Murder at the Clinic: A Midwest Cozy Mystery

by Dianne Harman

  CHAPTER 14

  “Hi, sweetheart,” Kat said, “burning the midnight oil getting ready for tomorrow’s exam?”

  “Yeah, Mom, you know me too well,” Lacie said. “It’s kind of late for you to be calling. What’s up?”

  “A lot. First I’ll give you the good news. I said yes when Blaine asked me to marry him. What do you think about having a stepfather?”

  “I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have. Remember when I said when you first met him you’d be crazy not to be interested in him since he’s good-looking, rich, nice, and has a prestigious job. Seriously, what’s not to like about that? When’s the wedding? Am I going to be your maid of honor? Are you going to have a double wedding with Mitzi?”

  “Whoa,” Kat said laughing, “one thing at a time. First of all, there’s nothing not to like about him. I’m thrilled he wants me to be his wife. You know he’s never been married, and I consider it a pretty big compliment that I’ll be his first wife.”

  “Think you should add and only wife. Mom, I think you’re missing something. My guess is he considers it a pretty big compliment that you’d say yes when he asked.”

  “I hope so. Let me answer your other questions. The wedding is going to be this fall. We haven’t set a date yet. It will probably be at the country club, so no, we won’t be part of a double wedding. Lastly, yes, I would like you to be my maid of honor. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about my engagement ring.”

  “Is it a diamond? A big one? How did he get one so fast? He must have been pretty sure you’d say yes.”

  “Slow down, Lacie. I feel like I’ve stepped back to the time when you were a little girl. You always were curious and asked a million questions. Think that part has stayed with you as you’ve matured. I can’t wait for you to see the diamond he gave me and yes, it’s two-carat big. It’s just gorgeous. It’s a purplish pink heart-shaped diamond. From what he was told the cut, the color, and the fact that it’s two carats makes it pretty rare. It’s a family heirloom. It was his grandmother’s, and she willed it to him. He told me if I didn’t like it, he’d get another one. He was very concerned I wouldn’t like the setting, because it’s not modern, but I think it’s gorgeous.”

  “That is so romantic. I’m envious. Even though I don’t have anyone in the wings waiting to give me a diamond, I don’t think I’ll ever merit a two carat diamond. Does it feel heavy on your finger?”

  “Yes, it’s taking a little getting used to, but I’m sure I can make the sacrifice,” Kat said laughing.

  “Mom, all kidding aside, I’m really, really happy for you. I’ve got the exam tomorrow afternoon and then there are a couple of things I need to do at the Pi Phi house. Okay with you if I stop by tomorrow night?”

  “Sweetheart, that’s something you never need to ask. You’re always welcome, and let me assure you, just because I’m getting married it doesn’t mean you’re not welcome in your own home. Come to think of it, we’ve barely discussed whether or not Blaine will move in here or if we’ll buy a new house. He has an apartment, and I really can’t see moving all my stuff and the dogs into it.”

  “Mom, if you’re going to get new appliances and do some of the other things I’ve been thinking about, you probably better have him move in. You’ve got four bedrooms. You can make one of them into an office for him. That would still leave the master bedroom, my bedroom, and your office. Seems like the most sensible thing to do.”

  “It would probably also be the most sensible thing to do financially.”

  “Since he’s very wealthy, and your books do so well, don’t think that’s a real big consideration for either one of you. Right?”

  “Yes, that’s probably true. I just hadn’t even considered the future, because I have a little problem I need to talk to you about.”

  Kat told her what had happened at the acupuncture clinic, her computer research, and the notes she’d made about her next book. She went on to tell her about Nick’s visit, the coroner’s preliminary report, and concluded by telling Lacie the police had taken her computer, and she was afraid she was being considered as a suspect, although they hadn’t exactly said that.

  “Mom, that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. Why in the world would you want to kill someone you’ve never met? I’ve heard of grabbing at straws, but to think you’d have anything to do with it is just ridiculous.”

  “Thanks, Lacie, I appreciate your support, but I am concerned. What also worries me is Blaine asked me to marry him today, before he found out I might be considered a suspect in a murder case. It doesn’t look too good for the district attorney to have his future wife charged with murder, if the police determine that’s what happened. I haven’t told him, but I’ve decided not to marry him until this is solved.”

  “Mom, you’re really overreacting. I’ve heard about police procedures, and my understanding is they have to go by the book, so I’m not surprised they’re questioning you. Since you were there when the woman died, it would make perfect sense to investigate you and everyone else that was there. Then, by the process of elimination, you’ll be free and clear. I’ll bet this will all be over in a couple of days.”

  “Lacie, believe me, I wish I shared your optimism. I have to admit I’m pretty shaken, and I feel so sorry for Mitzi. This should be the best time in her life, and instead of planning a wedding, she’s trying to clear her name. Doesn’t seem fair.”

  “Have you thought about who could have done it?”

  “Nick, Blaine’s brother, actually your step-uncle-to-be is doing some investigative work. You remember how much he helped me when Nancy was murdered. Anyway, Mitzi talked to him for quite awhile tonight and yes, between all of us we’ve identified some suspects. Two in particular stand out. One is the ex-fiancée of Mitzi’s husband-to-be. I guess she was furious when he broke off their engagement. The other one is the acupuncture doctor who’s also being considered for the same position as Mitzi, that of Assistant Dean of the Acupuncture Department at the university.”

  “I’m glad you told me, Mom. I sure wouldn’t have wanted to hear about this on television, although my time watching it has been severely curtailed for the last week or so. Anyway, try not to worry, and Mom, I’m really glad you’re going to write something other than the Sexy Cissy books. Are you going to use your own name or get another pen name?”

  “I haven’t gotten that far in my thinking. I’ll probably use my own name. Actually, given the circumstances surrounding what happened today and the plot I envisioned in the book, it might be better if I used the name Kat Denham rather than my married name-to-be, Kat Evans. That way I could separate Blaine from all of this.”

  “I think that’s an excellent idea. Again, congratulations, and I’ll tell Blaine tomorrow night how happy I am for both of you. Oh, Mom, since I’m twenty-one, you can also tell him he won’t have to adopt me. Poor guy’s not only getting a first wife, he’s getting a stepdaughter.”

  “Knowing the relationship you and Blaine have, I don’t think it would bother him in the least, but I’ll tell him. Good luck tomorrow. I’ll be thinking about you.”

  “I’d prefer it if you were thinking about how to clear your name if it’s determined she was murdered. One more thing, are you keeping Rudy with you? If it was murder, and since you were there when she died, might be a good thing to take him with you wherever you go until this is over.”

  “Lacie, Blaine and Nick have already lectured me about that, and I’ve promised both of them I won’t even go out the door without Rudy at my side. Does that help?”

  “A lot. See you tomorrow.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Considering the events that had taken place during the day, Kat slept surprisingly well. She probably would have slept in longer if Jazz hadn’t jumped up on the bed and licked her cheek, waking her. “Jazz, thank you for that doggy kiss. I take it you want to go outside.”

  At the word “outside” Rudy walked over to the bedroom door and looked over his shoulder as if to
say, “Me, too.”

  An hour later, after the dogs were fed and watered, she’d showered, and her morning coffee had been consumed, she sat down at her desk with her iPad. Although she usually wrote her books on her computer, occasionally when she was out of town or she was away from her computer, she wrote on her iPad and then transferred the chapters she’d written to her computer.

  She knew Detective Shafer wouldn’t understand, but while she was asleep the plot for the book had come alive for her, and before she lost it, like she often did with dreams, she wanted to take it from her memory and get the ideas down in writing. Lost in the newly about-to-be born book, it took a moment before she realized her phone was ringing. She answered it, not recognizing the number.

  “Mrs. Denham, this is Detective Shafer. I’d like to come by and talk to you. Are you available now?”

  “Yes, will you be bringing my computer back when you come?”

  “I am, and that’s why I want to talk to you. I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.”

  She put the dogs outside, feeling she’d be plenty safe with the detective in the house.

  Exactly fifteen minutes later, the doorbell rang. Kat looked through the peephole and saw Detective Shafer standing at her front door holding her computer.

  “Come in, Detective. Thanks for returning my computer. Would you mind reconnecting it for me? I always get confused when I try to hook the darn thing up by myself.”

  “Sure, and after I finish, I want to talk to you about what our computer expert found on it.” He followed her down the hall to her office, and when he’d finished with the installation he said, “Where would you like to talk?”

  “We can do it here in my office. Why don’t you sit on the couch, and I’ll take the chair?”

  “All right. I want you to know we copied several of your files. I’d like to know about the book thoughts you wrote down that we found in one of your files.”

  “Detective, as soon as you left last night I realized what you were going to find and what it must look like. Let me explain how I came up with the idea and why I visited various web sites dealing with acupuncture and murder.”

  She explained everything to him, from lunch with Mitzi to researching the sites. When she was finished she said, “I know how this must look. Blaine said that I must be prescient, or be able to know things before they happen. Detective, I’ve never had anything like this happen in my life. Honestly, it just seemed like a good idea for a book. That’s all I know.”

  He was quiet for several moments. “Mrs. Denham, I’ve known your fiancé for a long time, and I have nothing but the highest regard for him. When I learned you’d become engaged to him, believe me, it was a huge plus for you. We did a thorough background check on you and you came out squeaky clean. I don’t know how authors come up with the plots and characters for their books, but what you’ve told me sounds entirely plausible. I can’t explain how you happened to come up with the idea for a book and then how the events you envisioned for the book actually happened. Our expert was able to determine that you visited the sites the day before Sandy Hendrick died.”

  “Honest, Detective Shafer, I had no idea that she’d die while I was there. I have no idea how a person can be poisoned and not show any signs of it and then die from it while they’re having an acupuncture treatment.”

  “We’re not yet sure of that either. One thing that’s in your favor is you didn’t visit any sites on poison or high blood pressure medication. If you had, that would definitely put you very close to the top of the suspect list.”

  “Detective, admittedly, I don’t know much at all about those things, although if I’m going to start writing cozy mysteries I probably better find out. Why did you mention high blood pressure medication?”

  “We don’t know exactly what the substance is that the coroner suspects is a poison. Tests are being run right now. It’s not uncommon for people to forget they’ve already taken their blood pressure medication and take too much, although to take it in doses large enough to cause death would be rare. Right now we’re looking at everything.”

  “I don’t know anything about poisons or even which prescription drugs can be dangerous if they’re taken in excess. One thing does occur to me, however. I remember Blaine and his brother, who is a private investigator, talking about motive being the first place to look when trying to solve a crime. What motive could I possibly have had? I’d never seen Mrs. Hendrick until I walked into her treatment room, and she was dead.”

  “We looked at that, Mrs. Denham, and we found no relationship between you and the decedent, but you must admit, it’s all quite coincidental.”

  “I couldn’t agree more. I think it might make a good book, but I have no idea, if it’s murder, who the killer will be.”

  “Mrs. Denham, although you’re not an official suspect, don’t leave town. If you find out something you think would be of interest to me, don’t hesitate to call.” He laughed as he stood up, “And if a name comes to you in a dream, I’d like to know about it. If you can solve the death that way, we could probably use you down at the station.”

  After he left and the dogs were back on their dog beds in her office, Kat spent the next hour transferring what she’d written on her iPad to her computer. She checked it, and all of her files were just as they had been. She knew that while the detective wasn’t charging her with Sandy Hendrick’s murder, he’d probably be observing her, maybe even following her or having her followed to see if he could come up with a motive.

  She shivered thinking about it. Just then her phone rang, and she saw that Nick was calling her. “Good morning, Nick.”

  “I wanted to give you an update on a couple of things. My team has been busy this morning. One of my researchers was assigned to Matt Hendrick. He’s an engineer, and it’s well-known that he’s what would be called a ‘player.’ According to one source at the firm where he works, he’s had intimate relationships with a number of women at the engineering company. Evidently he’s very attractive, and he’s been married several times. My researcher talked to a few of the neighbors, and one of them mentioned his wife often went out of town on weekends and when she was gone, a woman usually arrived shortly after she left and spent several hours there.”

  “Did you find out who the woman was?”

  “No, and that’s women not woman, but from the description of the latest one my researcher was given, she appears to be a Latina. He said she had black hair, dark eyes, and a good figure. Although he never was able to get a really good look at her, he judged her age to be about forty-five.”

  “How are you going to find out who she is?” Kat asked, walking idly over to Rudy’s dog bed and petting him while she talked.

  “I have someone who will follow him after work and see where he goes. Now that his wife is dead he might be a little more open in his relationships.”

  “I think it’s kind of strange he went to work the day after his wife died.”

  “Yes, but people react to death quite differently, and if he’s a player, he may not be mourning his wife’s death very much.”

  “You’ve done a good job, Nick. Thanks.”

  “We also did a check on Mitzi Green, and found nothing. She seems as pure as the driven snow. I’m calling her this afternoon. I need some more information on the woman who died. I’d like to know if she was taking any medication, and if so, what it was.”

  “You might ask her if Sandy Hendrick was taking any blood pressure medicine, because the detective said it was a good thing I hadn’t visited sites dealing with poisons or high blood pressure medications. Makes me think he’d found out she was taking blood pressure medication and maybe got too much of it.”

  “I’ll definitely ask her. Thanks for the heads up. I’m also going to be doing some research on Dr. Nguyen.”

  “I’ll be curious what you find out about him, and it may be very small of me, but I hope you find out something that points the finger of suspicion directly at him.”
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  Nick laughed. “Guess you’re not perfect after all. My brother speaks of you in such glowing terms I’m glad to see there’s a little ordinary human nature in you after all.”

  “Trust me, Nick, I’m very human. Oh, by the way, did Blaine mention to you the police took my computer last night?”

  “Yes, and he also told me what was on it. I know he was pretty concerned.”

  “I think it’s okay. Detective Shafer returned it this morning and said that although they’d copied the pertinent files, at least I didn’t have anything on it about poison. He thought it was a very strange coincidence that I’d research something and then what I had researched happened in real life. Hopefully I was able to assure him that it was simply that, a coincidence.”

  “Kat, sounds like he was playing good cop. Let’s hope he doesn’t find a reason to play bad cop. If you’ve got a minute, I have a couple of other things I’d like to talk to you about.”

  “Sure, other than having lunch with Blaine’s secretary and seeing what I can find out about Rex’s ex-fiancée, I’m just planning on staying here at home the rest of the day and doing some writing. Blaine’s coming over for dinner after he finishes up in court. What else did you want to talk about?”

  “I’ve done a lot of thinking about Sandy Hendrick’s death and who might have done it if she was murdered. Obviously, it must have been someone who wanted her dead. That’s the first thing that comes to mind. Given the fact her husband seems to be a player; the murderer may be someone who wanted to get back at him by killing his wife. I know it’s a stretch, but that’s one scenario.”

  “Actually, I never went beyond who would want to see her dead, much less someone who would do it to get back at someone other than Sandy Hendrick.”

  “Stay with me for a minute, Kat. Here’s another scenario, and one that I’m sure isn’t going to make you very happy considering your friendship with Mitzi.”

  “I’m lost. What do you mean?”