I SEE YOU an unputdownable psychological thriller with a breathtaking twist by PATRICIA MACDONALD (bookstand for reading txt) 📗

scrubs opened the door. The aide put a finger to her lips. ‘She’s sleeping,’ said the woman, who was thirtyish and overweight with a bleached-blonde pixie cut.

‘I know that,’ said Pamela impatiently. ‘It’s you we came to see. This is my daughter. Lisa’s mother.’

The woman looked startled and then smiled at Hannah, extending her hand. ‘Hi. I’m Wynonna Clemons.’

‘Nice to meet you,’ said Hannah.

‘Hannah needs to hear what you have to say, Wynonna.’

Wynonna grimaced. ‘I really shouldn’t leave her.’

‘She can page you if she needs you. Check in on her,’ said Pamela. ‘Then meet us in the lounge across the hall.’

‘OK,’ said Wynonna. ‘Give me five minutes.’ She disappeared back into the apartment, closing the door quietly.

‘Three bedrooms,’ Pamela observed, shaking her head. ‘That’s the number of bedrooms a person should have.’ Then she abruptly turned her chair around and directed it toward the spacious, well-appointed lounge across the hall. Hannah followed her. Pamela pointed to a Duncan Phyfe-style sofa covered in crewel-work embroidery. Hannah sat down and Pamela glided across the butterscotch gleam of the hardwood floors, past wing chairs and mahogany end tables and parked her chair beside the sofa.

‘Mother, tell me again. Why, on this night when I am completely exhausted, do I want to talk to Mrs Shelton’s aide?’

‘Wynonna Clemons used to work at Vanderbilt Hospital as an LPN, but she was let go because she came to work several times smelling like a brewery.’

Hannah looked at her mother with raised eyebrows.

‘Oh, don’t bother looking shocked,’ said Pamela. ‘Christina told me that herself. But Christina’s children felt that their mother needed a full-time aide, and Wynonna was in need of work. Her husband is disabled and they’ve got two kids. So Christina’s children interviewed her several times and decided she might work out. As it happens, she and Christina get on very well.’

Good for Christina’s sainted children, Hannah thought, gritting her teeth. She glanced at the ormolu clock on the mantle. She just wanted to go home, kiss Sydney and climb into bed with Adam. Tomorrow promised to be trying. ‘Well,’ said Hannah, ‘I’m sure she’s a very nice woman.’

‘Oh, for heaven’s sakes, Hannah. Stop talking as if I’m simple. I didn’t call you out here to lob compliments at a nurse’s aide.’

Hannah stifled a sigh. ‘Did we have to do this tonight? In the middle of the trial? You see these people every day. Why tonight?’

‘As a matter of fact, I haven’t seen them in a while, because Christina had a bad fall and spent the last several months in the nursing home wing. Don’t you remember I told you that? Wynonna took care of her there.’

‘Oh, yes, I remember you saying that she fell and broke her arm and her hip,’ said Hannah. ‘Where was the vaunted Wynonna when that happened?’

‘It was Wynonna’s day off, as a matter of fact,’ said Pamela. ‘And I’ll ask you to mind your tone.’

‘Sorry,’ said Hannah.

‘These days, Christina spends a lot of time in her room. But I ran into them today in the dining room, and Wynonna was anxious to talk.’

‘Here she comes,’ said Hannah in a warning tone.

Wynonna hurried across the room, and stood in front of the sofa. ‘May I?’ she asked Hannah.

‘Of course. Sit down,’ said Hannah.

Wynonna perched on the edge of the sofa cushion. ‘Your mother is a great lady,’ she confided to Hannah.

‘Thank you,’ said Hannah, smiling thinly.

‘I was just telling my daughter that you used to work at Vanderbilt.’

‘That’s right,’ said Wynonna, nodding. ‘I worked there for seven years. And then I was replaced by another nurse. That man your daughter . . . knew.’

Suddenly, Hannah understood why she had been summoned. ‘Troy Petty.’

‘Exactly right,’ said Wynonna. ‘I heard about the trial, like everybody else. But I never put it together with Mrs Hardcastle’s granddaughter until Mrs Shelton told me.’

Hannah sighed. ‘So you knew Troy Petty.’

Wynonna looked surprised. ‘No! I didn’t know him. They blindsided me at the hospital. Fired me one day, and already had him on deck.’

‘I’m sure that was very difficult,’ said Hannah sympathetically. At the same time, she had to wonder if her mother’s faculties were failing. Hannah had been summoned in the night to meet a woman who lost her job to Troy Petty. Apparently with good reason, because of her own alcohol problem.

‘A pedophile. They replaced me with a pedophile. It’s disgusting. Don’t you think, Mrs H?’

Pamela nodded sagely and gazed at Hannah.

Hannah nodded. ‘Ah, I see. You . . . heard about the testimony today.’

Wynonna agreed eagerly. ‘Yes, everyone was talking about it. About the sick child at the camp. I already knew about it.’

Hannah looked at Wynonna with narrowed eyes. ‘You knew about that?’

‘Oh, yes,’ said Wynonna triumphantly. ‘Dolores told me all about it.’

Hannah shook her head. ‘I’m confused. Who’s Dolores?’

‘Dolores is a nurse I used to work with. Back in the fall when I lost my job to this Petty character, she called and told me that years ago she used to work at that Sunflower camp for sick kids. She said that Troy Petty was fired for molesting one of the little campers. I told my husband, Hank, to check it out on the computer. He’s a whiz on that thing. I wish he could get some computer work. He’s disabled, so he’s home all the time with nothing to do. In fact, your mother said that your husband works for Verizon . . .’

‘This is not the time, Wynonna,’ said Pamela imperiously.

Wynonna shrugged. ‘Well, anyway, Hank looked into it. There was an accusation made but no charges, so they couldn’t use his name.’

‘Perhaps you should have brought it to the hospital’s attention, Wynonna,’ drawled Pamela.

Wynonna looked away, somewhat sheepishly, rubbing her hands on her thighs. ‘I tried to. I tried to tell