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Chapter Five

Joseph dropped Mike back at the station before he drove off back to the Sacred Oak Nursing Home. He called to notify of his arrival and hoped to get a hold of Alice Reed but she was off until the late evening. Joseph would just have to deal with whoever was in charge because he was not going to wait until ten o'clock for her to arrive.

After parking he started walking to the front entrance and moved to the side as an aid pushed an elderly woman in a wheelchair. He smiled politely to them both and noticed the stunning green colored eyes the aid had. She was as tall as Mike and as stocky yet on her, it helped make her look more attractive. She looked young enough that she could draw the eyes of most men to look at her yet she also seemed as if she were a mother. She had the patient look of someone having to deal with kids constantly but found a way to not be perturbed.

The woman sat placidly in the wheelchair with a vacant look upon her face as if she were in another world. Her eyes briefly looked at Joseph then she suddenly reached out and grabbed him. She firmly held him yet her grip was soft and gentle in a way. He knew he could break free if he wanted but if he did he might hurt her. The nurse immediately stopped and started telling the woman to let him go.

"Frank, help me get Joseph out of the tree!" The woman urged and Joseph flinched at hearing his name used. He was suddenly reminded of his grandmother and how she used to get when she had Alzheimer's Disease. He had a special bond with his grandmother and the last memory of her he had when she was still lucid was her telling him not to forget her. From there he became a complete stranger and at first she started asking his name and who he was, then she began to resent him visiting her as just another stranger that was keeping her prisoner in the nursing home. When she became comatose, that sparked her last days and he said his goodbyes without ever knowing if she heard or even understood what he was trying to tell her.

"Silvia, please let go of his arm." The nurse was trying to gently say to the woman. Her head turned in an unusual fashion as she looked blankly at the aid.

"That damn dog chased Joseph up the tree again and now he's stuck!" She replied and the nurse tried to calmly quiet her down and looked apologetically at Joseph.

"Come on Silvia let's finish our walk before dinner." The aid replied then mumbled an apology to Joseph.

"If you bring down Joseph, I'll bake you a pie, I know it's your favorite, remember? Pie, Pie, everything's better with pie, everything's better with pie, yeeeeeaaah!" Silvia sang and as she finished singing about pie she did a flourish where she shook her hands and tried to shake her feet like a showgirl finishing a dance number.

"Come on Silvia, time to go you did a great job dancing." The aid said and Joseph just stood there dumbfounded.

"But what about Joseph?" Silvia asked as she still continued to dance by shaking her hands.

"Joseph?" Joseph asked, looking at the aid for help as to what or whom Joseph was.

"A cat I think she ownHe tried humming that song ed." The aid whispered to him and he tilted his head back in realization. The aid continued pushing the wheelchair and Silvia had become lethargic again just mindlessly looking out at the scenery.

Joseph shook his head and continued on towards the entrance. Thoughts of his grandmother tried creeping in but he kept pushing them away to avoid getting distracted. He did not want old wounds being opened because that old woman was making him remember them.

"Wonder why they named their cat Joseph?" He mused to himself as he entered the nursing home.

An older woman sat at the front desk where the security guard's body had been found. Clothes had been decorated to cover up the blood while they waited for the chance to clean it. She looked upset by the surrounding but seemed as if she was trying to not let it get to her. Her glasses had thick lenses and reminded him of the old phrase "Coke Bottle Glasses."

In the past when a person wore glasses that had thick lenses they looked like the bottom of Coke soda bottles. This was common before newer technology had a way to slim down the thickness of the lenses yet provide the same, if not better, vision correctness. Her glasses were either very old or she was cutting corners because of cost. She looked to be in her sixties and being a receptionist in a nursing home is not a high paying job, so it would not surprise him if cost was keeping the lenses so thick.

She looked at Joseph and at first looked a little grumpy but she adjusted her head slightly and recognized Joseph coming towards her and she made a fake smile as she greeted him.

"Hi, welcome to Sacred Oak! You're a new face I know just about everyone that comes here to visit the residence here. So, who are you here to see?" She asked.

"I'm Detective Namer," He said, taking out his badge. "I'm here to see the supervisor, I forgot her name but called about an hour ago. She should be expecting me."

"Yes you're the one that is going to find the guy that killed Peter right? He was the best guard we had here, so polite and friendly, always a pleasure to talk to. I bet you didn't know this but every friday we'd order food together.

Now I love fish and chips and Rugger has the best in the city. The fish is so moist it literally just breaks apart as you touch it. And their chips are cooked just right, not too hard yet not too soft. However their onion rings are better than the chips and when I get an order of them you get so many it could be a meal unto itself. Considering the price, sometimes I just fill up on them rather than buying a whole meal because it's cheaper and fills me up the same." Joseph wanted to groan as he realized she was a talker and would probably not be able to get a word in edgewise.

"But yeah, I can't believe someone killed Peter. I mean what kind of world are we coming to? He was the nicest guard we had and we'd talk about everything as if we were girlfriends. He loved books as much as I did. He had one of those Kindle things but I prefer just regular books. It's just easier to pick up a book and put it down and not lose my place. Plus it looks too complicated. I don't know how you could turn a page." She continued rambling.

"You must be Terri." Joseph tried to say but she seemed as if she was not really listening. He vaguely remembered the maintenance guy mentioning her briefly.

"Yes. I own my cats and they are my babies. There is Itty Bitty, Itty Momma, then their kids are: Jitty, Tiny, Soon to be Momma, and Bryan. Now I call her Soon to be Momma because she's pregnant but her real name is Sue. I can't afford to get them all fixed so no matter how much I try and separate them they keep breeding.

Peter had a cat of his own and he used to agree with me that our pets are our kids. I mean my family wants me to get rid of them but they are my kids! How could I get rid of my kids?!" Terri was saying and a middle aged woman that had gorgeous blond hair approached softly.

She was very thin and for a second Joseph was tempted to ask her out. Her brown eyes looked to glisten and her smile made her look as if she were normally quiet like she was an introvert. She wore a white coat that made her look like a doctor the only thing she was missing was a stethoscope.

"Terri," Her voice was loud and firm. Not angry but elevated enough so that Terri would hear her. Joseph guessed she must have experience with her going on and on without pause as she was doing now.

"Huh?! Oh, this is the detective come to find the guy that killed Peter." Terri was saying.

"I'll see to him Terri, thank you. Sir, will you come with me." Her voice softened now that Terri had quieted and Joseph followed her to an office set up next to the lobby.

"Thank you." Joseph said breathing a sigh of relief and noticed the woman giggle slightly.

"Yes Terri can be a handful, but she has been here for years and she is well like.... As well as long winded. Well down to business, how can we help you, detective?"

"I would like to double check the bathroom to make sure there were no clues we missed... and I would like to ask you a few questions, if I may?"

"I'll be happy to be of service in any way possible." She replied and Joseph resisted the urge of making a lewd comment out of what she just said.

"Thank you. Now I spoke to Alice Reed last night and there was not much she could tell me about the security guard. Do you know of any reason why someone would want to kill him?"

"No, I'm surprised he was. He looks so young that he seems old enough to be the son of any of our workers here. A couple of them have unofficially adopted him and think of him as their kid.... Or they used to. He was always serious about his work like he had something to prove. Terri and him were the closest. The walls of this office are thin and I can't tell you the number of times I heard them laughing or arguing about something."

"Arguing?"

"I don't mean it the way it sounds. They were both very much alike so when they disagreed about something, they each 'discussed' their opinion then would get quiet for about thirty seconds then discuss something else and start laughing again. They really were best friends." She said.

"Have you ever heard of the name Shane Krong?" Joseph asked.

"No, I don't think so. Should I?"

"He was the man that killed Peter. We found his body in the men's bathroom and he was also dead. Could one of the workers be dating Shane? Could that be why the name sounds familiar?" Joseph asked.

"I doubt it, the only time we ever heard about boyfriends is if a restraining order is placed on them."

"Could one have been placed on Shane Krong?" Joseph asked, hoping it might have been put on him then there might be motive for wanting to kill the security guard. It would be easy to see that Shane was dating a nursing home worker and thinks the security guard is flirting with his girl, then gets jealous and kills him.

"I can check to see if anything was published to warn us about him." She said.

"Thank you, miss..." Joseph started.

"Lisa." She replied.

"Ah, Lisa, thank you."

"And you are?" She asked politely.

"Joseph, you can call me Joseph."

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you, Joseph." Lisa replied then began to watch him expectantly as if waiting for direction.

"I'm going to check out the crime scene for those clues... if there are any, I mean." She nodded and opened a filing cabinet then began to search it as he led himself towards the bathroom.

He entered and felt around the wall for a light switch and had his eye adjust as the light came on. Some police tape had been used to block the entrance to keep people from entering and disturbing the scene. Since last night nothing had changed minus the body of Shane Krong had been removed. The sickly smell of blood was in the air and Joseph reviewed the memory he had of what he originally saw last night.

He went to the window and checked it for any bullet holes but saw none. Not even signs of impact as if a rock was thrown against it. So a sniper was not involved! He thought to himself then went to the door and began to check it for the same thing. He found no evidence that a sniper could have killed Shane and realized he had to abandon that

It still left him with the question of 'who killed Shane Krong?' Joseph checked the ceiling for any part of it breaking in case it was falling debris but other than needing to be painted there was nothing damaged. So it could not have been falling debris that killed him. So it had to be someone strong and done with a heavy object in order to smash in his head the way it was. But who could do something like that?

In another part of the city two women sat at a round table that had five pointed stars inside a circle decorating the table cloth. The pentacles, as they are called, are a protective symbol associated with magick and spells. Here they are also used in tarot card readings and they represent money.

The first woman, named Rachael, was the fortuneteller and she was wearing loose fitting clothes with a headscarf on that made her look like a gypsy. The bright colors had autumn tones that looked warm and friendly. In front of her she had tarot cards lying face up in a particular pattern that she used when telling fortunes.

Rachael still had the body of a twenty year old showing no sign of ever having given birth. Her outfit hung loosely and made her appear heavier than she actually was. Her long hair hung down below her shoulders kept tied with a dark colored ribbon. She dyed her hair a fiery red color rather than her natural blond color. She hated being blond because too many of her classmates would tease her with Blond Jokes.

She was a co-owner of this shop and had been in business with her two partners for a number of years. Together they were three owners in total and planned on it because of what it represented in numerology. Each one of them had a distinct talent in fortune telling that made them differ from the others. So that if a person was interested in their future one would predict based on her talent then that client would be passed to the others to use their talent to further the reading. Rachael was good with tarot cards, while Cindy could read palm and do astrology, and Martha, the oldest among them, was a medium.

Rachael had been in a car accident and nearly died but when she was brought back by the doctors, she remembered how she felt she had met her grandmother and she gave her a special message. The trouble was she could not remember it but Martha had visited her in the hospital and she said she brought Rachael a message. After talking to Martha she agreed to leave her job and go into business reading tarot cards. At first she was doubtful that this was a good idea but as people said that she was getting the right messages from the cards she realized she had skill in them. Plus telling fortunes was very lucrative as well better than her old manager's position in retail.

Her boyfriend Rob had passed away in that crash and though other guys had asked her out she could not even think about going on a date with someone else. It made her feel like she was replacing him as if he meant nothing to her. So despite the protests of her friends and family she chose to remain alone until she could resolve the issue herself. Marth had tried to contact Rob but he never seemed to come through and even her dreams never had him stopping by. She had hoped he would come to her in a dream and they could spend time together, even if briefly, but he was never in her dreams.

"So the little bugger bit me, can you believe that? It makes no sense." Her client was telling her the story of her little dog. Her biggest client was Margaret Bannerman and while she constantly came for readings she spent the time talking about different things. Rachael figured that she was lonely since her family either wanted nothing to do with her or they had passed away. She never really paid attention to the reading but it just made her happy to be out doing something have people to talk to. She was in her seventies and other than a visiting nurse, a couple times a week, she was alone.

"Ut oh, this card is not good!" Rachael said as she turned over the Moon Card. The card had the picture of two large wolves howling at the moon but unseen behind them was a stream and what looked to be either a lobster or a scorpion was coming out of the water and ready to attack the dogs.

"What's wrong?" Margarett asked.

"It's the Moon Card, it means there is danger in your future. Be careful because something unseen is about to happen to you." Rachael said.

"Will it relate to the headaches I've been having? The doctor says they are stress headaches but what do I have to be stressed about?"

"Could be, the card says the headaches are a sign." Rachael said.

"So how do I make them go away? They keep getting worse."

"And the doctor said they were stress related?" Rachael asked.

"How did you know that? I haven't told anyone." Margarett said and Rachael looked at her suspiciously.

"I didn't know you were a mind reader." She said as Rachael was about to remind her that she had just told her what the doctor said.

"I'm not, it's just that..." Rachael began but Margarett immediately interrupted her.

"Look you are my daughter and I love you."

"Excuse me?!" Rachael shouted and felt her heart beating rapidly. She wondered if Margarett was becoming senile.

"See you next week and we can continue our discussion of when you're gonna make me a grandma." Margarett said and Rachael forced a smile as she wondered what she should do. Who could she call? Hey this woman that pays me suddenly thinks I'm her daughter. It is the first time she has done it after complaining about headaches. Can someone make sure she is OK? Rachael thought to herself as she watched her leave the reading area and go out into the shop.

The smell of burning incense rushed into the room yet the usually calming aroma was having no effect on her. Her eyes returned to the Moon Card and wondered if the image of the scorpion represented old age.