He selected one envelope and tore into it. “This is the water bill. Past due.” Picking up another, he opened it. “Trash bill. Past due.” He shook his head as he flipped the papers onto the desk, gripping numbness for all he was worth. “I’m guessing they are all past due. The question is where to start and how to pay for it all.”
“We may have to tap into some of Dad’s stocks,” Jason said, “if there’s not enough in the bank accounts to cover it.”
Overwhelm started its slow creep onto Ben once again. Where was he supposed to start? He didn’t even know where his dad banked. There could be any number of accounts at any number of institutions, and he’d never even considered asking that question until this moment.
“Well,” Kelly said, holding up one envelope, “here’s a bank statement. I guess we could start there.”
“How was lunch?” Misty asked when Kathryn made it back ten minutes late. She and Dr. Martin had shared salads and laughs for a solid thirty minutes. In fact, she hadn’t even realized that much time had passed.
“Wonderful,” she sing-songed back.
“Oh, really?” Misty’s eyebrows reached for the ceiling. “Are you going to share some details, or do I get to make them up in my head?”
Kathryn demurred, but the truth was, she was dying to tell someone. “Well, if you must know, Dr. Martin showed up.”
“Ooo!” Misty squealed, leaning forward on the counter. “This is good. Tell me everything.”
“He’s great. Single. Just finished medical school, this is his first job.” Kathryn ran through the list she had been painstakingly making in her mind. “He’s from somewhere in Ohio I think. Always wanted to be a doctor.”
“Sounds promising.”
“I know. And here’s the thing. He came and sat by me! I didn’t even know he was there until he showed up.”
“Ooo, very promising.”
Kathryn managed to hold onto her excitement. “But don’t tell anybody. It’s nothing… yet.”
The smile on Misty’s face told her she heard and fully understood “yet.”
Kelly was on his cell phone down the hall with the companies attached to the overdue bills, Jason was on his cell phone across the room with the bank, and Ben was sorting through statement after statement trying to get a handle on where money might be and how to go about transferring it so they could make some sense out of this.
“The bank needs some Power of Attorney documentation,” Jason said, snagging Ben’s attention. “They won’t give out the info otherwise.”
“Power of Attorney? Dad gave me those a couple months ago.” Just getting memories pulled up was becoming ever more difficult. “I think I have them in my safe at home.”
“Great.” Jason transferred the information and hung up. “They said as soon as we can get in there, if it’s all in line, we can probably have control of it by tomorrow.”
Kelly stepped back in. “Hey, I’ve got the gas company on the line. They want credit card info or something to cover this one. It’s scheduled to be shut off tomorrow.”
Ben held his hand up for the little cell phone. He felt the glances between the other two but tried not to let them sink in. “This is Ben Warren. I can give you my credit card if that will work.”
“Are the Warrens not back yet?” Kathryn set the stack of papers on the counter.
“Haven’t seen them,” Misty replied. “Is there a problem?”
“No.” But she didn’t sound very convincing. Quickly she checked her watch and spun through her memory of their leaving. It was after two. Hadn’t they said an hour? “I hope not. I just expected them to be back by now.”
“Oh. Well, I can call you when they come through.”
Kathryn nodded. “Yeah, do that.”
“K.”
It was really a good thing Jason and Kelly were there. They had taken Kelly’s Expedition back into the city to find the Powers of Attorney. It was a minor miracle that it was where Ben had thought he put it. For good measure he called the attorney listed and filled him in on what was going on. That set other wheels in motion, like finding the will and readying the estate. Ben didn’t want to think about that, so he thanked the attorney and hung up.
“Yeah,” Kelly said, “it was real sudden. I don’t think Ben even knew anything was wrong.”
Jason turned in the front seat slightly to look back at his brother. “Anything?”
“Yeah.” The word stuck in Ben’s throat. He didn’t like the two of them discussing this. He didn’t want anyone discussing it. “He’s getting some other things ready. I guess we’ll have to go in there as soon as…” The words stopped the second they wound around to his heart. “Soon anyway.”
He hated the looks the two of them exchanged. When did he get to be Pity-Case #1?
“You know,” Kelly said. “I’m like starving to death. Have you guys eaten anything?”
“Not since peanuts on the plane,” Jason said. “I could go for a burger.”
The thought of food made Ben want to throw up. He couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten, and it was looking like a worse and worse idea every minute.
“We can pull in here,” Kelly said. “It shouldn’t take long. We totally missed the lunch rush.”
“Sounds good.”
Ben wanted to deck both of them.
Kathryn’s concentration was thinning. She could hardly get five minutes of work done without her mind registering that Misty hadn’t called in yet. Finally at ten-‘til-three, she hit the little button on her phone.
“Yeeees?” Misty said in that sing-song voice she used when patronizing Kathryn.
“Hey, did you forget to page me when the Warrens got here?”
“I don’t… Hang on.” Misty left.
Kathryn flipped through the top three pages on her desk. All forms to fill out. She’d never like the paperwork part of this job, but it was something that had to be done to stay in compliance, so she really didn’t have much of a choice. That still didn’t mean she liked it. If she could just concentrate, maybe she could make a dent in this stack before it was time to go home.
Beep. Her intercom buzzed to life.
Silliness drifted over her as she punched the button. “Yeeees?”
“They haven’t come back yet.”
All teasing left. “They haven’t? Are you sure?”
“I went and checked. Brenda said she hasn’t seen them all day.”
Kathryn wanted to argue, but that made no sense. It wasn’t Misty’s fault. “Okay, well, let me know when they show up.”
“Will do.”
Putting her head down, Kathryn struggled to think of what she could do, but the only thing she could think of was to pray. “God, please be with Ben and Jason wherever they are.”
Ben sat next to the window, looking at his meager cheeseburger and trying to find any desire anywhere in him to eat a bite of it. Truth was it looked cold and brick-hard. When he took a bite, it tasted about as good. He chewed and chewed but couldn’t get himself to swallow it.
“So I guess we’ll head to the bank next,” Kelly said to Jason who sat next to Ben.
“Guess so. I hope everything’s in order. I hate being gone so long.” Jason looked over at Ben as he chewed on his chicken sandwich. “They have your number, right? In case something changes?”
“Wh…? Oh, yeah.” Ben was having a monster of a time following the conversation. He kept looking at his cheeseburger, sitting there in front of him. Rational said he should eat, but emotional just wouldn’t let him. When had he gotten so weak, so pitiful? No wonder they were looking at him with those sad-puppy-dog eyes that he hated. He deserved it. With a ragged breath, he picked up the burger and took a small bite.
It was all he could do not to let the feeble contents of his stomach come roaring back up. This was a bad idea, a thoroughly, unimaginably bad idea. He pitched the burger back to the table and grabbed for his Coke. It wasn’t much better.
His stomach was roiling aroun
d the hard fist that was growing by the second. Where was the escape hatch? It had to be here somewhere. If he didn’t get a grip, he’d be gasping for air in no time.
“You not going to eat that?” Kelly asked as if he’d just noticed his friend hadn’t woofed down three.
“The bread’s hard,” Ben said, choking the words out. What he wouldn’t have given for a bed and a deadbolt.
“We could get you another one.” Kelly was looking at him with those eyes again.
“Nah. I’m not really all that hungry.” Ben tried to slide back in the booth with that air of confident self-assurance that he’d always had, but wow was that hard to pull off.
An awkward silence settled on the table for a moment.
“So, you think you the bank’s going to know what to do with all that paperwork?” Jason asked.
Ben nodded, afraid to trust his voice. He might either throw up or scream, and he wasn’t sure either wouldn’t feel better than he felt at the moment.
“Okay then. Well, let’s hit it.” Jason crumpled his wrappers up and slid from the booth.
The long sigh was the only thing that got him moving again.
“Yes, sir,” the bank representative said as he checked the computer on his desk, “let’s see what we’ve got. Hmm…”
Ben forced himself to stay up straight in the chair. It wasn’t easy, but he knew if he leaned back, he would go to sleep or worse.
“Yes. Okay…”
If the guy didn’t start saying more than yes and okay, Ben was likely to scream, “WHAT?!” so the whole bank would hear. He held the frustration down with both hands, wondering if he looked as frazzled on the outside as he felt on the inside.
A few more tip-taps on the computer keys, and the man swiped out a pad of paper. “It looks like we’ve been receiving direct deposits of your father’s salary on schedule, but there have been no checks written out on this account in… let’s see… April, January, November… about six months.”
That at least squared somewhat with the bills.
“But there is money in the account?” Jason asked.
“Oh, yes.” The man wrote the amount on the paper and pushed it across the desk. “And that’s just the checking. Let’s see, I believe… Yes, there’s a savings and a money market as well.”
At least there was air again. It tasted so sweet, Ben thought he might pass out.
“Looks like those are around…” He pushed the pad back over, and Ben and Jason each took a look.
“And how do we go about getting the money out to the creditors?” Jason asked.
Half of Ben wanted to smack him, half of him wanted to hug him. It was a second-by-second see-saw.
“Well, since the Power of Attorney looks to be in order, I believe we can set something up this afternoon to let you take control over the funds immediately. If you’re ready to do that…”
One more incredibly daunting step. Jason looked over to Ben, probably knowing this wasn’t his call. Ben felt the responsibility shift inexorably back onto his shoulders. “Yeah. I guess we’d better.”
“Very well, then. I’ll go get the paperwork drawn up.”
When the man left, Kelly stepped into the room as Ben let his head go forward, caught only by his hands anchored by his elbows on his knees.
“What’d he say?” Kelly asked Jason. It was strange how they felt like two sides of Ben’s brain talking and rationalizing as the rest of him fell apart.
“We can get the money, and it’s plenty to be able to cover everything,” Jason replied.
“Thank the Lord.”
“You’ve got that right.” Jason shifted in his chair. “You know, I’ve been thinking. Didn’t Dad have an apartment too? I remember going there a couple of times.”
Kelly nodded. “Yeah. It’s about six blocks from the hospital district.”
Jason hesitated and then shifted again. “Don’t you think we should check it out? I mean, maybe the bills for it came there instead of the house.”
More problems. More issues. More junk to deal with. Ben really didn’t think he could take any more. He felt the two of them looking at him. Make a decision, Ben. It’s time to stop acting like such a baby here. For the love of Michael, sit up and say something!
“That’s probably a good idea,” Kelly said, glancing away from Ben, even as he stepped in for him. “Then we can head back.”
Somehow his feet were moving. Somehow his hands worked the key and let them into the darkened apartment. Somehow he wasn’t curled in a corner immobile and numb, but Ben didn’t know how that was.
“Nice,” Jason said as they entered, and indeed, it was nice. Deep mahogany floors shone in the softly lit room. It felt old and impressive.
“I’ll just go check the office,” Ben said, wondering who was saying that and why. It was odd how detached he felt. And to him, that was much better than feeling attached. He strode through the living area and down the hallway. Everything was as if no one had touched it in months or maybe years. Not even dust. He vaguely remembered his father getting a maid and he wondered if he still had one.
As he entered the little study, he decided that yes, the maid had been busy cleaning everything for someone who probably hadn’t been there in quite awhile. Thankfully, there were no stacks, no papers. Nothing.
It felt like a museum, set up to look like how someone would have had it if they had lived there. Ben quickly went through the desk drawers and found nothing of any interest. His mind slipped upon the thought that he would have to come clean this all out at some point, but he couldn’t face that, so he closed the drawer quietly and went back out.
“Yeah, he’s really worrying me,” Kelly was saying down the hall. “This is not like him at all. I don’t think he’s been sleeping either.”
Ben purposely made a noise on the floor, and the conversation slammed to a stop. Fighting to look normal, he strode into the living room. “I don’t think there’s anything here. Nothing looks out of place.”
“Oh, good.” And there was genuine relief on Jason’s face.
Kelly nodded. “Should we head back then?” He looked at his watch. “It’s almost five.”
Five? Where had that many hours gone?
“Yeah, I guess so.”
Chapter 9
“Clyde’s here,” Misty said as she crossed the threshold to Kathryn’s office at ten after five. “You about ready?”
Lost in prayers, Kathryn looked up from the form she was trying to fill out. She’d been working on it for fifteen minutes and had gotten the First and Last Name written in. “Oh, I’m not quite done yet.”
“You’re never done yet.”
“Ha. Ha.” Kathryn wrinkled her nose and then fought to get a smile onto her face. “You better go on without me. I’m just going to finish up here for awhile.”
“Dr. Martin’s not coming, is he?”
If she’d had something to throw, she would have. “Ha. Ha. I just really need to get this filled out so I can skip out and go to Mrs. Baker’s funeral in the morning.”
Misty lost the happy-go-lucky stance and slumped against the door. “Oh, yeah. That’s tomorrow, huh?”
Bending her head back over the paperwork, Kathryn nodded. “Yeah, that’s tomorrow.”
“Well, okay, but don’t stay too late, they might not let you escape.”
“I’ll try not to.”
Misty backed up.
“Drive carefully,” Kathryn called.
Misty ducked back into the room. “You too.”
And with that, she left. For one moment Kathryn considered following her friend. What was she planning to do, stay all night? What if they didn’t come back tonight? The concern over what was taking them so long washed through her again. “Dear Lord, please be with him—with them.” Then she shook her head to clear it of the thoughts and went back to work.
“I really think our best plan of attack is for me and Jason to go back to the house tonight and sort through everything,” Kelly said a
s they walked up to the hospice doors. The late afternoon sun was blazing as post-five-o’clock snarled traffic snaked by on the roadway beyond.
The closer they got to those doors, the shakier Ben’s legs felt, and his insides wobbled like unset Jell-o. If only he didn’t have to do this… He opened the outside door and let the two of them cross in front of him. One more second to stall the inevitable. The gold tones of the walls and carpet wrapped around his senses, probably because he was no longer really taking in details anymore. Everything had become one, big, giant blur.
He followed the other two into the hospice unit and through the lobby as his mind went the other way—down the hallway to the chapel. How he wanted to feel her arms around him again. Shaking his head at the sheer absurdity of that thought, he crammed his hands in his pockets. It wasn’t like that between them, and it never would be. Moreover, she was not what he was looking for. She was stable and compassionate. The truth was she’d be smart to run the other direction.
Then he wondered why he was even thinking about her at all. It must be about being in this building and needing something to hold onto. His fists balled inside his pockets.
At least he could keep them from shaking too. It was immensely difficult to breathe all of a sudden. That door in the corner and all the horror it held behind it tilted off-square in his mind. He closed his eyes, fighting the waves of fear washing over him. How could he ever survive this? He wished he could go talk to her, but then he realized with his last breath of sanity that she was long since gone. It was, after all, almost six. He couldn’t account for that many hours. He couldn’t even account for the last five minutes.
“Has there been any change?” Jason asked the young brunette nurse as she stepped out of that door. Ben pulled up short behind his brother, ducked his head, and ran his hand over his jawline that felt like a porcupine. He tried to remember the last time he had shaved. It was a memory he couldn’t pull up.
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