After She's Gone (West Coast #3)

CHAPTER 31

“I’ll be damned,” Nash said under her breath as she stared at her computer screen on her desk. Lieutenant Sparks had called earlier and given her a short rundown on his trip to Molalla where he’d interviewed a woman by the name of Sonja Watkins. He and ex-sheriff Carter had been trying to locate Belva Nelson, Watkins’s aunt and a retired nurse who had supposedly “visited” Cassie Kramer in the hospital, where, dressed in a costume straight out of the fifties, good old Aunt Belva had assured Cassie that her sister was just fine and dandy. Their tip had come from a mental patient who’d seen an SUV that didn’t belong in the hospital lot. Nash had thought the story beyond far-fetched, but Sparks was a good cop, as Carter had been a good sheriff. Reluctantly Nash had done a little follow-up.

She’d asked Natalie Jenkins, a junior detective, to research the name Belva Nelson on the off-chance that not only was there such a person, but that she was a nurse and had some connection to Mercy Hospital, or Cassie Kramer, or both. Nash wanted anything Jenkins could find. And she wanted it now.

So far, lo and behold, Sparks’s and Carter’s information held up. Belva Mae Watkins Nelson, a widow, was indeed a retired nurse who lived in the small community of Molalla. Her work history included several clinics and hospitals in the Portland area, including a very short stint at Mercy Hospital over thirty years earlier. Nash had already called the hospital, talked to the records department, and requested a full history of Belva Nelson’s employment. She’d been given some double-talk about the hospital being sold several times over the past years, its records archived, if said documents still existed at all. Nash accepted no excuses and told the records clerk to put her manager on the line, or if that didn’t work, Nash wanted to talk to hospital administration. Upon realizing Detective Nash wasn’t about to be sidetracked, the clerk had quickly lost her snippy it’s-too-much-trouble attitude and promised to look into the request. Nash had told her she’d be by to pick up the information, if it weren’t faxed over to the police department by eight the next morning. Just to keep the clerk on task.

Since Belva Nelson, in her seventies, was no longer working, what was she doing at the hospital in the middle of the night in Cassie Kramer’s room? Initially Nash had thought Cassie Kramer was a liar, somehow trying to save her own skin, or else was certifiable, suffering from some mental health problem that caused her to be delusional and hallucinate. Now, Nash wasn’t convinced. Could it be that Cassie Kramer was telling the truth? Then who was behind the bizarre murders? Who, Nash wondered, would have it in for Cassie Kramer so deeply that he or she would go to such lengths to make Cassie either go crazy or appear guilty?

The name that kept nagging at Nash’s mind was Allie Kramer. Was it possible she was still alive, as the retired nurse had suggested? Was she sending random texts out just to mess with Cassie’s head? Did she hate her sister so much as to set her up for murder? How off the rails was Allie and, above all else, was she capable of homicide? Nash hadn’t yet talked to Brandon McNary. He’d been a ghost and hadn’t returned her calls, but she was determined to track him down and find out about the text message he’d received, purportedly from the same number as Cassie.

First things first, though.

With a dozen questions running through her mind, she scooted her desk chair back and walked to Double T’s cubicle. He was staring at his own computer monitor while talking on his desk phone. Though he never so much as glanced her way, he must’ve seen her in his peripheral vision as he held up a finger to silently tell her to “hold on.”

“. . . yeah, that’s right. Tyronne with two ns. Thompson with a p . . . uh-huh. Okay . . . yeah, I’ll be there.”

He hung up and twirled his desk chair to face her. “Mix-up at the doctor’s office. Seems there’s actually two Tyronne Thompsons, but the other guy?” he said, flashing a wicked grin. “He spells his name wrong.”

“He probably doesn’t think so. Besides, I thought they used birth dates.”

He shrugged. “Somehow this other dude got called for my appointment with the ENT. Guess we all have sinus issues. The climate.”