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

laughed happily, then blew her nose in her lace handkerchief
and thought for a moment. ‘If they could train old people to find truffles, it would kill two birds with one stone. Two houseflies with one swat. By which I mean flouse-lies. The old people
and the pigs could go out in the woods together – and they would find truffles, too. That’s three flouse-lies! I’ve heard that nowadays people can’t tell a chanterelle from
an agaric. Is a truffle a mushroom?’
    Siiri didn’t know, so Irma continued mumbling. She and her husband had once bought truffles in Prague. They were sold by weight, and the vendor shaved off tiny slices onto a postal scale.
She sighed, missing her husband for a moment, then roused herself when she remembered what they’d been talking about.
    ‘We have to file a complaint against Virpi Hiukkanen. I’m going to do it right now. Do you have a pen and paper?’
    Before Siiri could answer, Irma was rummaging through Siiri’s kitchen drawers. She found some old photographs.
    ‘Who’s this beautiful woman?’ Irma asked, looking at a picture of Siiri in her Women’s Auxiliary uniform.
    Siiri got her a pen and paper and wondered where a person could possibly send such a complaint.
    ‘There has to be some place,’ Irma said decisively, and announced that she was going to write to the retirement home’s board of directors. ‘There must be a board of
directors. I can’t imagine that Director Sundström’s husband is in charge of the whole thing.’
    She sat down at the table to write, now and then asking Siiri a question she couldn’t answer.
    ‘How long were you unconscious? Did Virpi blame the package on you? Did you ask for help before you passed out? Has your arrhythmia been diagnosed?’
    In the end the complaint was very no-nonsense. Siiri was proud of Irma, and grateful, because Irma was right, after all, that they shouldn’t treat a sick person that way in a retirement
home. Or anywhere, really.
    ‘If a woman was lying unconscious on the pavement, would you just step over her?’ Irma asked, looking Siiri in the eye with the heat of righteous indignation.
    They were certain that the governing body of Sunset Grove would intervene in matters such as this. They found the Sunset Grove information pack in its blue folder on Siiri’s bookshelf, the
one that was sent to everyone in the facility. It said that Sunset Grove was owned by the Loving Care Foundation, which was governed by a board made up of four people they’d never heard of,
and Virpi Hiukkanen.
    ‘How can she be her own boss?’ Irma said with puzzlement.
    They decided to write four letters of complaint and send them to each of the other members of the board individually. Siiri still had stamps and envelopes from last year’s Christmas
cards.
    ‘Christmas stamps? Are you sure these will work?’ Irma said, but the stamps were marked first class, so they must be acceptable, even if they did have elves on them. It was quite a
lot of work writing the same letter three more times, but Siiri made some instant coffee and got the red wine out of the cleaning cupboard, and Irma was able to carry on.
    ‘Elderly person left unaided,’ was the title of the complaint. It told what had happened, and when and where, and finished by demanding prompt resolution of the matter and an apology
at the very least. Siiri wasn’t sure about the apology, because the idea of Virpi Hiukkanen coming to her and asking forgiveness was repellent to her. Virpi wouldn’t be sincerely sorry,
and besides, she might hug her to show her regret. That would be even more horrible than Sinikka Sundström’s constant hugging, because Virpi was a hard, bony woman. It seemed strange to
hug all the time instead of shaking hands. Even Siiri’s son, the one who died from obesity, was always hugging everybody, even though he could hardly get his arms around his own belly. And he
had been such a sweet baby! Siiri could never forget how he sat up in