Blackout (30 page)

Alice tried to picture the woman in front of her the way she must have been. Her imagination failed her.

“In less than two years, I was ready. I contacted Nancy Manelli. You see, I knew she verbally abused residents. I’d heard her do it when Mom was here. I told her she had to do what I said or I’d expose her.”

A feeling of helplessness welled up inside Alice. Brenda seemed to have thought of everything. She was smart and crazy. Alice felt the horror seeping into her inner being to lie there, cold and hard.

Brenda continued her monologue. “Nancy started rumors about my predecessor. Told a few people she saw her drinking on the job. She sneaked some of her notes out of resident records, and of course the woman couldn’t explain what happened to them. Everyone began to believe she was a drunk and not doing her job because of it. Then Nancy hid a half-empty bottle of vodka in the woman’s desk.” Brenda laughed. The sound sent shivers down Alice’s neck and back. “A phone call to Katherine did the trick. She fired her that very day.”

Why are you telling me all this,
Alice wondered as she watched Brenda go into another trance.
It’s not good she’s telling me everything. She’ll only be safe now if I’m dead.
She felt every muscle in her body tense as she pushed against them so she wouldn’t jump up and run screaming from the room. Where was her father? She needed him so bad.

“I applied for the job, of course,” Brenda said after a long pause. She smiled a little but not at Alice. Her eyes appeared to look inward, concerned with only how Brenda felt, not with anything outside of that.

Alice shivered and hugged herself.

“So, I got the job. Oh, I’d thought of everything. Used my middle name and Mom’s maiden name at college. Bought a whole new professional wardrobe. No more muumuus for me. Went to a top hairdresser in San Francisco for a new hairstyle and general makeover. No one at Merry Hills ever suspected I was fat old Jessica Cantrell back to avenge her mother’s death. They’re paying now. All of the ones who think they’re so smart and so above everyone else. Katherine and Maxwell, and Betty. Especially Betty. You understand, don’t you?” she asked suddenly, her eyes focusing on Alice again.

Alice blinked. “I guess so,” she answered, her voice catching.

“You guess so? What’s the matter with you, Alice?” Brenda stood up suddenly and leaned over her desk. “You watched them murder your mother. Aren’t you glad they’re dead? Aren’t you glad they paid? Well, I want everyone who was responsible for my mother’s death to pay like your grandparents did. Don’t you understand that?”

Alice pushed her back so hard against the chair she was surprised she didn’t go flying through. “I guess so,” she mumbled, turning away from Brenda’s intense gaze.

Streaks of sunlight, motes dancing off the small window, lit the floor with in a round shape. Alice longed to be outside in the fresh air.

Brenda’s intensity brought her attention back to the room. “You guess so? You guess so? You don’t know for sure you’re glad your mother’s death and father’s incarceration has been avenged?” She lowered her voice and said, “Like I’m going to avenge my mother’s death.”

“How?” Alice whispered.

“You’ll see,” Brenda said, a smile beginning at the corners of her mouth, then widening into a grin. “Here” She pushed the telephone toward Alice. “Call your aunt. I think your father should be here for this. He’ll appreciate it.”

“What?” Alice felt her eyes widen and her mouth go slack with shock.

“I said call your aunt. Go on.” She pushed the phone a little closer to the edge of the desk.

Hands shaking, staring at Brenda, Alice picked up the receiver. For a moment, she couldn’t remember the number. She panicked. “I forgot the number,” she said, dropping the receiver back into its cradle.

“It’s all right,” Brenda soothed in her Social Worker’s voice. “Relax. It’ll come back to you. Close your eyes a moment and let the number come back to you. Just relax now. You remembered it before, you’ll remember again.”

Alice’s mind churned. She was suddenly afraid she’d forget everything again. She’d go crazy, as batty as Brenda, if she did. Desperately, she looked around the room, hoping something would spark her memory.

Brenda had some English tea bags in a glass jar, and Alice remembered the Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum part of the Jack and the Beanstalk story. Five, five, five. What was the rest? The number came to her suddenly, and she grabbed a pad and pen from Brenda’s desk to write it down before she could forget again.

She placed the call with the operator and waited, holding her breath, aware Brenda watched her. She wondered what she was thinking, but quickly forgot her when her aunt answered. After Aunt Ginny accepted the charges, she said, “Allison, is that you? Where are you? Your father called, and he’s on his way to California. We’ve been hoping you’d call back and tell us where he should go.”

“I’m at Merry Hills Nursing Home in Valleyview. Right outside Sacramento. When do you think he’ll get here?”

“It’s about two and a half hours to Sacramento from here in Carson City, then however long to where you are.”

“Hold on a minute, there’s someone here I can ask.” Alice put her hand over the receiver and asked Brenda, “What road should my father take from Carson City?”

“Here,” Brenda said. “Let me talk to her.” She held out her hand, and Alice gave her the receiver.

While Brenda talked to Aunt Ginny, Alice had a moment to think. She realized Brenda didn’t know Betty had told Alice about someone murdering residents. Alice didn’t understand how Brenda could have a normal-seeming conversation with Aunt Ginny when she was obviously crazy. And what did she plan to do next? She’d said she wasn’t done yet making Betty pay.

A phrase Nana used to say came suddenly to Alice’s mind. “An eye for an eye.” Could Brenda be thinking a mother for a mother?

Alice stared at Brenda with horror. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t. But Alice knew she could. And probably would. But how? And why was she doing all this with her and her dad?

An urge to get up and run came over her, but she wanted to talk to Aunt Ginny again. She needed to know if her father had been cleared of killing Nana.

But Brenda hung up the phone without giving it back to Alice. She must have seen her disappointment because she said, “Sorry. You’ll have to talk to your aunt later. We need to get going. Yolanda’s going to wonder where you are pretty soon.”

“Going? Going where?”

“You’ll see,” Brenda replied, standing up behind her desk and letting Alice see her take a small gun from a drawer and slip it into her jacket pocket.

“What—” Alice began as a loud knock sounded on the door.

Yolanda poked her head in. “Have you seen— Alice, there you are. I’ve been searching everywhere for you.”

“I’m sorry,” Alice began, but Brenda interrupted her.

“Can I borrow her for a while?” she asked Yolanda. She came around the desk and took Alice’s arm. When the activities director hesitated, she said, “It’s important.”

Alice tried shaking her head, but Brenda squeezed her arm so hard Alice winced.

Yolanda seemed surprised by the request but finally said, “Why, sure, Brenda. But get her back to me as soon as possible. We have the anniversary party to get ready for, you know.”

“Of course,” Brenda said and started moving toward the door, still holding on to Alice.

Yolanda backed out of the office, then headed toward the activity room. Brenda took Alice in the opposite direction. Joyce approached them, and Brenda quickened her pace, but Alice slowed down and said, “Hi, Joyce. How are you?” She tried to make her voice sound different somehow.

Joyce hesitated, and Alice stood still in front of her.

“I’m fine,” Joyce said with a puzzled look at Brenda. “I thought you were working with Yolanda.”

“Sorry we can’t chat right now, Joyce,” Brenda said, pulling at Alice. “I borrowed Alice to do something important.”

Joyce nodded and shrugged.

Scared to do anything else, Alice let herself be led away. When she glanced back over her shoulder, she saw Joyce standing there, staring after them. Alice quickly put her hand behind her back and made it into the shape of a gun, moving her thumb up and down. Joyce’s eyes widened, and she hurried off down the hall.

Brenda and Alice didn’t stop until they arrived in front of Betty Senior’s door.

Betty watched Alice leave her mother’s room with Jerod, hoping he could help the girl find her family. Then she turned to Betty Senior and said, “I told you not to ever let the sitter leave this room. What’s the good of my hiring them if you don’t let them do their job?”

“Ridiculous. You really believe Alice is capable of killing those other old women? Well, she had her chance to do me in, and she didn’t take it. The video camera would have shown her doing the dirty deed, and you could have come rushing in to save me. I think she knows you suspect her. She’s not telling us any more of what she remembers. And I bet she’s remembered more. She looks bad, too.”

“You blame me for that? She’s upset because she heard Nancy verbally abuse another resident.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Would you just fire that Nancy?”

“You know I can’t do that without collaborating evidence.”

Betty began to feel put upon. With everything that was happening, she didn’t need her ma getting after her, too. She stood up. “I’ll get the sitter back in here. Don’t let her leave again.”

Betty Senior heaved a big sigh and rolled her eyes. “All right. Don’t worry. I’ll be good.”

Still irritated, Betty left and shooed the sitter back into her mother’s room. Halfway to her office, she began to feel remorseful for the way she’d acted, but she had too much to do right now. She’d go back later and talk to Ma.

Thomas and his sister entered the front door as Betty reached the lobby while on her way to her office. Her heart suddenly pounded loudly in her ears as she watched Thomas approach. His haggard face looked a little better when he saw her and smiled. She went to him and held out her hands. He took them, and the now-familiar charge went through her body, making her feel at least twenty years younger, but a little uneasy, as usual. After all, Lettie hadn’t even been buried yet, and Betty was feeling like a teenager when Thomas touched her.

After they all said hello, Thomas said, “We came to get a dress…”

Betty dropped his hands and said, “Let me help.”

The three of them went down the wide hall together. Lettie’s roommate sat in a chair watching TV when they entered. “How’s Lettie?” she asked. “Is she getting better?”

Betty saw Thomas grimace. He wouldn’t want to deal with this. Quickly, Betty went to the woman and said, “Let’s you and me go for a little walk so I can tell you about Lettie, okay?”

The old woman slowly rose to her feet, her eyes questioning, forehead wrinkled with concern. Betty patted her shoulder and led her out of the room, nodding to Thomas and his sister.

She took the woman to the lobby where they sat on a couch and Betty told her about Lettie. She thought about strange things as she talked. She was glad the woman’s hearing was still good so she didn’t have to shout the news at her. She was glad she worked in such an attractive place—the old ballroom made an elegant lobby. The sun shone brightly through the Palladian windows onto the pale marble floor. She was glad it wasn’t raining. She was glad it was Lettie and not Ma— She made herself stop the thought. She’d been fond of Lettie. No, more than fond. She’d loved her, enjoyed having her here. It would be a less cheerful place now, no matter how brightly the sun shone onto the damned marble floor.

She finished answering the roommate’s questions. She’d done this chore many times before. Notified families, soothed roommates. She made a mental note to tell Brenda to talk to the woman. Although Brenda would probably think of it and do it without reminding. She had turned out to be a good social services director. They were lucky to have her, Betty guessed, although she still felt uneasy around her sometimes.

Betty patted the hand of Lettie’s roommate and stood up to go back to her office. The woman remained sitting on the couch, a lost and forlorn look on her face.

Betty had almost reached her office when she met Jerod and Allen on their way out the door.

“Where are you going?” she asked. “Are you finished with Alice? Did you find out anything?”

“The chief called us back to headquarters. Something to do with that drug raid,” Jerod said. “And, no, I’m not done questioning Allison, and I didn’t find out anything more. She seems awfully frightened.”

Betty nodded. “Wouldn’t you be if you forgot your whole life? And when she started remembering, the memories weren’t too pleasant.”

“Right,” Jerod said. “I’ll get back with her later. Got to go now.”

“Allen,” Betty persisted. “You didn’t find out anything?”

“Sorry,” he said. “Nothing so far.”

Betty frowned, said good-bye, and went to her office. She had a ton of paperwork to catch up on.

She had no sooner sat down than Katherine came in.

“You’re back!” Betty exclaimed, coming around her desk to give Katherine a hug. “When did you get here?”

“Just now. Went to my office to see if Max was there. Found Donald watching residents in their rooms on video monitors. What the hell is going on?”

“First tell me how your dad is.”

“About what you’d expect. They’ll do therapy. Too soon to tell how much good it’ll do.”

“Your mom?”

“She’s holding up. Now, tell me what’s going on around here.”

Betty told her. Tears came to Katherine’s eyes when she heard about Lettie. Betty realized the administrator was still fragile emotionally. “Do you think you should come back to work, yet?” she asked sympathetically.

“My therapy.” Katherine gave a little laugh and grabbed a tissue to wipe her eyes. “Poor Lettie. She will be so missed.”

“I know,” Betty said. Watching Katherine, a lump came to her own throat. “I hope you’re not too mad about the video cameras. It was Maxwell’s idea.”

“No. I understand. And now there’s more proof of something going on. You must be relieved to have someone watching your mother all the time.”