Free Angel Sleuth by Lesley A. Diehl

he might be mistaken could only result in greater defensiveness toward her, and that wouldn’t help Lily. She decided another approach might get her more information.
    “Uhm, so those letters Leda received about thefts in the facility here were probably the writings of other demented folks?”
    Toliver’s Adam’s apple worked up and down in his neck, in what looked like fear to Kaitlin, but he recovered his composure by coughing into his hand.
    “It happens all the time. The elderly often think staff and other residents are stealing their possessions. And it’s just not true at all. Usually we find the person misplaced the item or hid it.”
    “Hid it. On purpose? Why would they want to hide it?”
    “To get attention, obviously. I’m just a little concerned that this person or these persons wrote to Leda at the paper. Do you know who they were?”
    “No. The letters weren’t signed, but I think Leda was concerned. She kept the letters in her files.”
    “Well, no reason to worry about it. The mind doesn’t work so well when we get older. We think all kinds of odd things. I’m sure Leda wasn’t that concerned. As a trained ombudsman, she knew not to take these allegations seriously.”
    Toliver hurried her toward the door, opened it, and nudged her through it.
    He lied to me. Something was going on here, and Leda knew it. Was Leda’s knowledge deadly for her?
    Kaitlin opened the door to her car and slid into the seat. The overhead light in the car illuminated a slip of folded paper lying on the passenger’s seat. The one line of writing on it read: “I need to meet with you. Meet me at the staff entrance on Saturday night. Nine o’clock.”
    Now she had two concrete reasons to be concerned about what was happening at ARC. The second one rested in her hand, two of the pills Lily was able to slip to her before Toliver ran her off. Kaitlin was certain Toliver didn’t see the sleight of hand. She looked at them in the dim light of the car and could make out two numbers on each of the, an eight and a one. Eighty-one. Low dosage aspirin, and that was no cholesterol drug.

Chapter 8
    Sleep? She couldn’t find it that night. Worry about Lily’s switched medication and excitement the pills might point to the person doing the stealing kept her awake. She assumed she’d get some answers the next night when she met with the author of the note found in her car, but the anticipation was like an additional jolt of caffeine, leaving her nerves tingling. Her confusion over how all these events related to Leda’s death gave her further cause to engage in sleepless tossing on her mattress. She pounded the pillow until down came out in puffs of tickly feathers and tossed it on the floor.
    She had to talk to someone about her evening. Too late to call her mother, Zack was out of the picture, and Mary Jane was off somewhere with Jeremy. By the time her roomies returned, after midnight, Kaitlin had changed her mind, convincing herself that any mother who kept her son out that late was a poor choice for talking with about thievery or murder. Kaitlin gave her other pillow a slam of her fist, loosening a seam. Down descended on her head and she began to sneeze.
    “You okay?” shouted Mary Jane from down the hall.
    “Fine. Go to sleep or you’ll keep Jeremy awake with all your yelling.” Someone had to show concern for the boy, Kaitlin said to herself. She threw that pillow to the floor where it joined its mate. I’ll buy fiberfill tomorrow, she vowed. Bird feathers reminded her of work she hadn’t finished on her book as well as the geese foreshadowing Leda’s death. She was feeling cursed by anything avian.
    * * *
    Much too soon sunlight crept through her window, rushed across the feather-strewn floor, and danced warm sparkles on her eyelids, but she resisted the pull of morning, threw her arm across her eyes, and dozed again. By the time she showered and came downstairs, Mary Jane and Jeremy had already left. The