“Just let me use a computer for a few minutes. It will be much easier for me.” Old ladies could be needy, right?
“I don’t have an extra. The girls bring their own devices and I just have my work machine.”
“I’ll just be a minute.”
He sighed and walked her to his office. He grumbled and moved around papers scattered around a big chrome and glass desk. Blanche noticed that a file cabinet nestled on the opposite wall in case she wanted to do any major snooping on Greg.
She pulled out her glasses and the bills from Royale Cove and set to work searching for the codes in Edna’s bill from the health wing. It would be hard to see how accurate it was with today’s services since Edna had been so out of it.
Greg watched over her shoulder which didn’t help her concentration any. She tried to be efficient and make stenographer notes about the codes she could find and the ones she couldn’t. The ones she could see seemed to be for inpatient nursing care and drugs that she needed to look up the names for as well. She’d need to find out if John at the Sun Sentinel could find more on the codes that brought no answer. She wanted to check her email to see if she’d heard anything else from the newspaper reporter. She could do her own search for El Tigre and learn more about the mystery man John wanted found on the island but she couldn’t with Greg breathing down her neck.
She started searching procedure codes for Medicare. One indicated it was for a sonogram report. Blanche could bet money that wasn’t necessary to check Edna’s mind. She didn’t know what organ it was for but not her mind. Maybe Antonio would let her look at his bill and compare what tests they did on him. Did Royale Cove have that kind of equipment hanging around somewhere? She made a stenographers note to check. Greg finally sighed and went outside the office door pacing back and forth.
It eased a little of the tension, but Blanche could see she didn’t have long. She’d have to save El Tigre and Island killers for another day. She pulled down a button that she believed showed history. Bingo. This computer stuff got easier as she practiced. She glanced at the list of sites Greg had visited today. Some she couldn’t decipher but a few told tales.
A couple on independent security firms and a couple on self defense tactics. What was this? A search for escaping the mob? Another for evading the coast guard. Hmmm.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The next morning as Blanche crept through the Royale Cove nursing home gardens, she passed the pool and the wide three-sided courtyard and eased up behind the well flowered white pergola at the end of the west wing with no one noticing. She needed to round the pergola and the corner to get to her secret entrance then she’d be home free.
Before she could step around to pass by, she heard voices inside the pergola. Angry voices. Well, one person sounded angry anyway.
“You can just go to hades and back, Bruce Johnson. You owe me and you know it.”
Blanche froze alongside a waist deep flower pot and wondered what to do with herself. If the arguers, stepped out they’d see her. Bruce didn’t know she was on the premises or the island for that matter and it needed to stay that way. She shrunk back further behind the pergola against the wall of the care center. She moved her head slightly to see between the leaves and lattice.
She glimpsed the movie star lady who had been entertaining men at that first luncheon in her dark glasses. If Blanche wasn’t mistaken, this would be the Dragon’s prey as well. A popular lady it seemed.
“I don’t owe you anything. You’re essentially a free-loader, a homeless bag lady. I could probably get rid of you without even going to court. You are out of money for lawyers, I believe.”
The woman made a sound of indignation. “You wouldn’t dare. I could blow this place wide open with what you have done to me and allowed to be done to me.”
He laughed but it was hard and chilling. “Careful. I’d hate to see you end up in the Dementia Unit and that diagnosis to slip out to the press. Oh, it would be a sad day in Hollywood.” He made a tut-tutting sound.
That was cold. Before things got more complicated, Blanche slid out and sat on the nearest patio in the courtyard out of earshot and prayed Bruce didn’t notice her if he came this way. He was the one person who would know she didn’t belong here for sure. She put a hand up along her face.
Just as she sat, the movie star stormed out. Arched her head back on a slim neck and screamed at the trees with a blood curdling sound. Everyone in the various patio seat groupings stopped and stared.
One old man must have been deaf because he said loudly into the silence, “Then she gave me an enema...”
To Blanche’s mind even the bug and bird sounds of the Florida morning paused to respond to that amazing scream. The woman’s lungs still worked well.
Bruce did not follow her and Blanche felt relieved. He must have walked to the other side of the building, so no one would know he was back here with the screaming movie star. It didn’t seem like the kind of conversation that would go in the official files.
Conversation on the patio restarted again. Blanche imagined in an oldies home odd things likely had to be passed off from time to time. Since she was the nearest person to the poor woman, Blanche said to her, “Sounds like you could use a drink.”
The blond bomb shell startled and turned the big bug eyed dark glasses in Blanche’s direction. Blanche patted a chair.
She caned over and dropped herself into the chair. She growled out a smaller sound of displeasure and unhappiness.
“Bad morning?”
“Bad year or two.” She shook that blond hair back and forth with her lips pressed tightly together.
“Anywhere we really could get a drink around here?” It was early for Blanche, but these Hollywood types seemed like they would start early.
She snorted. “I finished my last bottle already.”
“How long you been here?” Blanche wanted to figure out the lady’s story in order to figure out what the Dragon wanted with her.
She swore but more quietly. “The worst couple a years of my life that’s for sure. I came for some, uh, rehab and never left. You new?”
“Yeah.” In a manner of speaking anyway Blanche thought. “Where you from?”
“I spent most of my life in...California.”
That matched up with what Diane had told her.
The Dragon phone in her pocket made a sound. Blanche panicked. This is exactly the conversation that somehow Diane wanted to hear and the one Blanche wanted to keep to herself until she decided what to do and what the story was.
“You get a signal out here?”
“I guess so,” Blanche said loudly trying to cover the fact that the person would have heard the phone that Diane the Dragon thought was in special stealth mode. “Say do you play Scrabble?”
“God, no. Not since...”
Blanche interrupted her before she could tell anything personal. “You should try. It’s good for the brain cells not to croak off too fast...” She started waxing eloquent about the wonders of Scrabble. She could see the movie star lady looking for an escape.
Blanche shook the phone in her dark glasses and shook her own dyed strawberry locks while she blabbed.
“What the...?”
She set the phone down and put a finger across her chatty lips indicating not to talk.
She pointed at the phone on the cushion and they leaned over together looking at the face to see if the call had cut yet.
The pause between them lengthened. Blanche searched for something banal to say, “So what was that guy’s deal with the enema comment?”
That did the trick. The Dragon was gone.
“My name is Blanche. Nice to meet you Veda Vespucci.”
“What the...how do you know that name?”
Chapter Thirty-Four
“What’s going on here?” Veda said. “How do you know that? As far as anyone here knows, I am Shirley,” she snarled her perfectly done lips slightly, “and it had better stay that way.” To Blanche, Ved
a-Shirley sounded like a lady used to making threats.
“It’s turning into a long story for me to explain, but Shirley is your birth name.” This was information from the Dragon.
“What do you want?” Shirley-Veda leaned in closer.
Blanche tried not to react to Veda-Shirley’s intensity. “Could we get a coffee somewhere?”
They made their way in taunt silence down the elegant interior hallway of scrolling beautiful carpet of industrial quality to the coffee bar, Blanche and Al had visited a few days ago. Veda chose a quiet corner in the cafe and Blanche put her back to the hallway so no one walking by would see she didn’t belong, like Bruce.
Veda aka Shirley left her dark glasses on as she had in the dining room the other day, Blanche noticed.
“So talk,” she said sourly.
“Someone is looking for you and they think they sent me to spy on you,” Blanche said.
“Well, aren’t you?”
“I could have let you talk when the phone rang.”
“Who was it anyway?”
“It’s the woman who sent me. I doubt you know her. Look, I really came to help a friend of mine who is out here against her will, but this woman,” Blanche waved the phone at Veda, “wants info on people. So that was my ticket in here. I don’t know who she works for in reality. It’s all very disguised and hush, hush.”
“One of the tabloids probably,” Veda said with a sigh. She looked out the large windows toward the gardens. “I suppose it was inevitable.”
“I want to hear your story. Your side. Maybe we can decide how and what to feed to this woman.”
Shirley’s spine straightened and she turned to Blanche. “You mean feed the press a baked story?”
“I think we’re going to need some elements of truth too. She has resources but we can be selective. I get the feeling this — I call her the Dragon, is taking advantage of me and probably you too. What is your story anyway? People around here seem to know you are someone famous. Someone told me you were a star. I don’t think you’re fooling folks anyway.”
“But I never confirm or give my real name and mostly they don’t ask. Keep ‘em guessing.” She laughed without humor.
“Do you know what the media Dragon might be looking for?”
“I don’t know. I have to think about it.”
It sounded like a blow off. Blanche searched around for an idea so she wouldn’t lose Veda completely. “The Dragon will just find another way or send someone else who might not be as frank as I am.”
Blanche sipped her coffee and tried not to look directly at her. With the bulbous dark glasses, she was hard to read anyway. If Blanche couldn’t make some progress or at least give that impression, the Dragon might pull the plug on her. Blanche had to get some proof of wrong doing quickly, so Edna could go home. She didn’t know how to help Antonio escape the Royale Cove clutches.
“You know anything about a Cuban singer in here? The Dragon is looking for her too.”
“She disappeared yesterday.” She paused, “you should check the Dementia Unit,” Shirley-Veda added bitterly.
“Because she was losing it or...?” Blanche didn’t want to give away that she’d heard some of the pergola conversation. If Bruce threatened one with the dementia wing, why not more?
Shirley shrugged. Her face turned toward the windows. The silence lengthened.
Blanche had an idea. “Look, come pretend to play Scrabble with me and my friend this afternoon. You can hear Edna’s troubles and we can hear yours. If the phone rings or the staff comes around, we’re just playing Scrabble. What do you say?”
She snorted but then composed herself. “The staff will be suspicious. I only socialize with fellows.”
At least she was honest, Blanche thought. La-di-da.
Veda looked over Blanche’s shoulder. “They probably are already eyeballing me here with you.” She pointed an admirably manicured nail at Blanche’s chest.
Blanche thought the whole prima dona thing must be a lot of effort but said, “Fine, I’ll get some men to join the game. See you in Atrezzo lounge at 3 p.m.” She pushed back and took off before Shirley-Veda could throw up any more obstacles. Hopefully she’d show.
Blanche found the wing where Antonio and Edna’s rooms nested near the mysterious door to Unit 2. She’d managed to squeeze the phone packet for Antonio in one pocket with her cigarettes and her own small stash of tools and lists in the other. It was bulky, and she’d been forced to leave her shirt untucked to hide it all.
She’d also left her tuna sandwich behind that she’d made for her lunch. Trying to keep a low profile might make her lose some of her middle aged spread she’d brought with her to old age.
Blanche was glad to see Antonio was back in his room. She launched the packet with the phone into Antonio’s lap as he sat at the window.
“Well, Reina, you took your time getting here.” Antonio started opening his package.
“I think the proper response is: ‘Thank you for smuggling in something for me.’”
“Actually there’s a guy who brings things in depending on what it is.”
Again with the guy. “Who is this mysterious guy and does he bring in prepaid phones from nephews with suspicious names?”
Antonio surrendered the argument with a wink. “I suppose it might be tricky, that one. I didn’t want him to know. I don’t know if anyone has had much luck getting him to bring in items of substance. It’s more like expendables. Cigarettes and rum.”
“Would he be able to get something like date rape drugs?”
“Like ecstasy? I haven’t been date raped!” The latino ire raised at the idea he could be violated. “I’d gladly rip the head off anyone who tried or thought about it with my bare hands and piss down his neck.”
Yikes, Blanche thought. “I’m sure you weren’t, but it would have the same effect you and Edna are experiencing. And you wouldn’t know when you got it.”
“How would you know?”
“I hand out the date rape brochures at the cop kiosk in the mall.”
He studied her for a moment. “Well ‘the guy’ does bring pot in for the old hippie crowd and the staff, so I suppose it’s within reason for him to get something else too. Dealers often have access to a variety of items.” He looked out the window. Blanche wondered how he knew this sort of thing, a nice retired Cuban man like him. Retired from what? With a family name like his, it could be suspicious. She started to ask but he interrupted.
“I’ve got to call my brother about Señor Rafael.” He mouthed the name and pointed up toward the Unit 2 floor above. “The surgery could be scheduled already. This cannot happen. He could get away with thousands of murders and live free. Did you find a number for my brother?”
“I didn’t find any. Did you get a copy of your bill? That might be the way.” The truth was she didn’t have time to look with the suspicious Greg breathing down her neck.
“Check my inbox by the door. I’ve been too groggy to walk around much. Punta de...”
Blanche found the plastic bin by the door and a legal sized envelope in it. “I think we’re in luck.”
She opened it and scanned to the page with the next of kin. It looked like it was his sister-in-law as Antonio predicted, but she pointed to the number for him.
“Maria, escuchame...”
Blanche wandered into the hallway. It rankled her to not be able to spy on his conversation since it was all in Spanish, though he didn’t seem to care if she stayed. She noticed AnaRosa a couple doors down delivering a morning snack and waved frantically at her.
“Hola. You are still here?” The plump girl’s lipstick again was nicely in place as was the ponytail with the red highlights.
“Listen — “ Blanche hissed.
AnaRosa looked confused but then tuned in to Antonio’s voice.
Belatedly Blanche asked, “You do understand Spanish, don’t you?”
AnaRosa’s eyes grew larger. She nodded distractedly but didn’t get an
y closer to the door.
“Madre de dios...”Antonio’s normally seductive voice raised louder with each phrase.
AnaRosa’s large dark eyes looked into Blanche’s. She blinked and said, “He says the tiger is not dead. If they won’t kill Rafael before he gets out of reach, he will do it himself. ”
They stared at one another. AnaRosa said, “Who is Rafael?” But she didn’t wait for an answer. She made the sign of the cross and scurried down the hall.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Antonio came out of his room beat red even down into his chest which Blanche could see in his inadequately buttoned up guyabara shirt.
She tried a concerned face. “Successful phone call?”
“Ostras.” He muttered more in Spanish then finally, “They say they will call me later, like I’m a customer. Madre de Dios, he could have his face changed by then.” He grumbled under his breath and she imagined the grumbling must be Spanish swearing. She decided she was glad she couldn’t understand after all. He handed Blanche his bill like she was his secretary.
They picked up Edna and made their way to the Atrezzo lounge.
They settled at a game table. Blanche sat comparing the bills of Edna and Antonio and the codes she’d written in shorthand on her piece of steno paper. The murmur of conversation in the lounge interrupted occasionally by a lady parked in front of the television hollering, “Where’s Arty?”
Tonio continued muttering. Edna made random words with the Scrabble tiles.
“Edna, did you find out anymore about your roommate? We gotta tell Diane something. She’s breathing fire.”
“They just say they moved her, but I haven’t seen her anywhere. She didn’t get out much. I’m telling you from what I heard, she’s probably dead. I hope I’m not next.”
“Maybe they put her upstairs,” Antonio grumbled.
“Unit 2?”
“No, dementia. No one talks about it.” Antonio said.
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