by Kate Morris
He thought for a moment before continuing Jack’s cut. “I’ve heard there’s a man that works over there. He’s a nurse or something like that, takes x-rays and keeps the records and such. I’ve seen him coming and going. Don’t pay him no mind, though.”
“What did you hear and from whom?”
“Couple of the men I cut go to that clinic sometimes. They pay for their services, though. They ain’t freeloaders. I don’t like no freeloaders comin’ around my shop. They told me he’s a strange one, a straight-up super-freak.”
“Did they tell you his name or anything else about him?”
“Nah, just he was the guy that did the computer work and checkin’ people in and out. Women’s work, you ask me,” he grunted.
Jack chuckled as the man finished his trim and dusted off his neck.
“Ex-military, huh?” Reg asked him when he stood.
“Yes, sir,” Jack answered.
“Yeah, I could tell. You boys all have that same look,” he said.
Jack laughed nervously and asked, “Deaf and dumb?”
“Nah, something there in the eyes. Seen bad shit and all. You got ghosts following you around, son.”
He frowned and said, wanting to leave suddenly, “What do I owe you, Reg?”
“On the house, kid,” Reg answered. “As a thanks for your service.”
“Thank you,” Jack said and shook the old man’s hand as Lorena split for the door. When he tried to pull away, Reg’s grip tightened, drawing Jack’s attention back.
“You keep an eye on that girl, ya’ hear?”
“My partner?”
“Yeah, she’s in real trouble,” Reg said, almost whispered.
“Wait…how do you…”
He dropped Jack’s hand and started tidying up his workspace with an old broom, whistling as he did so.
“Why is she in trouble?” Jack repeated, feeling anxious about Lorena.
“Just is. I get a…feeling sometimes when I look at some people. Just watch out for her.”
It hit Jack like a ton of bricks. Reg had been intuitive about Jack’s haunting military past, but now he was acting like a damn psychic hotline employee.
He stammered, “Yeah, thanks and thanks for the cut.”
Reg offered a two-fingered salute at his forehead and turned his back on Jack to clean the counter. He began whistling again. Jack furtively tossed a twenty-dollar bill on the chair and left.
Jack left feeling uneasy and rushed to catch up to Lorena, who was talking to Craig. He glanced back over his shoulder at Reg’s barbershop a few times with an eerie feeling tickling at the back of his neck.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Lorena
Twenty minutes after their interview with Reg, a Volvo SUV pulled up in front of the clinic. A man in his early fifties got out and walked straight toward them. He was wearing a white doctor’s jacket.
“Are you Agent Ferguson?” he asked Craig and extended a hand in greeting.
“Yes, that’s me,” he said.
“I’m sorry it took so long to get here,” he said and nodded to her and Jack and shook their hands, too. “I’m Dr. Martin. You’ve been waiting long?”
“Not really,” she stated. “We were able to canvass the area and talk to some of your neighbors.”
“Oh, good, good,” he said, pushing his thick glasses up on his nose. “I’m not completely clear…oh, sorry, here comes Emily.”
“Emily?” Craig asked as a woman crossed the parking lot. She’d just exited a gray mini-van.
“One of our hygienists,” the doctor answered.
Lorena noticed that the doctor was slightly stooped over. He introduced Emily to them with a smile.
“You said on the phone that you needed to talk with us about a case of a missing girl? Do you need a forensics specialist?”
“No, sir,” Lorena answered as the doctor used his keys and opened the door. Then he pushed the gate-style security bars back until they disappeared like pocket doors in an old mansion. Only these weren’t meant to be aesthetically beautiful but practical in nature to keep out those who would burglarize the practice for drugs.
“I’ll silence the alarm, Dr. Martin,” Emily said and went down the hall.
“Thank you, Emily. If you don’t need our help with dental forensics, then how can we help with this investigation?” he asked.
“We know that a Stephanie Pearson worked here,” she said as he flipped on light switches and Emily turned on computers behind the front desk reception area.
“Yes, oh, Stephanie! I heard about it on the news the other night,” Emily stated with genuine grief. “I called a couple of the girls here to tell them about it. They were- well, we were all shocked.”
“Did you know her well?” Lorena asked, furious that Craig’s team hadn’t done this already.
“Not really well, but enough. She was sweet,” Emily said with sad blue eyes.
She looked like someone’s soccer mom, dressed in a tracksuit and sensible Crocs. Her hair was short, styled immaculately and her makeup precise. Her lip liner looked like it was applied with an Exacto knife.
“We’re actually looking for someone else who works here,” Jack said.
“Here comes Janelle,” Emily announced. “Sorry, we couldn’t all get here sooner. It’s just that we only work down here one day a week. We all work at different practices, and this is our volunteer work. We like helping out, giving back, but we all have kids and husbands and… Hey, Janelle!”
The other woman was about thirty, slightly overweight, and wearing purple scrubs with honey bees on them. Her long, brown hair was braided all the way down her back neatly, and she appeared to have just come from work at another dental practice.
They took a second to introduce themselves and verse her on the nature of their visit.
“Do you all work at dentist offices elsewhere, as well as volunteering here?” Jack asked just for verification of what Emily stated.
“Yes, we all do. I work for Dr. Krandle. He doesn’t come here, though. He’s so swamped right now, there’s no way he could. His partner just retired, and he hasn’t found a replacement yet,” Emily explained.
“Why did you need to meet with us?” Janelle asked. “I don’t know how we could help with a missing persons case.”
“A girl is missing, and we think that the killer may have stalked some of the patients who came here and even Stephanie Pearson, as well,” Craig explained.
“Yes, Steph. I heard about it on the news the other night,” Janelle said. “So sad. She was really nice.
“Dr. Cromwell and Dr. Banko won’t be able to come in for a while,” Dr. Martin explained. “We each have private practices. This is just something we do on the side to give back to the communities who need it.”
“Is this the only clinic you three run like this that gives back?” Lorena asked.
“No, we also have a clinic in Vancouver, but we only open it one Saturday per month. This one here, one of us tries to work one day per week. It’s usually just a few hours in the morning, though.”
He had kind, blue eyes and wore glasses that reminded Lorena of something she’d seen on the dad in a seventies-era family sitcom. Dr. Martin was tall, but not thin. His handshake had been firm and sure.
“We need a patient list,” Lorena said. “I’ll get a warrant if you want me to, but we need a list of everyone who has come in here for treatment.”
“We can get that to you immediately,” the doctor offered.
“Don’t get carried away, Doc,” Emily said. Then she frowned and looked at Lorena, “A lot of these people give us fake names, don’t have i.d., that kind of thing.”
“We’ll take whatever you can give,” Jack said.
“Who is the man that checks patients in and does x-rays and keeps track of the records?” Lorena asked.
“Oh, you mean Nathan?” Emily asked. “Yes, he volunteers here, too. He wasn’t in last week, though. I think he was sick or something, so
I took care of the front desk.”
Janelle said, “He also works for Dr. Martin.”
Lorena looked at the doctor, who was resting his elbow on the reception counter beside him.
He answered, “Yes, Nathan. He works for me full-time at my practice. He does the same there, x-rays, front-desk, billing. He’s a good employee.”
Lorena considered what he was saying but disregarded the part about him being a good employee because she didn’t care about his abilities at work. She wanted to know if he was capable of stalking someone. His phone rang, and he answered it.
“Yes, Lorraine,” Dr. Martin said into his cell. “That’ll be fine. I need an impression on her. Good. Go ahead and get a panoramic, too.”
He held up his finger and left the hallway to go somewhere else.
“How old is Nathan?” Lorena asked the women.
“Forty-one, maybe forty-two, I think,” Janelle answered.
“Is he coming in?” Jack asked.
Emily and Janelle looked at one another and shrugged. Then they waited for Dr. Martin to return to get some sort of verification. When he came back, Lorena asked him the same question.
“I’m not sure if he’s coming in. I had my receptionist text him. He didn’t come to work today or yesterday.”
“Is that unusual?” Lorena asked.
“Yes, very,” he said. “I assumed it was this nasty flu that’s been going around.”
“So he called in sick?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t handle all of the day-to-day events like that at my practice. The office manager would know more. Would you like me to call her?”
“Yes, please.”
“Right away,” he said and left the room again.
She was glad the doctor exited to make the call because Lorena wanted to talk to the women alone. She asked them to talk to her in private, so they led her to a small office. She left Jack in the lobby to wait for the doctor’s return.
“Thanks for talking with us, by the way,” Lorena said.
“We just want to help,” Emily said.
“Great, we appreciate that,” Lorena said. “Did Stephanie ever complain to either of you about anyone stalking her?”
Janelle immediately shook her head, but Emily looked away.
“What is it?” Lorena pushed.
“I don’t want to gossip…”
“She’s dead. She can’t hear you, and anything you say might help solve her case,” Lorena said firmly.
“Steph…she was an exotic dancer…”
“She was?” Janelle asked with evident shock written on her face.
“Yeah,” Emily said. “She told me one day when we were the last ones in the office cleaning up. She didn’t want anyone to know, so I promised not to tell. She did it for the money to put herself through school.”
“I already knew this,” Lorena said, drawing their surprised looks. “We know she had a stalker at her other job, but I want to know about here. Janelle, would you mind working on that patient list for my partner out there? That would be great.”
“Sure, no problem,” Janelle said and left, closing the door again behind her.
“I know Steph was a stripper. We also know she was gay and that she had a crush on someone who worked here. I don’t need to know any of that or who it was. She deserves some semblance of privacy. Did this Nathan guy have a crush on her? Did he ever harass her?”
“Hm,” Emily said. “Not that I know of. I mean…”
“What?”
“Nathan’s just…he’s a little weird. I think Dr. Martin only hired him because he felt sorry for the guy. I heard he was a registered nurse and was fired from some nursing home in Florida.”
“Florida?”
“Yeah, he used to live there. He’s worked here for Dr. Martin for about six years. I don’t know. He’s okay, I guess. He’s just a little strange.”
Twice she referred to Nathan as being strange. Lorena texted Craig to run a background check on this man immediately.
“Does he have a wife, kids?”
“He’s married, but they lead very separate lives from what I’ve heard.”
“How’s that?”
“He likes hunting, fishing, that kind of outdoorsy stuff, and his wife doesn’t. She stays busy with their kids.”
“Kids, too?”
“Yes, I think they have two. I don’t know that much about Nathan, just what I hear around the clinic on the days we’re here. We’re usually so busy that we don’t get a lot of time socializing with one another.”
“Did he…” she started and was interrupted by a text from Jack that the other two doctors had arrived. Then another text came through from him stating that Nathan Willoughby’s background check came back clear. She needed motive or evidence on him in order to get a search warrant from a judge. She had neither so far.
“I’m sorry,” Lorena apologized.
“You know, while you were reading your messages, I did think of something if it helps.”
“Anything would help.”
“That girl on the t.v., the one you’re looking for?” she started. “My daughter and Dr. Martin’s kids and Nathan’s kids all go to the same school. I don’t know if that makes a difference or anything, though.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, absolutely. I’ve even picked up Dr. Martin’s kids a few times after school when he’s stuck at his practice, and his wife’s still at the gym or whatever she does. I think she stays busy with charities and fund-raising. Not Nathan’s kids, though. I think his wife handles that.”
“Okay, good. Anything else you can tell me about him?”
She bit her lip and shrugged. Lorena could tell she was holding back again. “Just say it. This all stays in here between you and me.”
“I overheard him talking to Dr. Cromwell once about going to a strip club after work together.”
“Really? Did the doctor want to go with him or something? How’d that come up?”
“I don’t know. Dr. Cromwell just went through a nasty divorce, so Nathan was joking around saying he’d take him to The Fig something or other. I know that place is a strip club. I thought it was inappropriate to talk about at work, so I ignored them.”
“Did they go?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Well, I don’t think so. I guess they could’ve, but I doubt it. Dr. Cromwell’s…well, he’s taking his divorce really hard. Plus, Dr. Martin overheard them and said something to them about it. He didn’t find their joking around about strip clubs very appropriate. He’s pretty funny about maintaining our professionalism, even if this is a free clinic for…well, you know.”
“Right, I get it. That’s good, though, that he corrected them. Plus, he’s right. Professionalism is important.”
“Oh, yes. He’s a real stickler. Dr. Cromwell’s a lot younger, though. Not even forty yet. And Dr. Banko is older than dirt. Sorry, he’s sixty-six. He’s never gonna retire. He’s adorable. He says if he retires, he’ll just die from boredom ‘cuz he won’t know what to do with himself.”
Lorena offered a chuff. “Yes, a lot of men are like that.”
“I hope this all helps. I don’t want to see Nathan get in trouble or anything, but, then again, if he had something to do with this girl’s disappearance, then I would want to know if I was her mother.”
“Do you think Nathan knew Stephanie was an exotic dancer?”
“No, I doubt it. She was really, really private, and she never told anyone about that.”
“Thanks,” Lorena said and rose. She took a second to review what she’d just learned when Emily left the room. Then she went to the reception area where agents were talking to other staffers and the three doctors.
She introduced herself to all of them. Dr. Banko was, indeed, old and probably about five-feet-six-inches tall. He spoke with an accent that she could not discern, but he offered to help if he could. Jack took him off to the side to talk with him.
Dr. Cromwell, on
the other hand, was handsome, tall and obviously worked out a lot, which was probably a side-effect of his recent divorce status. He shook her hand in a friendly manner and said, “We were all sorry to hear about Stephanie. She was a nice girl. I actually thought that she could work at my practice when she finished up in school.”
“Yes, I’m sure she would’ve liked that,” Lorena said. “Janelle mentioned a little while ago that Dr. Martin also wanted her to work for him once she passed her state tests.”
“I’m sure he did,” Cromwell said.
If Lorena was correct, his dark eyes squinted slightly, which she didn’t fully comprehend. Was it rivalry or something innocent between them or was he genuinely upset?
“She was a very smart girl. I always got the impression that…”
“That what?” Lorena prompted him.
He scowled and said, “She seemed to have come from unfortunate circumstances. I don’t think she had a very happy life…maybe before coming here, I mean. She seemed…troubled.”
He had pitch black hair and nearly matching eyes that sent a chill up her spine for some reason. He was also staring at her with a certain amount of interest, which gave Lorena the creeps since she was investigating the murder of one of their dental students.
“Do you know of anyone who would’ve wanted to harm Stephanie?”
“No, she was a really nice girl,” Dr. Cromwell answered. “I can’t think of anyone. As a matter of fact, when I saw it on the news, I figured it was some sort of random homicide.”
“You didn’t hear about her murder from the girls here in the office?”
“Oh, yes, maybe that’s where I heard,” he said, stumbling.
Dr. Martin rushed over to her. She excused herself from Dr. Cromwell but kept him in her periphery.
“I spoke with my office manager. She said Nathan has called off three days in a row with Strep. That’s a nasty sickness, very contagious.”
“Dr. Martin, why did you hire Nathan knowing he was fired from his nursing job?” she asked pointedly.
“I believe in second chances, Detective,” he said, his blue eyes smiling again. “Everyone deserves a second go at it. Nathan has always been a loyal employee and helps out at my practice more than I can say.”
