Free Critical Impact by Linda Hall Page B

wasn’t a problem. Her mother had plugged a soft night-light into the bathroom counter outlet. Anna walked toward it.
    A few feet from the bathroom door, she saw her bell sitting right on the counter and outlined by the eerie blue light of the night-light. How had the bell gotten in here?
    She headed toward it.
    Just as she was about to walk into the bathroom, she felt a sharp jabbing pain on her knee and heard the crash of glass. She called out before she fell forward toward the hard ceramic tiles of the floor. At the last minute she reached for the grab bar with her left hand and grasped it tightly.
    Her mother was there in an instant.
    â€œAnna!”
    She looked up, dazed from where she was kneeling, surrounded by jagged shards of glass.
    â€œWhat happened?” her mother asked, flicking on all the lights and helping her to her feet.
    â€œI don’t know,” Anna said, attempting to pick the glass out of her legs. “I was just coming into the bathroom. Ow.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you ring the bell?” And then Catherine looked down. “Anna! You fell over this?” Catherine bent down and began picking up pieces of broken glass. “This is one of the outside windows! What’s it doing in here? Who brought it in here?”
    â€œI don’t know, Mom,” Anna said, attempting to rub her knees with her left hand.
    â€œAnd why didn’t you ring the bell?”
    â€œThe bell was in the bathroom,” Anna protested.
    â€œWhy was the bell in the bathroom? Did you put it there?”
    Anna said a barely audible “No.”
    â€œYou just sit there.” Her mother sat her down on the closed toilet seat. “I’m going to get a broom and a first aid kit. Don’t move. We have to get to the bottom of this.”
    The commotion woke Lois, who stood in the doorway, her hand over her open mouth. “What happened here?”
    â€œWe don’t know,” Catherine said. “It looks like one of the old windows was leaning against the doorway into the bathroom. Lois, did you bring this window inside?”
    Lois shook her head, eyes wide.
    â€œWell, somebody did. And it wasn’t me. This wasn’t here when I went to bed. This is not good.”
    â€œI may have seen something,” Anna said quietly. She was sitting on the closed toilet seat and rubbing her knees.
    â€œWhat!” Catherine stared at her.
    â€œI thought it was a dream.”
    â€œWhat did you dream?”
    Anna told her mother and her aunt about seeing a figure in her room earlier, but that she had ignored it, thinking it was a dream brought on by a new medication.
    â€œWell, this whole thing is a mystery, and look at your knee. It’s bleeding. You wait right there while I get some antiseptic and bandages.”
    While her mother went into her own room to fetch these things, she and Lois didn’t talk much. Lois stood there, staring, her hand across her mouth, and Anna felt too weak and tired to speak.
    When her mother returned, she went to work on Anna with tweezers, antiseptic and bandages. “Stu is on his way. He’ll be here in a minute,” her mother said, wetting a washcloth with warm water.
    â€œYou called Stu?” Anna didn’t know how she felt about that.
    â€œHe’s coming right away.”
    Anna nodded. Was someone trying to hurt her? It was certainly beginning to look that way. Feeling a sudden chill, Anna pulled her robe around her more tightly. There had to be a simple explanation. She looked up at the doorway.
    If the new grab bar hadn’t been installed, she could have fallen on her broken arm and done even more serious damage. Just the thought of that made her cringe. She closed her eyes while her mother pressed the warm, wet washcloth to her knees and then gently began picking out the bits of glass.
    â€œLois, will you let in Deputy McCabe when he comes?” Catherine asked.
    â€œMom, I still can’t believe you