Frank took a couple steps back toward the tarmac road and Blanche. “What are you up to?” He scrutinized her face with a practiced gray eye.
Blanche side stepped. “Do the staff know every resident by name or where they belong all the time?”
Frank took a minute to think about this. “We have a pretty high turn over in the aid stations. They won’t notice. The administrative staff make an effort to know everybody. Makes the relatives visiting feel good to hear their loved ones greeted by name. The aids on your wing know you, of course. The RNs know more people, but they are pretty busy.” He looked at a rather expensive looking watch at least to Blanche’s unpracticed financial eye. “The day staff of therapists and nurses will be gone and the evening shift coming on.” He shrugged. “I won’t rat you out if you tell me what you’re doing.”
“Aren’t you nosy?” Blanche chuckled to take the edge off the words. “I’m checking on my uh, cousin who was moved here more or less against her will. Her bills have been suspicious, so I’d like to quietly verify what they are doing with her and giving her.” For some reason, Blanche didn’t want to mention the drugs and secret people searches.
“Say, maybe I should have you check my bill too. I don’t like to get ripped off, and they make those bills so convoluted it’s ridiculous. He glanced into the dark undergrowth. “People who rip me off have some serious answering to do.” He brought his attention back to Blanche and shrugged his thick shoulders. “I’ll show you but if they catch you — do not tell them you got in that door. It’s sort of the unspoken secret smoking terrace.”
“I might need that myself. I won’t say a word. Point out the employee entrance and if I’m busted I’ll say I came in there.”
She followed him through the dark shrubs and they broke out of the jungle near some of the flower beds and paths not too far from the “walking loop” where she’d spotted Frank on her first visit. They continued across the thick green grounds on a brick path skirting the pool area. They walked without comment to the far side of the care center around a pergola on the end of the wing and turned into the grass outside of the far wing. No path lay through here just grass.
“None of the administration windows overlook this door.” It did not have a patio or chairs around it as all the official entrances did. Blanche was sure it was an emergency door. She watched Frank reach into a plant and pull out a screwdriver. A quick pop made Blanche flinch expecting an alarm but the door opened soundlessly. Blanche could see the lock had been taped in parts. Someone was very clever.
Frank pointed her in the direction of Edna’s wing. “A little tip for you, the bag,” he pointed at her purse, “makes you look like a tourist and not one of our residents.” He winked again. “You’re in. Now you owe me one. Let me know how it goes.”
Blanche rushed off, parting ways with the intriguing Mr. Sabatini. She needed to find Edna and see what happened. She hoped it was another drugged up episode. Bad yes, but it would be better than the alternatives she could think of that caused you to forget yourself.
Edna wasn’t in her room as Blanche hoped. That scared her. Blanche thought about leaving her purse and remembered about small things walking off when left unsupervised. She looked around the room. Not many good hiding places. She slid the smart phone from the Dragon out of her bag and into her pocket, then she wedged her bag between the wall and the big screen TV mounted there. It could be seen due to the color but only if you were looking behind the TV. It would have to do.
Blanche poked a sleeping Haitian man at a desk in the lounge for this floor. He was wearing hot pink scrubs that made his dark skin seem to glow. After starting awake he gave her directions to the health center wing where they held Edna.
She turned to the hall and thought here goes nothing. She hoped she wouldn’t be recognized and thrown out immediately. Or set off alarms walking into the wrong area. She hated these places. Her breathing quickened and she remembered the burly guard they’d seen the other day appearing out of nowhere. She thought of Benita’s snide politeness.
Blanche put her head back. Breathe and look natural she told herself.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
No one noticed Blanche as she walked through the halls of Royale Cove Care Center trying to remember exactly where that health wing was located from the tour a few days ago. She took an elevator to the third floor and then walked to the opposite side of the building. She wondered about the missing roommate, but the way the rooms were laid out, the people weren’t visible from the open doors. She recalled the woman had obscured herself so much in the shared suite that Blanche had almost missed her.
The health wing felt completely different. Unlike the other areas she’d seen, the health wing worked busily. Blanche tried to look like she knew where she was going glancing subtly into the beds that were visible from the hallway here. None of the nurses noticed her. She strolled down the hall until she spotted Edna.
The rooms were more like standard hospital rooms with equipment, pumps, and filters. Mentally this was easier to take for Blanche; it was more like treating the sick and less like store housing the old.
Edna seemed to be resting. Deeply. It worried Blanche that they might sedate her on top of whatever illicit drugs got slipped to her inappropriately. At least, she hope that was all that work here.
Blanche sat in a chair in the quietness and listened to nurses in other rooms shouting to hard of hearing patients. Edna didn’t seem to have a medical chart hanging around the room. Blanche would have liked to see what they’d done for her today to compare to the bill later. Darn the digital age.
A nurse came by and checked liquid plugged into Edna’s arm.
Blanche asked, “How is she? What’s been done for her today?”
Edna stirred and in a sleepy voice said, “I’m fine.”
The cute blond nurse winked at Blanche. “She’s gonna be just fine, but we are running tests to double check some levels after her having a bad morning.”
“What kind of tests?”
“I’m sorry. Are you family?”
“I’m her cousin. Her daughter sent me out here to see how things were going.” Blanche held her breath to see if the bluff would fly or if Edna would deny it in confusion. How do you prove you’re a cousin anyway?
Edna piped up, “She can see all my medical stuff.” It was a good sign that Edna was all there just dopey.
“We’ll have to get a waiver signed.”
Edna’s eyes were closed with sedation but she answered clearly, “Fine.”
The nurse left the room and Edna opened one watery eye and peeped at Blanche. “You’re back.”
“Sounded like you needed checking on.”
Edna grunted. “The Dragon sent you?”
“Yeah. I think I know why she put you here.”
An aid came in with some meds and the dinner menu. Blanche grabbed a pad of paper off the bedside and took short hand notes of the meds they were giving. No one under 65 could read short hand so it was a good foil.
“Help me sit up.” Edna demanded and the girl got her into a semi-upright position. She reminded the nurse about bringing a release.
“I have no idea what they’re giving me, but I think it’s worse than the mickeys I get slipped at night.”
“It’s always night, then?”
Edna grunted.
“Why’d they bring you up here to the medical wing this time?”
“I was really messed up. I don’t remember very well, but they said I didn’t know who I was or what day it is. All the days are the same in here anyways. It’s wearing off finally. So, why do you think the Dragon’s got me here?”
“I think she wanted you to be buddies with your suite mate. I think she must sell people’s stories. Now, she wants me to find the roommate and some other movie star that’s in residence here. She wants pictures and conversations. Wants me to go make nicey-nice.” Blanche rolled her eyes, but Edna’s lids drooped again.
“You gonna do it?�
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“I got to figure out why you’re getting drugged first, but I’ll have to do something to keep your daughter from getting suspicious about what we’re up to.”
“Good luck.” Edna made an effort to look at the dinner menu. She pushed it away and told Blanche to pick something.
“What’s going on with the roommate-suite mate lady? She was pretty hostile the other day and the Dragon wants to know about her in a bad way. She seems to think she’s missing or something.”
“She’s gone.” Edna said a bit drunkenly. “Killed.”
“Killed? They told Diane they moved her.” Blanche thought about the island and the Royale Care restrictions on egress and ingress.
“They tell me she’s just moved, but I heard something the night before last night. She seemed to be begging in Spanish so I don’t know what she said. The one thing clear as day was the word no. She said it about 100 times. I tried to ring the bell to get help. The night guy he’s kind of a slime ball sort, all extra sweet but you know it’s not for real, well he told me I was dreaming. I’m out hard the rest of the night and she’s gone. I asked around all day yesterday and no one knew where she’s at. Not in any of the wings. Weird, huh? I don’t like them telling me I imagined it all. Anyways, I think Antonio has figured out why they drug us or he thinks he has.”
“Oh, already solved?”
Edna shook her gray head. Her nice curls had become mashed after a day and a night in bed. “We must a got double dosed or something last night. He’s a couple doors down the hall here somewhere I think. Probably getting the same tests. I heard him wake up awhile ago shouting something about not getting away with it and he knew the truth. Something about a yahoo or a lulu?”
“He was all dopey too? You’d think someone would find it suspicious if two of you wake up wacky on the same day. I guess it happens enough around oldsters, they don’t think about it.”
“Maybe they think we smoke dope together.” Edna laughed as best she could in her drowsiness.
When dinner came, Blanche left Edna to nibble and went to the nurses station. So far they hadn’t paid attention to her much. Blanche held her breath that the right hand, as in administration and reception, didn’t know what the left hand was doing, as in the nurses in the health wing.
“I’d like to see a copy of her file for the last few days leading up to this incident.”
The nurse who seemed busy looked coldly at her and continued typing on a computer. Blanche saw the release Edna had signed lying there and pointed.
“That’s me and her daughter, Diane,” she said it deliberately and the nurse flashed her a look, “She asked me to get the copies. Do you know Diane? Tall, dark hair?”
Pretty quickly Blanche had the papers in her hands. She wandered the halls looking for Antonio. She heard a Spanish TV station blaring out of one room and investigated. He sat up eating dinner and grinning at the set on the wall. He saw her and adjusted the volume. He gestured her to close the door and come over to the side of the bed farthest from the door.
He leaned so close for a moment she thought he was going to kiss her cheek and she stiffened. But he spoke in her ear, “I’m not turning the TV down all the way, so no one can hear us.”
Blanche pulled back and looked into his face. He took the paper napkin from the tray and wiped his mouth and thin mustache.
“Do you know who you are?” Blanche asked.
“You too? Who am I? Who am I? That’s all I’ve heard all day. Must have been a double dose last night. The other times I just slept through breakfast and was confused when the aid came in to wake me, not out of mind.”
“Edna’s still out of it a bit.”
He looked at the door and leaned close. “I haven’t taken anything they’ve given me today. He pulled back the blanket revealing some mushy pills drying on the sheet.
She grabbed the trashcan and they disposed of the evidence. “Edna has the idea you know what it’s about now.”
“I guess I got worked up and shouted out my information when I was still high.” He shook his head with regret. Blanche wasn’t sure he was all back yet. He seemed so erratic.
“The timing can’t be coincidence though.” He leaned in close and she smelled meatloaf on his breath as he spoke near her ear. “They drugged us so we wouldn’t hear the helicopter. A mass murderer arrived in Unit 2 last night.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Greg Sforato paced his backyard looking out from Royale Cove Island. His cell phone wouldn’t work inside his six bedroom mansion. Humidity swamped the evening air and sweat dripped down his spine soaking his designer polo shirt. However, the pounding behind his eyes came from pure stress not heat.
“Look, Marti, I know. It wasn’t meant to happen that way. Somebody got their wires crossed. I swear it wasn’t me.”
Marti was Martin Bucatini. Greg didn’t know Martin’s title. He worked with important people who decided who got construction jobs being doled out in government offices each year. He didn’t know how it worked nor did he want to.
Greg had convinced himself again that he was simply doing a fellow businessman a favor, a sort of private union that kept the work balanced. The cost of doing business in Florida. Working within the system to keep his own business afloat, right? Diane always said he was naive. It wasn’t really illegal. Was it? It had gone well, really well, until now.
“I did just what you said. It’s not my fault that the transport office chose my bid this time,” Greg said.
“I’m just trying to give you a little advice here. You don’t want to draw the wrong kind of attention. Get what I’m saying?”
“I do. I do.” He wondered if he did. It sort of felt like a threat. “But you gotta understand I didn’t do anything. Someone made a mistake on the numbers, I’m telling you. That guy. Your guy. He called and told me what to put.”
“Hold. Hold. Hold on. Wait a minute. What guy?”
“I, I, I...” what was his name? “I think it was Sam. He said he was from your office.”
Marti covered the phone and screamed at someone using mostly strong language. Greg flinched.
“You gotta breach there. I can’t believe you gave our info up to someone.”
“I didn’t. No, no, you misunderstood. One of you guys called me! All I did was answer my phone.”
“No, we didn’t call. Who have you ever dealt with but me? Seriously, are you that stupid? Don’t answer that. You don’t have to. I gotta find out who you talked to.” He covered the phone and yelled again, and Greg felt the sweat running down his back turning to a river.
“Greg, old man, maybe there’s a way you can make it up to us.”
The bottom fell out of Greg’s stomach looking out over the intercoastal at the orange sunset with heat waves distorting the view. Make it up? In the name of all things good, all he’d done was answer his phone and follow instructions.
A dam burst in his mind. He knew with conviction it wouldn’t matter what he did now or what they might ask him to do. He was a dead man. Whether he’d inadvertently partnered with union toughs or they were the real mob, he knew he was dead now. Dead man walking on an island in a lush backyard of a mansion, but dead all the same.
He didn’t want to know what else Marti and his friends did in their businesses. He just wanted his own construction business and for his lifestyle to continue without upsetting his ex-wives or his children.
His dinner came up the back of his throat. If he’d truly screwed up somehow and these guys, didn’t kill him, Diane certainly would. He’d lose everything if she found out he’d shook hands with anything unsavory. She’d sue for full custody of the kids or turn him in to go to prison.
If he was killed, she’d get everything anyway. She’d somehow sue and bully his other wives into letting her have it all just to escape her clutches. His poor kids would spend their entire lives with a parent like...the evil dragon.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Mass murderer?!” Blanche said
Antonio shushed her.
Blanche and Antonio both looked at the closed door.
“Are you sure?” Blanche asked.
“I haven’t seen him, but I know it’s him. We gotta do something.”
Blanche thought again about the Sun Sentinel reporter asking about a killer, he hadn’t said mass murderer. Of course, Antonio and Edna had been drugged, so how clear was their testimony at the moment? It begged credulity that there could be several killers running around on one small island. Though the rich seemed to get away with more than the common folk.
“What would a killer be doing in Royale Cove Care Center?” Blanche asked.
“Changing his face. We’ve got to get proof before he has surgery. If he changes his face we can’t prove it’s him. He could walk down the beach in Miami!” Tonio became agitated and louder. “Wait, did you get a package for me?”
An image of her purse wedged behind the TV in Edna’s room came to her mind where she’d left Antonio’s delivery. “Yeah, you should have warned me. I didn’t think it was for me.”
“Do you have it?”
Blanche patted her pockets. “Not with me. I’ll bring it in the morning.” The sky dimmed outside the window and she still needed to walk through the mansion jungle back to Greg’s Spanish hacienda. While it was likely perfectly safe, she didn’t like the idea of being out there in the dark alone with no streetlights or car dash lights to calm her nerves. Nevermind finding the drugger of her drugged out friends, a lost roommate, a hiding movie star or errant billing tonight. “What’s in the package?”
“A phone, I hope. You can help me find a phone number so we can get help.”
“What phone number? What help?”
“My brother.”
“For the mass murderer?”
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