CHAPTER FOUR

Interviewing the residents of Beechgrove Retirement Home on Tuesday was difficult at best. Many were confused or intimidated by the detectives' presence, some were totally unresponsive, and a few had taken a shine to Jane and spent the best part of the morning trying to convince her to date their grandson… or granddaughter. The rest were just glad of some company and happily chatted away about various topics, none of them relevant to the case and none of it helpful.

They'd split up after a while, working their way through the rooms of two separate wings, in agreement that they'd save time and hopefully their sanity.

Jane was talking to a rather camp seventy-eight year old, Edward Bannister, when young nurse Rachel bustled into the room with a small metal cart.

Edward eyed her with a sneer and she visibly cowed. He made a little effort to lower his voice as he spoke to Jane but it was calculated and malicious and the nurse could still hear everything, "Have you seen the size of the thighs on that?"

Jane's mouth hung open in shock. She turned to look at the young nurse but the girl was intently focused on counting out pills into a tiny cup. Admittedly the girl was chubby, but she was far from obese and certainly not deserving of the unprovoked comment.

The nurse placed the cup on the bedside table and simply said, "Here's your medication, Eddie." Her eyes didn't lift from the floor and Jane's heart ached a little at her obvious lack of self-esteem.

Ignoring her, the old man folded his arms with a flourish and sniped, "I told you weeks ago you should join weight watchers… or a gym. It'll help with all the cellulite you're carrying around on your ass."

The young girl shuffled back out of the room, a trolley wheel squeaking as she retreated, and Jane pointed a finger in the direction of the door before jabbing it towards the resident. "I don't think that was really necessary, do you?"

He wasn't in the least bit intimidated by Jane's stern attitude. He just laughed and stuck his chin out in defiance. "Oh, please, honey. You don't know what you're talking about."

Eddie was fast becoming the bitchiest old queen Jane had ever come across and she could feel a vein pounding in her right temple.

"They're all sweetness and light one minute and then the next…" He shoved up the sleeve of his shirt and bared his left forearm, revealing vivid mulberry patches amidst stark white skin. Leaning forward, he whispered, "I didn't do this to myself, darlin'." Jane's mind was a swirl of questions as he covered his arm and breathed a huge sigh. He seemed to soften suddenly, losing the bravado and forced persona that had dominated the first ten minutes of his interview, "Complaints have been ignored time and time again, so many of them have been accused of crying wolf, and those are the ones with family visitors…" His expression turned sad, teary almost. "What chance do the rest of us have?"

Jane had always thought bullying to be inexcusable, but suddenly she wanted a piece of Rachel too, and the rest of the staff for that matter. It was quickly becoming evident that something disgusting was going on here, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

After chatting for a little while longer, she shook Eddie's hand and thanked him for his time, keen to find Frost and get this investigation hurried along.

She strode the length of the corridor checking her cellphone for messages but soon a familiar voice stopped her in her tracks. Desperately looking for an escape route she jerked from foot to foot, dashing left and right, turning back and forth. Annoyingly, there wasn't a single room in the vicinity in which she could feasibly hide. Ridiculously, she considered plastering her thin frame tightly to the nearest wall in the hope that her grey suit would camouflage her against the drab décor of the facility but the notion was dismissed a second later as Angela turned the corner and immediately spotted her eldest child.

"Oh my god, Jane!" She broke into a little run in order to fling herself at the brunette. "I didn't think you'd come back so soon. Have they been keeping you busy?"

Too exasperated to set Angela straight once again, she nodded and gestured with her cellphone back down the corridor, "I was with Eddie, but I was just leaving."

Angela pulled a face, "Bit nasty that one by all accounts."

"Yeah, well -" Jane wasn't in the mood for her mother's gossip-based opinions.

"They're not all like that. Some of these old folks are as sweet as pie. You'll get to know them all eventually if you keep showing up." She was giddy with excitement and tried to go in for another hug."

Jane stepped back just as her phone started to ring and she began to walk away the instant she saw the name on the screen, "I really have to go, Ma." She waved the phone in the air, "Duty calls."

Angela called to her, raising her voice to be heard, "Let me know if you'll be here tomorrow. We can carpool!"

Jane waved over her shoulder without looking back as she pressed the green button, "Hey, Maura."

"Hi, Jane. I was just calling to invite you and Casey to dinner… at my house, if you still want to catch up. I was thinking about how great it was to see you and I didn't want to leave it too long."

"Oh, sure. That would be great." She squeezed her eyes shut in excitement.

"Would Thursday be okay?"

"Er, yeah. Yes," she corrected, remembering all the times her Nonna had told her to enunciate properly. "But Casey's busy Thursday night so it would just be me."

"Actually, mother offered to cook, if you're okay with it being the three of us?"

Trying not to sound too eager and failing miserably, she blurted, "No, no, that's fine. Should I bring anything?"

"Just your appetite. She's trying out some new recipes so there's bound to be more food than we need."

Jane chuckled, she had a mother just like that, "Okay, well, thanks, Maura."

"It's my pleasure. See you soon, Jane."

Jane ended the call and slid the cellphone back into the holster. Finding Frost chatting with a nurse in the foyer came as a relief and she let out a big sigh as he approached.

Groaning, she gestured toward the exit, "At this point I don't even care if you're done. We're leaving before I do something I might regret."

Chuckling, he headed for the door, holding it open for her to leave, "I'm right there with you partner."

She stopped just inside the door, oblivious to Bella Talucci lurking in the corner of the foyer reading a magazine, "Is it just me, or are there a lot of gay people in this place?"

Frost snorted, she didn't know the half of it. Amused, he offered dramatically, "If you ask me, there's something in the water."

Jane didn't speak again until they were buckled up in the car and Frost asked, "So you didn't have any luck either, then?"

"I don't know that you'd call it luck exactly. But yeah I got something of interest." That piqued his curiosity and he twisted in his seat, giving his undivided attention as Jane told the tale of Rachel and Eddie.

They were only half way back to BPD, having driven the last few minutes in silence, when Frost cleared his throat and tentatively asked his partner, "Did I ever tell you about my mom?"

oOo

Back at the retirement home, Bella Talucci walked the corridor swiftly, heeled sandals clipping loudly on the linoleum, searching for her mother. She found the older woman in a side room, gossiping with an elderly woman who was sporting an impressively gaudy purple rinse. Gesturing for her mother step outside for a moment, Bella smiled sweetly at the octogenarian and spoke far more loudly than was necessary, "Excuse us, Edna. I just need a word with my mother."

Carla was bustled a little way up the corridor after she left the room, her daughter more cautious about eavesdroppers than the detectives had patently been. "You know what you were saying about those people -"

"What people?" Carla whispered, wondering what had her daughter so on edge.

Urgency in her voice, Bella rushed, "Like Eddie and the manager and – and that old hag down the hall, Bertha; the ones that are…" She spoke through clenched teeth, her lips unmoving, "…that way."

Carla leaned in, "What about them?"

"Well, I suspect they're not the only ones."

Carla's eyebrows lifted at that, her top lip curled in disgust. There were more of them than she realized before coming here and she almost wished she was still in the dark about the people that were… that way. Their strange habits and abnormal proclivities should be kept behind closed doors in her opinion. But the temptation for juicy gossip was just too strong. This might be better than hearing about Edna's estranged daughter-in-law and her battles with alcohol. "Really?"

Matching her mother's horrified expression, Bella added, "And I think I know why."

Startled, Carla asked, "What do you mean?"

Keeping her voice low, Bella squeaked, "There's something in the water!"

"What?!"

"I overheard the detectives talking about it. Something… something about the water. Maybe that's why they're here investigating. Maybe… what if it's spreading? What if it isn't just the water at the center that's…" She swallowed uncomfortably, "… tainted."

Carla was speechless for long seconds before breathing out, "We have to warn people."

oOo

Dinner at the Rizzoli house was a noisy affair, as always. Frankie and Tommy yelled and tussled in front of the television as Frank bellowed at them to cut it out, Casey tinkered in the driveway, trying to get Frank's plumbing truck running again, and Jane helped Angela in the kitchen.

The women were getting ready to carry an assortment of steaming bowls through to the dining table when Angela turned and yanked her daughter's baseball cap from her head. "And you can take this off before you sit at the table."

"Hey!" Jane shrieked, snatching the hat back. "Don't touch the merchandise."

Angela tipped a pan of red sauce over a mountain of pasta, "It's filthy. It needs to go in the trash."

Jane gasped, affronted, "How dare you! This is vintage."

"Vintage?" laughed Angela. "It's falling apart!"

Jane squeezed and moulded the peak in her hands. "It's older than I am, granted, but it's a valuable collector's item. It's… softened and… broken in. I got it at that antique sporting goods store that just opened."

"You're ridiculous, you know that?" Angela chuckled.

Jane grabbed a bowl in each hand and turned to leave. "I resemble that remark."

Angela shuddered, grabbing two bowls of her own and following behind. "God knows how many sweaty heads have been in that thing."

Rolling her eyes, Jane entered the dining room and plonked the bowls heavily onto the table. "See, here's the thing…" Turning back to her mother, hand on her hip and leaning in with a whisper, "… I don't care!"

Angela gave no warning as she yelled not six inches from Jane's ear, "DINNER'S READY!"

The men filed in as Jane took a seat, grimacing at the sight and mumbling Jesus Christ under her breath. The younger Rizzoli males jostled for seats, pulling on each other's basketball shirts, wafting the smell of their sweaty armpits across the room. Frank followed in a greying white vest and sweatpants that had seen better days, the elastic waistband drooping obscenely to reveal a butt crack that made Jane close her eyes and screw her face up in disgust. Then finally, Casey entered, wiping filthy hands on an oil-spattered cloth, his borrowed coveralls tattered and torn from collar to ankles.

The unfairness of the situation galled her the most and Jane elbowed her mother with one arm while the other swept a hand out over the table, gesturing to the males as she gave her a pointed look that said Really?

When Angela looked confused, she gave up, shook her head despondently and turned her attention to the food.

It didn't take long for the sounds of serving spoons hitting plates to stop and the sounds of conversation to start. Jane groaned to herself when the subject of work came up.

Frank grumbled about work drying up and Casey made an awful joke how that can't be good for someone who works with water most of the time. Frankie was enthusiastic about recently becoming a beat cop and Jane winced internally at the thought of her mother nagging twice as much about it being too dangerous. Tommy was still looking for regular employment, but apparently he had a mysterious friend that had just come out of the woodwork and offered him a temporary house-painting gig. Martinez busted that kid for drugs two weeks ago but Jane bit the inside of her cheek and kept quiet; she planned to warn Tommy off later, in private. She might not like him sometimes but she loved him enough to not have Angela go ballistic at him over the spaghetti.

When someone asked about her latest case – she had been so zoned out staring unseeingly at a bowl of untouched green beans to notice who's voice had spoken – she just shrugged and mumbled, "Oh, same old same old… dead person… shouldn't be dead… find out whodunit."

Then she had a revelation, something to shift the focus a little, "Oh hey, I did find out something interesting though… Frost has two moms."

The sound of cutlery hitting china echoed through the room and several jaws dropped.

"Too many people getting divorced these days," Frank piped up.

Frankie jumped in, snorting through a mouthful of food, "There's this guy who was at the academy, got like three stepmoms or something 'cause his dad gets bored every five years and marries somebody else."

Tommy laughed, slapping the table and Angela mumbled Don't be ridiculous as Jane tried to make her point, "No, not like that. His mom's gay, married to a woman."

"Now you're being ridiculous," Frank snipped.

Jane was confused, "What's the big deal?"

"Sounds a bit bizarre to me," inserted Casey. "Can't be normal, can it?"

Jane's eyebrows drew together, worried about the turn this seemed to be taking, "Normal?"

"Well," Angela drawled. "She's not his mother, is she, not really. He must still have a father?"

Stunned at the negative reactions, Jane kicked herself for bringing it up. "In the Navy," she said absently, prodding a fork at the food on her plate.

"There you go!" exclaimed Casey. "Still takes a mom and a dad to bring up a kid."

"Quite right," added Frank.

Facing an entire circle of opposition, Jane lacked the courage to tell them that actually Frost's father had never been around much and his moms had, in fact, brought him up from being very young. And very well, she thought, to be more precise. She should have said what she was thinking, defended him, argued equality and logic and what the hell is normal anyway? for him and his unconventional family. The fact that she didn't made her feel downright sick.

As Angela started clearing empty plates from the table and Frank stood up to leave, she grabbed him by the forearm and batted her eyelashes, "You couldn't grab all that stuff out of the trunk for me, could you?"

"I thought you managed all the groceries earlier?" he asked.

"I brought in the bags. Couldn't manage the five cases of bottled water, though." The look on his face was priceless and she swatted him with a tea towel. "Oh, don't give me that. I just don't want to drink the tap water right now, that's all."

"Yeah," Tommy jumped in, waving his hands about. "She's got some mad idea that it's like… tainted by the devil, or something."

Frankie laughed on his way out of the room, "She's crazy."

Angela looked seriously at Jane, still sat at the table almost in a trance. "I wouldn't be…" she pointed from her daughter to Casey and back again. "… If I had a bunch of grandbabies to occupy my time."