Instantly, he gets a hit on the name. Jared Wise Senior, he learns, is hospitalized at San Francisco Geriatric Center. The news causes Stan to jump up and grab a printout from a stack of papers on his desk. His quick blue eyes scan the page until he sees what he’s looking for. San Francisco Geriatric Center is on the FBI watch list for Medicare fraud.
Connie’s friend Jared Wise is probably related to the old man, he speculates. What the hell’s going on? A few more keystrokes and he learns that Wise Exports Incorporated, once a Boston based icon closed its doors decades ago, and its huge financial holdings had gone to the two surviving heirs: Jared Wise Senior and Jared Wise the Third.
“Damn,” Stan says out loud. He really likes Connie, and she might be in the middle of a big mess. Could the caregivers at her friend’s house in Palo Alto also be involved in fraud? Whenever big money enters an equation, you can bet the evildoers will come out of the woodwork. He’s seen it time after time after time.
Stan’s reporter nose begins to twitch.
Chapter Twenty
Jared felt pretty good for a change, less pain and almost clear headed. Marta took good care of him and he found himself growing more and more fond of her. She was so attentive, and those eyes! She just had a way of looking at him that made him believe he was the most important person in the world to her. Fred was a good caregiver, too. He never complained about anything and Jared knew he wasn’t the easiest patient. Because of his mending bones, Jared had to be lifted and shifted by Fred frequently.
Fred was actually a physical therapist, but to Jared he seemed more a jack-of-all-trades. He helped Jared with bed exercises, plus the bathing and toileting chores. As much as Jared hated the feelings of dependency, he knew he needed help. He certainly didn’t want Marta shaving him or wiping his ass, though he loved that she came in after Fred finished with his morning bath to give him a sweet eucalyptus-scented rub down. He smiled to himself remembering how her soft, lotion-coated hand had drifted low this morning, dropping from his chest to his waist, and then pushing the warm, moist cream well below his belly button. She apologized then, just saying, “Oops, sorry.”
If he didn’t know better, he’d think it wasn’t as accidental as it seemed. But, Marta was totally above board, professional and ethical in all of her behaviors. It was a huge turn-on for him knowing it was accidental. He found himself thinking about it, a sexual tease, and hoping she would accidentally repeat the motion again next time. Such a slight tease, but he couldn’t get the thought of it out of his mind. It made his manhood respond, which automatically turned his thoughts to Shannon Tanner. Where was Shannon, anyway? Why hadn’t she come by?
Now that he was feeling better, clear headed, he had lots to think about, starting with his relationship with Shannon. He loved Shannon in his own way, but outside the bedroom they were like day and night. She was gregarious, outgoing and loved to be in the limelight, whereas he was quiet and shied from attention, preferring to remain in the shadows instead. Not that he was passive, just maybe more introspective. But, in bed, he and Shannon liked the same things.
Shannon jokingly referred to their arrangement as “service maintenance,” which Jared thought was crude. In a way it embarrassed him. He preferred “sexually consenting adults.” At the same time, he thoroughly enjoyed the benefits knowing that sex was regularly available to him without the obligations that usually went with it. Unlike some women he’d known in the past, Shannon never manipulated with sex. She just liked it, wanted it, and delivered. It made his life as a bachelor all the more comfortable. Besides, he really did like Shannon. She was always very thoughtful and also very funny. He missed her playfulness, and realized that he often took her for granted.
“Where the hell is my phone,” he mumbled, looking around, wanting to talk to Shannon. Then, vaguely, he remembered that Connie Harrison had come by with it, something about Art Wilkinson and playing tennis. He’d really been out of it. Didn’t she have Isabella with her, too? Where was Isabella now?
Jared felt the cloud of doom close in again. Something wasn’t right. Odd he should remember that now. He pondered the darkness; it was as if a black fog rolled in sometimes and obscured his view. He could remember some things, like his relationship with Shannon, clear as ever, and then forget other things as if they’d never even happened. Spooky!
He shifted his position using the trapeze bar overhead. He felt confused, almost dazed. Something troubled him, something invisible. He thought about Marta, her beauty and her kindness. But why did he feel such an overwhelming sense of doom? He began to tremble slightly and felt his heart rate quicken, and just as suddenly he heard a commotion forming just outside his bedroom door.
“No, you can’t just barge in there! Jared needs to rest. He’ll need his medicine before he can receive visitors.” Marta’s voice was firm and commanding, not at all like the soft caressing sound he was used to hearing from her.
A struggle ensued, a thud against the closed bedroom door, and then the door flew open. “I’m calling the police!” Julius yelled.
Marta rushed in. “Oh, poor Jared,” she said. He saw her frightened face for an instant, and then in the same instant felt the jab of a needle in his deltoid.
A crowd flowed into the room. Jared’s mouth drooped to his chest as the drug took effect. He watched his friends: Bradley Lawton, Art Wilkinson, Shannon Tanner, Connie Harrison, and Maggie Martin take on ghoulish features. Confusion clouded his vision and furrowed his forehead. He tried to speak, to ask what was going on, but his mouth twisted and contorted and only grotesque utterances came out.
*****
The police arrive at Jared’s house and we’re all told to sit in the living room. “Tell me your name and how you’re involved in the this?” the blue clad officer asks me. He’s already talked with Marta and Julius. He listened to them first, and then talked with Maggie and Bradley. We’re divided into two sides of the room, Jared’s friends on one side, the caregivers on the other.
My fingers tremble slightly, making the papers in my hand also shake. This is the first time I’ve ever been questioned by cops. I explain as best I can my relationship to Jared, which compared to the others, is really not much of a relationship at all.
“So you’re not a relative, either. None of you are relatives,” Officer Mulligan says, shaking an accusatory finger at our side of the room. “Now, I’m doing you all a favor showing you these papers. Marta Lewski and her healthcare team have every right to be here taking care of Mr. Wise. The rest of you are trespassing. I could charge you with breaking and entering if you insist on interfering with their care.” I don’t know what he thinks we broke, and then I realize that he means the way Bradley forced his foot in the door when Marta tried to close us out. Then we all pushed forward, though I really just followed.
The papers shaking in my hand are from Jared’s Aunt Margaret, stating clearly that she has legal power over all Jared’s affairs. She is the only one who can make decisions for him while he’s compromised.
“You can see just by looking at him that Mr. Wise is incapable of coherent speech. You’re a nurse, Miss Harrison. I’m not any kind of a healthcare professional, yet I can see that he’s not in his right mind. Now, what do you have to say for yourself?” The officer has a point. I get it.
I’m so confused. I don’t know any of these people and I hardly know Jared. I don’t know why they think that Jared doesn’t really have an Aunt Margaret. To me, it looks like he does. I don’t know what to say, so I sit there, mum, and I’m sure, looking dumb.
“Do you wish to go to jail?” Miss Harrison.
I shake my head.
“So, what’s your connection to Mr. Wise now?” Mulligan asks
I feel bullied. “I have his cat, Isabella,” I say. It’s all I can think of that connects me to Jared Wise.
“I suggest you go all go, now,” Mulligan says with eyes boring into mine. The officers haven’t even talked with Shannon Tanner or Art Wilkinson. They both sit si
lently, Art listening and looking thoughtful, Shannon looking small and frightened. I can’t help but wonder who she is to Jared. Maggie is also dismissed.
I follow Maggie out the front door feeling numb, but also relieved to be outside, away from the angry officers. I don’t know what’s going on and I don’t really want to be involved, except that I remember Jared’s moment of clarity, his asking me to help Maggie. He said he had no Aunt Margaret. I heard him myself. I truly believe that Jared is being drugged, but why?
Outside, Maggie and I wait in the car until the others file out. Then Maggie asks me to wait some more while she congregates with them near Bradley’s car. Before coming here, we’d all met up at the coffee shop in Palo Alto. It was Bradley who insisted we come here and force our way past Marta to see Jared. They all know Jared in ways that I don’t. Now I just want to drop Maggie at her hotel so I can go home to Isabella. I’m hungry and out of sorts, and none if this is really any of my business.
Maggie looks defeated when she finally climbs into the passenger seat of my car. “What a mess,” she says. “They’ve really go their clutches into Jared’s life. Do you have any ideas of what we should do next?”
She said we, including me, so I guess I’m still involved. “What about calling Dr. Matthews and see if he can evaluate Jared’s medications. Jared needs to be coherent enough to speak for himself,” I suggest.
“Good idea.” Maggie pulls her cell phone out. Office hours are long over for today, but she has the answering service put her through to his home. She exchanges a few sentences with Dr. Matthews, though Maggie mostly listens. When she closes up her phone, she looks at me in a way that causes a sinking feeling in my stomach. The glow of a streetlight filtering through the windshield casts eerie shadows across her face. “Aunt Margaret has taken him off Jared’s case. His new doctor is a Dr. Julius Fenway,” she says.
“Julius? That’s the name of one of those caregivers inside!” I exclaim.
“Whatever are we going to do?” Maggie cries.
She invites me to have dinner with her at the hotel restaurant so we can discuss the latest developments, but once there we sit silently because neither one of us has anything new to say. We’ve already lamented our growing fears. The restaurant is unusually quiet with few diners, which adds to the feeling of gloom that threatens to overwhelm me.
The waiter brings the chef salads we each ordered, the easiest food on the menu without having to think. “Who’s Shannon anyway?” I ask, moving a lettuce leaf around on my plate, a drop of Thousand Island dressing spilling over onto the white tablecloth.
“Jared’s girlfriend, although he never calls her that,” Maggie says.
“Girlfriend?” Now I’m really confused. Jared had a girlfriend when he spent the night with me?
*****
It’s late by the time I get back home. I’ve had several calls from Stan that I let go to voicemail while I was out. I’m almost too tired and drained to call him back, but I don’t want him to think I don’t care, or that I’m playing hard to get, or anything other than that I care about him and want to spend more time with him. So, I pour myself a glass of white wine to relax with, gather Isabella onto my lap, and burrow into the softness of my rented couch. For the first time all day, I feel my body relax.
“How was your day?” Stan asks first thing. I hardly know him, but he’s such a good listener, and always so good about putting me first. Alex used to always just launch into his speeches before ever even inquiring about my day or my mood. Why do I keep remembering Alex? I desperately want him to get out of my mind.
“What a day, where to even begin?” Then I launch into all the sordid details about Jared’s mysterious Aunt Margaret who is calling all the shots, a lady who possibly doesn’t even exist. “And, I learned that Jared has a girlfriend. I have no idea why he bothered with me if he already had a girlfriend,” I say, hearing the whine of jealousy I didn’t even know I felt, hoping that Stan doesn’t recognize the sound.
“Is Jared’s grandfather hospitalized at San Francisco Geriatric Center?” he asks.
“Yes, but how did you know?” Now I’m awake. I know that I never told Stan about Jared’s grandfather.
“Listen, I think that Jared’s friends are right to be concerned. I can’t get into the why of it, but I’m an investigative reporter, remember? If you don’t mind, I’m going to stick my nose into this case. Something definitely stinks. Tell me again the name of the new doctor. Oh, and tell Maggie and Bradley they’d better get Jared’s lawyers involved soon. They should have estate papers that have beneficiaries and next of kin clauses.”
“It is intriguing,” I admit, feeling my energy rise. I love the way Stan cares about something I’m involved in. Alex would have told me to walk away. But, who cares what Alex would have thought. I don’t want to walk away.
Stan and I talk awhile longer, until I’m yawning into the phone.
“Dinner tomorrow?” he asks, and I agree.
Chapter Twenty-one
“Why did you call the police? Of all the stupid, ridiculous things to do,” Marta yelled, her face red, blue eyes popping. “The last thing we need is the police getting involved. We should have just handled it!”
“Oh, ye of little faith. Of course we want the police on our side. Why are you so doubtful, Marta? All our paperwork is in order. You heard what that cop said, the law is on our side. Now if Jared’s friends try to cause us any more trouble, we have recourse. Plus, we’ve justified switching to our own doctor. Aunt Margaret wants Jared to have only the best of the best. Dr. Julius Fenway at your service. The deed is done.” Julius bowed in mock respect.
“You’d better be right,” Marta said, shaking her head. “Your cockiness better not cost us.”
“It’s not going to cost us. Now I’m hungry and your patient probably needs some attention, too. Fred’s in there with him, but you’d better do your thing because, you know, Jared’s the one who could blow this whole thing wide open if you don’t keep him convinced that he wants what you want. You’d better make sure he continues to believe in Aunt Margaret.”
“In a minute. I need to call Kaitleen and Cassandra, bring them up to date on these new developments. Did you let them know that you’ve already taken Dr. Matthews off the case and put yourself on?”
“Done. Don’t worry your pretty little head about my efficiency,” he said.
“Well, I’m calling anyway so that they know about the police, just in case that stirs up any kind of hornet’s nest. Then I’ll attend to Jared. He’s starting to wear on me. One of these days I need to take some personal time for myself,” Marta said. Dark circles were beginning to form under eyes, and her usual freshness had lost some of its glow.
On hearing Marta’s report, Kaitleen was as livid as Marta had been. “That Julius is pushing things too far. Cassandra and I are really busy here at the geriatric center this week or I’d come over myself and give him a piece of my mind. Getting the police involved is as stupid as it gets. You guys could have soft pedaled with Jared’s friends, too.”
“No, those friends really needed some boundaries,” Marta argued. “I intend to keep them away from Jared from now on. I don’t want any interference. I can’t keep drugging Jared randomly. I have to follow the plan. I have to work systematically to win his trust. He has to love me, remember? I can’t let him get suspicious of me.”
“Fine. Do it your way,” Kaitleen said.
“Thanks, I’m going in to see Jared now, see if any damage had been done,” Marta said with a sigh.
Jared was sitting up in bed working on some exercises with Fred when Marta returned to him. He smiled at the sight of her, though uncertainty wiggled in his stomach. The black and white images were back again, distorted recollections of Bradley, Maggie and the others. He really wanted to talk to them, Shannon, too. Where were they? It seemed he’d dream them into reality and then just as fast they’d disappear into distorted black and white ghosts, bringing back the clouded twisting
flutter kicks in his stomach.
“Where’d they go?” he asked Marta, his voice strong, his articulation clearer than she’d ever heard.
“Who?”
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