Lifeless in the Lilies (Lovely Lethal Gardens Book 12) Read online

  “I’m pretty sure Mack would say it’s because you always put your nose into things you shouldn’t,” the second paramedic said.

  She stared at him in surprise. “But I wasn’t even doing anything. I was just at a funeral.”

  “Maybe so, but you’ve been stirring up all kinds of chaos.”

  “I haven’t been stirring anything up,” she said tiredly, as she collapsed against the weird crackling of the plasticky pillow under her head. “All I’m doing is shining light on some cases.”

  “And that’s what I mean about stirring things up,” he said cheerfully. “Not everybody likes to have you bringing light to dark shadows.”

  “Well then, they shouldn’t have done something wrong in the first place,” she announced. Just then the ambulance started up, leaving her with the one paramedic. She sighed. “It always hurts worse when I go to the hospital.”

  “Well, it shouldn’t,” he said. “The people there can help you.”

  “Well, it does hurt. Everybody pinches and prods and pokes with their needles,” she said. “It just hurts.”

  “Well, tell them not to hurt you,” he said.

  “Like that’ll help.” The jostling ride was blessedly short, and, before she realized it, she was shifted onto a bed in the emergency room. She laid back down, now with an equally stiff, equally uncomfortable sheet over her, and felt the shakes setting in. By the time a nurse came to check her blood pressure, pulse, and temperature, she gave an exclamation and turned and disappeared. Doreen wasn’t sure what was wrong, but, when the efficient woman returned with a heated blanket a few minutes later, Doreen cuddled under it and moaned with relief.

  “It’s the shock,” the nurse said sympathetically. “You should warm up soon.”

  “Is it just shock?” she asked, her teeth chattering. “I guess I was lying there on the ground for a little bit too.”

  “Do you know how long that was?” the doctor asked, as he walked past the curtain.

  “No, you’ll have to ask Mack.”

  “I can do that,” he said. “But you were unconscious?”

  “According to them, I was, yes,” she said. “I just don’t know how long.”

  “Good enough,” he said. “Let’s take a look.” His taking a look was just like she had expected. By the time he was done, she felt the tears in the corner of her eyes, and she struggled to not let them pour out.

  “We’ll get you fixed up,” he said. “You’ll need a couple stitches, and we’ll get you a shot for the pain.”

  She wanted to nod but didn’t dare move because, ever since he had examined her head, the pain was so much worse. She didn’t quite understand how that worked, but it always seemed to be that way. And it wasn’t fair. She felt the tears of self-pity on her cheeks and knew that wasn’t normal for her either.

  By the time the doctor returned, he and the nurse wielded needles and other tools from a tray the nurse had brought in. Doreen looked at the tray, him, and bit her lip.

  He just waved a hand. “Don’t you worry about this,” he said. “It’ll all be fine.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked. “That looks painful.”

  “You’ve already been hurt,” he said with a smile. “We’re just fixing it up.”

  She knew that in theory but wasn’t so sure how that would work in practice. When the curtain was pulled back again, and Mack stepped in, she glared at him. “You don’t belong here,” she announced.

  He glared at her. “Yes, I do.”

  The doctor turned to him, smiled. “Hey, Mack.”

  “Hey, Doc. How’s she doing?”

  “Still as charming as ever.”

  “Absolutely she is,” Mack said, grinning. “It would go a bit easier if she wouldn’t be.”

  “Too bad,” she announced from the bed. “Remember what I said.”

  “Oh, I remember,” he said. “You’ll be you, no matter what.”

  “And you wouldn’t like it any other way,” she said, giving him a big fat grin.

  Mack chuckled at that. “That’s okay,” he said, “because I know the doc here will put some stitches in that head of yours and fix you up.”

  She glared at the doctor.

  “Yep,” he said in response. “Stitches. Probably about ten.”

  Her smile fell away. “No! That’ll hurt,” she cried out.

  “It might,” he said, “but we’ll numb it, so it won’t hurt as much.”

  She groaned and laid back down. “I don’t have a choice in the matter?”

  “Nope, and it’s the best thing for you,” he said. “This will heal much faster.”

  “How much hair will you cut away?”

  He chuckled. “No matter how minor the hair removal, the women are always concerned about their hair,” he said, with a smile.

  She shrugged. “I don’t really want to walk around with a bald spot on my head.”

  “I don’t think that’s the most important issue right now,” Mack said in a repressive tone.

  She glared at him. “Nobody asked you.”

  “Nope,” he said, “nobody did. But, if you don’t want me calling Nan and telling her about this, then you’ll behave yourself, starting now.”

  “That’s just blackmail. That’s what it is.”

  “Maybe, but, as long as it works, I don’t really care.”

  And again she glared at him, but it was futile. Because he really would call Nan. “You’ll just make her worry needlessly,” she muttered. “Besides,” she said, as an afterthought, “she probably already knows.”

  Chapter 2

  Saturday Early Afternoon …

  Of course Doreen was right. Nan did already know, and she was in a fine mess by the time Mack finally drove Doreen home. As she slowly made her way out of the truck, refusing to wait for him to come around and help her, the front door of the house burst open, and chaos ensued, as the animals flew out toward her. Nan stood on the front step, shaking her head. She looked at Doreen’s face and cried out, “Oh my. Oh, dear. Oh, my dear.”

  Mack walked around the truck, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and helped her up the steps. In the meantime, Mugs barked and jumped all around both of them.

  “It’s okay, Mugs,” Doreen murmured, feeling a whole lot woozier than she had expected. Once inside, she collapsed on the first pot chair and reflected on the fact that she’d gotten rid of all the other furniture. “It’d be nice if I had something comfy to sit on,” she muttered.

  Mack snorted at that. “If you hadn’t sold everything, you might have.”

  “Well, I don’t know if it’s sold or not,” she said. “I haven’t heard from Scott in weeks.”

  “Oh, dear, I hope it’s okay,” Nan said.

  “I would hope so,” Doreen muttered. The moment she sat down, Goliath jumped into her lap. Tears collected in the corner of her eyes, as she hugged the great big behemoth. She looked over at Mack. “Thaddeus?”

  He shook his head slowly. She buried her face against Goliath, her shoulders trembling. Nan clucked at her side, gently patting her shoulder. “We’ll find him. I know we will.”

  Doreen nodded. “I know. I know,” she said, “but …” And she let her voice trail off. It must be the painkillers making her mumble like an idiot. She wasn’t normally like this.

  Nan stepped back and said, “I’ll put on the teakettle.” She turned and raced into the kitchen.

  “How do you find a bird?” she asked Mack.

  “Well, everybody knows about him, and everybody knows what he looks like,” he added. “And, yes, we’ve put out an alert, asking everybody to keep an eye out for him.”

  A few minutes later, as she sat here, cuddling Goliath, Nan returned with a tray. Doreen looked at the tray and asked, “Where did you find that?”

  Nan seemed momentarily confused. “I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “I just reached into the cupboard, where I always kept it, and there it was.”

  Doreen frowned and studied the tray, but she
didn’t know if it was something that maybe Mack had kept and decided that they needed when they were sorting stuff or if they had missed something else in the kitchen. Nan looked around for a place to put the tray, and Mack hopped up, grabbed a chair from the kitchen table and brought it over and put it there for her.

  “You know what?” he said. “You might feel better if we sat outside.”

  “We might,” Doreen said, with a yawn. “But I don’t have anything to sit on out there either.”

  “There is that,” Nan said. “When you get the money for the antiques, you’ll have to buy yourself some outdoor furniture.”

  “I need to buy some indoor furniture first,” she said, with a note of humor. “A couple chairs in this living room really don’t do the job.”

  “Not if you’ll be a socialite,” Nan said, with alacrity.

  Doreen gave a tiny shake of her head. “I’ll admit that I’ve had more people through this place than I thought possible over these last few weeks,” she said, “but that won’t continue.”

  “No, maybe not,” Nan said, “but you’d be surprised. People will start to gather around you now.”

  “Why would they do that?” Doreen asked, looking at her grandmother in surprise.

  “Because you’re becoming somebody,” Nan said, with that wise look in her eye. “Everybody wants to be around somebody.”

  “I’m a nobody,” she said, with a yawn. “And apparently those painkillers are really having an effect on me.” She reached up and rubbed her face gently.

  “Maybe you should go lie down,” Mack said.

  She shrugged, then shook her head, wincing. “It’s pretty early though.”

  “Still, a nap won’t hurt,” he said.

  “Maybe not, but it feels like I already had one out in the grass.”

  “That one was unintended,” Nan said. “By the way, I would make you something to eat, but there’s not much food in the house.”

  At that, Doreen grimaced. “I haven’t done any grocery shopping.”

  Nan stood here, her hands on her hips, her fingers moving up and down, almost like a piano rhythm. “Are you eating?”

  “Of course I am,” she protested. Nan looked over at Mack, then peered down at Doreen. “But are you eating enough?”

  “Well, I stopped losing weight,” she said, “so I would presume so.”

  But Nan didn’t appear to be satisfied with that either. “Do I need to go grocery shop for you?”

  “Not at all,” she said forcibly. “I’m fine.”

  Nan sniffed. “I don’t want you so worried about money that you’re afraid to spend it.”

  “Now that’s a lesson she needs to learn,” Mack said. “She is definitely afraid to spend it.”

  “Well, it’s just that I don’t really know where the next dollar is coming from,” Doreen protested. “So it’s a little hard to go out and just spend money, if I don’t know that I’m getting more.”

  “I was hoping you’d be getting on okay by now,” Nan stated, her worry evident in her tone.

  “Well, if I get the antiques sold, I will be,” she said. “And I’m not doing badly, but I don’t really have much in the way of prospects for getting a decent job. People look at me differently now.”

  “Of course they do,” Nan said. “Like I said, you’re somebody.”

  “I’m somebody without a job,” she said in exasperation.

  “Where have you tried?” Nan asked.

  “I haven’t really,” Doreen said glumly. “I started on my résumé and then didn’t know what to say because there’s really nothing to put down. How do you list socialite as an occupation?” Both Mack and Nan stopped, then looked at each other and over at her. She shrugged. “So you can see the problem, right?”

  “But some places don’t need any experience, my dear,” Nan said. “You could probably get a job at the grocery store.”

  “I probably could,” she said, yawning. “And I promise I’ll look at it, when I am feeling better. I need just a few days to get over this.”

  “No, you need more than a few days,” Nan said. “You’ve been going nonstop for a long time.”

  “Maybe,” she said. “And now I have another problem to deal with.”

  “What’s that?” Nan asked, perking up. “Anything I can help with?”

  Doreen thought about it for a moment, then realized that wasn’t fair. “No,” she said, “Mack won’t let you.”

  At that, Mack turned and looked at her. “What are you talking about?”

  She glared at him. “I’m talking about your brother.”

  He gave her a hard look. “No, you’re right. Nan can’t help with that.”

  “Oh my,” Nan said, looking at Mack. “Can you help her?”

  “That depends on what my brother has to say,” he said.

  Nan looked positively thrilled.

  Doreen just looked at her grandmother sourly. “You know how hard this will be, don’t you, Nan?”

  “Absolutely it will be hard,” she said immediately, with a nod of her head and a commiserating look in her eye. “But it’s necessary.”

  “Why is it necessary? I could just walk away from the whole thing.”

  “And let him get away with it?”

  “At least then I wouldn’t have to deal with it or him,” Doreen said, sagging into the seat and closing her eyes.

  “You can’t hide forever.”

  “I’m not hiding,” she said, eyes closed. “Being determined to not get involved is a whole different thing.”

  “No, it’s not,” Mack said. “It’s hiding.”

  She glared at him. “You don’t know what it was like.”

  “No, I don’t,” he said. “And you’re right. It’s not for me to judge. I can understand you not wanting to get involved, but you’re the one who can’t put food on your own table, while he’s living high on the hog in his massive mansion. He’s got all kinds of money that he’s not sharing, and you have an equal right to it.”

  She groaned. “There’ll be a payback for arguing. You know that, right?”

  “What kind of a payback?”

  “He always gets back at people,” she said tiredly. “It’s not like I’ll be happy with any money if I have to look over my shoulder, always thinking he’ll find ways to get to me.”

  There was silence in the room. Nan looked at her. “I don’t think you ever told me how bad it was, dear.”

  “Of course not,” she said, with a gentle smile. “I didn’t want to worry you.”

  Nan then just clucked and clucked several times. “Oh, dear,” she said. “You know that’s not the answer I wanted to hear.”

  “Maybe not,” she said. “But no point in lying at this stage. I was very ashamed of what was going on, and I wasn’t sure how to handle my life as it was. I didn’t want to get you in trouble, and I didn’t want to bother you,” she murmured. “You’ve always been there for me, and I didn’t want you to see how badly I was faring in life.”

  “So you seized the chance, and you walked away from him,” she said. “Don’t ever feel like you’re a failure because of that.”

  “Maybe, but I haven’t done very well since.”

  “Well, we’ll get to the bottom of it now,” Mack interrupted. “First, I want you to have a rest and to relax a little bit, before my brother gets here.”

  She stared at him, her eyes going wide. “When is he coming?” she asked in an ominous tone. “Surely you pushed it off until next week.”

  He glared at her. “No, I didn’t. He’s coming this weekend. I just have to confirm with him when.”

  “Oh, Lord,” she said, sagging back again. “And here I was hoping that this might push it off.”

  “Getting yourself injured by some unknown assailant won’t stop me from trying to get you back on your feet financially,” he said in a severe tone.

  “And you should be grateful for his help,” Nan chimed in.

  Doreen opened her eyes to see Nan looki
ng at her with worry. Doreen reached out her hand, and her grandmother immediately snatched it up with both of hers. “I’m sorry, Nan. You’re right. I just don’t want to go through the whole headache of reliving the details.”

  “But getting to the other side will be so much better,” Nan said, patting her hand. “And, if Mack is willing to help you, let him help.”

  She smiled. “Do I have any choice?”

  “No,” Mack said in a determined voice. “You don’t.” After a brief pause, he added, “Let’s get you upstairs to bed.”

  Chapter 3

  Saturday, Midafternoon …

  Doreen woke up from her unexpected nap with a crick in her neck from lying the wrong way while wrapped around Goliath. The house was silent. Nan and Mack were probably gone. Immediately her eyes lit on the empty rod where Thaddeus usually slept, and she snatched up her phone and texted Mack. Any news on Thaddeus?

  His response came back with a no. She sighed, looked down at Goliath, scratched his tummy, and asked, “Could you find him?”

  Goliath twitched his tail, but, other than that, there was no sign that he had even heard her request. But then why would the cat worry? Half the time the two were at odds anyway. But Doreen wanted to believe that they were a bonded family and that Goliath would miss his friend. At least she could hope so. Mugs was stretched out on his back, with four feet to the wind, looking like he didn’t have a care in the world.

  She frowned at that. “How come you guys aren’t worried?” she asked, but neither animal answered. Did they know something she didn’t? She wondered because it seemed like they were oddly content. She hopped to her feet and then froze, as the room swayed around her.

  “Wow,” she mumbled to herself. “That was a little too fast.”

  Moving slowly, she made her way to the bathroom and used the facilities, then stood in front of the mirror, gasping at the image reflected back at her. “You look like a witch.” Her hair stuck out in all directions, and the stitches in her head poked out like black sticks in the air, looking painful.

  She wondered about a shower and then figured that there was probably no point right now. Nobody would give her the go-ahead, and she vaguely remembered the doctor saying to give it a couple days. She managed to scrub down her face and neck with a washcloth, getting off some of the worst dirt, mud, and blood, feeling marginally better.