Maddy's Floor by Dale Mayer

rest of the medical equipment and supplies will take a day or two."
     
    Drew said, "Please tell me you didn't offer to pay for equipment…"
     
    John's smile beamed across the room at the three other patients shamelessly listening in on his call. "What's the point of having money if it doesn't help you?"
     
    Drew was silent for a moment. "I think that's called bribery."
     
    "Bribery, smibery. Who cares what it's called as long as it works? Gerard needs donations and I need a bed. That's called a trade ." He wanted to get up and dance around the room. This was going to work. He just knew the famous Dr. Maddy would fix him.
     
    "Hmmm. At least I'll be able to see both you and Aunt Doris at the same time."
     
    John coughed. "That's the best part. I'm getting on Dr. Maddy's floor, but I doubt she is. She's going to be pissed."
     
    "You have the money, trade her way up there, too."
     
    What? Like hell. John couldn't help the harrumph that slid out. "She can pay her own damn way. Christ, the sibling bond doesn't stretch that far. Especially a step-sibling. She's a pain in the ass with all her ordering about. Do you think I want to listen to that to the end of my days? Like hell." He shifted in his bed, pulling the blankets up higher on his shoulders. This damn place was either cold or hot. There never seemed to be a happy medium. Cheap buggers, all of them. All they ever wanted was money.
     
    Well, he'd spend his the way he wanted to. And he'd leave it to whomever he wanted and that person sure as hell wasn't his stepsister. He winced as his guilty conscience poked him. "Besides, look at her mental deterioration. It's not like she'd appreciate the difference in the floors. Why waste the money?"
     
    Drew's long-suffering sigh, the one John had heard a million times before, sounded through the phone. "Whatever makes you happy. You do know you can't take it with you?"
     
    "Hell, I know that. Otherwise I'd have kicked off and taken it with me years ago, before this old body decided to break down. Now I'll spend it when I want to and how I want to. Have to go. The dinner cart is coming."
     
    John hung up on his nephew. Damn do-gooder. How the hell had Drew gotten so strong on family? Besides Doris wasn't really family. And she'd spent all her money on her loose lifestyle. Why should he pay for her care now? Drew was the only one worth helping, but if Drew kept bugging John to be nice to Doris, Drew wasn't going to get anything.
     
    Just like Doris.
     

***
    Drew put away his cell. Why the hell couldn't those two get along? Didn't he have enough trouble on his hands without running interference between his aunt and his uncle? Jesus. For two bedridden people they caused a pack of trouble. Like he needed that, today of all days – his first day on his new job.
     
    He stood in the doorway and surveyed his new space as part of the Cold Case Squad office space. He'd visited before, but now this was his office. The large open room featured windows down one long wall that opened out to the back parking lot. Bulletin and white boards filled the other walls. Some were filled with notes and pictures and others remained empty, waiting for cases. Stacks of boxes, file numbers written on one end, filled the back wall. In the middle of the room were several large empty tables and two desks sat toward the back of the room. Open and friendly looking. He liked it already.
     
    "Drew, welcome. Glad to have you here, finally."
     
    Wilson Carter walked toward him, arm outstretched. They'd worked together for years, then apart for the last two when Wilson had transferred to this unit. He'd worked on Drew, slowly, inevitably persuading him to join the Cold Case department. Drew hoped to find that sense of job satisfaction here that eluded him in his former position.
     
    Solving old cases with forgotten victims and helping out the families that had been waiting for closure since forever, should give that to him.
     
    He shook Wilson's hand and