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For the next three hours, she talked to three different people—the intake interviewer, that interviewer’s supervisor, then an actual agent after she’d been on hold for nearly forty minutes. She explainedthree timeshow she knew the marshal and what she knew about his murder—which really wasn’tanything, she realized—and she wasstillwaiting for a call back after the agent said yetanotheragent would be contacting her. The entire process cost her another night in the cabin, because she was supposed to check out at eleven.
Jenna didn’t think the worst of people, but she also wasn’t a Pollyanna. She might be a bit paranoid, but she had no family left outside of her grandmother, who was in a care home. She wanted to go home, but she was scared. The indecision and growing fear coupled with the sense that she was being ridiculous gave her an intense headache.
She needed to talk to someone she trusted—someone who knew her, who knew she wasn’t crazy. She considered Lance—he was her closest friend and she trusted him. But she didn’t want to put this on his shoulders. It was her problem, her paranoia.
You’re not paranoid!she told herself. After all, Tommy had told her to be cautious, to call him if anything out of the ordinary happened.
She hadn’t expected his murder to be the “out of the ordinary” event.
Finally, after taking three Tylenol, she called her grandmother. She needed to hear her voice, remember that she had someone who loved her unconditionally. Maybe she could gain some perspective.
Grams answered on the fourth ring. “Hello?” Her voice was bright and Jenna almost cried.
“Hi, Grams. It’s Jenna.”
“It is so good to hear your voice! This isn’t your number, I almost didn’t answer. Do you know how many of those telemarketing calls I get every day? What do they call them?”
“Spam.”
“Yes. Spam calls. But I just had a feeling I should answer... Do you have today off? Are you coming for a visit?”
She sounded hopeful, and Jenna realized she needed to see her.
“Yes,” she said, making the decision right then and there. She’d call the front desk and see if she could still check out today, maybe pay a fee or something for the extra hour. “I was going to swing by this afternoon, wanted to make sure you didn’t have a hot date.”
Grams laughed, her voice lilting and sounding younger than her years. “Maybe someday I will. A new gentleman moved in down the hall from me. His name is Rock Jameson. Rock! Can you believe that name? I thought for certain it was an alias, and he told me his given name was Richard, but he’d been called Rock since he was five years old when he had an accident and his doctor said his head was as hard as a rock or he would have been dead.” She laughed again, and Jenna joined in.
“I can’t wait to meet him,” Jenna said.
Her grandmother’s assisted living facility was only twenty minutes from Jenna’s house, but more than an hour from the cabin.
“I’ll come by between two and three this afternoon?” She knew her grandmother napped after lunch.
“Perfect. I should be back from my walk with Misty around two.”
The home was one of the few in the area that allowed residents to have a small dog or cat. Jenna was thrilled when they’d found it, because there were many studies that proved the elderly lived longer, happier lives when they had a pet.
“Does Rock have a dog?”
“No, he doesn’t. But Misty seems to like him just fine.”
“Oh, introducing the new man in your life to Misty! It must be serious.”
Grams laughed again. “I love talking to you, but it’s eleven thirty and if I don’t bust my butt and get to the dining hall, Dottie and Flo are going to nab extra lemon squares and I won’t get even one.”
“Walk, don’t run,” Jenna admonished jokingly. Her grams had a scooter, but could get around short distances with her walker.
“Already have my scooter charged and waiting for me.”
“If you get another speeding ticket, I’m not bailing you out.”
“I’ll go the speed limit,” she giggled. “I love you, sweetie. Can’t wait to see you!”
“Love you too, Grams.”
Jenna felt so much better after talking to her grandmother. She called the front desk and they said if she was out by noon, they wouldn’t charge her.
She didn’t have much with her—she’d only packed an overnight bag. But she made sure she hadn’t left anything in the room, then checked out two minutes before the deadline and headed to her car. She didn’t know what she planned on doing after her visit with her grandmother, but anything was better than pacing the small cabin waiting for a call that might never come.
