Chapter 10
Sterling House
Ithaca, NY
Week 04

"Thanks Garcia." Rossi hung up the phone and looked at Blake. "She said this is the place. This is the current residence of Martha Walderman"

"OK, this is not how I spent my Saturday nights in college." Blake replied as they headed for the front door.

"Same here." They approached the desk and flashed their badges. "Hello, I'm Dave Rossi, this is Alex Blake; we're with the FBI. We need to speak with Martha Walderman; I believe she's a resident here?"

"Oh, of course." The clerk checked her computer. "Mrs. Walderman is in our stroke recovery wing." She pulled out a map of the facility and showed them.

"Stroke recovery?" Blake asked quietly as they followed the directions through the halls of the assisted living facility. But that was what they found when the nurse led them to Martha Walderman's bedside, a woman well into her 80's who had suffered a devastating stroke. "When did Mrs. Walderman have her stroke?" Blake asked.

"Oh, about four years ago now, this was her second. Sometimes she's more responsive than others but she's been pretty much like this ever since." The nurse responded.

"Do you know a Laura Patterson? She comes by on Saturdays."

"Oh, I know Laura, everyone does. She comes by every Saturday, brings her dinner and joins Mrs. Walderman while the aid helps her eat. Then they watch an old movie together unless there's a quilting gathering, and then they join the other residents. They used to do things together, back before Mrs. Walderman had her second. That one wasn't as damaging. We were all just so glad that she kept coming around, so many of our residents lose everyone when they end up like this. And for all we know Martha is still in there, she just can't respond. We were all heartbroken when we heard what happened."

"You said other residents, any chance we could talk to them?"

"Sure. I believe they're in the sun room."

"Go ahead." Rossi said. "I'll catch up in a minute." Once they left he sat down beside the bed and took the elderly woman's hand. "Mrs. Walderman, my name is Dave Rossi, I'm with the FBI. We're looking in to Laura's disappearance. Now I'm not supposed to tell anyone this but we have good reason to believe that she's still alive. And a young man was taken with her, an FBI agent I've known for a while now. He's a great agent, probably one of the strongest and bravest men I've ever had the privilege to work with and I know he'll do everything in his power to keep her safe. I give you my word that we're not going to stop until we get them home."

Mrs. Walderman's hand twitched in his. When he looked up her eyes were full of gratitude and tears.

They joined the residents but got a lot of the same, sweet girl, nice, friendly, didn't think anyone did the home ec thing anymore but she clearly loved it and they were happy for her. No sign of anything creepy, nothing. "Um, don't take this wrong but why would a healthy young woman spend her Saturday nights here?"

"Instead of with a young man?" One of the residents asked. "She never found the right one is all. Not for lack of trying, we set her up with every grandson, male nurse and young doctor we could find. She had more lunch dates than I could count but after one or two she'd really sweetly say that they just didn't hit it off."

"She was too shy is what it was." Another woman said. "She was too scared to open up. She was friendly enough but it was all on the surface. The only one who really knew her was Martha."

"How did they meet?"

"Oh at one of those knitting nights, back when Martha was healthy enough to get to them. Martha was a special education teacher back in the day, she said that Laura reminded her of some of her students and made it her business to get her to open up. She always blamed that girl's family, said that they taught her to build walls made of mirrors so you could think you were getting in but you never really saw her."

"You only saw what you wanted to see." Blake nodded.

"It took a long time before that girl started talking to her. I remembered back when she first started coming around, they would eat together and then watch some old black and white and all the while that girl wouldn't say three words. I asked Martha about it and she said patience would pay."

"According to the owner of the yarn shop where Laura worked she was taking Martha's orders and delivering them." Rossi said. "But it doesn't look like Martha has been up to ordering anything for a while now. Could she have been delivering orders for anyone here?"

They all laughed. "Martha hasn't ordered any yarn for years." One told him. "I don't know where it was going but it wasn't coming here."