Chapter 18

Meri woke up when Trina pricked her finger. "Ouch! What?"

"Sorry, I am checking your number... I found three more pages in the encyclopedias." Trina's hand shook as she put the strip in the monitor. The sun was just rising but still below the ridge of the mountains.

Even in her dazed state, Meri knew something was wrong. "Trina?"

"Your monitor pinged my phone. We need to feed you. Your sugar is too low." Trina got up and hurried out. "I'll bring you some juice."

Listening to her cousin going down the stairs, Meri rubbed her belly. She felt groggy as she muttered to herself, "Don't go back to sleep."

"Hey, stop!" Trina shouted from downstairs, then there was a clatter like pots and pans knocked down. "Meri! Call 9-1-1!"

Dialing the emergency services number, Meri tried to stand but the world shifted sideways, forcing her to her knees.

"9-1-1, that is the address of your emergency?"

Blurting out the address, Meri added, "Please hurry, someone broke in and is attacking my cousin downstairs." She tried to crawl after her cousin. She made it to the top of the stairs, then began sliding down the steps one at a time on her butt while answering the operator's questions.

"Trina? Trina?!" Meri shouted as she clung to the bottom banister. Looking around, she didn't see her cousin. Meri forced herself to stand and staggered into the kitchen. Half the pans from the pot rack were on the floor because it was pulled down on one side. Meri grabbed the sugar dish and put a spoon of sugar in her mouth. The door out to the backyard was open. As Meri waddled outside, she could hear sirens in the distance. The wind blew among the top of the trees as the mountain air shifted with the dawn. Clinging to the back of a deck chair, Meri shouted again, "Trin-na!"

The siren grew loud as a Police Department SUV slid to a stop on the driveway.

"Here. I'm back here," Meri shouted to whoever had arrived. Boots crunched on the gravel path as the officer hurried around the house.

She was surprised to see Hank still buttoning his duty shirt over a T-shirt and jeans. She pointed toward the access to the ski and hiking trails. "Trina chased them into the woods."

Taking in her pale face and unsteady stance, Hank ordered Meri, "Go back inside and sit down. There's another officer coming." Then he sprinted toward the resort access on the backside of the property.

Meri stumbled inside to the kitchen, and pulled one of her diabetic drinks from the refrigerator. She barely had the strength to shake the can three times before opening it. Gulping it from the container, she grimaced at the taste. Slowly walking through the house, she tried to find where the thief had been. In her mother's office, the safe was open and all the documents were on the desk. The drawers had been riffled through. The printer scanner was sitting with a pile of paper in the tray. Lifting the top page, Meri saw the thief had tried to print out the journal pages Trina scanned to send to Char, but the printer had run out of paper. She began cursing and then jumped when there was a loud knock on the door. Taking the four papers, she carried them out and stuffed them in her purse sitting on the entry table before she pushed the intercom button by the door.

"Who's there?" She demanded in a tremulous voice.

"It's the Sheriff's Department ma'am," a woman's voice came through the speaker.

Opening the door, Meri pointed out into the backyard and said, "My cousin Trina chased the burglar out through the backyard, Deputy Richmond is following her."

"Yes ma'am, we know. He radioed this station that he was walking back with a Katrina Dubois." The female deputy looked around the room. "I'm Deputy Jesse. Is anything missing?"

Meri could only shrug. "I don't know... but the safe in my mother's office is open. I didn't touch anything," Meri lied. She didn't know this woman but wasn't certain they had never met. She looked like she might be related to someone Meri knew. Walking with her hand on the wall, she led the deputy into the house.

Deputy Jesse followed Mary to Miranda's office and looked at the disarrayed state of the room. The drawers had been pulled out and only partially pushed back in, the safe was open and emptied, and even the trash bin was dumped in the corner. "Do you know what they may have been looking for?" She asked as she took pictures of the room with her phone.

"No," Meri lied again with a glance at the camera the officer was wearing in the center of her vest. "I'm sorry, but I need to sit down I've developed diabetes with my pregnancy and I'm not feeling very well."

Looking startled, Deputy Jesse asked, "Is there anything I need to get you? Do you need medication or a glucose tab?"

"I don't think so. I drank a shake in a can and I'm starting to feel better, but I'm still woozy."

"Let's get you into a chair... My sister is diabetic. You can call me Adele."

"I'm Meredith Dubois-King. Please call me Meri," she replied as she walked unsteadily back to the kitchen.

Looking around the scattered pans and damaged pot rack, Adele frowned. "Perhaps you should sit in another room. It looks like there was a struggle in here."

Meri pointed at the small guestroom off the kitchen, "I can lay down in there."

Adele nodded and started to help her into the guestroom when Meri's continuous blood sugar monitor began to beep again. Swearing under her breath, Meri looked at the app on her phone that monitored her blood sugar. It was now much higher than it should be. She tapped on it waiting for the dose of insulin to be injected only for it to flash that the cartridge was empty.

Meri pointed into the kitchen and asked, "Can you get me a refill out of the white bag in the refrigerator?"

Rushing to the refrigerator, Adele brought back a white pharmacy bag. Mary opened the box inside and took out one of the refill cartridges. Opening her machine, she wiped it down with an alcohol swab from the box and then inserted the new insulin dose. After sinking the machine with her phone, she felt the burn of the medication. Within a minute, she began to feel better.

"Why don't you stay here and I will look to see if anything else has been disturbed?" Adele asked in a tone that sounded more like an order.

Meri nodded, hoping that Trina had put the pages in a safe place out of sight. She asked, "Can you bring me my purse? It's by the front door. I need to find the card for the security company and have them come out to check the system. The alarm didn't go off."

The deputy retrieved the bag for Meri, and then partially closed the door to the guestroom. Taking out the printed copies of Miranda's journal pages after Adele walked out of sight, Meri rolled the papers and put them inside a vase, then she tucked the fake flowers back in the top. Satisfied the pages were hidden, she sipped on more of her drink and watched out the window for Trina and Hank to return.

Meri didn't realize she had dozed off until Trina touched her face. Looking around she didn't see Hank or Adele so she whispered, "Where are the pages?"

Trina glanced over her shoulder then whispered back, "I hid them in an empty saltine box in the pantry."

Nodding, Meri muttered, "They tried to print them out from the scanner in Mom's office, but it ran out of paper. I hid the four pages that printed." Reaching over, she tapped the vase with her fingernail.

Voices grew louder so Trina busied herself covering Meri with a soft throw blanket as Meri said louder, "I had to change my insulin cartridge. The other one was already empty."

Shaking her head, Trina frowned. "Your body is just filtering through it. The placenta pulls out a lot of the insulin before you get a chance to metabolize it."

"Meri, I'm sorry. I know you don't feel well. But I have to ask, did you see the person who broke into the house?" Deputy Jesse asked.

"No. I was upstairs in bed. When Trina yelled at me, I called 9-1-1."

"Why did you tell Deputy Richmond your sister followed the thief into the woods?"

"I only knew Trina ran into the woods because the door in the kitchen was open to the backyard. And the only thing in that direction is the access to the ski and hiking trails," Meri answered. She didn't correct the deputy about Trina being her cousin, not her sister.

"I'm sorry," Trina interrupted, "But I need to make Mary some food. Is it OK if I use the kitchen if you're done photographing things?"

"We would like to dust for prints," Deputy Jesse insisted.

"Like I already told Hank, there won't be any prints because the woman was wearing gloves."

"And you're sure it was a woman?" Hank demanded.

"Yes, I'm sure," Trina snapped at him.

Deputy Jesse looked between them as if she were wondering what was going on, then she nodded. "I don't think there will be a problem with using the kitchen because the thief only ran through and pulled the pot rack down to slow you down. But I must ask that you both stay out of the office until we can check for fingerprints. Perhaps they took off their gloves to open the safe."

"Trina, can you make me some scrambled eggs?" Meri felt suddenly afraid that Adele would cue the print function on the scanner when she saw it was out of paper. She needed to get them out of the room so she could send something else to the printer from her phone, like recipes from her favorite blog or one of the PDF cookbooks from her culinary classes.

Her cousin looked surprised for only a moment then said, "Sure, whatever Junior wants." Then she laughed at Meri's scowl before she went into the kitchen.

"We aren't naming my baby Junior," Meri challenged. "His name is Maverick."

Hank started chuckling as he stepped out of the room, but Adele just looked confused for a moment.

Meri sighed, revealing, "I guess you didn't know we all went to school together, or that Sheriff Dubois was also my dad. Trina is actually my cousin."

Adele shook her head. "I did not... How are you feeling?"

"Hormonal and hangry," Meri answered honestly then she pulled the card from her wallet for the security company and called them. "Hello, this is Mrs. DuBois-King." She answered the account and security questions then explained, "We had a break-in this morning and the alarm system didn't work.... We discovered the intruder about 6AM." Listening to the tech tell her the alarm was turned off at 5:15 AM, Meri snarled at him, "Five-fifteen? That person was in my house for almost an hour?!" She listened, seething. "No, we didn't give anyone the code... I want a tech out here today and tell them to bring a locksmith for the doors and safe! I'll email you the code we want... Not tomorrow, today... eleven is fine."

Listening, Adele was still standing in the door, waiting until after she hung up "Meri, is there anyone who wishes you and Katrina harm?"

"Probably. Dad may have been the sheriff, but we didn't like the attitudes of several of the wealthiest families in town. We don't have any friends in Veil Falls," Meri fidgeted with her phone like she was sending the email, but she sent a document to the printer first then the email.

"I heard rumors that your father made allowances for some of them," Adele asked cautiously.

"That was part of the reason me, my twin, and our cousin left after high school and never came back until our brother graduated. I am only staying here now because the will stipulates one of us must live here for five years or we don't get anything." Meri scowled as she rubbed where baby Maverick was pushing his foot out. "I won't sugarcoat it. If someone broke in, then they were looking for something to do with my dad's cases, or with Mom's real estate deals. It was nothing to do with us."

"Adele, do you want me to stay here or head back to the station?" Hank interrupted from behind her.

"You aren't on duty until 6 PM. Go home and sleep, you've got the overnight," Adele answered as they walked out together.

Trina came in with a tray and set it across Meri's lap in front of her giant baby belly. She whispered, "The printer spit out your cookbook until it ran out of ink. I put the pages in the living room and turned it off while you were talking to Deputy Jesse."

"Who do you think it was?" Meri murmured back as she took a bite of scrambled eggs.

"I don't know, but she leapt over the island like a hurdler, out-sprinted me to the trails, and then I lost her where it splits, but I heard a dirtbike over Hank's siren. He came straight from his house when he heard the call over his police scanner. He's renting the guesthouse on the Richmond estate from his mom." Trina rolled her eyes. "Only Katherine would make her own son pay rent. Finish eating, I'm going to see what Deputy Jesse is up to."

"Adele."

"What?"

"Her name is Adele. Be nice to her, she's not from here and it would be good to have more than Hank on our side. You know most of Dad's deputies thought we were spoiled, drama-addicted brats," Meri reminded then her lips pressed together.

Trina nodded and going back into the kitchen offered, "Deputy Jesse, would you like some breakfast since we got you up so early?"

Through the door, Meri watched the woman smile, "Sure, but it would be dinner for me. I worked the overnight last night."

"Breakfast-for-dinner it is. I'll put on some coffee too," Trina said. She cooked as they chatted about how long Adele had lived in the area. After she ate, Meri felt well enough to walk around the house. Looking at the papers from the safe in her mother's office she could tell nothing was missing. The safe downstairs in her Dad's office was also open but since it was empty, there was nothing to be taken.

A CSI arrived and checked the office for fingerprints but found none except Trina's and Meri's. When Adele left, she apologized for not finding anything, explaining that Sheriff Louis Dubois had been looking into a series of break-ins that also had no forensic evidence in the months before his death.

After the police and the security company people left, Meri had to break the vase to get the pages out. "Do you think it's just a coincidence?"

Trina compared them with the ones buried under the cookbook PDF pages. "Two of the nineteen pages are missing." She went to the pantry and brought out the saltine decoy box. Pulling out the pages, she handed Meri the three she found after talking to Hank. "I need to tell you something. Hank told me last night that Heather was Winston's first victim."

Meri gaped at her cousin, then exploded, "That biyatch did everything she could to hurt you and Char and the others and she was one of you! What the heck!"

"Calm down." Trina scolded. "Don't forget your blood pressure."

"Fuk my blood pressure and my blood sugar and everything! That biyatch broke into my house!" She shouted at her. "I'll kill her! If she had just told someone, no one else would have been raped!" She collapsed into a chair and held her head in her hands weeping, "You, Charlene, and Mikayla are the only ones left. Donna, Vanessa, and Serene... They were our friends since kindergarten, and they killed themselves because Dad let Winston go. I hate him, I hate them both!"

"Meri, calm down. Just breathe. It's not fair, none of it, and it's long over. Winston's probably dead."

Staring at her cousin, Meri pressed her fingers over her lips as she whispered, "Do you think it was Heather or Mrs. Richmond who broke in?"

"No way. Katherine walks like she's had either hip or knee surgery and Heather's away in rehab again. It couldn't have been them," Trina revealed. "Uh, have you texted Colt yet?"

"No... He'd kill himself and Sam trying to get back here too fast. We don't tell him until he's home," Meri decided.

"What about Charlene?" Trina frowned.

"We tell her but, honestly, I have idea who did this."