The Groaning Board

one
of those dreadful phones. She took another huge bite of the chocolate and
headed for the EXIT door through which Ellen had just gone. She pulled it open
and followed her.
    “Get help!” a woman cried. “There’s a
man down here having a heart attack.”
    The staircase was well lit, and while
it wasn’t the best means of travel, it was certainly faster than the elevators.
Nurses and attendants used it more often than visitors, which was lucky for
Huberman. He was sprawled on the landing, gasping for breath, his color gray.
Near his hand was a cell phone. Wetzon moved out of the way as a nurse ran past
her up the stairs.
    “My God, Huberman!” To the nurse
kneeling beside him, Wetzon said, “His name is Huberman.” He groaned. Beady
sweat oozed down his face.
    “Hold on, Mr. Huberman,” the nurse
said. “You’re in the best place to have a heart attack.”
    Wetzon straightened. “Did a girl come
down the steps a minute or so ago?”
    “Yes,” the nurse replied. “She didn’t
even stop when I asked her to go back and get help.” A door opened above them
and two orderlies came down the stairs with a stretcher. “Oh, good,” the nurse
said.
    Wetzon watched them go, then picked
up Huberman’s cell phone and called Silvestri. “This is Leslie Wetzon again. Is
he there?”
    “Silvestri said if you called I
should find out where the hell you are.”
    “Sounds just like him. Tell him I’m
at Lenox Hill Hospital. Ellen Moore just pulled the plug on Todd Cameron and
she’s at least two floors below me right now. I’m going after her. Over and
out.” She slipped the phone in her bag and headed down the stairs.
    She stopped on the second floor. Just
below her, she could hear the sound of body mass meeting door, rattling the
panic bar, punching, thump, thump. The door to the street was either stuck or
locked.
    Wetzon came down the last flight of
stairs, fighting her weak knees. Ellen was in a frenzy, crying, beating on the
door with her fists, kicking it.
    “Do you want me to help you?” Wetzon
said calmly. She sat on the steps.
    With an odd, mechanical motion, Ellen
stopped beating on the door. She turned and focused wide, babydoll eyes on
Wetzon. “I was just taking a shortcut to the street.”
    “After putting your boyfriend where
he can’t get in your way?”
    “Todd’s not my boyfriend.”
    “Then why are you here?”
    “His parents asked me to come.”
    “Did they really? I thought his
mother didn’t like you.“
    “They’re really dreadful people.”
Ellen made a clucking sound. “Poor Todd. I always try to do the right thing for
everyone, but they don’t listen.”
    “Excuse me? You poisoned Sheila
Gelber and Micklynn, not to mention Todd. You destroyed Micklynn’s cat. And you
say you always try to do the right thing?”
    “It’s very simple,” Ellen said,
turning back to the door. “I don’t expect you to understand.”
    “Try me.”
    “Micklynn did it to herself. She was
a drunk, like Mama. I was just helping Mama down the stairs. It wasn’t my fault
she fell. She was abusing me and anyway, Sam did it.“
    “Sam, your boyfriend in Medford?”
    Ellen nodded.
    “And you helped Micklynn over the
side of Hem’s boat?“
    “Todd did that.”
    “Right. Was the old lady in Medford who took you in a drunk too?”
    “Mrs. Applegate? No. She thought I
was going to take care of her, wait on her. Who did she think I was?”
    “How come she died?”
    “She was old.” Ellen gave Wetzon a
hurt look. “You said you’d help me.” Her fists beat on the door.
    “What’s going on down there?” someone
called down the stairwell.
    “Door’s locked,” Wetzon called back.
    “Can’t be. Give it a good push and
stop all that racket.” Wetzon could feel the chocolate taking hold, finally.
“Okay, I’ll help you.” She got up and came forward, leaned on the bar of the
door. “Push on three. One, two, three.” The door didn’t give.
    “Awr,” Ellen screamed, fists pounding
the door. Her fists left a bloody imprint on the door.
    “Tell me about Sheila Gelber. Push now.”
    The girl was panting, giving off a
fetid animal odor. “She had articles from the Medford paper that said I spent
four months in jail for involuntary manslaughter.”
    “Sheila was going to tell?”
    “She was a very wicked person. She
wanted to punish me. But I didn’t do it. Todd did it.”
    “Todd ground up the azalea and put it
in the corn muffins Micklynn was baking?”
    “He was too