Chapter Thirty-Four

 

“That took you long enough.” A putout Lois stood sweating beside the old Lincoln.

“Sorry. My daughter called and I couldn’t get her off the phone.”

Lois just got in and adjusted the air conditioner vents to blow directly in her face.

Blanche lit a cigarette. She needed it for what she was about to do.

Lois complained, “It’s hot enough, and you’re stealing all the oxygen.” She flapped her hands and leaned closer to the vent.

When they got to the hospital, Blanche got out of the car and pulled the sweat suit jacket off and slipped the smock over her t-shirt. Good thing because that v-neck hit a little low if she hadn’t had the t-shirt. One doesn’t want to let it all hang out.

“Good Lord, you’re impersonating a nurse.”

“I think they make everyone in the hospitals dress this way these days. I could be from accounting or billing.”

“Won’t Edna’s daughter recognize you?”

“We’ve only met once, so let’s hope not. She doesn’t strike me as the type who studies faces.”

Blanche grabbed the clipboard she’d brought out of the backseat and hid her purse in the trunk. Ready, armed and hopefully not in danger of getting thrown out of a hospital.

Lois went to the information desk and asked for the room number and Blanche walked past with authority directly to the elevators and waited for Lois.

First they patrolled the halls of inpatient level 3. Beeps of machines, murmurs of voices and the occasional moan filled the hallway. The nurses’ station was fortunately busy. Blanche knew she couldn’t fool the hospital personnel. Maybe the dragon briefly but not the ladies and gents of health care.

While Blanche studied her clipboard in a corner, Lois walked slowly past Edna’s room.

A harried technician backed out the door as a tall lean woman in a business suit poked him in the chest. “How long does a person have to wait for a CT scan? Is there some kind of rush on CT scans going on that you can’t spare one for an old lady with a head injury? Do old ladies not count around here? I smell incompetence and neglect.”

The dragon was on duty though she had a reason it sounded like.

As the armor plated lady backed the Hispanic technician down the hall a nurse came rushing into the fray and Blanche marched business like past the battle scene and into Edna’s room.

“You look great.” It was true. Edna was sitting up pink cheeked and alert. Blanche wondered if the trip to the hospital was an anxious relative’s over protective doctoring after a minor fall.

“You’re not the regular purse.”

“Shh. You okay?”

“Someone said I was sit on the hair.”

Uh, oh. Blanche launched, no time to waste. “Look, the emergency fund for the condo is missing. You did the transfer.”

Edna nodded her head and squinted toward the ceiling. “TV show or movie?”

Oh, dear. Poor Edna, she’d always been so sharp. One tumble in the toilet and you lose your marbles. “Are you gonna be okay? What are they telling you?”

Edna looked at Blanche like she’d discovered something amazing. “Show me the money.”

So some of the pistons were firing just not directly. “Yes, yes. Edna. Show me. Where’d you put the money? We gotta pay the elevator people, and I don’t want you to get in any trouble.”

“One of those music thing-a-ma-jigs. It’s in there. In the music circle.”

Blanche wrote on her clipboard. Music thing.

Lois’s voice rose outside. “Hi, I’m from the condo, and we were wondering how Edna is and if there’s anything we can do to help?”

Blanche adjusted her reading glasses and prepared to march out. Edna’s old lady claw hand grabbed her forearm and yanked her close.

“The swimming pool. Look in the swimming pool.”

“Okay. We’ll talk again soon.” This was so sad. “Try to remember. Come back to us, okay?”

Edna winked at her then said with a deep frown. “Something’s wrong. Check the pool.”

Blanche extracted herself and brushed past Lois and the dragon and walked around a corner to wait for Lois.

She heard behind her. “Hey, who was that?”

Lois interrupted. “Can I see her? What are the doctors saying?”

Blanche cleared the corner and listened.

“No. I don’t want her worked up. The doctor? Nothing, he’s a, uh, freaking idiot. If you want to do something, find the bastard in the condo who robbed my mom.”

Lois gasped. “She was robbed and that’s how she fell?”

“No, not when she fell, but the paramedics or some other idiot didn’t lock the door, and I can’t find her rings and there’s no cash in the house. Mom always keeps cash around.”

“Oh, dear. How much do you know?”

“No idea. Mom says something about Uncle Sam when I ask her. Once they take a CT scan we’ll know if this is bleeding or damage or just a concussion.”

Once Lois came around the corner, they beat a retreat to the yellow Lincoln.

Lois exclaimed about the robbery, “Another one. Can you believe it?”

“Uncle Sam? Hmm.” Blanche put the car in reverse and took off with a slight screech. Seeing Edna not quite right made her anxious to get away from the antiseptic-ness of the hospital. It was haunting the older you got.

“Do you think it could be her social security check?” Lois said.

Lois must have a brain in her head after all. Blanche would have to give her more credit.

“You’re right. We used to joke around about it when the checks came if we were getting our mail. I think she cashed hers for her monthly spending and let her bills come directly out of her IRA accounts.”

“We only got our checks last week. Had to be a good amount left.”

“Yet whoever’s robbing people isn’t getting rich either. It’s not a lot of money in the bigger scheme of life.”

“Yeah, that depends on your bills though, doesn’t it? $800 bucks is $800 bucks.”

“You’ve gotta point. Who are the units behind on their community dues?” It was something to look into. It might be a lead.