Dead Men Don't Smile by Gregory Payette

Author:Gregory Payette
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 8 Flags Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2020-04-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

I WALKED OFF THE ELEVATOR at Baptist Medical Center and sure enough the same security guard was standing by the nurse’s station, as if he knew I’d be showing up.

“Hi again,” I said. “Remember me?” I gave him a friendly smile—a bit forced—and handed him my business card. “Mind if I go visit Mrs. Kaplan?”

He stared back at me, as if confused. He didn’t answer.

“Kristen Kaplan?” I said. “She’s the woman in room three-oh-seven. I was here a couple of days ago, although—”

He narrowed his eyes and folded his arms at his chest, as if he finally figured out where he was. “Sorry, no visitors right now.”

“Seriously?” I said. “Why’s that?” I pointed to the sign next to the desk. “It’s still visiting hours.”

He just stared back at me. “Visitors are allowed. Just not visitors for Mrs. Kaplan.”

I turned to the woman behind the desk. “Can someone tell me why? Is she okay?”

The nurse gave the security guard a look and said, “The Fernandina Beach Police Department has informed us nobody is to visit her until they tell us it’s okay.”

“They said she can’t have visitors? That’s ridiculous. They say why?”

The guard looked down at a piece of paper on the clipboard on the small desk next to him. “Are you Henry Walsh?”

I nodded.

“Because they were pretty specific about not letting you in no matter what.”

I pointed to myself. “Me? Why would they...” I stopped. “Can you at least tell me who specifically told you not to let anyone—or me—in to see her? Any chance it was an officer by the name of Dale McDonald? He’s the one who was here the other night when you wouldn’t let me back there.”

“No sir.”

“No sir, what? No sir it wasn’t him? Or no sir, you’re not going to tell me who told you not to let me in?”

The guard was an older man with white hair under his hat. I wasn’t about to attack the man, but he wasn’t about to give me any ground, either. He might’ve been somewhat frail inside his aging body, but he was close to my height and held his chest out as he stood from the stool beside the desk.

“I’ve been instructed to call them if anybody has any problems, or gives me a hard time.”

“I’m not trying to give you a hard time. But I’d like to see the woman I was in a car accident with. But it’s clear someone believes that’s asking for too much.”

The guard stepped toward me. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” He narrowed his eyes.

The nurse behind the desk stood with her hands at her chest, staring right at me.

I put my hands up, my fingers spread with my palms facing out. “Can you at least tell me her condition? If she’s improved?” I looked back and forth from the guard to the nurse.

The two exchanged a look.

The nurse said, “She’s stable.”

“Is she conscious?”

The nurse hesitated a moment, then shook her head. “She tried to speak.

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