Free Citizen Insane (A Barbara Marr Murder Mystery #2) by Karen Cantwell

EMTs wheeled me through the emergency entrance at Rustic Woods Hospital. After I answered a gazillion questions, they rolled me into a curtained area where the checked my blood pressure and tested my pupils for dilation. People kept coming and going. Roz and I didn’t have enough privacy to talk to Roz about Michelle, the gunshot wounds, or Bunny. Could Bunny be crazy enough to attempt murder? I wondered whether Roz had said anything to the police about her.
    “Mrs. Marr, a doctor will be here soon. Lie back and relax.” The gray-haired, spectacled nurse pulled the curtain behind her, finally leaving Roz and me alone.
    Roz scooted her little stool to the side of my bed, her eyes wide in curiosity. “Did Howard tell you anything?”
    “Michelle is alive, did you know that?”
    “Yes. I’m so relieved.”
    “Do you know she was walking around with three gunshot wounds when I hit her?”
    “No!”
    I nodded. “Howard says I barely tapped her. They can’t believe she’s still alive—whoever shot her really wanted her DOA.”
    Roz’s jaw dropped. “That’s awful. I guess it’s lucky that Bunny called you. We wouldn’t have been out otherwise. Who knows what would have happened?”
    “Lucky? Or planned event? Roz. Aren’t you following the dots here?”
    She rolled her eyes. I was really tired of people rolling their eyes at me. I’m not as stupid as I look. “Roz. Think. Bunny shows up on my lawn looney as a tune. Then the entire Rustic Woods fire and rescue brigade descends on her house—just because she ran over a rabbit? Really? I’m not buying it. Then she threatens Michelle in broad daylight—”
    “It was night time.”
    “In broad nightlight—says she’ll kill her—then, as the song goes, ‘isn’t it ironic?’ Michelle shows up filled with more holes than a bag of lifesavers. AND whose phone call caused me to get me to get in my car and ultimately hit Michelle? Hmm?”
    Roz crossed her arms. “That song has nothing to do with irony.”
    “Would you stay on topic here?”
    “I don’t get what one thing has to do with the other.”
    “You mean, that she threatens to kill Michelle and then Michelle ends up almost killed?”
    “No—I mean I don’t know what this morning’s event has to do with the other thing.”
    “You mean, that she has a mondo bizarro meltdown, then threatens to kill Michelle, then Michelle ends up almost killed? That thing?”
    “Okay—you made your point.” She crossed her arms. “It’s suspicious.”
    “Thank you.” I blew some dangling hair out of my face. “And yet, Howard doesn’t think so.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I told Howard about their fight after the PTA. He didn’t want to talk about it.”
    “Well, that is a little strange. Something else too, now that I think of it.”
    “About Bunny?”
    “No—back at the accident scene. When the police questioned me, they asked basic questions, like why we were out, where we were going, whether you’d been drinking. Things you’d expect them to ask. But, if they knew she’d been shot, why didn’t they ask me if I’d seen anything suspicious?”
    I silently wondered the same thing. “Me too,” I said finally. “Same questions.”
    “They questioned your mom too.”
    “Why?”
    “Well, I don’t think they questioned her so much as she gave them a load of information they may or may not have wanted. Evidently there was some man at your house with her after the PTA meeting.”
    “Russell Crow.”
    “Who?”
    “Not the actor—the fire fighter.”
    “Yum.”
    “Trust me. He’s as good as they get.”
    “Muscles?”
    “Sculpted like a DaVinci original.”
    “Five o’clock shadow?”
    “Sensationally sexy stubble.”
    “Wow. At your house?”
    “My mother is trying to set me up with him.”
    “You’re married.”
    “She thinks that’s negotiable. So does Howard I guess.”
    “Anyway,” Roz said, “I did mention that we were on our way to Bunny Bergen’s house, since they