The First Ladies Club Box Set by J B Hawker

Author:J B Hawker [Hawker, J B]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781502951151
Published: 2019-11-06T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

Merrill opened her eyes and groaned against the bright lights before shutting them again.

She felt terrible.

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so awful. Her head was pounding, and her mouth was parched.

Merrill decided to get out of bed, get a drink and take a couple of aspirins, but when she tried to roll over, she was so caught up in the bed covers, she couldn’t get her legs over the side of the bed.

Opening her eyes again to untangle herself, she became fully alert.

Her leg, discolored and bristling with stitches, was held in a sort of sling contraption, IV lines connected her to machines and a quick glance through the railing revealed a bag hanging off the mattress.

She was in a hospital.

Spying the pitcher of water with a cup and straw on the bedside tray, she groped for the bed controls and raised herself enough to get a drink.

Her raw throat was eased by the cold water, but she choked a bit before putting the cup back down.

Hearing her cough, a nurse walked into the room.

“We’re happy to see you awake, Mrs. Bishop.”

“Have I been here long?” Merrill asked.

“You were admitted last evening. Our Doctor James operated on your leg. He’ll be in later to check on you and leave orders. How are you feeling?”

“Sort of woozy,” Merrill said over the sound of her growling stomach. “Can I have something to eat? My last meal must have been yesterday’s breakfast.”

“Certainly. I’ll have a tray brought in.”

The nurse efficiently checked the equipment, made notes in the patient’s chart and went out, leaving Merrill feeling abandoned.

“It’s no fun waking up in the hospital all alone,” she decided, then lay back against the pillow trying to remember everything from the day before.

Bits and pieces came back, but she still couldn’t make any sense of it. It seemed like Manota had wanted to kill her. But why?

Merrill was finishing up her breakfast of bland cream of wheat and applesauce when Detective Ransom looked in.

“Feeling up to talking?” he asked.

“Of course. I hoped you would stop by. I want to thank you for coming to my rescue yesterday.”

“Just doing my job. I’m glad we got there in time. You know, I think you really owe your rescue to your church janitor. He’s the one who sent us to the beach.”

“Alden? Really? I wonder how he knew where I was,” Merrill said.

She hadn’t thought Alden paid much attention to her.

“Seems like he keeps pretty close tabs on his pastor. Lucky for us he remembered seeing you head to the beach, so we decided to check it out.”

“I’m grateful to you both,” Merrill said.

“It was Peter Compton and your nephew who raised the alarm, so you should be thanking them, too.”

“Oh, I will… if I ever see them.”

Ransom, smiling at this small display of petulance, sat in the visitor’s chair and pulled out his notebook to get Merrill’s statement.

*

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