Susannah's Garden

“I’ll stay here at the house until you get back,” Carolyn said.



“You don’t need to do that.”



“Yes, I do. Someone needs to know where you are. Besides, I’m dying of curiosity.” She giggled then, sounding just as she had in high school.



At twenty minutes to seven, Susannah took time to freshen her makeup and brush her hair. Her nerves were on edge and she considered changing clothes, wearing something more feminine than her jeans and black cotton sweater. She examined herself in the hallway mirror, sucking in her stomach. No doubt about it, she wasn’t seventeen anymore, but then Jake wasn’t, either.



“How do I look?” she asked, twirling around for Carolyn to comment.



“You want the truth?”



“Of course I do.” Susannah had already decided it must be bad. She tucked her hair behind her ears and realized she was trembling.



“You look like you’re about to throw up.”



Laughing softly, Susannah admitted, “That’s exactly how I feel.”



The phone rang, startling her. Susannah moved toward the kitchen with leaden feet, almost afraid to answer.



It rang again.



“Aren’t you going to pick it up?” Carolyn asked after the third ring.



Susannah’s instincts said to ignore it, but too much was at stake and she reached for the receiver just before the answering machine clicked on.



“Leary residence,” she announced stiffly.



“Is this Susannah Nelson?” a crisp female voice asked.



“Yes, it is.”



“I’m glad I caught you. This is Michelle Larson from Altamira. I’m sorry to tell you this, but your mother’s taken a bad fall. We’re transferring her to Memorial Hospital.”



Susannah’s heart leapt into her throat. “Is she all right?”



“I can’t say for sure. It looks like she’s broken her hip.”



“Oh, no!”



“According to our records, you have power of attorney. Is that correct?”



“Yes.” If they were asking Susannah this, it probably meant her mother was unconscious.



“We’ll need you to sign the forms at the hospital.”



“I’ll be there in five minutes.” Susannah banged down the phone and automatically headed for the door.



“Susannah!” Carolyn raced after her. “What happened?”



“It’s Mom. She’s fallen—they’re taking her to the hospital.” She scrawled a note for Chrissie, scooped up her purse from the hall table and had just opened the door when Carolyn stopped her again.



“What about meeting Jake?”



For a fleeting second, Susannah had completely forgotten. “You go.”



“Me?” Carolyn flattened her hand against her chest.



“I don’t have any choice. Mom needs me.” She hated to ask this of Carolyn, but there was no one else.



Slowly, her friend nodded. “Okay.”



“I owe you,” Susannah said, and rushed out the front door.



“Yes, you do,” Carolyn said, following her. “I’ll meet you at the hospital.”



CHAPTER 36



The gate leading into Calvary Cemetery was closed.



“Oh, great,” Carolyn muttered as she parked the car on the road and climbed out. There was space enough for her to squeeze through and walk onto the cemetery grounds, which she did.



Glancing around, she searched the area for any other parked vehicles and saw none. Being in a cemetery by herself was a little…well, scary—even if she wasn’t a woman who scared easily. The note hadn’t told Susannah exactly where she should meet Jake—or whoever her mysterious visitor was. Although Calvary Cemetery didn’t have extensive grounds, it was large enough to hide in if someone wished not to be seen.



With her arms hugging her middle, Carolyn marched down the center of the paved roadway. The most logical place to wait, she supposed, was George Leary’s grave. After a quick search, she located it. His marble tombstone noted his birthdate and the day he died and nothing else. Like her own father, he’d been a frugal man. Any added adornments, any words of comfort—a quote or a Psalm—were not desired.



Sighing, Carolyn looked up. The cemetery was dead silent. Carolyn grimaced at her unintended pun. No one, not even the groundskeeper, was anywhere in sight. There didn’t appear to be any other visitors.



“This could be a very long night,” she mused aloud, checking her watch. Five to seven.



Pacing up and down the row of tombstones, she glanced at her watch repeatedly. Each minute seemed to drag interminably. This was obviously a waste of time and she grew disheartened.



Walking over to the site where her own parents had been laid to rest, she crouched down and ran her hand over the large marble headstone. She’d last visited only a few days ago. The flowers she’d brought for them, for Lily and for Doug had gone limp by now and been removed.



Many of the grave sites were adorned with artificial flowers. She preferred a fresh-cut bouquet from the garden her mother had planted all those years ago. It seemed a fitting gesture.



By seven-thirty, she knew Jake wasn’t coming. He’d probably seen her waiting and decided not to make an appearance. He didn’t trust Carolyn, and there was no reason he should. She assumed he wasn’t willing to risk his freedom for the opportunity to meet with her. It was Susannah or no one.



To be on the safe side, Carolyn waited another fifteen minutes, then returned to her truck. She hated to be the bearer of disappointing news but there was no help for it.



When she got back to the house, she noticed that Susannah’s car wasn’t parked outside, which meant she was still at the hospital. Not bothering to park, she drove directly to Memorial.



The hospital, a three-story brick building two blocks north of Colville City Park, was the tallest structure in the county and the pride of Colville. Carolyn had only been five or six at the time of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, and she remembered every detail. The high school band had played and there’d been a tour of the facilities that included cookies and juice for the kids. That, in particular, had made an impression on her.



She parked and walked into the hospital foyer. The volunteer at the information desk directed her to the second floor, where Carolyn found Susannah in the small waiting room.



“How’s your mother?” she asked, joining her friend.



“She’s in surgery.” Susannah chewed on the end of her fingernail. “It’s a bad break—her bones are fragile and the doctor said he might end up doing an entire hip replacement.”



“Oh, no.” That kind of surgery wouldn’t be easy on a woman of Vivian’s age.



“Did he show up?” Susannah asked.



Carolyn shook her head.



Susannah shrugged. “I was afraid of that.”



“But you’d hoped?”



She shrugged again.



Carolyn knew her friend had mixed feelings regarding this meeting, so perhaps his not showing was just as well.



“You feel someone’s been in the house several times recently, isn’t that right?”



Susannah nodded. “And some things have been taken.” She pressed her lips together. “I don’t believe anymore that these were random thefts, although at least one was made to look that way. It had to be Jake.”



“Then perhaps he’s hiding in the area. He might’ve come to the house, hoping to see you, and then realized you weren’t staying there alone. He couldn’t compromise himself by letting Chrissie see him.”



“You’re right.” Susannah paused as she considered this possibility.



Everything was beginning to add up for Carolyn, and she guessed that the end of her friend’s search was near. Susannah was paying the private investigator to track Jake down, but all this time he’d been practically under their noses.



Carolyn sat down on one end of the sofa and reached for a magazine—a six-month-old issue of Reader’s Digest. It was hard to wait alone and although Susannah didn’t appear interested in conversation, Carolyn had no intention of leaving her.



“Mom!” They could hear Chrissie’s high-pitched voice from the elevator lobby.



So this was Susannah’s daughter.



“Chrissie!” Susannah dashed out of the room, and Carolyn watched as mother and daughter hugged.



“Is Grandma okay?” Chrissie demanded, tears in her eyes.



“You got my note?”



“Yes—how’s Grandma?” she asked again.



“Grandma’s in surgery, but it seems to be going well.” She glanced at her watch. “I don’t think it’ll be much longer.”



“Poor Grandma.”



Carolyn put aside the Reader’s Digest and stood. Now that Chrissie was here with her mother, she wasn’t really needed.



“How’d it happen?” Chrissie seemed to be badly shaken.



“I talked briefly to the nurse from Altamira. She stopped by the hospital and explained that Mom had been playing pool with one of the other residents.”



“Pool?” Carolyn repeated incredulously.



A quick smile curved Susannah’s mouth. “Mom was using her cane as a pool cue and lost her balance. She broke her hip, but Michelle, the nurse, seems to think she also hit her head on the edge of the pool table when she went down.”



“Oh, no.” Chrissie covered her mouth in horror.



“Whoever she was playing with was extremely upset and had to be sedated.”



Carolyn knew Susannah hoped her mother would adjust to life in the assisted-living complex. In the beginning Vivian had been full of complaints; lately Susannah hadn’t said much about her mother’s dissatisfaction. It seemed to Carolyn that if Vivian was socializing with the other residents, that was surely a good sign. Now this.



“I think I should go back home,” Carolyn said, preparing to leave.



“Oh—forgive my bad manners. Carolyn, this is my daughter, Chrissie. And Chrissie—this is one of my best friends in the whole world, Carolyn Bronson.” Chrissie murmured a polite hello, but Carolyn saw the speculative look on her face.



“I can’t thank you enough,” Susannah said fervently as Carolyn started to leave.



“What are friends for?” she teased.



They hugged goodbye and Carolyn left the hospital. It’d grown dark—not surprising since it was now ten o’clock. On the off-chance that Jake might have shown up after all, she drove past Calvary Cemetery, which was in the opposite direction of where she needed to go. Just as she’d expected, the cemetery gates remained closed and there wasn’t a car in sight.



Turning around, she drove back into town, reversing her route to get home. The evening was hot and humid. Carolyn preferred not to use her air-conditioning, so she kept the windows down. As always, she breathed in the scent of fresh-cut wood as she neared the mill, savoring it. Huge stacks of timber filled the yard, the sprinklers spraying them with water.



Carolyn wished she had a way of reaching Dave; she would’ve liked to talk to him, tell him what had happened. That wasn’t possible, though, and she told herself not to count on his presence. He’d be leaving town soon. Leaving her.