Chapter 6: Decision Time

I awoke this morning with an urgent knocking at my bladder's door. I could feel great relief but not the exquisite release that the ice or the biscuit gave me, so I hoped that I did not give anyone near me an instant arousal spike. I did notice the light behind the curtains, so I drew them aside some and looked at the downtown skyline that I could see from this view. I could see that we were north of the river, and on the west side, as I could see the towers of the old suspension bridge across the Brazos River. The towers were slightly to my left from this view. I think that the bridge was the first suspension bridge in Texas and the largest span for many years. I remember that it built somewhere around 1865 to 1870. I remember doing some research on it a long time ago as a part of an architectural assignment in college.

Breakfast consisted of a poached egg, one slice of toasted wheat bread, orange juice, weak coffee, and that damned jello. God I swear that if I see another square of that stuff, it will be painting the wall before I eat any more of it. I called Fred and begged him to bring me a bacon egg and cheese biscuit when he came in this morning. I had some things I needed to talk to him about. He said he would be here shortly.

I left the orange wiggly square for the next poor sap which came in here to heal. The rest I ate without relish. I got on my laptop and did a little research concerning the nursing environment in Texas. I also logged on to a secure server I have some access to and did a little snooping into my credit card spending during June. The purchases were for really normal things, but the volume was what ran everything up. There were numerous gas purchases in Corsicana, Hillsborough, Waco, Tyler, and Huntsville. Then there were the charges at HEB for groceries, I suspected, as these were for over a hundred dollars each time. Unless you were filling up a very large fuel tank, you couldn't run up a $157.34 bill for gas; maybe for diesel for a school bus. However these were also all over the place. I really needed a printer or at least access to one. Now where did I put Alan's card. Yeah here it is.

"Waco Police Investigations, Detective Carmody, speaking."

"Alan this is Henry Morgan; I have some information for you regarding my missing credit cards. Is there somewhere I can get access to a printer? I would like to print out the charges on my cards so you can run down locations that the cards were used at and maybe find a common central point to start from."

"That sounds fantastic; we didn't get that far on that avenue of the investigation yet. I'll drop by and maybe get you hooked to a printer there at the hospital where we can get it printed out. Thanks Henry; that will help us out a lot. You need another breakfast infusion this morning?"

"Thanks Alan, but I have that coming from my legal beagle. I have some other stuff to talk to him about so he is bringing two for me this morning. I swear if I get another one of those awful jello squares, I'm going to paint the walls with it. However, I do thank you for the concern. Come by and see me when you can."

"Yeah, it'll probably be about lunchtime or a little after, depending upon what comes up. We got a murder and a gang shootout that I need to investigate today too. So I'll be a little busy. Say, why not have your lawyer get it printed out, and he can bring it to me. That would help tremendously."

"No problem Alan, I'll see what we can work out. If nothing else, maybe I can charm one of the nurses to let me connect to their printer."

"Now that I can believe ... talk to you later, Henry."

"Thanks Alan, see you later, bye."

The nurse came by and took my tray, but scolded me about not eating the jello. I explained what I would do if I saw another square of it on my tray. She was not amused.

A little later Fred came by, and I explained what I needed. He said he would take care of it. He gave me my morning pick me up and went off to see what could be worked out. Meanwhile, I savored my biscuits and made sure I put the incriminating bag in a trash bin in the restroom down the hall from my room. I had graduated to being able to wear a pair of sweat pants and a tee-shirt; and I lost that damned open backed number; hospitals force us to wear. I think it is all a joke on the patients to be forced to wear a backless gown for the amusement of the doctors and nurses. However, I can't prove that. If I could, there would be a huge amount of suits against the hospitals. Yes, I know that they are necessary in some cases, but once a patient is on the mend he or she doesn't need to have their ass hanging out for all to see. It seemed that I had also lost some weight. My sweats were a little baggy on me.

Fred came back and said, "Hank, grab that laptop and follow me. I got you a printer available."

I grabbed my laptop and followed Fred. We went to the other side of the building from my room so this would be the north side and stopped at a nurse's station. Nurse Hughes was there and she allowed me to sit down next to her station. She handed me a printer cable and said I had about five minutes. She got up and walked down the hall. I plugged in and hurriedly pulled up my accounts and printed out the June statements and the charges so far this month on all three cards, so we could give a copy to Alan. Fred wanted a copy too, so I printed two copies. We were done with the printing and had the cable plug returned to the hospital computer when BB came back.

"Nurse Hughes, I want to thank you for your assistance in this matter, and I assure you that my client does too, right Henry?"

"Yes Nurse Hughes, I too thank you for your assistance. Is this station no longer manned?"

"As of this morning it is, the nurse who usually was assigned here quit, and is working somewhere else now. Well at least that is what I was told." She turned off the computer sitting there.

"I'm very sorry to hear that Nurse Hughes. I would think that you might want to seek employment elsewhere as well. I have heard a rumor that it might be advantageous of you to do so before too many others from here desert the sinking ship. I'm sorry if that is harsh, but I'm one of those 'pull the bandage off fast' type of people, best to get the hurt over with and not draw it out. However, then again, I don't think that this bit of news is unknown to you. How long have you known this was going to happen?"

"We have been getting fewer and fewer patients over the last year. We mostly get patients we have seen for many years and a few of the elderly homes that still deal with us, but most everyone else is going to Providence or to Hillcrest Baptist Hospital. There is a VA clinic here, but I wouldn't recommend it for my worst enemy. Other than these three hospitals, there are some clinics and emergency care centers, but that's it. I really am surprised that you are not at the VA center, since you're ex-military. However, perhaps father had some pull and had you brought to this hospital, or maybe whoever brought you to Waco, brought you here knowing that there would be no questions if they brought you in. You are right Mr. Warren; this is a very weird case. I'm glad I could help."

Nurse Hughes walked back up the hall while Fred and I almost shook our heads. BB was right; this case just kept getting weirder by the minute. Since we were alone I said, "Fred on another note, would you find out anything and everything you can on Nurse Carin Winslow. This is personal, so I mean everything. And this is on the QT, so no rumors to friends, okay?"

"Henry ... you are scaring me. You haven't been interested in a girl since Judy dumped you way back when. What's going on?"

"To tell the absolute truth, I don't know. Something about this woman is making me do things I would never do normally. I can't reveal too much, but I really like this woman, and I want to know more about her, so I have some idea what I am getting into. Once I get released, I may be staying at her home. She has a spare room I can rent until I get things straightened out here. She also needs to find another job, whatever form that may take. As you know, she is the night supervisor for this hospital; not just this floor but everything. I suspect that they are paying her way under what she should be getting, so find out what you can. From what I can learn, she is alone. Not even any family or at least none close by. She told me she has no friends outside of the hospital as she works the midnight shift, and she said, 'I have no pets, no boyfriends, or even any prospects' when we talked last night." I told Fred a little of what we talked about and even gave him a little insight into why I want him to find out about Carin.