Adieu at the Zoo_A Jefferson Zoo Mystery by Harol Marshall

Author:Harol Marshall [Marshall, Harol]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fire Star Press
Published: 2018-05-29T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 34

I woke up on Wednesday morning in a hospital bed in a semi-private room, Jodie asleep in the bed next to mine. Neither of us was badly injured. No broken bones, mostly bruises, but the doctors insisted we stay overnight for observation. It was the best night’s sleep I’d had in a dog’s age. I began to understand how people got addicted to sleeping pills.

Once the doctors had finished examining us the previous night, the sheriff took over. To my surprise, he had the courtesy to ask our permission. Given the look of my bandaged head and bruised face, he probably felt sorry for us. We told him our story and Jodie chipped in with her theory about Tony Pope.

“We’ll pick him up for questionin’ soon’s we leave here,” the sheriff promised.

“Don’t forget to look for Jack’s shoes,” Jodie told him. “I bet you’ll find them in Tony’s closet.”

The sheriff nodded and glanced over at me. “I may have to hire this little lady away from you and add her to my staff. She’s got the makin’s of a real good detective.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but Jodie had more to say.

“And another thing.” She paused to brush back a strand of hair. “Billy could use a few lessons in conflict management.”

The sheriff never flinched. “I take it you and Billy know each other?”

“We go to the same church, which would make you think he’d have been a little more polite to Sam and me the day we found Andy, instead of treating us like we were some kind of criminals.”

“I’ll have a talk with that boy.”

I listened in amazement. I had no idea how Jodie got away with what she did. The southern woman thing, I thought.

Sheriff Joyner left shortly thereafter, promising he’d find the SOB who ran us off the road, and string him up. I took the latter statement as hyperbole, though I also felt like stringing up Tony Pope. I wished Jodie hadn’t taken matters into her own hands and confronted him. That was about the dumbest thing she’d ever done in my opinion.

Our hospital morning began with the rattling of metal carts in the hall outside our room signaling the arrival of breakfast. I reached for my watch in the nightstand drawer. Ten minutes to seven, my normal wake-up time. A cheery woman in a pinstriped uniform pushed a tray cart into our room.

“Good morning,” she sang, “how are you two this morning?”

“Pretty good, considering,” I replied, even though I ached all over.

Jodie raised her head a couple of inches and mumbled, “What time is it?”

“Almost seven,” I told her, “how are you feeling?”

“Pretty good, considering.”

The pinstriped woman chirped a second good morning in Jodie’s direction. “Breakfast time, rise and shine.” She set the brake on my tray and scurried out of the room for Jodie’s.

“No one should be that cheerful this early in the morning,” Jodie muttered, “especially not in a hospital.”

I eased my injured legs over the side of the bed and examined my battered shins.

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