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“I’m—”
And then the door to Tanner’s room opened, and the nurse who’d given them such hard looks came out, her expression resigned. She didn’t even react to Zora, Ellie, and Amanda hovering outside.
“Is he . . . okay?” Zora asked in a tremulous voice.
The nurse regarded them soberly and said, “The doctor will be talking to the family.”
“He’s gone,” Ellie said bluntly.
“Come on,” Amanda stated grimly, and she steered Zora toward the outside door.
* * *
After dropping Owen with her mother—Delta was afraid to take him to pre-K, afraid of what he might learn as she hadn’t yet found the words to say Tanner had been attacked—Delta arrived at the hospital in time to see Amanda walking out of the building hand in hand with Zora. She watched them head toward a black Lexus SUV—Amanda’s car, apparently, as Amanda unlocked the doors and made sure Zora was in the passenger side, then walked around the front of the vehicle to the driver’s side.
What did that mean? Nothing good.
Her hands were clasped on the wheel. Her fingers frozen. Her whole body clenched. Yesterday she’d left the police station and headed to Smith & Jones, where her dad had put his arms around her and called her Delli, and she’d broken down and completely lost it. Her father’s on-and-off slips into the beginnings of dementia hadn’t been on display since Tanner’s attack, which was a blessing. Her mother had comforted her, too, and offered to take Owen for the night, but Delta had needed to have her son with her, though it had shaken her when, later that evening, after she’d explained that even she couldn’t see daddy at the hospital just yet, Owen had looked up from his meal of macaroni and cheese and asked, “What happened to the knives?”
“What do you mean?” she’d asked, stunned.
“Those aren’t the same ones.”
He was six. How much could he know? A lot, she realized and felt the noose tightening. “Those are new ones” was her lame answer. She hoped to God he wouldn’t remember exactly when the knives were exchanged. It was so ridiculous. She should have never been so stupid. Her main character in Blood Dreams, Lynda, would never have panicked in such a ridiculous way.
And the police knew she was lying about the knife. Tia and Amy had made certain of it. She was going to have to come clean. She could put the original knife block back. It was still in the attic, and she could just blame her inaccuracy on stress, or something, but now Owen had seen the change.
“How could you be so stupid?” she asked herself now as she watched Amanda’s black SUV pull out of the lot. Had she and Zora come to see Tanner? Undoubtedly. Had they gotten in? Past the police officer?
Her cell phone started ringing. LAURELTON GENERAL read across her screen.
She gazed at it in bewilderment for a moment, but a part of her knew what was coming, and her heart started a hard, erratic beat. “Hello?” she answered
“Mrs. Tanner Stahd?” a female voice asked.
“Yes.” Her voice was strangled.
“I’m calling for Dr. Evanston. This is Nurse Alice Song. Is it possible for you to come into the hospital?”
“He’s dead, isn’t he?”
“I really think you should come in and talk to Dr. Evanston.”
“I will. Tell me he’s alive.”
“It would be best, if you came in. . . .”
Delta checked out. Just checked out. One moment, she was listening; the next, her gaze, through the windshield, was watching a plastic bag dip and weave against a frisky little breeze. Up and down. Whipped around. Flung to the ground. Caught up again.
Nurse Song didn’t have to tell her. She already knew.
“I’ll go straight to the morgue,” she said, her voice robotic.
Nurse Song didn’t argue with her.
She hung up and sat in her car and watched the plastic bag some more.
* * *
