Chapter 15
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With the door closed and locked to prohibit her grandmother and Richie from coming inside—or anybody else wandering by—Doreen shook her head.
The trouble was that everybody seemed to have such an open-door policy here at Rosemoor that anybody could have come in and could have done this to Birdie’s apartment at any time.
Yet Doreen didn’t believe that the mess in front of her had anything to do with the paramedics.
Lots of people would probably blame them, but she just didn’t see it. Not this level of destruction.
She pulled out her phone and called Mack.
“Hey, I’m just supposed to head out. Is this important?”
“Yes,” she declared.
He took a deep breath and said, “Okay, go.”
And she loved that about him, loved that he trusted her enough that when she said, yes, he would actually stop and listen. “Okay, so whether you like this or not, I came down to Rosemoor to talk to Birdie.”
“Okay,” he replied, but she could sense his impatience.
“She had a health event of some kind this morning, and she’s been taken to the hospital.”
“An event?” he repeated.
“Yeah, they thought like a heart attack, stroke, something of that nature.”
“Ah, okay, so natural.”
“Well, that’s where the question comes in.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Yeah, I hear the uh-oh too,” she confirmed.
“Nan asked management if I would be allowed to go into Birdie’s room to see if I could get answers to the questions I planned to ask her—because she had brought me in on the case.
So Roger determined that, as long as I didn’t take anything away, I would be allowed access to her room. ”
“Good God.”
“I know. Maybe we’re pushing it in terms of what’s allowed, and honestly, I hadn’t yet thought of it, but Nan brought it up and did the legwork. So I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Anyway, Roger led me down to Birdie’s apartment, and, when we stepped inside, it was obvious.”
“What’s obvious, hon?”
Mack was mad, chastising her even. But now was not the time to chicken out. “I think the room has been searched, tossed even. And Roger was already considering that this morning’s events might not have been accidental.”
Mack groaned and she nodded.
“Now, that could be anything or nothing,” he pointed out.
“Or nothing,” she repeated. “I don’t know if you could ask the hospital to see if something happened, like in the sense of maybe … she was attacked or it wasn’t natural?”
“They should find that out on their own.”
“She’s also eighty-something, and there’s this whole category of what doesn’t happen with this age group because so many things are naturally happening.”
“Naturally happening?” Mack repeated.
“Yes, as in they’re getting old, so people don’t always look as closely as they should and just write things off due to their age.”
He groaned again.
“Mack, I know. I’m sounding like a conspiracy theory nut job, and it’s not what I’m trying to do. I’m just saying that Birdie’s room looks pretty destroyed. I’m sending you pictures.” She quickly snapped several photos and sent them to him.
When he came back on the phone, he stated, “I’m coming down.”
“Okay, good,” she said, with a smile.
“Do not touch anything.”
She groaned.
“I mean it.”
“Fine,” she replied, “but I need to look for some stuff while you’re getting here. And I’ve been given permission,” she pointed out.
He sighed. “That’s a very gray area right now.”
“Maybe, but I’m here, and you’re on your way.”
And, with that, she hung up.