Chapter 10. Progress is Slow

Mary arrives at the nursing home at 9:00 on Saturday morning thinking Maxine will have had her breakfast and hopefully be alert. She is directed to Maxine’s room and glad to see her sitting in a chair watching TV. She greets Maxine, “Good morning, Maxine, how are you today?”

“Do I know you?”

“You used to. I’m Mary Anderson. You may remember me as Mary White, White was my maiden name.”

“Oh yes, now I remember. You’re Grace White’s daughter. Grace used to bring you to Doc Arra’s. I didn’t know you were married.”

“I got married after you retired from being Doc’s nurse and receptionist. I came to ask you some questions about some of Doc’s patients.”

“I'm happy to see you. I don’t know if I can answer any of your questions. My memory isn’t what it used to be and I’m not supposed to talk about the patients you know.”

“I won’t ask you about any private medical things. I’m just trying to learn about names. Do you remember the Ericsson family that was patients in the late 1970s?”

“Late 1970s you say. That would have been just a few years after Doc Arra came to Sturgeonville. I remember his first few years well. He was a handsome young doctor and all the ladies were gaga over him, especially the young ones. They would make up symptoms trying to get an appointment to see the doctor. And some of them were more successful than they should have been. It was a good thing I was ten years older than the doctor and married or he would have been after me too. I tried to keep him focused on the ones who were sick but he liked the ladies. I think he enjoyed the attention. Sorry, I got carried away thinking about those early years with the doctor. Now what was the name you were asking about?”

“Ericsson. There was a husband and wife and at least one son named Elliot. Do you remember them?”

“There was a young man named Ericsson but his mother called him Buddy I think. I’m sorry I don’t remember any more about them.”

“Do you remember if Buddy had a brother or a sister?”

“No, sorry, but if I could look at our appointment book from those years I would be able to tell.”

“Would it be okay if I come back next week with the appointment book if I can find it?”

“Yes, I would like to see you again. I am sure the appointment book is somewhere in the clinic. Doc Arra never threw anything out. I had to file everything just the way he directed me. It would have been in my receptionist's desk when I was working but heaven knows where the new receptionist put my things after I retired. Doc wouldn’t have let her throw it out so it’s there somewhere.”

The next Wednesday evening when the board members are gathered in the dining room Pam inquires, “Mary, did you have any luck with Maxine Lafleur?”

“Not much. Her memory of those days is sketchy. She remembers an Ericsson boy called Buddy but that’s all she remembers about the Ericssons. She does say that if I take her the appointment book from that time she’s sure she can tell me what I want to know about the Ericsson family.”

Joe asks, “Did she remember where we can find the appointment book?”

“She said it would have been in the receptionist’s desk until she retired. She is sure it’s still here somewhere because Doc Arra wouldn’t let them throw anything out.”

Pam replies, “Then our job tonight is to find that appointment book right after we hear what Sam learned from the phone numbers on George’s phone. What did you find out Sam?”

“I made some progress but I didn’t find the definitive answers we hoped for. The most recent unidentified calls were to and from numbers in the Lansing area. There was a call to an insurance company. I learned that by calling the number and the receptionist recalled that George called his sister Laura a couple of days before he was killed. The other calls were to and from the switchboard at the state capital building. The call to the capital was made the day before George was killed and the call from the capital was early in the day he was killed. It’s an automated switchboard so I couldn’t determine which extension may have been called. There’s no way to identify the person called.”

Pam says, “Good work, Sam. We can’t expect it to be easy. In my experience detective work is slow and grinding. You just have to keep at it and little by little things will fall into place. At least now we know the calls were not to Michigan State University. If they had been it would have looked like George was either contacting Brother Thomas or reporting on him. We still can’t take Brother Thomas off the suspect list but he is looking less like the possible murderer. Okay, let’s go search the clinic for the old appointment book.”

When they get into the clinic Peter says, “Let’s start with the receptionist’s desk. We’ve been so busy working on the digital catalog of Doc’s collections we’ve never looked in that desk.”

Sam replies, “Good idea, Peter, always start with the most obvious place first.”

Peter goes to the desk and tries to open the middle drawer. It’s locked. He tries other drawers and they are locked also. He says, “It makes sense that the receptionist would keep the desk locked. She was the doc’s nurse as well and wouldn’t want people in the waiting room poking around in her desk while she was with the doctor.”

Pam offers, “Go look in the doc’s desk. He probably kept keys for all the things that had to be locked up in his desk.”

Peter goes to the doctor’s office and comes back in a minute. He says, “Good guess, Pam. I found a ring of keys in his top desk drawer. Let’s see if one fits the receptionist’s desk.”

The fourth key Peter tries opens the desk. They quickly find the bottom left-hand drawer has a stack of appointment books. Peter takes out the stack and says, “It looks like there are books from the early 1970s to when Doc died. Which one do you want, Mary?”

“I need the one or ones that cover 1975 to 1980.”

“Here’s one from 1974 to 1978 and the next one is from 1978 to 1982. Do you want both of them?”

“Yes, let’s look at them. Maybe we can find out what we need to know ourselves without going back to Maxine Lafleur.”

Mary opens the first book and exclaims, “It’s not going to be easy. It looks like Maxine used shorthand or her version of shorthand. I can’t read these entries other than the dates and times.”

“Hopefully Maxine can remember how to read them, Mary. Do you want me to take them to her?” asks Pam.

“No, now that she remembers me I should be the one to go see her again.”

Joe interrupts, “I had a thought while you were looking for the appointment books. I know how we can move Brother Thomas up or off our suspect list.”

Pam says, “Please share your idea, Joe.”

“I can call him and ask him if he knows where the missing letters are. If he took them he’ll likely have some cock and bull story, which will make us more suspicious of him. If he tells me where they are and we find them I think we can eliminate him from our list of suspects.”

“That’s worth a try, Joe. I don’t see any downside other than if he’s guilty it might lead him to think we are still investigating. I don’t see any harm in that since he’s not around now and not likely to do something that lets the sheriff know we’re still investigating,” then Pam sums up, “We made a little progress tonight. Unless some of you want to continue to search for the missing letters let’s go home early tonight. That okay?”

They all agree they don’t want to do any more searching so they set the alarm, lock up and leave.