Rusty Nail

Benedict was leaning on my desk, looking deflated.

I patted his shoulder. “Everything come out okay?”

He grimaced. “They should put a warning label on the GoLYTELY, something about violent explosions. I think I just lost ten pounds.”

I gestured at the jug on my desk, still half full of liquid.

“Looks like you have a little bit more to finish.”

Benedict glared at the bottle. “I can’t do it. If I finish that, I’ll have to attach a seat belt to the toilet.”

“Maybe an airbag too.”

I sat down and reached for the door-to-door reports on the top of my in-box. A quick scan gave me the gist.

“Neighbors didn’t see anything.” I tossed the reports onto my desk, a

Benedict didn’t answer. He was staring at the bottle of GoLYTELY.

I left him to face his nemesis, and dove into the Realtor’s statement. She’d shown the house to over a hundred people since it went on the market last year. Apparently, the stigma of the previous owner had prevented any sales. No one wanted to dwell where a serial killer once had.

There had been talk of bulldozing it, but Diane Kork had insisted on selling. She inherited it from her ex-husband, shortly after he’d tried to murder her.

Herb’s stomach made a noise. He said, “Gotta go,” and ran for the door.

“You forgot your jug!” I called after him.

I checked my watch, saw it was creeping up on five, and I decided to call it a day. The reports went into my Jewel bag, which I lugged down to my car.

The engine coughed twice, then turned over. The lion’s share of my paycheck went to supporting my aging mother. When Mom had lived in Florida, her condo had cost slightly more than the gross national product of New Zealand.

She’d sold the condo last year, to move in with me. That should have freed up some of my financial obligations, but Mom’s current condition cost even more than her condo had.

Mary Streng was in a coma, and her insurance only covered partial treatment. The condo money was almost gone, and soon the debt monster would come a-calling.

It was a burden I gladly accepted. My father died when I was a kid, but Mom had showered me with enough love to make up for the loss. A former Chicago cop herself, she was more than a mother to me; she was a hero.

And now my hero lay in a coma.

And it was all my fault.

CHAPTER 3

MOM RESIDED IN a long-term acute-care facility called Henderson House, on Chicago ’s north side, not too far from my apartment. She was classified PVS – permanent vegetative state, and received artificial hydration and nutrition, though she could breathe without assistance.

I stopped by on the way home.

“Good evening, Ms. Daniels. Would you like to visit your mother?”

The secretary, Julie something or other, already had the phone in her hand to call the nurse station. Normal procedure meant for me to schedule my visits, or to phone ahead of time. That gave the staff time to clean my mother up before I saw her. For what this place cost, relatives tended to get angry if the loved ones they were visiting had a dirty diaper.

“Any change?” I asked when she hung up the phone.

Julie flipped through a chart. “Still Level One on RLA Cognitive functioning. But her Glasgow went up two points. She spontaneously opened her eyes today.”

That got my attention.

“When?”

“Chart says this morning. There’s a notation that we called you at home.”

“Why didn’t you call my cell phone?”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Daniels. Would you like me to put down your cell phone as your primary contact number?”

“My cell phone should already be the primary contact number.” My voice got louder. “I don’t understand why you wouldn’t have tried it since you couldn’t reach me at home. Or you could have tried work. I do work for a living.”

I set my jaw and felt my ears burn.

“I understand, Ms. Daniels. I’ll make sure we use the cell next time. Did you want a glass of water? It will be a few minutes before your mother is ready.”

I declined, and sat in a relentlessly cheery waiting room, walls painted bright yellow and adorned with framed prints of rainbows and sunrises. I thought about the Glasgow Coma Score. Mom’s Glasgow scores fluctuated all the time. While she hadn’t spoken since her injuries, her response to stimulus and her eye-opening were on-again off-again. Her doctors told me that a PVS patient might have a low score one day, and then the next day she could suddenly be awake and aware. So much for Glasgow.

I spent a few minutes sitting and staring at a dusty silk flower arrangement on the magazine table and a man I recognized walked in.

“Hi, Tony.”

He brightened when he saw me. Tony Coglioso was tall, in his forties, and had classic Italian good looks. His father had been in a coma for three years.

“Hello, Lieutenant. Any change?”

“Up two points. How about yours?”

“Down a point.” He smiled, but it seemed forced. “It sounds like we’re talking about the stock market, and not our parents.”

Tony and I had seen each other many times over the past few months, exchanging little snatches of conversation in hallways and waiting rooms. Like me, he was divorced, but unlike me he had two adult children. I enjoyed his company, and he wasn’t hard to look at. I wondered why he never asked me out. I still fit comfortably into a size eight, and just last week, on the street in front of my apartment, a homeless man told me I had a nice ass.

“How are the kids?”

“Too busy to visit Papa. My oldest says it doesn’t matter, that Papa doesn’t hear anything anyway.”

“He hears,” I promised him. “He hears every word.”

“Yeah. Well. You on your way up?”

I glanced at Julie, who’d been watching our conversation. Julie nodded.

“Go ahead, Ms. Daniels.”

I smiled at Tony. “I guess I am.”

“Would you like to share an elevator with an old paisan?”

“I’d be honored.”

We didn’t talk during the elevator ride. Though some of the cops in my district would label me as aggressive, I wasn’t that way with men. It didn’t make sense. I could bust down a door and handcuff a murderer, but I’ve never asked a guy on a date. Not once. In all of my romantic encounters, I’d been a follower rather than a leader.

Even worse, I was crummy at dropping hints. Perhaps if I said something like, “Gosh, it’s been a really long time since I got laid.” Would a guy pick up on that?

I didn’t have a chance to find out. The elevator stopped, and Tony went left, without a word or a wave.

Of course, he was off to visit his PVS parent, so I couldn’t really fault his ma

My own PVS parent was lying peacefully on her bed. A cotton bandage covered the hole in her neck, where the feeding tube went in. Her eyes remained closed, even when I shut the door extra loudly, as I always did.

“Hi, Mom. Still napping, I see.”

I sat in the rocking chair next to her, held her withered hand, and told her about my day.

We talked for an hour or so. I tried to remain cheery and upbeat. Regardless of what I’d told Tony, I had doubts that Mom even knew I was there. But on the slight chance she did know, I didn’t want to depress her.

When I was all talked out, I stood up, stretched, and then did my poking and prodding. I checked her diaper. Examined her for bed sores. Tickled her feet and pinched her arm, hoping to provoke some kind of response.

“You know, Mom, you’re only supposed to sleep for one-third of your life. You’re using up your allotment here.”

After a pillow fluff and a kiss on the cheek, my attention drifted and I wondered if Tony was still here. A kind, good-looking, single man my age was a rarity.