For a moment, Kashmira pondered her words. She cleared her throat before speaking. “I apologize for that. It came out of a sense of frustration. I was trying to convince you to stay on the subject of your grandmother and the dire need to make a decision, which should not be so difficult. I’m sure you know we do not talk about other patients. That’s what I should have said. I must confess I was exasperated with you, and still am to a degree. I just got a call from Lucinda Benfatti, and she has informed me that you specifically advised her to wait with her decision as well. Now, I know she’d thought about waiting until her sons got here, but I was hoping that after the shock wore off, I could ask her to ask them their preference before they started their trip so the body could be dealt with appropriately. That’s how it has always worked in the past. This kind of problem has never come up before.”

“Are you saying that dealing with patient death is a common problem here?”

“Quite the contrary,” Kashmira said forcefully. “Don’t read something into my words which is not there.”

“Okay, okay,” Jennifer said, afraid she might have pushed the woman a little too far. “Thank you for your apology, and I accept. Actually, I’m impressed how you explained it. I was very curious how you were going to, because I didn’t think you could.”

“This issue about your grandmother has me entirely flummoxed.”

“It’s nice to know we at least see eye-to-eye about something,” Jennifer mumbled.

“Excuse me?”

“Forget it,” Jennifer added. “I was making a bad joke. But there is something I would like to see. I’d like to see my grandmother’s death certificate.”

“What on earth for?”

“I just want to see what it has on it as the cause of death.”

“It has heart attack, just like I said.”

“I’d still like to see it. Do you have it, or at least a copy?”

“I do. It’s in the master folder.”

“May I see? I assume I’ll be getting a copy at some point anyway. It’s not a state secret.”

Kashmira thought for a moment, shrugged, and pushed herself in her chair over to a bank of file cabinets. Pulling out one of the drawers, she scanned the tabs and eventually pulled out an individual file. Opening it, she found a very Indian-looking government document. She returned to the desk, handing the document across to Jennifer.