Second Chance: November 8

The story starts here.

“Have you seen her yet?” Michelle asked. Karin nodded her head.

“I need to get back to work,” Karin said. “But, it’s like I’m paralyzed. I need to go see how much damage there is. I’m supposed to talk to the police. I have to call Mr. Kinsmore. I had showings scheduled for after lunch…” Michelle looked at her watch.

“Karin, how long have you been here?” Michelle asked. Karin shrugged her shoulders. “It’s after five.”

“I don’t know what to do.” Karin said, still sitting motionless and staring at a spot on the wall. “I can always figure out what to do next, but not this, I just don’t know what to do with this.”

“Alright, well, let’s find a doctor and see what he says,” Michelle suggested and started to stand up. Karin shook her head.

“He was already here. He said to go home. She inhaled a lot of smoke and there was a lot of alcohol in her bloodstream. She’s not breathing on her own. They say they’ll call me if she wakes up…” Karin’s voice shook. “…or if anything changes. That’s what the doctor says.”

“That sounds like good advice.” Michelle said. “Let’s get you back to your office where you know you do your best thinking. We’ll make a pot of coffee and I’ll tell you all the gossip that I heard at the salon today. You’ll only half listen, but when I’m done, you’ll have figured out what to do next.” Karin reluctantly nodded. She knew her friend was right. She couldn’t accomplish anything sitting in the hospital waiting room. She followed Michelle out to her car.

“I’ll drive you,” Michelle said. “We’ll come back out and get your car later.”

Karin didn’t speak. Her mind kept focusing on the burned out structure that had been her mother’s home, and once, for a little while, it had been her home too. She could see Mrs. Marquette’s face and she felt like she’d failed her. She could see the image of her mother in the hospital bed, with a mask and tubes coming out of her face. She already looked dead. Karin wanted to scream at her “What have you done?” But, in 

Karin’s mind her mother was already dead and her screams were silent.

Michelle didn’t speak in the car either, but waited until they were settled in Karin’s front parlor with warm coffee yellowed by a delicious Crème Brule creamer that she knew was Karin’s favorite.

Karin sat quietly in her favorite chair, sipping the coffee.

“Thank you,” she finally said to Michelle. “You’re a really good friend.”

“I know.” Michelle said smiling. “And, you’ll come out of this funk and you’ll owe me.” Karin couldn’t help but smile a little. Since they were little, they’d always had an informal way of keeping score. Whether it was saving each other from a really creepy date or taking the blame for something to keep the other one out of trouble, they’d always been there for each other.

“I’m pretty sure I’m still in the lead,” Karin said.

“Uh-huh. That’s the Karin I know. Cocky.”

“When it rains, it pours,” Karin said softly. “It’s been a crazy couple of days.”

“Well, I heard some gossip today that might take your mind off some of the drama or it could add to the amount of drama in your life, depending on how you look at it.” Michelle said.

Karin quietly sipped her coffee. She knew that if she just said nothing, Michelle would tell her story in her own way and would eventually get to the point. And, eventually she did.

“So, Samantha’s dad and Jay’s dad are actually brothers which is how they have the same last name without being married.”

“But, that doesn’t explain why they were looking at an apartment together.”

“Well, from what I heard Samantha was only in town for a little while and then she is going back to Chicago, where the grandfather’s company is. But, Sally Berton is one of her best friends from way back and she came in to get her hair colored… did you know that her hair is not really that color? I had no idea, but apparently, she’s been dyeing it since she was like six years old.”

“Who does that?” Karin asked. “How bad could her natural color be?”

“I have no idea. She goes to Kim, so I’ve never seen it and Kim won’t tell. But, anyway, Sally says that Samantha and Jay were working together running their grandfather’s company in Chicago, but he died and there’s all kinds of stuff that they have to do with the estate, so that’s why they are in town.”

“So, Jay’s going back to Chicago soon?” Karin asked. “That’s probably for the best.”

“Oh, I bet you could convince him to stay in Dunewood. Maybe you should offer to rent him that apartment he looked at?” Michelle said teasingly.

“So, what other gossip did you hear today?” Karin asked as she grabbed a pad of paper and a pen from the side table next to her chair.

“You aren’t taking notes, are you?”

“No, just making a to do list.” Karin wrote “check voicemail, call Kinsmore, call police station, offer Camilla another apartment, reschedule today’s showings, survey damage of the house…”

“Don’t forget to put a proposal for Piermont Complex on that list,” Michelle said.

“How do you know…”

“I read the paper too, you know,” Michelle said. “And, I came here before I went to the hospital. I thought for sure you’d be here working.”

“I really should have been,” Karin said. “It was just like I got there and saw her laying in the hospital bed, like she was already dead, and then I couldn’t think about anything else.” Karin twirled her hair with her fingers. “If you hadn’t come to get me, I don’t know how long I would have sat there. I think I was in shock.”

Michelle stood up and took Karin’s coffee cup to the kitchen for a refill.

“You’ll get through this and be back in the groove soon enough,” she said when she returned. Then, she handed Karin a stack of messages from her desk. “I checked your voicemail when I was here earlier, just in case, you know.”

“You would make a good secretary,” Karin said, flipping through the ‘while you were out’ slips. “Are you thinking of a career change?”

“Ha, well, don’t expect me to be practical on a regular basis,” Michelle said, laughing. “It was a one time thing.”

“It’s worth some serious bonus points though.”

“Well, yeah, that’s how I know I’m in the lead now.” Karin smiled and set the stack of messages on the side table.

“Nothing that can’t wait another hour,” Karin said. “But, I do need to call John Kinsmore. His office will be closed, but I’m sure that I have his home number in my files somewhere. I probably should touch base with him tonight.”

“Alright, well, I’m going to run home and take a shower.” Michelle said. “I’ll come back later to see how you’re doing.”

Karin took her coffee over to her desk and looked up the Dunewood police station’s non-emergency number. She told the desk sergeant who she was, but no one on the case was available to speak with her.

“Well, I did my part,” she said. “She opened her filing cabinet and searched for the Marquette files. She found John’s home number scratched along the edge of a notice he’d sent her. “Now, for the hard part,” she said as she picked up the phone.

Find out what happens next here.