They walked through the inn in silence. She pulled out her key and unlocked the door.
The ballroom was dim in the gray morning light filtering through the tall windows. The decorations they had been working on for days were scattered around the room. Garlands draped over tables, ornaments hanging from chairs, shells arranged in patterns that caught the light. It looked magical, even unfinished. A testament to hours of work and careful planning.
Jane locked the door behind them, then turned to face Charlie.
“Either you’re planning a coup of the inn and are taking me hostage,” Charlie said with a slight smile, “or this isn’t about seashell decorations, which I knew it wasn’t anyway.”
Jane let out a shaky laugh. “It’s not about decorations.” She put her breakfast and coffee on a table.
“I figured,” Charlie said gently. “What’s going on, Jane?”
And just like that, the words came tumbling out. Jane told Charlie everything about the hospital visit theprevious day. About how the doctor had seemed nervous from the moment he walked in. About the forms, he had tried to get her to sign, holding the clipboard against his chest as if protecting it from view. About how Gabe had asked to see them, and Pamela had immediately objected, her voice rising with something that sounded like panic.
“Then the nurse walked in,” Jane continued, pacing now as the memories played out in her mind. “She said I had already signed everything. And the doctor looked terrified. He looked at Pamela, and there was this moment... this look between them. Like they had been caught.”
Charlie’s expression had grown increasingly serious as Jane talked. Now she pulled out her phone and opened a notes app. “Go on.”
“The doctor backed off immediately,” Jane said. “Said if I had already signed everything, then they had what they needed. But it didn’t make sense, Charlie. I had signed consent forms when I first arrived, insurance paperwork, that kind of thing. But those forms the doctor had? I never saw them. Never signed them. And the nurse said I had, but I know I didn’t.”
“And Pamela’s reaction?” Charlie prompted.
“She was furious,” Jane said. “Not openly, but I could see it in her face. In the way she held herself. Whatever her plan had been, having Gabe there ruined it. And then when the nurse interrupted, it fell apart completely.”
Charlie was quiet for a moment, her fingers moving across her phone screen as she typed notes.
“I’m probably being paranoid,” Jane said. “Pamela brings that out in people as she always has a hidden agenda.”
Charlie looked up from her notes at Jane. “Your instincts are probably right. This sounds like Pamela had something planned, and it didn’t go the way she wanted.”
“I just keep thinking,” Jane said, stopping her pacing to face Charlie, “what if those forms weren’t about the tests at all? What if Pamela was trying to get me to sign something else entirely?”
“That’s a very real possibility,” Charlie agreed. “Can you give me the doctor’s name? The nurses’ names if you remember them? Any other details you noticed?”
Jane provided everything she could remember. The doctor’s name is Dr. Raymond Chen. The hospital was St. Luke’s Medical Center in Jacksonville. The time of her appointment. She described the nurse who had interrupted, a woman in her forties with dark hair pulled back in a bun and kind eyes that had seemed genuine even if her timing had been suspiciously convenient. “Nurse Davies, I think.”
“Other than the very nervous doctor and the irritated Pamela, was there anything else?” Charlie asked. “Any other behavior that seemed off?”
Jane thought back, trying to recall every detail. “The doctor kept looking at Pamela. Like he was checking with her, waiting for some kind of signal or approval. It was subtle, but once I noticed it, I couldn’t unsee it.”
“That’s very helpful,” Charlie said, making more notes. “What about after? Did Pamela say anything?”
“She tried to convince me to go to lunch with her,” Jane said, making a face. “A mother-daughter catch-up, she called it. She told me there were things we needed to discuss in private. I told her that anything she wanted to say to me, she could say in front of Gabe. She backed off after that. Said she’d be in touch.”
Charlie’s expression was thoughtful.
“Oh.” Jane clicked her fingers. “I asked Pamela about her parents.”
“And?” Charlie’s brow furrowed questioningly.
“Pamela told me her mother died when she was very young. That her father married another woman to give her a mother, or a free nanny, as she put it. Then her father left them, and she was raised by her stepmother.”
“And the disease?” Charlie pressed. “Did she say it was her mother or her stepmother who had it?”
“She said her mother,” Jane answered. Then she caught the implication in Charlie’s question. “But that’s the first thing I thought of, too. If it were her stepmother who had the disease, it wouldn’t be hereditary for Pamela. Or for me.” She shook her head. “But I promise you, Pamela is anything but dumb. I’m sure she knows you can’t catch anything from a step-parent.” Her frown deepened. “There was just something…” She looked at Charlie. “I couldn’t put my finger on it.”
Charlie watched Jane with sharp eyes. “We do need to check that, though. Just in case this is fabricated for some reason.”
Jane felt something cold settle in her stomach. “But why? Why go through all this trouble? The hospital visit, the tests, the whole concerned mother act?”
