by Gayle Tiller
"Gerard? William?"
"No, not them either."
"Sheila, I'm going to be guessing all night. I just can't keep track of all your men. So who had the honor of marrying you?"
"Brad Cullins."
"Who the hell is he?"
"Some guy I met in Las Vegas."
I laughed and said, "You married a guy in Las Vegas who you just met. Why?"
"A couple of months ago, I decided I wanted to see what it would be like to married. So I ordered a wedding dress. Because I didn't want to get married to any of the men who I see here, I decided to go to Las Vegas and meet someone. So I bought a ticket, packed my dress and met Brad at one of the slot machines. We got drunk and the next thing I knew we were married."
"How is married life?"
"It lasted all of nine hours. I got an annulment the next day."
"How come?"
"Brad was old. He was damn near sixty years old. He told me that he had a pump. We tried pumping him all night and the man still could not get hard. And you know, if a man can't satisfy me, forget it. So I left his limp ass."
I burst out laughing, "Of all of the men, you would choose. Some old ass man. The next time, you should choose someone our age."
"No, I'm through with marriage. Once down the altar is enough for me."
"Sheila, you are so funny. So, what about Kevin- Mr. Young and Virile?"
"Jazz, he'll just be a playmate. I will let him down gently. Speaking of playmates, why is Keith calling you?"
"Keith is not calling me. I called him about a case. It's just business."
"Really now."
"Yes, really. Kristal Woods hired me to find out who killed her husband Ralph."
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"I thought the paper said he accidentally died from taking penicillin."
"Kristal thinks he was murdered and because she's paying me, it's my job to find the murderer."
"Good luck. Do you know about Kristal's reputation?"
"I don't know anything about Kristal except for the fact that she definitely has an attitude."
"That's her alright. We call her the bitch, because she definitely does not know how to treat people. I don't know how she ever wound up with Ralph, because Ralph is totally the opposite. He was such a gentleman and so kind and giving."
"Did you and Ralph ever?"
"No, I knew him from the community. Give me some credit. I don't get involved with men who have anything to do with City Hall. I spoke to him from time to time, but that's about it."
"Why would Kristal think someone killed him?"
"Jazz, I don't know. Kristal is the kind of woman who always likes to be the center of attention. Kristal could be doing it for media attention."
"Yeah, I guess Kristal is just like any other beauty queen used to having her way. I guess she doesn't know what it's like to be alone."
"Oh, I guess you don't know that Kristal used to be overweight back in high school. She and I both went to Lyons Prep School. She was a senior when I was a freshman. She was so huge back then. She must have weighed over 250 pounds. The kids used to make fun of her and she only had a couple of friends who were the class nerds."
So Kristal had attended private school with Sheila. I had gone to public schools and there was a part of me that wished my father had sent me to private school.
"When did she lose the weight?"
"Back in college. But she can't eat more than 1200 calories a day and she has to work out two to three hours a day or she'll start gaining weight."
"I wish I had her problem."
"Jazz, now here you go putting down yourself again because you're very slender. Hell, most white men want a woman your size."
"Sheila, you know I don't date white men. I'm not a cross cultural dater like you."
"It wouldn't hurt if you dated a white man. Not only do they pick up the tab, but they send you flowers and candy and treat you like you're special."
"So how come you're not with one now?"
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"Unlike brothers who will tell you up front that you're not the only one, white men will lie to you and give you the party line that you are the only one for them. Then when you do some checking around, you find out you are just the only one for Thursday nights. But hell, if it's a Friday night, it's Suzanne. And on Saturday it's Katy."
I laughed and said, "Sheila, you're so funny."
"Anyway, after Kristal lost the weight, she completely changed. She gained self-confidence and started getting involved with the community and acquired this self-righteous attitude that she was Ms. Thang. It was the kind of attitude where no one really wanted to get close to her."
"How did she and Ralph meet?"
"I don't know. All I know is that she and Ralph are totally the opposite.
She is really abrasive and he's really kind and giving."
"So Ralph was a good man."
"That he was."
"Are you sure that you and Ralph never?"
"Okay, we were lovers for a minute."
"A minute?"
"It was longer than that. We used to go out. But that was over five years ago."
"At the time that you went out with him, did you know that he was allergic to penicillin?"
"Yeah, Ralph always wore this bracelet saying that he could die if he received penicillin. He even showered with it on."
"Do you think Ralph would have taken penicillin on his own?"
"I doubt it unless he were drunk or something."
"Did he drink a lot?"
"Ralph never drank. When Ralph was a teenager, his father was always passing out from drinking too much. On Ralph's seventeenth birthday, his father threw up blood all throughout their apartment. Ralph called 911, but it was too late. By the time the paramedics came, Ralph's father had died.
From that date forward, Ralph made a promise to himself that he would never drink, because alcohol had killed his father."
We were silent for a minute. I asked, "So where was Ralph's mother and brothers and sisters when this happened?"
"Ralph was an only child. His mother died in a car accident when Ralph was three."
"God, Ralph had gone through so much. How did he cope?"
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"His father left him a small life insurance policy and after high school, Ralph used this money to put himself through school so he could obtain his degree in fire science. He later joined the San Jose Fire Department and due to his hard work, he was promoted to captain."
"So Sheila, why did you and Ralph break up?"
Sheila took a deep breath and said, "I made a mistake."
"A mistake? What kind of mistake?"
"Well, you know me and commitment."
"Did Ralph break up with you because you wouldn't commit to him?"
"Something like that."
"Tell me what happened."
Sheila paused for a few seconds and said, "Ralph had been pressuring me to get engaged and I wasn't ready. I mean we had only been going out for a few months. It was just too soon."
"So you told him no."
"Not exactly."
"Sheila, stop playing games. What happened?"
"One night Ralph came to my apartment unexpectedly. I forgot to the lock the door. He walked in and found me with another man. He cussed me out and told me to stay out of his life."
I stared into Sheila's eyes. I knew from her eyes that she was telling the truth. The fact that Sheila had slept with another man while she was seeing Ralph didn't surprise me. That's how Sheila was and for some reason she had never learned to give herself to only one man. I felt sorry for her.
She cleared her throat and said, "He and I never spoke again. Two weeks later, he started going out with Kristal."
I asked quietly, "Sheila, have you ever been in love?"
"No. I'm not ready to give any man my heart and soul. No man will ever control me."
I wasn't in the mood to play Sheila's therapist so I decided not to ask any more questions.
At leas
t, Sheila had confirmed that Ralph was a decent man and that there might be a chance that he hadn't taken the penicillin on his own.
I couldn't figure out why Ralph could not have known what he had taken was penicillin. After all, the bottle had been labeled penicillin. It just didn't make sense.
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4
Chapter
New Chapter
It was 1:00 in the afternoon and scorching hot. I could feel beads of sweat on my face. I had been standing in line for over ten minutes in Dr.
Creighton's packed waiting room, which had no air conditioning.
After fifteen more minutes, the receptionist finally spoke to me.
The receptionist was a young slender Filipino woman who wore her long hair in a bun and had braces. She looked like she was no more than 25 years old.
She said, "Are you a patient of Dr. Creighton's?"
"No, my name is Jasmine Myers and I am a private investigator. I am investigating the death of Ralph Woods. I would like to see Dr.
Creighton."
"I'm sorry but Dr. Creighton is on vacation for the next two weeks."
"I need to see Dr. Creighton's files on Ralph Woods. Look, I have a signed authorization from his widow." I handed her the authorization.
The receptionist looked at it and shook her head, "I'm sorry but I can't release the files without Dr. Creighton's approval."
Her response started to get me angry. I said in an authoritative voice,
"Look miss I can't wait two weeks. If you can't help me, I would like to speak to the supervisor."
She went to get her supervisor who was a slightly overweight woman in her late forties with shoulder length braids.
The supervisor spoke and said, "I'm Nurse Hutchins. I'm sorry but until the doctor returns, we can't help you without his approval."
"Look Nurse Hutchins, it's really important that I see Ralph Woods'
medical files."
"Rules are rules and I can't break them for anybody."
"Look, Ralph Woods is the husband of Kristal Woods who has done a lot for our community. Can't you make an exception?"
"Look, even if I got a call from the White House, I couldn't do it. I'm sorry. As soon as Dr. Creighton comes back, I'll call you."
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"Is there anyone else I can talk to?"
"No."
"Alright. Here's my card, please give me a call when Dr. Creighton returns."
I left the waiting room, feeling hot and dejected.
I went to the women's restroom and splashed some cold water on my face.
Two weeks was too long to wait for an answer about the prescription.
There had to be another way to get the information.
When I got back to my office, I pulled out the bottle of pills from my purse and looked at the label again. The pills had been issued by a local pharmacy.
I logged onto the Internet. To my disappointment, nothing came back of relevance. But that didn't mean anything. Information on the pharmacy could be hidden in a newspaper archives.
I went to the web page for archives of the local newspaper and six articles came up.
The first five were about the profit margins of the pharmacy. The last article was about the pharmacy being sued back in1998. I immediately clicked onto the article.
According to the article, the pharmacy had been sued for wrongful death because one of its pharmacists had mistakenly given a PMS patient the wrong prescription. This left the PMS patient a vegetable and eventually her family took her off the life support machines. The pharmacy had settled for a million dollars and its director and chief pharmacist were fired. The Pharmacy Board had placed it on probation for two years.
Based on the article, there probably was a good chance that the pharmacy had mistakenly given Ralph penicillin. The DA probably wouldn't charge the pharmacy with murder. But at a minimum, it would be charged with involuntary manslaughter. With a good jury, it would be found guilty. Kristal could file a lawsuit and count on getting a big settlement.
All I needed to do was to go to the pharmacy and do a little investigating to tie up the loose ends.
It was already four and the pharmacy closed at five. If I beat traffic, I could be there by 4:30.
* * *
When I got to the pharmacy, no one was in the air-conditioned waiting room. I walked up to the desk and asked for the head pharmacist. 25
The head pharmacist walked in. He was a short thin, balding man in his early sixties with a ruddy complexion and a large broken nose.
"I'm Dr. Kelley. How may I help you?"
"My name is Jasmine Myers and I am a private investigator. I am investigating the death of Ralph Woods. It is my understanding he received penicillin on October 1, 2005. I have authorization from his widow to look at his file."
I handed Dr. Kelley the authorization.
"Sure let's look at his records."
Dr. Kelley downloaded Ralph's file from the computer and then printed a hard copy of Ralph's record.
"On October 1, 2005, there was an order for erythromycin placed by Ralph G. Woods. The prescribing doctor was Dr. Creighton. There was no order for penicillin," Dr. Kelley proclaimed.
My heart skipped a beat. Everything was falling into place. I couldn't wait to call Kristal with the news. "Do you have the original prescription by Dr. Creighton?"
"Sure, it's right here in Mr. Woods' file." Dr. Kelley then clicked opened the prescription, which was dated October 1, 2005 and signed by Dr.
Creighton. It said that erythromycin was to be taken three times daily.
"Dr. Kelley, apparently, there has been a mistake. Mr. Woods was given a prescription for penicillin and not for erythromycin."
"What do you mean?"
I pulled out the bottle of penicillin and handed it to him.
He looked at the bottle and said, "This was not issued by our pharmacy."
"It has your name on it and the prescription number."
"Since 1998, we have photographed every label that goes on the bottle of our pharmaceuticals. This is not one of our labels. I'll show a copy of the label that went on the bottle for Mr. Woods' erythromycin." Dr. Kelley pulled out a photograph of the label.
"On our label, it has a bar code. All of our labels have bar codes. Your label does not have a bar code. In fact, all of our records show that Mr.
Woods has been prescribed erythromycin for the past few years for various ailments."
"Why would someone want to put a fake label on a bottle of pills?"
"I don't know. But all I can tell you is that we did not fill a prescription for penicillin for Mr. Woods and that label is not ours."
"Can I get a copy of the label and the other documents in Ralph Woods' file?"
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"Sure."
Dr. Kelley made a copy of Ralph's file and gave it to me. I shook his hand and thanked him for his time.
I walked out of his office. It was clear that someone had switched the erythromycin pills and replaced them with penicillin. After Ralph had taken the penicillin, that same person replaced the pharmacy's erythromycin label with the fake penicillin label.
Had another firefighter killed Ralph Woods? Was it over the selection of a new chief? That just didn't seem enough for a motive. After all, it wasn't like San Jose never had an African-American chief before. There had to be some other motive.
I had an appointment with Chief Carpenter tomorrow afternoon. Carpenter surely could throw some light on why Ralph had been killed.
After all, it had been his promotion and not Ralph's. I knew that once I interviewed him everything would make sense.
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5
Chapter
New Chapter
In the lobby of the Chief's office, there was a picture on the wall of him.
He was an overweight, plain looking man in his mid-fifties.
I had been waiting in the lobby of Chief Carpenter's office for over an hour and he still hadn't come back from
lunch. Hell, I had driven over 40
miles to see him and he didn't even have the courtesy to call his secretary and let her know that he would be late.
I stared at my watch. It was already 3:15. I was tired of waiting. If the Chief didn't want to help me on the case, I would get the information somewhere else.
I walked over to his secretary's desk and told her that I was going to leave. His secretary was a plump Latina in her early forties with short curly hair.
She turned to me and said, "We got a call that the Chief is in the hospital."
"Hospital? For what?"
"I don't know. They wouldn't release any information."
"Do you know what hospital?"
"I'm really not allowed to release that information."
"Look, it's public information."
"Okay, don't tell anyone, I told you this. He's at Simmons Hospital. It's off of Broadway."
"Thanks for the information."
* * *
Sitting behind the hospital's registration desk was a small shriveled up man who could not have weighed more than 120 pounds. His teeth were a brownish-yellow and lips were severely chapped. I thought about extending my hand to him. But I decided not to, because I noticed that he had scabs on both of his hands.
I flashed a quick smile and said, "My name is Jasmine Myers and I am a private investigator. I am trying to finding out the status of the Chief."
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"The Chief? We don't have anyone with the last name Chief."
Not only was this man disgusting to look at, but he was also dense.
"No, I mean Richard Carpenter."
"Oh yeah, a Carpenter did come in a couple of hours ago."
"For what?"
"I don't know. Look, I'm not a doctor."
"How is he doing?"
"Let me just pull the file up." He then punched a couple commands on the computer.
"So what does it say?"
"It looks like he's not doing too good."
"Is he in serious condition?"
"No, a lot worse than that. He's dead."
"Dead? He can't be. I just spoke to him a few days ago."
"Look miss, the computer says he's dead so he must be."
"What did he die of?"
"I don't know. The body is at the City Morgue and the coroner will do an autopsy."