Rocky Road

by Josi S. Kilpack

  Makes 4 dozen.

  *Dried cranberries are a good substitute for chocolate chips.

  Note: For a flatter, chewier cookie, increase baking powder and baking soda to 1 teaspoon each.

  Note: For a less-is-more version of this cookie, cut back to 1 3/4 cups oats and 1/2 cup nuts.

  Chapter 34

  Nikki confirmed that she had a key to the clinic, and Sadie tried to keep from showing her excitement as Nikki wiped at the last of the tears on her cheeks. “Why do you need to get into the clinic?”

  Proceed carefully, Sadie thought to herself. “Dr. Hendricks hid some information in the clinic before his disappearance. I need to get it to the police so they can review it.” It was a pretty good non-lie, if Sadie said so herself. Unfortunately, Nikki didn’t buy it completely.

  Nikki sniffed and took a breath. “If the police need it, why don’t they get it?”

  Excellent question. “Didn’t Tess tell you we’re working with the police?”

  “She said you were, but she was kind of funny about it.”

  Sadie stiffened slightly. “Funny? Funny how? Like she didn’t believe me?”

  Nikki shrugged and smiled awkwardly. Sadie took a breath. “I am working with the police. Things are happening really fast, and there’s no time for a search warrant. Can you help me get into the clinic?”

  “Um, I don’t know. I probably need to talk to Jake about it.”

  “Nikki,” Sadie said calmly, “I know this is a weird request, and you’ve had a really intense day, but please, I need to get into the clinic. I promise you that I am retrieving one thing, that it has nothing to do with patient confidentiality, and when your husband learns what it is, he’ll be glad I got it. But I need to get it now, before the vigil. As soon as possible.”

  Nikki held Sadie’s gaze for a few more seconds, and then she finally nodded. “I’ll have to get the alarm code from someone who works in the office. They change it every few months, and I usually don’t have any reason to know it.”

  “But you can get it?” Sadie asked, trying not to look too relieved.

  Nikki searched Sadie’s face for a long time, weighing this decision carefully. Sadie tried to breathe normally, but she was well aware of the fact that if Nikki said no, Sadie was in a pickle. She thought back to what Officer Nielson had said about God wanting her to work on this case. Now she would see whether or not that was true. Half a dozen things she’d uncovered in this case pointed to His hand, but this one felt different. More important in a way. Or maybe it was just that the timing was becoming more crucial. “Let me call the office manager,” Nikki said. Sadie began to breathe normally, although she tried to hide her relief. “And I’ve got to change my clothes if we’re going to the clinic.”

  Sadie raised her eyebrows at the idea of Nikki coming with her, but Nikki simply returned the look, daring Sadie to complain. Sadie wasn’t about to do that. Instead, she smiled. “I’ll box up the rest of the cookies while you get changed.”

  When they arrived at the building that housed the clinic and the foundation offices almost twenty minutes later, Sadie furtively looked around to see if anyone was watching them. They stopped at the foundation offices first to drop off the cookies at the front counter. There was no one to receive them yet, but neither Nikki nor Sadie wanted to be seen right now. Sadie wanted to keep a low profile, and Nikki kept saying she hadn’t left the house without makeup in years. Nikki scribbled a note on the back of a flier, saying the cookies were from her.

  Sadie was relieved the clinic was on a different level, and she cast another cautious look around as they headed up the stairs to the second floor. Nikki turned the key in the lock of the big glass doors with her husband’s and Dr. Hendricks’s names on them. As soon as she pulled the doors open, an intermittent beeping could be heard from inside the office. Nikki hurried toward the reception area, and Sadie followed her. When they reached a keypad, Nikki punched in the four-number code the office manager had given her. There was a final beep before the alarm went silent, and Sadie’s heartbeat slowed down as well.

  “Now what?” Nikki asked.

  “Can you point me toward the x-ray room?”

  “It’s down this hall,” Nikki said, pointing straight ahead, “the last door on your left.” She looked nervous, and Sadie prayed that Nikki could hang on a little longer. She was so close.

  “Wait for me here,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”

  Nikki nodded, and Sadie headed down the hallway. She didn’t want to turn on any lights, but the hallway grew darker and darker the farther she got from the reception area, and she finally had no choice. The x-ray room had a big sign on the door, making it impossible to miss. Sadie let herself in and flipped on the light switch. The fluorescent lights flickered overhead, causing Sadie to squint as the bright white light reflected on the equally bright white walls. She scanned the walls lined with cabinets and equipment and wished she didn’t feel so overwhelmed by it.

  “Mindray,” she said to herself, repeating the brand name of the piece of equipment Dr. Hendricks had told her to look for. It sounded loud in the empty room. She walked toward the far corner where Dr. Hendricks had told her they stored unused equipment in an alcove behind a curtain. She drew the curtain back to reveal several wheeled cart-looking pieces of equipment tightly pressed together. Dr. Hendricks had been gone for two months, and although he had assured her it would be here, what if it weren’t?

  Without any further delay, she pulled on the first piece of equipment, wheeling it out of the dark corner and into the light so that she could find out if this were the Mindray machine. What if there were more than one?

  She soon found the manufacturer’s name—Voluson—and pushed the machine aside. She pulled out a second one, and, while she tried to find the name of the manufacturer, she knocked a probe or paddle-type thing to the floor. It clattered like a hundred cans of beans spilled in a grocery store aisle and sent her pulse skyrocketing. She hurried to pick it up and tried to store the thing more securely before determining that this machine wasn’t a Mindray, either. She pushed it aside a bit more carefully. The wheels of the third piece of equipment were locked, and she wasted nearly a minute trying to figure out how to make it move, only to find it also wasn’t the Mindray machine. How many different pieces of unused equipment did they have?

  She was wheeling the fourth machine out of the corner that was more than half-empty now when she thought she heard something. She froze for a count of five, waiting to hear the sound again. When she heard nothing, she continued pulling the equipment to the middle of the floor, where she saw, clear as day, the Mindray name on the front of it. Bless them for making it easy to read. Now—to find the USB. She walked around the machine first to visually orient herself with it. Dr. Hendricks had said that the drive was taped underneath, which had seemed like enough information at the time. Now that she was looking at the machine, however, she realized that “underneath” could mean that it was under the main console, or the part that opened in the middle, or underneath the wheeled assembly at the bottom. There were far more “underneaths” than she’d expected there would be.

  She heard a footstep in the hall, and she looked at the door, expecting to see Nikki telling her to hurry. Instead, a confused and startled Dr. Waters stood in the doorway. They stared at each other, both of them searching for something to say. Dr. Waters found his words before Sadie did. “What the ... Who are you? What are you doing in here?”

  Sadie straightened and swallowed, looking past him for Nikki—she knew he was here, right? She hadn’t left the clinic, had she? “Um, I’m, well, I’m looking for something.” She wanted to ask why he was there, but it was his office, after all, so there could be any number of legitimate reasons.

  “How the heck did you get in here?”

  Sadie put up her hands, still waiting for Nikki to make an appearance and remembering that the police didn’t want her talking to Dr. Waters. “I can assure you, Dr. Waters, that my in
tentions are honorable, and that if you could just—”

  “Wait,” he said as a flash of recognition crossed his face. “I know you.” He didn’t say how he knew her, but he didn’t need to. They both remembered their encounter at the church the day before.

  Sadie held his gaze and gave him a single nod, confirming who she was without either of them having to point it out.

  “What are you doing here?” His voice was different this time. Not angry so much as concerned. It made it easier for her to tell him the truth.

  “I’m looking for evidence against Anita Hendricks’s fraud with the foundation and the boutique.”

  He stared at her, and his mouth opened, but he said nothing for a few seconds. He looked around and said, “In the x-ray room?”

  “Dr. Hendricks said it was hidden on a piece of Mindray equipment.” She waved toward the machine she’d been inspecting. “I’m assuming he meant this one.”

  “He said?”

  Shoot! Sadie watched the realization dawn in his eyes. Dr. Waters took a step toward her. “He’s alive?”

  “Dr. Waters,” she said, putting out one hand with the palm facing him. She tried not to show her distress at letting the truth slip out. “I need your word that you will keep this to yourself until tomorrow morning. There are things at play here that are extremely volatile.” As soon as she said it, though, she knew she had to return to Dr. Hendricks at the cabin tonight. There was no way all these secrets could keep until tomorrow.

  “But Trent’s alive?” Dr. Waters said. He paused, pushed a hand through his hair, and used a word Sadie hadn’t expected from a Mormon man. “He left on purpose?” He sounded furious.

  Sadie didn’t know what else to say, and she crouched down and started feeling around the nooks and crannies of the machine in search of the USB. The sooner she could find it, the sooner she could get out of here and work out the details of bringing Dr. Hendricks in as soon as possible. She started pulling at knobs, and opening things up. Why on earth hadn’t she asked him exactly where he’d hidden it on the machine?

  “What kind of proof are you looking for to prove the fraud?” Dr. Waters asked.

  Sadie looked at him, and then she went back to her search. “Well, I don’t know exactly. But before he left, Dr. Hendricks stored certain documents that he felt proved Anita was behind fraudulent activities with the foundation.” She met his eyes and realized that he hadn’t been surprised by hearing what Sadie was looking for. “I assume you must know about it or you would have asked me about the fraud rather than what kind of proof there was.”

  “Anita said everyone makes money when you put yourself on the line for a nonprofit like we did.”

  Sadie realized that while Dr. Hendricks claimed not to even know he was earning a salary from the foundation, Dr. Waters would have to have known. The two men never talked about it? “That’s what I was talking to her about yesterday at the church,” he added.

  Sadie looked at him long enough to see his sincerity. She wondered again where Nikki was. He continued. “The accountant sent me a copy of the taxes—I guess he’d always sent a copy to Trent, and without him here he sent it to me instead. I didn’t have a chance to look at it until yesterday, right before the service, but my brain was on fire after I saw the numbers. So little is being donated.” The last words sounded painful for him to utter.

  “What did she say?”

  “She tried to explain it away, and all her words made sense, but there was something about the way she said it—intense and kind of annoyed that I would question her—that made it impossible for me to take it at face value. She promised to explain it to me in more detail later, but we never had the chance.”

  Was that true? Sadie asked herself. Couldn’t he have gone to her house later that night, after Nikki had been there, and demanded a better explanation? “When were you going to have that discussion?” Sadie asked in an even voice.

  “We didn’t set a time,” Dr. Waters said, pushing his hands into his pockets. “After the service, I had two hours of appointments and then got called in for a delivery. I had planned to talk to her about it in more detail today, but ...”

  Sadie let the words disappear while she continued feeling around the machine and trying not to think about what would happen if she didn’t find the USB. What if Anita had found it already? What if it didn’t exist and Dr. Hendricks was hitchhiking to Mexico? Sadie placed her head against the main console to reach underneath. She finally felt something that wasn’t metal. Instead, it felt like something wrapped in plastic, or ... duct tape. She probed with her fingers until she found the end of it, and then she picked at an edge until she loosened a corner of the tape. She pulled at it, and a minute later, she stood up with a bright yellow USB drive in her hands. Bits of adhesive stuck to it, but a cap covered the actual connector, protecting it from the stickiness. She looked up at Dr. Waters with a triumphant grin, only to notice how pale he’d become. He looked from the USB drive to Sadie’s face.

  “That has proof?” he asked softly. “Proof of everything she did?”

  “I assume so,” Sadie said as she stood up, her back screaming at her for hunching over so long. “Dr. Hendricks refused to come back without it. Can I ask you something else?” She took a few steps toward the doctor. Nikki hadn’t yet shown herself, and Sadie was beginning to suspect one of two things. First, she had seen her husband come in, and she had panicked and hid, or, second, she had killed Anita and was on the run. Somehow, Sadie didn’t believe the latter possibility, and she wondered if Nikki weren’t hidden somewhere listening to all of this, still unsure of what to think of her husband.

  For the sake of time, Sadie chose not to beat around the bush. “Did you have an affair with Anita Hendricks?”

  Dr. Waters was visibly startled, and his eyes widened in what Sadie hoped was true surprise. “What?”

  “Dr. Hendricks thinks you may have. Apparently Anita has a history of borrowing other women’s husbands, but you already know that. I’m concerned at how she may have used you in her ploys for profit and power.”

  “Trent thinks I would do that?”

  “He noticed certain things before he left—advances, I suppose you could say.”

  Dr. Waters looked past her and focused on the wall behind her head. Sadie tried to scratch some of the tape residue off of the device, the only outward sign she made of how uncomfortable this discussion was. Maybe she shouldn’t have brought it up.

  “Anita—I don’t even know what to call it—is it ‘came on to me’? ‘Hit on me’? These things aren’t a part of my life—I don’t even know how to label them.” He met Sadie’s eyes again. “I did nothing to invite any such thing, and I did nothing to reciprocate what she did. It added an entirely new layer to working with her these last months, but I can assure you—and Trent—that I never acted inappropriately with Anita.”

  “But you met with her behind closed doors after the memorial,” Sadie pointed out. “That could be ... misinterpreted.”

  “Yes, it could,” Dr. Waters said, nodding. “Or if someone overheard that things with the foundation weren’t on the up and up, it could be even worse. I didn’t want anyone to know what I was asking Anita about, and I didn’t feel that there was any time to waste in confronting her about it.” His words were clipped, and Sadie liked his tone.

  “You didn’t seem to want your wife to know about it,” Sadie added. “When I told you she was in the kitchen, you became even more uncomfortable.”

  He shook his head slightly and looked past Sadie’s shoulder. “Perhaps you can’t appreciate what the last two months have been like for my wife as I have tried to carry on with this practice. Issues with the foundation were just one more part of what had become a miserable situation. I didn’t want to worry Nikki any more than I could tell she already was.”

  A movement behind the doctor startled Sadie for a moment, but then she realized it was Nikki Waters. Nikki’s eyes were red, but there was relief on her face as she r
eached out and touched her husband’s arm. He turned quickly in alarm.

  Sadie couldn’t see his face, but she could imagine the surprised expression Nikki was looking at right then. For her part, Nikki smiled slightly and put her hands on either side of his face. Sadie felt awkward and turned to the side. She focused on removing the tape residue from the USB with her fingernail, allowing them a private moment—but she couldn’t spare much more than that. They spoke in hushed whispers for a few seconds, and then Sadie glanced over her shoulder to see the two of them embracing. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat. Over the last few years, she’d seen more than one marriage torn apart by someone who didn’t belong in it. She was relieved to know that whatever rebuilding the Waterses had ahead of them, infidelity wouldn’t be an obstacle. They had a lot of good to fight for.

  Sadie cleared her throat, reminding them that she was still there. They moved apart, both of them trying to recover from the emotional moment, their hands joined as they stood side by side.

  “I need to be going,” Sadie said, holding up the USB to remind them why she was there. They stepped aside, and she moved toward the door. “Thank you for your help,” she said to Nikki. “Do you still want me to drop you off at the police station?”

  “Police station?” Dr. Waters repeated, looking down at his wife.

  “Jake,” Nikki said after taking a breath. “I need to tell you something.”

  “Oh, wait,” Sadie cut in with feigned innocence. “Don’t you have a meeting with the police as well, Dr. Waters? Perhaps the two of you could go together?” She smiled sweetly, and they both looked at Sadie and then at each other as she moved into the hallway and quick-stepped toward the entrance. Once she was out of the suite, she dialed Caro’s number. Caro picked up on the second ring.

  “I’ve got the USB,” Sadie said, taking the stairs quickly. “Are you at the hotel?”

  Chapter 35