by Paula Boyd
The door swung open and Melody rushed in. “My mother isn’t in her room and the nurse at the desk doesn’t know anything about it.” She stepped inside, pressing her palms together. “I hope it’s nothing, but I am very concerned.”
“Stay here,” I said, standing and heading to the door. “Do not leave for any reason and if anyone comes in this room, call me.”
Lucille nodded, twisting her hands in her lap. “There’s an office beside the therapy room where they take you when you first get here and sometimes later. Check there first.” More hand twisting. “Jolene, come here just a minute.”
I hurried back over to her. “The woman who was in that room two days ago when I went down for therapy,” she whispered. “She died yesterday.”
“Shit.”
Chapter 9
“The main physical therapy area is this way,” Melody said, taking a left as she ran out the door.
“It’s going to be okay, Melody.”
“Yes, it is,” she said, her gentle voice hard with resolve.
At the end of the hallway, a nurse stepped out from a patient room and gave us a “no running” command, which we ignored. We turned right into another hallway of patient rooms then took another right and headed down a short hall with a set of double doors at the end. The area had a restroom, supply closets and some offices, all with glass inserts on the doors. All were closed and dark except one on the left at the end. We headed for it. I grabbed Melody’s arm. “Slow down and breathe. It’s going to be okay.”
She nodded and we walked to the doorway.
Doris Nichols sat in a wheelchair with her back to the doorway. A small table was at her left and her left arm was drawn up to her shoulder. A woman in blue scrubs with short brown hair sat beside her, shaking a tube of blood. “Hello girls,” she said. “Are you looking for Miss Doris?”
“Yes,” Melody said, as calmly as she could considering the running and the fear. “She’s my mother. Is she okay?”
“Oh, honey, I’m just fine,” Doris said, smiling with a soft voice and gentle smile very much like Melody’s. “The doctor just wanted to get another blood sample to make sure everything is okay before I go home. Miss Linda is just the sweetest thing. She stayed late to do it for me tonight so I’d be able to go home tomorrow. We’re all done now.”
From the very un-Zen look on Melody’s face, I was afraid she was about to tell the nurse exactly how done we were. However, if anything my mother had said was true, going ballistic at Nurse Linda was a very bad plan. So, I stepped forward and reached for the handles on the back of Doris’ chair, nudging Melody with my elbow as I did so, hoping she got the message. “Tomorrow! That’s great!” I said, in the sweetest little nicey-nice voice I could muster. “We are just so thrilled about that! Her recovery has just been miraculous, hasn’t it?”
“It certainly has been,” Nurse Linda said, setting the vial of blood in an acrylic holder with several other filled tubes. “It’s quite unusual to be discharged this early, so we want to be sure everything is in order. We certainly don’t want a relapse after she gets home.”
There were a lot of things we didn’t want. At the moment, avoiding an incident and raising suspicions that we were suspicious was at the top of the list. Since Melody was sucking in air like she was about to hyperventilate or come uncorked on the nurse—my guess was both—I decided to step in. “Looks like you have plenty to do with paperwork and such,” I said, shifting in front of Melody just a bit in hopes that she’d get the message to stay quiet. “We’ll take Doris back to her room for you.” Ha, ha, smile, smile. “Save you a little time.”
The nurse stood and stepped in front of me. “Oh, my goodness, no! I have to take Miss Doris back myself,” she said, grabbing the back of the chair. “I have another patient who needs to visit the lab tonight before I leave, so it is no problem at all.” She turned Doris around and wheeled her out of the room. “Miss Doris is such a sweetheart and a joy to work with.”
Melody followed the nurse and her mother. I didn’t.
At this point, I’ve been around the block enough to know that when my gut tells me something’s wrong, it is. I’ve also learned that even when I don’t know exactly what it is, doing something is better than doing nothing—most of the time. So, that’s what I was going to do—something.
My eyes locked on the acrylic stand that held various sizes of glass tubes with different color stoppers on the ends, all filled with blood. Beside the rack were two little paper cups of pills. Both looked to contain the same two kinds—a soft gel oil type and a small coated pink pill.
The thoughts came fast and furious and I don’t know which ones actually kicked in, but I found myself grabbing one of the little cups and stuffing it into my pocket. I had no idea what significant the size or color tops on the glass tubes meant, but I snagged the biggest one with the light purple stopper and stuffed it in my pocket as well. As I turned to leave, I saw a box with more vials on counter across form the little table. I grabbed a large purple-topped tube and popped it into the open slot in the rack then hurried to catch up.
They weren’t moving fast, so I quietly speed-walked until I was behind Melody. “You know, this is just a really nice facility,” I said, making chit chat as if I’d been there the whole time, admiring the wall coverings and light fixtures. “Everything is so neat and clean. I’m really impressed.” Actually, I was—impressed with the building and décor. Not so impressed with the parade of bodies through the hallways. “It’s state-of-the art, but comfortable and homey. Nice.”
Melody glanced around with a questioning look. Not because she didn’t understand my gushing chatter, but because we were almost to Lucille’s room.
I shook my head. I was not stopping.
Aside from Nurse Linda, no one in the facility had really paid any attention to me as far as I knew, so I doubted they knew who I was here to visit. It seemed prudent to keep it that way, particularly since I’d just stolen body fluids and pharmaceuticals from the lab room and was about to be involved in two geriatric jail breaks. So, I stayed with Melody and Doris.
Nurse Linda settled Doris in a chair beside the bed at Melody’s request then left to capture her next victim. I closed the door behind her and said, “You’ve got to get her out of here, Melody. Right now.”
“I know,” she said, already pulling clothes from the closet and packing them in a bag. “What about Lucille?”
“I’ll get her after you’re safely out of here,” I said, scurrying around the room, gathering up everything that looked personal and adding it to the bag. I started to tell her why it might be extra important that we hurry, but since we were both moving as fast as we could there was no point. The only point right now was getting Doris out of there. And somehow, in only a few scant minutes, we were doing exactly that.
Melody took the bags and went to get her car while I took Doris for a nice stroll down the hall toward the lobby. She was a little confused about what was going on, but since she trusted Melody explicitly—I know, what would that be like?—she went with me cheerfully. I kept asking her questions about anything and everything, and we had a nice chat that kept her distracted as well as acting natural.
In the lobby, several people stood around, looking out the door as if waiting for someone to arrive. A van was parked out front under the portico, unloading a man in a wheelchair. Behind the front desk, a woman stared intently at a computer screen with the telephone to her ear. I guided Doris to the front doors, watching closely to see if anyone was paying any attention to us—they weren’t.
A silver Prius pulled up behind the van and Melody hopped out. She walked inside, smiling and sweet, looped her arm inside her mother’s and strolled out the front door. I waited around with the others, watching behind me and out the window until they were in the car and out of sight. Then, I made a beeline back down the hall to get my mother.
The door to Lucille’s room was open. Stepping inside, I closed it behind me. “We’ve got to go,
Mother. Right now.”
Lucille sat up in her bed. “Is Doris okay?” she said, leaning forward “Where was she? What happened?”
“She was in the room on the left by the main therapy area just as you said. The nurse had drawn blood, but that was all as far as I could tell.”
“Oh, my Lord, let’s hope so. Now, you go down and help Melody get Doris out of here.”
“They’re already gone and we’re right behind them.” I walked to the tall narrow closet at the foot of her bed and pulled out her favorite purple track suit. “Put this on. I’ll pack your things.”
“No.”
I locked my eyes on hers and glared, trying to adequately convey that we did not have time for one of her episodes. “Okay,” I said, stuffing the suit in a bag. “You can wear what you have on. I just want you out of here. Now.”
“I’m not going.”
“What did you say?”
Lucille crossed her arms. “I think it’s best if I stay here.”
“You have got to be kidding me! After all your badgering, demanding and threatening, now you don’t want to go? Well, guess what, missy, you are going!”
“No, ma’am, I am not, and don’t you be talking to me like that,” she said, jutting her chin out. “I have thought about this, Jolene, and there is just no other way. If I don’t find out what’s going on here nobody ever will.”
“Oh, no, not this time,” I said, firmly and determinedly. “You are not going to get in the middle of this. I’m calling Jerry and he’ll get the authorities over here to investigate.”
“I knew you hadn’t told anybody! I knew you’d mess this up!”
“Sssh! Keep it down!”
“Don’t you shush me! I told you to alert the authorities, but no, you didn’t believe me and now look what’s happened. All you had to do was call and explain that I was already on the inside and could do whatever they needed done. I very well know how to be an undercover mole, for pity’s sake.” Lucille shook her head and gave me a stern tsk-tsking. “I swear, Jolene, after all we’ve been through and you still will not listen to me when I tell you what needs to be done. I have a sixth sense about these things, that’s what Melody calls it, and it’s high time you started paying attention.”
Oh, for godsake. The only thing that woman had as sixth sense about was how to annoy the hell out of me in every way possible—just like now.
I stood there, staring, playing out various abduction scenarios in my mind. The ones involving duct tape seemed the most promising, at least until I had to remove it and hear her again.
But who was I kidding? I couldn’t force her to leave and we both knew it. Complicating matters was the fact that I needed to get my thieving self—and evidence thereof—off the premises as fast as possible. I reached in my pocket and pulled out the vial and wadded up medicine cup. “I took these from the lab.”
Lucille’s eyes got wide. “Oh, my goodness! That’s good! That’s real good!” she said nodding. “So, now what are you going to do? What’s your plan?”
Plan? I had no plan. I’d just figured if they wanted to know about Doris’ blood, I did too. And then, with pills just sitting there, well, it only made sense to take them as well. I’d like to blame my mother—and probably would when I figured out how she’d manipulated me—whatever level of crime it was I’d just committed was solely on my shoulders. And, oddly, I was okay with that. The whole thing might be totally legit, but without knowing what was in the medication, I was just guessing either way. Okay, maybe I really did have a plan. “I’m going to call Jerry and see who we can get to analyze this stuff.”
“Good! Now get my purse out of the closet. There’s a little sack in there where I’ve kept the pills they’ve tried to poke down me. Take it too.” She scowled. “Don’t be looking at me like that, Jolene. I told you what was going on here and it’s your own dumb fault you didn’t believe me.”
I did as instructed. From a quick glance inside the brown paper bag, none of her pills looked the same as those in the little cup. “Do you know what any of these are?”
“Of course I do. Pain pills, sleeping pills and a whole bunch of stupid pills they ordered up even when I told them I didn’t want them. I swear, if I told them my big toe itched, they’d put me on a pill for it.”
“So what are you taking?”
“I’m not taking anything, not one single thing, not after I figured out what was going on. I even quit my blood pressure pill that I’d been on for years because it didn’t look the same as what I’d been taking. I was a little dizzy at first, but I am just fine now. Probably never needed it in the first place since they’re always telling me how good my blood pressure is. I figure it was just like that arthritis pill that doctor pushed on me. Made me sick as a dog, and I told him if he ever tried something like that again he’d be the one needing pills for inflammation. That’s why I quit going to him, not that the next one was any better.”
Stopping blood pressure medicine cold turkey might not have been a great plan, but she seemed okay, relatively speaking. “So what else is in here?”
She glanced at me and scowled again. “I don’t know for sure, but there’s probably something for moods and cholesterol since everybody gets put on those, which is exactly what I told the new doctor when she wrote me up for them. I told her I wasn’t going to get the prescriptions filled and I didn’t, but that’s all beside the point because she wrote it on my record and there’s no getting it off.”
Anger boiled up and I started to shake. If my mother were like most people, she’d have just taken whatever the doctor told her to no matter what. For once, I appreciated her being hardheaded and opinionated. It made my life a living hell, but in this case it had certainly saved hers. I folded the sack and stuffed it in my pocket. “I’ve got to get out of here,” I said, and it wasn’t because I was afraid of getting caught with the contraband. No, what scared the hell out of me was my burning desire to take on health care corruption, starting at the front desk. “I have to get out of here,” I repeated. “And I’m not leaving you.”
“Yes, Jolene you are,” she said calmly. “I’ve already outsmarted them so they don’t bother me. Now, go on.”
“Okay, I admit your plan to act like you weren’t doing well was probably a good one. Ditto for saving the pills, but we’re only minutes away from Doris being discovered missing, not to mention that there’s a little irregularity in the lab. They could come after you.”
“They won’t,” Lucille said emphatically. “I just need another day or two. You just get Jerry Don to get me some backup out here and I’ll be fine.”
Oh, this was wrong on so many levels. “Mother, I can’t leave you here. I just can’t.”
“You can and you will, Jolene,” Lucille said, wagging a finger at me. “These are not the first things that have happened here. I told you early on how Helen Williams’ arm just fell down to her side like a dishrag for no reason at all after she got here. She’s not the only one either, and you just saw another dead body get hauled out.” She pointed to the vial in my hand. “You did what you thought was right, Jolene, now you let me do the same. I know what I’m doing.”
Well that made exactly one of us. Still, she had me trapped. She wasn’t leaving and I couldn’t make her. Yet I felt frozen and couldn’t leave either.
“I’m not taking another pill or letting them poke me with anything, so don’t you be worry about that. Besides, I know how to work them. I just wish you hadn’t made me empty my purse.”
Oddly, so did I. A laser-sighted pistol tucked in her pocket was disturbingly appealing at the moment. However, since there were no firearms in the room, we were both just going to have to rely on her cunning wit and superb ability to lie through her teeth. Yep, that was almost as good as bullets.
“I’ll need to get down to the PT room more often that I have been so I can watch that office,” Lucille said, tapping her nails to her lips as she pondered. “That’s it!” she said, clapping her hands
together. “I was pretending I wasn’t doing good so they wouldn’t come after me, but now I’ll start acting like I’m all interested in getting better. I’ll tell Christine that she was right about everything—she’ll like that—and get her to set me up where I can go down to the workout room by myself. Yes, that’s exactly what I’ll do.”
I didn’t like it, not even a little. Her stream of consciousness dialogue made some sense, if you ignored the million reasons why it didn’t. Still, it wasn’t as though I was leaving a sweet little old lady such as Doris to the wolves. No, I was giving free reign to a conniving geriatric mayhem-making machine, and to paraphrase Mr. T from the old days, I pitied the fool who tried to cross her. “Keep your phone charged and with you at all times. This is just for tonight.”
Lucille pointed over to the table by the wall. “You need something to hide that blood vial in. They just filled my big cup over there, but you better not take it because they might stop you.” She opened the drawer in the cabinet beside the bed, pulled out an insulated travel mug and held it out to me. “Agnes brought me this from home. You can put your sample in it.”
I grabbed the mug, dumped in ice and water from her big cup then stuck the tube inside then stared at my mother. “Don’t volunteer that I’ve been here—that your daughter has been here. The nurse only saw me with Doris and Melody, so maybe they won’t connect me with you.”
“I know better than to blab,” said the Queen of Duplicity and Half-Truths. “I don’t tell anyone anything I don’t have to. Now you need to get out of here and get your business taken care of,” she said, shooing me out. “Leave that door open so I can see who does what when it breaks loose.”
