Tall Pines Mysteries: A Mystery/Suspense Boxed Set Read online

  “You Mizz Hollister?” a lanky redhead asked, thrusting his chin out and eyeing me with suspicion. The kid had to be over seven feet.

  I peered up at him from my five nine and wondered if he’d been pressured to play basketball when he was in high school like me. “Yes. Hi. I’m Mrs. Hollister.”

  “We’re takin’ her to Lou’s Garage, coupla miles from For The Birds. You want Lou to fix ‘er?”

  I was afraid of being ripped off since we were in the middle of nowhere. But I nodded anyway. “Yes. Please. It’s just the radiator hose.” I craned my head around, looking in the woods, up and down the road—everywhere—for my family.

  “Okay. You’re the boss. Lou’ll give you a buzz when she’s ready.”

  I’d never thought of our rust bucket as “she,” but agreed and watched him hook her up. I tried my cell phone again.

  Ardy sidled up to me. “You got AT&T?”

  I nodded.

  “Their cell towers don’t reach us here. I have Verizon.” A smug smile crept over his lips. He slid his phone out of his pocket. “See? I have two bars.”

  I thought of using his phone to call Quinn, but realized he had the same carrier as me, so it would do no good if the AT&T cell towers didn’t reach. Thelma didn’t believe in cell phones. And I hadn’t bought Ruby one yet, though I was tempted to put her on our family plan.

  When the truck disappeared around the bend, I charged back to the grassy spot where the chairs had been. The grass was matted, as if they’d sat and moved around there for a while. That made sense. They were supposed to do that. But why take off and leave the van when they knew I’d be coming soon?

  I started to pace, imagining the worst.

  Ardy stood to the side, looking bored. He flipped open his cell phone after a few minutes and reported our situation to the hotel.

  “What? They’re with you?” He shifted the phone to his other ear and cracked a grin. “She did what? Wow. Okay. We’ll be back in a flash.”

  The dread that welled in my chest burst like a breeched dam, replaced by a desire to weep uncontrollably. I crowded him a little. “Ardy? They’re safe?”

  He put a finger in the air. “Just tell her to wait. I’ve got Mrs. Hollister with me.” He hung up and smiled broadly. “No worries, Mrs. Hollister. Your family’s at the hotel. Somebody gave them a ride. We must have passed them on the way.”

  Tension drained from my shoulders, and I wondered about that “she did what?” comment. What had my mother done? I followed Ardy back to the courtesy van and hopped inside.

  Chapter 5

  We made it back to the hotel in ten minutes. Cromwell headed us off at the main entrance and took my elbow, whispering and guiding me through a back corridor, past a bank of brass elevators, and into a single story glass-enclosed connecting wing. Dozens of enormous potted plants reached for the sunlight, stretching floppy leaves and frilly pink flowers in lacy sprays toward the glass ceiling.

  Cromwell pinched his nose and closed his eyes. “Your mother was displeased with the rooms we reserved for you. She and Mr. Hollister are waiting in the pool room with your bird while we find more suitable accommodations.”

  I stopped and stared. “She’s already caused trouble?” The sting of embarrassment pricked my cheeks.

  Straightening, he recovered quickly. The expression of irritation dissolved, and his face once again reflected a gentile demeanor. “No, no. It’s not a problem, Mrs. Hollister. She asked to be upgraded. That’s all. We’re giving you our presidential suite. The Eagle.”

  “The Eagle?”

  He flashed a prim smile and motioned down a hall to the right.

  “Yes. I’m sure you’ll find the suite most amenable. This way, please.”

  The smell of chlorine filled the air. But the sight before me was nothing like any hotel pool I’d ever seen.

  We walked into a manmade rain forest enclosed by an enormous translucent dome. The bird-shaped pool sparkled against lime green walls, decorated with patterns of orange birds interspersed with underwater lights that pulsed in time with the Debussy played by a live pianist in the corner. The baby grand—black and mirror glossy—was slipped into a corner probably designed specifically for it. A slim, young lady with a black gown, tiny waist, and strawberry blond hair twisted into an elaborate French braid sat on the leather seat. Dressed as if performing at Carnegie Hall, she played Claire de Lune, swaying slightly to the music.

  A few couples in bathing suits sat at glass café tables, sipping their drinks. But for the most part, it was empty. Trees and tropical bushes dotted the area, arranged in artful clusters around the pool. A gleaming waxed bar curved along one end of the cavernous room, with sparkling bottles of wines and spirits on mahogany shelves. The bartender, a young, athletic blond in an orange silk blouse and dark green skirt, acknowledged us with a slight nod. Cromwell tilted his head in her direction, then pointed to the other side of the pool, behind a clump of banana trees with tiny white Christmas lights entwined around their trunks and branches. The plants grew in massive pots with glossy, rubbery leaves, next to a two-story waterfall tumbling over a realistic stone wall.

  I saw it, but didn’t really absorb it all. It was too unexpected, too surreal. I half expected to see robotic natives shooting darts behind the banana trees, or fake monkeys swinging from tree to tree on grapevines. Yet, like a Disney scene, there was a playful sense of elegance about the design.

  With relief, I spotted our suitcases piled on a cart in the back corner by the elevators. At least something had gone right.

  Cromwell gestured across the pool. “Your family is over there. And look, my man Albert must have the rooms ready. There he is.” His voice took on a sense of deep relief, and his eyes closed briefly as if he were thanking God it was over.

  Now you’re starting to get the picture, right? That’s the kind of thing my mother does to people.

  Thelma and Quinn rose from their seats to greet Albert, who bowed and scraped in front of my portly mother. Standing next to her, both men looked like giants. Quinn and Albert both stood over six feet. My mother craned her head to look up at Albert. I saw her mouth move, and a sharp expression crossed her face.

  He lowered his eyes and backed up a few steps, avoiding her glance. There was something obsequious in the way he moved. I felt my insides slide sideways.

  Thelma. What did you say to that poor man?

  Albert handed them a narrow white envelope, probably containing key cards, and backed out of the room. Quinn saw me and waved. I wiggled my fingers.

  I watched as Quinn and Thelma headed in our direction, skirting the edge of the pool, with Ruby’s cage balanced between them. They snaked around potted palms, struggling with the cage. Quinn stopped and tried to take the cage from Thelma, apparently to make walking easier. She yanked it from him. His patience finally imploded. Like a truculent child, he pulled back. In seconds, they’d exploded into a full-scale fight over the cage.

  I wanted to hide my head and run. Far away.

  After a few seconds of tussling, Thelma pulled back in the direction of a metal café table close to the pool edge. Her foot caught on it, and she twisted into an awkward spill, grabbing at the Christmas lights draped over the nearest tree. With a horrible screech, she slipped on a patch of wet cement and flew into the air with the lights clutched in her fingers. Her head cracked against the floor. Ruby’s cage soared into the water, and my mother’s unconscious body slid over the edge into the pool.

  ***

  Electricity pulsed through the pool, crackling in thunderbolts across its surface. The sizzling raced in frenetic zigzags, streaking a spray of sparks from the water to the potted plant and the outlet into which it was plugged. With a gigantic pop, the breaker tripped and every light in the room blinked out.

  I froze. A splintered crash came from the bar, where the barkeeper dropped a glass. The pianist stopped mid-song.

  Quinn kicked off his moccasins and dove into the pool.

  “Mom!”
I raced around the pool to the other side, slid out of my cross trainers, and jumped in.

  Quinn surfaced just before I did and looked around wildly. “Where is she?”

  The bartender streaked to the side of the pool with a pole, and Cromwell knelt beside her with a foam board.

  “Over here!” Cromwell boomed.

  Quinn and I didn’t hesitate. We dove beneath the surface and found my mother, sunk into a corner by the drain. With air bursting in my lungs, I helped tow her to the surface. Hands met us, pulling her onto the Styrofoam board and floating her to the shallow end, where they dragged her out of the water.

  Quinn’s face froze. “Oh my God. Ruby.”

  We exchanged a panicked look. With a final glance at my mother, we both went under again. The highly chlorinated water stung my eyes. We swam underwater to the far corner of the deep end, where Ruby’s solid cage had sunk fast. In a blue blur, we reached for the bars and dragged the cage to the surface. Ruby lay in a sodden heap on the floor of the cage. Quinn’s voice hitched with fear. “Where’s the show vet? Can someone get him? Please. Hurry!”

  I raced to my mother’s side while Quinn tended to Ruby. Drenched and shivering now, I watched as the piano player performed CPR on my mother. She turned her on her side and expelled water, then alternated pushing on her chest and breathing into her mouth. It didn’t seem to be working.

  The room had turned into a circus. People congregated around us. The bartender. Chambermaids. Albert. The room swam in psychedelic waves. Sounds slowed like a 45 rpm record played at 33 rpm, dragged out and hard to decipher. I sobbed on the rough cement on the side of the pool beside the young lady in the evening gown who pushed and pulled and tried to breathe life into my mother.

  The vet arrived and began to work on Ruby. I watched out of the corner of my eye, and felt tendrils of panic twist around my heart again.

  Thelma. Wake up. Breathe. Come on. Breathe.

  Was it me? Or did someone say that aloud? My brain felt cloudy and confused, and my perspective was off kilter. I expected this Alice in Wonderland status to whoosh me any second to a tea party with the Mad Hatter.

  After what felt like hours, but was probably only a minute, my mother coughed a spray of water into the pianist’s face.

  Someone pushed me aside. Medical personal appeared out of nowhere, as if they’d popped out of the walls. They surrounded my mother. I heard her coughing and crying, and tried to go to her. Kind hands led me to a chair and put a blanket around my shoulders.

  “Please, ma’am. You need to wait here.”

  “Don’t call me ma’am. Please.” I sobbed the words, and caught a glimpse of the vet pushing Ruby’s tiny stomach in a weird semblance of bird CPR, thanking God the show had hired an on-call vet.

  “You’re cruisin’ for a bruising!” Thelma shouted at one of the men who worked on her. “Don’t put that cold thing on me!”

  I could only get glimpses of her, but when she started spluttering and pushing the stethoscope away, I laughed. The emotion morphed into tears, and in seconds, I wept with hysterical relief.

  Quinn found me in the crush of people and held me as I sobbed against his chest. “Honey. It’s okay. Thelma’s going to be fine.”

  I tried to collect myself, embarrassed at my outbreak. Suddenly, shame flowed over me for the unkind thoughts I’d had about her earlier. Sometimes I didn’t understand my stupid emotions, and remorse triggered another burst of tears.

  When I calmed enough to talk, my head spun in the direction of the vet. “Is Ruby okay?”

  My dripping husband gave me a few soggy tissues from his pocket, and I blew my nose. He put his arm around my shoulder as if to protect me, but his voice shook. “Come on. Let’s go see.”

  The vet stepped back with a smile when Ruby raised her little beak in the air and wobbled to her feet. She took one false step, then trotted across the table to the edge toward Quinn and me.

  “You da man!” Her weak voice cackled. She jumped back into her cage and swung from her wooden perch.

  “You da man! Feed Ruby! What da heck. Gimme cookies.”

  I cracked up, almost cried again, and suddenly had to pee so bad I thought I’d lose it right there. Not that anyone would much notice, since I was still dripping on the floor.

  Quinn swiped the moisture from his eyes and gripped me harder. “Thank God.” He thrust his hand into Ruby’s cage and let her hop on his finger. Gently, he took her from the cage and put her on his shoulder. “God. That was close.”

  She snuggled into his neck and rubbed her wet rosy feathers against his cheek.

  It wasn’t clear if he was more relieved about Thelma or Ruby. Either way, I didn’t care. It seemed they both would survive.

  Two EMTs worked on my mother. One, a competent, burly black man, seemed to be the senior member of the team. The other, a scrawny man with acne, took orders from him. Both had to be in their late twenties. They fussed around Thelma for another half hour, asked her questions and took her vitals, then tucked white sheets around her to ready her for the ambulance. They clicked the gurney from flat on the ground to an upright position, ready to roll.

  “Hold your horses. I’m not going anywhere!” My mother’s voice screeched across the pool and vibrated off the walls.

  “Thelma!” I hurried to her side. “It’s okay. They’re just trying to help you.”

  “But I don’t want to go.” Her voice trailed off to a whisper. She tried to raise her head from the pillow, then closed her eyes and put a hand to her head. Her color turned from white to sickly green. “Oh, God. That really hurt.”

  “I’m going with you,” I said. Both EMTs nodded.

  “You can ride in the back with her, if you want,” the senior man offered.

  Thelma fumbled for my hand and clutched it. Her face trembled with emotion, and I sensed that tears weren’t far from the surface. “Okay.” She blinked her eyes wide open. “No. Wait. Where’s Ruby? Is she okay?”

  “She’s fine.” I smiled into her face, trying to lighten her mood. “You’d never know you tossed her in the drink.”

  Thelma moaned. “Oh, the poor little thing. I’m such a klutz.”

  “I’m kidding, Thelma. You’re not a klutz. It was just an accident.”

  She groaned again. “It’s so embarrassing.”

  The EMTs gathered their equipment.

  “You going with us, miss?”

  It had been a while since anyone called me “miss.” I liked it. Much better than the horrid “ma’am.” “Yes. I’m coming.”

  Thelma raised a wobbly hand in the air. “No! You have to get Ruby to her class in the morning.”

  “But Thelma, I–”

  “I won’t need you tonight, Marcella. It’ll just be grueling for you.”

  We argued for another five minutes. Finally, she wore me out.

  “Are you sure? What if–”

  “My mind’s made up. You and Quinn get settled in our rooms. Have a nice dinner. Call me later, and I’ll let you know how I’m doing. And be sure Ruby gets plenty of rest. I want her to win.”

  When I looked back on this moment, I realized I would have normally gone against her protests and insisted on accompanying her. But the events of the afternoon had beaten me down to the point where I simply gave in. Just like that.

  “Wait,” she said. She tugged on my sleeve and motioned for the men to stop rolling her. “Come closer.”

  I leaned down to let her whisper in my ear.

  “Is the cage okay?”

  I straightened and frowned. “What? The cage?”

  “Shh. Yes!”

  I lowered my voice, but didn’t know why. “I think so. It’s over there on the table. Drying out. Might get a little rusty, but–”

  “Take very good care of it, honey.”

  I crinkled my brow. “Okay. But I don’t–”

  “Just take good care of it.”

  The EMTs firmly waved me out of the way.

  “Time to go, miss.”r />
  “Sorry.” I backed up, and followed.

  They wheeled Thelma through the halls, past the aviary and elevators, and out a side door, where the ambulance waited. In their capable hands, my mother’s gurney was collapsed, lifted, and slid into the back of the vehicle.

  Just before they closed the doors, I blew her a kiss. “Call you later.”

  She waggled her fingers goodbye, and then uttered the most inexplicable words. “You da man!”

  The senior EMT smiled wide, but didn’t notice the expression of utmost surprise on my mother’s face.

  She covered her mouth in haste. “Why, I…”

  I watched and shook my head to clear it. Had she really said that?

  They closed the doors and smoothly sped away with red lights flashing.

  Chapter 6

  Quinn and I followed Albert to our heavily air conditioned rooms on the first floor. We both shivered when he opened the door, in spite of the blankets we kept wrapped around our bodies. After bringing in our suitcases, he bowed out with a substantial tip. The poor man had earned it, especially after the dressing down he’d received at the hands of my mother. I’d never heard the details of what displeased her about the first two rooms she’d rejected. I honestly didn’t want to know.

  Thelma firmly believed everyone was out to get her. If she bought a car, she was ripped off. And she never forgave the salesman. Or stopped talking about it. If she sold an old vintage hat to someone on eBay, they took advantage of her and she could’ve got more. Much more. If she found a coupon for an oil change that was out of date and they refused to honor it, she became enraged. They should’ve just looked the other way and saved her the money. Right? After all, didn’t all salesmen take advantage of women?

  I clamped down on my unkind thoughts. My poor mother was in the hospital, probably still trying to get through the ER protocol and to her own room, and here I was thinking about her bad side. Not nice. I’d have to call soon to see how she was progressing.