Выбрать главу

“So, that’s what you and your girl do all day? Grow fruit and vegetables?”

“Well, my girl, it turns out, has quite the green thumb. People come from all over to pick up some of her amazing banana peppers and lemon basil. Over the next few years, organic everything grows wildly popular. It’s crazy. My girl and me work hard enough to put all four kids through college, and those kids all go on to live amazing lives of their own. You want to know the best part of it all?”

“You can’t stop now,” Hayley said.

“The best part is that through it all, we always take time to sit on the porch or go down by the river and talk. Before you know it, we’re in our nineties, and that’s when you lean close and tell me for the very first time that you love me. And guess what I say?”

“I don’t have a clue,” she said.

“I say, ‘I know.’ ” Tommy glanced her way. “And that’s it. That’s the end.”

“Hmm.”

“So what do you think?”

“I think you’re a starry-eyed dreamer.”

“ ‘I may be a dreamer,’ ” he sang, “ ‘but I’m not the only one.’ ”

She rolled her eyes and then laid her head back and listened to him sing John Lennon’s “Imagine.” His voice had a nice tone. She had no idea he could sing. Tommy, she realized, was turning out to be full of surprises.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

It was ten o’clock when Kitally tapped on Betty Ackley’s window. As she hunched down behind a bush to wait for the old lady to make it over from her bed, she noticed a yellow pill within the soil. And then a white one and a blue one. She broke off a small branch and began to dig in the dirt around the pills. There had to be at least a dozen different sizes and colors of pills, some broken, some half-dissolved in the soil.

Using the stick, she dug a hole, and then brushed all the tablets inside and smoothed the dirt over them. When she was done, she dropped the branch, looked back through the window, and tapped again.

Would Betty even remember she was coming?

In answer to her question, there was a click and then a whoosh as the window was opened from the inside.

Kitally jumped to get her upper body over the windowsill, then used her arms and legs to pull and kick the rest of the way in.

Betty shut the window and then gestured frantically, pointing under the bed and motioning without words for Kitally to get under there and make it quick.

Kitally didn’t ask questions. She got down on the ground, her body flat to the floor, and shimmied her way beneath the bed. It was a tight squeeze, but she managed.

She lay there in the dark and wondered what was going on. Betty looked downright fearful. Before Kitally could question her from her hiding place, the door opened and she heard the flick of a switch. Bright light lit up the room.

“What are you doing awake, Betty?”

“I’m having a difficult time falling asleep.”

Heels clacked against Formica tiles. Kitally heard the curtains over the window being shut tight.

“Did you take your pills?”

“Why do you ask me that every time you come in here? Of course I did.”

“No reason for you to get all worked up. Just doing my job.”

“I don’t like being treated like a child,” Betty said. “My insurance company pays a large sum of money for me to be here. I deserve to be treated with respect.”

“Of course you do. But we have rules around here. You know that. If we let every patient run around here willy-nilly, can you imagine the chaos? Nobody in this place would ever get any sleep at all. And would that be fair to your friend Cecil? Or what about poor Mrs. Potter?”

“What do you mean ‘poor’ Mrs. Potter? Did something happen to Madge?”

“Never mind.” Drawers were opened and then shut.

“What are you doing?”

“Just taking a look around.”

“Why? Stay out of my personal belongings. I’m going to report you. Do you hear me?”

The orderly marched across the room. The tension between the two women sucked the oxygen right out of the room. Kitally could see the tips of well-worn shoes beneath the bed. Then she felt the mattress press down on her back. What the hell is going on?

“Open your mouth.”

“No.”

“Do it or I’ll be forced to call Patrick to do the honors.”

“OK. OK.”

It was quiet for a moment and then the staffer said, “Where are you hiding the pills, Betty?”

“I’ve taken every bit of medication you’ve ever given me. You’ve just given me a double dose. Here’s hoping you haven’t done any damage.”

The orderly walked to the window, yanked back the curtains, and opened the window.

If the orderly leaned too far down, she might see Kitally under the bed. And then what? What would she do? Kitally really didn’t want to think about it. The woman’s voice was deep and raspy, as if she smoked three packs of cigarettes a day. She sounded intimidating. No wonder Betty looked scared.

Once the orderly finished, she closed everything and went back to the door. Before she left she said, “I’ve ordered a clean sweep of your room to be done first thing in the morning. I don’t know what you’re doing with your pills, Betty, but I know you’re not taking them. If you were, you would be sleeping like everyone else in this place.”

“I have a very high tolerance for medication,” Betty argued. “You should know that by now.”

“We’ll see about that.” The light clicked off and the door opened and closed.

Kitally didn’t dare move. Not for another five minutes at least.

“Are you awake?” she asked as she finally crawled out of her hiding place.

“I am. Perhaps tonight isn’t the best night to do this, after all.”

Betty’s hunched shoulders and dejected expression gave Kitally chills. The old woman really did need her help. “This is bullshit, Betty,” Kitally said.

Betty looked up at her then.

“Excuse the language, but something doesn’t smell right around here. I don’t know what’s going on, but we’re going to get to the bottom of it—do you hear me?”

Betty nodded.

This was Kitally’s chance to make a difference, and there was no way she was going to let Betty or Cecil or any of these people down. “I’ll be back. We’re going to find something to prove these people are up to no good. I’m more sure of that than ever.”

“I believe you,” Betty said with a smile. “I really do.”

Lizzy stared out the window. It was dark outside. No moon or stars as far as she could see. But she’d lived here long enough to know where the mossy rock sat beneath a crowd of gangly-limbed oaks. She didn’t need to see either to know they were there. Just as she knew Jared was always near. She wasn’t a sixth sense kind of person, didn’t believe in ghosts or reincarnation, but Jared was here with her. She could feel his presence as if he were standing next to her. She thought of him with her first waking breath and again with every breath that followed until she finally fought her way to sleep at night. She had no idea how many days had passed since she’d last kissed him or held him in her arms. Since his death, each day came and went as if nothing had changed. The world kept turning. Trees still danced in the wind. The birds squawked and chirped. Everything was exactly as it always had been.

And yet nothing would ever be the same again. And that particular fact fueled her rage.

Anger twisted and turned within her, its long crooked fingers wrapping around every muscle and tendon, squeezing, suffocating. The anger she felt started at her toes and worked its way up, heating the blood in her veins, making it hard to breathe. The moon, stars, and trees might all be the same, but her anger and resentment continued to grow like a cancerous cyst inside her.