Digging Up The Dirt

“If you’ll excuse me now,” Kanesha said into the dead silence that followed her last words, “I need to find Mrs. McGonigal’s doctor. Under the circumstances, I am going to insist that no one other than immediate family be allowed access to Mrs. McGonigal. The police department and the sheriff’s department will be taking turns guarding her until this matter is resolved.” With that, she nodded, turned, and left the waiting room.

An’gel looked around the room to gauge reactions to Kanesha’s parting words. Everyone seemed stunned, and that was to be expected. She did not see anything she could interpret as fear, however.

She exchanged an uneasy glance with Dickce, and she knew her sister was thinking the same thing. One of the other five people in the room was the murderer. But which one?

They waited in silence for several minutes, though An’gel could see the others were restless, casting sly looks at one another. The tension was palpable.

A young man in scrubs and a white coat strode into the room. He stopped for a moment, then approached Hadley. “Mr. Partridge, if I could have a word with you, please.”

Hadley nodded. “Of course, doctor, but whatever you have to tell me, you can tell everyone here. We’re all concerned about Mrs. McGonigal.”

“Very well,” the doctor said. “She is still in a coma, and her vital signs are mostly steady. But she faces a long recovery once she’s out of the coma. Her injuries are extensive, and there is a possibility she will not be able to walk again or have the use of her upper limbs.” He paused. “I’m sorry, I know the news is not encouraging, but we are hoping for the best.” He turned and left the room.

“Oh dear Lord,” Barbie said as her eyes filled with tears. She hung her head, and Lottie, seated next to her, wrapped her arms around Barbie and hugged her tight.

An’gel felt her own eyes filling. The thought of her friend, always so vibrant, left paralyzed was shocking. She would pray that Arliss might defy the doctor’s prognosis and be able to walk and laugh again. She knew, however, that if Arliss survived the immediate threat to her life, her will to live would be strong. They would all have to do everything they could to help her.

Hadley walked out of the room without a word to anyone, though he did glance at An’gel and Dickce. An’gel tried to read his expression. He was obviously deeply upset, but there was something else there, something she couldn’t quite put a finger on. Perhaps it was rage.

That was her predominant emotion, now that the first shock of the doctor’s words was passing. Rage against the sick, coldhearted, lost soul who had done this thing.

Was this attempt at murder connected in some way with Callie Partridge’s disappearance? At the moment An’gel couldn’t figure out how it might be. She had a hunch that there was a connection, she and Dickce simply had to find it.

Right now, though, she had to think of other matters. She looked around the waiting room. The first thing to do was to clear this room and send people home.

“I think you all should go on home,” An’gel said in a firm tone. “It’s obvious that we can do little for Arliss at the moment except pray, since we won’t be allowed to see her. Her sister ought to be here soon, and she doesn’t need a crowd of people to deal with when she arrives. Dickce and I will stay here until she comes, but the rest of you should go.”

Barbie, her face blotched with red from crying, stood. “You’re right, An’gel. Come on, Lottie. Let us know if you hear anything.”

An’gel nodded. Lottie rose obediently at Barbie’s words and followed her friend out of the waiting room. An’gel turned to Reba and Martin. Before she could speak again, Reba rose from her seat.

“Come along, Martin. We have to go buy a new battery for the car.” She nodded in An’gel’s direction before she departed. Martin shambled after her, staring at his phone as he went.

“Thank goodness you got them to go,” Dickce said quietly. “I couldn’t stand to look at any of them, knowing that one of them has to be responsible for this.”

“I couldn’t stand looking at them either,” An’gel said. “We have a cold-blooded killer as a friend, and it makes me ill to think about it.”

Arliss’s younger sister Frances and her husband, Bill, turned up a few minutes later. An’gel and Dickce told them, as gently as possible, the truth of what had happened to Arliss. Frances and Bill were stunned, as the sisters expected, and they looked a little fearful. An’gel couldn’t blame them.

“Please call us if there is anything at all we can do for you.” An’gel gave them a card with the sisters’ contact information. She and Dickce left the couple after sharing a brief prayer with them for Arliss’s recovery.

“I hate leaving them alone like that, in that cold waiting room,” Dickce said as she and An’gel walked out of the hospital.