Winston returned to Sweet Breeze and found Eve nestled on the back patio. She sat on one of the hard cement benches, her eyes fixed on the birdbath. She seemed to be waiting for birds to appear and drink up, but the water sat untouched, a layer of algae dusting its surface.
“Excuse me, Eve?” Winston asked.
The woman turned to him with a slow swivel. Her dull blue eyes seemed fixated on his chest.
“May I ask you a question about Joe Sawyer?”
A breeze ruffled the cotton candy pink muumuu she wore, but her body remained still. He wasn’t sure if she’d even registered his question.
He tried again. “Were you near Joe when he died?”
Her eyes started wandering back to the empty birdbath.
“Joe, you remember him, right? You thought he was your husband… what was his name again? Teddy?”
Her head snapped up, and she fixed him with a sharp glance. “What’s happened to Teddy?”
He twisted away from her ugly stare. “Uh, nothing. I have a question about Joe. Joe Sawyer.”
“Don’t lie to me. Tell me what’s happened.” She edged up closer to him and yanked the collar of his shirt. The top button popped off. “Family is everything to me.”
He pried her dry fingers off his shirt one by one. “I’m the good guy here. I want to help you, Eve. Your granddaughter Carmen asked for my assistance, remember?”
At the mention of her granddaughter, Eve retreated and settled back down on the bench.
“I’m investigating Joe’s death. Actually, I believe you called him Teddy.”
“What? Teddy’s dead?” She started wailing. The cries must have pierced through the glass doors, because Kristy stepped outside a minute later.
“It’s okay, Eve.” Kristy patted the old woman’s back in a steady rhythm until her cries dwindled. “Why don’t you rest for a bit? I need to speak with Winston alone.”
Kristy pulled him to a bench several feet away. “Winston, you need to be gentle with her.”
“You don’t understand. Joe vomited a lot the day he died. Maybe somebody poisoned his food.”
“His Meals on Wheels?” Kristy shook her head. “No, I monitor the distribution myself. Besides, everybody always eats the same meal.”
“I smelled Eve’s scent on his body. Apples.”
Kristy massaged her forehead using quick circular motions. “Do you really suspect a woman with severe dementia? You’re causing her unnecessary sorrow. Big chunks of her memory have disappeared, including the fact that her husband died. Every time someone mentions it again, she relives the pain.” She pulled out a folded sheet from her scrubs pocket. “Here, let me show you something. This is the MMSE.”
“Mini Mental State Examination,” he read. “Which is?”
“It’s a questionnaire to test your mind for signs of dementia. I was about to come out and evaluate her before she started screaming.”
“Sorry about that.”
“It’s okay. I can give it to her some other day. I use the form every couple of months to record her cognitive status.”
He scanned the sheet. Some were easy, like naming the date or year. “What’s this one? Count backwards from one hundred by sevens?”
She shook her head. “I don’t even know if I could answer that one. Most of the questions are pretty feasible, though. The test is scored out of thirty possible points. What do you think Eve got on her last exam?”
“I don’t know. Fifteen?”
“She scored an eight. Dementia has taken a huge toll on her mind. She roams the hallways, aimless. Once, I found her fiddling with Joe’s dialysis bag by accident while he was napping.”
“That sounds dangerous.” Maybe Eve had stopped Joe’s medicine, even if not on purpose.
“I know what you’re thinking, Winston, but she couldn’t have worked out the mechanism in her state. Even if she had, it takes several weeks before the toxins build up to a dangerous level. I would have found out pretty quickly. I think she was trying to play with it like a toy that one time. Eve’s harmless, so please be kind to her.”
A sudden rich fragrance of artificial flowers wafted over to them. Kristy pinched her nose and looked toward the opening sliding glass doors. Carmen appeared, slinking her way toward her grandmother. She wore a lime green halter top, its V cut placed low, and shorts that rode high up her thighs. She held a computer tablet and hailed him with it. “Hey, Winston.” Her lips cooed out his name. “Are you taking good care of Nana?”
Kristy’s mouth compressed into a fine line, but she nodded a curt hello to Carmen before excusing herself to attend to the other residents inside the building.
Carmen looked at Kristy’s retreating figure. “I wonder what’s wrong with her. I saw her cover her nose. I hope it’s not that second-hand smoke again. The administrator’s always sneaking his smokes in the corner of the garden. Those fumes wreak havoc on my flawless skin.” She leaned over Winston then, with her full bouquet of cleavage, before she settled down on the bench next to her grandmother. “Of course, you don’t smoke, do you? Or drink? You’re my kind of man.”
How did she figure that? Did he look like a typical goodie-two-shoes Asian male? The fact that he hadn’t smoked one cigarette or touched a drop of alcohol in his life didn’t prove anything—she didn’t know that. His sole addiction was to video games, starting with Pong. His parents had assumed it was a phase and that he would turn out to pursue the ideal medical or legal career path.
A gleam of flesh as Carmen crossed her legs interrupted his visual field, and he realized that he hadn’t answered Carmen’s question. “No, I don’t smoke or drink.”
“You took a little too long to answer, Winston.” She wiggled a suggestive eyebrow at him. “Don’t hedge if you have some fun once in awhile. I have my wild side, too. I let loose when I drink a couple of Cosmos. So now that we’re better acquainted, why don’t you come closer?” Carmen patted the spot next to her, her manicured fingers a gleaming moss green.
Winston sat a good foot away from her on the bench. “How often do you visit your grandmother?”
She slid closer to him until their legs touched. “I come by once a week, don’t I, Nana?” She patted the old woman’s shoulder beside her. “I’m required to,” she said.
“How so?” He scooted away another inch, hanging onto the bare edge of the concrete.
“Well, I get this caregiver respite grant from a local nonprofit. They give me money to watch over Nana.”
He cocked his eyebrow. “Doesn’t Sweet Breeze take care of your grandmother?”
“Of course, but I provide her with emotional support and everything else she needs.” She put down the tablet she was holding. He looked at the device’s cover, which displayed a sketch of a woman wearing fig leaves holding up the Apple logo with her hand, a snake hissing above her head. Clever.
With her arms free, Carmen tried holding her grandmother’s hand, maybe as evidence of the intimate bond she was compensated for. Eve’s palm hung limp in her granddaughter’s grasp. “Anyway, I need the money until I get discovered,” Carmen said.
“Discovered?”
She struck a pose and pouted her lips. “As a model. I enter all the local contests, and one day someone will see my extreme talent. Then I’ll be able to buy anything I want. I could buy a house like this one, a grand ol’ Victorian. After that, I’ll be a shoo-in for the movies.”
“I see.”
“How’s the investigation going?” Carmen crossed her legs again, revealing even more skin if possible. “Do you need any more motivation to continue your search? I can help inspire you.”
Her aggressive moves scared him. He couldn’t help comparing Kristy’s quiet beauty with Carmen’s bold smuttiness. “That’s quite all right.” He stood up.
Her eyes narrowed at him. “Fine, then.” She tossed her electric red mane and swiped her tablet hard, looking at the calendar that had popped up on the screen. “I’m off to a modeling audition, anyway.”
His doubt about Eve hadn’t panned out, but he remembered another suspicious find during his previous snooping session in the residents’ rooms. He went to question the next person of interest on his list.