Open Season by Maryann Miller

Author:Maryann Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery, fiction, police procedural, women detectives
Publisher: Maryann Miller
Published: 2014-11-18T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Angel supported the plastic cup so her mother could grasp the straw and take a sip of water. Even that simple action felt like a miracle. The older woman was far from well, but she was also now further from death. Her skin no longer hung in flaccid folds, and the ashen pallor that had dusted her deep chocolate-colored skin was gone.

“Are you sure you don’t want any more lunch?” Angel asked.

“I couldn’t.” Martha let her trembling hand flutter back to the bed.

Angel put the water on the tray next to the half-finished broth. “I guess I can’t blame you. This isn’t really eating.”

A soft chuckle rewarded her efforts and she smiled at her mother, glad that fate had not robbed her of this relationship too soon. Whenever things were really bad in her life, she had always found comfort and wisdom with this woman, and perhaps it was that need, as much as concern, that had brought her to the hospital today.

The case seemed hopelessly mired, every possible lead taking them nowhere. There were quite a few pieces missing from this puzzle they were trying to put together, and their inability to find them frustrated Angel. Still no luck in nailing the location the killer had called from, and Jimmy’s alibi had held up. Not that she figured it wouldn’t. The longer this went on, the more she was convinced that drugs had nothing to do with it. But whatever the common denominator was, it was beating the hell out of her and everyone else.

“Where’d you go off to, Honey?”

The sound of her mother’s voice startled Angel. “What?”

“You done left me for a little while.”

“I’m sorry. I was just wishing I could’ve pulled some simple homicide for my first case.”

“That’ve been too easy.” Martha smiled. “No way to show off all those powerful brains.”

“Thank you, Mama. I need a good cheerleader.”

Martha closed her eyes for a moment, and Angel wondered if her mother was drifting into sleep. Maybe it would be best to go and let her rest. She was just reaching to turn off the TV when her mother spoke again. “Your Daddy said Sarah brought you to the hospital the other day.”

Angel turned back to see her mother’s eyes flutter open, and the old woman smiled. “I tol’ you she was a nice person.”

“Better not let Daddy hear you say that. He’ll think you’re a traitor.”

“He knows I don’t always agree with him. And that’s okay.”

Angel glanced out the window to break eye contact. So why wasn’t it okay for her not to agree with him? They’d resurrected the argument and the anger the day Sarah walked out on the Review Board. Nothing Angel had said could shake him from his conviction that the only issue was race.

Angel wanted to ask her mother how she could get past this impasse with her father, but this was not the time to be a needy child. Arranging her face into a neutral expression, she faced her mother again. “What did the doctor have to say today?”

“He’s happy I’m doing good.

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