22. Elrik

22

ELRIK

W e reached the open office doorway at the same time and burst into the room, finding no one there.

An antique wooden desk had been placed halfway between the door and a bank of windows that looked out at a parking lot and straggly woods beyond.

A moan rang out from the other side of the desk, and we hurried that way, rounding the heavy wooden piece of furniture and coming to a stop.

"Hazel," Melly cried out, stooping down beside an elderly woman lying still on the floor.

Hazel wore a leotard with tights and a short skirt, and her long gray hair had been secured in a bun on the back of her head.

"Call 9-1-1," Melly said, stroking Hazel's forehead. "Hazel. Can you hear me?"

The older woman moaned and shifted on the floor. I called, and they said they'd send someone right away.

Hazel lay on her side with her legs curled up in a fetal position. I didn't see any obvious injuries or blood, though a bruise was forming on her left temple. Had she hit her head when she fell or had something more suspicious occurred?

Melly looked up at me. "What do you think happened? She's not waking up." She placed her hand on Hazel's shoulder and lightly shook her. "Hazel? Hazel?"

The woman's eyes slowly opened. "Melly?"

"Yes, it's me, Melly. You're going to be okay. The ambulance is on the way."

"No ambulance." Hazel groaned and sat, leaning back against the wheeled chair. It promptly slipped toward the window, but Melly caught Hazel before she could fall to the floor again.

We eased her around until she could lean against her desk.

"You shouldn't be moving," Melly said. "Wait for the ambulance crew to take a look at you first."

"The day I stay on the floor is the day I die." Hazel peered up at me. "You're not an orc or an ogre."

"I'm an ice lord."

"What in the hell is an ice lord?"

My laugh snorted out. "Ice melts in hell." Or I assumed it did. I'd met a few demons, and each told me the stories were true. It was freakin' hot down there, wherever down there was.

"I see," Hazel said.

"What happened?" Melly asked, sitting on the floor beside Hazel.

"No, dear, don't do that. I need to get up." Hazel looked back at me again. "You look like a strong male. Can you help me into my chair?"

"Of course." I lifted her gently and placed her on the leather surface.

"Thanks." She leaned back and closed her eyes, her hand rising to her left temple. "My head hurts."

"Did you fall?" Melly got up and sat on the edge of the desk.

I stood to the side, ready to assist Hazel again if she needed me.

"The first thing I need you to do is call 9-1-1 and tell them to turn that ambulance around and take it back to the garage," Hazel said, her voice getting stronger by the second. "I'm not going to the hospital."

"You've got a bruise on your temple. You hit your head," Melly said. "I'm sure you need to be examined."

"Ah, yes." Hazel frowned at me. "You're Elrik, one of the new employees working at Monsters, PI. You were coming here today to ask me some questions. I remember now."

"Questions can wait," I said.

"Melly, call 9-1-1, if you please." Hazel's gaze didn't leave me. "Ask your questions. I'll do my best to answer. Then I can go lay down."

"There's no rush," I said again. "Truly. Let's make sure you're okay before we do anything else."

"Life's too short to waste even a second. Questions," Hazel growled.

I nodded to Melly who was holding up her phone, though she hadn't yet dialed. She stepped out of the office and placed the call. I could hear her telling them Hazel appeared okay, that Melly would try to convince her to be seen by a doctor, but for now, we didn't need an ambulance. Thanks, and all that.

She stepped back into the office and dragged a chair over from near the wall, placing it beside Hazel's. Sitting, she took Hazel's hand. "Tell us what happened. You've got a nasty bruise on your forehead."

"I have seizures," Hazel said, her shoulders drooping. "I've had them since the head injury I got when I fell all those years ago. My doctor has been playing with my medication again. He says there are drugs I can take with less side effects than the ones that have worked well forever. But now I'm having seizures again, so I'll have to call him and ask for another adjustment." She placed her hand on Melly's leg. "Please don't tell your grandmother. She'll be worried, and she has enough to deal with right now. I'm fine. I promise I won't drive. I can take a cab to and from work until I'm seizure-free long enough to get permission from my doctor to sit behind the wheel again."

"Does Grannie know about your seizures?" Melly asked.

"I don't believe I've mentioned it to her. There has been no need. It's part of my past, and other than the joy I take from teaching dance, I prefer to forget that I had so much potential long ago." She sighed. "Potential that was lost when I fell. As for my seizures, they've been well controlled for years. Once I'm on the right meds again, it won't matter." She lifted her eyebrows my way. "What questions do you have? "

"I wanted to ask you about the church social and the Xylitol poisoning," I said.

"That was the first time in my life I've had my stomach pumped, and let me tell you, it's not pleasant having a tube shoved into your nose and down your throat to your stomach. At least it was quick."

Melly squeezed her hand.

"Could you tell me exactly what happened from the moment you arrived?" I asked.

"Sure." Hazel frowned. "I got there at the same time as Carla. Sue, Alfred, and Bob were already there."

"I've questioned Bob," I said with a frown. "He said he was the last to arrive."

"My brain may be fuzzy after a seizure, but I'm otherwise sharp," she said. "He was there when I walked in the door. He said I was silly wearing a jacket when it was seventy outside, but I get cold easily, and it's not like it hurts anyone else if I wear it. Seeing that Rose wasn't around, I asked about her, because I could see someone had already made her punch." Her gaze fell on Melly. "You didn't."

"No. Grannie felt well enough to make it that night," Melly said. "After she finished, she went to the bathroom."

"That's what Sue told me." Hazel rubbed her face. "I put my crockpot with beef stew on the table and went to the bathroom, knocking on the door and asking if Rose needed help. She did, so I went inside. She'd left her walker outside the stall and asked me to bring it with her. I pointed out that there wasn't much room and with the door open, anyone entering might see her sitting on the toilet. She said she didn't care about anything like that."

For a woman who was worried about how she was seen in the community, that was odd, but Rose was assertive. If she decided she wanted her walker in the stall with her, she wouldn't care if anyone saw her.

"She didn't use the handicap stall?" Melly asked.

Hazel's nose twisted. "Someone plugged it up and it reeked in there. I'm sure the janitor has taken care of it by now."

"I'm sure they have," I said.

"After that," Hazel said, "Rose shooed me out, saying she could handle hiking up her underwear and returning to the main room on her own. I went back to the others. They'd already gotten into the punch."

"Not Bob," I said.

"He doesn't like it. He was still parked near the wall where someone had left him. He called out to me, asking for help getting over to the table. Said his scooter was having battery issues. If Ginny hadn't stopped by and brought a new battery, he would've been stuck near the wall all evening. There's no lift there like in his home."

"Ginny stopped by?" Melly asked, her gaze meeting mine. "Wasn't she sitting in the van in case he needed her?"

"I'm just telling you what I heard," Hazel said. "He said he'd called her, and she was coming right away with a new battery."

"She must've been sitting in the van, then," Melly said .

Hazel shrugged. "I guess so. Ginny put the new battery in his scooter and left."

"To wait in the van?" I asked.

"I assume so."

"Bob said he didn't drink any punch," I said. "That he doesn't like it."

Hazel shrugged. "I've seen him drink it in the past, but maybe he's tired of it now. It's sweet, though it was extra sweet that night. Sue, Alfred, and Carla were already on their second or third cups. The punchbowl was half empty! Damn, they're greedy, sucking it down before the rest of us could get some." Her husky laugh rang out. "I hurried over because I didn't want to miss out. But I'd only started my second cup when Sue began vomiting. She keeled over onto the floor and Alfred stooped down beside her. It got pretty frantic about then. My belly was rolling, and I wanted to help Sue, but I barely made it to the trash can myself."

"Where was Rose by then?"

"I could hear her walker making clunking sounds in the hall. She joined us after I'd finished at the barrel."

"Why did they pump your stomach if you threw up the punch?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I guess they wanted to make sure it was all gone. At that time, no one knew what was going on other than that a bunch of us were getting violently ill. Suspecting something horrible, they may have decided it was safer to make sure none of us retained even a bit of whatever was making us sick."

"Meanwhile, Bob was sitting in his chair, watching all of this unfold?" Melly asked .

Hazel frowned. "I was still hovering by the bucket, but I believe I remember seeing him closer to the table, though on the food end. He wasn't near the punch, and he didn't have a drink or food in his hands. At least he didn't have to have his stomach pumped. Ginny came back in with the ambulance crew, who Bob wisely called right away. We knew something terrible was going on, and we needed help."

"The ambulance came quickly," I said.

"Three of them because there were six of us there. They didn't have to take Rose, Ginny, or Bob to the hospital since they hadn't eaten or drunk anything, though they checked them out in case it was a gas leak in the kitchen or something like that. Detective Carter ruled that out quickly. At least we're all okay."

Except supposedly Sue. Had she shared her kidney problems with anyone but Alfred?

"Detective Carter must've been nearby, on patrol or something," Hazel said. "The ambulance driver notified him, and he arrived at the same time they did. Since we'd only had the punch and hadn't gotten into the food, and Rose made the punch, she was taken to the station for questioning. The rest of us went to the hospital to be examined."

"Except Bob and Ginny."

"He refused. Ginny loaded him into the van, and you should've seen the glare she sent Rose."

"She blamed Rose?" I asked.

"It appeared so. The van peeled out of the parking lot a short time after that. I just don't get it. It's not like Rose to hurt others. "

"You and she have been friends for a long time," I said.

"Yes, I'm practically Melly's godmother, though that's not official." She patted Melly's leg. "I wasn't there when you were born, but I've been around while you were growing up. We're all quite proud of our Melly."

"She's very special." I grinned her way.

Hazel crooked her head to look up at me. "Are you single, Elrik?"

"More or less." Now that Melly was in my life? No.

"That's not a true answer, but I'm not going to press you." Hazel's laugh rang out. "As for Ginny, I guess she has enough reason to be upset with Rose."

"Because she slipped and broke her hip at the function hall?" Melly said.

"Sure, but Rose stated right away she had no interest in suing. Ginny's quite protective of that insurance business."

Melly shifted on her chair. "She's helping Bob."

"Is that what she said?" Hazel frowned. "Helping? More like trying to steal the business right out from underneath him."