Read Elaine Orr - Jolie Gentil 03 - When the Carny Comes to Town for Free Online Page A

the entrance to the small waiting room, and we looked up to see Dana Johnson.  She was out of uniform, and it took a second to recognize her in a pretty knit top and jeans.
    “They’re telling people at the desk downstairs that they can’t come up, but I figured one of you would be here,” she said.
    Ramona gestured to a chair and she sat, while we looked at her expectantly.
    “Can’t tell you too much more…” she began.
    “Because you don’t know or you won’t?”  I asked.
    Ramona said, “Jolie…”
    Dana gave a half grimace, half smile.  “Now I see what Sgt. Morehouse means about you being more than a bit pushy.”
    “I’m sorry,” I said.  “Really.”  And I was.
    “Tough day,” she said, evenly.  “No one saw anything or will say so if they did.  He’s just really lucky someone found him and called it in.” 
    “Who…?”  Ramona began.
    “Don’t know,” Dana said.  “Just a calm male voice, nothing distinctive.  Didn’t sound particularly old or young.”  She paused.  “One of the guys even thinks it might even be a woman with a raspy voice.”
    “As long as they didn’t do it I guess it doesn’t matter who they were,” Ramona said.
    “Sometimes people saw more than what they think they did, so we’d like to talk to him.  It was an out-of -state cell number, so it could take just a bit longer to figure out who called, or at least who owns the phone.”
    Dana said she had mostly come to check on Scoobie and left after a couple minutes.  Ramona stayed another hour and I insisted she leave.  Sunday is her only guaranteed day off and I figured she should at least get a good night’s sleep Saturday night if she planned to be here a lot on Sunday, which she would. 
    I didn’t think I would sleep, but when I saw Scoobie about ten o’clock I was falling asleep on my feet.  A very nice nursing assistant pulled a patient recliner into a corner in a hallway near Scoobie’s small room.  There were more people in the intensive care waiting area and they were acting more like it was a party room than a place to keep a vigil for their friend who was hurt in a car accident.
    “Always are busy up here on a Saturday night,” he said.
    I thanked him, and he told me since I wasn’t being “too big a pain” the staff had decided I could be closer to Scoobie during the night. 
    As I fell into a restless sleep I thought Sgt. Morehouse would be surprised to hear I wasn’t such a big pain.
     
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
    I WENT HOME TO SHOWER when Aunt Madge got to the hospital about eight-thirty Sunday morning.  She said she explained to her B&B guests that they would be on their own for seconds on muffins and coffee so she could get to the hospital, and they were very understanding. 
    It felt odd to be driving through town.  At first it felt as if life was real at the hospital and a mirage out here.  When I pulled into the driveway I saw all the guests’ cars were still there, so I stuck my tousled head into the dining area.  There was one man still reading the paper, but he said he didn’t need anything.
    My room is in the part of the B&B that Aunt Madge rents out least, and it’s usually only Jazz and me who inhabit that area.  Today the room next to mine was in use and its occupants shared the jack-and-jill bathroom with me.  I knocked softly, and when no one answered raised my voice to ask if it was okay if I took a shower.  A woman’s voice said they were done using the bathroom.
    Jazz was very irritated at having been left alone so much, and I couldn’t blame her.  She walked along the edge of the tub when I showered and tried to get in the medicine cabinet every time I opened it, both things she knows annoy the daylights out of me.  You’d think she had a degree in the psychology of irritation. 
    I carried my hair dryer downstairs to use in the small bathroom off the great room.  This is not my usual practice, but I thought I should be where I could hear