“Bronze Suzuki driven by Thomas. Four minutes,” Mel says. As they round the stand of bamboo, she adds, “Checked out the upstairs. Brother Derek’s clothes are in the master bedroom.”

“They could be Chuck’s. Maybe, like your dad, Barbara can’t bring herself to get rid of them.”

“Nuh-uh. Not like in the closet. Dirty tighty-whities on the bathroom floor, stinky gym socks in the hamper.”

“One begins to suspect Barbara is not Chuck’s good wife,” Rose says.

CHAPTER 24

“We have to get Chuck out of Longwood,” Rose says.

Royal’s grandma is on a date, so the teepee tribe is enjoying the AC in the living room.

“Longwood didn’t abuse you,” Mel says. “Shouldn’t he be okay there?”

“Remember when I told you about the women in the hall saying I wouldn’t last out the week, and we thought I was crazy? I wasn’t. Early-rapid-onset patients don’t have a very impressive life span in the Memory Care Unit. Even Barbara—in her own Elly May Clampett kind of way—knew that.”

“I was surprised at how nice she was,” Mel says.

“Me, too.” Rose is on the floor stretching as they talk, easing tense muscles, and doing spinal twists to release built-up toxins. There is a veritable mother lode of them. “At the end, Barbara said there were two kinds of dementia, the slow kind and the quick kind, and Chuck has the quick kind. What do you want to bet Derek’s ‘robocall’ was a text from the evil overlord to be on the lookout for nosy white-haired ladies and precocious teenaged girls?”

“He did change from a passive-aggressive creep to an aggressive-aggressive creep after the call,” Mel notes.

“Derek is the not-brother?” Royal asks.

“Right. He of the dirty underpants,” Mel clarifies. Royal and Mel are on the couch, one on each end, their feet crossing in the middle. Each has a cell phone in hand and plays with it when the conversation flags.

“Weeks after Chuck is put in the MCU, Derek is in bed with the wife, who, we assume, is about to become a wealthy widow. Derek dominates Barbara; that was obvious. He must have come into their lives in an intimate way—maybe a personal trainer, or a private chef. The kind of job that gave him access to the house and the wife in an ongoing way.”

“Maybe they remodeled the kitchen,” Mel says. “The guy Dad hired practically moved in with us for six months.”

“Then Derek got hold of the drugs that make people demented, and administered them to Chuck,” Rose goes on. “When Chuck got bad, bingo, bango, bongo, he’s carted off to Memory Care where they can finish the job.”

“Isn’t that kind of dramatic?” Royal says. “No offense meant, Mrs. Dennis.”