by Dawn Eastman
“What was that about?” she asked when she reached him.
“I have no idea.” Emmett shook his head. “Emotions always run high at funerals, but you don’t often see fisticuffs.”
The crowd began to disperse, and Marilyn appeared at Emmett’s elbow. Katie stiffened. This was the first time she had seen Marilyn since Lynn had told her about Eric. She knew it wasn’t fair, but some part of her blamed Marilyn. Had she abused Eric, and he perpetuated the violence in his own family?
“Hello, doctors,” she said. “Dr. Hawkins, Mrs. Williams was looking for you. It was something about the church dinner.”
Emmett hurried off in search of Mrs. Williams. He had been put in charge of the fundraiser again, and he said there were always hundreds of last-minute emergencies to attend to.
Katie turned toward the door just as Marilyn said, “It’s interesting that Dan came to the service. He and Ellen never got along. In fact, he and Christopher hardly get along. I think Christopher was in Chicago getting him out of trouble on the night Ellen died.”
Mrs. Peabody’s claim that she had seen Christopher that night flitted across her mind.
“I thought it was a business meeting for another restaurant opening,” Katie corrected her and then realized she should have just stayed mute on the subject. It wouldn’t be good for people to think she had any special interest in the Riley family.
“Is that what he said? He’d just been there for the opening the week before. At least, that’s what Ellen said when I was there cleaning. I must be mistaken. None of my business anyway.” She shrugged and directed a rare smile at Katie.
Katie marveled again at how the daughter of one friend and the son of another could have grown up in the same town with such different results. Maybe Marilyn had not had the same kind of support that Christopher had. Marilyn seemed to carry the whole world on her shoulders and never expected more from life than what it handed her. Christopher took what he could from every opportunity that passed by.
“It looks like Dan has made another enemy after that fight,” Katie said.
“Fight?” Marilyn looked at her, surprised.
“Didn’t you see the fight? Dan and Todd Talbot just had a brawl. Christopher had to separate them.”
“I was in the other room,” Marilyn said. “Was Todd all right?” Marilyn stood on tiptoes and scanned the crowd.
Katie nodded. “I think so; he went off to another room with Beth.”
“That’s good. She’ll take care of him.”
“I should get back to the office and finish up some paperwork.”
“I’m heading that way myself,” Marilyn said. “Do you need a ride? I noticed you came here with Debra. She won’t want to leave until the last cookie is gone.”
“That would be great, thank you.”
Marilyn led her to a car that was heavily rusted. Katie figured she must use the van only for cleaning jobs. The passenger door had to be slammed shut from the outside and then quickly locked to keep it closed. The inside was worn but tidy, and Katie settled back for the ride.
After their conversation at the funeral home, Marilyn didn’t have much to say, and Katie didn’t feel like making an effort. The ride was short, and she thanked Marilyn as she turned to open the door.
“Dr. LeClair, I don’t mean to speak out of turn, but . . .”
“What is it, Marilyn? You can tell me.”
“I know Mrs. Riley really liked you. She told me it was hard to move to such a closed community, and you were very kind to her. It takes people here a while to trust newcomers. And no one likes to dredge up old issues.”
“Old issues? What do you mean?”
“I mean everyone has a skeleton or two in their closet. It doesn’t do anyone any good to bring them out into the light.” Marilyn shrugged. “Just something to keep in mind. I think Mrs. Riley thought she was being helpful, but some things are better left alone. She didn’t mention anything to you?”
Katie shook her head. “I can’t really discuss a patient with you. But what do you mean?”
Marilyn held up her hand. “Of course, sorry. No worries. I don’t mean anything by it.” Marilyn put the car in gear.
“Thank you for the ride, Marilyn.” Katie wasn’t sure what else to say.
Katie stepped out and slammed the door. Marilyn leaned over and pushed the lock button.
Marilyn pulled away, leaving Katie shaking her head in exasperation. Of all the strange conversations. Marilyn had barely said more than hello in the whole time Katie had worked with Emmett, and now she gave her a cryptic message. Katie was still mulling it over as she unlocked the building and then relocked the door.
After her last debacle with the coffeemaker, she heated up some water in the microwave and dunked a tea bag in the mug. She flipped open her notebook to update her note on Ellen. She had crossed out “diazepam overdose” and changed it to “Demerol.” She was still concerned about who had written the prescription, but it took a back seat at this point to her list of suspects. Nick and Cecily might both have motives. She wasn’t sure whether Dan had a motive, but he certainly had a violent streak. Christopher was seen at the house when he claimed to be in Chicago. But after his emotional speech, Katie moved him lower on the list. She didn’t like the idea that one of her partners continued to float to the top of her suspect list. And she added that Marilyn had warned her about old secrets. What old secrets? Katie was now even more curious about Ellen’s activities in the weeks leading up to her death. She closed her notebook with a sigh and steeled herself to get her paperwork done.
She took her tea and her leftover lunch back to her office and started writing the morning’s charts. This was the mind-numbing boredom part of her job that she hadn’t been aware of when she started on this path. All the TV shows depicted lots of action and lifesaving. They almost never showed the hours of paperwork: disability forms, insurance forms, notes, case summaries, procedure notes, and physical forms. Katie was just finishing the last chart when she heard a noise at the front desk.
She walked to the front of the building and looked around. The front door was still locked. She must have been hearing things. She turned to walk back to her office and ran full force into Debra, who was coming out of the file room with a stack of charts.
They both screamed, and Debra dropped the top four or five files as she steadied herself.
“I didn’t know anyone was here,” Debra said. “You scared me, Dr. LeClair.”
“You scared me first,” Katie replied. They both laughed.
“I looked for you after the service, but someone said you left with Marilyn. Is she here?”
These people didn’t miss a thing, did they?
“No, she just dropped me off. I had to finish charting.”
“That’s what I came to do too. I didn’t get a chance to pull charts for tomorrow.”
“Okay, let me know when you leave.”
Katie started to walk away and then turned.
“Debra, do you know what happened today between Todd and Dan?”
Debra stepped closer to Katie, her eyes bright. She looked up and down the hallway even though they had just established that they were alone in the building.
“I heard that Christopher just put Todd in charge of the Chicago restaurant as well as the one here. Dan is the acting manager in Chicago, and he’s furious. Christopher has always been really supportive of Todd, and Dan thinks Todd is taking advantage.”
“Hmm. That doesn’t seem like something they need to beat each other up over.”
“Apparently, Dan said something about how now that his protector is dead, Todd would have to prove himself.”
“Todd threw the first punch?”
Debra nodded. “I saw the whole thing start. I couldn’t believe it. One second they were standing there talking, the next Todd had decked Dan, and then there was a full-on fistfight.”
“Thanks, Deb. It’s going to take me awhile to understand all the relationships in town
.”
Katie wandered back to her office thinking of all the connections in this small town. It was impossible to stay anonymous, but somehow one of these people had been able to kill Ellen and not get caught—yet. She thought of how so many small decisions could lead to such big changes, good and bad. Katie had picked up a Frisbee and met Justin. Beth came here to be closer to her mother and had met Todd. ER doctors saw the results of small decisions going horribly wrong every day. Ellen, deciding to move from Chicago, certainly never suspected it would lead to her death. She probably thought she would be safer in a relatively rural community as compared to the urban sprawl of Chicago. But she had made a decision that must have threatened someone, and now she was dead.
Debra interrupted Katie’s reverie by bouncing into her office to announce that she was headed home for the day.
“I shut off the phones and locked up the front. Just set the alarm at the back door when you leave, okay? You aren’t going to be here long, are you?”
Katie glanced at her watch and shook her head. “No, I should be finished soon. See you tomorrow.”
17
Beth had called Katie that afternoon after the funeral, and they’d arranged to meet again at the Purple Parrot at six thirty.
Katie arrived just after six. She found a table with two chairs in a corner by the window and sat down with relief. She stared, unseeing, out at the street. She felt she was missing something. The same instinct that sometimes told her to order an unusual test or ask an odd question in a patient interview was asserting itself at the back of her mind. Katie decided to put aside her suspicions of Nick for the moment. Even though she felt he was up to something, she wasn’t convinced he had a reason to kill Ellen. If they had been having an affair, why would he kill her? And Cecily might have wanted Ellen gone, but her grief at the memorial had seemed genuine. And then there was Christopher. What if he had suspected an affair? His grief also appeared genuine, but had he been at the house that evening, as Mrs. Peabody suggested?
She took out her notebook and flipped to her evolving notes on Ellen. The first two items on her list of possible motives had to do with what Ellen might have known. Maybe Katie had been distracted by Nick’s odd behavior, and Ellen’s murderer had a secret they were trying to protect. She turned to a blank page and wrote, “What did Ellen know?” The rest was as blank as Katie’s mind at the moment. But Beth might have some insight. So far, without knowing what Ellen had discovered, it was hard to imagine who would have wanted to do her any harm.
Beth came through the door and glanced around. Katie waved her over. Beth walked to where Katie sat, dumped her bag on the ground, and sank down into the other chair. Katie noticed her eyes were red and swollen.
“I’m so sorry about your mom,” Katie said. “We don’t have to talk about all this now.”
Beth shook her head. “No, I’m fine. I just had an argument with Todd. I couldn’t believe he would start a brawl at my mother’s funeral. I was so mad at both of them. It’s fine now. Dan knows exactly how to push Todd’s buttons.”
“Yes, that was quite something. Is Todd okay?”
Beth nodded. “He’s fine. Just a bloody nose, and he’ll have a nice black eye tomorrow.”
“You said you needed to talk?”
Beth had the heightened energy of someone with big news. Katie was spared having to decide how much to tell her as Beth relayed the news of the autopsy report and the associated likelihood that this had not been an accident.
“I don’t know if this makes me more or less upset, but at least I know she didn’t kill herself. I just don’t think I could have ever accepted that.”
“I know how you feel, but this has taken on a more serious tone,” Katie murmured. They had both lowered their voices. “It means there’s someone out there who wanted to harm your mother, possibly based on what she’d discovered in her research. It may be dangerous.”
“I need to know what happened,” Beth said, “and frankly, I’m not impressed with the Baxter Police Department so far. They never treated it like anything but suicide, so now they have no evidence or even a weak lead to go on. Sometimes having lived in a big city makes it very difficult to live in a small one.”
She pushed her dark hair out of her eyes. In that moment, Katie saw the resemblance to Ellen. They were both small, with fine features and thick dark hair, though Ellen had worn hers longer. Katie was always amazed to watch family members and to see the mannerisms that immediately marked them as relatives.
“I’m sure John feels terrible about the way things were handled,” Katie said. “It’s not something they deal with very much in Baxter. Not that that excuses it. Whoever did this counted on the scene looking enough like a suicide to appease the police.”
“Which means it was carefully planned by someone dangerous enough to kill,” Beth said. “Todd doesn’t want me to pursue this. He thinks I should just let it go.” Beth sighed and worried her engagement ring. “In fact, I think he expects you to talk me out of it.”
“I’d really like to help, Beth. Especially if you don’t feel you can talk to Todd about it. Whoever did this needs to be caught.”
“I could use the help, if you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.” Katie smiled at her. “But we’d better order before all the pot pies are gone.”
They got up to place their order at the counter. One of the local high school kids was working that evening, but the Peterson ladies were never far off. The place ran like clockwork, and any servers who were less than completely solicitous were quickly let go.
They went back to their table with mugs of tea and made plans. Beth had obtained her mother’s appointment book and laptop by telling Christopher that she needed to get a sweater from Ellen’s closet.
“I thought he was going to follow me up the stairs, but fortunately he got a phone call, and I went up alone. She kept them in her closet, way at the back. I’m not sure he even knew they were there. My mom could be quirky about that kind of thing.” She patted her oversized bag. “I put everything in here and slipped out before he had finished with his call.”
“Don’t you think Christopher would be just as interested in finding out what happened as you are?” Katie asked.
“I don’t know,” Beth said. “I know he and my mom had a couple of big arguments in those last few weeks. It really bothered her because they’d never argued before. She wouldn’t go into detail but said she’d discovered something about Christopher’s family, and they didn’t agree on what should be done about it.”
Katie frowned. Was she too quick to discount Christopher just because he was emotional at the funeral? “You don’t think Christopher could have killed your mother, do you?”
“No.” Beth hesitated. “No, I can’t imagine him hurting my mom. But I don’t know what was wrong between them, and I don’t want to confide in him before I have the whole picture.” Beth leaned forward, her elbows on the table, and rested her chin in her hands. “I’ve known him for three years. He’s always been wonderful to me and my mother, but I don’t trust him with this.”
“What’s Dan like, other than short-tempered?” Katie asked. “I hadn’t met him until today at the memorial.”
Beth sat back and crossed her arms. “I think Christopher would prefer he didn’t have a son sometimes. Dan has been nothing but trouble since I’ve known him. There was some issue with the restaurants. Todd told me that Christopher suspected Dan was embezzling money from the Riley’s he was running in New York. I think Dan got into gambling . . .” Beth trailed off.
“Are they on better terms now?”
“I guess so.” She shrugged. “Christopher sent him out to Chicago to open a new restaurant and to get him away from New York. I’m not sure how things are going out there now.” Beth sipped her tea.
Katie waited and stirred sugar into her mug.
“But Christopher put Todd in charge of the finances, which is partly what Dan was mad about,” Beth said. “He thinks Todd
convinced Christopher to do that in order to take over more of the business. Todd doesn’t even want the extra responsibility, especially since he has to deal with Dan all the time.”
“Maybe your mother found out something about him . . .”
“I guess it’s possible . . .”
“Could Dan have harmed your mother?”
“I hope not, but I think he’s capable of anything.”
The food arrived, and they both fell silent for a time, enjoying the homemade chicken potpies and soft crusty bread.
“What did you find in your mother’s book?” Katie asked. She nodded toward Beth’s bag sitting on the extra chair.
“I’ll show you.” Beth pulled the book out of her bag and flipped it open. “She had the usual hair appointment, and she saw you the week before she died. She also had a couple of phone numbers written down. One is the historical society office. The other is a lawyer’s office in Ann Arbor.”
“Did you speak to them yet?”
“I have an appointment with the lawyer tomorrow afternoon. I don’t know how much he will be able to tell me. There’s probably some sort of confidentiality clause.”
“I suppose. I guess it depends on what it was about and whether your mother was a client. Did her laptop have anything useful on it?”
“I was only able to access her web browser. I knew her password to open the desktop, but all the files are locked with a different password. I scanned through her e-mails for the past month or so and didn’t find anything that seemed relevant. She was visiting a lot of sites that discussed the genetics of color-blindness.”
“Was she interested in genetics?”
Beth shook her head. “Not that I know of. Todd is color-blind. I told her about a funny interaction we had while shopping when he was trying to help me pick out clothes. That was about a month ago.”
“Maybe she was just looking to see what the chances of a color-blind grandchild would be.”
Beth blushed and shook her head. “Maybe. I wish I could get into the rest of the files. It’s unusual for her to lock them with a password like that.”
