And now?
I’m sitting at a coffee shop in Grand Junction with Donny, waiting to meet some nurse who may have poisoned my uncle in the hospital.
As much as I want Rory Pike, all I’m thinking about now is that old barn.
To be more specific—the sickeningly sweet smell in the old barn.
I can’t say I’m unhappy that Donny called the trip off today so we could meet this nurse who has information about Uncle Talon’s case. He wanted both Dale and me to come along, but Dale’s finishing up the move to his new place, so it’s just me.
I have a bad feeling about this.
A really bad feeling as Donny and I sit at an out-of-the-way coffee shop in the city.
“That’s her,” Donny says. “It’s got to be.”
I look toward the doorway where a woman wearing dark glasses and a scarf around her head enters. She’s also wearing scrubs, which is kind of a giveaway…although I suppose people other than doctors and nurses wear scrubs.
Donny nods toward her, and she approaches the table.
“Ms. Murray? Janine?” Donny says.
She nods.
Donny stands and holds out the chair between us. “I’m Donny Steel, and this is my cousin Brock Steel.”
I rise as well. “A pleasure.”
Ms. Murray simply sits.
Then…silence for a few moments.
A few very long moments.
Will she actually use her vocal cords at some point during this meeting?
“I suppose it’s easiest to just begin.” I force out a smile.
She looks at me and then at Donny. Then at me again.
“I want you to know,” she finally says, “I would never intentionally harm a patient.”
The word intentionally isn’t lost on me.
And that sick feeling I’ve had since the evening at the barn intensifies.
“That’s not exactly true, is it?” From Donny.
Which surprises the hell out of me. He’s going right in for the kill.
I get it. I do. This is his father. I’d be doing the same for my own father.
What surprises me is that Donny isn’t normally like me or my father or Dale. He’s usually a little more subtle.
Apparently not today.
Our companion turns pink. I want to tell Donny to go easy on her, even though she apparently doesn’t deserve it. We’re not going to get anything out of her if he freaks her out to the point where she stands and walks away.
When neither of them says anything, I speak. “Just start at the beginning.”
The nurse nods again. “I got a phone call through the nurses’ station. They scared me. They said they would hurt my baby.”
Donny remains stoic. “You have a baby?”
“Yes. Maria. She’s six months old.”
This can’t be leading to anything good.
“Go ahead, Ms. Murray,” I say.
“Honestly, I don’t know how this happened. My mother stays with Maria during the day. But the person on the other end of the line said to call him from a secure line at a certain time. We do have secure lines at the hospital, so I had no choice. I wrote down the information.”
“All right. When did you call him back?” Donny asks.
“I found a line open during my break. I told my supervisor I had to make a personal phone call and that my cell phone was dead. So in private, I made the call. They said…”
“What did they say?” I ask, trying not to sound too threatening.
And believe me, I have to try. I’m starting to get very pissed off. I’m sitting across from the person who poisoned my uncle. Sure, she didn’t mean to. Sure, she was probably forced to. Doesn’t change the fact that she did it.
Usually, Donny will play good cop to my bad cop. But he seems to be in a bad cop mood, so it’s up to me.
“I was told…” She clasps her hand to her mouth. “I can’t believe they somehow did this,” she chokes out.
“It’s okay.” Again I force my voice to remain calm. “Take as long as you need to.”
As long as it’s within the next few seconds.
“The person on the other end of the line, he said—”
“So it was a man?” Donny says.
“I think so. Or a woman with a low voice. But it wasn’t really low like yours. But it could definitely have been a man’s voice.”
“Okay,” I say. “Go on.”
“This person—they said I would find something in Maria’s diaper. In her diaper!”
Donny and I both drop our jaws.
I try to process what I’ve just heard as a Ping-Pong ball ricochets around in my heart. Whoever this degenerate is stuffed something in a baby’s diaper?
An innocent baby?
I’m not sure why I’m surprised, given what I just recently found out about Dale and Donny’s past before they came to the ranch. Whoever we’re dealing with doesn’t mind using kids.
That nausea that I’m keeping at bay? I’m not sure how much longer I can. Already I sense acid gurgling up my esophagus.
Donny clears his throat. “How did he…?”