stitches. They gave me one then.”
“The nurses told me you’re a bit of a regular here,” Dr. Mitchell said. “Anything you can do about that?”
“I was an innocent bystander tonight. My friend may have been the target, but I was just watching her station while she took a break.”
“Maybe you need new friends.”
He proceeded to recite a litany of cautions, care instructions and medication instructions and finished by handing her a printout of prescriptions for pain pills and burn ointment for some smaller splash spots away from the main injury.
“You get to leave,” Lauren said as she came through the curtained doorway. She stopped when she saw the doctor. “Oh, sorry,” she said and moved to the other side of Harriet’s bed.
“As your friend said, you get to leave,” Dr. Mitchell said with a smile. “Since you’re a frequent flyer, I’m sure they have your insurance information, but if anything has changed, take care of it on your way out. Don’t get up until someone comes and gets you with a wheelchair.”
“Now can we call your aunt?” Lauren asked as soon as the doctor was gone.
“I guess I can’t avoid it any longer.”
Lauren had her cell phone out and was dialing Robin before Harriet had stopped speaking.
Chapter 19
Lauren pulled into Harriet’s driveway and parked as close to the studio door as she could. Harriet recognized Connie’s car along with her aunt’s silver Beetle, Robin’s minivan and the older model Mercedes Aiden let Carla drive.
“How was the prom?” she asked as she came through the door, a sheepish smile on her face.
“What were you thinking, not letting anyone call us?” Aunt Beth demanded.
“Let the girl sit down,” Mavis scolded. She must have come with Aunt Beth, Harriet thought. Likewise, DeAnn was sitting beside Robin. With the exception of Jenny—and Sarah, whom they hadn’t seen in weeks—all of the Loose Threads were present. Harriet assumed the monitor receiver in Carla’s left hand meant Wendy was asleep somewhere out of earshot.
She sat down in one of the swivel chairs that had been pushed up to her cutting table. Lauren went through the kitchen door, returning a minute later with a throw pillow from the living room sofa. She put it on the table beside Harriet.
“Elevate,” she said.
Harriet put her arm on the pillow and settled herself.
“So, what happened?” Aunt Beth asked, unable to keep the stern look off her face.
“I was an innocent bystander,” Harriet protested, and then related the whole story one more time.
“No one seems to know who the crazy lady is,” Lauren added when Harriet was finished. “They actually brought her to the hospital instead of the jail because she was acting so crazy. I heard one of the nurses say they had to sedate her and would be sending her to the psych ward.”
“We need to talk to Jenny,” Harriet said. “Not only about why the acid thrower would want to attack her, if, indeed, that was the intention but also, I didn’t get a chance to tell her that her brother wanted to talk to her. He came to me and claimed he isn’t using drugs anymore, and that he needed to warn Jenny about something. He said she was in danger.”
“Do you think he was talking about the woman who threw the acid?” Mavis asked.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Harriet said thoughtfully. “He was lurking around waiting for me to convince Jenny to talk to him. The woman was also wandering the aisles. If I saw her, he must have, and if he knew she was the danger, why wouldn’t he have stopped her?”
“Maybe he was afraid of what she was going to do,” Aunt Beth suggested.
“But he was the one who tackled the woman and threw her bottle of acid out of reach. Then he just disappeared. If he knew she was the danger, why did he wait until she threw the liquid?”
“Maybe he misjudged the level of danger,” Robin suggested.
“But he said Jenny was in danger. He said he’d laid low, but they’d found her anyway. Somehow, that doesn’t seem to match with one crazy woman.”
“What did the doctor say about your arm?” Connie asked. “Is it terribly painful?”
“They didn’t really tell me much,” Harriet said.
“Actually, they had a lot to say,” Lauren told them. “Harriet’s too drugged with pain medicine to remember it all.” She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket, unfolded it and handed it to Aunt Beth. “She’s supposed to keep it level or slightly elevated, and she’s supposed to