A Series of Unfortunate Events

Chapter 20

While dusting in the common room that had the piano, Sharon/Isabel came across David sitting at the piano, fingers poised over the keys. Pretending to play. Without thinking about the consequences of him playing without permission, she had asked him to play for her. He had immediately started playing a beautiful rendition of Für Elise. After he had been playing a few minutes, Cora came out of nowhere it seemed, and almost closed the key cover on his fingers. Sharon with amazingly quick reflexes had stopped her.

She had then taken the blame saying she had asked him to play for her. Cora had said he hadn't earned the right to play the piano and would lose that privilege for three months. Seeing the devastation on David's face, and knowing that ultimately, she had caused it by encouraging him to play, without permission, Sharon had lost it. She had started yelling at Cora about being cruel and hateful for the fun of it and that someday she would have the pleasure of seeing the woman in handcuffs. Her behavior wasn't normal for her, she was usually cool and controlled, but Cora was pushing her to the very limits. She had gotten a little too close to Cora during her tirade, and suddenly Augustus had shown up and had given Sharon an injection. Sharon had been out instantly. Augustus had carried her to her room after that.

She felt bad for her. "I'm sorry that you're in this situation. I'm not real sure how it happened either, but I don't believe in coincidences. I believe this happened so that you can help me get rid of that pustule of humanity, named Cora Hartley, and get her in prison where she belongs."

"Gee, Colleen tell me how you really feel!" Sharon joked with sardonic humor.

Colleen smiled at her. "Miss Isabel, that's not the half of what I feel about that woman," she said sarcastically. "Now, let's get you showered and changed into some clean clothes. We've got to hurry, Miss Cora doesn't like waiting," she told Sharon/Isabel.

Sharon nodded and asked her to turn her back a moment. Colleen respected her desire for privacy but was unable to comply. "I'm sorry, Miss Isabel I can't do that. Miss Cora can see me from here. She can't hear us in here, but she can see us until we get further into the bathroom. She says I have to watch you here in the bathroom because this is where some of the former inmates have committed suicide by hanging themselves or they overdosed with drugs they hold in their bodies, but I suspect that it's a way of humiliating you. If you know what I mean." She made a disgusted face.

Sharon closed her eyes, she definitely was humiliated as well as disgusted. Being a policewoman, she was also aware of the of the many different ways people smuggled drugs and how prisoners were treated when they were booked. She opened her eyes and averted her focus as she took care of her personal business while Colleen stood there facing her, averting her eyes as well. She trusted Sharon/Isabel not to have drugs on her but she needed to at least give the outward appearance of following Cora's rules. Colleen then gave her a drink that had a fruity effervescence to it and then two blue gel capsules, and a regular drink of water. "What are those?" Sharon asked suspiciously. "I don't want to take any more medicine."

"Relax, it's Ibuprofen and Airborne. It will help your headache and make you feel a little better. The Airborne is an immunity booster. Sounds like you're catching a cold."

"Oh great, that's the last thing I need, my immune system has really taken a beating lately," Sharon said and hesitantly drank the immunity booster and took the pills with the water.

Colleen had a soft husky voice that sounded like molten honey. It was melodious and soothing. She was a kind woman, and she seemed to like Sharon and she trusted her, but Colleen refused to call Sharon anything but Isabel. This frustrated Sharon a great deal. It had made her not sure whether to trust her at first. Of course, now she realized the necessity of it, Colleen had to make Cora believe she was following her rules or Colleen would be dismissed. It also kept Colleen from making any mistakes in front of Cora. She was trying to give Cora a false sense of security, but being called Isabel instead of her own name unnerved Sharon because she was afraid that if they kept shooting her full of drugs every chance they got and calling her Isabel, pretty soon she wouldn't know who she was.

Understanding her concern, Colleen had told Sharon the night before, in confidence, that if her plans were successful, Sharon/Isabel would be gone from there way before that happened. She told her that she, Colleen had been plotting and planning for awhile, but she couldn't get rid of Cora by herself. She needed someone with a backbone, someone who wasn't afraid to rock the boat. She had told her that seeing Sharon stand up to Cora repeatedly in spite of the consequences, had made her realize that Sharon/Isabel, was the person she'd been looking for. Colleen knew for sure "Isabel" was Sharon Raydor, as she said she was. She had looked her up on her phone during her break sitting in her car. The picture of Sharon Raydor that came up was of a fiftyish auburn haired, green-eyed beauty. Even though Sharon/Isabel sported a nasty head wound covered with a bandage on the right side of her head and a bruise below it and no makeup, she was still a beauty. She was unmistakably Commander Sharon Raydor of the LAPD. She also knew that Sharon's family and her team were looking for her.

Unfortunately, Cora had eyes and ears all over the place and would dismiss her, Colleen if she found out she'd been in touch with any of them. Colleen could get a job elsewhere, but she didn't want to leave without ridding the psych ward of Cora Hartley. Colleen was looking to replace Cora as Head Nurse. She had experience in running a psych ward with kinder gentler humane ways of handling behavioral issues. One of the first things she wanted to do is get rid of aides like Angie and Gus. Gus was one of Cora's goons. Angie was just lazy and stupid.

She, Colleen and the other aide, Angie had been hired the same day. Colleen had learned quickly that Angie was just there to do the least amount of work she could do and punch the clock to get paid. She didn't care a hoot about the residents or their stories. Colleen really cared. She wanted to tell somebody what was going on but she knew telling anybody in this town would end up making her lose her job. Or worse.

The problem was the executives in charge of the psychiatric ward thought of Cora as their darling. She could do no wrong. Her methods worked to keep the inmates in line. They didn't seem to care about her cruelty to them because they never witnessed them. They wouldn't even believe it if she Colleen told them. Nor would the police in this town. They were all under Cora's thumb. She also knew that Cora was bound and determined to break Sharon's/Isabel's will, and even drive her crazy, since she wasn't already there. There seemed to be an old animosity there. Colleen suspected that Cora knew who Isabel really was and had a vendetta against her.

As Colleen supervised Sharon getting ready for her shower, she decided to ask. "Miss Isabel, do you know Miss Cora? Have you had any dealings with her before?"

Sharon frowned as she tried to remember. She had never been good with names until she had begun to head Major Crimes, and Andy had pointed out how important it was in their job to identify with the victims by name. From then on, she made a point to remember the names of the victims they investigated. Sharon struggled, to bring up the memories from twenty or twenty-five years ago. The memory was there but just beyond her grasp. The medication's she'd been given we're making her forget things and it scared her. "I'm not sure. It seems to me I had a case many years ago while I was in FID, that she could have been part of. A cop who was taking protection money from the store owners on his beat. She would have been the wife. She never spoke to me directly and I never really saw her whole face, just her eyes. Long and black heavily lashed, but when I was testifying against her husband, I could feel, her eyes on me from way in the back of the courtroom. They were full of hate. It made my hair stand up on end. Of course, it's not a feeling I'm unfamiliar with, so I dismissed it," She said in an ironic tone of voice.

"Well, the way she looks at you, if looks could kill, you'd be dead."

Sharon nodded and laughed ironically. "I assure you, I'm very glad that looks can't kill. I've spent most of my career in the Force Investigation Department. If looks could kill, I would have died many times, over the years."

Sharon tried to force her memory to go back, twenty years. She remembered the basics of the case, but the name Cora Hartley didn't match up with the people involved in that case. Try as she might the names in the case escaped her. "I've been thinking and trying to remember, the name doesn't sound familiar and she doesn't look familiar, except for her eyes. They seem familiar. Of course, it was twenty years ago, she would have been much younger then, and she's probably changed a great deal. I know that I've changed a lot in over the years. I'll have to think about it. I suppose it's possible she may have changed her name," she mused.

"We need to hurry! Miss Isabel, Miss Cora is not fond of waiting."

"Ohhh, I'm sorry. I'll hurry, I'm hungry enough to even eat the slop they call food here," she started to get up and go to the shower.

"I'm sorry Miss Isabel, but you won't be eating," Colleen said sorrowfully.

Sharon stopped and turned to look at Colleen. "Wh… what? Why? Because I insulted the food?! I apologized!" Sharon said incredulously. Due to her weakened condition, Sharon's ability to put on an inscrutable mask was only partially successful. Her face was set, but her beautiful green eyes went from anger to rage. Then they became wet with unshed tears, of concern for the inmates, and herself. If Cora was doing this to her, she had most likely done it to the other inmates as well.

"I'm afraid so honey. Miss Cora is making an example of you. You'll be serving the food to the other residents, but you won't be allowed to eat until she deems you punished enough."

Sharon pressed her lips together and tried not to give in to the tears that were threatening to fall. Her emotions were all over the place. She guessed it was being in a weakened condition, and the effects of the drugs she'd been given. She didn't like not being able to control her tears. It made her mad. Cora's inhumane treatment made her furious. "She can't do that! It's cruel and unusual punishment! I don't really care personally about not eating, the food was horrible. It tasted like… spoiled meat, but if I don't have something soon I won't have any strength left to help you with your plan."

"I thought of that." Colleen moved her head towards the shower and Sharon/Isabel got in. Colleen handed her a bottle of Ensure, once they were out of sight of the camera and Sharon knocked it back. She handed her a second one, a sample size and Sharon drank that too. "Feel better?"

Sharon smiled and commented within her shower, "thank you. Won't you get in trouble?"

She shook her head saying, "Not if she doesn't find out and hopefully we can keep her busy so she won't find out. Make sure you brush your teeth and even your tongue, that stuff has a distinctive smell."

Sharon nodded but wondered aloud. "How does she get away with denying food or decent food to these people? As a police officer and being in the criminal justice system, I'm somewhat familiar with the laws regarding mental patients, and I'm very sure that it's against the law to use that kind of punishment. Aren't there inspections? This is 2017, not the 1960's or 70's and what about you? Why don't you tell someone what's going on?"

Colleen chuckled sardonically, "Welcome to the world of low budgets, neglect and most importantly greed, Miss Isabel. The powers that be don't care about this little ward. All they care about is that Cora keeps the place running smoothly. She can do no wrong, at as far as they are concerned. So, Miss Cora thinks she can do whatever she wants and get away with it and she's most likely right. This is a poor area. It's poorly staffed and the technology is very outdated because the powers that be don't want to pour money into a hospital that usually doesn't get much traffic, except for the odd accident three-car pileup. The "inspectors" such as they are, are men who are led by... excuse my crude language and their peckers. They are notoriously open to corruption. When they arrive, Cora lines up the inmates looking neat and shiny and obedient, she gives the inspectors an abbreviated "tour" of the place then pouts and says, 'she didn't know they were coming and she just had the floor waxed, and it isn't dry yet.' She pours on the charm and explains, 'how it would be dangerous for them to walk on it before it dried and couldn't they just pass it anyway, without seeing it this one time? If they could come to an agreement she could make it worth their while,' and then she gives them a sexual favor they can't refuse in her office. She gets away with this because there is a high turnover of inspectors." Colleen chuckled, "and then she holds their acceptance of those favors over their heads to keep them in line. As for me telling on her well, I've carefully cultivated the appearance of outwardly behaving like one of Cora's followers to gain her trust, but privately, I have been working to gain each for the inmate's trust also. The final part of my plan to overthrow Cora is to let you in on my true agenda. You, being a police commander could be instrumental in helping me expose Cora Hartley for the diabolical person she really was."

Sharon was appalled at all she was hearing and had to ask, "You couldn't find one person to tell about what's she's been doing? Not one hospital official?"

Colleen frowned knowing what was happening in this place was a lot to take in. "Miss Isabel, Cora has got a lot of people in her pocket. If I told on her, she would know instantly and have me dismissed in a heartbeat and I'm one of the few people that knows who she really is. A wolf in sheep's clothing. So, I keep my own counsel and plot my own course of action, do you understand?"

Thinking for a moment then Sharon nodded. "So, it's just you and me against her and her goons?"

TBC…

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