“How did Brie seem that day? Was she anxious? Did she seem like she was worried about anything?’
His grin faded. “Well, first of all, when people call me, they’re worried they’ve got mice or rats or God knows what, so it’s fair to say they’re a little on edge. And your wife was like that.”
“You think it could have been something other than mice?”
“All these years later, what makes you ask?”
I didn’t want to get into the events of the last two days. “Just asking, is all.”
“Well, I’ll tell you this much,” he said. “She struck me as a woman who was just waiting for something bad to happen. That’s not something I ever told the police because it was a little too vague.”
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “I think she was worried about what you were going to do when you got home.”
“She had nothing to worry about from me,” I said.
Another shrug, and then a grin. “Now can I ask you something?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“Like I said, I’m dying. I’m wondering if you’d be interested in taking any one of these rescue animals home with you? I need to off-load them as soon as possible.”
“Sorry,” I said. “I can’t help you there.”
Charlie nodded and smiled. “Never hurts to ask.”
On the way back into town, I glanced at the gas gauge and noticed the Explorer was running on fumes. I pulled into a gas station, and used a credit card to get the self-serve pump operating, started to refill the tank. When I was done, I couldn’t get the pump to print out a receipt, so I went into the building and got one from the guy sitting at the cash register.
I didn’t notice, until I was actually back in the Explorer, that there was someone sitting in the passenger seat who hadn’t been there before.
A woman, late thirties. Smiling.
“Surprise,” she said. “I thought that was you.”
“Natalie,” I said. “I’ll be damned.”
Thirty-Four
The four of them were there, at Elizabeth’s bedside.
There was Albert and his wife, Dierdre, who had put aside their differences to be here at this difficult time. Isabel and her husband, Norman, were present, too, the four of them ringed around the bed, the siblings near the head, on either side, and the in-laws by the foot.
Isabel was leaning over, rubbing her hand gently across Elizabeth’s forehead, stroking her almost as if she were a pet in need of comforting.
“I love you, Mom,” she said.
Albert, on the other side, had a tear running down one cheek. He was holding Elizabeth’s hand.
Elizabeth’s eyes were closed, her breathing so shallow as to be almost undetectable.
A woman in a long white hospital jacket entered the room quietly. Isabel was first to notice her and whispered, “The doctor.”
The four moved away from the bed and circled the doctor in the center of the room.
Albert said, “She seemed pretty good yesterday.”
Isabel added, “I saw her for a few minutes this morning and she was alert.”
The doctor nodded sympathetically. “I know. Things can change very quickly. I’ve seen patients rally near the end. Within a day of passing, they’re more alert, more communicative. It’s as though they know what’s coming, and want a chance to say goodbye to everyone.” The doctor smiled sadly.
Isabel dabbed her eye with a tissue.
“I think she feels it’s okay to let go now,” she said. “There was someone she’d been hoping to hear from. She wanted to hear from her so badly I think she imagined that it happened.” She sniffed.
The doctor’s face was questioning, but she simply said, “Anything is possible.”
Norman asked, “You don’t think it’s possible she might still wake up and... tell us things?”
Isabel gave him a look. “Like what?”
“Like anything,” he said. “Like how much she’ll miss us.”
“Like I said, anything is possible,” the doctor repeated.
Dierdre spoke for the first time. “How much time does she have?”
The doctor sighed heavily. “I think coming here now was wise.”
The four of them could think of no further questions. The doctor told them to get in touch if there were any further developments, and quietly left the room.
Isabel and Albert resumed their positions on either side of the bed, while Dierdre said she and Norman were going to get some air. Once they had left the room, Albert whispered to his sister, “What was all that about imagining something?”
“Mom said Brie came to her in the night. She was probably dreaming. We put the idea in her head.”
“You didn’t tell me about that,” Albert said.
“I knew you had rehearsals today. Thought I’d give you a break.”
Albert nodded a thank-you. Elizabeth, her eyes closed, showed no sign that she was aware of their conversation. Still, he whispered. “Maybe Mother hasn’t been the only one seeing things.”
His sister studied him, waiting for him to elaborate.
“When we saw that woman in the parking lot, we were seeing what we wanted to see. In the night, Mom did the same. If that allows her to slip away with some degree of comfort, thinking Brie is alive, I’m okay with that.”
“What about what the neighbor saw?”
“I can’t explain that.”
“So you don’t believe it,” Isabel said.
“Believe what?”
“You don’t believe Brie’s alive.”
Albert quickly glanced at his mother and then back to Isabel, worried that even their whispers might be heard. He motioned for her to follow him into the hallway. Once they were out of the room, he went back to his normal voice.
“Izzy, I’d like to believe,” he said. “But...”
Isabel’s jaw hardened. Her cheeks flushed. “That bastard.”
“What?”
“Andrew.”
“What about him?”
“Mom wanted to see him, to apologize. I brought him here this morning so she could talk to him. He was coy about it with me, saying he couldn’t accept an apology when we didn’t really know what was happening. But he let her do it. I talked to her after. She apologized and he accepted it, the smug bastard.”
“Izzy—”
“No, no, something’s not right here. I eased up on him. I eased up on him too soon.”
“Christ, Izzy, let it go.”
“I’m going back in,” Isabel said, and with that pushed open the door and returned to Elizabeth’s bedside. Albert followed.
As they stood watch over her, Isabel said, “I don’t think she’s breathing.”
Albert leaned over, put his ear to within an inch of his mother’s mouth. “I don’t hear anything. Not feeling anything.”
“Mom?” Isabel said, her voice starting to crack.
Albert glanced at the monitor that hovered over the bedside table, hunted for the line that kept track of heartbeat.
It was flat.
“Mom?” Isabel said again, putting her face close to hers. “Can you hear me?”
Not so much as an eyelid fluttered.
The door opened and Dierdre and Norman stepped in. They read the room quickly, seeing how distressed their respective spouses looked.
“Oh, Mother,” Albert said.
As he laid his head on her chest and began to weep, Diedre stepped forward and looked ready to place a hand on his shoulder, but held back.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
Norman didn’t move. He watched from afar as his wife began to sob, and appeared to sigh with relief.
Thirty-Five
Andrew