“It’s not funny,” Kristi said loud enough for us to hear. She stood and pointed at Jenny. “If you don’t leave Evie alone, I will file a restraining order against you. Do you understand? You’ll have to leave here. I’m not kidding.”
Jenny’s face morphed into a what-did-you-just-say scowl. “I’ve done nothing to Evie. I have no idea what you’re talking about. Raylin, this woman is threatening me. You heard her.” Jenny looked around the full cafeteria. “You all heard her. Maybe I’ll get a restraining order against you and your crazy aunt who seems to think it’s funny to blame me for things.”
Kristi’s face turned raspberry. “It’s not a threat. Ray, you have to make her understand.”
Ray nodded and put his hands up in surrender. “I’ll call you later, Kristi.” His eyes seemed to plead with Kristi to let him handle the situation.
“Raylin, I want you to take me home. My. Home.” Jenny blinked rapidly.
She was lucid. She was angry. She was scared.
Kristi stormed out of the cafeteria.
Ray did that weird eye thing in my direction, like he was trying to communicate, but I had no idea what he was trying to say.
Nora nudged my knee. “Ray wants you to join them.” She looked over at my uneaten sandwich. “Is that ham?”
“Turkey.”
“Why is it pink?” Nora said.
I looked at my sandwich with the pink turkey. I sniffed it. “Smells like salmonella.” I teased and tried to remember when I last bought turkey. I needed to clean out the fridge.
“Really? What does salmonella smell like?” Nora leaned over and sniffed.
“I don’t think it actually has a detectable odor. But I’m not eating this sandwich.” I stuffed it back in my bag and pulled out my apple. “I’ll catch you later.” I stood and walked over to Ray, pulling Kristi’s vacated chair closer and sat. “Morning, all.”
Jenny placed tiles on the scrabble board. “Cremate, double word score, double letter score for the C and E. That’s thirty points.” She grabbed some new tiles.
“Good one, Ma.” Ray sounded unruffled. He stared at the board. “Hey, Ma, speaking of legal stuff, if you really want me to handle that kind of stuff for you, you gotta sign a couple of forms.”
“You’d really do that for me, Ray?” Jenny asked, one eyebrow cocked.
“Yeah.” He added tiles to the board. “Edible. Let’s see, that’s ten points.”
“Ha!” Jenny picked up her tiles and slid them into place. “Bezel and I get the triple word score. Forty-eight points.”
“Ma, you’re cheating. Z is on a triple letter score. It’s thirty-six points.” He stared at his tiles and then at the board. He scratched his beard. “So, about the forms, you want me to handle your legal things?”
“I don’t have legal things to handle.” Her tone and stink-eye told me she was completely present.
“You’d be surprised,” I said.
“Dad is your power of attorney and since you two seem to be fighting, maybe it’d be better if Amanda, Connor, or I took over. Just so we can file your taxes, stuff like that.” He lifted his shoulders in a careless shrug. “Unless you want to keep Dad in charge of that stuff.”
“No. He doesn’t want to do that for me anymore.” She nodded her chin. “You gonna pick a word or just stare at the board all day?”
Ray tapped the table. “I’m just trying to decide how badly I should win.”
“Bring it, little man.” Jenny’s brown eyes twinkled.
Ray held onto a tile, hiding the letter. “If I win this game, you’ll sign the legal papers?”
She waved. “Fine.”
His face morphed, happy, maybe even a tad pirate-like. “Juiciest.” He played the tiles, landing on two triple word scores. “That’s 102 points.” He winked at his mom. “And I’ve still got vowels.”
She looked at her tiles. “You’re not kind to your mother.” She placed an ‘H’ on the triple-letter square, spelling ‘eh’. “Give me the thirteen points and I’ll sign whatever papers you want.”
Ray pointed at me. “I’ve got a witness, and we have to shake on it.” They shook hands and then he added thirteen points to Jenny’s score.
“Jenny, have you seen anyone suspicious lately?” I asked.
“Hmm. I don’t trust the boy who brings me my breakfast.” She moved her tiles around.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“He’s so cheerful in the morning. That’s not right.” Her cynical tone and wry smile punctuated her disbelief in morning people.
“Agreed. But, I was thinking more of someone who could be selling pills to patients,” I said.
Ray looked from the board to me. “Here?”
I understood his disbelief, but someone was selling drugs. “We’re putting up more security cameras so they’ll be found.”
“Not if they do it in their room,” Jenny said. “And Mr. Nelson was in Evie’s room for quite some time yesterday.” She waved a bony finger at Ray. “Does your father know she’s two-timing him?”
“He was helping her assemble some furniture,” I said.
“Is that what they’re calling it these days?” She gave me a weak stink eye. “Who’s to say he didn’t plant the drugs?”
“Me. I say,” Ray grumbled.
“The cameras aren’t going to help you,” Jenny said.
“But we’ll see who is going in and out of the rooms,” I said.
“Pfft. And then what? Drug dogs won’t help you, because everyone here is on some kind of narcotic.” Jenny spoke attitude and the hairs on the back of my neck prickled. Much like it had when she talked about Burking.
“Thought about this, have you Ma?” Ray placed ‘OOTED’ under Jenny’s ‘H’. “Fifteen points.”
“The police will physically search the rooms, probably with drug dogs, too,” I said. “And then with the cameras we’ll track who is bringing the pills in and distributing them.”
Jenny blinked at me a few times. “Hmm. I like dogs.” She stared at her Scrabble tiles. “To answer your original question, Charlie, I have not seen anyone suspicious. I heard a rumor about Johnny’s kids, but they’re selling sunglasses and purses, not drugs.”
“You’re sure?” A ball of tension deflated in my chest.
“Yes. Rosemary won’t stop bragging about the Michael Kors backpack
