He thanked her and handed her his card. “Just in case you think of anything that might explain what set her off or how she escaped.”
“I’m sure you’ve already checked, but maybe the security door malfunctioned?”
“We checked. It’s working just fine.”
“And no family member signed her out.”
“Nothing like that. And she didn’t put a chair through the window.”
6
THE STORY WAS AT THE BOTTOM of the front page. “Elderly Nursing Home Patient Slays Cobbsville CVS Manager.” It didn’t make sense.
Rene bought the paper and headed to Broadview Nursing Home, an attractive complex nestled in a forest of oaks and resembling a tiny New England village. The Alzheimer’s disease unit was in the newly redone two-story wing at the rear. She parked her Honda and went inside where she waved hello to the receptionist. But instantly she sensed tension like the hush before a thunderstorm. Nurses and staff bounced off each other in trailing whispers around the lobby.
Rene made her way to the Alzheimer’s disease unit and with a strange apprehension entered the four-digit code on the keypad. To the sound of the electric bolt release, the door opened onto an intersection of two corridors. Along one corridor some patients sat in wheelchairs staring straight ahead. Others shuffled along the walls. Down the other she spotted Carter Lutz, Broadview’s medical director, talking to a tall black-haired man in a monogrammed sportcoat. When they spotted her, they peeled off the walls and into a small office and closed the door.
Unit Nurse Alice Gordon was at the desk. “Hey, hon, thought Saturday was your day off.”
“It was. The police just left my place.”
Alice’s smile played itself in reverse. “Then you heard,” she whispered. “They were all over here last night.”
“What happened?”
Alice just shrugged and looked away. “One of those things.”
Bonnie, an assistant nurse, came by rolling the meds cart. She looked at Rene knowingly and shook her head. A few patients milled about the halls. One man was pushing a woman in a wheelchair, a few others sat in chairs against the wall, some asleep, others chattering to the air. Rene ducked into the small files room. The large three- ring folder for Clara Devine was missing. “Where’s Clara’s folder?”
Something rippled across Alice’s face. “Well, actually it’s with Dr. Lutz.”
“So what do we know?”
“About what?”
“About how she got out and killed a guy at the CVS.”
Alice glanced at the newspaper Rene handed her and shook her head. “Unbelievable.” Then she turned her face to her paperwork again.
“What’s this ‘Donny Doh tsee-tsee go’ stuff the paper reported?”
“One of her rhymes, I guess. She had a thing for them.”
“Was this something you’ve heard before?”
Alice thought a moment. “I don’t know.” Then she flashed her a sharp look. “You playing Nancy Drew or something?”
“Just trying to get some answers. It’s not the kind of publicity the home needs.”
“I’ll say.” Alice dropped her eyes to her paperwork again.
“Alice, why do I have this feeling that something’s going on that I don’t know about?”
Alice straightened up. “Sorry, Sweetie. It’s that everybody’s pretty upset.”
“Six months of her records are missing from my files.”
“That right?” Alice said, frowning. “How did you do that?”
Christ! She was turning it on her. “Well, I’m not sure I did.”
Suddenly Alice checked her watch. “Oops. Mr. Martinetti needs his meds.”
“Alice, I double-checked my computer, and there are no entries for Clara Devine since February. And I didn’t delete anything because they’re not on my backup disks.”
“Beats me.”
Rene felt a blister of anger rise as Alice tried to shake her off. “Also, I don’t remember seeing her name, which makes me wonder if her name was on the monthly patient census lists I’d been given.”
Alice looked at her without expression. “What can I tell you?”
Just then, Bonnie came back down the hall with the drug cart. She looked at Alice, who held her glance long enough for Rene to sense something pass between them. Then she continued down the hall. Alice was useless, so Rene caught up to Bonnie. “Wait a second.” Bonnie stopped and Rene opened the file drawer containing each patient’s meds and files. Rene started going through them until she found Clara Devine’s name.
“Look, I’ve gotta go,” Bonnie said, and tried to move away.
Alice came over. “Is there a problem?”
Rene let Bonnie go but not before she caught the name of Clara’s physician. “Well, I’m really not sure. But according to my records Clara’s primary care doc is Barry Colette, but those med sheets were signed by a Dr. Jordan Carr.”
Alice’s face clouded over. “Well, he’s taken over for Dr. Colette.” She started away.
But before she did, Rene asked, “So who’s this Dr. Jordan Carr?”
Alice nodded toward the exit. “He just left.”
CARTER LUTZ’S OFFICE WAS ON THE first floor near the reception desk. Just as Rene rounded the corner, she spotted him leaving his office. “Dr. Lutz, can I speak with you for a moment?”
He looked at her, trying to place her face.
“Rene Ballard, with CommCare.”
“Oh, yes, of course. The new girl.”
“Yes.”
Lutz sneered down at her for an explanation for why she was holding him up. He was a partridge-shaped man in his sixties with an ill-fitting toupee, a slick chocolate brown thing that hung on his brow in oily spikes but which barely covered the fuzzy gray growing around his ears. “Not right now.”
“Well, I’m very sorry, but it’s kind of important.”
His nostrils flared at her like a horse’s. “I’m in the middle of this police thing, which I’m sure you heard about.”
“Well, it’s about the police thing that I’d like to talk to you. Please, it’ll only take a minute.” He glared at her, then headed back into his office and closed the door. He checked his watch, then looked at her with sour impatience.
“Is that a problem?”
“Well, as you know, my job is to check the record of each patient in the home, and I don’t have entries for Clara Devine.”
“Sounds more like your problem than ours.”
“Maybe, which is why I’d like to see her records.”
“I can assure you that nothing’s amiss.”
“But I don’t know that unless I see her folder.” And she forced a pleasant new-girl smile, hoping to soften his resolve.
