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Back A Penny for Your Thoughts Save as PDF
Chapters (62)
  1. Cover
  2. A PENNY
  3. Dedication
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. Twenty-Three
  28. Twenty-Four
  29. Twenty-Five
  30. Twenty-Six
  31. Twenty-Seven
  32. Twenty-Eight
  33. Twenty-Nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-One
  36. Thirty-Two
  37. Thirty-Three
  38. Thirty-Four
  39. Thirty-Five
  40. Thirty-Six
  41. Thirty-Seven
  42. Thirty-Eight
  43. Thirty-Nine
  44. Forty
  45. Forty-One
  46. Forty-Two
  47. Forty-Three
  48. Forty-Four
  49. Forty-Five
  50. Forty-Six
  51. Forty-Seven
  52. Forty-Eight
  53. Forty-Nine
  54. Fifty
  55. Fifty-One
  56. Fifty-Two
  57. Fifty-Three
  58. Fifty-Four
  59. A Sample Chapter of Don’t Take Any Wooden Nickels
  60. About the Author
  61. Other Books by Mindy Starns Clark
  62. About the Publisher

I returned to the bedroom and quickly slid the drawers of the bureau open and shut. I was starting to feel worried now, knowing that soon I would have to give up this search and head for the funeral home. Though I didn’t know what I was looking for, I hesitated at a printout of medical data that was tucked away among some other papers. It was a medical workup of Derek, though much more thorough than a normal physical. The bloodwork listed the usual things like white blood count, red blood count, and cholesterol, but there were two pages of other tests, including a section about antigens and liver function. The whole thing showed probably ten pages of medical results, from bloodwork to EKG, but it wasn’t until I got to the end that I realized what I was looking at. The last page was a psychological profile of Derek, and at the top of the page, someone had written, “Pre-transplant Workup.”

Transplant. I thought of Judith in Wendell’s office the day before, talking about her father. He was trying to line up a kidney transplant, but the doctors were about to pull the plug on that idea. I had assumed Wendell was waiting for an organ donor to die, but now I remembered that a kidney could come from a live donor as well. Had Derek been planning to give his father one of his kidneys?

I quickly scanned the psychological profile. Derek was described as “a stable man with a strong Christian faith, a bit indecisive, but eager to help his father in any way possible.” At the end of the report, the psychiatrist had given Derek what essentially amounted to the transplant seal of approval.

I put the report away and slid the drawer shut, then headed from Derek’s room to the opposite end of the hall and Judith’s room. Her suite was identical to Derek’s, though she had turned the second bedroom into an office. The desk itself was neat but functional, with the computer surrounded by stacks of papers. Next to the phone was a small blank pad of paper, the top page clearly indented, and I slipped the pad into my pocket. I was going through the other stacks of paper and looking in drawers when I first heard the noise. My heart stopped and I froze, listening. There it was again. Someone else was in the house and coming up the stairs.

I darted into Judith’s living room and over to the door, peeking out. The hallway was dark, and all I could see was the foot of someone slipping into my bedroom, down the hall.