Free The Lavender Ladies Detective Agency: Death in Sunset Grove by Minna Lindgren

alert.
    ‘You certainly have it good here,’ Irma began cheerfully, but Anna-Liisa got straight to the point, like a good interrogator.
    ‘What happened to you?’ she said. ‘Do you remember what happened afterwards? Were there any witnesses?’
    Siiri would have liked to ask about Reino as well, whether Olavi knew where he’d ended up. But it was hard for Olavi to answer any of their questions. He said he had been sent to the
dementia section of the Group Home and that he was glad that he was at the hospital now. He didn’t remember anything about the Group Home and wouldn’t even know he’d been there if
his son hadn’t told him.
    ‘The hospital examined me thoroughly and found out all kinds of things,’ he said almost proudly, as if he were talking about his accomplishments. He started boasting about his
numerous cysts, hernias and blockages, and Anna-Liisa got impatient and demanded that he tell them how the criminal investigation was progressing.
    ‘We didn’t come here to listen to your medical history,’ she explained. Olavi looked frightened.
    Then he started to cry. He had a different way of crying to Reino. He didn’t bark or curse. He wept silently, holding it in and letting it out. Like something had grabbed him deep at the
pit of his stomach. The alcoholic townie thought it best to go out on the balcony for a cigarette. It was hard to tell if the room’s other occupants were alive or not. So Olavi was able to
tell them what had happened.
    ‘I had asked for a male nurse to help with my bathing and showering,’ he began. ‘Because it bothered me having a young woman assisting an ugly old man like me. I thought it was
more natural to have a man do it. It never occurred to me that a male nurse would . . . somehow . . . think that he could . . .’
    He started to cry again. Irma patted his shoulder, Siiri held his hand, and Anna-Liisa straightened out his blanket.
    ‘We understand, Olavi,’ she said, as if she were an expert in such things. ‘And there’s such a serious shortage of male nurses, too.’
    Olavi said it was a new nurse named Jere, whose last name he couldn’t remember, but his son had promised to find out. Since Jere was new, the social worker had to come with him.
    ‘There’s your witness!’ Siiri exclaimed.
    ‘No. He was the one who was . . . I was crying, asking them to let me out of the shower, and he just laughed . . . It was . . . terribly unpleasant . . . Do you believe me?’ He spoke
quietly and looked at them and they could see the tremendous shame and embarrassment in his eyes. Irma dug her lace handkerchief out of her handbag and handed it to him.
    ‘Perhaps they are homosexuals,’ Anna-Liisa said.
    ‘Not necessarily,’ Irma said. ‘Certainly not normal homosexuals, anyway.’ She blew her nose loudly.
    ‘I’m never going back to Sunset Grove,’ Olavi sighed. ‘But my son can’t take me in and I’m not sick enough to stay here in the hospital. Friends, where am I
going to go?’
    His voice nearly faded away completely and he was left staring out of the window. They didn’t know what to say, they just stood in shock for what felt like an eternity while the silence
grew heavier.
    ‘Don’t worry, we’ll think of something,’ Siiri said, not quite knowing what she meant, and fluffed his pillow.
    ‘Pasi was fired at the same time that Tero died. Or was it after he died? Does anybody know Pasi’s last name?’ Anna-Liisa said, making an effort to change the subject. Before
anyone could respond, a heavy-set nurse wheeled a food trolley in with a terrible racket.
    ‘Maybe this isn’t such a high-quality place,’ Irma said when she saw the limp porridge.
    The nurse was sweaty and cross-looking. They felt like they ought to leave quickly, and were in such a hurry that they didn’t give Olavi a proper goodbye.
    On the tram Siiri realized she’d left her cane at the hospital and decided to go there first thing in the morning to get it. She