Page 13 of Her Dying Secret

The alarm on the vital signs machine continued to squawk. If a staff member did come in here, they’d be asked to leave. In an effort to calm Mira down, Josie turned the questions toward more mundane matters. She didn’t want Mira having a cardiac event when she asked her about the child. “Let’s talk about things you do remember. Have you lived in Denton long?”

It didn’t bring her pulse or respirations down, but she answered. “Three years. I moved from Bucks County. Got a job here working for an insurance firm. I just answer phones and do some intake but the money is good.”

Josie flipped the switch to turn off the wall light. The area inside the curtain was dim but not so much that they couldn’t see one another. “Do you live alone?”

Mira’s body visibly relaxed. “Oh. Yes. Just me and my cat.”

“What kind of cat do you have?” asked Gretchen.

Her heart rate slowed, the alarm cutting off. “The all-black kind? I don’t know. I got her at a rescue. Is that—is that important?”

Gretchen shook her head. “I’m just a cat person. Do you have children, Miss Summers?”

Her pulse spiked but not enough to set the alarm back off. More blood oozed from under the gauze pads, staining the sheet that covered her body. “No. I never had kids.”

Gretchen said, “Do you ever come into contact with any children at Tranquil Trails?”

“I mean, I’ve seen kids there but I don’t talk with them or anything.”

Josie took out her phone and pulled up the child’s drawing found at the scene. “Does this look familiar to you?”

Mira stared blankly at the picture until the silence became awkward. Then, licking her lips, she answered, “No. What is that supposed to be? Did a child draw that?”

“We believe so,” Josie swiped to the photo of the back, where the green letters jumped off the page.

Mira stared at the message, her pulse suddenly jumping all over the place from the low fifties to over one hundred ten and everywhere in between. The alarm started to blare, cut off, and then began again. Josie wondered if it would short-circuit at the rate that Mira’s heart rate was changing. “I don’t know what to say,” she whispered.

Josie kept the photo in view. “This was found in the hand of your passenger. We have reason to believe that whoever drew it and wrote this message on the back is in danger. I know you’ve just been injured, but please think carefully. Can you think of any child who might have drawn this?”

The alarm bellowed again for three beats before going silent. “No,” Mira said. “I’m sorry. I have no idea.”

Gretchen tapped her pen against her notepad. “You don’t have children, but are there any in your life who might have drawn this?”

“No, no.”

“Nieces, nephews?”

“I don’t— I have no siblings.”

“Do any of your friends have children?” asked Gretchen.

“I’ve only got one good friend here and she doesn’t have any kids. Wait. You said the passenger in my car was holding that. Can’t you just ask her?”

“I’m afraid not,” Josie said. “The passenger is deceased.”

Shock slackened the features of Mira’s face. “Oh God. Did I kill her? In the accident?”

Did she really not remember anything that came before the accident? The handle sticking out of Jane Doe’s abdomen? Josie looked for any telltale signs that she was lying, but in her current state, it was difficult to decipher what might indicate a lie and what was simply shock and pain from the accident.

“The medical examiner will have to perform an autopsy to determine her cause of death, but it appears as though she was in very bad shape before she got into your car.”

Josie heard a click and then a loud whir. The blood pressure cuff around Mira’s upper arm inflated.

Gretchen flipped another page in her notebook. “The passenger didn’t have any identification. Do you have any idea who the woman in your car might be?”

Mira had already told them that she didn’t know the passenger, but Josie knew Gretchen was testing for consistency by making her answer the question, especially given that she was claiming memory loss.

Mira shook her head. A grimace stretched across her face. She lifted one of her forearms again. Blood dripped down to her elbow and onto her hospital gown. The alarm on the vital signs machine shrieked again. Her blood pressure was high.

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