Meeting Nurse Peters

[Ghosts]

Camarillo, California - July 17, 2034

Bleary-eyed and adrift from the overnight flight, Vail pulled into the long, winding drive that led to Camarillo State Hospital. As he approached the main entrance, he remembered the accursedly small parking lot, always completely filled with employee vehicles, almost as if to disinvite visitors, and for a moment, cursed it. After the momentary cursing, however, Vail smiled and pulled directly up to the front doors. Driving up on to the sidewalk, Vail left the black rental sedan to all but block the front doors – ensuring maximum visibility. He reached to the passenger seat and opened the small luggage he carried from his office locker. From it, he pulled a long white coat and a clipboard. Donning the coat as he stood to exit, he placed the clipboard under his arm and walked in with an obvious distaste and purpose.

As he entered, Vail approached a metal detector and the sleepy guard manning the dusty security station. Clearing his throat loudly as he approached, Vail squared up to the now nervously alert guard. “Sir, please place all metal objects in -,”

“Son, my name is Dr. Kenneth Lofton from the State Review Board for mental health,” Vail cut the guard off. “I need you to escort me to the main security office and alert administration to my presence.”

The guard, frozen with indecision, stood with his mouth noticeably agape. Vail didn’t wait for a reply, instead slapping the man on the arm and insistently guiding him past the security station. The guard hardly flinched with the buzzing of the metal detector, but instead plodded along in confusion.

“I’m sure you have personally done nothing wrong, officer, but one can never be too careful in these situations. It’s imperative,” Vail grabbed his arm and turned the man to face him, tapping him insistently in the chest, “IMPERATIVE that these investigations are handled as quickly and transparently as possible to satisfy the board. You don’t want the other members of the board looking twice around here, not any more than I do that’s for sure,” Vail added as he quickly turned away and continued deeper into the facility. The guard, again momentarily frozen, snapped out of it and jogged to catch up to Vail.

As he studied the directory, Vail made note of the approximate location of the head security office, as well as the charge station at the head of the locked down areas. As the guard approached him again, he once again turned to the man abruptly and announced, “I’m glad you’re with me on this,” Vail paused unnoticeably to read the man’s nametag, “Officer Parker. Too many times it’s the guards that take the wrap during these investigations. You get these slippery administrator types that would do just about anything to stay in charge of their little world and they don’t care about throwing their guards to the wolves when they’re the ones that messed up. You know the type, right, Parker? Who is that here?”

Vail stared at the man expectantly. Officer Parker looked as though he wanted to blurt out a name, but was arrested with uncertainty about the situation.”

“Is that villain of a nurse still the head administrator here? Peters was it?” Vail inquisited. Before the man could answer, his smirk betrayed him. Vail pressed, landing a conciliatory hand on Parker’s shoulder, “Don’t answer that, it would be unbecoming of an officer. Let’s just go ahead and meet with Nurse Peters, eh Parker?” Vail directed his new partner in inquisition toward the charge station, chatting him up along the way.

Brushing aside several orderlies along the way, Officer Parker guided Vail down a series of long and intermittently lighted halls. Upon arrival at the nurse’s station, Parker swatted away Nurse Plume’s hand from the intercom, dialed the “all wards” code, and spoke with a newfound authority, “Nurse Peters to the charge station for immediate debrief. I repeat: immediate debrief.”

Vail nodded approvingly at the guard and proceeded to scribble what appeared to be copious notes on his very official-looking clipboard as he poked around the area, waiting for Nurse Peters.

Moments later, the dreadful plod of Nurse Peters’ heavy shoes hushed a silence upon orderlies and nurses alike. Parker’s shoulders slumped visibly as the footsteps drew closer. Something about the pattern betrayed a deep rage.

For a good fifty feet, Nurse Peters all but charged down the hall toward the station. The nurses previously staffing the charge desk tiptoed away long before she arrived. Vail thought he could see Parker’s life flash before his eyes, and hiding a smile, pretended not to notice.

“Who paged me and what in God’s good name is an immediate debrief?!” Peters all but shouted as she approached the desk. Parker stood paralyzed, while Vail continued inspecting the area and made additional annotations on his clipboard. “I ASKED WHO -,” without looking up, Vail raised a finger, commanding a moment’s reprieve as he completed his note.

Peters, flustered that anyone on this hospital should dare issue her any form of command, abided the directive out of pure confusion. Vail gave the pause life, refusing to rush past it, although he was eagerly awaiting what came next. As that pause drew its final breath, Vail looked up and met the gaze of the infamous Nurse Peters. He’d never met her in person, instead utilizing various pseudonyms and fake credentials to electronically bully the bully into allowing communication, albeit limited to supervised email, with the Yuma GM over the last several years. Vail and Mayberry would discuss trades via coded message, referencing players by number and alliterative repetition to identify minor league levels. Some time ago, however, his shenanigans stopped working and his old friend Bob Mayberry fell silent.

As he saw Nurse Peters draw in a breath of fury, Vail cut her off, “Nurse Peters, so good to see you again.”

This, too, flummoxed the Camarillo veteran. She did not know this man, nor what the blazes brought him into her hospital. “Beg pardon, mister, but I haven’t the faintest clue who you are, nor do I care. What gives you the right to summon me in my own hospital? And how did you even get back here? This is a secure area!” Her piercing gaze flipped to Officer Parker, who did his best to melt into the wall.

“Miss Peters, I would have presumed you would remember the last time your hospital was inspected, but perhaps I have a forgettable face,” Vail furrowed his brow as he spoke. “Regardless, this is not your hospital. It is the State of California’s hospital. And I, Doctor Lofton, am it’s representative, as you should well be familiar as the listed point of contact in our files. Or have you forgotten your responsibilities, Miss Peters?”

Nurse Peters scoffed and pointed a long and jagged finger at Officer Parker, commanding “Guard, you will escort this man from the premises immediately. He’s a charlatan! There is no state representative because this hospital isn’t even -,” this time Nurse Peters cut herself off. “He’s a liar and you will remove him!”

Officer Parker had no time to consider his conundrum before Vail handed him a leather wallet. “Officer Parker, you’ll see my credentials are quite plain. I think it’s best you contact the charge nurse at this point. I think I see what’s happening here,” Vail softened his tone as he spoke.

Pulling a small penlight from his breast pocket, he shined it briefly in each of Nurse Peters’ eyes before she swatted it away hard enough to send it skittering across the matte worn linoleum. “Combative. Significant memory loss,” Vail noted aloud, pulling a small notebook from his pocket and scrawling a note. He raised an eyebrow to Officer Parker and repeated, “The charge nurse, please, Officer.”

“Don’t you dare pick up that phone, you overpaid rent-a-cop!” Peters shouted, but Parker managed to meekly call for Nurse Carter before returning to his desperate occupation of avoiding eye contact and sweating. Peters’ scowl turned to a snarl before re-targeting Vail, who stood as an impassive and stalwart bastion of concern for Nurse Peters’ well-being. “You listen to me you charlatan: you may have this buffoon fooled, and I don’t know what you want, but if you don’t leave now you’ll find yourself under observation!” The words curdled in Peters’ mouth before ejecting towards Vail.

“Miss Peters, we do not threaten people with our care in the California mental health care system. Your hostile demeanor is alarming, since you should be the example the rest of the nurses follow,” as Vail spoke, another nurse poked her head around the corner and Vail beckoned her to approach. “Of course, as the head administrator of a California state hospital, you should be well aware of the State Review Board and the fact that we take missing patients reports very seriously, but then you haven’t even asked why I was here, have you?”

Vail didn’t offer her a moment to reply, continuing, “No, instead you were immediately combative while demonstrating significant memory loss and devolving social skills. Classic presentation, wouldn’t you say, Nurse…?” Vail turned toward the newly arrived charge nurse and gave her a moment to fill in her name.

“Carter. Nurse Carter,” she replied, joining Parker in fearful confusion.

“Nurse Carter, excellent to make your acquaintance, I don’t believe we met during my last inspection. I’m Dr. Lofton from the State Review Board,” Vail motioned for Parker to show her his credentials. The credentials were something he was particularly tickled by. Vail’s niece was a talented young graphic artist, and when he called her and made his request, she chuckled and offered to drive it out to LA from her place in San Diego in time to hand it off to him and grab a late lunch together. She was quite proud of the hologram she installed, and he was very entertained by the credibility of her forgery. “Don’t tell your Dad,” he laughed as he hugged her goodbye and raced off to Camarillo.

“How long has Nurse Peters been displaying hostile behaviors?” Vail led.

“This is ridiculous! Give me that!” Nurse Peters grabbed at Vail’s notebook, but a quick step back while raising both of his hands in an almost cartoonishly non-confrontational manner not only kept the booklet from her reach, but also made her look quite desperate.

“Easy now, Ms. Peters, we aren’t here to cause you any harm,” Vail waved Officer Parker in closer to create a physical separation between him and Nurse Peters. “Nurse Carter, how long?” Vail repeated.

Nurse Carter looked flush. She had no idea what to make of this situation. Nurse Peters had always been hostile, from what she was told. Certainly longer than she had been working there, which was over three years now. She hesitated, but then stammered, “Well she’s been like this ever since I started three years ago…”

“Like THIS?! What does that mean, Cheryl?! You take that back or I’ll have your job!” Peters screeched.

“Of course, it’s not legal to fire a nurse for doing her job, Ms. Peters, and to believe you have the authority to act beyond the capacity of the law is, dare I say, delusional.” Vail levied the word directly at Nurse Peters, who raised an eyebrow at the directed nature of the speech.

“Amnesia, delusions, and hostility. Classic signs of Baerga Syndrome, wouldn’t you say Nurse Carter?”

Vail stared Peters down coolly as he spoke. “Perhaps we should arrange for Ms. Peters to rest a bit until she can be properly examined.”

“How dare y-,” Peters seethed.

“Unless I’m mistaken, of course, and we all agree this was a misunderstanding based on Nurse Peters’ lack of interest in complying with a standard California State Review Board inspection following report of a missing patient?” Vail never broke his gaze upon Nurse Peters, who, despite her obvious rage, seemed to collect herself somewhat as he spoke.

Peters took stock of the growing scene around her, as several orderlies and nurses had started to gather around corners, and that goddamn rent-a-cop and Cheryl looked at her and Vail like lost puppies. This bastard may be a con-artist, but she’d played right into his con, and she knew it. “Who reported a missing patient? Which patient?” she asked, still smoldering, but uprighting herself.

“Have you misplaced more than one? I’m here following the anonymous missing patient report of a Mr. Mayberry, Bob,” Vail replied flatly.

“He isn’t missing! None of our patients are missing,” Peters scoffed. “You there!” Peters snapped her fingers at an orderly that had drifted dangerously close. “Go bring patient Mayberry up here. Right now.”

The next several minutes were dreadfully awkward for Parkers and Carters and gawkers of the little world of Camarillo State Mental Hospital, but Peters and Vail each seemed oddly comfortable. Peters, secure in her position of local tyrant, sat waiting to be absolved of any supposed patient-losing. She grew increasingly eager to show this conman what he came for, and then snatch it away from him. Perhaps she would take the opportunity to introduce him to the amenities available upon check-in, but then she’d have to risk letting him in past patient security. She didn’t know who he was or what his game was, or more importantly, who might come looking for him, so no, best to let him walk away disappointed.

After nearly fifteen minutes, Officer Parker, who rarely went more than five minutes between sits, was in agony. It shouldn’t take this long to get a patient, should it? He noticed, then, the silent indicator on the charge desk phone lighting up. He reached for the handset and lifted it, carelessly allowing his eyes to look toward Nurse Peters as he did. Her gaze locked onto him, compelling him to offer her the handset without any form of command.

She took the handset with an eerie calm, her eyes drilling holes through poor Officer Parker before offering the mercy of relinquishing their stare just as she raised the phone to her ear. Her eyes widened as she shifted her weight uncomfortably. After a moment, she rushed a hushed reply, “I understand,” betraying a rattle in her voice.

Nurse Peters slowly set the receiver into its cradle. Her mind raced. Mayberry wasn’t in his room. He wasn’t in a common area or a bathroom. He wasn’t anywhere. The old bastard was nowhere to be found, and neither was that imbecile Slummings. No one had seen them since yesterday. How did he know? Who was this guy? Where were her patients? What would the doctor say? Should she lock this guy up and sort it out later? That seemed to have worked with Slummings, until just now anyway. No, it was too risky. He was here to see Mayberry, so he’s probably a baseball guy, being too clever for his own good. She’d need to turn him away without losing face, lest he press his con too far and she ended up in lockdown herself.

“I’m afraid Mr. Mayberry is not in his room and cannot be located immediately. We will conduct an internal search and notify local authorities if he cannot be found,” Peters offered.

Vail immediately recognized the tone of a negotiation. Could they truly not find him? Was he dead or did the old coot actually escape? Was she bluffing and hoping he’d back off? Reading her, he could sense discomfort. She wanted to produce him but couldn’t. He couldn’t go back and look for himself; he knew he’d never leave if he stepped foot past patient security. Bob had made that abundantly clear. He only had one bluff left to play: “Of course you know it’s protocol to alert the local authorities as soon as a patient cannot be located, correct? It seems as though he’s been missing all night.”

“That would be the most correct course of action, technically, yes,” Peters replied. She hesitated to reach for the phone, but she could sense this man would force her hand to ensure she wasn’t hiding him. She had no choice. She pressed the speaker phone button, and then dialed the Camarillo Police Department. She proceeded to alert the shift lieutenant of a missing patient and gave them the description of Bob Mayberry, the now officially missing GM of the Yuma Arroyos.