Second Bloom Page 5
“We weren’t talking to you.” The unshaven fellow stood up straight and pulled his unbuttoned flannel shirt over his bulging middle.
“Really? You were talking loud enough for everyone to hear. What if I called you red-neck trailer-trash?”
The fellow in the Allwood tee-shirt stared open-mouthed while the bristly-bearded one stuck out his chest and hitched his fingers in his belt. Before either could reply, Holly continued. “What’s the matter? Don’t you like being addressed that way?”
The man called Richie started to move toward Holly, when two garden center employees came out of the store, walking in their direction. Richie stopped, pushed up the brim of his baseball cap and said, “Look, we were just talkin’.”
“In the future, don’t assume everyone is as bigoted as you are, la boca grande,” Holly snapped, and turned back to the car. Looking over her shoulder, she added, “Just in case your Spanish doesn’t extend beyond ‘estupido,’ that means big mouth.”
When Holly got to the car, she found Ivy arranging the flats in the trunk. She looked over at Holly and asked, “Feel better?”
“Yes. Yes, I do,” said Holly, as she got in the car and turned on the ignition.
9 PINELAND PARK COUNTY JAIL
Back home, Holly and Ivy unloaded the flats and potting soil. Ivy went straight to the shed to get the gardening tools, and Holly headed into the house to call Frank Flynn.
“Okay,” she said when she came back out to the patio. “Juan is in Pineland County Jail and visiting hours are one to four.” She hesitated, then asked, “You’ll come with me, won’t you?”
“I guess so,” Ivy replied, rummaging through the tool bucket. “But only if you promise not to get …”
“Not to get what?” Holly arched her back and placed her hands on her hips.
“That!” Ivy punctuated the air with her garden trowel. “You see how you answered me? You’re just itching for a fight. You’re a 55-year-old woman who just confronted a group of young men in a garden center parking lot. If we go to a county jail, and you do the same thing, the outcome could be a trip to the emergency room. That isn’t exactly how I want to spend my vacation.”
Holly dropped her hands to her side and lowered her head. “You’re right. I guess it was a stupid thing to do, but I just got so mad when I realized those ignoramuses were talking about Juan.”
“You can’t help Juan if you get hurt.”
“Those guys wouldn’t have hurt me. The ring leader was just a big bully.”
Ivy shook her head. “I don’t agree. I saw him looking at your license plate as we pulled out of the garden center lot. That scared me. You embarrassed a man in front of his friends. Men don’t like that, Holly. You don’t know what they might do.”
“All right. Look, I promise I won’t talk to anyone but Juan, okay?”
Ivy pointed her trowel at Holly. “You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t feel reassured. You’ve broken just about every promise you’ve made since I got here and I haven’t even been here 48 hours.” She turned and went over to the baker’s racks and started to tear open a bag of potting soil. Holly stood silently watching her. Get a grip, Holly.
***************
On the drive to the county jail, Holly kept going over Ivy’s admonitions in her head. How could she ever convince Ivy to move in with her if she kept making these horrendous blunders? Besides, Ivy was right about everything. She shouldn’t have left the house without leaving a note, and what in the world was she thinking when she approached those young men in the garden center parking lot?
Holly parked the car in a surface lot across from the county jail. “Ready?” she asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Together they crossed the street and walked to the end of the line behind twenty or more people waiting for the doors to open. Men, women and a few children populated the queue, mostly young, mostly subdued, speaking quietly in a variety of languages--Spanish, Polish, Arabic. More than a few curious stares followed them as they walked past. When they reached their place at the end of the line, Holly turned to Ivy.
“Look, I’m really sorry to have dragged you into this, but I want you to know how grateful I am that you’re with me. I don’t feel quite as brave here as I did back at the garden center.”
“Glad to hear it.” Ivy looked around, lowered her head and whispered, “You know, I don’t see this much diversity in a year in South Carolina.” They were definitely the minority here.
Inside the sisters sat on a wooden bench and waited for their names to be called. After just a few minutes they were summoned to follow an officer down a hall to a room with seating areas separated by wooden partitions. Some visitors were already seated talking on phone receivers to inmates on the other side of a glass wall. Holly and Ivy sat down. Juan was brought in wearing an orange jumpsuit. His hair needed combing and he looked as if he hadn’t slept. .When he saw Holly, his face brightened just a bit. He picked up the phone receiver.
“Ms. Donnelly, thank you so much for coming here.”
“Hi, Juan. This is my sister, Ivy.”
“Sí, Sí. I can tell,” he smiled, but the smile faded quickly. “I so sorry you have to come here. You know I did not kill Señora Hagel. I use the garden knife, but no to kill.”
“Juan, I know. Were you at the house on Wednesday? Can you tell me what happened?”
Juan recounted his arrival at Mrs. Hagel’s on Wednesday around 8:00 a.m. He explained that he went straight to the backyard to continue work on the weeding he’d begun the day before. At noon, he rang the back doorbell and told Mrs. Hagel’s nurse that he was leaving and explained he wouldn’t be back until Friday because he had another job.
“Did you see Mrs. Hagel?” Holly asked.
“No, I no see her.” Juan continued partially in English, partially in Spanish. He said the police came to his house late Wednesday night, brought him downtown for questioning and held him overnight in an interview room. In the morning they fingerprinted him. Then they questioned him again about jewelry. After that they arrested him for attempted robbery and the murder of Mrs. Hagel. His fingerprints matched the prints on the garden knife and two gold bracelets were found in the garden tool bucket in the shed. He told them he didn’t do it, but they just read him his rights, put him in cuffs and took him to a holding cell. That’s where he was headed when Holly and Ivy saw him in the lobby.
“Juan, do you have any idea how the bracelets got into the tool bucket?” Holly asked.
He shook his head no. “Ms. Donnelly, you know I no steal. I no do this.”
“I know, Juan. I believe you,” Holly said. “Did the court appoint a lawyer yet? Abogado?”
“Sí. The lawyer came to see me. We talk five, ten minutos only. She say she come again on Monday.”
“She?” Holly looked over at Ivy. “A woman lawyer. Maybe that’s a good thing. Juan, what’s her name?”
“Sheryl Robinson.”
“I’m going to try to talk to her. If there’s anything I can do, I will do it. I am so sorry this is happening to you. Lo siento mucho.”
“Gracias, Ms. Donnelly. Gracias.”
***************
Holly didn’t say a word as she and Ivy walked to the car. When they got in, she turned and said, “I’ve never in my life felt less sure about what to do. After coming here, I feel exhausted and hopeless and really like a fish out of water.”
Ivy sat silently as Holly put her head down on the steering wheel. “I just want to go home and forget the whole thing, but I can’t.” Sitting back up, she turned to face Ivy. “I know I have no right to drag you into this mess with me, but I don’t think I can do this without your help.”
Ivy sat forward. “Now I remember! I had a dream the other night. Dave told me to help you.”
“Really?”
“Really.” Ivy turned and faced Holly. “All my life I’ve felt like I could never repay you for all you’ve done for me. I guess now’s my chance.”
Holly raised one eyebrow and smiled, “Payback’s a bitch, huh?”
“Yeah,” Ivy said. “But after this one, I think we’re even.”
10 SHERYL ROBINSON, ESQ.
The two-story brick building that housed Sheryl Robinson’s office had no lobby or elevator. The outer door opened into a small vestibule with one unmarked door to the right and a flight of stairs with worn carpet treads leading to the second floor.
The door at the top of the stairs read “Sheryl Robinson, Esq.” Holly knocked. An African-American woman in a white, man-tailored shirt and gray pant suit opened the door.
“Ms. Robinson, I’m Holly Donnelly and this is my sister, Ivy. I’m a friend of Juan Alvarez.”
Unsmiling, the lawyer shook hands with Holly and Ivy. “Have a seat.” She pointed to the two chairs in front of her desk, and sat down herself. Rifling through the papers on her cluttered desk, she found a dog-eared file folder that looked as if it had been re-cycled more than once. Not looking up, Ms. Robinson said, “At the moment, it doesn’t look good for Mr. Alvarez. His fingerprints were all over the murder weapon, a hori hori knife I believe it’s called.”
“Of course, Juan’s fingerprints would be on that. He was doing gardening work for Mrs. Hagel. Isn’t that just circumstantial evidence?” Holly asked.
“That’s not all the police have against Mr. Alvarez. Stolen jewelry was found hidden in the tool bucket he was using. The police are looking at this as an attempted robbery gone wrong, Ms. Donnelly. I think the best Mr. Alvarez can do is plead guilty to felony robbery and voluntary manslaughter and hope for a six, maybe three-year sentence.”
Holly’s cheeks burned and tears stung her eyes. She stared at the lawyer, started to speak and stopped. Sheryl Robinson dropped the folder on her desk, leaned back in her chair and waited. Finally, Holly spoke.
“Ms. Robinson, Juan has worked for me for over ten years. I’ve left him at my house with the doors unlocked numerous times.” Holly stopped and leaned forward bracing her hands on the lawyer’s desk. “He’s never stolen anything.”
The lawyer just frowned and shrugged.
“Were Juan’s fingerprints on the jewelry?” Holly asked.
Ms. Robinson paused, picked up the file and perused it again. “The report doesn’t say.”
“See.” Holly moved to the edge of her seat. ”Maybe somebody else put that jewelry there to frame him. I know Juan is incapable of murder.”
The lawyer looked at Holly, heaved a sigh and replied, “Ms. Donnelly, I appreciate your genuine interest in Mr. Alvarez, but the report may just have omitted the fingerprints on the jewelry. I can check, but under the circumstances, based on the evidence, a plea bargain is the best I think we can do.”
Holly sat back silently, gripping the arms of her chair. She and Sheryl Robinson just stared at each other. Ivy’s voice broke the uncomfortable silence.
“Has there been an autopsy, Ms. Robinson? What did the coroner list as the cause of death?” she asked.
“The autopsy isn’t complete yet. I think it’s obvious that stabbing was the cause of death.”
“Maybe not,” Ivy conjectured.
Holly and the lawyer both stared at Ivy.
“She was stabbed. There’s no doubt about that.” The lawyer pursed her lips.
“Yes, I know that, but--I can’t be absolutely sure--but when I looked at the pill bottles on the counter the day we found Mrs. Hagel on the floor, I saw there were two prescriptions. One was for Digoxin and the other was for Ativan. Both of those pills are white, so they could easily be mixed up.”
“So what are you saying?” asked the lawyer, looking at her watch.
“Digoxin is used to treat heart conditions, like atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter and sometimes heart failure. Ativan is a sedative.”
“How do you know that?” the lawyer asked, looking over her reading glasses at Ivy.
“I’m a registered nurse.”
Ms. Robinson leaned back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. ”Okay. So what if those pills were mixed up?”
“Well, Ativan is a sedative. Too much could be fatal to an elderly person, especially someone taking numerous medications.”
“Fatal?” the lawyer said unfolding her arms and sitting forward.
“Yes. When I was in the kitchen after I discovered the body, I saw there were several paper pill cups lined up on the counter that could easily have gotten mixed up. The wrong doses in the wrong combination could result in cardiac arrest.” Ivy bit her lower lip.
“What?” Holly gasped. “And you didn’t tell me?”
Ivy looked over at Holly and took a deep breath. “I could be wrong. I only got a glance at the pills in the paper cups, but I think there may have been Ativans in each of the cups, and that drug should only be given once a day. I’m just suggesting the autopsy results and toxicology report may just show something no one is looking for because of the stabbing.”
“Ivy, how could you…”
Sheryl Robinson intervened. “So what you’re saying is someone drugged her, then stabbed her? Why would anybody do that?” Ms. Robinson asked.
“If the real cause of death was an overdose of Ativan, and you wanted to make it look like a stabbing and a robbery, the real murderer could have planted the jewelry in the tool bucket and stabbed Mrs. Hagel with the garden knife after she was dead knowing Juan’s fingerprints would be on it.”
“So that would prove Juan was framed, just like I said,” Holly interjected.
“We’re a long way from proof, Ms. Donnelly,” Ms. Robinson replied.
Ivy sighed. “Here’s the thing. I didn’t think about it at the time, because once I knew Mrs. Hagel was dead, I stood right up and went to the door. But that night, after the police told us Mrs. Hagel had been stabbed, it bothered me that I hadn’t noticed any blood near the body. If she’d been stabbed while she was alive, I should have noticed blood.”
Ms. Robinson stared at Ivy, moving her jaw from side to side. After a few seconds, she said, “All right. I’ll call the coroner and see what I can find out. I’ll also check to see what medications were confiscated at the crime scene.” She closed Juan’s file and stood up.
“Holly, shall we go?” Ivy asked
“Uh--yes.” Holly replied. “Ms. Robinson, you’ll call us if you hear anything, or if there’s anything we can do?”
“Yes,” said the attorney as she walked them to the door and shook their hands. ”And thank you for coming in. If the medication was mixed-up, we may have something to raise reasonable doubt in the jurors’ minds. If you’re right, you may have just saved Mr. Alvarez from a prison sentence.”
***************
Back in the car, Holly turned to Ivy. “Why didn’t you tell me about the pills? What were you thinking?”
“I’ll tell you what I was thinking. I was thinking that the police would certainly discover an overdose of the wrong medication. If I spotted it, wouldn’t the forensics people? Besides, I couldn’t be absolutely sure that what I saw had anything to do with Mrs. Hagel’s death. And now that I think about it, the police had to know the lack of blood meant she was stabbed after she was dead.”
“Great. So, now the police are involved in framing Juan?”
“No, I don’t think that. Remember Manelli said Edna had a knife in her chest. He didn’t say it was the cause of death. Police sometimes keep details about the crime scene to themselves. Remember, we were suspects when he talked to us.”
“Go ahead. Defend the police.”
“I’m not defending anyone. Besides when the autopsy results are finished, what I saw may not even matter.”
“If you didn’t think it mattered, what made you tell Sheryl Robinson just now?”
Ivy took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “When the lawyer said Juan would go to prison for three to six years, I got sick to my stomach. I don’t know Juan as well as you do, but I have to agree with you. I can’t believe that gentle man we met at the co
unty jail would kill anyone. At Mrs. Hagel’s house, with all those police around, I felt afraid to say something I wasn’t sure about. Here, I wasn’t afraid to tell the lawyer what I thought I saw.”
Holly gripped the steering wheel and leaned her head back against the car seat. “Oh, Ivy, I’d be really mad at you right now, if I didn’t think you maybe just saved Juan.”
On the drive home, Holly burst out laughing. “I almost fell off my chair when you asked the lawyer about the autopsy. When you started talking about the pills you sounded like an expert witness on the stand. You really amaze me sometimes.”
Ivy giggled. “Did I sound like I really knew what I was talking about?”
“Are you kidding? You stopped Sheryl Robinson right in her tracks. She seemed to be just going through the motions with me, but once you started, you had her full attention. Ivy, Ivy, Ivy. You always underestimate yourself.”
“I just didn’t want to say something and be wrong. But after you said that maybe somebody else put the jewelry in the tool bucket, it got me thinking that if someone really did want to frame Juan, they could have killed Mrs. Hagel with drugs and then stabbed her to cover up the overdose. That’s when I knew I had to say something even if I was wrong.”
“Thank heaven. Now let’s just keep our fingers crossed that what you saw actually helps Juan.”
11 A CHANCE ENCOUNTER
The next day after breakfast the two sisters decided to work in the garden a few hours in the cool of the morning and then drive out to Well-Sweep Herb Farm in Hackettstown after lunch. Ivy continued mixing and matching flower combinations for some hanging pots for the back patio, and Holly returned to the front yard to weed the border bed along the fence. She just finished clearing the weeds from two fence sections, when she heard her name.