Ravenous - Helen Hardt Page 0,55
Thirty-Two
Marjorie
After making sure Jade was okay to get the boys from the bus stop after school, I drove into the city to see my mother.
I tried to get there every week. I wanted to tell her about Bryce and me. She wouldn’t know who either of us were, but still, she was my mother, and I needed to tell her my good news.
Having a little good news in the wake of what was happening seemingly all over again was a gift. A gift I intended to let myself revel in. I deserved that much, and so did Bryce.
The cut on my thigh still ached a little when I walked, reminding me of what I’d done. It had numbed up pretty good during my time on the elliptical this morning, but at the moment, it was pounding with my heart.
I erased it from my mind as best I could and signed the visitors’ log. Then I walked to my mother’s wing.
Her door was closed, so I knocked gently and opened it. “Mom?”
She wasn’t in bed or in her chair, not in itself unusual. She was probably in the common area. I found her there sometimes, cradling the doll she imagined was me and talking to other patients. I strode toward the end of the hallway, smiling at nurses and orderlies along the way, until I reached the large room where patients congregated to watch television and play board games.
The TV was turned to a talk show. I looked around the room. No mom. Strange. Maybe she had an appointment with one of her physicians.
I walked back toward her room and grabbed the first caregiver I found. His name tag read Barry. “Barry, hi. I’m Marjorie Steel. We spoke on the phone about the man who visited my mother. Daphne Steel?”
“Yes, hi. I’ve seen you around here.”
“Where is she? I came to visit, and she’s usually in her room around this time of the day.”
“Your brother came and took her out for a while.”
My heart dropped. “What?”
“Your brother. Didn’t he tell you?”
“My brothers work during the day. They only visit Mom on weekends.”
“He must have taken some time off.”
Okay. That could very well be. We owned the ranch, after all, and Talon and Joe could come and go as they pleased. Both took their work very seriously, though, and were definitely hands-on. And neither had ever taken our mother away from the facility.
“Which brother?”
“Joe Steel, I believe. He should be on the visitors’ log.”
I hadn’t noticed either of my brothers’ names on the log when I’d signed in, but then I hadn’t been looking either.
Plus, today was Bryce’s first day at the new job. It was unlikely either Joe or Talon would leave the ranch.
Wasn’t it?
Something smelled rotten.
“I’m going to check the visitors’ log.” I walked as casually as I could muster back to the front and glanced over the log. Sure enough, Joe Steel was signed in.
The problem? Joe always used his given name, Jonah, when he wrote and signed his name.
Panic welled in me. Where was my mother? She lived in her own cloud of fantasy. She wasn’t safe outside this place unless she was with one of us. And clearly she wasn’t.
I frantically called Joe.
“Hey, Sis,” he said into the phone.
“Joe, I’m trying to visit Mom, and she’s gone.”
“What?” His voice was loud and panicked.
“Yeah. And the nurse says you signed her out earlier.”
“Fuck.”
“Your name’s in the log, but I knew it wasn’t you. Someone wrote Joe Steel, and you always write Jonah Steel.”
“Damn right it wasn’t me. Call the cops. I’m on my way.”
I quickly dialed 9-1-1 and explained the situation. Then I turned to the clerk at the front desk. “You people have a lot to answer for. You let my mother walk out of here with a stranger this morning.”
“Ma’am, I assure you—”
“My brother Joe is on his way here. He was not here this morning, and he did not sign our mother out. You let a stranger take our mother!”
My heart beat like galloping wildebeests. My mother—my mentally deficient, innocent mother. Where was she? And who had taken her? What could anyone want with—
Dollar signs clouded my head. Money. This had to be about money. If Talon or Joe had received a ransom demand, I’d know about it, and Joe would have mentioned it when we talked a minute ago.
“Listen,” I said. “You need to tell me everything you remember about the man who took my mother out of here. What did he look like?”
The