “How ’bout I take you to see him?”
Aiden’s hospital room was bright, Lily noticed. It was a double, but he had the whole thing to himself, no roommate for the time being. He was lying in the bed nearest the window.
“Do you think he’s asleep?” she whispered to Wilkins.
“Don’t know.”
He wheeled her closer and Lily was disappointed to see Aiden’s eyes were shut. She tried to push herself up out of the chair, but the sheriff kept her in it with a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I’ll bring you closer, Lily. No need to get up.”
Now she was at Aiden’s bedside and reached out to smooth his tousled hair. His facial hair had grown from scruff to a beard, and she wished she could take care of him. Clean him up, make him look more like himself.
Still, she was surprised how strong and capable he looked even lying in a hospital bed. Even with machines beside him—the IV, the oxygen mask—he still looked indestructible. How had he managed to save her? Aiden O’Rourke was no ordinary man in her eyes. He was Superman.
“Aiden,” Lily whispered, unsure whether or not to wake him. There was no response, just the beeping of machines and the sounds of business as usual out in the hall.
Wilkins pulled up a chair for himself. “I sure don’t like hospitals. All them machines beepin’ and the smell. I don’t know what it is. Disinfectant? Death?”
Lily looked at him wide-eyed, surprised at his choice of words.
“Sorry,” he said quickly. “I wasn’t implying Aiden’s gonna die. Hell, Lily, he’s built like a Mac truck. If anyone can come through this, it’s him. I knew it the minute I saw him. He’s one tough son of a gun.”
Aiden turned his head toward them, eyes still shut. Lily inched to the edge of the wheelchair and took his hand, caressing it. She yearned to be close enough to kiss him.
“Lily?” Aiden’s voice was barely a whisper.
“Yes, yes, I’m here.”
His eyes opened and she thought she saw a smile under the oxygen mask. “You OK?” His words were barely audible, a tin-can echo.
“Got a couple of shiners, sore jaw, swollen face and who knows what my nose is going to end up looking like, but yeah, otherwise I’m fine. How are you feeling? Do you need anything?”
He shook his head. “I’ll live.”
Wilkins stood and looked down on him. “Sorry you had to go through all this, Aiden. The department is at your disposal. You just holler if you need anything.”
“Just take care of my girl,” Aiden said before his lids closed again.