The Dead Come Calling Page 11

I turned toward him, our faces a few inches apart. “You were gone less than forty-eight hours,” I pointed out.

  He hugged me closer. His only reply was, “I’ve gotten used to having you around all the time.”

  We were on the couch, conversing in whispers, and Blaine and Preston were sitting in the two chairs next to the sofa, discussing football. Jonelle and Stony were in the kitchen. I could hear the low murmur of their voices but not what they were talking about. I just hoped she wasn’t giving Stony too hard a time.

  A few minutes later, she wandered into the living room, only one glass now clutched in her hand. I frowned when she swayed a little, her eyes shiny and slightly unfocused.

  “Whew,” she mumbled. “This stuff is stronger than I thought.”

  Stony came up behind her, a glass of water in his hand. “It does have a kick, doesn’t it?”

  Jonelle lifted the glass toward him in a mock toast and drained it. “Damn straight.”

  She wobbled dangerously on her heels, putting a hand out to steady herself. Stony grabbed her arm with a chuckle. “Steady now.”

  Twisting her head to face him, she blinked owlishly. When she realized that he was basically holding her up, she pulled her arm away and straightened her back. “I’m fine,” she stated, her words slow and thick.

  Worry nibbled at the edges of my mind. I’d never seen Jonelle like this, not even after numerous shots of tequila.

  “Jonelle, are you okay?”

  Not a moment after I spoke, her eyes rolled back into her head and she nearly fell to a heap on the floor. Only Stony’s quick move to grab her kept her from knocking her head against the small table next to the sofa.

  Mal and I jumped to our feet as he hauled her over to the couch and positioned her on the cushions, her head resting on the arm.

  When Stony straightened, he swayed as well. “Whoa. I feel weird,” he commented. Stumbling back, he sat down on the floor next to the couch. He looked up at Mal, his face flushed and his eyes heavy. “Dude, something’s not right.”

  Blaine crouched down and helped him lie on the floor, grabbing a pillow from the small wingback chair behind them and sliding it under Stony’s head.

  Then Blaine leaned over Jonelle, lifting her eyelids to look at her eyes. He pressed his fingertips against her throat, looking at his watch. Eyes wide, he turned to us, “I think we need to call an ambulance.”

  “Did they drink too much?” I asked in alarm. I thought back to everything Jonelle and Stony had drunk this evening and it didn’t seem like that much. Just two beers each and the Scotch.

  “I think they might have been drugged,” Blaine replied, squatting down to repeat the motions with Stony. “I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure they ingested something.”

  Mal pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed 911. The sheriff’s department and fire department responded quickly, though the ambulance took longer. Preston jumped in to help when the fireman arrived and I stared at him in shock. I’d forgotten he was even here. While we were trying to determine what had happened to Stony and Jonelle, he’d been silent.

  I didn’t understand his inaction. He was a firefighter. In Kenna, they all had to be trained EMT’s because it could take an ambulance up to a half hour to arrive. Why hadn’t he said or done anything?

  Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to ponder the question as I answered the rapid-fire queries being thrown at me by deputies and the firefighters. Much to my relief, the ambulance arrived earlier than I expected.

  After they assessed both patients and loaded Jonelle and Stony up in the ambulance, I looked at the deputy in front of me. “If you have any more questions, you can meet me at the hospital. I’m following the ambulance and I’ve got to call Jonelle’s mom and I’m sure Stony’s parents need to be notified.”

  The deputy argued with me. “They can notify their families from the hospital, ma’am. I need to ask you a few more questions before you can leave.”

  Frustration bubbled up within me and I had to bite back the litany of swear words that trembled on the tip of my tongue.

  To my utter shock, Sheriff Lamar Daughtry appeared next to the deputy’s shoulder. “You can follow Ms. Thorne to the hospital,” he commanded. “She and Ms. Watson are very close. When Ms. Watson wakes up, she’ll likely want to see a friendly face.”

  The deputy’s mouth tightened but he didn’t dare argue with his boss. He flipped his tiny notebook closed with a snap. “Yes, sir.”

  I watched as he all but stomped off then turned to the sheriff. “Thank you.”

  He nodded at me. “No problem.” His eyes moved toward the ambulance. “It seems like a stupid prank, but I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

  “Prank?” I asked in confusion. Prank seemed to be too mild a word for the scare we all had.

  “Drugging the whiskey,” he replied. He stepped away. “One of the deputies or I will meet you at the hospital soon. We’re going to have to take the bottle and the glasses,” he explained.

  Staring at him in consternation, I automatically said, “That’s fine.” I hesitated and he turned before I asked, “Why do you think it was the whiskey?”

  His face twisted back toward me. “Because they are the only two who drank the Scotch and were affected. We’ll do some tests to be sure, but it looks like some kind of dangerous stunt meant to freak you out.”

  I frowned at him but didn’t say anything.

  “I’ll see you in a bit,” he assured me.

  “Thank you, Sheriff,” I replied, my head spinning with the implications of everything he said. If he truly believed this was nothing but a prank, I doubted he would seriously pursue the perpetrators.

  He nodded and walked away, calling out orders to the deputies milling on my lawn. This was the second time in three months the sheriff’s department had been to my house and I was sure that my neighbors were not happy about it in the least.

  Mal strode out of the house, holding both my bag and Jonelle’s. “Are you ready to go?” he asked.

  “Are you okay to drive?” I replied. Though he hadn’t had as much as me, I remembered that Mal had a beer in his hand.

  “I’ve only had two in the last few hours. I’ll be fine.”

  I didn’t argue, too eager to get to the hospital now that the ambulance had driven away with Stony and Jonelle inside.

  After we climbed in the car, I noticed that Blaine wasn’t with us. “Where’s Blaine?”

  “He’s going to stay behind and straighten the house up, lock the doors, and other stuff after the deputies leave. He’ll meet us at the hospital later.”

  I nodded. “Oh, good. I hadn’t thought about any of that.” I realized that Stony’s parents needed to be contacted. “What about Stony’s parents? Do you have their number?”

  The look on Mal’s face was stiff, almost disgusted. “Blaine already called them. They’re in the Bahamas on vacation. They asked him to call and update them after he’d been seen by a doctor.”

  My mouth fell open. “What? They’re going to stay there?”

  Mal nodded.

  “You’re kidding me?” I fumed.

  He shrugged. “Stony is their only child and I think half the time they forget they even had one to begin with.”

  My stomach hurt as I tried to understand how any parent could be so distant. My mother might not have been warm and cuddly when I was growing up, but at least she was there. She showed up at my school events and helped me with my homework. I couldn’t imagine being treated as an afterthought my entire life.

  “That sucks,” I muttered.

  “Yes, it does,” Mal replied.

  We didn’t speak again, but his hand found mine in the dark interior of the car and cradled my palm against his.

  I knew Stony, Blaine, and Mal came from similar backgrounds; wealthy and privileged. Now, I wondered if Blaine also faced the same sort of neglect from his own parents.

  At the thought, my hand tightened around Mal’s. He accepted my fierce grip in
silence, squeezing my fingers gently.

  I decided then that I would no longer hesitate to tell him how he made me feel. I never wanted him to wonder about the depth of my emotions.

  Chapter

  Last night hadn’t gone as he expected. He’d almost panicked when the blonde bitch brought out the whiskey he’d left for Zoe. He left the Scotch in hopes of scaring Zoe and Teri. He’d hoped Teri would recognize the brand since it was the same one she’d drunk the night he killed her.

  Instead, it all turned into a clusterfuck. The blonde and that Stony guy had passed out cold in the living room. At the time, he froze, but was able to pull himself together.

  He realized now that his meat suit wasn’t going to get him close enough to sweet Zoe Thorne. If he wanted to make his way past all those that guarded her, he would have to find another meat suit. One that she would never suspect.

  One that she would never think to distrust.

  He devised the next stage in his plan and he smiled. He would be close enough to touch Zoe and she would never know.

  Soon the wait would be over and the real fun would begin.

  Chapter

  Stony was drifting in and out of consciousness when Mal and I arrived at the hospital in Weatherford. Jonelle was out. Completely.

  Her mother arrived before we did, looking less than her usual stylish self. Jonelle came by her fashion sense honestly. Her mother always looked fantastic and nearly a decade younger than she actually was. She was one of the sexiest women I’d ever seen, with her curly blonde hair and deep brown eyes. When I was a teenager, I wanted to be like her. As I got older, I realized that I didn’t feel comfortable in the glamorous clothes and stilettos that Audrey Watson wore every day, and I found my own casual style.

  Still, she was one of the only mothers in Kenna who hadn’t forbidden her daughter to spend time with me, and that made me love her forever.

  “Zoe,” she said breathlessly as Mal and I burst through the emergency room entrance. “They’ve got her back in triage right now and asked me to step out for a moment.”

  “How is she?” I asked.

  “Still unconscious,” Audrey replied, her mouth drawn down in a frown and her brown eyes worried. “They’re not sure what she ingested but they think it might be Rohypnol or GHB.”

  “Date rape drugs?” Mal’s voice was low and tight with anger.

  Audrey nodded, her eyes moving from me to Mal. “Yes.”

  My heart sank. Someone had put drugs in that Scotch, only they were meant for me, not Jonelle.

  “Who gave it to her?”

  Audrey’s question interrupted the dark turn my thoughts had taken. I blinked at her and shook my head. “I don’t know. Someone left a bottle of Scotch on my porch the night of my birthday. It was wrapped up in a black box and topped with a bow. I assumed it was a birthday present.”

  Mal and Audrey gave me twin looks of disbelief.

  “Who was it from?” Mal asked.

  “I don’t know,” I answered, feeling sick at the thought that I’d had a drugged bottle of Scotch in my house. “There was no card.”

  “And you kept it?” His voice was incredulous and his expression clearly stated he thought I was the world’s biggest idiot.

  I shrugged. “I wasn’t planning on drinking it. I don’t like Scotch, but when Teri and Jonelle started talking about how much it was worth, I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. Jonelle thought Stony might have left it as a joke or so he could drink it the next time he was here.” Though Stony didn’t seem to recognize the Scotch when he saw it. The realization made me shiver. No, Stony hadn’t arranged to have it delivered.

  Mal nodded. “It was an expensive bottle of Scotch and that sounds like something Stony would do.”

  “If I had even thought…” I trailed off, feeling completely stupid.

  Audrey patted my arm. “I know, sweetie. It’s not like we have a lot of crime in Kenna. It probably wouldn’t have occurred to me either.”

  I still felt like crap for not tossing the bottle after Jonelle left. If I had, none of this would have happened.

  Our conversation was interrupted when a nurse emerged from the doors marked “Authorized Personnel Only”.

  “Mrs. Watson?”

  Audrey clipped over to her. Though her hair was a mess and she wore jeans instead of a dress, there were still stiletto sandals on her feet. “Yes?”

  “We’ve made her comfortable and we’re going to keep her overnight to monitor her. She’s still out of it right now but we’ll be moving her to a room soon.”

  “Can I see her?” I asked.

  The nurse glanced at Audrey, who nodded. “For a few minutes. She probably won’t respond if you speak to her. She’s not quite lucid.”

  “What about Sean McDonald?” Mal queried.

  The nurse frowned at him. “Are you family?”

  “I’m his brother,” Mal lied.

  She eyed him but played along. “Will your parents be here soon?”

  “They’re in the Bahamas and sent their regrets that he wasn’t well.”

  Her eyebrows lifted. “Are they planning to fly in tomorrow?”

  Mal shook his head.

  The nurse’s gaze narrowed. “Well, then, I’m glad you’re here for your…brother.” She knew very well that Mal and Stony weren’t related but she was going to pretend she didn’t. I was glad because I didn’t want Stony to wake up alone in the hospital room.

  “If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you all to where you need to be.”

  I reached down and took Mal’s hand as we walked through the doors.

  Three hours later, Stony was growing restless. Audrey had already banished me from Jonelle’s room with instructions to go home and get some rest and Stony was trying to do the same with Mal. Blaine had already come and gone, kicked out by Stony around one in the morning.

  “Man, I’m fine. Take Zoe home and get some sleep. You can come back and pick me up in the morning,” he insisted.

  Mal looked torn, but I could tell he wanted to stay.

  Before he could argue, Stony turned to me. “Take him home and go to sleep. It’s nearly three a.m. The nurses told me I wouldn’t be released before ten, so come back around then.” He turned to Mal when his mouth opened. “Mal, don’t argue with me, okay? I’m tired and my head hurts like hell. I just want to turn the lights off and go to sleep. I won’t be able to do that if you’re here.”

  With a grunt, Mal conceded, “Fine, but we’ll be back by ten.”

  Stony shrugged. “No hurry. It sounds like things move slowly around here.”

  I gave Stony a hug and kiss and waited for Mal out in the hall. He joined me a few minutes later, looking rough around the edges.

  He took my hand as we walked out of the hospital and to the car. We didn’t speak much on the drive back to Kenna.

  Blaine was awake when we walked into my house. His long body was sprawled on the couch while he watched TV.

  “Hey,” he greeted us. “Stony and Jonelle okay?”

  Mal nodded. “Stony said that we should come back and get him in the morning.”

  “Carissa called while you guys were at the hospital. Her flight lands at noon,” Blaine stated.

  “Damn. I forgot that Carissa was coming tomorrow.”

  “Carissa?” I asked.

  “The medium from Atlanta,” Mal explained. He rubbed the back of his neck. “I told her we’d have a place for her to stay but I forgot to call the hotel.”

  “I’ll do it in the morning while you pick up Stony,” Blaine offered.

  Mal smiled weakly at him. “Thanks, man.”

  Blaine studied us, his features serious. “You both look worn out. Get some rest and we can figure all this out in a few hours.”

  Neither of us argued with him. I waved limply as I trudged up the stairs and called, “Night, Blaine.”

  “Night, Zoe.”

  Mal followed me up and into the bedroom. “Go ahead and get ready for bed. I’m
going to check my messages.”

  I grabbed pajamas from my dresser and carried them into the bathroom. I quickly washed my face and brushed and flossed my teeth. I realized I needed to pee rather desperately and then washed my hands. By the time I was finished with that, I was ready to drop. The evening had been a long one and I hadn’t slept well the night before.

  I entered the bedroom and crawled into bed, yanking the blankets over me. Mal disappeared into the bathroom and I vaguely heard him moving around in there. My eyes popped open when he re-entered the room and I realized I’d drifted off.

  “It’s okay,” he muttered. “Go back to sleep.”

  Mal pulled me against his side, tucking my head against his shoulder, and I did as he said.

  The next morning, Mal and I stood against the wall in Jonelle’s room, watching as she argued with Audrey and Stony.

  “I am perfectly fine, Mom,” Jonelle insisted. “I’ve lived alone for years and I’ll be fine by myself now.”

  “Jonelle Leeanne Watson, I am your mother and I will stay with you until I’m satisfied that you’re going to be fine.”

  “The doctor said I’m fine!” Jonelle cried. “He was just here and so were you. You heard him yourself.”

  Audrey Watson crossed her arms over her chest.

  Jonelle looked to me, her expression pleading but I just shrugged. I knew better than to go head-to-head with Audrey Watson when she’d dug in her heels.

  “I’ll go with you,” Stony offered. “Make sure you both have everything you need.”

  Audrey smiled sweetly at him. “Why, thank you, Stony. I appreciate the help. Do you think you could rustle up some duct tape for me before we leave the hospital?”

  Mal made a choking noise and started coughing as he rushed from the room, likely to cover up the fact that he was laughing. Or possibly to escape any imminent bloodshed.

  “God, Mom,” Jonelle groaned, plopping her butt on the bed. She was fully dressed and ready to go, just waiting on the paperwork to sign before she could leave.

  “I’m worried about you, baby,” Audrey said, her voice soft and tremulous. “You didn’t see yourself last night. They brought you in and you were so pale and still. If it hadn’t been for the monitors, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you were breathing.”