The Boss Project(42)
I blew out a big breath. “No, you definitely did the right thing, Marvin. I’m glad you did. I’ll talk to her.”
“Woman’s one of the most fascinating people I’ve met in my life. But she’s also pigheaded.”
I smiled. “I see you’ve gotten to know Kitty pretty well.”
“I’m sorry to dump this on you. But I would never forgive myself if anything happened to her and I hadn’t done all I could.”
“Of course. I’m with a patient right now, but I’ll give Kitty a call in about a half hour.”
“Thank you, dear.”
After I concluded my session with Derek, I settled in at my desk to call Kitty. But while I was collecting my thoughts on the best way to approach her, I realized that if I did get her to go back to the hospital, she would need someone to look out for her and be there to help make decisions. And if I didn’t get her to go back, no one would be checking her vitals to see if her anemia got worse—not to mention, she had two injured ankles, so she wasn’t getting around too well to begin with.
So rather than call, I decided this should be taken care of in person. I figured I should run it by Merrick to see what he wanted to do, but when I Googled the time in China, I realized two in the afternoon on Friday here meant it was three in the morning there. I wasn’t sure when he was flying home, so I called his assistant.
“Hey, Andrea. Could you tell me when Merrick is flying back from China? I need to talk to him about something important.”
“Of course. Let me pull up his itinerary.” I heard the clickity-clack of her keyboard before she spoke again. “He’s on a nine-AM flight out tomorrow morning, China time. But between the twenty hours of flights and time change, he gets into JFK on Saturday about four in the afternoon.”
Shoot. Even if he hopped on a different flight, with twenty hours of travel, he wouldn’t get to Atlanta until late Saturday night, at best. This didn’t seem like something that should wait. So I decided I’d just go. Besides, Kitty might find it easier to talk to another woman about her issues than her grandson. And my grandmother would want me to take care of Kitty. So I made the choice to get on a plane and delay telling Merrick until he landed. There was no point in having him worry for twenty hours of flying when there was nothing he could do until he got here anyway. If I flew down tonight, I’d know more by then, too.
“Do you want me to contact his hotel or anything for you?” Andrea asked.
“No.” I shook my head. “I’ll talk to him when he gets back. But thank you.”
“No problem. I’ll email you his itinerary, in case you need it after I’m gone for the day.”
“Thank you. Have a good weekend, Andrea.”
“You, too, Evie.”
After I hung up, I searched for flights. There was one at 6 PM that would get me in at 8:30. As long as I didn’t check a bag, that would have me to Kitty’s by 9:30. The later flights arrived too late to knock on Kitty’s door. I didn’t want to disturb her rest. I could also wait until tomorrow, but I would feel better going now. So I booked the flight and let Joan in HR know I needed to leave a little early. It felt like the right thing to do—though I hoped Merrick didn’t disagree.
? ? ?
By Saturday evening, I was starting to worry that I hadn’t heard from Merrick yet. I’d flown down to Kitty’s yesterday and spent the night at her house. She was stable and doing well. This afternoon, I’d sent Merrick a long email, telling him everything that had happened over the last day and a half. I’d waited to send it until two hours before his flight was scheduled to arrive, but when he hadn’t responded more than two hours after I confirmed his flight had landed, I tried calling. My call went straight to voicemail. Another hour later, I tried again and texted. Still no response.
At 9 PM, I checked my phone one last time before checking in on Kitty. She’d taken the pain pills the ER doc had prescribed, and they’d knocked her out. So I grabbed a towel and took a hot shower, hoping it would help me relax enough to fall asleep. But just as I got out, I heard what sounded like glass breaking in the kitchen. I assumed Kitty had woken up and tried to get something to drink, but when I passed by her room, she was still sound asleep.
Oh shit. Was it a broken window and not a glass? Could it be a burglar? Or maybe Marvin had a key and had let himself in to check on Kitty… Though he’d been over earlier for dinner and obviously knew I was here. I wasn’t sure, but I also wasn’t about to find out empty-handed, so I looked around for something to use to defend myself. The closest thing to a weapon I could find was the toilet bowl cleaner, a plastic stick with a brush on the end. It would have to do, because someone was most definitely in the kitchen—I could hear rustling now, even through the closed door.
My heart pounded as I approached. If it did turn out to be Marvin, I hoped I didn’t give the old guy a heart attack. I wanted to use the element of surprise to my advantage, so I wasn’t about to announce myself. Instead, I took a deep breath and whipped the door open. But it stopped abruptly when it whacked into something.
Everything after that seemed to occur in fast forward.
A person was down on the floor, bent on all fours.
I lunged forward with the toilet bowl brush high in the air and brought it down with a loud smack across the back of the intruder’s head.