Patricia Rockwell - Essie Cobb 03 - Valentined (14 page)

“And how do you plan to do that, Essie?” asked Opal.

“I’m not going to play coy like Detective Abbott suggests,
that’s for sure!” she declared.  “If the only way to catch this drug dealer is
to lure him into grabbing my valentine, then, by glory goose bumps, I’m going
to have a valentine for him to steal!”

“Essie,” gasped Betsy, “that sounds very dangerous!”

“Very risky!” added Marjorie.

“Not only am I going to have a valentine for our friendly
drug dealer to swipe,” noted Essie, now in full plotting mode, “but I’m going
to spread the word all around Happy Haven.  That valentine is going to go
everywhere with me in my basket.  If that drug guy wants it, he’ll have to come
rip it out of my walker seat!”

“No, Essie!” said Opal.  “This is foolish talk!”

“Foolish, maybe, Opal,” said Essie, “but I’ve been pushed to
it.  These drug people picked the wrong person when they sent that secret
admirer valentine to Miss Essie Cobb.  I will not just sit around meekly and
wait for the police to tumble to our culprit.  I’m going to get him myself!”

Chapter Seventeen

“Love is an exploding cigar we
willingly smoke”

—Lynda Barry

The women did their best to try to talk some sense into
Essie, but she was resolute.  After promising her friends that she would be
careful, the group disbanded, being careful to exit Essie’s apartment
discreetly, one at a time into an empty hallway.

When she was finally alone, Essie was attacked not by fear
but by hunger.  She suddenly realized that during the hubbub with the police
and her friends’ arrival, she had missed lunch in the dining hall.  Her stomach
was now growling ferociously and it was still hours before dinner.

She rolled over to her small kitchen to see if there was
anything in her refrigerator that she could munch on.  Inside she saw mostly
empty shelves.  There was a shriveled up apple in the fruit bin. 
I’d better
get rid of that,
she thought.  Far in the back on the lowest shelf she saw
a package of something wrapped neatly in aluminum foil. 
Now how long has
that been in there?
she wondered.  As Essie virtually never ate anything in
her own room and always ate her meals in the dining hall, it was a miracle that
there was anything in her refrigerator at all.  She closed the door in
annoyance and reached up over the handle bars of her walker to the cupboard
doors.  On the middle shelf, she found an old box of cereal.   Reading the
label, she discovered that this brand included nuts.

“Super squirrels! Nuts!” she cried. “Nuts are protein.  Just
what I need.”  She ripped open the top of the box and reached inside for a
handful.  Gulping down the flakes and tiny nut bits, she soon felt the gnawing
in her stomach subside.  She grabbed her water glass from the sink and
swallowed a full glass of water to wash it all down. 

“Probably the quickest lunch I’ve ever consumed,” she said
aloud.  “This will certainly make me appreciate the food in the dining hall
more.”  Feeling full, she made a quick stop in her bathroom before heading out
into the Happy Haven hallway.  She realized that she hadn’t given a great deal
of thought as to how she would handle it, but she felt it was important to make
clear to her fellow residents and to the staff that nothing had changed; she
still had the valentine, and she was excited to learn who her secret admirer
was.

She pushed her walker down the hallway, through the family
room, and into the lobby.  It was early afternoon and Happy Haven was busy with
residents and guests milling about.  Phyllis was manning the front desk as
usual.  Several other staff members, including Sue Barber and Violet
Hendrickson, were behind the desk looking through files in the small office
immediately behind the front desk.    Two men entered the main door carrying a
sofa.  Essie assumed that either one of the residents had ordered new furniture
or someone was moving in.  When someone moved in, it typically meant that a
resident had moved out.  That also typically meant that a resident had died. 
Essie hadn’t heard through the grapevine that anyone had passed away recently
so she was curious who the sofa belonged to. 

A group of card players in the family room laughed and
caught her attention.  Essie moved closer to the front desk.  Several residents
were lined up, probably waiting to sign out or in.  Essie waited her turn. 

“Essie!” said Phyllis.  “I haven’t seen you all day!  What
were those police officers doing in your apartment earlier?”  Phyllis asked the
question Essie was dreading and the one she had been preparing for even though
Phyllis didn’t seem that curious about it.

“Oh, that,” replied Essie as casually as possible.  “I’ve
been getting some annoying phone calls.  The police were out to talk to me
about them.  It appears those calls are part of some widespread senior scam
going on around the country.  Those idiots tried to sell me land in Florida!” 
She shrugged her shoulders as if to say her problem was just the tip of the
iceberg.

“Oh, no!” replied Phyllis, fumbling though a pile of cards
she was sorting.  “I hope they didn’t take any of your money?”

“No, joe!” said Essie with a little punch of her fist.  “I’m
too smart for that!”

“I bet you are, Essie!” replied Phyllis, smiling warmly. 
“What about that secret admirer of yours?” she asked suddenly.  “Did you ever
find out who he was?”

“Not yet,” said Essie in a louder voice.  Phyllis had now
tackled the subject that truly interested Essie and she was happy to plant the
information that she was sure would be heard by other residents and staff and
spread as gossip around Happy Haven in no time flat.  “But I’m trying to find
out who he is!  After all, he sent me such a beautiful valentine!”

“I heard about that card, Essie!” exclaimed Phyllis, setting
down her work.  “I’d love to see it!”

“Oh, show her, Miss Essie!” said Sue Barber from further
back behind the front desk.  “It’s really beautiful!”

“I’d like to see it too!” added Violet Hendrickson, standing
next to Sue.  She gave Essie a warm smile, a totally unexpected gesture from
the otherwise imposing Happy Haven director.

“Oh, sorry, Phyllis,” replied Essie, “I’m late for
a…a…meeting right now.  Don’t have time to show it to you!”  She quickly
pushed her walker away from the front desk and back into the family room. 
Phyllis shrugged her shoulders to the two other staff women and returned to her
file counting. 

Essie plopped herself down in a large armchair, out of view
of the front desk. 

“I handled that well,” she said.  Unfortunately, she
realized that it would be a difficult juggling act to indicate to the people
she encountered that she still had the valentine tucked away in her walker and
then not take it out and show it to them.  She’d probably need some sort of
valid excuse that would explain why she claimed to have the card but was
unwilling to show it.  She sat lost in thought, the wheels on her walker
rolling slightly back and forth in reflection of her thought process.

She looked up just in time to see Santos go whizzing through
the lobby carrying a covered food tray.  The young man headed down her
hallway.  From where she was sitting, Essie could follow Santos with her eyes
all the way to the end of the hallway.  As he had done earlier in the day,
Santos turned left when he reached the end of the corridor. 

Hmm,
thought Essie. 
I wonder if he’s going back
to Grace Bloom’s apartment again.  Why would he be taking her a tray of food
when she obviously isn’t ill? 
Essie’s thought were suddenly drawn from
attempting to devise the appropriate retort when anyone asked about her secret
admirer valentine to trying to figure out why Grace Bloom was getting an
invalid’s treatment from Santos.

She remained seated but kept her eyes focused on her
hallway.  This was a good time to be quiet and see what might happen.  Her eyes
were frozen on the hallway, waiting for either Santos to return with an empty
tray or Grace Bloom to appear.  She stayed that way, looking down her own
hallway for a long time but neither of the two individuals showed themselves. 
What could be going on?  Surely there wasn’t anything romantic occurring. 
Grace was at least eighty and Santos must be no older than thirty.  Besides,
Essie knew that he had a girlfriend about whom she and her tablemates had heard
a great deal.  No, it couldn’t be anything so salacious.  She didn’t dare go to
Grace’s apartment and knock on her door as she had the day before.  If Santos was
there or if he wasn’t, Grace would be more than suspicious of Essie showing up
for a second day in a row.  No, she’d have to figure out this mystery on her
own.

As she sat there contemplating her possible actions, Sue
Barber and Violet Hendrickson walked through the lobby and the family room and
down the far hallway that led to the chapel, the beauty parlor, and several
other locations at Happy Haven. 

“Essie!” exclaimed Sue as she almost tripped over her.  “I
didn’t see you there!”

“Sorry, Miss Barber!” said Essie, pulling her walker closer
and tucking her feet under the chair.

“Oh, don’t be!” replied Sue.  “I should watch where I’m
going!”  She smiled at Essie, and then motioned to Violet and the two women
continued down the far hallway.  Violet gave Essie a long, expressionless
glance as she passed.

That woman gives me the creeps
, thought Essie.  Essie
always tried to stay out of Violet’s way.  The Happy Haven director seemed to
enjoy flaunting her authority and tended to make the elderly residents often
feel more like misbehaving children in an elementary school than responsible
adults. 
After all,
reasoned Essie
, I pay good money to live here.  I
don’t expect to be treated like an inmate.  Oh, well
,
she’s only one
person. 
The rest of the staff were exceptionally pleasant and helpful and
Essie loved her three friends, Opal, Marjorie, and Fay.

The diversion of the two staff members passing her caused
Essie to lose track of her observation of her hallway.  Where was Santos?  It
had been quite some time since he’d gone down there with that tray.  How long
did it take to deliver food to someone?  This was certainly a mystery.  Not the
major mystery of the identity of her secret admirer and his intended recipient,
slash Happy Haven drug dealer, but a mystery just the same. 
My, oh purty
pie!
  she thought. 
I’m really becoming a detective.  Two mysteries to
solve.  I’d better get busy, because so far I haven’t had much success at all
in solving either.

Sue Barber and Violet Hendrickson returned down the far hallway
off the family room, apparently returning to the front desk or to their offices
which were directly off the main entrance, next to the dining hall.  They moved
past Essie without comment, both smiling politely at her.  Essie returned their
courteous gesture as she followed them with her eyes back to the lobby.  Then
she returned her concern to her own hallway.  People were going up and down the
corridor, but so far neither Santos nor Grace Bloom had made an appearance.

This is ridiculous
! Essie thought. 
I could wait
here all day for one of them to appear
.  Grace could just stay in her room
indefinitely and maybe Santos left the building through a back entrance.  She
realized there were other ways to enter and exit Happy Haven besides the main
entrance, but residents were required to sign in and out whenever they left the
facilities.  Maybe Santos had returned to the kitchen through some back hallway
of which she wasn’t even aware.  Well, she’d find out at dinner.  She resolved
to figure out another way to determine what was going on with Grace Bloom and
Santos.  She wasn’t going to just sit in this out of the way chair
indefinitely.

She stood up and rolled her walker into the family room. 
The group of card players she had heard earlier was still going strong.  As she
moved closer to them, she recognized several of the members. 

“Essie!” called out Dave Esperti.  He waved at her then
looked back down at his cards and scowled.

Essie rolled over to the table.  Here was an opportunity to
test her valentine story and spread the word that she still had the card in her
possession.

Chapter Eighteen

“Love is that delightful interval
between meeting a girl and discovering that she looks like a haddock.”

—John Barrymore

“Hey, Essie!” said Dave as she pushed herself over to the
corner of the card table, greeting all four players in the process.  In
addition to Dave, the others included Hubert Darby, Betsy Rollingford, and one
other woman Essie didn’t recognize. 

“Hello,” said Essie warmly to the group.

“How’s my girl?” asked Dave, patting Essie affectionately on
the elbow.

“I’m not your girl,” responded Essie lightly, glancing over
at Hubert.  She knew that Hubert fancied himself her boyfriend and as his
romantic gestures were harmless she never really discouraged him.  Besides,
Hubert was so shy that she wanted to give him confidence when she could.  Dave
was a different story.  He didn’t lack any confidence that Essie could tell.

“Oh, saving your heart for that secret admirer, I see!” said
Dave broadly for the group.  Hubert snorted and looked down at his cards. 
Betsy also concentrated on her hand.  Apparently she hadn’t revealed anything
to this group about the excitement with the cocaine and the police. 

“A secret admirer!” cried the fourth card player.  “My goodness! 
How exciting!  Do you have any idea who he is?”

“No,” replied Essie to the woman.  “But he did send me a
beautiful valentine!”  She emphasized this last part to make certain that this
woman had all the information she needed to spread the word about Essie’s
card.  The more gossip out there, the more likely it would be that the
originally intended recipient would hear of it and attempt to get it back.