Janet McNulty - Mellow Summers 03 - An Apple a Day Keeps Murder Away by Janet McNulty Page B

through the glass door of the fridge. Nothing stood out to me as weird. No sense of seeing this before either.
    “There is nothing unusual here,” I said.
    “Look at this.” Jackie pointed to a big gap in the bunch of blood hanging in the fridge.
    The bags were packed in tightly; that gap stood out. I pulled on the door. Locked as well. I dug in my purse and pulled out a safety pin. With a little bit of poking around the lock clicked.
    “You’ve been spending too much time with Tiny,” said Jackie.
    “Perhaps,” I replied, “But he has some useful skills.”
    I re ached in and pulled some of the plastic bags of blood out for a closer look. All the major blood types were in there, except one: type O.
    “You’d think there would be at least one bag of type O in here,” I said.
    “Maybe no one of that blood type donated,” said Jackie.
    “Perhaps. But don’t you think this gap is strange?”
    I put the blood back in the same order I found them. The feeling that this entire venture was another bust welled up in me. Then, I noticed it. A bag full of blood lay on the bottom of the refrigerator. It seemed odd that it would be there when the others were obviously carefully organized. I picked it up. Type O.
    Jackie took it from me and examined it. “This is just getting weird,” she said.
    She handed it back to me. The blue cap on the opening of the bag caught my attention. A light instantly went off in my head. It matched the cap that I had found in the motel room. But what was the connection?
    “Look at this.” I pointed at the cap.
    “And?”
    “It looks just like the one that Tiny and I found in that motel room I woke up in,” I said.
    Understanding dawned on Jackie. “So you think that someone stole blood from here and then poured it all over you in that room?”
    I hadn’t thought that far ahead. “It’s possible,” I said. “But why?”
    “That’s what I want to know,” said Jackie. “Why did you disappear?”
    I put the blood back in the fridge.
    The sounds of someone walking past the door to the room caught our attention. I glanced at my watch not sure of how long we had been in there. I slammed the door to the fridge shut and headed back to the exit with Jackie. Slowly, I opened it a small crack and peeked out.
    “Is it clear?” asked Jackie.
    “I think so. Let’s go.”
    We slipped out of the room and closed the door careful not to make a noise. Jackie and I speed walked back to the entrance. No one noticed us reappear. Aunt Ethel’s voice was going strong as she proceeded to tell the nurse how to properly do her job.
    Moments later she came out into the entranceway with that colorful band on her arm indicating that she had donated blood. “Is it that hard to stick a needle in someone’ arm without causing intense pain?” demanded Aunt Ethel. “And I swear you took more than the legal two pints.”
    “Aunt Ethel,” I said wanting to g et her out of there before they had us arrested for causing a public disturbance.
    “Oh hush, darling, these people have no idea what they are doing.”
    Yep, no w things started to get out of hand. I walked over to her and took her purse. “We’re leaving,” I said firmly.
    I headed out the door without looking back. My aunt followed after me torn between chewing out the nurses and yelling at me for being impertinent. I didn’t care if she was upset. The last thing I needed was to be arrested on account of her. Besides, I had gotten what I had originally come for.
    “Mellow dear,” said my aunt as she chased after me on the sidewalk, “ What’s going on? You’ve never been this forceful before.”
    I kept walking as she and Jackie followed. “You didn’t need to be so rude,” I said. I don’t know why I was irritated at her. She did what I needed her to do without even being asked. But my Aunt Ethel had a way of getting on people’s nerves, including mine.
    “I wasn’t trying to be rude,” said Aunt Ethel, “I was simply