Edna said, “What about the Jesus thing?”
“That’s just it. What with my new version of religion, the guy he’s not my neighbor. He’s not even my enemy I’m supposed to love or nothing. Of course that seems like a loophole when you say it that way. I don’t think that’s what Jesus meant, but I hate to disappoint the kids.” He leaned back confidently and stretched his arms.
Blanche thought about Frank standing in front of Greg’s house her first day on the island. Hopefully that wasn’t what was being discussed at the moment but she wasn’t so sure.
“What has the guy done?” Blanche ventured while trying to think of a Sunday School lesson of her own to weigh in with or she’d feel responsible if anything did happen to Greg.
Frank crushed out his cigarette. “He’s an idiot.”
Antonio stroked his mustache and said, “Is it the kind of job that they’d leave you a weapon?”
Frank grinned. “Sometimes you just gotta make do. My dad always said you make sure you have a weapon within six feet of you.”
Blanche leaned into the table intrigued in spite of her concern where this could go. “Like what a gun on your hip? In here?” She looked around.
He winked at Antonio clasped his hands behind his head leaning back into them. “There’s a planter over your left shoulder. It’s got a skinny metal support holding up one of the branches of flowers. Whip that out of there you’ve got a nice sharp weapon. Not great but it’d work in a pinch.”
Veda’s blond head and dark glasses had been following this odd interchange closely like a tennis match.
Blanche asked, “But you aren’t going to do anything like that,” she pointed at the planter, “to the idiot on the island?”
Veda-Shirley interrupted, “Gentlemen, it is delightful to make your acquaintance. It sounds like you are men of influence and knowledge and you are just what I need. I propose we forget about the family requests and inside face jobs and bring this place down.” She spread her lips in a big sexy smile. “And make sure Carlos pays in the process.”
Chapter Forty-Three
In front of the television in the Atrezzo lounge, Janice erupted, “Where’s Arty?”
Then she wheeled herself over to the Scrabble table with clear effort from her gnarled and bruised hands. “I’m all for that.”
Blanche chuckled. “You’ve got x-ray hearing as well as knowing all the Medicare codes?”
Janice’s gray eyes bored into Blanche but with no humor or spunk today. “I learned to look like I wasn’t paying attention when I worked for all the rich and famous. You never knew what they’d say. I could write a book.”
Shirley said, “We need to hook her up with the Dragon.”
“I could use a way out of here before they take me to the estate level and kill me off,” Janice said.
“What is that?” Blanche asked.
Edna explained, “There’s a monthly fee. If you can’t cover out of your liquid funds anymore, you have to sign over your entire estate and assets to them.”
“Most try to liquidate before they get here,” Janice said.
“Did you have to do that?” Blanche asked Edna.
Edna looked sly behind her glasses, “No, I don’t let the Dragon know all my information. She’s paying.” She gave a very satisfied grin.
“What about you?” Blanche asked Janice.
“I still own a house back on the mainland. Sort of an escape plan. But they’re threatening to put me in the health center which costs more. They just want my whole estate.”
A couple aids came in the area and conversation stopped. Janice snatched the Scrabble letter bag from Edna who’d been amusing herself putting words on the board randomly.
They all pretended to look at the board.
Shirley-Veda spoke sotto voice, “They railroad people here.”
Antonio seemed subdued this morning and finally spoke up. “We get our lives twisted up and that cabron is having surgery to be a new person. No es justo.”
The aids were nearby taking a man out to physical therapy.
“You mean Señor Rafael up in Unit 2?” Janice said.
“Madre mia! How do you know?” Antonio hissed.
“It’s the listening thing. I asked to see the accountant a few days ago and they leave me sitting outside of billing for an hour. They always try to wear me down that way. So I just look like I’m asleep.” She winked a watery eye at them. “I heard Carlos and Bruce with some bodyguard guy.”
“Proof! Confirmacíon!” Antonio crowed and started fiddling with his phone. He began a rapid fire conversation in Spanish and turned away from the table.
Blanche knew proof was more complicated for the police. She wasn’t sure about a Cuban family syndicate.
Edna read her mind, “Is there anywhere to get some hard evidence?”
“The data entry girl for bookkeeping goes on smoke breaks. I don’t know exactly what you’d find. Maybe a code table or the excel file or an email. Most people don’t log out just for a break,” Janice said.
“You haven’t looked?” Blanche asked.
“I can’t move fast enough.” Janice patted the arms of her wheelchair. “Now they’re threatening to take my estate.” She whispered the last two words then said overloud, “Where’s Arty?”
Stress, Blanche thought. They ignored it.
“I was in a movie once where the good guys created a diversion that got everyone’s attention and while that was going on someone else got inside.”
Edna rolled her eyes. Blanche thought it sounded like a plot to a lot of films and she had to catch the boat at 5pm. She had to head this off.
“I have to leave the island for a few days. Maybe we could wait...”
“We gotta act fast then,” Frank said.
“I’ll ask to see the accountant.” Janice said. “They’re used to that.”
“I’ll distract Carlos,” Shirley said making a disgusted face.
Blanche meant for them to wait till she got back. It was out of control. She looked an appeal at Edna who just shrugged.
Antonio slammed his body into his chair in frustration, but Frank gave him the low down and Tonio perked up considerably.
“Ah, a plan. Buenas noticias. What can we do to aid the search?”
“Who knows computers?” Janice piped up. Both men looked blankly at her. Blanche thought there must not be much cause for these old time mob guys to be really savvy. They could probably just point at people and make things happen.
“I am new to using them...but I gotta leave on the ferry this afternoon.”
They all acted like they hadn’t heard her doubt.
Janice said, “Okay, so you’ll go into the office.”
They all talked at once for a moment. Blanche realized this thing was happening with or without her. If she wanted information, she’d better take her chances.
She interrupted everyone. “What time will the girls in the office go on break?”
Janice evaluated. “Around 3 o’clock they go for a smoke.”
“What about Bruce and Benita? I can’t be seen around the offices or by them.” Blanche saw this as the biggest flaw in a bad plan.
“They don’t smoke,” Janice said.
Antonio, popped up with an idea. “I could distract Benita. She loves to have a flirt. I could take her a cookie.”
“I have a neighbor who lives on the island. I could see if she would come over for a tour and that will take care of either Bruce or Benita. Antonio could take the other.” Frank offered. “There’s an employee toilet outside the office door.”
They all looked at him.
“Hey, sometimes a guy has got to go when a guy’s got to go. I’ll hang out there and if Janice gives any warnings or Bruce is coming back with my neighbor. I’ll try to intervene or make a fuss.”
“I could ride the elevator up and down slowing any movement down with my walker.” Edna grinned. “I’m an impediment to traffic.”
Blanche feared this lame scheme. It r
eminded her of something Al would propose, but time seemed short for arguments. No one listened anyway.
Chapter Forty-Four
Shortly, Blanche found herself crouched in an employee’s toilet stall outside the admin office at Royale Cove Care Center. She’d relieved herself, of course, but didn’t feel any better what with the tension of waiting and the pressure. She checked her watch repeatedly.
Frank chatted loudly outside the door to anyone going in or out to let her know when to make her move.
She got the cue and did her best to walk like a real official secretary, not because they’d think she was staff really, but if no one looked consciously the movement would seem natural. She hoped.
Frank opened the glass door for her and Janice winked at her from her wheelchair and pointed at the office door that she needed to invade.
Blanche’s heart pounded in her chest, but she enjoyed having a whole team of people in on the act. She wiggled the mouse on the assistant’s cluttered desk. She tutted her disapproval but perhaps that was to her advantage today. She could hear the murmur of Antonio’s voice through the wall in the next office talking to Bruce’s assistant Benita. She noticed a death notice on the desk with Lolita Rodriguez on it. No time to get details, but Blanche could tell the Dragon later. She wouldn’t be happy. She wondered what happened to the poor angry and stalked Lolita.
The data entry girl had indeed left programs and work open during her smoke break. Blanche did a search for codes and Medicare. She saw what looked like a spread sheet with one column highlighted, but it wasn’t clear. Maybe modifying the other codes on the sheet?
Janice had given her some tips on things in the data program that might be useful. She tried to print a page of codes that meant nothing to her but might help Janice or the police. The printer erupted with an exceptionally loud motor sound to Blanche’s terrified ears.
“Where’s Arty?” blurted Janice in the waiting area.
She heard Antonio laugh loudly in the next office with Benita. Blanche grabbed the random papers off the printer. On the wall was a memo with a list of substitute codes for future reference. This too didn’t make sense, but she pulled it off the wall too. A bit of wallpaper tore. It was a bit obvious but she could do nothing now.
Tonio and Benita got louder and Blanche realized they had moved into the waiting-ante room. Her heart slammed into her throat as she froze in place. They couldn’t see her but her escape route was compromised.
Their chat got quieter again.
She heard Janice whisper. “They went out the glass door.”
Blanche peeked out and saw that Frank had moved to block the view so people out in the hall couldn’t see the waiting area very well. Benita and Antonio moseyed away down the hall.
Blanche moved behind Janice’s wheelchair as cover waiting for her moment of escape.
She glanced around and saw the open door of Bruce and Sally’s executive suite.
It might be now or never.
She ducked in and went directly to Bruce’s computer.
Janice chirped. “Where’s Arty?”
Bruce’s email sat open. Bingo. Blanche did a search for Rafael. Nothing.
She searched for today’s date. Nothing, she tried referencing a few more dates this week in the email search. After she scanned past the daily emails, she found two old ones mentioning a Mr. Smith332 and the date for tomorrow. It was good to think like a secretary. This date would be a significant discussion point even without a real name simply for logistics sake.
She couldn’t see a printer in Bruce’s office to print the email. A discussion covering some details for Mr. Smith332 from a special transport service to arrive for a reconstruction. Her hands grew sweaty. No printer anywhere. She didn’t dare print it without knowing where it would go.
She took out the Dragon phone and fiddled around till she got the camera. She snapped the screen then clicked the other email. She clicked the photo without reading the email.
“Where’s Arty?”
Blanche knew she’d pushed it too far. She thought she heard a sound in the hallway and a distant, “Sorry, excuse me,” from Edna.
But one more thought occurred to Blanche. She searched the emails for Mr. Smith332. Today, there was an email that had an attachment for a Cayman Island’s bank receipt for $250,000 with the reference of Mr. Smith332. She struggled to steady her hands as she took a picture.
Frank seemed to be raising his voice in the hallway.
Blanche fled to the waiting area. A sofa hunched on one side of the room. It wasn’t against the wall so Blanche hunkered down behind it so she would not be in view. She watched under the sofa. Frank propped open the glass door and stayed standing there with his back to it, talking to Bruce and the guest. He chatted and chatted. Blanche’s desperation to get away crescendoed with each moment of delay.
“Where’s Arty?” chirped Janice.
Bruce must have felt he had to explain Janice to the guest. “This is one of our residents. She’s just waiting for an appointment with one of the office staff. We have an open door policy that you can come at all times.” He continued to the guest, “She has the start of dementia.”
It made Blanche furious when people depreciated the elderly. Even if Janice did have a few issues, it wasn’t kind to talk like she wasn’t there.
Blanche realized that her head pounded under her bouffant hair-do. Tension and anger and hiding were a toxic cocktail. Good grief. How would she get out of here?
Blanche crawled toward the corner of the sofa as they moved into the waiting area further. Her blouse wet with sweat under the arm pits and her neck throbbed from leaning over. Her knees cried for mercy.
“Where’s Arty?” Janice hiccuped then pointed and gave an unconvincing squeal, “A cockroach!”
Frank’s neighbor lady started legitimately squealing and shouting. Frank darted around and started stomping at nothing.
The woman squealed louder, “Where? Where?”
She climbed on the coffee table which collapsed under her weight. Her screaming was joined by Janice’s which sounded somewhat like laughter.
Frank took pity on his neighbor he’d conned into being a guest. He helped her into the hall to calm her. Blanche tried to shrink herself further sweating behind the couch. Bruce walked over to Janice and leaned into her face and hissed. “You’re going to the Dementia Unit -- today.”
He took one of the welcome packets from the floor that had been on the table and went out in the hall with a slick smile and soothing tone for the guest as they walked away.
Blanche took the first deep breath in what felt like an hour.
Chapter Forty-Five
Blanche popped the brakes on Janice’s wheel chair. Keeping her head down, she zigzagged out to the courtyard of patios where they’d all agreed to regroup. No one saw them leave the office.
On their way out to the patio, she saw AnaRosa talking on a cellphone with her cleaning cart in the hallway.
Blanche paused and AnaRosa looked up and clicked off. “You get a signal out here?”
She smiled. “I had to buy a special thing for my phone to boost the signal. Depends on where I’m at on the island, but I need to be able to check on my kids.”
“Can I have your number in case I need to call one of my friends when I’m gone?” Blanche asked.
AnaRosa hesitated and Blanche thought she would say no. Finally she started to say the number and Blanche scrambled to write it down. You never knew when you’d need an inside connection.
As she maneuvered Janice’s chair through the patio groupings, she could see that Shirley had ditched Carlos and Antonio had said adios to Benita in the coffee bar. Frank’s poor neighbor was probably still being hassled to move in by Bruce which gave them a chance to chat quickly before Blanche had to run for the boat.
Frank explained the cockroach scenario and everyone chuckled. Blanche smiled but then a torrent of blood pulsed into her face along with a sailor’s vocabulary surging throu
gh her mind. “Noooo.”
They all paused to stare at her.
“I left the bank transfer from Señor open on Bruce’s computer!”
All the laughter screeched to a halt.
“There’s nothing for it. You can’t go back.” Janice announced in her matter of a fact manner.
Blanche nibbled at a cuticle on her lavender painted nails. This was a dead giveaway of stress.
“Did you get copies or anything like proof?” Antonio brought up the business on everyone’s mind.
Blanche fished the papers she’d printed and snatched out of the back of her elastic waist pants where she’d crammed them in her effort to keep her hands free.
She handed them to Janice and Antonio. She felt so disgusted with herself. What a novice mistake. She pulled out the phone and tried to find the photos of Bruce’s screen shaking her bouffant head.
Janice piped up, ”This list, where’d you get it?”
“That one was on the wall. I tore the wallpaper, hopefully they won’t notice.” Blanche dug around in her purse for a cigarette and Frank gave her a wink silently asking for one.
“This could be really helpful in the right hands. I see it’s vague and not on letterhead or anything, but this is legitimate codes on the left that are reportedly bad in their system, and so the data entry system needs to use this other column of codes that are all consistently more expensive. I don’t know if it was worth getting locked up in the dementia wing for. You’re still going to need someone who is a shrewd expert about accounting and Medicare.” Janice seemed disgusted too. It wasn’t the smoking gun they’d hoped to find.
Despite Blanche’s squinting she couldn’t make out the photos she’d taken on the phone.
Tonio said “Tampoco, ” handing the phone back to Blanche. “I can’t make anything out.”
All that for nothing.
“After all the excitement, I think I will go give that guy here on the island a little shaking up. I hate to lose. Might make me feel better. ” He blew smoke at the blue Florida sky. “Besides, I hate to disappoint my daughter.”
Complicated Care (Blanche Binkley Book 2) Page 16
