Miss Ruby Harris

An elderly woman is primping in front of a bathroom mirror trying to straighten a lopsided wig sitting on her head. She hears a knock on the door.

“Ruby, it’s me, Velma. You about ready?”

Ruby checks herself one last time in the mirror before going to open the door. Ruby lets Velma in after unlocking the gate that’s installed on the other side of her front door. Velma heads to the window and looks down on the street below.

“You hear all those gun shots going off all night?”

“No more than usual, Velma.”

Ruby turns to the mirror next to the front door then places a hat on her head then pins it in place. One more tug on the wig. She grabs her purse and Bible then turns to Velma who’s still looking down on the street.

Velma says, “I sure hope we make it safely to church.”

“I hear ya sister Velma, but I got my Bible with me, so we got all the protection we need.”

“So you keep saying. If we ever do come across trouble, I certainly do hope that Bible of yours protects us.”

They exit the apartment and Ruby takes a few seconds to secure the gate in front of her door. They descend the stairs and exit the building.  As they briskly walk to church, they pass some young men and boys. Some nod to the women as they pass, Ruby clutching her Bible the whole time. Later that day Ruby and her friend Velma return to their apartment building. They stop in front of Ruby’s door where she tells Velma to have a nice trip visiting her niece. She tells her they’ll catch-up when she returns. Velma tells her she’ll be back next week in time for Sunday mass. On her way to her own apartment down the hall, Velma turns back to Ruby and tells her to be safe.

Ruby says, “You know I always have my Bible with me to keep me safe now, so don’t you worry.”

Once in safely in her apartment, Ruby removes her hat then places it next to her purse and Bible on a table under the mirror next to the front door. She goes to the kitchen where she pulls a plate of cold chicken from the refrigerator. She turns on the radio to listen to more Sunday preaching then proceeds to eat. There is a knock on the door. She gets up and grabs her Bible.

“It’s me, Velma.”

Ruby opens the door and Velma hands her a piece of paper through the locked gate.

Velma continues, “Here’s the phone number of my niece in case you need to reach me.”

“Thank you, Velma. Want to come in for some of my cold chicken?”

“No thank you Ruby, I have some food I need to finish before I leave.”

“Ok then. Travel safe.”

“I will, and you be careful too.”

Ruby holds up her Bible and they both giggle. Ruby closes the door and turns to head back to her meal. She stops in her tracks. Across her face runs a look of pain, surprise and fear all at the same time. She clutches her chest with her free hand then collapses to her knees dropping the Bible. She falls on her face with a thud and is motionless from then on.

I’m sitting at my desk as usual one morning while the others are at theirs. My phone rings.

“Public Administrator’s Office. Yes it is, how may I help you? One moment please while I grab something to write with. OK, one more time please. Your name is Velma what? I’m sorry I didn’t get you last name Velma….”

As I continue to write on my pad of paper, Malika grabs her coffee mug and heads towards the kitchenette. In the hall she is almost trampled by three burly men walking shoulder to shoulder down the hall towards Mr. C’s door. Malika jumps back into the office.

“I almost got run down by a group of big white guys! They acted as if they didn’t see me! The nerve!”

Ben says, “Oh, that is probably the guy coming in to interview for the investigator’s position.”

“There were three of them” Malika replies.

“The other two are probably his brothers. I think they’re friends of Mr. C’s.”

“So, it’s no interview at all. Just a pretense of one. Who brings their brothers along for an interview?” Malika asks.

“No decisions will be made until the time frame to submit applications has passed and he’s interviewed everyone he thinks may qualify.”

Behind Mr. C’s closed door, we could hear laughter. Malika looks at Ben.

“Hadn’t you better get in there? Didn’t he say he wanted you present during the interviews?”

“He did but I haven’t heard from him regarding this one. I expect he’ll be calling me in soon.”

Malika leaves with her coffee mug again but this time pokes her head in the hallway first to look both ways before exiting the room. By now I finish my phone calls.

I say, “Well guys, I have to head out sooner than I thought. I want to knock off this job first before heading to my other one since it’s on the way.”

I arrive at the apartment building on the South Side and get buzzed in. I hear a voice calling down the stairs asking if I’m from the Public Administrator’s Office.

“Up here sir.”

“Hi, Ms. Velma Robinson? I’m Phil.”

I put my identification back in my pocket and hand her my business card.

“Thank you so much for coming out so soon. I just can’t bear the thought of my friend laying in the morgue! I do hope you can help.”

“I hope so too. Just to confirm, she has no family that you know of?”

“She never spoke of any. She did always carry around her Bible. She carried it wherever we went. If there is any information at all of family, I’m sure we’ll find it in there.”

“Ok, let’s go have a look, shall we?”

Velma fumbles with the keys as we walk down the hall towards Ruby’s apartment. She explains how they have each other’s keys in case something like this happens.

She says, “The police put a seal on the door. Is it ok to go in?”

“Yeas” I respond “I’m authorized to remove them. I spoke to the building manager and she couldn’t be here, but I’ll fill her in later.”

Velma opens the gate first. I remove the seal before she opens the door. We step in. I comment on how tidy the apartment is and how meticulous the decedent must have been.

Velma responds, “She certainly was. And a dear friend as well.”

I comment on how it’s not too bad of a decomposition.

“Well they took her body out of here about five days ago. They think she may have passed several days before I found her.”

We both stare at the floor where a dark outline on the rug was indicating where the body had been found decomposed. Where the head been lying was a wig on the floor and near that was the Bible.

Velma eagerly says, “There it is! There’s her Bible.”

I bend over a pick it up. Once I open it, we both see that the Bible had been hollowed out and inside was a gun.

“Well, well. What do we have here?” I ask.

The look on Velma’s face was priceless when she says, “Now I know why she always said the Bible was her protection.”

Back in the office I’m telling the other investigators about Miss Ruby Harris.

“Unfortunately, she doesn’t have any means other than Social Security for burial but her friend Velma said the church they belong to took up a collection for burial. I’ll release the body to the funeral home they chose.”

With stars in her eyes, Malika gushes, “I love Ruby. I want to be just like her. Do you have a photo of her?”

I search through the pile of papers on my desk and pull out Ruby’s state identification card that has a picture of her on it. I hand it to Malika. She spins around in her chair and pins it on the cork-board behind her desk. On it are several other IDs and photos.

“Welcome to my board Miss Ruby.” She says.

Ben, Vic and I look at each other and smirk.

Ben says, “By-the-way, we have a new investigator starting next week. Mr. C hired him yesterday. Sorry Phil, you didn’t get the promotion.”

I’m kind of surprised but not really knowing how these positions are filled. At the time the office had no union representation to rely on for support. I got passed on another promotion years earlier, the position Malika was hired for. I asked the Public Administrator at the time to consider me for that empty position. He didn’t know me from a hole in the wall, but I asked him anyhow for a promotion. Not to be. Instead Malika was hired. I hold no bad feelings against her, she does her job well. As I’m learning, it’s not what you know but who you know. When I was 22 and in need of a job, my Grandfather arranged an interview for me with the Public Administrator, Mr.  A, at the time because they were friends. Mr. A hired me as an Investigator 1.

Vic says, “Really, what do we know about this new guy?”

Ben responds, “He seems ok. I met him yesterday.”

“Not the guy that ran me down in the hall?” Malika asks.

“Now he didn’t run you down. They probably didn’t see you.” Ben adds.

I said I hope he doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty and asked Ben who’ll be training him.

“We all will to start with, but I want you and Vic to share taking him out. Just till he proves himself, then he’ll be on his own.”

Vic mentions that he’s still kind of new himself and is nervous about being involved in the new hire’s training. I assure him he’ll be fine.

“I know I’ll be fine. It’s the new guy I’m concerned about. What’s his name anyhow?’

“It’s Stan or Stanley” Ben answers.

“Polish huh? Just like the boss” someone said.

“Yeah. A mole sent in by the boss to spy on us.”

“He’s not a spy. He probably knows Mr. C but so what? How did we all get our positions here anyhow?”

“True. It’s not what you know but who you know. Besides I would probably fill these positions too with people I know and trust. If the guy does anything wrong, it’ll be Mr. C’s reputation on the line.”

Ben says,” Nothing is going to go wrong if we train him properly.”

I volunteer to get his desk ready. Lately it’s been used as a kind of storage. There are boxes filled with photo albums some family member from out of town asked us to remove from a decedent’s residence. They’re still waiting for someone to wrap, address and get in the mail. There’s another box containing manila envelopes filled with miscellaneous papers removed from decedent’s residences and on and on. I’m able to stack these around our already crammed office. Sitting on a shelf are several crematory urns containing human ashes that have been abandoned at various funeral homes. They have been sitting around our office for years and nobody knows why.

As I mentioned earlier, the Public Administrator employs about 20 people full time. We have one person whose job in the office is strictly handling the appraisal and sale of the decedent’s jewelry and any worthy coins that may have been collected. Another person oversees their stocks and securities. Another person strictly handles all the real estate that the decedent may have owned. There is usually enough real estate our office handles to warrant four public auctions a year. Another person oversees collecting all the bank accounts. We have another person who collects any life insurance or savings bonds. Once all the decedents assets are converted to cash, it sits in accounts that are managed by our bookkeepers. These accounts have millions and millions of dollars in them. They are dispersed amongst several banks downtown all held by the Public Administrator’s Office. Eventually the money is turned over to the State of Illinois after years of being unclaimed.

However, if an heir appears and can prove their relation, they will be able inherit according to the mandate of the law. For instance, if a cousin from the decedent’s mother’s side materializes and claims to be the only relative and can prove it, that cousin can only inherit half of the estate because the cousins on the decedent’s father’s side must be established, if any. Therefore, it is the duty of the Public Administrator to retain those assets for any heir on the paternal side until they materialize. There are all types of charts in our office indicating how the money can be inherited down the family tree. I still don’t know the difference between a first cousin once removed and a second cousin. It has been explained to me in the past, however I can never remember. I don’t need to know because there is another person in the office who oversees that too.