A Deadly Inside Scoop

by Abby Collette

  “She’s talking about the guy at the falls,” I said. “There had been some discrepancy about his name. But we got that all worked out. Didn’t we, Maisie?”

  “Oh.” Riya nodded slowly with the realization. “That dead guy you found. He was murdered?”

  “Seems that way,” I said.

  I realized that Riya hadn’t been around much. She hadn’t taken any part in our little investigation. Maisie was going to catch her up, it seemed, even if it was with misinformation.

  “I hadn’t heard,” she said.

  “I only initially found out because I overheard it,” I said.

  “That wasn’t a good thing, huh?” Riya said, looking at me. “Sorry that happened to you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “That’s not the worst part of it,” Maisie said.

  “Anyway,” I said, speaking over Maisie. I didn’t want to get her talking. “Getting back to the stakeout business, I am not trying to prove that my family is not part of the mob.”

  “Or that they ordered a hit?” Riya asked, a serious expression on her face.

  “Really, Riya?”

  “Hey.” She held up her hands. “I’ve seen your dad around the hospital. He has been known to put fear in more than a few people.”

  “Respect,” I said. “They show him respect.”

  “Exactly,” Riya said. “Just like a godfather.”

  “No one ordered a hit,” I said, frustration in my voice. “Neither my father, nor anyone in my family, had anything to do with that man’s death.”

  I was sorry that I’d used that term to Maisie.

  “Then what are you worried about?” Riya asked.

  I didn’t want to rehash all the little innuendos my mother and grandfather had been throwing around or their strange behavior. Nor did I want to mention that my father was unaccounted for at the time of the murder. At least in the eyes of the law. I believed him when he said that he went to Grandma Kay’s grave, but there was no one to corroborate that.

  And I didn’t want Riya to know what my mother had said about my dad killing that man the first day in the shop, seeing that Riya evidently hadn’t heard her.

  My long silence must have made her realize that I didn’t want to talk about it, so she decided to.

  “Is it because your mother said your father would kill him?” Riya said, and picked up an egg.

  She had heard.

  “The detective doesn’t know that Win’s mother said that,” Maisie said. “And without that information he still thinks Mr. Crewse did it.” Riya raised her eyebrows and looked to me for confirmation. I nodded. “He came to see him the other day,” Maisie continued. “He was going to arrest him, but Mr. Crewse lawyered up.”

  “Really?” Riya said, her eyes wide, brows knitted. “I didn’t think a lawyer could keep you from getting arrested.”

  “Detective Beverly wasn’t going to arrest my father. And my dad called a lawyer to accompany him to the station for a second interview,” I said. “Which is different.”

  “How is that different?” Riya asked.

  “Oh my!” I flapped my arms, my hands landing on the table. “I don’t want anyone thinking my father did anything. Or accusing him of anything.”

  “So how is this stakeout helping?” Riya asked. She must have appreciated my frustration, because she changed the way she asked questions.

  “We’ve been doing some snooping—” Maisie started.

  “Snooping?” Riya asked. “Other than what you have planned now?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “What kind of snooping?” Riya asked.

  “Ari might be the murderer,” Maisie announced. Talk about not answering the question and getting to the point. Not flinching, she wasn’t swaying in her accusation.

  “Your boss Ari?” Riya asked.

  “He isn’t my boss anymore,” Maisie said. “I refuse to work for a killer. I’ve quit.” Riya seemed amused. “So we looked through his office,” Maisie continued, “to see if we could find some incriminating evidence.”

  “Why do you think he’s the killer?” Riya asked.

  Tag team–style, we filled her in on what we knew about Ari from our snooping and my questioning of Mrs. Keller. Riya sat forward the whole time, listening with anticipation.

  “Where is the stakeout?”

  “At Falls Park.”

  “The nursing home?” Riya asked.

  “The senior citizen facility,” Maisie said.

  “Why are you going there?”

  “We saw Glynis Vale at the nursing home this morning,” Maisie said. “And she might be the key.”

  A blank look came over Riya’s face. “What does that even mean?” She squinted her eyes. “What key? And who is Glynis Vale, and what were you doing at a nursing home?”

  “Well . . .” I started, stumbling over my words. This was the link to my father. “Dead Guy—”

  “Stephen Bayard,” Riya said.

  “Yes. Stephen Bayard.” I nodded. “He was killed with succinylcholine.”

  “Oh my,” Riya said, and fell back in her seat. “What a horrible way to die.”

  “So we’ve learned,” Maisie said, cracking her second egg and peeling off the shell.

  “And Glynis works at the senior care facility,” I said. “She was there at the falls the night I found the body and she lied about it. Working at a nursing home, she would have access to drugs.”

  “Not succinylcholine,” Riya said matter-of-factly.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “It’s only used for surgery.”

  “We read that,” I said. “We know.”

  “So then you should know that any place that doesn’t do surgery—like a nursing home—wouldn’t have a need to keep it in stock. She wouldn’t have gotten it from there. That sounds like a dead end.”

  I felt my jaw go slack and my eyes droop. “It’s the only thing we have to go on,” I said, my voice shaking from the disappointment I felt from her words. “I was thinking that our suspect, the one that injected him, might have met her there and conspired with her to get it for him.”

  “Not if you think she got the drug from there.” She looked at me, and I could tell she knew how I felt. “But a medical facility is not the only place the drug could have come from.”

  I glanced at Maisie. “So I’ve heard. What do you know?” I asked. Maisie’s answer to that question had been speculation. Maybe Riya had definitive answers.

  “It’s manufactured at facilities. It’s stored at warehouses before it gets to a place that performs surgery. It could have come from one of those places.”

  That matched with what Maisie had said. “How?” I asked.

  “I don’t know.” Riya held up her hand. “It could have been stolen, maybe. I’m just saying you don’t have to think someone was in the medical profession or worked in a medical facility to get it.”

  “That’s what Detective Beverly is doing,” I said.

  “Well, he’s an idiot, then,” Riya said.

  “Told you,” Maisie said, and took a bite of her egg. “Detective Bumbling Idiot. I knew from the beginning it didn’t have to be a doctor. You already knew it didn’t.” Maisie looked at me. “Because you knew your father hadn’t done it.”

  “I guess,” I said, knowing that Liam Beverly was anything but an idiot. And even though Riya’s comment gave me pause, I wasn’t going to let it stop me from going to see if Danny and Glynis hadn’t cooked something up together.

  “So you think this woman and Ari did this?” Riya asked.

  “No,” I said. “We have another suspect.”

  “Who?” She leaned in closer over the table.

  “Danny Clawson,” I said.

  “And who is that?”

  “Dan Clawson’s son,” I
said. “Remember, he used to own the bike shop next to our store?”

  “No, I don’t remember,” Riya said. “I mean, I remember the bike shop. But not the owner.”

  “Anyway, Danny Clawson’s mother ran off with Dead— Stephen Bayard, leaving his father and taking him with her.”

  “Oh, that’s not nice,” Riya said. “So you think this Danny guy did it because of what Stephen did to his family?”

  “That’s one theory,” I said.

  “And you were thinking Danny has a connection with Glynis. The two were in cahoots to commit murder?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, not wanting to let Riya’s revelation dash my idea of Glynis’s involvement. “I think it’s worth watching her.”

  “So that’s your plan?” Riya asked. “You’ve tried snooping and googling and now you’re resorting to stalking?”

  “We’re not stalking,” Maisie said.

  “You found out where she works and now you’re going to go there to follow her and see what she does?”

  “Okay,” I said. “We’re stalking her. You wanna go?”

  “Wouldn’t you guys rather go out for a drink?” Riya said, sitting up straight, putting her elbows on the table and leaning in. “We could go to the Flats. We could go to Lago’s on the East Bank. We could eat there, too.”

  “We just ordered food,” I said.

  “Boiled eggs?” she asked.

  “No, Rivkah brought those as . . .” I tried to think of the appropriate word. “An appetizer,” I said, thinking that was close enough. Riya should know that Rivkah never thought we had enough food.

  “What happened to fortune cookies?” Riya asked.

  “You get those at the end of the meal,” Maisie said.

  “Do you want to go on the stakeout with us or not?” I asked Riya. “You were just saying we’ve been leaving you out. Now I’m offering an opportunity for you to go with us.”

  “What the heck,” she said. “Count me in. You two seem clueless, you probably need me.”

  “It’s just a stakeout,” Maisie said. “We’re not in any danger, so technically we don’t need you.”

  Riya eyed Maisie. “Is that all I mean to you, Maise? Protection?”

  “I wouldn’t go down a dark alley with anyone else,” Maisie said.

  I tried not to laugh.

  “What time is this stakeout?” Riya asked. “Do I have time to go home and change into my cat burglar clothes, too?”

  “We don’t have a set time,” Maisie said. “We were just going to go after we finished eating and near the time Glynis would be leaving work.”

  “Experts at work,” Riya said, and shook her head.

  Daiyu brought our food over and I asked for an extra plate so I could share my food with Riya.

  “It’s not tofu,” I said. “But if Rivkah sees you not eating, it’ll be more boiled eggs for you.”

  Riya looked up at our server. “Would you bring me a fork, too, please?”

  chapter

  THIRTY-THREE

  So, you guys finished?” Riya asked.

  I looked down at my picked-over General Tso’s chicken dinner. “I’m ready,” I said. I knew I was too nervous to try to eat anything, even the half of it that was left after I shared with Riya. I had to get mentally prepared. Our morning stakeout and follow had been enough for me. It didn’t seem to affect Maisie, though. Her plate of beef lo mein was empty.

  “Then let’s go,” Riya said. “I’ll drive. My car is better for stakeouts.”

  Riya’s car was the Batmobile. If anything, it stood out. It was a Chevy Camaro. It had just rolled off the transport truck when she got the keys to it. Red body. Black grill. Tinted windows. It was hot and made for Riya. Anywhere we took it, we always got looks. I didn’t know if it was better than going in Maisie’s lime-green Beetle. We’d driven there the last time in it, all neon green and shiny, and it had stood out like a sore thumb.

  “Tell me about this date of yours,” I said after we got in the car. She had started to tell us about him earlier at the restaurant. I sat up front, and Maisie sat in the back seat.

  “I told you, it really wasn’t a date,” Riya said. “I was going to confront him.”

  “About what?” I said.

  Maisie had a different question. “If you were going to confront him, why are you all dressed up?” she asked, her face between the two front seats. She knew what a confrontation with Riya meant.

  “I’m trying to not jump to conclusions and to react calmly,” Riya said, putting on her blinker and pulling the car out onto the road. “I wanted to be subtle. I was giving him the illusion that our date was something nice.”

  “He must not know you very well,” Maisie said.

  I looked at Maisie, acknowledging her statement. It was hard to imagine Riya being calm.

  “Tell us what happened,” I said again.

  “Someone used my name to request drugs from the pharmacy cabinet,” Riya said, looking straight ahead at the road. “I think it might have been him.”

  “What does that mean, used your name?” I said.

  “Doctors request drugs—we don’t have access to get them, the nurses do. So we tell them what we want prescribed. They get it. They administer it.”

  “And someone said you wanted drugs that you didn’t request?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Pharmacy cabinet? Is that where they keep the drugs?” Maisie asked.

  “That’s what pharmacy means,” Riya said. “And I can be in a lot of trouble if anything comes up missing. I wasn’t even in the day the request was made.”

  “Why would they do that?” Maisie asked.

  “How would I know?” Riya said. “I guess they wanted drugs and needed a reason to get them.”

  “And you think you know who did it?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she hissed. “He’d come down to the emergency department and ‘visit’ with me sometimes, so they were probably used to seeing him around.”

  “And you didn’t tell him to give drugs to anyone?” Maisie asked.

  “No. Of course not.” She hit her hand on the steering wheel. “I don’t know why he would have done that. It would jeopardize not only my job, but his, too.”

  “Was anything missing? Out of the cabinet?”

  “I don’t think so,” Riya said. “At least they didn’t tell me it was.”

  “You didn’t requisition anything,” Maisie said. “They shouldn’t fault you. You’re a good doctor.”

  “I don’t know,” Riya said. “They might. You can’t just be a good doctor, you have to be a careful one, too, and me having my boyfriend hanging around is not good.”

  We pulled up in the parking lot of the nursing home and I gestured to Riya where to park. I wanted to position ourselves so we could see Glynis coming out, and see where in the parking lot she’d go to get into her car.

  “What are you going to say to this guy when you see him?” I asked, picking up the conversation after we got settled, but keeping an eye on the door.

  “I was just going to ask him if he used my name to get into the pharmacy cabinet.”

  “Just like that?” I asked. “Just ask him straight out. That’s not subtle, you know.”

  “It is for Riya,” Maisie said. “I commend her.”

  “Look,” I said, spotting movement at the door. “That’s Glynis. See her, Riya? That’s who we’re following.”

  “The one in that blue coat walking with that guy,” Maisie added. “That’s her.”

  “No. That’s Noah,” Riya said.

  “Who?” Maisie and I said in unison.

  “Is that why he stood me up? For her?” Riya was looking past me, out the window toward the nursing home entrance.

  “What are you talking about?” I said, trying to see what was go
ing on.

  “Uh-oh,” Maisie said. Evidently she knew. “Is that him? Your date?”

  “Her date?” I turned around to follow what they were looking at. “Maisie!” I squawked. “Not the guy with Glynis Vale?”

  That could only mean disaster for us. There was not going to be anything furtive about our being there if that guy was the one who stood Riya up.

  “That’s Noah Bean,” Riya said. “The guy I told you stole my code.”

  “No,” I said. “You said you weren’t sure he stole it. Remember?” I was getting nervous.

  Riya started taking off her earrings. I looked at her, then back at Maisie with sheer horror on my face. When I looked back at Riya, she’d taken the rubber tie from her arm and pulled her hair through it into a ponytail.

  “No, Riya!” I said, nearly pleading. I knew by her actions that Riya was upset enough to attack. “I thought you were going to try the calm approach.”

  “I’m calm,” she said. “And I am going to calmly flip that no-good, two-timing . . .” She mumbled some other adjectives under her breath that I couldn’t decipher. “Then I’m going to put my foot on his chest and find out what it is he thinks he’s doing.” She finished those last words strong.

  “You don’t know that he’s doing anything,” I said. “He just walked out of the building.”

  “With her,” Riya said. “Look how they’re smiling at each other.”

  “Look!” Maisie said. “They split up. She’s going one way. He’s going the other. I think they’re getting into their own cars, Riya, and leaving.”

  “See,” I said. “He’s not going with her. Let’s just follow Glynis. See what she’s up to. She’s going to that red Honda Civic. See it? I can see part of the license. GHS. Do you see that, Riya?”

  But Riya wasn’t paying any attention to me. Her focus was somewhere else.

  “It’s okay,” Maisie said. “I’ve got apple juice in my bag.”

  “Just let him get into his car,” I said. “And you calm down. You want some juice?”

  “I need to talk to him,” she said, lowering her voice.

  “No, you don’t,” I said. “Not now. Not until you calm down. Plus, he’s leaving and we’re gonna miss Glynis.”