Knock, Knock…’Dr. Delmonico, are you in?’ said Bill Kelby.
Dr. Delmonico's secretary had stepped away from her desk. He stopped his tape recorder to answer the door.
‘Detective Kelby, nice to see you again.’
‘Got a minute, Doc?’ said Bill as he stood anxiously waiting to talk to the Department Psychologist.
‘Sure, my next appointment isn’t for a half-hour,’ he said as he glanced at his watch. ‘Have a seat.’
‘I had to tell you what happened at the zoo today.’
‘I heard through the grapevine that the stakeout worked. The suspect showed himself but unfortunately you ended up having to kill him.’
‘Yeah, he didn’t give me much of a choice. He came at me with a knife like what the guy did at the used car lot. I saw Joe and Marlene running behind yelling for him to stop but he didn’t. He ran toward me; his was arm up. He intended to stab me. I drew my service revolver and said, ‘Halt, Police,’ and when he didn’t stop, I shot and killed him ’
‘How did you feel about doing that?’
‘Relieved. I reacted instinctively, according to my training. I wasn’t scared anymore.’
‘I’m glad. The bad dreams should start to go away. Once Internal Affairs clears you, I will clear you to go back to work. I’m sure you missed Joe.’
‘I did but he had a beautiful partner.’
‘But she was a rookie, not one with years of experience. It’s different.’
‘I’m grateful to you, Doc. Seriously, if you hadn’t suggested I get back in the game, as you put it, I would have doubted myself, maybe forever.’
‘At least you don’t still think I’m nuts,’ said Dr. Delmonico.
‘Sorry I called you that.’
‘Trust me, I’ve been called worse things over my career.’
‘Well, I better go. Your next appointment will be here soon,’ replied Bill Kelby.
‘Drop in anytime. My door is always open.’
‘Thanks, Dr. Delmonico. I really appreciate it.’
They both stood up with Bill extending his hand to shake Dr. Delmonico’s hand and Dr. Delmonico reciprocating.
After Bill Kelby left the office, Dr. Delmonico pulled out Bill’s file, wrote in the notes that he met with Bill, and he was back to his old self. No more sessions were needed. He was fit for duty.
##
‘Thank God that patient died. Code blue…croaked of a heart attack. He was a real pain in the ass!’ said Nurse Jeanette on the day shift at Valley Hospital.
‘You really shouldn’t talk that way about the patients. We’re here to help them,’ replied Jack, a younger, more compassionate nurse.
‘Really? You think so? All they do is use the call bell all day long. I need to go to the bathroom…I’m in pain…where are my medications…I’m hungry…when is breakfast, lunch, or dinner. We aren’t some hotel, you know? Seriously, you enjoy being a servant to sick people?’
‘I became a nurse to help people, whatever that may be.'
‘How altruistic you are? Let me see your attitude in 20 years.’
‘If you hate being a nurse so much, why don’t you do leave the profession and do something else?
‘After twenty years? Seriously? I can’t go back to school and retrain. I’m 42 years old. My ship sailed. I’m stuck.’
‘No, it hasn’t. Better for you to do something else than be miserable. It’s better for the patients too.’
‘It’s too late. All I can look forward to is retirement and the hope that some of these leeches die…’ replied Jeanette.
‘You don’t really mean that.’
‘Sure I do. Oh shit, there goes another call bell. It’s the lady in 2295B wanting to go to the bathroom again and Gladys is on break.’
‘Let me answer it, okay?’ said Jack.
‘No, she’s my responsibility.’
‘With an attitude like yours, the response cards are going to look pretty bad when the people write down about their stay here and how they were treated.’
‘Ah, most people never fill them out. Why do you think I’ve been here this long? They forget. They are so happy to be out of this place and go home, they don’t bother to fill out the cards.’
‘Just once, you’re gonna piss off the wrong patient,’ stated Jack.
‘If it hasn’t happened in twenty years, the chances are it won’t happen now…. See she’s ringing again.’
##
‘And just what do you want?’ said Jeanette in a harsh tone of voice to a middle-aged woman named Nancy.
‘I have to go to the bathroom.’
‘Can’t you go by yourself?’
‘I’m hooked to the IV,’ said Nancy weakly.
Under her breath Jeanette said, ‘You are such a pain in the ass.’
##
Nancy did complain about the horrible nursing she received when she was discharged and was given some double talk by the hospital that they were short-staffed but they would speak to the nurse. Nancy was deeply hurt and emotionally upset by how she was treated by the nurse, nurses aide, and hospital administrator. She wasn’t emotionally stable, far from it. She had been seeing a counselor for depression and anxiety but this incident pushed her over the edge. Her arms were black and blue from where she was poked several times for blood and IVs. She didn’t get her medication for migraines and psychosis. She started seeing and hearing things again. When she got out of the hospital, she had trouble knowing reality from fantasy. Her nurse reminded her of the one from the movie ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’: mean and cruel. The nurse’s name in the movie was Nurse Ratched and she did horrible things to her patients on a psychiatric floor but Nancy’s nurse acted worse and told her to go to the bathroom in the bed because she was too busy to take her toilet. Nancy had enough. She decided to exact revenge.
##
That bitch isn’t going to get away with what she did and said to me. She totally disrespected me and she’s gonna pay.
##
After Nancy was released, she found out when and which floor Jeanette worked and snuck back into the hospital dressed as a nurse. She bought some nurses uniforms in a shop that sold all kinds of medical supplies near her house. She needed to wait for her to work a night shift when it was quieter. Then Nancy put her plan into motion. Jeanette went to lunch and was alone in the lunch room. Nancy hid on the side of the vending machine, and when Jeanette turned her back to her, Nancy hit her over the head several times with large end iron she brought from her fireplace at home. When the hall was clear, she put Jeanette in a wheelchair and took the freight elevator to the basement.
##
That’ll show her who to be mean to. There are sick people here that need help, not be ignored. She’ll never do this again to another human being.
##
The basement elevator doors opened and Nancy wheeled the body to the morgue, and dumped the arrogant, cruel nurse on the morgue floor.
Before leaving, she placed the bloody poker next to the body, and then she, ‘I spit on you, you bitch. Go to hell, go directly to hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200. HA. I wish wherever you are, all the people you tortured in the past 20 years are there to greet you and they treat you the way you treated them. Now there is one less incompetent, disgusting, rotten, person in the medical field.’
Someone was coming. Nancy grabbed the body and dragged it to the corner of the morgue. Phew. Close call, no one came in. It was time to leave. Before she left, she changed into a clean uniform that she had in a bag with her and stuffed the bloody uniform in the bag.
Nancy went back to the elevators and took it up to the first floor. It was past 1 a.m. She disposed of her gloves in the trash receptacle along with uniform. As she walked out, the guard said, ‘Are you coming back?’ Nancy looked at him and said as cool as ice, ‘I’m just going for a smoke.’
She walked quickly to the street, got in her car, and went home.
The body was found at 4 a.m. when Jeanette hadn’t come back from lunch and the hospital did a full-scale search.
##
Ring, Ring, Ring,
‘Joe, get the phone it’s for you,’ said his wife sleepily as she pulled the blanket over her head.
‘Yeah, Joe Miller…Can’t it wait. Jesus, it’s 4:30 a.m. The body ain’t goin’ anywhere. Oh, alright. Did you call Bill? Okay, I’ll call him.’
Ring, Ring, Ring, Ring. ‘Bill, it’s Joe,’ said his wife as she handed the phone over to her husband, turned over and went back to sleep.
Bill took the phone from his wife’s hand. ‘Bill Kelby. What? Now? Jesus Christ, did you tell them the body will still be there later like in an hour. Yeah, yeah. I’ll meet you at the hospital. Give me half hour to get there. Yeah.’
##
‘So what do we have,’ said Joe Miller to the CSI tech.
‘A nurse was killed.’
‘No, really? You got us out of bed at 4:30 in the morning to tell us that. We were already told that!’
Ignoring the remark, the Tech said, ‘We found evidence it was done in the breakroom where the vending machines are. An end iron from a fireplace was the murder weapon. It was lying next to the body.’
‘Shit, someone was really mad,’ commented Joe Miller. ‘Several blows to the head.’
‘So she was killed elsewhere and brought to the morgue,’ commented Bill Kelby.
‘Who would know how to do that? I mean, know the layout of the hospital well enough to leave a body in the morgue.’
‘It’s not hard to find where any place is. They pass out maps at the information booth and guard shack so anyone could have done it,’ replied the CSI Tech.
‘Seriously? But the person must have a badge to move freely around the hospital. I mean the morgue isn’t an area accessible to anyone.’ said Miller.
‘I don’t think it would be hard to forge a badge,’ said Kelby.
‘So the next question, why this nurse?’
‘I can’t say it for sure as I don’t know what kind of person she was, but it could be she was mean and took Nurse Ratched lessons.’
‘What?’ asked Miller.
‘Remember the movie, ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ that came out a few years ago?’
‘Yeah, with Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher. It won a bunch of awards.’
‘The dead nurse must have taken Nurse Ratched lessons. Maybe someone hated her so much or was treated so badly by her that someone bashed her head in,’ replied Kelby.
‘You think so?’
‘Yeah, I do. The staff didn’t have anything nice to say about her, so what do you think the patients thought about her, huh?’
‘Don’t tell me we have a ton of suspects,’ replied Miller.
‘’fraid so, partner. Let’s get some coffee and go to work.’
##
‘All the staff has been accounted for but a guard did see one nurse leave around 2 a.m. for a cigarette and never saw her return,’ said Miller.
‘Well, can he describe her?’
‘Not really. Dark hair, petite build.’
‘Terrific. Let’s run it against our list.’
##
‘Nothing,’ said Miller.
‘Then, it’s not a nurse. It’s probably a patient.’
‘You know how many patients have come through here in a day, a week, a month, six months?’ whined Miller.
‘Maybe one patient was disgruntled enough to complain and nothing was done about it, no reprimand, nada so she took matters into her own hands.’
‘We need to get a court order to see the patient records and review anyone complaining about Nurse Ratched starting with this week and going back six months.’
##
I got that witch. She’ll never torture another person again. I got rid of the end iron too and threw away the nurse’s uniform. They’ll never figure it out was me. Now it’s time to do away with that bitch of a certified nurses’ assistant. A professional my ass. She was so incompetent. She refused to answer my call bell too and didn’t want to help me to the bathroom when I needed to go either. How incredibly crass and cold is that? She answered my roommate’s call bell but not mine. Well, she’ll what’s coming to her. How should I kill her? And where? Those are the questions I need to answer…
To be continued.
About the author
Since becoming disabled in 2015, Maxine took up her passion for writing. She has been published several times in the Los Angeles Daily News, The Epoch Times, Nail Polish Stories, DarkWinterLit, BrightFlashLiteraryReview, OtherwiseEngagedLit, CafeLit, Maudlin House, and TheMetaworker.com.
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