Both Jennifer and Veena stood.
“Thank you very much,” Jennifer said. She reached out and shook hands with the woman and was surprised that her hand was like ice.
“You are welcome,” Veena said hesitantly, reverting back to acting like a shy girl. Her eyes darted self-consciously between the two women. “I’ll get back to work.”
Jennifer watched her walk away, lamenting just how little she’d be able to eat and how much she’d have to exercise to have an equivalent body. She then turned her attention and acknowledged as much to Nurse Kumar: “A beautiful woman.”
“You think so?” Nurse Kumar questioned stiffly. “You do know where Mrs. Varini’s office is, I trust.”
“I do,” Jennifer agreed. “Thank you for your help in allowing me to speak with her.”
“You are entirely welcome,” Nurse Kumar said, but she then abruptly spun on her heel and headed back toward the nurses’ station.
Sensing a snub of sorts, Jennifer walked over to the elevators. She thought briefly of asking to see her granny’s room but changed her mind. She knew it would look like any hospital room, just upscale. When the elevator came and she boarded, she noticed the guard who’d come to the floor earlier did, too. She was clearly being treated with great suspicion.
As the elevator descended, Jennifer thought over the conversation she’d had with the newly hired nurse. She was touched the woman was still so emotional about Granny’s passing, since she probably had spent only hours over the course of several days in Granny’s presence. Of course, the most interesting part of the conversation was about Granny’s reputed cyanosis. Closing her eyes for a second, Jennifer transported herself back to physiology class and tried to scientifically think what kind of heart attack might cause generalized cyanosis. Unfortunately, she couldn’t think of any. The only thing that came to mind was possible aspiration and choking on food. To get generalized cyanosis, Granny’s heart would have had to have been pumping fine; it would have had to be her lungs that weren’t doing their part.
Jennifer opened her eyes. Such thinking raised the issue of smothering. Someone could have smothered her grandmother and produced generalized cyanosis, but as soon as the idea occurred to her, Jennifer actively swept it from her mind. She couldn’t believe how paranoid she was becoming. She felt embarrassed. She knew, just as she knew where her next breath was coming from, that no one had smothered Granny.
The elevator landed at the lobby and most everyone got out, including Jennifer, who made it a point to lock eyes for a moment with the guard, who was holding the doors ajar. “Why, thank you,” Jennifer said brightly. The guard acted surprised to be addressed but didn’t return the nicety.
Wasting no time, Jennifer headed to the marble front desk, rounded it, and walked to Kashmira Varini’s open door. Jennifer rapped on the jamb. Kashmira was at her desk, filling in a form. “Come in, please,” she said when she looked up in response to Jennifer’s knock. She stood and went through her usual greeting, which Jennifer merely acknowledged with a slight bowing of her head. Kashmira then motioned to a seat and Jennifer dutifully sat. Jennifer looked at Kashmira.
“Thank you for coming back,” Kashmira said. “I hope you had a refreshing nap.”
“I didn’t sleep a wink.”
“Oh!” Kashmira voiced, apparently expecting a more positive reaction to what she meant more as a rhetorical question. She was definitely hoping to begin the discussion on a more favorable note then it had ended that morning in the basement. “Did you get something to eat? I could order you a small sandwich or a salad.”
“I had my lunch, thank you.”
“Did you see your consular officer at your embassy?”
“Nope,” Jennifer said and then added, “Mrs. Varini—”
“Please call me Kashmira.”
“Okay, Kashmira. I think we should clear the air. This morning I specifically asked you about Mr. Benfatti. You lied to me. You said you didn’t know anything about a Mr. Benfatti, and then I learn you are his case manager. What gives?”
For a moment, Kashmira pondered her words. She cleared her throat before speaking. “I apologize for that. It came out of a sense of frustration. I was trying to convince you to stay on the subject of your grandmother and the dire need to make a decision, which should not be so difficult. I’m sure you know we do not talk about other patients. That’s what I should have said. I must confess I was exasperated with you, and still am to a degree. I just got a call from Lucinda Benfatti, and she has informed me that you specifically advised her to wait with her decision as well. Now, I know she’d thought about waiting until her sons got here, but I was hoping that after the shock wore off, I could ask her to ask them their preference before they started their trip so the body could be dealt with appropriately. That’s how it has always worked in the past. This kind of problem has never come up before.”
“Are you saying that dealing with patient death is a common problem here?”
“Quite the contrary,” Kashmira said forcefully. “Don’t read something into my words which is not there.”
“Okay, okay,” Jennifer said, afraid she might have pushed the woman a little too far. “Thank you for your apology, and I accept. Actually, I’m impressed how you explained it. I was very curious how you were going to, because I didn’t think you could.”
“This issue about your grandmother has me entirely flummoxed.”
“It’s nice to know we at least see eye-to-eye about something,” Jennifer mumbled.
“Excuse me?”
“Forget it,” Jennifer added. “I was making a bad joke. But there is something I would like to see. I’d like to see my grandmother’s death certificate.”
“What on earth for?”
“I just want to see what it has on it as the cause of death.”
“It has heart attack, just like I said.”
“I’d still like to see it. Do you have it, or at least a copy?”
“I do. It’s in the master folder.”
“May I see? I assume I’ll be getting a copy at some point anyway. It’s not a state secret.”
Kashmira thought for a moment, shrugged, and pushed herself in her chair over to a bank of file cabinets. Pulling out one of the drawers, she scanned the tabs and eventually pulled out an individual file. Opening it, she found a very Indian-looking government document. She returned to the desk, handing the document across to Jennifer.
Jennifer took it, and seeing her grandmother’s name gave her a stab of emotion. The languages were Hindi and English, so she had no trouble going over it. She scanned the hand-lettered entries to alight on the cause of death, heart attack, and the time of death, ten-thirty-five p.m., October 15, 2007. Jennifer committed it to memory and handed the paper back to Kashmira. Kashmira returned it to the file and the file to its rightful place in the cabinet.
Scooting her chair once again back to the desk, Kashmira glanced over at Jennifer. “Now! After all is said and done, are you ready to tell me what we are to do, cremate or embalm?”
Jennifer shook her head. “I’m at my wit’s end as well. But there’s hope on the horizon. My grandmother was nanny to a woman who has conveniently become a forensic pathologist. I spoke with her, and she’s on her way here, which will, I believe, have her arriving tomorrow night. I’m going to defer to her and her husband, who is a medical examiner as well.”
“I remind you, forensic pathologists or not, it will make no difference. There’s to be no autopsy, period. It has not and will not be authorized.”
“Maybe, maybe not. At least I’ll feel like I’ve got someone on my side. I know I’m not thinking too well. I’m utterly exhausted, but I can’t sleep.”