Physical Therapy, Murder, and Mayhem

By Dolly Burns

This is a story of murder and mayhem that happens while Rose, a married physical therapist with two small children, works in a local nursing home. Her patients include eighty-nine-year-old Grace, who is eager to return home to her beloved ninety-year-old husband, and Alice, a long-term resident who needs a structured program to improve her everyday function. Several of her patients have complained about the cold coffee and the romantic actions of some of the staff members. During Rose’s normal workday a murder is committed. It appears that the murder may or may not be related to the kitchen serving cold coffee when all the residents want hot coffee. Or it might be romantically tied to jealous staff members. The Recreation Department decides to hold a mock trial to determine the murderer. Who did it, and why? Was it justified? You be the judge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796019315

Dolly Burns

Dolly Burns is a recently retired Physical Therapist with her Masters in Allied Health Education. She has worked in all areas of her field: acute care hospitals, outpatient centers, birth to three, home care, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers. She was the Director of outpatient physical therapy services at an Easter Seal Rehabilitation Center for 5 years. In addition, she has written and published more than a dozen articles related to Physical Therapy and subsequently won the best article of the year from “Advance for Physical Therapists and Physical Therapist Assistants”. Having retired she has now turned her pen to writing fiction incorporating her physical therapy background and interesting stories collected over the years.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Six months ago, I got an unexpected phone call from High Hill Nursing Home making me an offer of employment as the Home’s physical therapist. One of my physical therapy friends had passed my name along and I went for the interview not expecting to take the job. When they offered any three days and any three hours, I could not refuse. As the mother of a three-year-old son, the smiling Carlos, and two-year-old daughter, the drooling Maria, I was delighted to get out of the house and back to work a little bit to save my sanity.

Look! I have to go and punch a time clock. You are going to have to drop the kids off at Linda’s, I said exasperated.

Hey! I have work to do too! my real estate husband of seven years replied while pushing a multitude of papers into his well-worn brown leather briefcase. Pedro is a deceptively muscular 5’9" man with thick brown hair and sparking blue eyes. He has a winning smile and a charming manner, which helps him very much in his business. Born outside of Brighton, England, of a Spanish mother and an English father, he was baptized Pedro Peck-Knight and is known to all as Peter Knight.

No, I said. I refuse to be late again. The nursing home gives me a lot of leeway but my being late may make them think about getting another therapist. I could get fired. My name is Rosetta. I am a Connecticut native who met Pedro while he was vacationing in the United States while I was in my last year at Simmons College in Boston majoring in Physical Therapy. When I graduated, I joined Pedro in Canada for two years of cold but wonderful living.

We returned to Connecticut where I became the Director of Physical Therapy for a Rehabilitation Center. I resigned after Carlos was born so that I could be a full-time mother. Little did I know how tedious this job would be….24/7. But I knew it was important for the development of my children for them to have a full-time mom if it was at all possible. Money was tight but with a close eye on the purse strings, Pedro and I were managing to accomplish this. We owned our home but had a hefty mortgage. We had little furniture. The living room consisted of a sofa, a chair, and an old side-table re-finished by Pedro. Our dining room set was a card table and folding chairs. The kids’ toy box was an old cardboard box but that was fine with them. We spent our money on educational toys and had a small slide in the living room which both children loved to climb. Maria liked to climb all three steps and stand up at the top. She would then raise her finger in the air and jabber away. Pedro and I were convinced she would become a politician as she talked forever and said nothing.

Pedro, being a real estate agent, had a flexible schedule and usually was happy to watch the kids while I was at work. He is a great dad, loving to get down on the floor with them and play for hours.

Not today though. Pedro had clients to see and I needed him to drop Carlos and Maria off at Linda’s home where she would watch my two as they played with her two, Eric and Ethan.

If I can’t handle my professional responsibilities I should quit. I have a reputation to maintain, I added. As the Director of Physical Therapy at the Rehabilitation Center I had written several articles which were published and had established an excellent internship program for physical therapy students. I enjoyed a good reputation among physical therapists.

My new part-time job had a small income. This paid for our day-trip vacations and a beginning judo program for Carlos. These were activities that we otherwise would do without. I knew that Pedro was happy to have some money come in routinely without having to wait for a house closing that may never happen. My job took the pressure off him and we both knew it.

Chapter 2

Christ sakes! I’ll take them but they had better be good, replied Pedro.

Great! Now you’ll be good for daddy, won’t you kids? You’re going to Linda’s house. I have got to get out of here, I said to Carlos and Maria.

Carlos and Maria looked at me and grinned. Baby teeth smiled back at me. The magic word was Linda, my beloved neighbor who has two children the same age as my two. She always has great activities to occupy all four children. A wonderful caring woman who was born to be the mother of a large family, I knew my two were in good hands. The four children were close in age and played together very nicely. Linda said that it was easier having the four of them than just her two. So, I didn’t feel guilty at all about her caring for my two. I have watched her two routinely as well and knew just what she meant.

I know what Linda has planned for you two today. You are going to make a big batch of cookies with lots of frosting and jellies and sprinkles. Isn’t that great? I told the children.

Yummy, said Carlos.

Good, smiled Maria.

Hey, Pedro, did I tell you what Carlos said this morning when he woke up? I asked my husband.

No, what did he say?

He said that he saw pictures in front of his eyes while he was sleeping and he was frightened by it. I told him that they were dreams, that everyone had dreams, and not to worry about it. He said okay.

Wow! Interesting! Kids say the darnest things! replied Pedro quoting one of his favorite TV shows.

He also said that he did not want to be called Carlos anymore. He wants to be called Charlie.

What! He wants to be called Charlie? exclaimed Pedro.

Yes. That is what he said, I replied.

Maybe we should consider it. He wants to fit in with his playmates, said Pedro.

Yes. I told him that I would do my best to remember to call him Charlie but that I liked Carlos better. He insisted that he be called Charlie and that was his name from now on. Then he went back to playing with his police car as though our conversation had never taken place.

O.K. I guess he likes his friends calling him Charlie, said Pedro. I’ll try to remember to call him that too.

I think we all should be called by our English names, Pedro. That means you are Peter, I am Rose, Carlos is Charlie, and Maria is Molly. What do you think? I asked my husband seriously.

Fine, good idea, he sighed. I guess it would make it easier if we were consistent. Just as long as we don’t forget our heritage of Spanish/English on my side and Azorean on your side.

Of course, we won’t forget our heritage. That’s a silly thing to say, I replied. And Rosetta will always want Pedro in the bedroom.

Good, said Peter kissing me. Is Rosetta available tonight?

Absolutely! Now I have to get to work and the kids need to go to Linda’s, I answered.

Peter piled Charlie and Molly into their car seats in the rear seat of his old but clean gray Mercedes and sped off down the street. He keeps that car clean and shiny and hates it when the children make a mess in their car seats.

I have to constantly remind him that that is what happens when you have kids…messy playroom, messy hands, messy cars…messy everything.

Chapter 3

Kissing the kids and Peter goodbye, I jumped into my old, but still working, silver Toyota Camry and sped away trailing blue smoke behind me. Driving quickly through this small New England town I had lived in for four years, I kept my