The Dead Don't Get Out Much. Mary Jane Maffini
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supposed to look after her, and now she's gone. That seems pretty irresponsible in the legal sense.”
“I spoke to her, and she was obviously reasoning quite well.”
“No one advised her to stay here?”
“Of course. She was told of the advisability of remaining here until we had run some more tests. However, she chose to leave. We couldn't hold her against her will.”
Alvin said. “She's seeing dead people.”
I took a deep breath. “You don't think she has some kind of dementia, do you?”
“She definitely seems sharper than most people.” I could tell that included us.
“How did she leave?” Alvin said.
“I have no idea,” Dr. Hasheem said. “I am sorry that no one let you know. If you'd had a power of attorney, they would have required your authorization to let her go. You didn't have a power of attorney for health matters, did you?”
“No,” I said.
“There you go,” the doctor said. “Nothing we can do.”
“But she'll need proper care,” Alvin said. “More tests.”
Dr. Hasheem said, “No argument here.”
I said, “She needs to be here. You said that yourself.”
Dr. Hasheem shrugged. “You'll have to work that out with her, since she's already left. We'll certainly re-admit her if she comes back. Now if you'll excuse me…”
Alvin bleated. “You are talking about a heroic war veteran here. She doesn't get frightened.”
Dr. Hasheem passed a hand over his brow. “Heroic war veteran. Okay. All right then, you might want to look into what's available for vets. The Perley-Rideau is a great facility. Maybe she'd be more comfortable there. And if you do get her in, she may need a psychological assessment in addition to having her heart monitored.”
“There's nothing crazy about Violet,” Alvin shouted crazily.
“I'm not saying crazy. That's not a preferred term. It could be physical too. I think I already mentioned that sometimes vascular problems can lead to a person seeing things that are not there. It's rare, but it happens. But we can't jump to conclusions. We have to check out the possibilities. One way or the other, her behaviour is troubling.”
“Something happened at that ceremony,” I said.
“After she saw that dead guy,” Alvin said. “I found that troubling, for sure.”
“So did she,” I said.
“I rest my case.” Dr. Hasheem steamed down the hall, his white coat flapping behind him.
* * *
My cellphone rang as soon as I turned it on in the hospital parking lot.
“Okay, Camilla, I knew you'd answer eventually,” Ray Deveau said cheerfully. “I've got a new plan.”
“Bad time for me, Ray.” I jogged through the drizzle to keep up with Alvin, who had commandeered the keys to my car. “Can I call you back?”
Ray paused, just briefly. “It will only take two minutes.”
“Mrs. Parnell's absconded from the hospital. We've got to get to her place to see if she's all right.”
Ray chuckled softly. “Absconded. She broke out? Just like her.”
I hadn't thought of that. “I guess it is.”
“Did you think she'd take being in hospital lying down?”
“Don't laugh at your own jokes, Ray.”
“Somebody has to. You know what, I hope we're capable of absconding when we're her age.”
He had a point. “I guess.”
“Just listen to the new plan. Can't you do that on your way?”
“Yeah, okay, shoot.”
“I talked to my sister. She'll stay with the girls whenever the time is right.”
“She will? Well, that's great.”
“Yup. I talked to my supervisor, explained the situation. No one else wants to book off time right now, so I can make arrangements on fairly short notice.”
“Huh.”
“It looks like I can get pretty good deals online no matter where we want to go. November's not the best travel month for most people, so that works in our favour.”
“Hmmm,” I said, opening the passenger side door since Alvin had taken over the driver's side.
“You make sure Mrs. Parnell is all right, and when you're good to go, we'll arrange our holiday. When you have a moment to think about it, give me a hint where you'd like to go and I'll get cracking.”
This would have been a good time to say something lovey-dovish to Ray, something along the lines of how glad I was he was in my life. Too bad I was distracted by Alvin, who had turned on the hazard lights instead of the windshield wipers.
“Thanks, Ray.”
My neck jerked back as Alvin accelerated out of the lot, tossing ten dollars at the attendant.
After another pause, Ray said, “You're welcome.”
“Talk to you later, then,” I said.
“Yup.”
* * *
In the apartment foyer, I shook my wet hair and jabbed the bell for Mrs. Parnell's unit repeatedly and without luck. Alvin and I both had keys to Mrs. Parnell's apartment, although I'd had to turn in my building key when I'd vacated against my will, and Alvin was too rattled to remember where his was. I buzzed a few other apartments at random. That usually worked. Not this time. The building management was on a security campaign, and it seemed to be working.
Normally, I would think security was a good thing. Tonight it was a damned nuisance. To make matters worse, my grouchy former neighbour pushed past us as we were making a desperate attempt to gain access. I was pretty sure that jerk was the reason I no longer lived in this building. Some people have no understanding of a dog's need to bark from time to time. I dug deep into my politeness reserves to get the right tone and called after him. “You know me, I was your next-door neighbour. I need to get in to check on Mrs. Parnell. She's your neighbour on the other side of the hallway in 1608. She's supposed to be in the hospital and…”
I was talking to the closed door by this time.
Alvin gasped. “Can you believe that guy? What is our society coming to?”
“You tell me,” I snarled and went back to jabbing Mrs. Parnell's bell and the Super's. Without result.
“Are we wasting time here?” I said, “Maybe she's not even home yet. Maybe she's confused and wandering.”
“Or, she is home, and she doesn't want us to see her.”
“Don't even think that,” I said.
“Here's our chance,” Alvin said. He took advantage of a nice girl who was leaving the building and grabbed the door before it closed.
The elevator took about a year to get to the sixteenth floor.
Alvin and I careened into each other getting out of the elevator, and we thundered down the corridor. We almost knocked over a somewhat startled man who was heading for the elevator balancing a hefty cardboard box. This guy's suit was already rumpled, and it looked like he was going to collapse before he got to the elevator.
“Oops, sorry,” Alvin said.
“It's all right,” the guy said in a wobbly voice, as the down elevator dinged.
I