Complicated Care

by Denise M. Hartman

  “Haven’t you heard? We retired people are busier than we were when we worked. We just live on a fixed income.” She laughed but Michelle didn’t join her. Blanche wondered if it was due to a lack of humor or a distraction with Ben. “I have a condo board meeting but if I get back by the 12th, I could come.”

  Michelle agreed and got off the line. Blanche loved the grandkids, but being left alone with them exhausted her. She was not as young as she used to be. Feeding herself challenged her much less three hungry boy mouths.

  Surely, two weeks would be plenty to take a look at Edna’s care center and be ready to go. If there were billing issues, it would likely just be setting the office straight she imagined. Admin work. The drugs Edna alluded too worried her more. Maybe it was a misunderstanding or misdiagnosis? She’d have to get the condo board meeting agenda ready before the trip, then she wouldn’t be stressed by cutting the date so close.

  Blanche thought about how to put things right for Edna as she changed. She appreciated that the lavender shade of her fingernails this week matched the striped color in her tank top. Things should be orderly. Decent and in order as the good book says. Edna needed her world put back in order which gave Blanche an idea.

  The phone rang and Blanche padded barefoot on her cream carpet to answer. Speak of the Devil. Thank goodness it saved her the humiliation of crawling back to say she’d changed her mind.

  “Blanche, this is Diane, Edna’s daughter. I wanted to follow up with you on our conversation. I’d still really appreciate it if you’d go out to the island.”

  “I might reconsider it.” Blanche played coy. She didn’t want to raise the Dragon’s suspicions that Blanche might have her own motivations.

  “I could make it worth your while.”

  Said the spider to the fly, thought Blanche. “In what way?”

  “I’ll give you a smart phone so you can be in touch with me and take pictures without anyone, uh, paying attention.”

  “Hmmm.” Blanche wasn’t sure she knew how to work a smart phone. Her dumb phone with a cord seemed fine. She was dutifully learning her new computer though and that had scared her initially.

  “I’ll go just for a day visit. I probably don’t need a camera and a phone.” Did she hear Diane make a sound of triumph to a colleague?

  Diane said, “There’s a daily ferry boat in each morning for a few hours and out each afternoon for the local staff of the villas and the care facility. I can arrange for you to ride in on it. You pick it up at pier at the Boca Resort. I suppose you need a ride?”

  “No, I’m perfectly capable of getting myself there. There will be two of us.”

  “What? Who else?”

  “Another person from the condo here. You wouldn’t know him. I’m not going alone.”

  Blanche heard what she would describe as a snort of disdain on the other end of the phone.

  “Ah, well, I don’t think one day will be enough to get the whole, uh, situation looked into. It should be more. You need to stay out there a few days.”

  “I’ll be the judge of that once I’ve had a look around. You still haven’t told me what you’re really looking for.”

  “Who said I’m looking for something? Analyze Edna’s bill and her suite mate. While you’re at it, get names and pictures of patients and staff. I can have my, uh, someone look them up and see if they are kosher.”

  Kosher?

  “Uh, huh. I’ll see what I can do.” Pictures of staff and patients? Very weird, Blanche thought. The main thing was Edna didn’t want to be there and she shouldn’t have to be. No one should get drugged and not know why.

  Chapter Eleven

  The Dragon kept her word. A packet with a slick phone, parking and boat passes arrived for Blanche. Al and Blanche got up early, for their normal retiree schedule, and set out for the boat pier. Yacht pier seemed more accurate in the pretty-in-pink Boca Raton Resort and Club.

  Al hopped out of the car as best he could with his arthritis and canes a.k.a. his war injury as he liked to call it. Blanche could see he was excited about this outing. She admitted to herself anyway, it was good to have him along.

  “Used to have a boat when I first moved down here. Probably shouldn’t have wasted my retirement funds, but it was sure fun shooting across the water while it lasted.”

  “When’d you get rid of it?”

  “When Jocey got sick, it wasn’t any fun to go out on my own, and we needed the extra funds to cover copays and such.”

  “I never pictured you as a boat guy.”

  “It’s great. The wind flying through your hair and the sea air.”

  Blanche looked pointedly at the ever present fishing hat covering Al’s bald head and grinned.

  Al tucked his hat down hard on his head and got a prime seat in the front of the private ferry they boarded. It was mostly full of young immigrants who must be doing yard and house work for the richies over on the island. She and Al stood out of the crowd a bit. The guy from the other day just grunted when they gave their names and he found them on the list. The boat motor made it too loud to talk but her mind was full of Edna’s call, creepy retirement homes, and old people rip off schemes.

  When they shuffled off the dock on the island about 20 minutes later, Blanche thought the vegetation had taken over the island entirely. Such dense strangling growth she did not see in condo world on the mainland where everything got pruned and pinched by the ever present landscaping crews of Florida.

  Philodendrons grew thick choking their way up tree trunks and around shrubs. Vegetation tunneled through the shade of the trees overhead. Further up the road, they saw bright sun beat on pristine yards that must receive daily attention. Miscellaneous corners between properties were pure jungle.

  Blanche grabbed the sleeve of a young man with the name Juan on his shirt and asked him where the Royale Cove Care Center was.

  “Me no speakee English.”

  “Oh, well never mind then.” Blanche smiled and waved. A hispanic lady leaning toward middle age with a red highlight in her black long ponytail said, “I work there if you wanna follow me. On the island, they call it The Center or RCCC.”

  Blanche appreciated the lady’s dramatic hair and great red lipstick. “I’m Blanche Binkley and this is Al. We’re coming to visit a friend.”

  “I’m AnaRosa. We don’t get a lot of visitors. It’s too difficult to get here since the island is private. I’m sure your friend will be very happy.” She chewed her gum with an enthusiasm that made Blanche think AnaRosa sported a young heart.

  “Are visitors allowed?” Blanche figured she may as well start investigating.

  “I guess so. When The Center knows people are coming, they do tend to organize everyone differently.”

  “That’s interesting. Different how?”

  AnaRosa chewed her gum and shrugged. “Maybe some people out here don’t like to be seen.”

  “Like a secret?” This certainly intrigued Blanche and she thought of the Dragon.

  “I guess so. When the visitors are coming, they stay out of the common areas.”

  Their straggling group of walkers came out of a dark passage of trees lining the asphalt road beside one of those smooth thick green lawns. It reminded Blanche of a golf course. It surrounded an enormous Tuscan style three-story cream stucco palace. A subtle sign by the door read: RCCC. Blanche could see a wing at each end of the main “house” extending back that must create a three sided court yard in the back. Despite her misgivings, Blanche admitted the building was beautiful. RCCC dripped beauty and style like a magazine spread.

  AnaRosa explained she had to go to an employee entrance and pointed them to the front door lined with a hand painted ceramic tile pastoral scene of pink, green, yellow and blue.

  The glass sliding doors swished open and a pleasant smell of orange flowers met them. Al and Blanche met eyes. Normally these places could be unpleasant on first whiff. High class every step of the way so far.

  They were in a posh vestib
ule with more Italian hand painted tile and outdoor furniture that gave the impression of sitting on a tranquil patio. A desk with a stone mosaic front and another door blocked access into the center.

  “Hi I’m Vanessa. Welcome to RCCC. How can I help you?”

  “We’re here to see Edna Williams.”

  She consulted a paper and said, “Okay, we weren’t expecting you, so if you’d take a seat I’ll work on tracking her down for you.” Her very large white smile allowed no discussion.

  By some silent agreement, she and Al did not talk in front of Vanessa.

  After 15 minutes of listening to ambient bird sounds and fidgeting, they were admitted through the doors that seemed to be one way mirror into the inner sanctum of the Royale Cove Care Center.

  Chapter Twelve

  Something about the place made Blanche feel tatty even though she’d worn her good white slacks and her new white sneakers.

  They pointed to Edna tucked into a corner of the courtyard that Blanche had forecasted must exist when looking at the front of the building. The beauty of the courtyard brimmed with flowers in yellow, hot pink and white in enormous terra cotta pots between each cluster of chairs. A fringe of pink bougainvillea clipped tight ran all the way around the courtyard against the cream stucco walls. Any loose vegetation from the hurricane a few days ago had clearly already been cleaned up here. Or maybe they didn’t allow loose leaves here.

  Blanche gave Edna a little side hug and pulled a heavy outdoor padded chair closer. She’d put Al in charge of the camera/phone and trying to snap all the pics he could. He seemed to be scouting the lay of the land and figuring out where to put his canes so he could take some photos. Blanche knew he wanted an excuse to be nosy anyway.

  “This is a beautiful place to pass the morning.” Blanche took a deep breath and caught a humid scent of flowers.

  “Beauty is only skin deep. There’s too many old people around here.” Edna gave Blanche a watery eyed smile. “I’m glad you came.”

  “So what on earth is really going on?” Blanche glanced around to make sure no staff were near enough to hear.

  “Something is not on the up and up in this place.”

  “It seems your daughter is worried about the bills and your roommate. Have you said anything to her?”

  Edna shook her head. Her gray locks curled in a wavy pattern around her head. A nice look new since she’d come here. She kicked at her red wheelie walker. “The Dragon has her own agenda. I haven’t figured it out yet. She wanted me in a certain room in a certain hall. She’s determined to keep me here no matter what I say. I think it has something to do with her work.”

  “What is that exactly?” Blanche had been wondering since the strange vague business card.

  “Heck, if I know. Something to do with writing but she never shows me her work or a word she’s written. She gets paid a lot or she’s squeezing her ex husbands awful hard.” She paused a moment, “Come to think of it, probably both. You can’t just jam somebody like me into a place like this without a bunch of di-nero.” She bit at her shriveled old lady lips and stared at one of the vibrant flower pots. “This place is for the rich and famous types, and I ain’t that. So tell me, by all that’s in God’s green earth why would somebody be giving me dope? They aren’t gonna get anything out of me, so what is it?”

  “Is it official drugs that the nurses bring?”

  “Nope.”

  “You’re sure?” Blanche really assumed, maybe even hoped it was case mismanagement.

  “Blanche! I got my mind back since the toilet smacked me in the head. No way. No how.”

  “Okay, we gotta be sure. That’s all.”

  Edna looked down at her support shoes. “I’m afraid I’m going to wake up without my knickers and my hooha all molested after one of these drugged up episodes. Now, who would do that to an old woman, I ask you?”

  “Good grief! You think? That would be elder abuse on a grand scale.”

  They sat quietly for a moment the birds chirping in the trees around the grounds.

  Al sauntered up with the camera phone dangling from a cord on his wrist. “I think I just saw that woman from that movie with the killer in it .”

  “That narrows it down. Sight seeing are you?” Blanche said.

  “Why not?”

  Edna piped up. “If I’m gonna get myself molested, it had better be a good looking fellow and I’d prefer to be awake and enjoy it.” Edna started laughing at herself. Blanche took that for a good sign that her humor was in tact.

  “Mother of God, I’m going to go take more pictures,” Al said and stomped off as best an old man with arthritis and two canes can.

  Blanche laughed and shook her head at Al’s retreating back. “Okay, Edna, let’s try to narrow this down. Does it happen after food or a certain activity on a certain day?”

  “I been thinking about this.” She fished around in the pocket of her house dress and brought out a folded piece of paper. “This is all I got at the moment. I started writing down all the meals and all the incidents and clues I could think of in a little notebook on my bedside table and it disappeared.”

  Blanche would struggle to call that a coincidence. “From your room?”

  “It’s a sort of a semi open suite with one bathroom between dividing the sides. It’s pretty private but wide open all day too.”

  “I’m just wondering if the drug is really meant for you or could it be a random thing going around? Wait, does your roommate get drugged too? Why is your daughter so interested in your roommate?”

  “I don’t think she gets drugged, but then I’m out of it when it’s happening so I can’t pay much attention. Every time the Dragon comes out here my roommate disappears. She’s a fancy Cuban lady, I think. She must speak English, but I don’t think I’m high class enough for her.” Edna wiggled her eyebrows.

  “I’ve heard of people drugging the elderly when they are too high maintenance and they don’t want to deal with them. I’ve heard of sexual abuse with drugs like you were saying usually in younger people. Of course, it could be theft if they want to go through your stuff without you noticing and they work the night shift.” Blanche studied her polished fingernails and tried to think of other devious reasons to drug the elderly.

  A jaunty fellow in a colorful button up shirt featuring parrots and straw hats approached and said, “How are you ladies doing today?” His slicked back hair still had a mix of black and gray. “I’m Antonio Posas-Funosa.” He held out a tanned wiry hand with a large gold pinky ring.

  They gave their names and he said, “Mucho Gusto.”

  “Where’s that name from?” Blanche asked.

  “Miami,” he smiled and then added, “via Cuba.”

  “What are you in for Mr. funnynoser?” Edna asked.

  The tanned face with the gray mustache split into a grin. “Please call me Tonio, lovely ladies. It’s not the first time I’ve heard that question.” He chuckled, “I’m in here so I’ll be out of the way and keep my nose out of other people’s business.”

  “So have you got all your marbles still?” Blanche figured if Edna could ask point blank questions, she was into that.

  Again the slick grin. He gestured with the pinky ring hand to another outdoor easy chair and they nodded their heads for him to join them.

  “You haven’t been here long?” He asked.

  Edna confirmed it. Tonio settled back in the chair looking relaxed but glanced around carefully.

  No time like the present, Blanche thought. “So you know anything about people getting something that wasn’t prescribed? Waking up all dopey?” Blanche tested his insider info out.

  For the first time the little self-assured Cuban looked startled. “You’ve had it too?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Tonio waited for a lady to walk by as if her hearing aids might be a threat. Blanche watched the woman who had a fancy cane and the biggest diamond on her hand that she’d ever seen on person outside a shop.

 
; Edna chirped, “Did you see the size of that?”

  Blanche whistled and Tonio said, “She looks good. She’s just self conscious about not looking young anymore. She doesn’t have to hide out here.” He shook his head and smoothed his mustache.

  “Wait, she does look familiar...” the star’s name didn’t come to Blanche. “There lots of that sort out here?” Blanche inclined her bouffant hair do in the direction of the departing elderly movie star.

  “She made a fortune on that weekly crime show in the 70s and 80s.” Tonio liked to be in the know it seemed. “This place is where they come to hide when they can’t take being seen anymore.

  Edna gave Blanche a look. Blanche took another look at the back end of the woman. She could still swing it even with a cane. “She’s hiding here? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “We’ve got a nucleus of people who don’t want the outside world to see them or know they’re here. Our own little corner of the rich and famous who don’t want paparazzi shots of their sagging parts.” He looked appreciatively up the courtyard at her rear end. “They usually disappear when we have company. I guess you don’t look suspicious.” He grinned at Blanche. She thought about Al and the camera. And the Dragon.

  “They should be proud. Who knows about a late life come back like that Betty White lady?” Edna bobbed her curled head in agreement with herself.

  Blanche lit a cigarette and looked at Antonio Funosa. He glanced around carefully while keeping a relaxed profile. It looked like a move he’d perfected.

  Blanche took a queue from him and put on a friendly smile for any watchers though it felt a bit melodramatic. “So what do you know about getting drugged?”

  “I thought it was only me because I’d been snooping around, uh, over there.” He gestured to the far wing.