The doctor smiled. “We don’t have many gunshot wounds on Martha’s Vineyard. A hunting accident now and then, but that’s about it. Working on an island, though, we’re trained to be versatile. And without the surgery, your husband’s chances are, at best, poor. We don’t recommend airlifting him to Boston. It would be too risky to lose the time.”
With a slow nod, Meghan raised the pen and sighed the form. “I’ll wait here,” she said. “I don’t care how long it takes.”
Perhaps, Annie thought,with all Meghan had been through, she was better equipped than the rest of them to navigate the hospital environment.
Then Annie realized something else: Meghan had signed the consent form as Kevin’s wife when, technically, they were divorced. She wondered what legal liability Meghan might incur, and if the fact that she hadn’t known would make a damn bit of difference.
* * *
Annie convinced Earl to take Claire and Lucy home. She promised to let them know as soon as Kevin was out of surgery. Lucy announced that she’d sleep at her grandparents, if they’d have her, which, of course, they would. So the trio set off. Like Annie and Meghan, they must have been afraid for Kevin, and now they also knew the truth about his wife. It was a lot, Earl said, to reckon with; Annie expected they would talk nonstop on the way back to Chappy.
Francine did not go with them. “How about if I run over to the food truck at ArtCliff and pick up a couple of sandwiches? It could be a long night.”
By then, Meghan had retreated to a seat that gave her a clear view of the door from which the doctor had emerged.
Annie hesitated, then remembered that her dinner—the sandwich from the shop by the Chappy Ferry—was still in her purse, along with her phone, back at the cottage. A tremor shivered through her when she thought of Kevin’s blood puddled on the floor. “I have no purse,” she said. “No money.”
“I’m buying,” Francine said. “And come out to my car for a second, okay? I have something to show you.”
Annie told Meghan she’d be right back, and then followed Francine out the big glass doors. When they were outside under the portico, Francine suddenly stopped.
“I have nothing to show you,” she said.
Not in the mood for guessing games, Annie asked, “So, what’s up? And who’s staying with Bella?”
“Jonas is on babysitting duties.”
Annie couldn’t help but smile.
With a carefree shrug, Francine said, “We all pitch in in an emergency, right?”
“Right,” Annie replied.
Then Francine’s dark eyes darted around, scanning the cars, shifting to the harbor, then moving back to the hospital where she stared at a pillar of the portico, looking anywhere but at Annie. It was obvious that she was holding something back.
“I have to tell you something,” she finally said. “And I didn’t want Meghan to hear me.”
Then, a bolt of lightning—or a message from Murphy—struck from high up in the starlit sky, leaving Annie with an ominous feeling that this was important. Her belly churned and nausea loomed as she waited for Francine to speak.
“Taylor came back with Kevin.”
Murphy must have stepped in and stopped Annie from screaming. She muttered a word she did not even use in her mysteries, no matter how gritty they became.
“I was at Jonas’s when she came in,” Francine went on. “The first thing I thought about was Meghan. I didn’t say anything, though. I promised you I wouldn’t. Taylor said she was exhausted and was going to bed. Which was also strange because that’s where Jonas and I have been sleeping. Anyway. . .” she seemed to lose her train of thought for a moment, “she went to bed. Jonas and I went outside, while I tried to decide what to do about where I should stay. I was going to call Earl and ask if Bella and I could bunk in there until Simon and his sidekick are gone and we can have our room back. That was when you called and told me about Kevin.”
“Did you tell Taylor that Kevin had been shot?” Annie’s question sounded harsher than she’d intended. After all, Francine was an innocent party.
She hung her head. “No. I didn’t tell Jonas, either. I was going to ask him to come to the Inn with me and hang out there so someone would be on the premises. Then I realized if he found out about Kevin, he might insist on telling his mother. So I decided not to tell him. Because I didn’t think you’d want Taylor to show up at the hospital and come face-to-face with Meghan.”
“So Jonas doesn’t know, either.”
“No.” She raised those big eyes again. They were troubled, sad. “I told him that Earl and Claire had cancelled our dinner plans, so I might as well go back to the Inn until you got back.” She bit a fingernail. “I can’t believe I lied to him. And I told him to stay at the house with his mother. And to please keep Bella there because I’d already put her to bed.” She fidgeted with her small earrings, a gift from Jonas for, as she’d told Annie, no special reason. “Oh, Annie, I hope Kevin’s going to be all right. And I hope I did the right thing.”
Annie reached out and hugged her. “You absolutely did. You are positively the best. I love you.”
“And I love you. Every one of you. And I don’t want anyone to be hurt.”
“It’ll be fine. But I expect that after Taylor wakes up, it won’t be long before she knows. Which gives me between now and then to figure something out.”
