Carlos said, “Calm down, boss. It will be fine. I could have a conversation with him. We will understand each other. We speak the same language.”
Bruce assumed Carlos thought he’d have some kind of inside track because he had some common Latino lingo. He snorted.
“He’d chew you up and spit you out. Look at the grounds again and go to the dock. In the meantime, send AnaRosa in here.”
“Ah, yes, she could be a good substitute.” Carlos nodded, his short ponytail bouncing.
Bruce hadn’t told Carlos what Rafael’s demand from a woman entailed. Carlos didn’t care.
AnaRosa was a hard worker and quietly blind whenever necessary. This would be asking too much.
“Maybe I could take her for a test drive. Make sure she will be okay for Señor.” Carlos gave a creepy smile and swung his hips.
“Just send AnaRosa here ,you scumbag. Don’t touch her. I’ll take care of of the Purple suit guy for tonight. You find Veda. Now. Call me as soon as you do.”
Bruce heard the quiet thump of the glass door in the outer office as Carlos left. Despite the steady 68 degree air conditioning, he felt flushed. He took a drink of coffee from his mug but it had gone cold. He coughed and tried to force his exterior into a calm appearance.
He heard someone enter and assuming it was AnaRosa went to the doorway. The black hair framed the purple suit face with a sly smile. He paused by Benita’s desk.
“Señora Williams, you are looking ravishing today. Like a rare flower.”
Benita looked up and giggled slightly.
Bruce felt nauseous. He of course hadn’t told his mother about the demands and the threats. It would break a certain unspoken decorum between them since she’d lost her second husband. He’d been the one who gave her a different last name and a broken leg. Bruce made sure that wouldn’t happen ever again. They never spoke of people of the past nor had they ever spoken of why extra money flowed into RCCC or how they afforded a home on Royale Cove.
Bruce could tell by the Purple Passion’s oily sweetness to his mother that something had to happen fast or things would get worse.
“Come in to my office,” Bruce said curtly.
Benita glanced up but Bruce wouldn’t meet her eye.
He closed the door behind the greasy handler of Señor Rafael. “I have a proposal.”
“Te escucho.”
“We’ve had an, uh, emergency and Shirley had to leave the island for a family thing. I think she will be back tomorrow. What if lipstick, uh, I, uh, AnaRosa could come and read to Señor tonight and, uh,” he coughed choking on the ideas he had to let pass through his mind. “Tomorrow Shirley will be back and I’m sure she will be, uh, happy to spend some...time with Señor.”
“I don’t think Señor will like that, and the doctor told him today that waiting a few more days would be better for his new cara to heal. I will try to convince him. If he tries to persuade the lovely AnaRosa, well,” he spread his fingers, “that is not my fault.” He shrugged the shoulders of his purple suit.
He stood and smoothed the front of the obnoxious jacket. “Don’t play games with us Mister Bruce. We are from a small island, but we do not have small minds. Tomorrow night, it will be the lovely Benita’s turn to...” he squeezed his crotch, “read to Señor.”
“No, she, ah, doesn’t read or speak Spanish. I mean, it wouldn’t...”
Before Bruce could say more, the Cuban left his office. The phone rang and Benita said, “You sent for AnaRosa.”
So oblivious, Bruce thought. Living in her rich cocoon he’d created for her.
“Give me five minutes.” He did deep breathing as the time ticked. He couldn’t think beyond this moment and this breath or he would melt down. When his heart rate felt normal, he rubbed a spot of dust off his black wing tip and stepped to the door.
Chapter Sixty-Three
AnaRosa sat in the space across from Benita’s desk. Her skin ached with tension. Had they seen her take Edna into the Dementia Unit? Would they fire her? She needed work. What could she do if RCCC didn’t give her a recommendation or a second chance? Stupida, stupida. She should let the ancianos deal with their own problems and keep herself out of it.
She thought of her son, David. His big brown eyes and the pride he had in his studies at Lynn University and the good grades. A tear threatened to fall from one eye. She forced herself to take a calming breath. She shook her head, rubbed her eyes, and pretended to adjust her ponytail while saying a prayer. God would help her.
The RCCC Boss, Bruce opened the door. He used his best smile for AnaRosa inviting her into the inner office. This convinced her of nothing. He seemed polite whenever she met him.
Today, he seemed like he wanted to be her friend offering her a coke or coffee. She just shook her head.
She squeezed her hands together in her lap and stared at them with all her might. Maybe she would get mercy.
“AnaRosa, you speak Spanish?”
She nodded her red and black ponytail slipping from behind her head onto her shoulder. She regretted spending the money last night for a fresh red highlight through her long black hair. She should have saved that money. Why would he ask about Spanish?
“We have a...guest in Unit 2 who would like to have someone read to him tonight in Spanish and I thought of you. I will make it worth your while.”
She looked up for the first time and saw Bruce’s dark eyes boring out of his white bald head at her and the fake smile.
She exhaled like she’d been holding her breath. “I am...was...it’s my children...Dios mio.” She knew he meant the man who wanted Shirley. This could not be a coincidence. She could not do what he wanted.
“I’m sure your, college aged kids, aren’t they? They can get by if you come home late. I’ll have a private launch ready for you at 10 p.m. You could take tomorrow off with full pay.” He spoke quickly shoving the words out.
She still could not say anything. AnaRosa realized she could not show she knew that the man in Unit 2 had asked for sex with Miss Shirley because AnaRosa should have no way of knowing. Bruce had no idea what information spread around the residents and staff. He would be surprised.
A thought of blackmailing him with the information crossed her mind and she instantly repented and almost crossed herself.
“I will give you $100 bonus,” Bruce said into the quiet.
She glanced up to meet his eye and could see his desperation and his smile wilting into a snarl. She saw immediately she would lose her job, but she couldn’t sleep with this man in Unit 2. She couldn’t. It didn’t matter who he was; or what was paid, it would be a sin. It would be horrible and disgusting. How could she explain this without betraying the confidence of the ladies and harm coming to them?
She crossed herself this time without realizing it. “I don’t read good, Mister Johnson.”
The door pushed open and the beefy security guard entered. “Oh, muy bien, you found her quickly. Señor’s assistant sent me.”
Bruce stood to his feet. The large Cuban seemed not to notice him. Instead he gave AnaRosa a controlled tight smile and lifted her involuntarily from her chair.
“No, no, no....” She muttered.
“Reading, reading. Conversation. That’s what I told him. You understand? This is not the end of the matter.”
The security guard gave a humorless grin, “Indeed, it is not.”
Chapter Sixty-Four
Bruce stayed and made sure that AnaRosa got to the private launch he had arranged. She’d been crying and he didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t see any marks on her, so he hoped the dirty old man hadn’t attacked her.
They walked through the dark tree tunnels with the small light of his flashlight. Flitters and squirms rattled the dark and unseen foliage off the road.
Finally he said, “Are you okay?” He felt her nod in the darkness. “I’m sorry this was...such short notice. Did he, uh, upset you?”
AnaRosa stifled a cough or a sob. He couldn’t tell. Even
tually she said somewhat carefully he thought, “He did not like my reading. He preferred to hold my hand and talk to me...about, about,” she cleared her throat and sounded stronger, “about me.”
“Oh, I’m glad it went well then.” He felt better.
“A good woman should not have to listen to the kinds of things that man said tonight. He threatened me if I do not do what he asks of me. Please Señor Johnson, do not make me go there again.”
Bruce felt his heart sink. A long, long pause broke only by night sounds and as they approached the dock with it’s one lonely light and the purr of a boat idling.
“I work hard, but I cannot do that. I will work extra hours for free or something, anything, Mister Johnson. I cannot do that.”
Bruce wondered if he could hear a lawsuit simmering. He thought he should go back and see if she was here legally. If not, then no law suit could happen. Nothing with a public registry anyway. No complaints from illegals. He could probably hold that over her to keep her quiet. She had a good life here because of him.
Bruce imagined he could sick Señor’s Muscles, the body guard, on her to quiet her. As soon as he had the thought, he recoiled at himself. All he did was arrange quiet face lifts and identity changes. Bruce Johnson didn’t hurt people. What had this come to?
He watched the launch pull away with AnaRosa inside. He’d reassured her not to come tomorrow, but now worried he’d never see her again to make sure things were copacetic.
When he turned back from the dock light, the night’s blackness consumed his sight. He could see his own shadow faintly from the light behind him. He started walking and grasped furiously in his pocket for the flashlight.
Cricket and frog sounds pounded his ears. But something else too? As his finger clicked the button on the tiny LED light he sensed something near him and jumped but not enough.
As the light went on, he felt the air move near him and recoiled. A metallic smack sent him reeling as his left foot exploded with pain. He crumpled banging his knee as he fell to the asphalt. He managed to keep a grip on the little flashlight and when he could see through the pain flashed it around. He saw no one, but heard Muscle’s voice.
“Next time do as Señor asks. No substitutions. You were lucky this time.”
He heard steps moving away and finally managed to shine the light on the back of the gray uniform. He groaned again in pain.
“You need me.” He screamed. “You could at least help me get back.”
The security guard didn’t turn. A distant voice said, “I’m sure you’ll figure something out. Raise no alarm, just do what you are supposed to or you will be dead. Muerto. ¿Sabes?”
Bruce hunched on the tarmac in the dark tunnel of trees full of night noises waiting for the pain to subside. If it would lessen, he thought he could test his weight on the agonizing left foot. The pain didn’t diminish but went from a bright hot intensity to a steady throbbing. He turned his body with the idea of standing. His vision blocked again by another white blast of pain. The stupid lump Muscles must have broken some of the bones in his foot.
In all the years of doing special work for people, there’d been tense moments, but most people were grateful to escape being hunted or a collapsing regime or old age. No one had ever harmed him.
His hands trembled as he fumbled at his phone. “Carlos? You’re still here? Good. Get down to the dock with a golf cart. I’ve got a problem.” He squeezed his eyes closed against the pain and listened to the words Carlos spoke. “Just tell them, I’ve had, uh, an accident.”
An accident of letting the wrong people into Royale Cove.
Chapter Sixty-Five
“Janice, I’m going blind here. I gotta get out of this get up and these glasses. Where can we go?” Shirley said.
Janice in her electric wheelchair scooted down the hallway of the Dementia Unit. “Where’s Arty?” she chirped.
Shirley’s nerves were raw. They’d managed to lay low and avoid any nurses who would try to figure out who she was.
“The glasses make you push the walker all crazy so it helps the disguise,” Janice said with a rye grin.
Shirley squinted over the glasses at her.
They’d been debating what to do to hide Shirley for the night. They could hardly curl up in Janice’s twin bed though the hospital rails could keep one of them from falling out. Shirley knew she needed to be out of the way so no one who checked during the night would tune in to her unexplained presence. Janice had explained about the checks and the nurses coming at 8 a.m. to get them dressed. If they somehow managed to sleep well, they could get caught off guard in the morning.
“Okay, Mrs. Othian. Time to get you to bed.” The night nurse for Janice’s area walked her suitemate down the hall.
Janice took a turn in the hallway but they heard a cheery voice behind, “You’re next Miss Janice. Don’t go far.”
“We could swipe some blankets and put you under my bed,” Janice said fiddling to get a linen supply door open.
“Uh, uh. No. Not sleeping on the floor. Not happening.” Shirley said, “Besides I really would need this walker tomorrow if I did. I haven’t slept on the floor since I was a kid. I will not go full circle and be reduced back to what I’ve been running from all my life.”
Shirley rammed her wheelie-walker into Janice’s chair to emphasize her point.
“Calm down. I’m just trying to think.”
“Aren’t there any empty beds or rooms over here?”
“An empty bed you’d get noticed because the roommate will have a watcher. It’s a popular wing.”
“There’s always watchers.” Shirley complained. “Hollywood, the press, husbands, nurses.” She started swearing.
It had been a long day of trying to stay under the radar and look crazy. Shirley-Veda hadn’t had to do it before. It was worse than the first day on a really intense movie set.
Janice took it in stride it seemed since she had been doing her forgetful act on the other side to eavesdrop on the illegal activities anyway.
“My head itches from this dead wig and my eyes will never be the same.” Shirley complained as they wheeled down the hall.
“Let’s go look down the hall closer to Unit 2,” Janice said.
They moved quietly to avoid getting caught by the bed time rounds.
After a couple sharp turns and a detour to avoid a nurses station, they came to the hallway Shirley and Janice calculated the “exit” door at the end would actually lead to Unit 2 because it wasn’t the end of the building where an exit would be. The hall must go through Unit 2 and eventually the end of the building to an exit stairwell.
Of course being the dementia side, it was a forbidden door. A forbidden exit.
“No empty rooms on this hall either.” Janice announced as they arrived at the end.
“I guess Bruce and Carlos have been busy moving people in here. Have you found any,” Shirley paused, “well, coherent ones?”
Janice nodded. “But if anyone starts complaining or saying mean things about the admin or a bum deal, they get a sedative. Everyone has a note in their chart from some doctor saying we belong in here, so how would the nurses think any different?”
“Railroaded.”
“You said it. I haven’t even seen the doctor.”
“Say, I have an idea,” Shirley said looking over the top of the thick glasses at Janice. “Do you hear a lot of alarms on this floor?”
Janice hiccuped. “No, why?”
“We can hide in this closet. I’ll push the bar on the Unit 2 door and see if an alarm sounds or anyone comes. All the rooms over there are private and each one has an assigned nurse, so no one else should come in during the night if they aren’t assigned. Usually some looked empty.”
“They got us crammed in like sardines and over there are empty private rooms? Sheesh, I got money still. I could pay for a private suite if they’d give me a chance.”
Shirley-Veda put her walker in the closet and Janice maneuvered into the spac
e with a, “Where’s Arty?”
“None of that while we’re hiding.”
“What?”
Shirley swore. “Never mind, get settled. Be quiet. I’m gonna push the crash bar enough to crack it open and then dive for the closet.”
“Is this a good idea? I think I’m having second thoughts.”
“They won’t find us.” Shirley’s tone exuded confidence. This was a role she wanted to play. She had a burst of energy like when she had a new part. Maybe confidence would keep Janice’s Tourettes in check if anyone looked for them.
“I’ve been tied up a couple times, you know, so I’m not so adventurous anymore.” Janice rubbed at her wrists like she felt the restraints.
Shirley looked at her over the thick glasses. “That’s what they want. Don’t let evil win. Don’t give in. They can’t crush our spirit unless we let them.”
From inside the closet Janice said, “Is that a line from one of your movies? Oh boy, here we go.”
Shirley reached for the emergency bar on the door.
A squeak from the hinges made Shirley jump for the closet and pull the door up to a crack, so they could see out.
“No audible alarms.” Janice whispered.
“Yeah, probably don’t want to disturb the richies on the other side. Let’s wait and see if someone comes looking. A silent alarm somewhere or a camera?” Shirley-Veda said.
“If there’s a camera, we’re totally in trouble. Where’s...”
“Shhh.”
The door opened with it’s loud squeak from the Unit 2 side and they both jumped. A hispanic man in a purple suit passed by without looking around. Shirley grabbed Janice’s hand. Her mouth went dry. Neither said anything or moved for a minute.
“Let’s see where he goes,” Shirley said.
“Seriously?”
“What if this is like a secret link from the big cheese folks to Bruce’s office?”
“Where’s Arty?”
“Okay, let’s go. Quietly,” Shirley said. They tracked him as best they could and looked around a corner to see him slip through the door that Shirley had entered from the office in AnaRosa’s cart earlier in the day.
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