The Lavender Ladies Detective Agency: Death in Sunset Grove by Minna Lindgren Page A

believe that a nurse wouldn’t know how to lead
someone gently, without hurting them. What were they teaching them in nursing school?
    ‘I’m sorry. I’m a little scared,’ the girl said. ‘I’ve never met any old people before. We practised on dolls.’
    ‘Don’t you have a grandmother?’ Siiri asked in astonishment, pulling herself out of the girl’s vice grip.
    ‘My grandma’s sixty-seven. Not terribly old.’
    ‘Unlike me! You could be my great-grandchild. Shall I adopt you?’
    Now the girl laughed. Siiri suggested that she always offer her arm to someone she was helping somewhere, and not grab them. Then they walked side by side to the lift and Siiri said she would be
all right the rest of the way on her own, because she did feel quite strong compared to the timid girl.
    ‘What happened to you?’ the girl asked nervously.
    ‘I think I had an attack of arrhythmia,’ Siiri said, but the girl didn’t believe her because she thought arrhythmia was a life-threatening condition, and Siiri was fine.
    ‘You just had a fainting spell. These things happen at your age. That’s what they told us. It’s quite normal. Remember to drink plenty of water every day.’
    The lift had arrived. The frail child-nurse gave her a sprightly wave and walked away with such speed that her ponytail bounced perkily from side to side. Siiri liked her. She would be a good
nurse one day.
    Siiri stood alone in the lift and thought about all the things in her life that had been normal: growing pains when she was young, menstrual cramps, the fear of pregnancy and giving birth, the
tiredness of middle age, the listlessness, sleeplessness, headaches, the aches and pains of old age, the twinges, the stiffness, the hum in her head and buzzing in her ears, and now this
arrhythmia. But not death. She started to feel weak again. Her head throbbed. She leaned against the lift wall and held on to the rail with both hands. She looked in the mirror at a shockingly pale
old woman – herself.
    ‘
Döden, döden, döden
,’ she said to the monster in the mirror, and walked slowly to her apartment. At the door she realized she’d left the mysterious
package in the head nurse’s office, and decided that was where it really belonged.
    ‘How lovely to have no responsibilities and to be able to take a catnap whenever you like,’ she said out loud to herself as she settled on the bed, sighed, and closed her eyes. This
is how she would look when she died, hopefully. Happy are they who die in their sleep.

Chapter 13
    ‘What package?’ Irma said, sitting at dinner in Siiri’s apartment. Siiri had warmed up some blood pancakes – another item that was often on sale at Low
Price Market. A pack of blood pancakes was a lot of food for two people, and they were delicious with lingonberry jam.
    Irma had also had a nap, which was good because as she had been drinking whisky and red wine since her morning coffee there was no telling what state she’d be in otherwise. As it was she
didn’t remember what had happened that very morning. Siiri explained it all again. When she got to the part about Virpi Hiukkanen and the attack of arrhythmia, Irma got very angry. She
thought that it was downright shameful that there were people working in a retirement home who didn’t have the least bit of interest in the well-being of others.
    ‘It’s against the law to leave an old woman who’s fainted lying on the floor!’ she said, her voice so high that it sounded like she was singing. ‘Telling you
there’s nothing to worry about!’
    ‘I doubt there’s a law about it,’ Siiri said, trying to calm her, but she wouldn’t be calmed.
    ‘There must be some law to promote the safety of the elderly. After all, there are laws about letting your pigs out. I read in the paper that you have to let your pigs go outside every day
now, and if they’re not used to it their feet get messed up from the constant outings. I thought it was quite funny.’ She