Waiting to Heal Read online

  “Don’t you worry bout dem boss, dat bunch is all a time lookin back over der shoulder or somtin, besides, dey were no differnt than they normly is and dats the reason I called ya’ll.”

  “Still, I’m really sorry, its not good to start off on the wrong foot with a new client,” JJ said and offered Joe his hand, “I’m better known as JJ, it is good to meet you Mr. Johnson.”

  JJ, I like dat name, tis easy to remember, I’m Joe so just call me Joe,” Joe thought for a minute then said, “I could as well be a JJ too iffin I use my first and last initials like you don.”

  “Hey, you certainly could be and we could confuse the heck out of anyone who listened while we talked. I would call you JJ and you would call me JJ, it would be a riot.”

  “It shor would be, deyed be scratcin dey heads,” Joe’s smile was big but only lasted a moment as he let the reason for this contact float to the surface.

  “So Joe, what’s got your goat, something at work?” JJ asked when he saw the smile fade.

  “Ya’ll met da man, right?”

  “Yep, I don’t think I made a friend.”

  “I believe dat, he ain’t friendly, not to us but, he’s big friends wit dem old broads wit de big bucks.”

  “Is there a problem with how they treat the residents”

  “No, no, ain’t no thang like dat, dey treat all em like dey was dey own family.”

  “Ok, I’ll just listen and you tell me what has you concerned.”

  “While I does da flours and thangs outside, some of de ladies would stop and talk at me fer sometime and I member some dey say,” Joe started shaking his head, “ya’ll got to know I don’t mean no harm to dem folks, dey is my friend.”

  “I believe you Joe but what bothered you about what they said?”

  “Early dis week, dis miss Carla was crying and I ask what fer? She say she ben think bout Mis Betsy Myers, dis friend who died some time back and she mis her most now. She done be her best ever friend.”

  “Ms Betsy Myers, ok, what about this Betsy Myers?”

  “I helps my mama with stuff and she be on de Social Security. She get dis letter ever month wit dis check from de social and I take her to cash dem so I know what dey looks like. Last week dat boss man assistant dropped some papers whilst I were doing flours at dat front doe so I hep her get dem back up. I see dey are dis letters from dis social and dey woz all wit Ms Betsy Myers on dem.”

  “Ms Carla was crying last week thinking about her friend who had been dead for some time. This week you saw all these letters from social security with her friends name on them, is that right?”

  “Dat right, boss, and I member Ms Carla told me she dead and I think why she stil get des letters.”

  “Did you say anything to the boss’s assistant about this?”

  “No boss, I don’t say nothing but dat lady look at me funny you nos. I see her go right away, she talk mit da boss and it scare me good. Dis a good job and I no want lose it, so I call ya’ll to say what to do.”

  “I tell you what Joe, you go on doing your job like nothing happened and I will look into this and see where it goes. With luck we will keep your job and we will clear this up,” JJ shook hands with Joe and left as Joe went into his home.

  Chapter Eleven

  Feeling Froggy

  “Hey Jim, what are you up too?”

  “Heeey Megan, good to hear from you, are you ok?” Jim Blackstone asked then quickly continued, “Before you answer, I want to offer my sincere apology for not coming out to see you at that ranch. After all the visits I made in the hospital I was afraid of how bad you were injured and if I came out there I wouldn’t leave until you were completely healed. I didn’t want to add another burden on the Haley’s. I know it doesn’t sound like I care much by not coming out but, it is actually the opposite. I care about you too much and I hope you will find a way to forgive my frailty.”

  “You may not believe this but I completely understand and you are forgiven. I went through a similar situation when my father was injured. So please don’t worry, I had the best care and the best rest I could ever have asked for and I am just fine,” Megan assured Jim.

  “I’m going to believe you and thank you. Where are you, back at the office?”

  “Yep, back with my nose to the grindstone. How about you, busy?”

  “Always but I always have time for you and besides, you were wanting a rematch for that golf game and I have been waiting till you felt froggy.”

  “Well, I’m not going to eat a bug or hop into a pond for a swim but, the doctor has given me a clean bill of health and I need the exercise, so how about it? When do you have some free time?”

  “You pick it, I have a lot of built up PTO and just need a reason to use some of those days for myself,” Jim said then continued, “I have my calendar right here in my hand so do it, pick a day.”

  “Alright, you ask for this. Is Saturday ok, not this week but the next or is that too soon for you?”

  “I’m always off on Saturday, can’t we make it during the work week so I can use some of these paid days off. I really want to tell my boss I am taking a PTO day.”

  “Ok, ok, in two weeks on Friday then or is that too soon to clear it with your boss?”

  “He’ll just have to deal with it, he can’t afford to lose me, I’m too valuable.”

  “That will give me a few more days to work out the kinks, I will make the arrangements at the club that Friday then, I’ll get back to you with the tee time,” Megan said and then held the phone in silence.

  “Something else Megan? I can almost hear you thinking about how to ask, so just get it out and we can deal with it.”

  “I did call you about a golf outing but, yes, there is something I need but don’t know if I have the right to ask as it might be against your regulations. The info I need may also be protected from public access.”

  “Hey, let me worry about that. Lay it on me and I will run it up the flag pole and see if anyone salutes it.”

  “Ok, but don’t get your butt caught in a crack over this because I know DMV has some very strict rules,” Megan said then laid it out for Jim, “I need to find out the names of the tenants that live in the apartment where I had my accident. The three tenants living in the apartment below the Logan’s moved out right after I fell on that fire escape. It is possible that they saw something and I would like to talk to them. They lived in that apartment that faced that fourth floor landing where I ended up.”

  “Hell Megan, quit calling that attempted murder an accident and face it, someone pushed your butt down that fire escape, someone tried to kill you.”

  “I know, don’t you think I know that. I just have a hard time knowing that someone could believe that something was so important as to require murder to protect whatever it is.”

  “Call me with that tee time and I will see you on the practice putting surface on Friday shortly before the tee time.”

  Megan hung up the phone and checked her desk for anything that needed urgent attention. She found that most of the open files were each waiting for info from difference sources and until she got that info those cases had to wait.

  “Hey Christine!” Megan called out her door.

  “Hey boss, what’s up?” Christine said as she peeked around Megan’s office door.

  “I’ve caught up here so I am going back over to Mrs. Logan’s apartment building and snoop around. Maybe I’ll interview the tenants and see if I can find the source for the rumor that Mr. Logan was depressed and had considered suicide.”

  “You sure? You really must be careful, someone over there is not your fan.”

  “I’m packing,” Megan said as she pulled her suit jacket open to reveal her holstered 32 caliber snub nose Smith and Western revolver with the comfortable ladies grips, “and since I am now aware of the danger, I should be ok. If you hear from JJ let him know where I went.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Check Out The Checks

  They had parked dow
n the street in a nondescript white van. They watched the apartment building hoping that the violence they had taken would soon be forgotten as the police had now placed that attack on a back burner.

  “Oh crap, look, that’s that meddlesome broad you pushed down the fire escape. She didn’t die as you’d hoped. I sure wish you hadn’t done that as now I don’t believe she’s going to let this go,” John Strong said as he pointed at Megan entering the apartment building where Mrs. Logan lived.

  “Hey, it was a knee jerk reflex. I heard her say that she wondered what was up on our roof and I couldn’t allow that so, blame me if you must, I did delay any action by her until we could get moved. You can’t really fault me. I was just following your lead as you’re the one that pushed the old man off the fire escape and initiated the investigation of our building,” Clyde Salworth stated, “anyway, if you hadn’t left that rope ladder in the down position, that old man wouldn’t have climbed up and caught us working on the roof.”

  “I’m sorry about that ladder, ok? However, if she keeps at it we may have to take a more drastic action. We can’t afford to have our plans interrupted, we have worked too long on this to allow some skirt wearing PI the chance of ruining it,” Strong said as he started the vehicle, put it in gear and pulled away.

  JJ was Headed to Shady Elms. While on his way he tried to contact an old college buddy who had been a fanatic hobbyist with those battery powered drones. His hope for this particular avenue of investigation rested on the possibility that his friend was still into those things. His hopes were raised a little when he got his friend’s answering machine.

  “Leave a message, make it quick, don’t go droning on and on about it.”

  “Hey Darrel, JJ here, I need your help, give me a call,” and then JJ left his cell number.

  The temperature inside the rest home wasn’t any warmer but JJ plunged ahead.

  “Hello again, Ms Ames. I need to see the director this time.”

  “I’m not sure he wants to see you.” Sara Ames flatly stated.

  “I think it is best if you let him decide that. Would you please tell him it is no longer a private matter it is now a social matter?”

  JJ gave her his best smile as she lifted the phone and punched in the director’s number.

  Much to Ms Ames’s surprise, the director came out shortly and led JJ back toward his office. JJ couldn’t help it, he turned his head back toward Ms. Ames and, as they left the front desk area, he again gave her his best smile.

  Charles Helton showed JJ into his office and offered him a chair then moved around and sat at his desk.

  “Social matter, very cute. I presume you have talked with your client and he told you what he saw.”

  “As a matter of fact he did. He is a very honest man and what he saw frightened him.”

  “Are you sure he understood what he saw?”

  “Well I could make some calls and check it out for myself but I’m pretty sure Mr. Johnson is very capable of understanding what he saw.”

  Mr. Helton pushed the intercom button on his phone pad, “Cora, would you step in here and bring our lost and found treasures with you?”

  “JJ, was it?”

  “That’s right JJ.”

  “Cora Anderson I want you to meet Mr. James Jacque, JJ,” Helton said as he ushered her toward JJ where they then shook hands. “JJ is a private investigator working for our Mr. Joe Johnson.”

  “Oh, Mr. Johnson?” Cora Anderson said.

  “Would you show JJ what you have in that folder?” Helton moved some things away from the center of his desk and said, “just dump it here so we all can see.”

  It was quite a pile, about sixty envelopes from Social Security and one white envelope address to Social Security. JJ noticed that the one envelope had a metered postage stamp on it as if it was ready to mail but it had not been canceled so it hadn’t been mailed.

  “Wow these are all addressed to Mrs. Betsy Myers. Hey, wait a minute, they haven’t been opened, I don’t understand. Could you enlighten me on this, I must have gotten the wrong idea?”

  “Quite understandable, if I were in your shoes I would have jumped to the same conclusion. You probably won’t believe this but, until fourteen days ago we had no idea these even existed. Cora found them when she was moving one of the secretary’s file cabinets into one of the rooms we had just remodeled. The room these cabinets were in was going to be remodeled also.”

  “Fourteen days ago, that’s when Mr. Johnson saw them and now you’re telling me that is the same day you saw them for the first time?” JJ said slowly shaking his head. “Convenient timing I would say.”

  “I know, hard to believe, right?” Helton went on to explain, “Cora had just found these items and was bringing them, in a hurry, to show me and that’s when she dropped them by the front door. We could see that Mr. Johnson was curious and when Cora came right over and told me, we were both absolutely shocked and we probably looked it and he assumed the worst.”

  “I hope you both understand where we are coming from,” JJ said and continued, “Mr. Johnson is concerned that him seeing these unexplained items might cost him his job and he really likes and needs this job.”

  “Can I ask why he thought these envelopes might be something shady? They are just envelopes for residents and we get many of them each month for our guest.”

  “That’s a fair question,” JJ went on to explain, “Mr. Johnson has quite a bit of unsolicited contact with your guest as he goes about maintaining the gardens and grounds. As you must know, some of your guest are unfortunately lonely due to age and distance from their friends and family. They will make contact with anyone available and sometimes they will inadvertently share their problems with that contact. One of your guest had recently commented on how much her friend liked the flowers around Shady Elms so Mr. Johnson offered to cut a flower for her. That’s when the guest told him that her friend, Betsy Myers, had passed away several years ago. The guest cried some as she still missed her terribly and this crying probably embedded the name in Mr. Johnson’s memory. I guess he put two and two together and got an unwelcomed total.”

  “That is also understandable and I can see why he was concerned,” Mr. Helton continued, “You tell our Mr. Johnson that he has nothing to worry about, his job is secure. We have contacted our lawyer and he and a Social Security agent will be here tomorrow to try to correct this unfortunate situation. It might be tough for this agent to accept our explanation as the secretary who maintained these files has recently passed away leaving us high and dry with no real solid idea why or how this happened.”

  JJ shook hands with the director and assistant as he left. He asked if he could check back with them to find out what solution they had come too. He was assured that that would not be a problem. JJ asked them to remember that Mr. Johnson was a good man and maybe they would let him know he is appreciated. He was also assured of their intent on that path.

  Deciding to not wait on this, the director took JJ out to the garden and together they told Mr. Johnson the result of their meeting and assured him of his future and how much he was appreciated here at Shady Elms. Mr. Helton also told JJ he would pick up the tab for his services so as not to burden Mr. Johnson with this unexpected expense.

  JJ said goodbye to Mr. Johnson and told him to call if he had any other problems and that he would now close this case.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Don’t Need No Stinkin Badges

  Back at the office JJ got the message about Megan’s location from Christine. “Any calls for me?”

  “They are there on your desk, there were only two calls while you were gone,” Christine assured him.

  “Ok, thanks, hey, when did Darrel call?”

  “A few minutes ago, did you want me to try to reach him?”

  “No, no, it’s ok, I’ll do it. Thanks anyway.”

  “Hey, this is Darrel,” came from the phone after it had rung a couple times.

  “Hey Drone Man. You still
flying them high?”

  “JJ, my man, say what it is Mr. PI?” Darrel laughed and said, “still flying them higher than the FAA will allow but what they don’t know won’t hurt me.”

  “You busy, I could sure use your help if you could spare the time?”

  “Some PI shit I suppose. Want me to tail someone with one of my drones?

  “You practically hit the nail on the head with that comment. Actually it would be flying over some five or six floor roof tops to video tape them to see if any thing is going on up there. I would really like to do this from a distance to be safe.”

  “Wow, no fooling? You know I love what you do and it would really give me a kick to assist you. Would you be giving me a temporary PI badge or maybe it’s a ‘We don’t need no stinkin badges’ kind of operation.”

  “You know PIs don’t got no stinkin badges, you goof,” but JJ was laughing as Darrel expected.

  “I can take the time, just let me know where and when. It’s dangerous and distance is important to be safe, hey, just let me know.”

  JJ thanked Darrel and rang off.

  Megan knocked on the door and Shirley quickly responded asking through the door, “Who is it?”

  “Hey Shirley, it’s me Megan, I have a few more questions for you if you don’t mind?”

  The door was quickly unlocked and swung open to the smiling face of Shirley Logan, “Come in. come in, it’s good to see you.”

  “You too, you are looking chipper, to use an old English phase for the color in your cheeks and your smile.”

  “I hope you are right, I’m practicing what Sam would be telling me if he was here,” Shirley said as she showed Megan into the kitchen and suggested a chair at the small breakfast table.

  “Well, what ever it is keep it up for it looks like it is really working,” Megan replied as she took that offered chair.