wished she’d thought of it sooner.
“We’re ready,” she whispered into the phone.
From the corner of her eye she saw Nina’s Impala pull up to the curb, and Nacho warily slid into the backseat, tensed to make a run for it if necessary.
Gretchen slid in right behind him, leaving Nina alone up front to taxi them to the hospital. “You’re traveling light today,” she said, “Where’s your bag and Daisy’s shopping cart?”
“At my place,” he said. “Like it’s any of your business.”
“My place?” He had a place?
“Take Sixteenth Street,” Gretchen advised Nina. “We don’t want to run into our persistent detective friend.”
They drove the rest of the way to the hospital in silence, a dubious expression on Nina’s face. The windows were rolled down to disburse the rank air. Nacho stayed alert, one hand on the door handle. Gretchen sat on an angle, eyeing Nacho in case he decided to make a swift exit.
The critical care receptionist scrunched her nose and gaped at Nacho. Her eyes flicked up and down his body suspiciously, taking in the protrusion on the side of his head, but her expression lightened when she recognized Gretchen.
“Your mother’s feeling better today,” she said, still operating under mistaken identities. “She’s awake.”
“We’d like to see her,” Gretchen said, well aware of the family-only rule and seizing the opportunity to bypass it without having to explain that Daisy’s next of kin was an imaginary movie producer.
“Only for a few minutes. The doctor will be in soon.” She studied Nacho. “Is he family?”
“Uncle Nacho,” Gretchen said. “And this is Aunt Nina.”
“You have quite a family,” the receptionist said, unaware of the hostile glare Nina shot at Gretchen. “Room three twelve. Only one of you in the room at a time. We don’t want to tire the patient.”
The critical care unit was a formidable place, capable of intimidating the most resilient visitor. The air buzzed with activity in spite of the hushed atmosphere.
After finding the right room, Gretchen cast a look down the hall and, after making sure they weren’t watched, motioned to Nina and Nacho to follow her in.
Daisy, encased in white bedding and bandages, looked like an octopus, tentacles of plastic tubing rising in the air.
She opened one eye and smiled when she saw Nacho standing in the doorway.
“Look at this,” she said. “The show is sold out on opening night. Hello, fans.”
“You gave me a scare,” Nacho said, moving close and taking her hand. “I worried about you when you didn’t come back.”
“We all worried about you,” Nina said.
“This is like a fancy resort for me,” Daisy said. “Three squares a day and a button for room service. I might learn to like it here.”
Nacho continued to hold her hand.
“Did you tell them?” Daisy asked him.
“Not yet.” Nacho’s face softened.
“It’s time to tell them. They’re her family,” Daisy said.
Nacho blew out a sigh and turned to Gretchen and Nina.
“Caroline flew out on a plane right after Martha died,” he said. “She didn’t want to leave a trail, so I moved her car away from the airport. She gave me a credit card, and I drove it to Cave Creek and used the card to fill up the gas tank. I did it just like she said.”
“Where did she go?” Gretchen asked.
“She said she had to take care of something important that involved Martha. She wouldn’t tell me anything more than that.”
“How do you know my mother?” Gretchen asked. “And why would she ask you to help her?” She didn’t say the obvious, that Nacho had little to give in the way of support.
“Martha trusted her. That was good enough for me. You’ll have to ask her yourself why she came to me.”
Gretchen eyed Nacho. Unkempt, a knob on his head sprouting up like a cactus through the dry desert earth, defiance in his stance. “Do you know there’s a warrant for her arrest? The police think she may have killed Martha.”
“That’s not true.”
“What about the doll trunk?” Nina said.
“She left a bag in the backseat of her car. She told me to open it and follow the directions she had written on the picture.”
“The same bag I found in the shopping cart? With the doll trunk?”
Nacho nodded.
“Where’s the doll?”
“I never saw a doll.”
“Okay,” Gretchen said. “You went to the airport with her, she gave you a credit card and her car, and asked you to take care of the doll trunk. And all this time she didn’t tell you where she was going or why she was going there.