Wilmington, NC 10 - Much Ado About Murder

you.”
    I walked Jon to the front door. “She’s sure he’s coming out of the coma today.”
    “Maybe he will. Look, I’ll be right back. The tree guys don’t need me. It’s not like I’m going to ride up in their cherry picker and help them. This is a big job. They’ll be at it all day. And you gave Linda Price a key, remember? I just need to get everyone started. So you go on with Melanie. I’ll take the boys out in the play yard later.” He gave me a light kiss and was gone.

    At ten o’clock I was trailing along behind Melanie down hallway after hallway at the medical center. “Where in the world is his room?” she muttered irritably. “His vitals were stable so they took him off the ventilator and moved him from the ICU into a private room. But where is it? This place is a maze.”
    I knew all this so I didn’t argue. I just stopped at a nurses’ station and got directions. Dalton’s room was down the hall and around the corner.
    When we got to it, Melanie pushed open the door just in time for us to witness Thomas Holbrook holding a pillow over Dalton’s face. And to hear Cheri Holbrook say , “Hurry, Thomas, hurry.”
    Melanie screamed.
    I dashed out into the hall and yelled for security.
    Thomas dropped the pillow with a cry. He and Cheri pushed past Melanie and out into the hall. They ran down the corridor just as a security guard stepped from around the corner to confront them.
    “Stop them!” I shouted to him. “They just tried to kill a patient!”
    The guard intercepted them and using his clip-on radio called for backup.
    Melanie rushed into Dalton’s room to lift the pillow from his face. I hurried to his bedside. “He’s OK,” Melanie said. “He’s awake. See I told you.”
    “Hush, Melanie, he’s trying to tell us something.”
    I leaned nearer to his face. “What is it, Dalton?”
    “The tree, Ashley. Don’t let them cut down the tree. The treasure. The treasure is hidden in it.”
    Just then doctors and nurses came running from all over and we were pushed out of the way.
    “Come on, Mel. You know how you like to drive fast. Well, this time you’ve really got to step on it. We’ve got a tree to save!”

21

    As Melanie broke every traffic law on the books, I called Jon on my cell phone. “You’ve got to meet me at the house. It’s important. Melanie and I are on our way there now. See if you can get Aunt Ruby or Binkie or Tanya to come over to babysit.”
    “What’s going on, Ashley?”
    I filled him in.
    “I’ll find someone. I’ll meet you there,” he promised.
    Melanie had to park across Front Street. We jumped out of her car and raced up the driveway to my backyard. The upper half of the tree had been removed. A tree cutter in a bucket was working on the last branch. Two men were feeding limbs into a grinder and the mulch was shooting into a dump truck. The noise was deafening.
    I motioned to the foreman and indicated that I had to speak to him. His expression showed irritation but he ordered the sawing and the grinding to stop. “What is it?” he demanded.
    “I’m Ashley Wilkes. Jon Campbell is my husband. This is my house. We’ve just learned from the previous owner that a family memento is stored in this tree. He’s an old man and in the hospital and this family memento means a lot to him.
    Can you find it and remove it before the tree is destroyed?”
    The man rubbed his chin and studied the tree trunk. “Well, it’s probably down low where people could reach. And they had to make one or there had to be a hole. I’d say it’s behind that scarring right there.” And he pointed. “What are we looking for?”
    “It’s a tr . . .” Melanie blurted.
    I jerked her arm. “It’s a family memento,” I said firmly. “Actually, we don’t know what it is. Just that it means a lot to our friend.”
    The foreman surprised me by laughing. “You’d be surprised the things we find in these old trees. Everybody hides things in them. Kids mostly because mostly we find toys. But that’s not all. Other things too. So, OK, we’ll be careful. When we get down to that scarred section, I’ll give you a holler.”
    Just then Jon came trotting up the driveway. The foreman told him, “I was just telling your wife here we’ll be careful and watch out for the family memento. Whatever it is.”
    “I appreciate that,” Jon said.
    “You folks wait inside. I’ll let you know when we find something.”
    “Thanks again,” I said.

    Inside the house,