Minuet At The Silver Goose

by Bob Williamson

About the Author: Bob Williamson is the author of the Tom Hudson mystery series, and writing as C.P. Hudson, author of the Royal Summers mysteries. He is past President of the Florida chapter of Mystery Writers of America.

Excerpt

There was a small room for families next to the nursing station. I walked in behind a tall, well-dressed woman. She tried to pour some coffee, but her hands were shaking.

“Let me get this,” I said, taking the cup from her. “Cream? Sugar?”

“Milk please.”

I made sure the lid was on tight. As she reached for the cup the sleeve on her left arm rode up. There was a deep purple bruise above her wrist. She wrapped both hands around the cup, went back to a patient room, and stood outside the door.

Orderlies in green scrubs rushed by her pushing another machine. They were building a medical circus tent around the man on the hospital bed on the other side of the glass wall. High flying bags of I.V. fluids swung from stainless steel poles. Cardiac monitor lights blinked blood pressure, oxygen levels, and heart rate. Doctors came and went. Occasionally one would stop, whisper, and nod his head at the tall woman’s questions.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Your wife is doing fine, Mr. Bodie.” Nurse Mancuso had been with Carol since she’d come back from surgery. “Do you know how I know that she’s okay, other than the fact that I am the best cardiac recovery nurse in the world?”

“Tell me your secret, Dot.” I’d liked Dorothy Mancuso, a non-nonsense retired Army nurse, from the moment I’d seen her pushing my wife’s gurney into her recovery room. She was holding Carol’s hand and telling her how well she looked.

“Look into your wife’s room. What do you see?”

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