Chapter 28
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Later that afternoon Doreen woke up from a nap to feel the weight of Mugs on one side and Goliath on the other.
Thaddeus was on his roost. Everybody had been happy to go back to bed.
She intended to go to the hospital to see Annabel, but, as soon as Doreen and her animals were back home, she realized she was way too tired.
She assessed how she felt now, after her nap.
She felt better. More relaxed. Less emotional.
As she got up and headed downstairs to do the unthinkable—microwaving the leftover coffee—she then got back enough energy to get her through the next little bit.
Knowing that the hospital would likely cause quite a fuss if she brought her animals to visit Annabel, Doreen headed down there without them.
It felt terrible to leave them at home for even just that little bit, but that was also something she had to get used to.
Getting to the hospital, she headed to the reception desk to find out what room Annabel was in.
Getting the number with no questions from the receptionist, Doreen headed for the elevator and up to what turned out to be a private room, which she found interesting.
As she walked in with a knock on the open door, the young woman looked up.
There was no fear in her expression and immediate recognition when she saw Doreen.
Annabel smiled. “Hey, I didn’t expect to see you.”
“Just checking to make sure you’re doing okay,” she replied as she walked closer. “That had to be a pretty rough experience for you.”
Annabel nodded immediately. “You’re not kidding,” she muttered. “Not exactly how I expected my life to go.”
“Of course not.”
They spoke for a few minutes, but Annabel was keeping things very generic and didn’t seem open to answering any pointed questions, and Doreen had to respect that, but it was hard.
She did share how Birdie had passed last night.
As Doreen said her goodbyes and walked to the door, she turned back and asked Annabel, “Did you remember anything more about Birdie?”
“Outside of what a terror she was? No,” she said, with a shrug.
“Right, she was quite the character.”
“That she is, … was.” She corrected herself. “She was also a heck of a gambler, and she was quite a formidable woman for her size. I don’t want to say anything bad about the recently departed, but she wasn’t exactly the easiest person to get along with.”
“No, of course not,” Doreen agreed, with a wry smile. “Have the police been in to talk to you?”
She nodded. “Several times,” she admitted. “Not a pleasant process either.”
“Will you be going home soon?” Doreen asked. “Do you have any idea when the hospital will release you?”
She shrugged. “I don’t even know that I want to go home at this point,” she shared. “I feel safer here than at my place.”
“Of course,” Doreen replied, “but Mike’s been arrested.”
“That doesn’t mean he’ll stay arrested,” she clarified, with a frown in Doreen’s direction. “And he’s quite the liar, so his version of events could be very, very different than the truth.”
Doreen chuckled at that. “I think that’s pretty standard with suspects.”
“It probably is,” she noted. “I just really don’t want to get tangled up in this any more than I already am. Honestly, I wish I weren’t even in this situation.”
“That goes for all of us when it comes to these events,” Doreen stated. “Yet you’re safe now.”
“And I owe you a big thank you for that,” she shared. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t shown up or how long I could have stayed there.”
“You would have been fine for quite a while,” Doreen pointed out, with a gentle smile, “but thankfully it wasn’t needed.”
“You never did say what you were doing at the house,” she added. “Did you know that I was missing?”
“No, not at all,” Doreen replied. “So it was a doubly good thing we ended up there at Mike’s house.
We had gone to check out Devon’s house, when we stumbled on one guy, casing the place, who led to us finding Mike at the mall.
Both guys had been breaking into houses.
So, once they were arrested, we had to check out their houses too. ”
“Right,” she muttered. “They do odd jobs for other people as well.”
“Such as?”
She shrugged. “I already told the police, and I probably shouldn’t say anything to you about it. … Let’s just say, they weren’t very nice people.”
“No, I’m sure they weren’t,” Doreen agreed, chuckling. “The good news is, you are no longer a captive in that house.”
She smiled. “No, I’m not, and, when this is over, I’m heading back East and going home.”
“Good enough.”
“Do you know anything about what’s happening to Devon’s belongings?”
“No, not yet,” she said. “Why?”
“I know he left everything to his grandmother, and there was supposedly a reciprocal agreement so that, when she died, everything of hers would go to him.”
“That’s fairly common in families,” she noted.
“But now neither of them is alive.”
“That’s right,” Doreen murmured. “So, that will be something for the lawyers to sort out.” Annabel looked disappointed. “Were you hoping to get something from Devon?”
“He always told me that he would leave me something, but it’s not like you can listen to what anybody says these days.”
“No, you sure can’t,” Doreen agreed. “And I don’t think he had all that much, did he?”
“He had the house, although the guys have probably stripped it clean by now.”
“And the police are checking on who the real owner of that house was.” Annabel seemed surprised, then kind of defeated.
She shook her head and added, “Oh, wouldn’t that be so very typical.”
“What do you mean?” Doreen asked.
“Devon told me that it was his house.”
“And maybe it was, but you know how people talk, particularly when they’re trying to impress someone.”
Her eyes opened wide, and she shuddered. “That’s the kind of impressing I don’t need, not at all.”
“Of course not, but that doesn’t mean that it’ll stop people’s behavior.” With that, Doreen offered, “Here’s my phone number. Anytime you need something, … just give me a shout, and I’ll see what I can do.”
“I just want to go home,” she whispered, “and I mean home, … my home. As in head back East to Ontario.”
“Oh, is that where you’re from?”
“I’ve got a sister there,” she shared. “After this, I just want to get away from it all.”
“And can your sister help you get there? I mean, … presumably you have some money of your own, but maybe your sister can give you a hand to get back home again?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t talked to her yet.” Annabel shrugged. “That’ll be a conversation to have after the police say I can leave.”
“Right.” Doreen gave her a smile. “You might need to talk to a therapist to help you deal with this.”
“I know,” she muttered, “and I’m just exhausted enough that I’m not sure how much I can even deal with it right now.”
“You can decide on that later. Life throws us all kinds of difficulties at times,” she noted. “So you do the best you can and don’t ever feel like you’re to blame. Sometimes we do that as a way to feel a little more in control.” Doreen waved goodbye and headed out of the hospital.
Despite her nap, Doreen was still really tired herself and had to admit her brain wasn’t functioning quite as well as it should be.
Yet she felt something was off in what Annabel had told her.
Then again, Annabel was probably just trying to make the world go away so she could disappear herself.
Something like what Doreen would have done in her position.
As she made her way back out to her car, Mack called her.
“Where are you?” he asked, his tone abrupt.
“I’m just leaving the hospital. I stopped in to say hi to the young woman we found, Annabel.”
There was silence, as if he were connecting the dots, and then he asked, “How is she doing?”
“She seems fine, and she was talking about going back East to her family.”
“Yeah, I think I heard something about that.”
“But she seemed to think she wouldn’t be allowed to leave yet.”
“Nope, not yet,” he confirmed, “but hopefully we can let her go soon. She really ought to seek some help before she takes on that move.”
“She seems pretty rational and stable, but I think her inclination is still to run.”
“Of course,” he agreed, “just as yours would be.”
“I guess,” she relented. “I mean, it makes sense. She lost Devon, then hooks up with Mike, which wasn’t really a relationship for sure. So she’s on Mike’s and Fin’s radar. Then, depending on these guys and whether you have released them or not, they could come back and find her.”
“They haven’t been released. I’m not sure the one who kidnapped her will get released. We’re hoping not, but it depends on the charges and whether or not he could make bail.”
“And you don’t think he’s a flight risk?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think. That stuff is all up to the lawyers,” he declared, with a groan. “But let’s hope that they do deem him a flight risk and that they can convince a judge accordingly.”
“I would definitely think that would be an issue. Plus, I don’t think she’s safe if he’s out there.”
“Agreed, and that’s already been brought up, but again that’s out of our control,” he reminded her.
“Right, and, just for the record, I do realize that you know how to do your job, and I apologize if it didn’t sound that way.”
He chuckled. “Actually I’m much more concerned about you. Do you feel as tired as you sound?”
“I think it’s more about Birdie,” she shared.
“Just that whole mess about what happened to her and all these open-ended questions as to who was involved in the death of her grandson—and her too of course. Also I was down with Nan and her usual crowd at Rosemoor, dealing with them, then spoke to the manager. He did confirm that Birdie has nothing in the Rosemoor’s safe.
However, Roger’s in a dither because he’s expecting to get fired, and he feels like it would not just be the loss of his current job but of a career. ”
“He may well lose his job,” Mack stated, “but it’s hard to say, especially if the residents rally around him.”