Clearing the Course

by Diane Weiner

  “Maddy, get down before you get hurt!” She heard the thud before the words finished leaving her mouth. “Are you okay?”

  In the few seconds delay before her answer, Emily couldn’t breathe. Then she watched Maddy get up and brush the leaves off her shorts.

  “I’m fine. Looks like no one’s been here for a hundred years. There are weeds everywhere.”

  “Can you climb back out?” Although it was still daylight, this place gave her the creeps. She half expected dancing skeletons or a ghost to jump out from behind a grave stone.

  Maddy leaned down and cleared away one of the headstones as best she could. “Do you think there’s treasure buried beneath one of these graves? Is that why the clue led us here?”

  “I can’t imagine why Henry’s grandfather would have buried treasure here and not in his own back yard. If there was a treasure, that is. Come on, I’m hungry”

  Maddy boosted herself over the iron fence. “You don’t have to hold onto me, Emily. I’m a big girl.” She jumped to the ground.

  Emily had a flash of what it would have been like to watch Maddy ride her bike for the first time. How hard it would have been to let go, knowing she could fall. How hard it was to be in charge of protecting someone and failing to live up to the job. Beth. She shook off her thoughts before beating herself up again.

  “Emily, did you hear me?”

  Maddy’s voice brought her back to the present. “No, what did you say?”

  “Let’s come back tomorrow with some tools.”

  Not convinced, she nodded her head and unlocked her Audi. Maddy had her monster headphones on, with her phone in her lap. She couldn’t help but think how things had come full circle, from the oversized headphones in vogue when she was a teenager, to the micro-earbuds of the recent past, and back to super-sized. Of course, those expensive Dr. Beats she and Henry bought for Maddy’s birthday were wireless. They drove silently to the inn to meet Jonathan Stirling for dinner. Was Maddy sleeping, or just enjoying the music with her eyes closed? She tapped her shoulder. “We’re here.”

  Maddy jumped. “I can hear you, you don’t have to shout.”

  Jonathan, in a crisp, green polo shirt with his hair neatly combed, was already seated when they arrived.

  “Glad you called,” said Jonathan. “I hate eating alone.”

  The dining room at the inn was buzzing with summer visitors, but Coralee always managed to seat them, even at the last minute.

  Maddy said, “Have you seen Robby? Is he doing okay?”

  “He’s a little more optimistic now that we’re going with the theory he was framed. I showed him the photo of the sweatshirt. It’s missing the drawstring and he says it’s his, but has no idea how it got on that path. He says he has no enemies in town—keeps to himself most of the time.”

  “He’s really kind of shy. Other than Damari, he never mentioned friends.”

  They had barely been seated when Henry walked in. “Sorry I’m late. Got a call when I was about to leave the hospital. The fertility drugs we found in Dan’s office fridge contained a fraction of the hormones they were supposed to have. Now the question is, if Dan was using those on his patients, what was he doing with the legit ones he signed out from the hospital pharmacy?”

  Jonathan put down his glass of water. “Could he have been selling them?”

  “To whom? Any doctor in his right mind wouldn’t be buying black market drugs, and patients themselves wouldn’t know what to do with them.”

  Coralee brought fresh baked bread to the table. “I heard Dallas is almost finished with your kitchen. How’s it looking?”

  “Beautiful.”

  “Told you the man does good work. He’s got a few more guest rooms to update for me when he’s finished. His poor wife. She’s sitting cooped up with a baby, while he’s spending hours working. I’m sure that isn’t what she bargained for, but trying to feed a family on a teacher’s salary? It’s no wonder he’s picking up every odd job he can get his hands on.”

  “Does she ever come around here?” Emily put her menu down.

  “No. From what Dallas has said, his wife’s a bit of a germaphobe and doesn’t like bringing the baby near crowds of people. You know first time moms.”

  Emily really didn’t, but imagined if she’d had Maddy as a baby she would have wanted to show her off to everyone.

  “Maybe he’d rather be here than changing diapers and listening to crying,” said Henry.

  “Or perhaps Lisa is depressed and doesn’t want to go out. I hate to say it, but after I had Noah, I was so depressed I thought about ending it all.”

  Emily said, “No way. You’re always so upbeat.”

  “Hormones and chemical imbalances can’t be overcome by an upbeat personality. I thought about killing myself. I even counted the pain pills the doctor gave me after the C-section. I thought about crushing them up and chugging them with a bottle of beer.”

  Emily’s jaw dropped. “In a million years, I can’t picture it. What turned things around for you?”

  “A friend from my high school days called to congratulate me on the baby. I hadn’t talked to her in months, but her timing was right on. Uncanny. She asked if everything was okay. She said I sounded sad. That’s when I opened up to her about how I was feeling. She convinced me to get help.”

  “And you talked it out with a therapist?”

  “Talking came afterward. First, the doctor got me on anti-depressants. I felt like such a failure having to take meds when I had a new baby at home and everything to live for. He explained it wasn’t my fault and that much mental illness was simply a matter of out of whack brain chemicals. In my case, it was postpartum depression. Pregnancy does a number on your hormones.”

  “So you took the pills and you were fine,” said Maddy.

  Henry interjected, “It’s not that simple. It takes a while for the medication to build up and start working.”

  “True, but I hung in there until the black curtain lifted.” Coralee went around the table taking orders. Although she had servers to do that, she couldn’t help being hands-on with her guests. Emily knew that personal touch added to the inn’s tremendous success. She had a new sense of admiration for Coralee, first for getting help when she needed it, and second for having the courage to talk about it.

  Jonathan said, “Henry, back to those drugs. Do you think he was selling the legit ones off to the highest bidder and substituting the watered down versions?”

  Emily said, “I read something about women in India being paid to be surrogates. Suppose they imported the drugs? Or some similar scenario in another part of the world.”

  Henry remembered the addresses in the black book he and Pat found taped to the bottom drawer in Dan’s office. Weren’t a few of those international? “Yes! I’ll bet that’s it. Pat gave the book to his detective girlfriend. I’ll let her know our theory.”

  “Back to Robby,” said Maddy. “If he’s being framed, someone had to have taken his sweatshirt and lunch box to plant them. And why Robby? Is he the only one in town someone imagined would have a motive?”

  “It had to be someone who knew they were together.” Emily ran through the list. Li Min, her husband, Dan…”

  “And, that knew they broke up,” added Maddy.

  “Henry, wasn’t it Dan who suggested that golf outing? Isn’t that where the lunch box was found?”

  Henry said, “That’s right. And now that we know the drugs were watered down for sure, my best guess is that Damari found out and Dan went after her to keep her quiet. He may have played the part of being interested in her just to find out what she knew.”

  “Or to make sure she stayed quiet,” said Jonathan. “He very well could be the one who planted the lunch box.”

  “And then what? Someone turned around and killed Dan and it had nothing to do with the first murder?” Emily grabbed another piece of bread.

  “Could be a coincidence. Dan had enemies––his dissatisfied patients, the father of the kid
killed in the snow mobile accident…”

  “Henry, can you get me more information on that accident? It’s worth exploring.”

  “Sure. I’ll send it to you in the morning when I get to the hospital.”

  “I think we’re looking at proving Dan Fischer killed Damari, then looking at who wanted Dan dead. Two separate cases,” said Jonathan.

  Chapter 20

  Henry dropped by the morgue before starting his shift the next morning.

  “Pat, Dan mentioned he hired Robby to cut his lawn, remember? And Robby said he took his lunchbox with him on jobs. Do you think…”

  “That Robby left his lunchbox at Dan’s and Dan planted it?”

  “Yeah. And maybe Robby left his red sweatshirt lying around, too. Or at least Dan knew he wore a red sweatshirt, picked up one at Walmart, and planted it.” Henry paced around the office while he worked out his thoughts.

  “How could we possibly prove either of those things? We know a gray-haired man was spotted at the lake with Damari the night she died. And it wasn’t Professor Carlson, because the police have footage of him getting gas on the other side of town that night.”

  Pat’s phone vibrated on his desk. “It’s Megan.”

  “I’ll leave you to talk. I need to get upstairs anyway.”

  Henry pushed the elevator button for the ground floor, then hit three deciding to check in on Chauncey first. His wife was sitting at his bedside. The room smelled of lavender, and Henry spotted a small tea candle lit on the nightstand. He was about to tell her it was against hospital rules to light a candle in the room, but let it go.

  “Any change?”

  “None. I keep talking to him. I heard sometimes they hear ya even if they aren’t awake.”

  “That’s true. It certainly can’t hurt.”

  “I was thinking about something that happened before the accident. Chauncey and I were out to dinner down town a few nights earlier, and Chauncey swore we were being watched. After dinner we went for a walk to do some window shopping, and Chauncey said he thought someone was following us. At one point Chauncey turned around real quick and he said he saw someone dart around the corner. A few minutes later, this van goes speeding by us.”

  “Did you tell the police?”

  “I just remembered last night. My mind’s been too jumbled with worrying about Chauncey, I forgot.”

  “Do you remember anything about the van or the driver?”

  “It was a white van. I couldn’t see the driver, but he was in a real hurry. Do you think Chauncey was right? Was someone following us?”

  “I don’t know, but you have to call the police right away and tell them.”

  On the way to the emergency room, Henry processed the extent of what Chauncey’s wife just said. If someone was following them a few nights earlier, perhaps Chauncey was targeted, and it wasn’t an accidental hit and run. Why Chauncey? It was hard to imagine him having any enemies.

  He mulled over the implications while he tended to a toddler’s bee sting, an elderly man’s stomach pain, and a middle-aged woman’s migraine. After that, things were quiet. So quiet, he could hear his own stomach rumbling. The bowl of oatmeal he’d eaten hours ago hadn’t been sufficient.

  He took a walk down the nearly deserted corridor to the vending machine, and weighed the choices—peanut M&M’s or a two pack of Nature’s Valley granola bars. Glancing at his Fitbit, he opted for the granola bars, but when he examined the back of the package, he realized the candy would’ve been calorically the better choice. Examining the calories? When had he turned into his wife?

  He tore open the package and headed back to his office. That’s when he saw her. Sneaking out of Dan Fischer’s locked office. She turned her head left, then right. Clutching her open cardigan against her waist with her elbow, she looked over her shoulder. He slowed and took purposely quiet steps while she locked the office door. Then, he broke the silence.

  “What were you doing in there?”

  The nurse jumped and let out a minor scream. “You scared me. I, um.”

  “Where did you get a key to this office? Should I call the police and tell them you were nosing around a crime scene?” Technically, it wasn’t a crime scene, but he wanted to scare her into being truthful.

  “I left something. I was trying to retrieve it, that’s all. Please, don’t call them.”

  “Left what?” Whether it was the fact that he was a doctor, or the tone of his voice, she deferred to his authority.

  “Nothing, I…”

  “You can tell me, or you can tell the detective.” He took his phone out of his pocket.

  “Don’t. I was retrieving this.” She pulled a pair of lacy, red panties from under the cardigan. “I don’t want my husband to find out.”

  Now he recognized her. She hadn’t been working there long. “You’re married to Dr. McPhee, aren’t you?”

  “Yes. And I don’t see the point of him finding out about me and Dan, especially now that Dan is gone.”

  “An affair? And you met here? Right under your husband’s nose?”

  “That’s right. Are you the marriage police?” Her defensiveness seemed to outweigh her fear.

  “Not my concern. No one around here suspected? Or did they cover for you?”

  “I’d slip in during shift changes. And Wednesday evenings. I told everyone I went to a book club over in Oakbridge. Obviously, it’s over now. Telling my husband would do nothing but hurt him.”

  Wednesday evenings. “You were seeing him last month?”

  “Not that it’s your business.” She seemed to remind herself that she was at his mercy as far as being reported to the police, “but yes, every single Wednesday.”

  “What about Founder’s Day? The big celebration was on a Wednesday.”

  “I went to the picnic and fireworks with my husband. Dan was there, with that receptionist who died.”

  “So he was seeing the receptionist as well?”

  “No, he had some business with her, that’s all. We met back at his office like always, later that evening.”

  “What time did you speak to them?”

  “Aren’t you being a tad nosy?” She cleared her throat. “Around 8:00.”

  Henry tried to remember what time Damari was killed.

  The nurse looked up and down the hall, which was getting busier as they spoke. “Can I go now?”

  “Yeah, but the police may have some questions for you.”

  “Having an affair isn’t illegal.”

  “Not about that. Did Dan and Damari, the receptionist, happen to go down to the docks?”

  “I don’t know about her. He’d been fishing out on the lake. As a matter of fact, he was holding a small cooler and said something about going home and sticking the fish in his freezer before coming to the hospital. He said he had to work late, but that was for my husband’s benefit. I knew what he meant.”

  “So you saw Damari and Dan together around 8:00. Then you met Dan back at the hospital, when?”

  “It was before 9:00. My husband was going back to the hospital to check on a patient. We rode together, and then I said they asked me to cover because they were short-handed. Told him I’d get a ride home.” She looked at her watch. “I have to get back to my floor.”

  “I won’t say anything to your husband, but the detectives will be talking to you about the night of the murder. You may have been one of the last people to see Damari alive.”

  Chapter 21

  Jonathan sat with Chester nuzzled beside him on the couch. “Henry, that was good work. Now we know Dan Fischer had an alibi for the time Damari was killed.”

  “Detective Megan went back to the eye witness report. The witness spotted Dan and Damari on the lake while it was still light out. They’d been fishing, but right afterwards is when they ran into that nurse and Dr. McPhee. The police found the cooler of fish in Dan’s fridge at his house and he swiped into the hospital at 8:45 p.m. The timeline checks out. Dan left the picnic, dropped off the fish,
and was back at the hospital by 8:45. He couldn’t have killed Damari.”

  “That’s good for Dan, but leaves one less suspect as Damari’s killer. Not so good for my client.”

  Emily brought out sandwiches. “The kitchen is getting back to normal. Just waiting on the new cabinets to be sanded and stained. I made egg salad, and there’s ham. Maddy should be back any minute. Abby is teaching her a few things about photography. She says she’s a natural.”

  Jonathan reached for the egg salad. “We’re left with no other viable suspects in Damari’s murder.”

  Henry said, “Not necessarily. What if the same killer wanted both Dan and Damari dead? What if there was a motive that tied the two together?” He didn’t verbalize it, for fear of upsetting Emily and Maddy, but Dan had warned him he himself was in danger. And what about Chauncey? Did someone have it in for all four them?

  “What do Dan, Damari, and Chauncey have in common?” said Jonathan.

  Emily said, “They all work at the hospital. Could it be that?”

  “Lots of people are employed there,” said Henry. “Why them, specifically?” Why us specifically.

  “What other factors are we missing?” said Jonathan. “Did they go to the same church? Live in the same neighborhood? Where else did their paths cross?”

  “How about the fertility drugs? Didn’t you say, Henry, that maybe Damari found out Dan was replacing the hospital drugs with the weaker ones he imported from Mexico? Chauncey is a nurse. Maybe he knew it too.”

  “If and when he wakes up, we can ask.”

  Maddy opened the front door. “Hey, did you bring news about freeing Robby?” She put her camera and a stack of mail on the table by the door.

  Jonathan put down his plate. “No, but we’re getting closer. Let’s assume the deaths are linked. Damari Cooper, Doctor Fischer, Chauncey the nurse—what’s the common bond between the victims.”

  “If there’s another motive, Robby would be off the hook, right?” asked Maddy.

  Emily said, “You know Jonathan and the police are working on it. Trust them.”

  “Imagine if you were sitting in a jail cell with no money for bail. How would you feel, Emily? How patient would you be?” Maddy responded.