“Hey, Andrea. Could you tell me when Merrick is flying back from China? I need to talk to him about something important.”
“Of course. Let me pull up his itinerary.” I heard the clickity-clack of her keyboard before she spoke again. “He’s on a nine-AM flight out tomorrow morning, China time. But between the twenty hours of flights and time change, he gets into JFK on Saturday about four in the afternoon.”
Shoot. Even if he hopped on a different flight, with twenty hours of travel, he wouldn’t get to Atlanta until late Saturday night, at best. This didn’t seem like something that should wait. So I decided I’d just go. Besides, Kitty might find it easier to talk to another woman about her issues than her grandson. And my grandmother would want me to take care of Kitty. So I made the choice to get on a plane and delay telling Merrick until he landed. There was no point in having him worry for twenty hours of flying when there was nothing he could do until he got here anyway. If I flew down tonight, I’d know more by then, too.
“Do you want me to contact his hotel or anything for you?” Andrea asked.
“No.” I shook my head. “I’ll talk to him when he gets back. But thank you.”
“No problem. I’ll email you his itinerary, in case you need it after I’m gone for the day.”
“Thank you. Have a good weekend, Andrea.”
“You, too, Evie.”
After I hung up, I searched for flights. There was one at 6 PM that would get me in at 8:30. As long as I didn’t check a bag, that would have me to Kitty’s by 9:30. The later flights arrived too late to knock on Kitty’s door. I didn’t want to disturb her rest. I could also wait until tomorrow, but I would feel better going now. So I booked the flight and let Joan in HR know I needed to leave a little early. It felt like the right thing to do—though I hoped Merrick didn’t disagree.
• • •
By Saturday evening, I was starting to worry that I hadn’t heard from Merrick yet. I’d flown down to Kitty’s yesterday and spent the night at her house. She was stable and doing well. This afternoon, I’d sent Merrick a long email, telling him everything that had happened over the last day and a half. I’d waited to send it until two hours before his flight was scheduled to arrive, but when he hadn’t responded more than two hours after I confirmed his flight had landed, I tried calling. My call went straight to voicemail. Another hour later, I tried again and texted. Still no response.
At 9 PM, I checked my phone one last time before checking in on Kitty. She’d taken the pain pills the ER doc had prescribed, and they’d knocked her out. So I grabbed a towel and took a hot shower, hoping it would help me relax enough to fall asleep. But just as I got out, I heard what sounded like glass breaking in the kitchen. I assumed Kitty had woken up and tried to get something to drink, but when I passed by her room, she was still sound asleep.
Oh shit. Was it a broken window and not a glass? Could it be a burglar? Or maybe Marvin had a key and had let himself in to check on Kitty… Though he’d been over earlier for dinner and obviously knew I was here. I wasn’t sure, but I also wasn’t about to find out empty-handed, so I looked around for something to use to defend myself. The closest thing to a weapon I could find was the toilet bowl cleaner, a plastic stick with a brush on the end. It would have to do, because someone was most definitely in the kitchen—I could hear rustling now, even through the closed door.
My heart pounded as I approached. If it did turn out to be Marvin, I hoped I didn’t give the old guy a heart attack. I wanted to use the element of surprise to my advantage, so I wasn’t about to announce myself. Instead, I took a deep breath and whipped the door open. But it stopped abruptly when it whacked into something.
Everything after that seemed to occur in fast forward.
A person was down on the floor, bent on all fours.
I lunged forward with the toilet bowl brush high in the air and brought it down with a loud smack across the back of the intruder’s head.
He yelled.
I lost my balance, tripped over the man, and went flying through the air.
It wasn’t until I landed on my ass that I realized what I’d done.
Oh my God. Shit!
“Merrick! I’m so sorry!”
He rubbed his head. “What the hell? What did you hit me with?”
I held up the toilet bowl brush, the head of which was now missing. “This. It’s…” I pointed to the bristled top on the floor nearby. “I guess I broke it on you. It’s all I could find. I thought you were a burglar. I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
He shook his head. “I’m fine.”
“Why were you on the floor?”
“I broke a glass and was cleaning it up. I didn’t turn on the lights because I heard the shower running and didn’t want to scare you. That worked out great, huh?”
He climbed to his feet and leaned toward me, offering a hand to help me get up. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so.” But once I got to my feet, I felt something pinching my butt. I twisted to look over my shoulder then patted around my ass. Hitting a spot on my left butt cheek, I felt the pain again.
Merrick’s brows drew together as he watched me. “What’s the matter?”