Chapter 9
DOING THE RIGHT THING
“Hi, Katherine,” Arden said when she returned to her office. She liked her supervisor in the few weeks she’d been here.
“Arden, do you have a minute?”
“Always.” She moved into Katherine’s office. It seemed few sat still here or at least in their office. And if they were, they were on calls or in meetings.
She liked how her time flew by and felt safer here than she had at her old job doing home visits.
The things she’d seen, heard, and been through were enough for her to want to leave this field. But at thirty, she was too young to be burned out, though many got that way.
“The case last week, the little girl whose brother was kicking her.”
“Abigail,” she said.
“Yes. I want you to follow up with the police and someone in the county to see if the child is okay.”
“It was on my list to do this week.”
“I figured as much. But in looking it over the last name stood out. I was emailed this weekend from the ER. Seems the brother ended up in the ER this weekend also.”
She frowned. Those things she wouldn’t know or wouldn’t think to trace back. “What happened?”
“He had a concussion. From what I can see, he was running around the house and ramming his head into the walls.”
“What?! He did it more than once?”
“His mother said they told him to stop after the first time, but he doesn’t listen well.
He did it another time before she called his father into the house.
When the father arrived, Corey did it a third time and knocked himself out.
They called the ambulance. The parents’ names came up and they passed it on to me. ”
“Nobody went down to talk to them about it? From this department. Or doesn’t that happen on the weekends?”
“There is always a nurse on duty that will cross over if it’s an issue or call law enforcement in.
The weekends we are short staffed. Due to the nature of what happened last week and then the brother this week, if you can reach out to the parents and find out the next step for Corey as well.
It was recommended that he have further evaluation for behavior issues and tendencies. ”
Mrs. Oliver didn’t care for her so much, but she’d learned a long time ago that you didn’t make friends in this job.
“I’ll look into the file and notes and make the call this afternoon and update the information. Can I ask, how long do we follow up with cases like this?”
“Not long. We normally check in once they leave and ask that they reach out if they need anything else from us. Or we’ll get a call from the county if they notice any medical issues on a former patient. Other times, we have repeat offenders in here and it’s between you and the county.”
“I know a few case managers in Warren County from my previous job in Saratoga.”
“Which is part of what made you valuable to this team. You’ve got good connections.”
“Thanks,” she said. “I’ll get right on this and keep you posted.”
Arden returned to her office that she shared with two other employees, neither of them in right now, pulled up the case notes on the Oliver family and called.
It went to voicemail for both parents. Which she expected, but she’d left detailed messages for them both to return her call, as it was a follow up.
She documented her calls, then the phone rang on her desk. The line was for anyone to call up looking for a social worker. She answered and was asked to come down to the ER.
Maybe she’d get another look at Blaze while she was there.
“Hi,” she said to the front desk. “Maddy, right?”
“That’s me,” Maddy said. “Room 3 has an elderly patient with their wife. The wife is struggling with handling his care. She wants to do better, but her resources are limited.”
This type of case broke her heart but warmed it in a way that someone cared. Someone was trying. Someone was asking for help.
“I’ll go in and talk. I should be able to get something figured out for them.”
“That’s what we like to hear. The husband fell and hit his head. I thought you could talk with them before Dr. Ridgeway takes care of it.”
She nodded and walked in. “Hi, I’m Arden with patient services. You asked for a social worker?”
“I did. Thank you for coming. I feel like such a failure, but my husband has early onset dementia.”
“I’m fine, Carol. I just lost my balance.”
Carol turned her head from her husband. “Tom says that a lot and he’s right, but there are other issues.
I’ve found support groups online, but they aren’t much help other than complaining of what is to come.
I think I need more safeguards in place.
A better way to manage our lives. Is that something you can do? ”
She reached her hand for Carol’s. “I can absolutely put you in contact with people who can help. And I’ll give you my card so that you can reach out to me at any point if you feel you’re still not getting the support you need.”
“Hi, Carol. I hear there is a head wound in here I’ve got to patch up on Tom this time.”
She turned to see Blaze walking closer. “I tripped and lost my balance,” Tom said. “I don’t know why Carol gets so upset all the time.”
“She’s only concerned about your well-being,” he said.
“And I don’t need his brains scrambled any more,” Carol said. “Which is why I’m asking for help.”
“You’re doing the right thing,” he said. “Arden will get things sorted. She’s great at her job.”
She smiled at the wink Blaze sent her. “I am good at my job. Why don’t you and I go talk in another room while Dr. Ridgeway takes care of your husband?”
Another nurse came in when she left with Carol. They talked for twenty minutes then she walked back with the older woman and left to return to her office.
On her way down the hall, her cell phone rang. It wasn’t the line from her desk rolling over, but rather Billy.
She wanted to ignore it, but sometimes that made matters worse. And it wasn’t as if she couldn’t just scoot out the door quickly to take it.
Which she did this time. “Hi, hang on for a second.” She moved toward the side door, opened it, and stepped out for privacy and to hear easier. “Okay. Sorry. I needed to get where there was better reception. What’s going on?”
“Why the fuck did you tell Julie that I stopped to see you ten days ago?”
“Well, hello to you too and I didn’t tell Julie,” she snapped. She always had more power, more courage to fight back when he wasn’t in front of her now. When he couldn’t throw things around the house. Scream in her face. Tower over her.
“You had to,” Billy said, “because I just got a call from my attorney giving me shit to knock it off or I’m only going to make it worse.”
“I didn’t tell Julie. Gracie did.”
“You must have told her to do it,” Billy argued. At least he wasn’t yelling now.
“No. I didn’t. And I did you a favor, but you’ll never see it that way. Gracie talks to Julie alone. She said she liked her new house and that you were there already but hadn’t seen her room. She was probed for more and Julie questioned me.”
“Which I’m sure you gladly filled in what was going on.”
She sighed. “I’m not going to lie. But I didn’t tell her we had fought. I didn’t tell her you wanted to see Gracie outside of the order either.”
There was silence there. “Bullshit. Because my attorney gave me crap about Tina, so that had to come from you.”
“Yep, it did. I said you stopped to see me and you had a girlfriend and would like Tina to meet Gracie but I said no. I’m not keeping that part a secret. But your actions and your motives and breaking all rules even asking to see Gracie outside of supervision, that part I kept out.”
“I don’t believe it. Why else would I get the call today?”
“I don’t care what you believe,” she said, her voice steady but edged with steel.
“I didn’t tell Julie everything because I saw how happy Gracie was on Sunday.
I thought I was doing the right thing by trying to defuse it.
But maybe I was wrong. Seems like every time it comes to you, I make the wrong call. Maybe it’s time I stopped hesitating.”
“Don’t you dare push my buttons,” Billy snapped. “She’s my daughter too, and you’re trying to keep her from me.”
“I’m doing no such thing,” she shot back, then looked around to make sure no one saw her having this conversation. “If you can’t pull your head out of your ass long enough to see how scared she was of you, that’s on you.”
“She was fine on Sunday!”
And just as she expected, he was getting worked up again. But so was she.
“Which proves you know she wasn’t fine before.”
“I’m not that person,” Billy snarled. “I’m clean.”
“She doesn’t know the difference, Billy. And yelling at me right now isn’t helping your case. I get you’re frustrated, but she’s a kid. And I’m done being your verbal punching bag.”
“You’ve got no clue what a punching bag is!” Billy shouted, and the line went dead before she could respond.
She pressed her back against the building, closed her eyes, and forced herself to breathe through the heat rising in her chest. In. Out. Slow. Controlled.
The warm sun that always relaxed her and now was beating on her did little to stop the burning in the pit of her stomach she always felt when he lost his control like this.
He was just running his mouth again. Same as always. Even at his worst, drunk, high, and spiraling, he’d never laid a hand on her. Not physically, anyway.
But the threat had always been there. The edge of reason much smaller to talk him down. To get him to leave until he was sober.
Until the fear was so much, she didn’t have another day of fight left in her.
This wasn’t going to wreck her day. Not anymore. But she’d document the call all the same.
Blaze’s words from earlier echoed in her head: Life happens, and you’ve got to decide what to hold onto.
She wasn’t holding onto Billy’s poison anymore. Not the guilt. Not the fear. Not him.
But hours later, when she stepped into the parking lot and saw the folded paper pinned beneath her windshield wiper, her stomach turned cold.
No other car had one. Just hers.
She glanced around, her pulse kicking up, then pulled the note free.
The handwriting was jagged, pressed deep into the paper as if written in a hurry and full of rage.
BE CAREFUL THE NEXT STEPS YOU TAKE... OR THEY MIGHT COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU.
Her grip tightened.
So much for not letting it ruin her day.
“That’s it, pick up the paper and read it.” My fingers flex as I watch the moment she reads what I’ve left. It’s a warning. Just a start.
I smile as Arden looks around for who might have left it.
For anyone watching her reaction, just as I am.
But she doesn’t see me because she never does.
It will teach her for messing with my plans.
She has no right to get involved.
No right to control this situation.
It’s going to be the way I want it now. It’s my turn to get what is coming to me.
I’ve suffered enough, now someone else can.
The satisfaction rushes through me now that the long-awaited plan is finally in motion.