Chapter 9 #2
“Is this your first time at The Rose? I mean, in recent years?” Charlie asked patiently.
“No,” she answered, concern furrowing her brow. “Grammy invited me here when she was judging the pageant two or three years ago. I actually helped pass out programs.” She smiled at the memory. “It was quite a circus.”
That was an appropriate way to describe the hustle and bustle of pageant weekend.
Charlie sat up and glanced at the deputy before recording something in his notebook.
“I’ve also filmed a couple of things on-site, one of them being Brett’s home episode for Small Town, Big Romance two years ago.” Mina looked from him to me to the deputy, her nerves obvious. “Why? Is it bad that I’ve been here before?”
“He writes down anything and everything,” the deputy said as she smiled at him in a way that felt too familiar. “It’s how he works.”
It was like she knew him better than I did.
“It’s true. I’m a stickler for details. It drives some people crazy,” Charlie said, his eyes fluttering to me before going back to Mina. “I’ve already spoken to Dakota, but Miss Davis, can you tell us in your own words what happened this evening?”
Charlie had his pen ready, and in that moment I thought I understood something.
Maybe he had brought me here not to question me but to be privy to one of his interviews.
Not that he thought Mina was guilty, necessarily, but maybe he wanted me to see the kinds of things that he and the deputy asked, the kinds of things he needed to know.
When we’d been thrown together in our first case at the pageant this summer, he had learned that as a layperson I could get information he couldn’t, and enhancing my skills now could only increase the kind of intel I could provide.
Mina began detailing things just as I remembered them, everything from the coughing to the passing out to me beginning CPR and her joining me on the ground to take over every other round of compressions. But then she added something that I hadn’t noticed at the time.
“I actually didn’t give him breaths during the last round because I thought I saw blood in his mouth.”
“Blood?” Charlie asked, as if he hadn’t been aware of the thin trail we’d noticed at the edge of Brett’s mouth. “Why do you think he might’ve been bleeding?”
Mina bit her lip, taking the question as seriously as if she were a medical expert weighing in. “I would guess that he bit his tongue when he fell to the ground. Or maybe he hadn’t been choking—or at least, not just choking. Maybe something else was wrong with him?”
Charlie nodded and recorded what she’d said, which matched what we’d observed of the body. “Are you certified in CPR?”
“Yes—or, no, not officially, but I learned by watching videos when Grammy was diagnosed.”
“You thought you might need it for her… cancer?” Charlie asked. I hated that he sounded skeptical, and I hoped Mina wasn’t picking up on it.
“No. I mean, she has ovarian cancer, and as soon as she was diagnosed, I read every article I could on it. The list of complications from the treatment is almost as scary as the diagnosis. I can’t control much in this whole process, but I can know how to do a few helpful things.
Or, at least, I thought I could while she was still undergoing treatment. ”
I’d done something similar when Momma was diagnosed, and I was picking up everything Mina was putting down, being reminded again of the same sense of powerlessness that I was certain she now felt.
The knowledge that the end was coming for my momma had carved a hole in my chest that would never quite mend.
Mina was on her own journey of loss, and I couldn’t even help her, except perhaps in one way.
“I think that’s enough for now,” I said. I stood and shot Charlie a look.
His gaze met mine. “One more thing. When you were here with your grandmother and later for the filming, did you ever see Brett interacting with any of the people here tonight?”
Mina considered the question. “When we were here for the home episode, he spoke to Presley, of course. She was on the show,” she clarified, which was probably a good thing since Charlie wasn’t the reality TV type.
“And Joe. He was here that weekend as well.” She bit her lip and looked to the ceiling.
“Other than that, I don’t think so. You could look back at the credits to know for sure. ”
Charlie recorded the info in his notebook.
Joe’s name stuck in my mind, specifically because of how he’d called Brett a son of a bitch at the bar earlier that evening.
His tone hadn’t been admiring, as in “that lucky son of a bitch.” No, it had definitely been frustrated, perhaps envious, but not light-hearted.
It couldn’t go unnoticed either that Joe had been the one making drinks, which Brett had potentially choked on.
Mina’s phone rang, and I saw that the caller was Richmond Methodist Medical.
“You should take it,” I said.
Charlie and the deputy both nodded in agreement.
“Am I dismissed?” I asked, as Mina moved to the corner for a moment of privacy.
Charlie gave me a curt nod. “I need to address the crowd. I’ll see you back in the ballroom.”
I wanted to do the exact opposite of whatever he wanted.
I suddenly had the urge to grab my keys, get in my car, and drive off into the night.
Yes, this was an immature and ridiculous impulse, but I was over this night and this weekend and this season of life when decisions needed to be made about what came next. All I wanted was to run away.
Charlie’s eyes caught mine, asking a silent question. He wanted me there, despite everything.
“See you in there,” I said.