Gran was speaking sharply. “—don’t need this, Thad.”
Vi could hear Dr. Hutchins breathing, fast and a little wheezy. She pictured his funny ostrich head, his beady eyes that blinked a little too often.
“She’s new, isn’t she supposed to ask questions?” His voice was higher than most men’s, and Vi thought it could easily be mistaken for a woman’s.
Gran sighed. “Yesterday she asked where the charts and records for patients down in B West were kept. Why no nurses were assigned rounds down there.”
Eric moved closer, trying to hear. Vi shook her head, took a step back.
“These are all understandable questions, Dr. Hildreth,” he said. Gran called him by his first name, but Vi had never, ever heard him call her anything but Dr. Hildreth.
“I know,” Gran said, sounding exasperated. “But Patty doesn’t ever seem satisfied with my answers.”
Patty.
The new nurse at the Inn, the really young one, just out of school. Vi hadn’t met her yet, but she’d seen her driving up to the Inn in her little yellow Volkswagen Beetle, her long hair feathered back, the skirt on her uniform a little shorter than the skirts of the other nurses. Patty was Dr. Hutchins’s niece, and he’d pushed hard to get her the job. Vi had heard him and Gran discussing it for weeks. Gran was against it from the beginning, saying she lacked experience. Dr. Hutchins said that was exactly what made her perfect—that they could train her, could mold her into the ideal employee for the Inn.
“So what did you tell her about B West?” Dr. Hutchins asked now.
Vi bit her lip. B West! Gran had written about it in her notebook.
There was a pause, while Gran inhaled, then blew out a slow, hissing breath. During important calls, or when she was trying to solve a difficult problem, she paced and smoked, said smoking helped her think. Vi listened hard, pressing her ear against the phone. “I told her we didn’t use B West for patients. Not anymore. That the basement is just for storage.”
This was followed by silence, another intake of breath, then an exhale. More pacing, the swooshing shuffle of Gran’s slippers across the wooden floor.
Eric moved toward Vi again, pulling at the phone, but Vi held tight.
“Then today she decided to try to see for herself. I caught her going down into the basement.”
Dr. Hutchins made a funny grunting sound.
Gran continued, her voice rising in exasperation. “I told her she needed to stick to her assigned area. She said she’d heard some of the patients talking. Telling stories about B West.”
“What kind of stories?” Dr. Hutchins asked.
“She wouldn’t say. But, Thad, I’m telling you right now, you need to put a leash on her, or we’ll have to let her go.”
Eric tugged at the phone again and Vi shoved him away. He tripped over one of the kitchen chairs, sending it crashing to the floor.
Vi kept the mouthpiece covered, held her breath.
Had Gran and Dr. Hutchins heard? Did they know Vi was listening?
Iris helped Eric up.
Vi kept her ear pressed against the phone, listening. It was quiet. Too quiet. Only a slight crackle in the line.
“I understand,” Dr. Hutchins said at last. “I’ll talk to Patty. She won’t ask anything about the basement again. You have my word.”
“Good,” Gran said, and hung up so hard Vi jumped.
Vi gently placed the handset back in the cradle of the kitchen phone.
“You idiot,” she said to her brother. “She could have heard us!”