A Sweet Death, page 14
part #3 of Stoneybrook Series
As Hadley turned the van onto the old valley highway, her phone began ringing from her purse. She turned on her signal and pulled off onto the shoulder before fishing the phone out of her bag to answer it.
She recognized the number as Cassie’s.
“Hey, what’s up?” Hadley said, checking her watch. It was almost ten, right in the middle of Cassie’s school day.
“Jaxon just called me. He’s completely freaking out, says he needs your brother to put a security detail on him or something.” Cassie’s tone held her usual teenage disregard—at least, on the surface—but Hadley could hear a worry hiding just underneath.
“Why would Jaxon need a security detail?”
“Because he says he thinks someone’s going to come after him next. As of yesterday, he’s the only dealer still alive.”
“As of yesterday?” Hadley’s forehead pinched together until it relaxed in understanding. “The man we found at The Ridge was one of Jaxon’s fellow dealers?”
“Apparently.” Cassie sounded uninterested, but Hadley knew better. “He won’t leave his house, that’s how paranoid he’s being.”
“Okay, um … tell Jaxon I’m on my way up to Cascade Ridge right now, and I’ll stop by and talk with him.”
Cassie scoffed. “You’re not going to come get me?”
Hadley wanted to scoff right back, but suppressed the gesture. “I can’t wait until you’re out of school, Cassie. I’m already on my way.”
“No fair.” Cassie groaned, but then added, “Good luck.”
Hadley said her thanks and hung up, hoping Cassie was at least on a passing period and not calling her in the middle of class.
After shoving her phone back into her purse, Hadley continued her trip up the hill, trying hard to remember the way to Jaxon’s house. Last time she’d been there with Cassie, it had been dark. Everything seemed so much more confusing in the light of day.
Finally, she found the same neighborhood. She texted Cassie, hoping she wasn’t disrupting the girl’s time in school too much.
Here. Can you text Jaxon and let him know to meet me in the park like last time?
Any hope Cassie was diligently listening to her teachers was crushed when the girl responded right away.
He doesn’t want to go outside. Go to his house. 3416. It’s blue with white trim, across from the merry-go-round in the park.
Go to his house? Alone? Hadley gulped at the thought, scanning the line of palatial houses across the street, she settled on a blue one with the numbers 3416 hung over an entryway that would’ve given a castle door a run for its money.
Luke’s words from yesterday, about how he thought she was wrong to write off Miranda’s boyfriend, snuck into her brain. What if Luke was right and Jaxon was the one who’d taken or hurt Miranda? She could possibly be walking into a trap.
Or she could get information from Jaxon that might just help her find Miranda.
The latter option was too tempting to pass up. Grabbing her purse, Hadley exited her van and walked across the street toward the blue-and-white house. Just in case, she reached into her bag and wrapped her fingers around a small bottle. It was a refreshing lavender body spray she used when she needed freshening up after a long day in the jam kitchen. It was the only thing she had on her, not having anything like mace in her possession. Surely the perfumed liquid would buy her a little time if she sprayed it in an attacker’s face. Or it would simply make them smell like a spa.
Either way, Hadley stuck it in her jacket pocket, pulled in a deep breath, and jogged up the porch steps. Her finger resting firmly on the tiny bottle’s spray top inside her pocket. She knocked on the door, willing her heart rate to slow.
Unfortunately, it didn’t do much to help her relax when Jaxon threw the door open and pulled her inside. The door lock clicked into place behind her and she tensed.
“Where’s your brother?” Jaxon’s eyes were wide and rimmed with white as they locked on to Hadley’s.
She held out her free hand in a calm down gesture. “I’m not going to call him until I hear the facts. He’s busy right now trying to find your girlfriend, if you’ve forgotten.” She didn’t even try to hide the edge to her voice.
Jaxon’s gaze darted from her to the front windows, and he ushered her farther into the house.
“Casey was hit in the back of the head and found in the park. And now Zack was hit on the back of the head and found in his car at the bottom of a ravine.” Jaxon’s hand moved up and down over the back of his scalp, mussing his dark hair as it did so. “I’m the only one left.”
The look he shot Hadley was so full of pleading worry, her tight shoulders relaxed slightly. This wasn’t a teenage mastermind. He was a scared boy who’d gotten involved in something bigger than he realized.
Hadley sat in the nearest chair, which happened to be one of the stools set around the giant granite kitchen island.
“Look, I think the person who’s hurting your dealer friends is the same person who has Miranda,” Hadley said. She didn’t know whether or not she thought that, but it also didn’t seem out of the question, and she hoped it might help her, so she went with it. “If you help me find Miranda, we can get this person behind bars so you’ll be safe.”
Jaxon swallowed, but his head dipped in agreement.
“Okay,” Hadley said, taking what she could get. “I need you to think of anything you left out the other night when you were talking to Cassie and me. Anything. We’re talking life and death here.”
Jaxon scanned the ceiling. She hoped beyond hope it was a sign he was thinking. He was silent for a long time, his lips moving as he seemed to be recounting what he’d told them already.
After a few moments, Hadley became impatient. “You said this Zack person was your friend.”
“Associate,” Jaxon corrected.
“Associate,” Hadley repeated. “So you were familiar with his car. Did you pass him on your way past the hospital, when you were driving away from Miranda?”
“No,” he said. “I know Zack’s car. Everyone does between the loud music he’s always playing and his huge rims. I would’ve known if I passed him.”
Frustration curled through Hadley’s chest again, making it hard to breathe evenly. There was no way he hadn’t driven by Zack’s car given the red-light photo she’d seen. It was possible he was angry enough that he didn’t notice. She decided to try a different line of questioning.
“Why would Zack have been at the hospital at that time of night, or the morning as it was, in the first place?”
Jaxon cleared his throat. “Well, that’s where we pick up customers a lot of the time. I mean, Zack. That’s where he picked up customers. I went to parties, so did Casey. But Zack ran the hospital.”
Hadley perked up. “And what does that mean? Running the hospital? Would he go inside and find people who were sick?”
Jaxon shook his head emphatically. “No, he’d wait out in the parking lot for our supplier to text him. The supplier always knew when someone was getting cut off of their prescriptions and might be willing to buy. Zack would approach them in the parking lot and”—Jaxon shrugged—“I’d say he made a sale about half the time. I'd get way better odds at parties, so I stuck with that, but …”
Mulling over the information, Hadley tried to think about what this meant for Miranda. “Supplier?” she asked. “Who’s that?”
“I don’t know,” Jaxon said. “None of us do. They always told us where the package would be once we left the money and that was that. We’ve never seen the person, none of us.” Jaxon grimaced. “Well, maybe some of us did, but they didn’t live much longer.”
Hadley’s heart picked up speed. So the mystery supplier could be the kidnapper and killer. And if they were aware of patients who had been cut off, they probably worked at the hospital. She closed her eyes for a moment. There were hundreds of people who worked for Grande County General, though.
Unable to find an answer to her question, she focused on something else. “But why would Zack have been there so late? I’m sure there weren’t many patients needing to be snatched up at that time of night.”
Jaxon puffed out his cheeks in an exhale. “Right. He was probably there grabbing supplies then.”
“And how did you guys do that?” Hadley leaned forward on her stool.
“Well, we’d text the number we had that we needed more. The supplier would text back how much it would be. We had to go leave the cash. A day later they would text us which locker our stuff would be in, then we’d go back to pick it up.” The teen shrugged as if it were as simple as starting up a car.
“Lockers? At the hospital? Isn’t that a little risky with the security cameras?”
“Not the new hospital, the old one, across the street.”
Hadley remembered back to when she and Gran had driven up last weekend for her hip, and how Gran had talked about the old hospital to the left and down the hill from the new one. It clicked into place at once, that was why Jaxon hadn’t passed Zack, because Zack hadn’t been turning right into the new hospital in the photo Hadley had seen. He’d been coming from the other direction, up the hill she and Luke had walked the other day, and he’d turned right down the hill to the old hospital.
And, if Jaxon was right about everyone knowing Zack’s car had his signature rims, Miranda would’ve seen it too as she saw him drive by.
“Jaxon, do you think Miranda was desperate enough to try to buy from someone else since you refused to sell to her?” Hadley asked quickly.
Jaxon’s mouth hung open for a second, and Hadley was starting to get impatient when he nodded. “She might’ve. She was in a bad place and she had enough money.”
Letting go of the lavender spray in her pocket, Hadley stood and pulled her keys out of her purse.
“Wait, where are you going?” Jaxon stood with her.
“To figure out who your supplier is. Whoever they are, I think they’ve got Miranda.”
22
Hadley’s hands shook as she drove to Grande County General Hospital. Parking near the emergency room, she glanced across the street at the road leading down to the old hospital.
She knew Paul would kill her for rushing into a dilapidated old building off limits to the public, so that option was out for now. Still, she pulled out her phone and sent him a message.
Where are you? she texted. I need to talk. I think I might know something about Miranda.
When no answer came after a few seconds, Hadley shoved the phone back into her purse and headed inside the new hospital. There was one more person who might have the information she needed about this supplier.
“I’m here to see Brenda Walters,” she told the front desk clerk upon entering the brightly lit foyer of the hospital.
The attendant checked his computer screen as he typed in the name. “She’s in Room 366,” he told Hadley.
After thanking him, she found the elevators and then wound through the maze of hallways until she located the room. Disinfectant permeated the air, creating that smell only hospitals held. Just as she was about to step into the room, a voice stopped her.
“Excuse me. Can I help you?”
When Hadley turned back toward the nurse’s station, she saw a tired-looking woman around her age, glancing up from the chart in her hands.
Hadley gestured over her shoulder. “I’m here to visit Brenda. She’s—I’m from her town.”
The nurse's eyes narrowed as they took in Hadley. “Unless you’re family, I wouldn’t recommend that. She’s not in a place for visitors.”
Hadley’s chest tightened with frustration. Was this nurse not going to allow her to see Brenda?
“Oh, it’s kind of important,” she said lamely, wishing she had a more compelling reason to give the nurse.
Actually, she had a very compelling reason, but not one she could say aloud. Without knowing who this supplier was, she couldn’t just tell anyone why she was there. She swallowed, smiling awkwardly at the nurse. Heck, this woman could be the supplier for all she knew.
After a moment, the nurse sighed. “Okay, just wanted to warn you that she’s far from pleasant right now. It’s your funeral if you want to walk into that.” Cocking an eyebrow, the nurse went back to her chart.
Relief whooshed through Hadley in a long exhale. “Makes you wonder why she checked herself in, if she’s so miserable,” she wondered aloud, turning back toward Brenda’s room.
The nurse pushed back her shoulders. “She didn’t. A man brought her in, said he found her unconscious and was worried about her.”
Hadley froze. A man. “What did he look like?” She spun back around to the nurse.
She shrugged. “Um … tall guy, hunched over, blond hair.”
“Dennis,” Hadley whispered to herself. “Thanks,” she told the nurse.
So Dennis was the one who brought Brenda here, Hadley mused, still unsure if that made him more or less likely to be the one who took Miranda.
Unable to solve that quandary, Hadley turned toward the room, steeling her reserve for what she was about to see. The rhythmic beeping of a heart monitor rang through the otherwise silent room. The woman in question sat, propped up by the electronic hospital bed. Her closed eyelids twitched above dark circles, and her damp hair clung awkwardly to clammy skin.
Sleeping. Hadley clenched her fingers in frustration. She wasn’t about to wake a sleeping patient. She turned to leave.
“Don’t act like I can’t hear you stomping around.” Brenda’s voice was so tightly strung, Hadley worried it might snap like an overextended rubber band.
When Hadley glanced back, Brenda’s eyes were open, and her face was contorted into a scowl.
“What do you want?” she snapped the question at Hadley.
“I’m trying to help find Miranda,” Hadley said, fighting to keep any annoyance from her tone. Had Brenda completely given up on her daughter?
At her daughter’s name, Brenda’s face softened out of the scowl it had been in, but her body language remained tense. As if she were in a room with a wild animal, Hadley slowly moved to sit in the chair near the foot of Brenda’s bed.
“If I ask you some questions, will you promise to tell me the truth?” Hadley asked, her voice measured.
Brenda pulled her bedsheets higher over her arms and shivered. Her face darkened. “I have nothing to hide, anymore.”
Hadley breathed deep. She knew addiction was a disease and that the woman in front of her was probably going through severe withdrawals, so she gathered all of her empathy.
“So you knew Miranda was getting the drugs for you?” Hadley asked, instead of the more pressing question of How could you? ringing in her brain.
“Painkillers,” Brenda amended. “And she said it was safe.” Brenda spat out the answer. “She asked me to quit, and I did—for a while. But the pain was so bad still.” The woman’s expression darkened. “Miranda told me she knew how to get some, from a friend. She made me promise I would only take them when I needed to.”
“And how often was that?”
Brenda’s gaze snapped up to meet Hadley’s. “Whenever I was in pain.”
Feeling her heart rate rise, Hadley tried to calm herself. She nodded in an attempt to appease Brenda. After a quick check over one shoulder to make sure no hospital staff were outside the room, Hadley asked, “Did you ever buy the drugs from someone?”
“Painkillers,” Brenda corrected again. “And no. Other than what Miranda’s been getting me for the past few months, the ones I took were always prescribed.”
So it’s possible one of the nurses around here is the supplier. He or she could watch for patients who come in to get more meds and are turned away, then tell a dealer like Zack to meet them in the parking lot. Hadley picked at her nails while she thought. She hadn’t repainted them since the purple the other day, knowing any polish would be chipped off immediately until the girl was found.
“Were you ever approached?” Hadley asked after a moment.
Brenda paused. “This summer. The first time I got kicked out.” She used air quotes around the last two words and rolled her eyes. “Some kid told me he had what I needed. At first, I thought he was trying to hit on me.” Brenda snorted out a wry laugh. “But then I realized he had to be half my age and that couldn’t be it. When I figured out what he was offering, I told him no right away. I’m not a drug addict,” she almost yelled the last part, ripping the blanket off her arm, apparently done with being cold and back to the hot and sweaty phase.
Says the woman who’s going through drug withdrawals right in front of me. Hadley rubbed at her aching temples. This line of questioning wasn’t getting her anywhere. She needed to figure out which person in the hospital would not only have access to the drugs, but would know when patients were being cut off. With the emergency room, hospital, pharmacy, and clinic all within the same complex, doctors and nurses were constantly moving from building to building.
“Do you remember the name of the nurse who kicked you out that first time? Or what they looked like?” Hadley asked, realizing after she asked the question how silly it was; any hospital employee could’ve been the one to tip off Zack.
Brenda shook her head, sending a sneer toward the hallway where the nurses’ station stood. “The nurses were always different, and they either treated me like a child or a criminal. Dr. Kennedy was the only one who cared.”
Hadley’s ears perked up at the name. Kennedy was the doctor who’d seen Gran the other day. Broken back, broken hip, they were all broken bones and would be treated by the same physician.
Brenda continued, adding, “It was fine until one time, he must’ve forgotten to call in my prescription, and when I asked them to contact him, those pharmacists got all nosy and started asking too many questions. They talked with his nurses, not him, and before I knew it, I was getting cut off. After that, they wouldn’t even let me see Kennedy.”
Remembering the kind way the man had talked to Gran, how he’d complimented her on her toughness and offered the pain medications to help, an idea hit Hadley.
