“Angela, you’re beginning to sound a little out of control,” David said.
Angela put her coffee cup down and grabbed David by the arm. “Excuse us,” she said to Calhoun. Angela pulled David into the family room.
“I’m not out of control,” she began once they were beyond Calhoun’s earshot. “I just like the idea of doing something positive, of having a cause. This town has pushed us around the same way it’s pushed Hodges’ death under the carpet. I want to know what’s behind it all. Then we can leave here with our heads held high.”
“This is your hysterical side talking,” David said.
“Whatever you want to call it is okay with me,” Angela said. “Let’s give it one more final go. Calhoun thinks this visit to Clara Hodges might do the trick. Let’s try it.”
David hesitated. His rational side argued against it, but Angela’s pleas were hard to resist. Underneath his veneer of calm and reason, David was just as angry as Angela.
“All right,” he said. “Let’s go. But we’ll stop and see Nikki first.”
“Gladly,” Angela said. She put out her hand. David halfheartedly slapped it. Then when he put out his own, Angela hit it with surprising force.
David’s next surprise was that they had to take Calhoun’s truck so Calhoun could smoke. But with Calhoun driving, they were able to pull right up to the front door of the hospital. Calhoun waited while David and Angela ran inside.
Nikki was much happier now that she was out of the ICU. Her only complaint was that she’d been transferred to one of the old hospital beds and, as usual, the controls didn’t work. The foot would rise but not the head.
“Did you tell the nurses?” David asked.
“Yeah,” Nikki said. “But they haven’t told me when it will be fixed. I can’t watch the TV with my head flat.”
“Is this a frequent problem?” Angela asked.
“Unfortunately,” David said. He told her what Van Slyke had said about the hospital purchasing the wrong kind of beds. “They probably saved a few dollars buying the cheap ones. But any money saved has been lost in maintenance costs. It’s that old expression: penny-wise and pound-foolish.”
David left Angela with Nikki while he sought out Janet Colburn. When he found her he asked if Van Slyke had been alerted about Nikki’s bed.
“He has, but you know Van Slyke,” Janet said.
Back in Nikki’s room, David assured her that if her bed wasn’t fixed by that evening, he’d do it himself. Angela had already informed her that she and David were on their way to Boston but would be back that afternoon. They’d come see her as soon as they were back.
Returning to the front of the hospital, Angela and David piled into Calhoun’s truck. Soon they were on their way south on the interstate. David found the trip uncomfortable for more reasons than the truck’s poor suspension. Even though Calhoun cracked his window, cigar smoke swirled around inside the cab. By the time they got to Clara Hodges’ Back Bay address in Boston, David’s eyes were watering.
Clara Hodges struck David as having been a good match for Dennis Hodges. She was a big-boned, solid woman with piercing, deep-set eyes and an intimidating scowl.
She invited them into her parlor decorated with heavy Victorian furnishing. Only a meager amount of daylight penetrated the thick velvet drapes. Despite being midday the chandelier and all the table lamps were turned on.
Angela introduced herself and David as the purchasers of Clara’s home in Bartlet.
“Hope you like it better than I did,” Clara said. “It was too big and drafty, especially for only two people.”
She offered tea which David took with relish. Not only were his eyes burning from the secondhand smoke in the truck, but his throat was parched.
“I can’t say I’m pleased about this visit,” Clara said once her tea was poured. “I’m upset this ugly business has surfaced. I’d just about adjusted to Dennis’s disappearance when I learned that he’d been murdered.”
“I’m sure you share our interest in bringing his killer to justice,” Calhoun said.
“It wouldn’t matter much now,” Clara said. “Besides, we’d all be dragged through some awful trial. I preferred it the way it was, just not knowing.”