She sat in the easy chair, looking out the big picture window towards the trees that surrounded the home. As the dawn crept over the horizon she thought that she could make out a mound of something at the edge of the lawn, just before the beginning of the forest. She squinted through the thick lenses of her glasses, struggling to attempt to make out exactly what was there. But it was no use. Her eyesight, even with the new lenses in her glasses was, as she told everyone, completely unreliable any further than about 20 feet away from something.
Jamie, the morning attendant, entered the room and told her that the early breakfast was being served momentarily.
“Jamie, be a dear boy and tell me what that dark heap is that is on the ground near the edge of the lawn. My eyes are not good enough to see it.” She said.
Jamie walked over to the window and squinted at the heap through his own glasses, which were nowhere near as strong as hers.
“It looks like a person lying there sleeping Mrs. Edwards. It is likely one of those homeless people who often camp in the woods. If he isn’t gone soon I will have to notify the groundskeeper to go and roust him as soon as they come in.” Jamie replied.
She wandered off to the dining room and soon forgot about the heap on the ground as she sat around the breakfast table chatting with the others. The big news around the table this morning was that Lily would soon be leaving, as her cataracts had developed enough so that she was eligible to have a clear lens extraction.
“Where is Lily this morning?” She asked.
“I am surprised she isn’t down yet Bea. She is usually one of the first people here.” Margie replied.
‘She was watching a movie with me last night on the big screen television in the rec room. She said she would see me this morning.” Martha replied.
“I don’t think she is too happy about having to move to another home.” Carol said.
“She knew the rules when she was accepted here. And she could have chosen to have her lenses replaced with the same power lenses as her natural lenses. That way she could have stayed.” Karen said.
“I don’t think she even thought about the ramifications when she signed the papers.” Margie replied.
“She probably didn’t. I don’t think it even sank in when director Jacobs told her that if she no longer wore her thick glasses she would need to find other accommodations. I know she was pretty upset that she was going to have to move just when she would finally be able to see like a normal person.” Bea said.
“She was pretty happy last night when we were talking during the commercials on the telly. She told me that she had found a way to make director Jacobs keep her here.” Martha said.
“I don’t see how that could be possible. Everyone signed a contract when they were accepted here stating that they had to wear strong minus glasses in order to be eligible to live here.” Bea Edwards stated.
“I don’t know what she was talking about then Bea, because she was as giddy as a young schoolgirl last night.” Martha replied.
“I wonder if they were going to let her stay on because of her part time position as book keeper?” Carol asked.
“That might be it. Oh look, here comes our food.” Karen replied.
The five ladies dove into their food. They were all very shortsighted and they all wore extremely powerful glasses, but there was nothing wrong with their appetites.
“Lily didn’t make it before breakfast was served, so I guess she will have to go hungry until lunch today.” Maggie stated.
The ladies got up and joined the rest of the people leaving the dining room. Bea looked around and thanked her good fortune that she had found this retirement home to live in for her remaining years. No one would have thought that a home catering to highly myopic people would make enough of a profit to survive in the cut throat world of senior assisted living, but somehow there were always enough highly myopic seniors that kept the place full at all times. And, from what Bea had heard there was even a waiting list to get in. Bea herself felt very comfortable here with all the other high myopes. No one felt snubbed when someone didn’t recognize you in the hallways because hardly anyone could recognize anyone else from more than about 5 feet away. Bea was fortunate at the moment because she had just gotten new glasses and her eyesight was likely a bit better than most of the others right now. And, another nice thing about having everyone here being extremely myopic, if someone broke their glasses another resident would likely have a pair of glasses that were close enough in power that they could wear them until they got new ones. Heck, Mr. Pritchard was still wearing Molly’s old glasses, and it had been 3 months since he broke his own. He didn’t care that he was wearing an old drop temple pair of ladies myodiscs from 30 years ago as long as he could see. But Bea figured he had better hurry up and get a new pair for himself before Molly’s old glasses crumbled into plastic dust as the ones from the 70’s were wont to do.
Instead of taking the elevator up to the third floor where her room was located Bea decided to walk up the stairs. When she reached the second floor she hesitated and instead of going on up to her room she went through the door onto the second floor and headed to the picture window in the library that looked out over the back yard towards the forest. The area where she had seen the object in the distance was awash with people in uniforms and they all seemed to be searching the ground. The coroner’s station wagon was just pulling away and one of the uniformed policemen was busy stringing yellow tape around the site.
“Must be a murder.” Bea mused as she was joined at the window by Martha.
“Oh Bea, it is so terrible isn’t it?” Martha said.
“What is so terrible Martha?” Bea asked.
“You hadn’t heard then. The body that they found was Lily. She had been murdered. The detectives are questioning everyone now.” Martha said.
Bea was shocked at the news. She had never been as close to Lily as Maggie and Martha had, but she hadn’t disliked her. She found Lily was a needy person and always wanted to be told what a wonderful person she was. Apparently she had been a pretty good bookkeeper when she was out in the workforce, and that is why she was helping out with the books at the home. But in fact Lily seemed to be a bit slow and a little naive about life to Bea. Still, Bea wondered what Lily had done to cause someone to kill her.
Jamie came up the stairs and onto the second floor. When he spotted Bea his face lit up. He told her that he had been searching for her because the police detective wanted to see her in the first floor lounge. So Bea headed back down the stairs.
“Well, that was a waste of time.” Bea grumped as she left the room. The detective had asked her a few questions about what she had seen on the grounds that morning, and then had dismissed her without answering any of her questions. The stupid fool didn’t have a clue who she was. Bea had tried to tell him to no avail, but Bea was determined not to be left out of the loop.
Before she retired Bea had been the personal secretary for Inspector Stamp of the city police department. Although Inspector Stamp had also since retired he had helped Bea’s son Wellington advance through the ranks to the point where Tony was now second in command. He was going to get a call about the slight she had received.
“Yes Mother, I understand that you don’t feel that detective Stone gave any weight to your thoughts. I will have a word with him. But if you have any information that might shine some light on this case, please tell me. I shouldn’t admit it, but we are mystified as to why a little old lady should be killed.” Tony told his mother.
Of course Bea really couldn’t shine any light on the killing of Lily. She felt better for speaking to her son and she decided that it was time she put on her thinking cap..
The facts of the matter are that Lily was scheduled for an operation to replace the inner lenses in her eyes with new ones that would give her good eyesight without the thick minus glasses she had worn for years. The rules of the retirement home were such that unless Lily wore strong glasses she would have to find somewhere else to live. Lily had told Martha that she had found a way to stay here, but Bea knew that was impossible unless Lily had a way to blackmail director Jacobs. But what could Lily possibly have on director Jacobs?
Bea had always had an analytical mind, and like a flash the only possible answer came into her mind. Lily spent a lot of time in the office. Maybe she had found out some dirt on director Jacobs was her first thought. No, Lily was doing a lot of the book keeping. What if director Jacobs were stealing money and Lily found out about it? That had to be the answer, but how could the director be stealing money from the corporation? All the money came in either by check, or by direct deposit.
Bea noticed that it was now time for lunch, so she made her way from her room to the first floor dining room. The other ladies were sitting around the table in a somber mood, and there wasn’t much conversation so Bea had time to think.
Kickbacks. It had to be kickbacks and Lily found out about it. But just how much money could director Jacobs have made a month from kickbacks? It certainly couldn’t have been enough to kill someone over.
Bea spent the rest of the day thinking about this. She could not come up with any sort of a solution, but she was convinced that it had to have been director Jacobs who killed Lily. The following morning she called her son and told her of her suspicions.
“I will pass your thoughts on to Detective Stone mother. He is a very competent investigator so I think he will likely have a forensic accountant look into the books at the home.” Tony said.
Bea noticed extra bodies in the offices the following day and by that night word was going around the home that director Jacobs had indeed been arrested for the murder of Lily. He had been taking kickbacks from all the suppliers and the cleaners as well as some of the staff. It wasn’t a huge amount and certainly wasn’t worth killing anyone over, but apparently he had panicked and had killed Lily without thinking.
Bea was pleased. The following day Detective Stone had come by and had thanked her for her help in the investigation. She was beaming from ear to ear when she went in for lunch that day and she could hardly wait to tell her friends that the detective had told her that no one would have even thought of investigating the director if she hadn’t instigated it.
Specs4ever August2013