High hopes, p.13
High Hopes, page 13
I felt the vibration of footfalls on the flooring beneath me and turned to see Maggie standing there in the doorway, framed by the darkness of the hallway. Her red hair was a tussled mess and there were the beginnings of dark circles under her eyes. She’d never looked more beautiful to me.
“Help her!” I called. At least that’s what I’d intended to say. My ears still weren’t working properly, and it came out as garbled nonsense.
Maggie moved me out of the way gently and started probing Piper’s prone form. I felt more vibrations and looked to see Audrey appear, trying to fill the already cramped space. Tania managed to keep her out of the way, pulling her out of view. I watched Vinnie and Maggie converse, hands darting to emphasize their points as they talked.
Slowly the flow of conversation came back to me. When Maggie looked over and said, “We need to get her to the hospital now.” I understood the words this time.
“Can you do anything?” The words came out in a whisper.
She held up Piper’s wrist to show that she had a firm grip on my cousin. The fact that Maggie’s brow was now covered in a thin layer of sweat suggested she was doing what she could. Together, Vinnie and Maggie moved Piper downstairs. Someone had called for an ambulance because one pulled into the driveway a few minutes later, whisking Piper and Benji off to the hospital. Maggie’s assessment of how long he’d been unconscious suggested he needed to be checked for a concussion.
That left me without anyone else who’d witnessed Levi’s descent into suicidal madness. There was no chance I could get back into the room to see what else he might have been going after. Or more importantly, what could have caused Piper to collapse.
Part of me realized even if I could get access to the bedroom, there was very little chance I’d find anything at 2:30 in the morning. I needed sleep. But with the police traipsing through and the ambulance sirens blaring, I doubted that would happen. I was more surprised their presence hadn’t roused more of the guests. As the ambulance pulled away, I saw Bree and Andrea huddled at the top of the second-floor landing.
“What happened?” Bree asked, sounding far too awake for this time of night. Andrea stood just behind her.
“Someone broke in. Piper and Benji got banged up. They’re heading to the hospital to get checked out,” I answered, offering a version of the truth that wouldn’t get me into trouble with Chief Hayes.
That seemed to satisfy their curiosity and they retreated back to their room. I made my way down to the kitchen to find Tania pouring hot water into two oversized mugs I recognized from Ginny’s. There was a small image with the year etched on the fronts denoting them as holiday mugs from a few years ago. I pulled down a smaller mug and accepted the teapot.
Audrey sat at the kitchen table, bleary-eyed as Tania set the steeping mug in front of her. “This will help,” she said, patting my aunt’s hand.
I joined the older woman and stared into the dark contents of my own mug for a while before speaking. Piper would want me to clear whatever was happening with her mum. Audrey took a sip from the mug and looked me straight in the eye.
“What did you get her into?”
“Excuse me?”
“You two have been running around thick as thieves since you met.”
“We were trying to get to know each other. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s why I reached out in the first place. And I have no idea what happened to Piper just now.”
“She was happy and safe before all of this … before ...”
“I think everyone was a lot happier and safer before someone murdered the troupe’s lead actress,” I retorted. “All I tried to do was show that Piper was innocent. Because I don’t think she’s got a mean bone in her body, let alone capable of harming someone just for a role in a play.”
Audrey’s accusatory look faded. “No, she’s one of the sweetest, kindest people I know.”
“Look, we did find some things out that I don’t think you’re going to like,” I said, taking a fortifying gulp of tea.
“Like what?”
“Like, Janice was attacked using magic. It looked like whatever spell it was, tricked her body into thinking it was exposed to peanuts. It made her think she was having a massive allergic reaction and her body just shut down.”
Audrey took another few sips from her mug. “I still don’t like talking about it so openly … magic, I mean. It feels wrong to share something so personal.”
“But it’s wrapped up in what happened to Janice. And I think it might be what happened to Piper, too. Does she have any allergies?”
“No. Nothing like that. I mean, she was allergic to pollen or dust, but that’s normal. Everyone’s got those types of allergies.”
I somehow doubted my cousin was suffering from a hay fever overdose. But her body clearly had a reaction to whatever the mystery component might be. It wasn’t normal for someone to fall unconscious with a fever within seconds. But it wasn’t the first time I’d seen Piper’s body react in that way to stress—from pent up anxiety.
“I know you don’t like talking about magic, but we need to. Piper, Maggie, and I all felt this strange sense of anxiety when we were near the prop sword that Janice was holding when she collapsed. We think that was because the magic wasn’t targeted at us specifically. It was more of a defense mechanism to deter other people from getting involved.”
“Well, she’s not having an anxiety attack now.” Audrey’s breath hitched. “She … she collapsed. It didn’t look like she was even br-breathing ...”
“Why don’t we go to the hospital? I’m sure the doctors will be able to tell you more.”
It would also give me a chance to keep talking to her and work my way to bringing up her mystery texting buddy. She nodded her agreement, and I downed the remnants of my tea before setting the cups in the sink to soak.
The hospital was only a few blocks away, but given the hour, it was safer to drive. Tania was busy tending to the rest of the guests, so I took the car keys from their hook by the front door and led the way outside. The ride over was awkwardly silent. I kept glancing at Audrey in the passenger seat, but it felt wrong to start accusing her of anything until we knew that Piper was going to be okay.
“Can I ask you something?” I broached as I pulled into a spot in the lot adjacent to the Emergency Room entrance at the hospital.
“Sure.” Audrey’s answer came out in a tired sigh.
“Is there a reason you tagged along for this tour? I mean, I get wanting to support Piper in her career, but it didn’t look like you had much to do around the theater. Didn’t it get boring?”
Audrey studied her hands in her lap. “I had Piper when I was pretty young. Not a teenage mother or anything, but I was still younger than a lot of my friends when they had children. I had wanted to be in theater. But that just didn’t happen for me. I knew I’d have to give up certain things to be a mother.”
“So, you got to sort of live out your dream by being on the tour.”
“I just loved everything about it. The costumes, the lights, the set design. I helped a lot with that actually. But sometimes I think Piper would have preferred that I stayed home. She never said anything. But I got the sense she felt almost like I wasn’t letting her grow up, because she had to take her mom with her.”
“I’m sure she didn’t feel that way,” I insisted as I climbed out of the driver seat and into the early morning air. If anything, I suspected Piper felt stifled by her mum’s refusal to talk about their magic rather than her presence in the theater. “Come on, let’s go see how she’s doing.”
It wasn’t hard to find Piper in the small Emergency Room. I spotted Benji in a partially curtained bay getting stitches to close the gash on his forehead. The way he kept moving to get away from the nurse suggested he had other things on his mind, or he didn’t like needles. No doubt he, too, wanted to get an update on Piper’s condition.
“I’m looking for information on my daughter, Piper Hennessey,” Audrey told the charge nurse seated behind the central desk.
“Darcy, over here,” Maggie’s voice called. It drew me like a homing beacon, and I nudged Audrey over to stand in front of where my girlfriend sat in one of the hardbacked chairs along the wall. “They aren’t sure what happened, but it looks like she’s fighting some kind of infection,” Maggie relayed.
“But she was fine an hour ago,” Audrey protested.
“I think she came into contact with something magical and it’s messing with her magic,” I said in a hushed voice.
“Like what? The prop sword has been in evidence for days now,” Maggie pointed out.
The knife.
“She touched a knife that Levi had been holding. It was only for a few seconds, but what if it was enough time for the magic imbued on it to mess with her?”
“How could it interfere with her magic?” Audrey asked, stepping closer to keep the conversation contained.
“Well, she’s been struggling a bit with not letting her magic get built up. She sort of needed to let loose earlier. She got warm to the touch, even feverish and sweaty. Very much like what’s happening now.”
“It felt like my magic was turning on me,” Maggie offered.
“You said it seemed like the sword turned Janice’s real allergy on her even though there was nothing there, almost psychosomatic reaction,” Audrey noted. “I hate to admit it, but Piper has battled some anxiety over the years, and I suspect I’m the cause. Could it be doing the same to her?”
“I think it’s possible.”
“Is it going to k-kill her?”
“I think knowing her mum is here with her, wanting her to fight, would do a world of good,” I said. “Right, Maggie?”
“Yes. Just having you nearby might be enough to pull her out of whatever spiral the magic has her trapped in.”
“I’ll try anything.”
“Let me go see if I can find the doctor who was working on her,” Maggie said, standing and stretching before disappearing down a short hallway. That left Audrey and I standing alone in the middle of the Emergency Room.
“I did have to ask one other thing. Earlier, we accidentally found your phone,” I began. “Piper said you’ve got the same phone case, so she mixes them up sometimes.”
“They came as a two-pack,” Audrey answered.
“Well, she sort of saw some texts with an unknown number and it sort of freaked her out. It looked like you were giving advice to someone dealing with some pretty intense romantic feelings—”
“I’m allowed to have private conversations,” Audrey shot back.
“Yes, of course, it’s just … we think that Levi was getting help from someone within the production. I mean, he was able to slip by people by wearing costumes this last time. And everyone seemed to know he was harboring some pretty strong feelings for Janice …” I couldn’t bring myself to actually accuse this woman outright.
“And you think I let him in?”
“I don’t … I don’t know.”
“That young man was disturbed. He needed help, but not in a way I or anyone else around him could give.”
She wasn’t wrong there. The bloke definitely could have benefitted from psychiatric or therapeutic assessment. But that didn’t explain who she was feeding romantic advice to via text. Or why she was so defensive about it.
“I know that Piper was feeling a lot of anxiety about the fact you were keeping this texting thing from her. Maybe if you could just explain what was going on, it might help her feel less anxious?”
I hoped wording it in terms of helping Piper heal would loosen Audrey’s lips. Before she could say anything, Maggie returned with a slender dark-haired man in blue scrubs.
“You’re Piper’s mom?” he said, holding out a hand to Audrey.
“Yes. Please, tell me what’s going on with my daughter.”
The doctor glanced at me. “This is more of a private discussion.”
“She’s family,” Audrey answered without looking at me.
“It seems that Piper is fighting some sort of unknown infection. She’s not the first strange case we’ve had come through in the last couple of days.”
“We know about Janice. They were in the same theater company,” I offered.
“We’re trying to push some broad spectrum antibiotics and other medication to try to bring her fever down. And we’ve got some cool blankets on her to try and bring down her temperature and keep her comfortable. But until we know more, that’s all we can do.” He held out a business card. “My name is Dr. Elijah Fitz. I’ll be heading off shift soon, but I’m happy to keep in touch with any updates.”
“Thank you.” Audrey pocketed the card and followed Dr. Fitz to one of the far rooms where Piper lay hooked up to machines keeping track of her vitals. At least it appeared she didn’t need help breathing.
Audrey sat at Piper’s bedside and gave her daughter’s hand a squeeze. “I’m sorry if any of this was my doing, sweetheart. I know I haven’t always been the best communicator … about a lot of things.” She looked over at me. “I wasn’t giving Levi Sanders romance tips. I was trying to help Benji get up the nerve to ask Piper on a date.”
“Benji?”
“If you haven’t noticed, he’s a little socially awkward. But he seemed comfortable talking to me. And I thought he was sweet. A little nerdy, but he likes a lot of the same things Piper does.”
“Did you ever notice anything strange happen around him?” I was beginning to get a sinking feeling in my gut.
“Strange? Not really, no.”
“No sudden bouts of anxiety?” Maggie seemed to pick up on the same thing I had.
“I mean, we talked a little about our shared frustration that Piper only got to be Juliet’s understudy.”
“Why would Benji care?”
“We talked a lot about how I’d longed to be on stage and that I was so proud of Piper for even auditioning. I think he thought she deserved the role over Janice.”
She didn’t have to say whether he’d be willing to manipulate things in Piper’s favor. Pieces of the puzzle were starting to come into place, and I didn’t like the picture they were revealing. The inside man had been sitting right in front of us the whole time.
17
The realization of what she’d just revealed hit Audrey like a ton of bricks. She collapsed over Piper’s prone body, shaking as she cried. There was still one piece of confirmation we needed. Audrey had been communicating in writing with Benji for months and was familiar with the way he wrote. The printed messages from Levi’s camper flashed into my mind.
“Audrey, I think there’s a way you can help put this all right,” I said, saying a silent prayer that I’d brought my phone with me.
“How?” she asked through a hiccupping sob.
“You spent a lot of time writing to Benji. You probably became familiar with how he wrote. The types of words and phrases he used.”
“I suppose so.”
“Piper and I found some emails and other messages that Levi had from someone giving him inside information about the theaters on the tour and the troupe. It’s probably how he knew not to stay at the B&B, even though it was closer to the theater and would put him closer to Janice,” I explained, pulling up the images I’d taken during our impromptu visit to the camper.
I handed over the phone and allowed Audrey to scroll through the images, enlarging them as she pleased to study them. “It certainly sounds like him. But it isn’t a username I’d seen him use before. But he used a lot of different ones for all the online games he played.”
Maybe that’s how he first came into contact with Levi in the first place? But it didn’t matter. We had enough to link the pair of them together. Levi was already in custody, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t still use the plan Piper and I had concocted to catch Levi to get Benji to confess his involvement.
“Do you think Benji will go to the vigil tonight?” I asked.
“I mean, he doesn’t like big social gatherings. Crowds are part of what he struggles with,” Audrey answered. “But he’d try to go if it meant making Piper happy.”
“And given that Piper has now landed herself in the hospital. People will know he was there, too. He might show up just to throw suspicion off himself,” I noted.
“I really can’t believe he’d be involved in something like this,” she moaned.
“You’re going to need to fill Rick and Vinnie in about what you’ve found and what you’re planning,” Maggie said to me.
“Already handled,” I said, hoping Ginny would come through for me. Turning to Audrey I said, “Please call me if anything changes with Piper’s condition.”
“I will. And be careful. Whatever you’re about to do, please don’t put yourself in harm’s way.”
I couldn’t make that promise to her. I had a feeling, however the rest of the day played out; I was going to end up right in the middle of potential harm. As Maggie and I left Piper’s room and headed for the parking lot, I noticed that Benji had disappeared. That didn’t bode well.
“What exactly is your plan?” Maggie asked once we were in the VW Bug.
“Ginny’s planning to lend a hand at the vigil. She said she’d pass along what we were planning to Chief Hayes.”
“He won’t be happy about that,” Maggie noted.
“Yeah, but he’ll have a murderer and an accomplice in custody when all is said and done.”
“You know, I’m beginning to rethink my love of Shakespeare,” Maggie said as I pulled to a stop outside her building.
“Don’t let this nastiness sully your love for something,” I told her. “It’s already ruined two lives, probably three. Don’t let it take that from you, too.”
“It’s just sad that people get so wrapped up in what they think is love that it ends in tragedy.”
“Well, I can promise you that I won’t be drinking poison or stabbing myself for you,” I said with a smile.
“I’m going to hold you to that.” She gave me a quick peck on the lips before climbing out. “You want to come up? It’s bound to be quieter here than back at the B&B.”
