Chapter Twelve On the Move #2
Theresa was pacing the floor, waiting for Maggie to come to her room.
Theresa trusted Lizzie, but she hadn’t yet met Maggie.
Everything was moving quickly. And eerily.
She still couldn’t shake off the disturbing feeling she had from her late-night escapade.
The knock on the door jolted her. She peered through the peephole.
A thirtysomething woman with wild curly red hair smiled up at her.
Theresa slowly opened the door but kept the safety chain on. “Maggie?”
Maggie automatically pulled out her press pass. “That’s me.” She continued to smile.
Theresa shut the door so she could take off the safety chain, then let Maggie in.
“Hi, Theresa,” Maggie said pleasantly. She knew how unnerving all of this had to be for the woman, who continued to pace.
“Hi. Please come in. Sit.” Theresa motioned to one of the club chairs.
“Thanks.” Once again, Maggie pulled out her laptop. “Tell me everything you remember about the accident.”
Theresa recounted the collision with as much detail as she could, which was truly little. “He came out of nowhere, sideswiped me, causing my car to hit a pole.” She pointed to the fading bruise under her eye. “Airbag deployed. When I looked up to see who it was, they were gone.”
“Do you remember if the truck came from behind?”
“Yes, it did. It was as if he was trying to overtake me on the road.”
“And there is no security footage,” Maggie stated.
“Correct,” Theresa responded. “I’m afraid that’s all I know.”
“About the accident,” Maggie said, still typing. “What about the night crawl?”
Theresa was stunned. She had no idea how much Lizzie was sharing and with whom. “Uh, well.”
“It’s okay. Lizzie and I are part of a team. I have some general information. I just need you to go over it with me to make sure we’re not leaving out any important details. Let’s start from the beginning. When you first arrived at Sunnydale.”
Theresa described her experience in great detail, from the curt phone call to the odd behavior of the staff, the mysterious woman in the wheelchair, the ring, and the questionable death of her aunt.
“Just so you know, we were not able to confirm a death certificate for your aunt. Could she have been going by another name?”
Theresa jerked her head. “I can’t imagine why. The staff had her name on the window.”
“Walk me through it one more time. About the woman in the wheelchair, mostly.”
“I think the woman in the wheelchair is, in fact, my aunt, and the woman who died is someone else.” Theresa shook her head. “Why they would lie to me or do such a thing is bizarre.” Theresa thought for a moment. “Unless I’m losing my mind.”
“I doubt it.” Maggie looked up from her keyboard. “Why would they lie to you is the real question here. There’s got to be some kind of cover-up.”
“I’ll say.” Then Theresa went into further detail about the night she and Henry and Frida crawled through the bushes and what they believed they saw. “It looked like a body, but it was too far away. Whatever it was, it was in a black bag, on a gurney, and placed into a hearse.”
“In the middle of the night.” Maggie wasn’t asking a question. She was punctuating Theresa’s story.
“According to Henry, this happens at least once a month.”
“I wonder. Do you think Henry and Frida would be willing to talk to me? Or someone else who I’m working with, to try to unravel this enigma?”
“There are more of you?” Theresa’s eyes got wider.
“Let’s just say we have many resources. In a day or so, there will be another new resident at Sunnydale. Her name is Annie Dresden. She is close friends with Lizzie.”
“I don’t understand,” Theresa said.
“I don’t expect you to, not just yet, but just know that Lizzie and our team are peeling the onion.”
“Okay. Does that mean I have to stay on a little longer? Lizzie said for me to sit tight, but of course I didn’t, and here we are.”
“If you can, it would be helpful. You seem to have an ‘in’ with two residents, and you are familiar with the lay of the land.”
“That’s for sure. I was crawling on it,” she said nervously.
Maggie could sense Theresa’s trepidation. “To reiterate Lizzie’s advice, sit tight and wait to hear from Annie. Go about your business. See the sights.”
“If the heat lets up. How do people live here?”
“It is a bit crispy, isn’t it?” Maggie had to agree. Florida was humid. Arizona was crispy. “Do you have your cell handy?”
“Yes.” Theresa got up and unplugged the phone that was being charged.
Maggie gave her a phone number. “Call this if you find yourself in any danger or need some help.” It was the emergency line that everyone had access to.
If you dialed it, the mainframe would automatically track the location of the origin of the call.
“It’s kind of like our own private nine-one-one. ”
Theresa was intrigued. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”
“Is there anything else you can think of?” Maggie checked the time.
“I have to get over to the police station. I want to see if they can give me any other details of your accident. I’m doing a story about the rise in hit-and-run accidents.
” She raised her eyebrows. “Try to relax. Someone will be in touch soon.”
Theresa felt a sense of relief. She was not alone in this quagmire. Lizzie was on top of it, just like Theresa had hoped.
Maggie got into her flaming hot vehicle, started the engine, and rolled the windows down. The police station was eleven miles away. She figured the car would be cool by the time she got there and chuckled to herself. How do people live here?
When she arrived at the police station, she identified herself, showed her credentials, and stated her reason for visiting.
“I’m doing a story about hit-and-run accidents.
I understand there was one on the Sunnydale premises a few days ago.
” She held up her press pass in front of the plexiglass window.
“Oh?” the front desk officer asked curiously.
“Yes. A woman named Theresa Gallagher was hit by a dump truck as she was leaving the long-term care facility.”
“Oh, yeah. I was entering the information into the system earlier this morning. How can I help you?”
“Would it be possible for me to take a look at the accident report? It’s important that I have the facts to back up my story.”
“Sure. I don’t see why not.”
At least she wasn’t getting stonewalled like in Florida, she thought to herself.
“Come on back.” The officer pressed a button to release the security door. “I’ll print out a copy for you.”
Maggie walked through the metal detector. She was surprised at how accommodating the officer was. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”
The officer typed a few sentences and then hit the print button. A whirring sound emanated from a large printer. He walked over and pulled out the two sheets of paper. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.” Maggie looked down at the bare bones report. “No one has come forward with any information?”
“Not to my knowledge. I’m the one who gets to do the transcript input.”
Maggie reached into her bag and pulled out a business card. “If you get any updates, can you please give me a call? I’d be most appreciative, and I’ll be sure to mention the cooperation of the Tempe Police Department.”
“Sure thing.” He tapped the card in his palm, then tossed it in the garbage can as soon as Maggie was out the door.
Another officer entered the room. “What was that all about?”
“A reporter from Washington, D.C. Says she’s working on a story about hit-and-run accidents across the country. Wanted to know about the Sunnydale thing.”
“I hope you didn’t give her the real report.”
“Nah. Just the same one you gave Gallagher for the car rental agency.”
“Good. We don’t want to get anyone at Sunnydale in an uproar. They donate a lot of money to our PBA.”
“Sir? There really wasn’t much of a difference in the two reports.”
“I know, but the one you gave her does not mention failed security on Sunnydale’s part.”
“But that doesn’t mean they broke the law.”
“True, but we don’t want there to be any reason for anyone to want to investigate this further. They told us there was no footage because of an upgrade, and we took their word for it. End of story. Got it?”
“Absolutely.”
Maggie sat in her car for a few minutes.
She hadn’t been inside the station long enough for the interior to be unbearable.
She flipped through the pages. “No mention of CCTV out of service. Huh. Now why would they omit that?” She scanned the documents and uploaded them to the mainframe at Pinewood.
Maggie looked through her notes from Theresa.
Sure enough, Theresa said that she was told there was no security footage, so why did the police leave it out of the report?
Things were getting murkier by the minute.
She drove back to the airport, where Roger and the Gulfstream were waiting.
With the difference in time zones, Maggie calculated that it would be past midnight before she arrived in Florida.
Once they were airborne, she pushed her seat back into a reclining position and decided to get in a few winks. It had already been a long day.
Pinewood
Myra and Annie were filling out the online forms for tenancy at the two Sunnydale locations. Within minutes of their submissions, their cellphones were ringing. Myra took her call in the atrium, and Annie moved to the kitchen.
Both were greeted by the voices of mature women.
Both recorded the conversations. When the calls were complete, both realized the women they had been speaking to were working from a script.
Almost verbatim. Once the initial interviews were over, Annie and Myra agreed to forward the last three months of their bank statements. The false ones, of course.
Within twenty-four hours, both were accepted to Sunnydale. Both could move in as soon as they wanted. They were told, “New accommodations were opening up regularly.”