Overdosed On Gypsum Board

By Carolyn Kenney

When the female doctor leading the remodeling of a clinic is found dead in the empty space by Karla Bannister, the design project is complicated with indecision by the other staff members. The problems get worse when another of the staff is accused of the murder. If that isn’t bad, Karla is attacked for reasons that come to her almost too late in the design progress. Several acts of destruction occur to the clinic raises more suspicions. The project appears to be headed to a disastrous finish. More questions arise when Karla’s home is burglarized and another staff member is beaten. Will Karla discover who is causing all of this trouble before it is too late?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Carolyn Kenney
• Release date: Mar 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301478972

Carolyn Kenney

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Carolyn M. Kenney spent the early years of her life in Jersey, City, New Jersey. She returned to her roots in the early 1970 to attend college and be with her extended family.Carolyn landed a job with Fulton County Government's Information Technology department in 1980. She retired in 2006. Before retiring she began her studies in the design field of Residential Planning. She began her studies for Interior Design in the summer of 2006. After taking some time away to write the Karla Banninster novels, she plans to return soon.

Book preview

I want to acknowledge and thank the numerous interior designers and their firms for their assistance. A special acknowledgement goes to Rita Carson Guest of the design firm Carson Guest. Thank you for your time and guidance. I still have the elevation and detail drawings with the red marked notes. You were a big help.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

About the Other

Chapter 1

Take one caplet with water every four to six hours. No problem, right. Well, there were several problems for me to consider. The box also said do not operate heavy equipment. That was a major problem. Driving a car was operating heavy equipment. The directions were plain and clear. There was a problem for me. I didn’t have water. The next problem was that in five hours I was needed on another design project site. The design project needed my undivided attention. The meeting was our first face to face meeting. The initial presentation was based on emails and phone chats. A suspicious feeling that I was not going to make it on time to Vanessa Trethewey’s home came to me. The congestion in my head was almost unbearable. I was breathing from one nostril. Stuffy nose and itchy eyes, I walked with all of it. The pollen kicked my butt from sun up to sundown. I didn’t have the time or patience for the allergy season. I didn’t have time to sit in my primary doctor’s office for a package of pills. So, I took my puffy eyes to the pharmacist at the 24-hour drugstore. The handsome young man behind the counter said the non prescription medicine contained the ingredients to do the trick. The tan caplets would dry up my running nose, he said with a smile. The green package professed that it would not cause drowsiness. Yeah. Sure. I was either going to be very hyper or going to snooze the day away. The last time I took medicine for my allergy I stayed awake for a day and a half. Fortunately it was on a weekend. I bounced off the walls for hours. I popped the pill in my mouth and drank the Orange Crush I slurped from my plastic travel mug. There was nothing like the bubbles in the back of your throat to clear out the cobweb. I remained hopeful for the rest of the day if the pills worked. If not, there were a few words I needed to give the good doctor. My sinuses were position to give in. I used up a box and a half of Kleenex in one day. The week end was warm which brought out the pollen fairies. The problem began when I was on ght golf course the day before. This Monday was the worse so far. I hated feeling like I was never well with an everlasting cold. The mild winter in Atlanta brought an abundance of pollen. The late winter was no better. Now that spring was a little over a week away, the pine trees looked like yellow flocked Christmas trees. It was everywhere. It was necessary to check your underwear at the end of the day to be sure you didn’t take it to bed. A hint of yellow covered everything. Lola and Molly attracted the yellow particles if they stayed out too long. My new ginger ale colored Escape was a magnet as well. March was a fickle month. There were warm days and hot ones, too. You know the shorts and tank top warm. Then overnight the temperature took a nose dive. The weather took a nose dive. Before I left home, I shivered in my car until the heat got going. A north wind came with a gust that changed the temperature to the lower forties. It was back to the blankets, sweaters and gloves. This time it was predicted to last more than three days. Spring was eight days away. It was expected to be forty degrees this morning. I said thirty-five.

I watched Becca’s slim frame as she paced up and down the front of the building before I stumbled out of my SUV. She was talking on her cell and giving hand gestures to some invisible person. Becca is my boss. She resembled the original Barbie Doll in her pencil skirt and two inch pumps. That was a step up because she once looked like a stick. Whoever the caller was on the other end of the phone got an earful from her. When she wasn’t making hand gestures, she was twisting the ends of a stray ash blonde curl.

The reason for my appearance at the site was to nudge me into the direction of exterior architectural design. I worked in design but of the interior version. Becca and her boss, Eliott felt it was time for me to go back to school for an advanced degree. Mind you I just graduated a little over two years ago. I was quizzed at my interview as to my intentions for going beyond the bachelor’s degree. At the time they listed sets of goals that they wanted me to accomplish. That was their sets of goals not mine. When you needed a job, you promised to walk on hot coals. I was willing to promise to mix concrete with my bare hands to land the job. The first goal was to become a certified interior for Georgia. I knocked out the first goal after thirty five hundred hours. I almost lost my life to become a certified interior designer for Georgia. Then Becca started putting little notes in the emails. Once in a while Eliott emailed me an article concerning the fine art of architectural design. I was sent to seminars on the subject that were held in Savannah as well as the local colleges. When I didn’t respond, they found every online academy and university that offered advanced degrees. I finally told them that I would make up my mind before the year was over. I was going to put it off as long as I could. I just didn’t have time to sit in class, take notes and make models in form board. I was never too good at making models in form board. I liked the balsa wood models. I was too busy with gypsum board. Becca said I would have time to study but she often made statements she wasn’t able to back up. The last time she said those words, I narrowed my eyes and she said she promised I would have time to work and study. So when the project came up for the medical facility crossed their desks, I was told that there was a place for me at the conference table. The design was a lesson in reconstruction of both exterior and interior design. So I sat outside of the worse building I every laid eyes on for some time. The sign that proclaimed the building housed a clinic hung by one link on its chain.

Becca was dress in her light weight business suit of a navy with her pumps to match. The day was not warm like the past few. It was downright chilly. The air was a cross between winter and early spring chill. My mother always said that cute will get you an early grave. I expected Becca to call in sick before the week was out. I wore a pair of wedge Aerosoles and a pair of grey wool slacks. I wore a wool jacket that spoke warmth with a pair of gloves. I was business casual and warm. It was better to dress that way when going to a site. You wanted to be taken seriously but you also wanted to be comfortable. I hated to explain the details of a design with chattering teeth. There is nothing like saying light fixtures that came out light something profane.

When Becca and I arrived at the site around 8:00 a.m., we found the doors under lock and key. Dr. Cruz and a colleague were supposed to have met us at eight on the dot. We waited thirty minutes before Dr. Hector Cruz arrived in a Cadillac Escalade. He wore his golfing attire. You know the navy jacket, tee shirt and khaki slacks.

I have an early tee time, he said. By that time, Becca walked up dust on her pumps. Dr. Cruz made apologies. He was about five foot eight with a stocky build. His hair was mingled with grey. He wore glasses to aid his coal round eyes. His face possessed Hispanic features that told of his linage without knowing his name. Dr. Cruz was followed by another doctor in her shiny black Lexis SUV. She introduced herself as Dr. Lucyna Wyatt. An apology came from her. She wore scrubs accompanied by a pair of white slip on shoes that looked new. Dr. Wyatt was the person who contacted Eliott. Dr. Wyatt was our point person. We worked with her on setting up the appointment along with answers to the questionnaires we supplied to the staff. She said she was waiting for Francine Langdon who was one of their nurses. But Francine filled in for another nurse.

The arrival of Portia Buckett, a nurse and the receptionist Nena Lache who shared a Camry came to add their two cents in the initial visit to the site. I remembered the nurses and the receptionist because their answers to our questions were a combination of a wish list and a novel. They wrote details on the back of the last pages of the two page questionnaire. Dr. Pheda Dorian wasn’t able to attend because she subbed for Dr. Wyatt at the clinic with other orthopedic physicians. The doctor that was supposed to have filled in for her was ill with her allergies. I sympathized with her but I felt the effects of what I ingested earlier kick in. I was raring to go. If Shay still worked for us, she would’ve filled in for Francine or either of us. Yes, but Shay was more than qualified to fill in for Dr. Dorian, too, said Dr. Wyatt.

Dr. Wyatt used her key to open the doors. We piled in the place like a stampede. The sound of our feet in the empty space was like a barn welcoming a herd of cows. When we entered the place, it was horrible. Most of the partitions were removed. The only one that remained in place was the partition that separated the so call waiting area. I was sure that law enforcement agents were not responsible for the mess and damage left behind. The entrance was supposed to be a white vinyl tile but it was more like black and grey covered with dirt. The walls were supposed to be beige instead covered in something brown that I wasn’t sure of. The grime was either dirt or mold. The smell was rotten. The smell was a combination of urine and musty filth. Some homeless soul used the place once or twice before the authorities sealed up the windows and doors.

The furnishings that were of any good are in storage. The rest of the stuff was tossed out, Dr. Cruz said pointing to the empty spaces. Becca and I meandered through the building being careful not to step on the holes in the floor. The roof seemed sturdy but was to be replaced after the movement of the walls. Eliott said that the walls on the north and west should be removed and extended fifteen to twenty feet, Becca said.

That sounds great. We need all of the space we can get. The rest will be used for parking, said Nena.

We went to the back of the building through to the front from the back door. The footprint of the building was storage in the rear next to a back door. Across from the storage was the restroom. I was surprised to see only one restroom. There were two exam rooms, a room for files. The outline from the file cabinets was still visible. The other visible markings were from the receptionist desk. The waiting area must have been on the opposite side of the receptionist desk. It was amazing how the markings on the floor told so much about the previous occupants.

I want my desk over here, said Nena pointing toward the middle of the building.

You don’t need to be in the center of the building, said Portia.

Okay, then I needed the desk over here near the window. That is where the windows will remain? She said with an outstretched hand to the left of her position.

Karla and I will come up with some ideas for the entrance and the waiting once we get back to the office. I’m sure Eliott will replace the windows in the final structure design, said Becca.

I was positive this was not going to be easy. The staff was complaining about where they wanted to set their butts and the space design was in its infancy. A space plan was nowhere near completion. I knew once the others got going, war was on the horizon. There may be hand to hand combat. Everyone was jockeying for positions worse than horses at a track.

Do you feel that you can make this into an orthopedic clinic for us? Cruz asked. We are sharing space with a clinic that does not specialize in orthopedics.

I have no doubt we will work a miracle and turn this place into one of the best places to have injuries treated. Don’t worry about a thing. Eliott said that he will have the permits ready by in a day or two. We will have your drawings ready by then.

I never liked it when Becca promised services that she hadn’t thought through. Karla will be here when the walls come down. Eliott and I wanted to be on the site, but we have previous engagements with other commitments. Please feel free to ask her questions if you can’t reach me, she said. I raised my left eyebrow at her. I saw late nights at the computer.

After hearing Becca’s statement, my mouth flew open. I was swamped with a ton of work that needed my undivided attention. I slapped my head to keep from losing it. She hadn’t given me any inkling that I was to be on site most of the time. I was scheduled to be on the site in south east Atlanta. There was one Karla Bannister and I was worn thin. We took another walk through the building before the doctors closed the door. I sat in my car for a moment to put all of the elements of the meeting together. The pill kicked in but it wasn’t the pill that got me confused, it was the medical staff that gave me a strange feeling. There was no pill to cure this crew.

The building carried a long history of doctor occupants. It was a magnet for doctors. All of the information was in the building’s dossier for design purposes. Dr. Lucyna Wyatt provided us with the data. She did a lot of research before convincing the other doctors to buy the building. The structure was a one story red brick veneer. It was a wood frame ranch style house built in the early 1960s before the brick veneer was installed by later owners. The first owners were a general practitioner and his nurse wife. The doctor maintained an office off-site but on occasion dispensed medicine from the home. It was used for emergency cares to those in need but was not able to pay the high cost of a hospital visit. After he died, his wife sold the house to another doctor. She left town with the accountant friend of her husband to parts unknown. The physician kept the home just as the previous doctor. Then he met his life partner at a doctor’s convention in Atlanta. The information said that both men set up a general practice clinic for amateur sports enthusiast. They left to set up the same type of clinic in Tempe, Arizona. The house was sold again to a group physicians who opened a regular clinic minus the living set up. The last owners were so-called general practice physicians for the neighborhood. Then it was raided by the government - feds and locals for unlawful pill distribution.

Later it was reopened and used as a family planning facility with an attending physician for medical advice and emergencies. People came from miles around the south for their care. Tongues wagged about the clinic’s supply of pills. A customer talked to a man he thought was another customer, If any person with a fist full of cash needed pills the clinic dispensed the best pills. The customer happened to be a drug agent with the government. It was said that only one doctor was involved so the clinic stayed open until the other doctor was arrested. His partner in crime sang like a canary. He chirped so loud that it took down two other clinics. The later doctor took his life with what would you know, but he jumped drown in one of the lakes in Georgia. No pills for him. One more doctor tried to reopen the clinic as a sports medicine clinic. It was closed when the physician was found to be practicing medicine without a Georgia license. He was determined to be a physical therapist without any medical experience or license. He didn’t have a legitimate license of any form or fashion. He printed forms to appear legit. If anyone came by to inspect the place, he pretended to be a client. The building remained empty for a little over a year when our team of three doctors heard about the sale. The plot of land showed from the parking area to the missing railings. It was a mess. The building stood through a lot. The doctors planned to put it through even more. Doctors Wyatt, Cruz and Dorian wanted us to perform surgery to the building’s mangled body.

Chapter 2

Nothing took the place of a tall latte that was warm to the touch. A little whipped cream would have added a nice touch, too. But I settled for weak cocoa from our vending machine. No marshmallows or whipped cream just watered cocoa in a thin paper cup. The good thing about the cocoa was that it was hot because I was chilled to the bone. The temperature began to rise but that was after we arrived at the office. My knees were shaking not to mention my teeth chattered. I wanted to stop at a Waffle House but was opposed by my boss lady, Becca. A hot cheese omelet would have hit the spot. I owed the pharmacist a gold star. My senses returned and so was my appetite. Food is my nemesis. I try to eat healthy but I failed miserably. I settled for a pack of cheese crackers with peanut butter.

Time was of the crucial. Becca and I arrived at our office at 10:15 a.m. from the medical building site. After doctors Cruz and Wyatt closed the door, Dr. Cruz texted Becca that there were two subjects that were forgotten to be covered at the meeting. She sent me a copy that I read at the first red light. I made a U-turn at the next light to double back to the site. I imagined he did forget some things. He was too busy coming onto Dr. Wyatt. He hovered over her like a vulture. She said something about the storage room and he made a comment about what might happen in the storage room. I was too busy listening to Becca’s pitch to get the details of their banter. Like the design babysitters ready to pacify the children, we doubled back to hear his forgotten ideas. He wanted the building to extend beyond Eliott’s planned schematics. Eliott intended space for landscaping. Dr. Cruz wanted more space. Dr. Cruz wanted Becca to persuade Eliott to go as far back as the property line would allow. He wanted to include an area for ambulatory surgery for minor breaks and corrections. He wanted to add physical therapy in the back of the building. It was to be for those children without the proper care at home; a sort of spa for children. He wanted the exam rooms to be larger than Dr. Wyatt specified. We told the good doctor that his ideas some time to get Eliott to consider their existence. Also, we thought that Dr. Wyatt was calling the shots. She was our contact from the beginning. He said he was sure she was on board with his suggestions. A nagging feeling came over me concerning Dr. Cruz’s tactics. We only heard from Dr. Cruz twice. He said that the equipment was on order. He gave us a list of the equipment with the dimensions of each piece for our design consideration. The list included everything from exam tables to a portable x-ray machine. They left the office furniture up to us to order based on what was needed for doctors’ offices. He said he forgot to tell us about the suggestions. We took him at his word. He left us standing in back of the building with a quizzed look on our faces. The doctor was out of his mind. We were presented with the space of a salt box and he wanted a large canister size facility.

The added changes from Dr. Cruz put a chill on the project. Dr. Wyatt led the charge for a patient welcoming design that was open to all. She forgot to consult the whole staff. Dr. Cruz was talking a good game but the space was less than 2000 square feet even after the expansion of the walls. Dr. Dorian contributed a few suggestions. Her suggestions were within the scope of the waiting room’s access to the examination rooms. Her concern was based on patient traffic. The flooring and paint colors were in line with Dr. Wyatt and the receptionist, Nena’s plans. But Dr. Cruz’s forgotten ideas should have stayed in the back of his mind. I thought of a treadmill and a workout table but he thought of other items that took up a lot of space. Eliott needed to either go beyond the original property line. He considered using up the space in the back to the property. I left the exterior design to Becca and Eliott. I took my cues from them when it came to the building construction. I would follow up once the square footage was totaled. My attention ventured over to other projects on the design board to consider like the last two buildings for the National Film Conglomerate and Vanessa’s home redesign. The film conglomerate for Fletcher Kilgore was up next on my drawing board. I tried to prioritize each project. Sometimes it worked. Most of the time it didn’t.

Becca wanted to get the changes requested by Fletcher on paper in the system. The Revit software was essential because updating the plans, updated everything else. All I did was plug in the data. Becca knew that he was a man of the moment. If he wanted something to be included in the buildings’ interior design, he wanted it yesterday. I analyzed the email she copied me from Fletcher. It was a list of floor design changes. There was also a list of changes to room locations and numbers. Graphic designers moved to the location of the sound team. The animation team moved to the same floor as the graphic designers and so on. In many cases it was a simple click of the mouse. Fletcher’s changes meant that floor systems adhered to the changes because of the technology used by each team. Their servers needed to be located in corresponding rooms’ one floor up or down. Before I tackled the changes, I headed to the break room. I warmed up but needed a cup of tea to get the fingers going. I took my favorite Earl Grey tea bag to get some hot water. On my way to the break-room, I saw Becca warming her body as she stood under the heating vent near the elevator. She was headed to meet with a potential supplier. We parted at the elevator. I’ll see you later to work through the changes in walls and partitions, she said. I was glad she wanted to meet after lunch. I needed time to review my other projects’ descriptions. The project descriptions held the wants, needs and wishes of the clients. I designed another duet project and two solo projects. I was scheduled to meet with Vanessa and her son at 2:00 p.m. He wanted to make sure his mother’s house was redesigned so that she would be able to stay in the home until she was totally incapacitated or died. That called for redesigning her bathroom, enlarging the doorways and changing the kitchen layout. The place called for it to become wheelchair accessible. The bedroom design meant the redesign of a lower dresser and chest of drawers. Those items seemed to have been made for a taller person like her son. The bed’s height required it to be lowered. Vanessa needed a step-stool in order to get into bed. The bedroom furniture appeared to have belonged to Will. The kitchen required lower counter-tops with the movement of appliances for her convenience. I considered the human factor of a woman near the age of eighty. I made notes for the second visit. I scheduled a return visit on Friday with a complete project presentation.

After I passed the professional exam, I was on my own. As routine, Becca kept a watchful eye on me. I worked in conjunction with Becca on large commercial projects like the film company and the medical facility. This was our second medical facility design. Another one story building once