A part of Harriet was impressed by the speed with which the paramedics and then the emergency room staff transferred her into a cubicle in the hospital's trauma unit. The other part wondered how many more years it was going to take to get pain relief of any sort. The ER doctor explained they would not be giving her major painkillers until they finished assessing her injuries.
Aunt Beth and Mavis were waiting in her hospital room when the nurse's aide finally brought her in, after every possible test that could be done had been.
"Oh, honey, are you okay?” Aunt Beth asked. “They wouldn't tell us anything."
"Aiden got called back to the clinic. Apparently, one of his patients took a turn for the worse,” Mavis told her. “He said to tell you he'll be back as quick as he can."
"Are the detectives here?” Harriet asked, her voice weak from exhaustion and pain.
"No, we haven't seen any police, detectives or otherwise.” Beth said. “All we know is Aiden called and said you'd been hurt and to meet him here."
"He said you were at Joseph's house and that someone had died,” Mavis added.
"Rodney,” Harriet said.
"Oh, thank heaven,” Aunt Beth said. She picked up the plastic cup of water from the bedside table and guided the straw to Harriet's mouth, urging her to drink. “Well, not that Rodney's dead, of course. I thought when Aiden said you'd found a dead man and you were at Joseph's house…well, I assumed it was Joseph."
"Aiden went back to wherever they had you before he told us who it was you found,” Mavis explained.
"And they wouldn't let us in the emergency area. They said you were off getting scanned or x-rayed or something,” Aunt Beth said.
"It's okay, you're here now.” She started to cough but checked it when sharp pain radiated through her back. Her face must have turned the color of her sheet.
"So, what happened?” Aunt Beth asked, having waited until the color returned to Harriet's face. “Why were you at Joseph's house?"
"A light was on, so I stopped. I saw a shadow cross the window. Someone was in the house."
"Why did you go alone? You could have been killed.” Tears filled Aunt Beth's eyes.
"Somehow going up and knocking on the door of someone I know in Foggy Point didn't seem like a big risk. This is Washington State, not Washington, DC. “
"If I'm not mistaken, you weren't found on the front porch,” Mavis pointed out.
"I started out on the front porch. When no one came to the door, I went over to the lighted window to see if I could get Joseph's attention. When I got to the window, I discovered it was just above a basement window well. I thought I saw something moving through that window, so I bent to look and then I was hit from behind."
"So, why are you worrying about a detective being here? If you were just looking in a window and then you got attacked, that makes you the victim here, right?” Mavis asked.
"You could have been killed,” Aunt Beth said again.
"Not according to Detective Sanders,” Harriet said. “He thinks I hit myself in the back, fell, sprained my own ankle, and somehow killed Rodney, too."
"He doesn't!” Shock was clear in Mavis's voice.
"Aiden ran interference so he didn't get very far, but that was the road he was going down."
"Well, that's just ridiculous,” Aunt Beth said.
"Did Joseph kill him?” Mavis wondered.
"I have no idea,” Harriet said. “One minute I was trying to look into the basement window and the next I was getting whacked in the back. I fell into the window well, and when I was trying to get out, someone threw Rodney on top of me."
"Do you think he dropped from above?” Mavis asked thoughtfully.
"I don't see how. The roof is the only thing above that window, and it's three stories up. With that weird shape-flat on top but steeply sloped sides below, I can't see how that would work. My guess is, someone did a fireman's carry with him over their shoulder then just flopped him onto me. I was below grade in that cement well, remember."
"Who would want Rodney dead?” Aunt Beth wondered.
"I'm not sure we know enough about the man to answer that,” Mavis said.
"That's true, but I don't think it's a coincidence he was found at Joseph's house,” Harriet said. “Aiden saw him at Little Lamb earlier tonight, and we know he was frustrated with the police. What we don't know is why he thought Joseph had the answers he was after."
She shifted slightly and winced as pain shot up her back. Aunt Beth gave Mavis a long look.
"We don't need to solve this tonight,” Mavis said.
"I had a thought about our quilting deception,” Aunt Beth said, changing the subject. “We need to make up a couple of ugly dog-bone quilt blocks and make sure anyone who might encounter a Small Stitch member has one. As awful as that block looks, they might become suspicious if Sarah is the only one working on them. We need to sell them on the idea we're all making blocks for that quilt."
"Harriet for sure will need one, since she'll probably be asked to quilt a few of theirs before the auction,” Mavis said.
"Don't even think about how you're going to keep your quilting schedule. My shoulder is doing much better since it's had time to rest,” Aunt Beth told Harriet, referring to the reason she'd retired from long-arm quilting. “I can run the machine while you recover. You just focus on getting better."
Harriet felt her eyelids beginning to droop under the influence of the drugs the doctors had finally given her. The next thing she knew, her aunt and Mavis were gone, and Aiden was sitting in the chair beside her bed, in her darkened room, holding her hand.
"How are you feeling?” he asked softly when he realized she'd awakened.
"Like I've been trampled by a herd of wild horses.” She tried to smile.
"What am I going to do with you? Putting yourself in harm's way-again."
"I wasn't trying. Somehow, it didn't occur to me going to Joseph Marston's house was putting me in harm's way."
"Yeah, but you did know he'd been acting weird lately."
"Yeah, and hindsight is twenty-twenty,” she said. “Can we not talk about this right now? Do you know what's wrong with my back?"
"The doctor told your aunt you have a renal contusion as a result of blunt-force trauma."
"In English, please."
"Your kidney is bruised, but thankfully not broken. And you have a sprained ankle. You can expect a full recovery if you rest until your injuries are healed."
"It sure hurts more than just a bruise."
"The tissue of your back is also bruised, and they think you have a cracked rib. And by the way, a bruised kidney is nothing to be taken lightly. You're lucky you're not in the operating room having that kidney removed."
"Did anyone say what I was hit with?"
"Not that I've heard,” he said. “But then, I was gone for a while."
"Is your dog okay now?"
"I'm sorry I had to leave, but I'm the only one in our clinic trained to handle the skin grafting. It still could go either way, but we've done everything we can. Like a lot of them, he has an infection. He had large sores on his back, and he's just a little fellow. It's just sick. These hoarders are so delusional, they can't see how horrible their animals’ conditions are."
"I'm sorry,” Harriet said.
"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't be talking about this when you've got your own problems."
"It helps, actually. I mean, I'm sad about your dogs, but thinking about them keeps me from thinking about Rodney and Neelie and Joseph."
"Do you think Joseph did this to you?"
"I don't know what to think. I was at his house. But why would he want to hurt me?"
"I doubt whoever did this was trying to hurt you. They just wanted to keep you from seeing what was going on in the basement."
"Which leads us back to Joseph. It's his basement. Assuming his mother and stepfather are still out of the country, he's the person who has access to the space. I suppose it's possible someone else was using it, but that still means he at least had knowledge of what was going on there."
"Here's a wild idea,” Aiden said. “How about we just let the police figure it out?"
"That's fine with me. I'll leave them alone if they leave me alone."
"It doesn't work that way, I'm afraid. But let's take one thing at a time. Let's you and me concentrate on getting you better."