Page 69 of Feared

“I can’t help it, or what if he takes the ring out and he’s sitting on the couch with it? After all, we had just had a fight. Maybe he felt bad, maybe he was even crying. I know I was.” Judy shook her head, broken and bewildered. “And if he had the ring in his hand, maybe that’s what was happening when the burglar snuck up behind him.”

“No, that’s not what happened. If it were, the burglar would’ve stolen the ring, too.”

“Maybe he didn’t see it? Maybe it rolled under the chair or the couch, and the police found it, but the burglar didn’t. It’s possible. The burglar would’ve been in a hurry, but the police weren’t.”

“Oh, honey.” Mary gave her a hug, catching sight of the papers on John’s workstation. She blinked twice when she saw the form on top, which sat inside an open manila folder thick with correspondence.

DEPT. OF HUMAN SERVICES, Complaint, read the caption, and it was the draft of an official form that John had filled out, in his handwriting. In the box for Complainant, John had written,John Foxman, Esq., as Guardian for William R. Foxman, and under Respondent, John had written,Michael Shanahan, Supervisor, Poplar House, Glenn Meade, Devon, Pennsylvania.

“Judy, did you know that John was complaining about Mike Shanahan to the state?”

“Really?” Judy asked, rising.

“Look.” Mary scanned the form. In the block where the description of the complaint was supposed to be supplied, John had written in light pencil:

I am filing the complaint regardingnegligent treatment ofmy brother, who has cerebral palsy and is a longtime resident of Glenn Meade. I am reporting negligence and neglect by Michael Shanahan, supervisor of Poplar House. It takes a caretaker about half an hour to feed my brother, because he has tongue thrust and that makes it difficult for him to swallow,which istypical of many adults and children with cerebral palsy. Mr. Shanahan is a new supervisor at my brother’s group home and in the past two weeks, he has been complaining to me that my brother is “taking too long at mealtimes” and this is “throwing off” the scheduleof the house. Mr. Shanahan has suggested to me that my brother be put on a feeding tube, but this isabsolutely ridiculous. It isnot for my brother’s welfare, but for the convenience of Mr. Shanahan. My brother opposes this, and his consent is necessary, and so is mine. None of this was a problem before Mr. Shanahan became supervisor.BecauseMr. Shanahan and I have not been able to resolve this informally, so I am

Mary looked over at Judy. “Did you know about this?”

“Only generally. He told me that he had issues with Shanahan, but not the details. I didn’t know he was going to file a complaint.”

“Do you think Shanahan knew John was going to file a complaint?”

“I doubt it.” Judy frowned. “If John didn’t tell me, I doubt he would tell Shanahan.”

“What effect would this complaint have, do you know? Could it get Shanahan fired?”

“I don’t know. You know disability law better than I do.” Judy met Mary’s eye, as a realization dawned on her. “What, are you thinking that Shanahan had something to do with John’s death?”

“It’s possible, isn’t it?”

Judy recoiled. “That would be an extreme reaction, don’t you think?”

“Maybe,” Mary said, reconsidering. “but I don’t know Shanahan at all. Do you?”

“No.”

Mary shrugged. “Maybe we need to learn more about him. I would feel better if I ran it down, wouldn’t you?”

“You know, this suggests that John and Shanahan had been talking about it. Some of the talks could have been face-to-face and maybe some would be in email.”

“So there should be some emails between the two of them. We should be able to recover John’s emails, even though we don’t have his laptop or his phone. If he used his work email, we could get them off the firm server. Did he have personal email as well?”

“Yes, Gmail. JGFoxman@gmail.”

Mary felt stumped. “It takes a subpoena to access somebody else’s Gmail, and they’re not easy to get.”

“John might have made copies of the emails. That would be like him.” Judy started looking around the desk. “Knowing him, there’s a William file here, somewhere. I know he had the records for William, like birth certificate and the trust document.”

“Here’s the hard question—do you think that John told William that he was going to file a complaint about Shanahan’s treatment? Because if John did that, that could even mean that William was in jeopardy.”

“I don’t know for sure.” Judy frowned, concerned.

“Take a guess. You knew them both.”

“I’m sure that they would’ve talked about the problem with the eating and swallowing, but I don’t know if John would’ve told William he was filing a complaint. On the other hand, he could have. John always wanted William to know that he was looking out for him. They were close.”

“So you’ll have to ask William.”

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