The Murders of the Hospital Social Workers Part 2
At lunch, Mary ordered a hamburger patty and asked for a steak knife to cut it. She said it was cooked too well done and hard to cut.
When dietary asked if they could take away her tray after lunch, Mary had removed the knife and had wrapped it in a napkin and hid it under her blanket. Gloria’s turn was tonight. Instead of a fork in the neck, Mary planned to stab her in the back as hard as she could. She had regained much of her strength and at 5’6’, 160 lbs., she was sure she could overpower the petite Gloria, if necessary.
Oh joy, oh joy, revenge is so sweet. I don’t care what they do to me if they catch me, but these two bitches will be gone…gone forever so they can’t put people like me into nursing homes ever again. I know they are doing it for profit and not because they care or because it is in my best interest. I heard the nurses talking that most of their patients are put in homes. Not me. No way. I’m doing the world a service by getting rid of these parasites that are feeding off of old people and their assets.
##
‘Hey Joe,’ said Kelby. ‘Something does not add up.’
‘Like what?’ replied Miller.
‘I’ve been reading though the last six months of Rose’s files and the majority of her patients were sent to rehab or nursing homes. They weren’t discharged to their own homes. That seems odd to me.’
‘I noticed the same thing, partner. Maybe they have a high percentage of people needing that kind of care?’
‘There should some kind of means where a percentage are above and a percentage are below. I calculated eighty percent and that seems awfully high.’
‘I agree.’
##
‘It was a few minutes to five. Mary strolled down the hall past Gloria’s office. Another murder was about to be committed. Another crooked social was about to get axed.
Mary quietly walked in the room and pushed the door closed. She used a cane now not a walker. The knife was in her robe pocket; her hand on the handle. She got behind Gloria as she wrapping up a phone call. Gloria didn’t see her as she put the receive down. Mary took the knife out of her pocket and with both hands, as hard as she could, shoved it into her upper back area near the neck. Gloria was so surprised she couldn’t call out. In a fit of rage, Mary pulled the knife out and stabbed her again this time in the neck causing Gloria to fall on her desk, dead.
Mary left the knife in her neck and threw the gloves in the trashcan. She opened the office door and casually walked out into the hallway. Mary saw she had a few drops of blood on the front of her robe. When she got back to her room, she went into the restroom and washed it off.
‘Your dinner is here, Mary,’ said
the dietary technician through the lavatory door.
‘I’ll be out in a minute. Just
leave it on the tray table.’
Mary was able to rinse the blood drops off, then flushed the toilet, and went to eat her supper. She enjoyed her favorite food which was chicken breast, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, cake, and coffee for dessert.
It wasn’t long after Mary started eating that Gloria’s body was found. From the sound of it, her boss found her dead, slumped over her desk. Within an hour the commotion was back with the police and all the technicians roping off the area and walking back and forth. Mary finished dinner; dietary took the tray away and she got back into bed, turned the TV on low and fell appeared like she was asleep. Two down and one more to go. I must get the bastard responsible for this situation. That’s the big boss himself, Bob Rousseau. The cops will have a hard time figuring out who killed that parasite social worker. If they have half a brain, they we’ll see that both these women were on the take and that made for a lot of suspects.
##
Miller and Kelby walked around the latest murder scene. It wasn’t much different than the first except the murderer used a knife instead of a fork and it was shoved it in the victim’s back first and then pulled out and shoved into the back of the neck. The common thread was they both were social workers. Neither Miller nor Kelby wanted to state the obvious which was someone hated social workers so much that they are going around killing them. But why? This time, they would need to pull all of Gloria’s files and go back to the office to see if there is something that tied both murders together.
##
‘Kelby…I’m seeing the same pattern with this one that I saw with the first murder. A high rate of home and rehab placements,’ said Miller.
‘I am convinced it’s a patient or a family member of a patient who did this,’ replied Kelby.
‘But for what reason. If the patient needed to be in a facility, then why?’
Ah…but what if the person didn’t need to be institutionalized. What if they received a bad report from Physical Therapy and/or Occupational Therapy and was put there against their will? What if this was small but organized group doing this?’
‘But what would the social worker gain?’
They both looked at each other and shouted, ‘Money!’
‘We need to pull their financials and see if they had received some kind of monetary gain and if so, how much,’ said Miller.
‘They’d be stupid to put in the bank,’ replied Kelby.
‘No one said they were smart, greedy yes…smart, I don’t think so. Besides, if they were getting kickbacks, they could be paid off in cash or in items that were not cash related. Either way maybe they were living a lavish lifestyle. I think we are going to see that their spending habits do not match their income.’
While Kelby checked into their bank accounts, what kind of car they drove, and where they lived, Miller called Dr. Delmonico to run some ideas by him.
##
‘Good evening, Joe. What can I do for you tonight?’ said Dr. Delmonico.
‘We just came from Van Nuys Hospital where two social workers have been murdered over the past two days.’
‘A second one? I read about yesterday’s murder in today’s paper, but now you are saying there’s another death. Was it a man or a woman?’
‘A woman.’
‘How was it done?’
‘The first was with a fork to the side of the neck and this one was a knife in the upper back first and second thrust was in the back of the neck.’
‘It sounds like the person is evolving, becoming more violent. The first murder was quick. A one-shot deal. The second was two strikes. More anger here. Like take that, and that. So, tell me do you know if your suspect is a man or a woman?’
‘That’s the thing. We don’t have a clue. We think it’s a patient or a patient’s family member because we know that both social workers had a high rate of placing patients into nursing homes and rehab facilities.’
‘Well…I would say based on that, I’d say it’s anger or revenge… someone went into a home against their will or someone is going into a home and a family member or the person themselves isn’t too happy about that and they are about to have their assets confiscated to pay for it. They are taking it out on the social worker. You mentioned that there was a high rate of placement by these two workers into homes. How high?’
‘The first one was 80 percent. The second one we haven’t figured out yet. We don’t know anything yet as the murder was just committed but it looks like it was just about as high.’
‘I think you have a kickback scheme going on between the home and the social workers.’
‘Kelby and I thought the same thing.’
‘You need to do a cross check which homes and rehab facilities were used. I know this will be a lot of work but you need to see if all the placements went exclusively to these facilities and if so, pull the records of the facilities. They will try to write the kickback off under office supplies, remodeling, cash, or miscellaneous. You need to go back through the records at least six months with the facilities and unfortunately you will need a court order. They will try to pull patient confidentiality as a reason for not giving you the information. Good luck.’
‘You think the person will continue to kill?’
‘How many more social workers are left at the hospital?’
‘On the floor with the two dead women were found? Only their boss is left.’
‘Then I predict he’s next. Someone and I think it’s only one person was pushed over the edge will try again tomorrow. The person believes they are ridding the world of scum. This person was told he or she that they would have to go to a facility…and she or he said no and decided to take revenge… Joe?’
‘Yes?’
‘Both social workers were killed within a day and they worked on the same floor. I think you need to look for a patient that is not in a facility yet but has been slated to go…against their will.’
‘When do you think the person will strike?’
‘There is no reason to think the murderer will change their modus operandi. He or she will want to strike tomorrow at the same time. You need to be in control of the next situation because this person will try again.’
‘Thanks Dr. Delmonico.’
##
‘So, what did Dr. Delmonico say?’ said Kelby.
‘There will be another murder tomorrow night at the same time,’ replied Miller. ‘He thinks it is a current patient who these social workers were trying to shove into a home and he or she will be going after the boss. We need to get their first,’ replied Miller.
‘How do you want to play it?
‘Let’s go to the property department…I’ll explain on the way.
##
I am doing my physical therapy just like I’m supposed to. Nobody knows I’m strolling by the big boss’s office in order to check everything out so I can rid this place of vermin and the poor victims of the last of the stinking dirty slime. The three of them were nothing but blood suckers. Funding their lavish lifestyles off the backs of the disabled and old people. The nerve. They should be ashamed. All of them. They can all die…die. Tonight, the last one will join them…The ringleader. I bet he lives in a mansion and drives a Mercedes. Well, too bad, so sad, for him. He’s going to meet his maker soon…very soon.
##
It was three o’clock when Miller and Kelby returned to the hospital. They spoke to the Bob Rousseau and explained their plan. At 4:30, he was to leave his office, and placed in police protection for his own good. Miller got a mannequin from the property department and dressed to look like Rousseau and put him in his chair. His back was to the door: the same position the women sat. The dummy had the phone in his hand, a tape recorder in the drawer with his voice talking like he was on the phone. The scene was set. Now everyone must wait to see who showed up. Miller was in Rousseau’s private bathroom walkie-talkie in hand; Kelby was in the closet. Would the person come back and try it again? If he or she doesn’t, then the person would get away with two murders.
It was five to five. Miller and Kelby heard footsteps outside the door. Miller said, ‘All positions, hold…I repeat…hold.’
The door silently opened. Miller could see a figure on a cane but that was all. Kelby couldn’t see anything.
Then, the figure took a knife and shoved it into the head of the dummy.
‘Alright, freeze…drop the knife,’ said Miller.
Mary stood upright…surprised that she hadn’t killed the boss.
She yelled, ‘You must let me get him too. Don’t you understand? He’s no damn good.’
Kelby came over and grabbed Mary’s hand. They both saw a frail older woman on a cane and for a moment, he felt pity for her…only for a moment, but she was a murderer. Kelby couldn’t forget that…nor could he forget that the social workers she killed and the situation drove her to this. Bob Rousseau would be arrested too. Numerous charges from accepting kickbacks to tax evasion to whatever else they could dig up plus all the nursing homes and rehab facilities and the fraud that was committed. Mary inadvertently discovered a whole ring of thieves but instead of bringing it to the proper authorities, she took the law into her own hands. Maybe it was her being scared that she would go to a home…who knows? But this house of cards just fell.
Mary was still a patient. She was escorted to her room by a police woman. A guard would be posted.
Bob Rousseau was escorted out. ‘You have the right to remain silent,’ said Kelby.
‘I want my lawyer,’ said Rousseau.
‘That will be arranged.’
Miller stood there as his partner walked him to elevator. He watched as Mary went back to her room and got into bed. Miller shook his head. He felt sorry for Mary even though she was a murderess. She came into the hospital to get better and resume her life and now she faces two murder charges and attempted murder charges.
Miller and Kelby solved the case but all they felt was sadness for Mary and anger for this den of thieves. It shouldn’t have ended this way…but it did.
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