*****
“Mike, I hope you feel as good as I do this morning,” Kelly said as she got out of bed Sunday morning. “Stay here and rest. I’ll treat you to breakfast in bed in a few minutes. I know you’re probably anxious to get home or to the office and sift through everything, but if you can, hang around and I’ll wrangle up a great breakfast for you. Besides, I like having you here and it gives me an opportunity to be close to you.”
“Breakfast in bed? Lady, you know how to start a man’s day out right. Trust me, I’m not moving.”
Kelly brushed her teeth, threw on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, and was in the kitchen in minutes. Okay, after last night he’s got to be hungry, she thought. I know I am. She smiled, remembering their lovemaking. Okay, back to this morning. Let’s see. Sourdough buttered toast, a mushroom omelet, and a thick slice from the ham we had for dinner last night. That should do it. Oh, and I brought home some of that leftover fresh fruit from the coffee shop. Perfect.
“Sit up, lazybones. Your private chef and waitress is providing you with morning sustenance. Enjoy,” she said, handing him the tray of food. “I’ll be back in a minute with today’s paper and coffee.”
Kelly loved to begin Sunday mornings by reading the San Francisco Chronicle. She subscribed to the local paper, but the problem with it was she already knew about almost everything that was printed in it. She usually read it in five minutes, but the Chronicle was her weekly indulgence. She stayed up to date on books, movies, and the news of the day, both domestic and international. When she finished reading the paper, she spent an hour doing the crossword puzzle, or attempting to do it. Long ago she made a promise to herself that if she ever finished a Sunday crossword, she’d sell the coffee shop and travel to Italy. She knew there wasn’t much danger of that happening and that’s why she only subscribed on Sundays. She could justify not finishing the Sunday puzzle, but if she wasn’t able to finish the ones during the week, it might seriously depress her. She’d rather not know.
“Kelly, I’ve got a lot to do today, but last night and this morning were just what I needed. Keep this up and I might have to make an honest woman out of you.”
“A few more nights like last night and I won’t care whether or not you make an honest woman out of me,” she said smiling and ruffling his hair. “I’ve got to spend the afternoon at the coffee shop and get ready for the week. After yesterday, I don’t know how much I have of anything. I can certainly use the exposure the Celebration gave the coffee shop, but my regular customers expect their favorites and I need to keep them happy.”
“Rebel, you take care of this wonderful lady. Kelly, I’ll talk to you later,” Mike said as he left the house and headed for his car. Rebel whined as he and Kelly stood at the door, watching Mike back out of the driveway.
Well, it will probably be all over town that I didn’t go to church this morning and that Mike obviously spent the night. Oh, what the heck. We’re two consenting adults and I know the only thing Father Brown will do the next time he sees me is smile.
CHAPTER 13
As soon as Kelly and Rebel walked into the coffee shop, she picked up Rebel’s bed and carried it to the kitchen. “You can stay here this afternoon. I’ve got a lot of baking to do.” She checked her supplies, called Lucy at the Cedar Bay Market and gave her a list of what she needed. “I’ll come by later and pick the order up. I need to spend some time cooking here at the coffee shop and then I need to run an errand,” she told Lucy.
Several hours had gone by when she turned to Rebel and said, “Rebel, I can’t get this out of my mind. I know Mike wouldn’t approve, but you and I are going to pay a little visit to Doc. I just can’t believe he has any involvement in this, but I need to find out.”
Although she’d never been to Doc’s she had a good idea where he lived. He’d made occasional references to his ranch when they’d talked at the coffee shop and she remembered him saying he’d painted the front door of his house red because it was supposed to bring good luck. She also remembered him saying he liked the name of the lane the ranch was on, Serenity Summit Lane. She took out her iPhone and silently blessed Google Maps as it showed her exactly where Serenity Summit Lane was located.
“Let’s go, Rebel. I mean, how difficult can it be to find a house that has a red door and is on Serenity Summit Lane?”
Ten minutes later she turned onto the lane from the main road. Doc’s ranch was at the end of the lane along with several other small ranches. His old pickup was in the driveway. She pulled into it and turned off the engine.
She was just opening the minivan door when Doc walked around from the side of the house. She waved to him and got out.
“Kelly, to what do I owe the pleasure of a visit from you and Rebel?” he asked, opening the door so Rebel could get out. Rebel liked Doc and immediately rubbed his head against Doc’s leg, indicating he wanted his ears scratched, while at the same time earnestly wagging his tail. “Come in. I just made some lemonade from the lemons on the tree I have on the back patio. Rebel, you too.” He opened the front door for them.
“Doc,” she said, looking around the living room. “You never mentioned you were an antique collector, although I certainly can see why you wouldn’t want people to know what you have out here. I don’t know much about antiques, but this furniture looks a lot like some Arts and Crafts pieces I recently saw on television. And these paintings! They’re incredible. I remember the host on that show talking about California Impressionist paintings. Is that what these are?”
“Yes. All of this comes from my grandparents. I don’t talk much about my personal life, but I’m divorced. My wife wanted these pieces and some others I’ll show you, but I had a very good attorney who made the case that this was my separate property since I’d inherited it. They make me happy and remind me of my family.”
“Oh, Doc, here, this is for you. I had an extra crumble coffee cake and I know how much you like it. Thought I’d bring you some. It was just taking up space in the walk-in. Enjoy,” she said handing him the cake.
“How thoughtful of you! Come on, I’ll give you the grand tour.”
She followed him, amazed at the quality of the antiques and artwork he had in the old ranch house. A Tiffany lamp and brightly colored pottery were only a few of the beautiful decorative pieces.
“Doc, I had no idea. I feel like I’m in a museum. I think I should put Rebel in the car. As big as he is, if he bumped into anything and broke it, I’d never forgive myself. It’s a good thing I don’t have any young children with me! Rebel, lie down,” she said in an assertive voice. She turned back to Doc. “It will make me feel better if he’s at least lying down.”
“Let’s go into the kitchen and sit down. Rebel, come,” Doc said, taking the lemonade out of the refrigerator. He turned towards Kelly. “I really appreciate the coffee cake, but I have a feeling you have some other reason for being here.”
Kelly was quiet for a few moments, taking several sips of her lemonade. “Doc, this is delicious. You’re right. I do have an ulterior motive for being here. A couple of weeks ago a tourist was in the coffee shop and after you left, asked to speak to me,” she said, silently apologizing to the gods of truth for what she was about to say. She knew she couldn’t tell him Mike had been the source of what she knew about him.
“He asked your name and said you looked familiar. I told him your name was Doc. He said, ‘That’s it. I knew I’d seen him before, but I just couldn’t place him. I live in Southern California and his name and picture were in the newspapers and on television for several weeks a couple of years ago. He was accused of performing an illegal abortion on a young woman and she died. Even though he was arrested and stood trial, he was acquitted. The State Medical Board took away his license to practice medicine. I always wondered what happened to him.’ I told him I didn’t know anything about it and that was all he said. With everything that’s happened recently, I forgot about it. This morning I woke up, worried that someone might have overheard h
im and that you could become a person of interest in the investigation of Amber’s death. I guess I’m here to warn you, but I’d also like to know what you and Amber talked about.”
Doc stood up, walked over to the window and stood there for several minutes. Finally he turned to Kelly and said in a low, faltering voice, “Kelly, thank you for coming and having the courage to tell me about your conversation with the customer. Let me tell you what happened. This won’t be easy because it was a very painful time for me. I saw no reason to tell anyone here in Cedar Bay about my past. As a matter of fact, other than having lunch at your coffee shop, I haven’t had much interaction with anyone in the community. A little over three years ago a patient of mine, I was a general practitioner for a large HMO in Southern California, came to my office and told me she thought she was pregnant. She was a young girl who had just turned seventeen. Her parents were very strict and had no idea that she and her boyfriend were having sex.
“The HMO I worked for was very opposed to underage women obtaining birth control pills, even though legally in California a minor could obtain them without the parent’s consent. I wasn’t allowed to prescribe them. I examined her and confirmed that she was pregnant.
“To say she was panicked would be the understatement of the year. She was a senior in high school and had been accepted to a prestigious Eastern college. Her boyfriend was the star quarterback on the football team and they seemed to be very much in love. After my first consultation with her, I had several more appointments with her. She begged me to abort the baby. I told her that when I was hired by the HMO, I had signed a sworn statement that I would never perform an abortion while I was working there. She told me if I didn’t help her, she didn’t know what she was going to do. She said a friend of hers was willing to take her to Mexico and have it done there, even though she easily could have gotten one through a number of agencies in California. She was afraid if she had it done anywhere in California, her parents would find out about it. Her father was a very well-known politician and she knew his opponents would pounce on this kind of information and use it against him.”
“Doc, I don’t know what I would have done in that situation. I can’t imagine how you must have felt.”
“I struggled with that decision more than anything I’ve ever struggled with in my life and ultimately, I made the wrong decision. I knew she was going to have it done no matter what and there was a good chance a botched abortion would mean she would never be able to have children or even worse, she might die. I told her I would do it. I had a friend who was a doctor in private practice. I called him and asked if I could use his office. I performed the abortion and it went very well. There were no complications whatsoever. She had a friend take her home and I thought that was the end of it. I was wrong.”
“Why do I feel like the other shoe’s about to drop?” Kelly asked.
“Because it did. That night the young woman started hemorrhaging and before her parents could get medical help, she died. Her parents found my business card in her purse with the address where she was to go for the abortion. The police went to the address, realized it was a medical facility, and called my friend, the doctor who owned it. He told them I had called him and asked if I could see a patient in his office. He didn’t know why I was seeing the patient or what I intended to do while using his office. I really don’t blame him for telling them. It was him or me. I was arrested and charged with manslaughter. To make a long story short, a trial was held, but I had a magnificent attorney who was able to convince the jury that although she died and the autopsy showed she’d had an abortion, there was no link between any alleged malpractice on my part and her death. In layman’s terms, her death was caused by a freak of nature, a blood vessel which broke after she returned home and had nothing to do with the abortion.”
“Doc, I’m surprised that the family would agree to your being charged with manslaughter, given the father’s high political profile. I can’t imagine they would want publicity like that.”
“They didn’t want the publicity, but it was out of their hands. They weren’t the plaintiffs, the State of California was. It was a criminal trial, not a civil trial. When they realized they couldn’t do anything about it, they turned it to their advantage and made a media circus event out of it - grieving mother and father, sweetheart of a young girl, evil doctor who performed an abortion. You get the picture. The politician played it beautifully. It was an election year and he won by a landslide. When it was over, my wife left me and took our two teenage sons, who wanted nothing to do with me. I packed up and left town. I drove all over the west coast, looking for a place to land. Fortunately, I’d inherited some money from my parents, so I didn’t have to work. I found Cedar Bay and here I am.”
“I’m curious what you and Amber talked about.”
“Kelly, Amber was pregnant. She and I talked occasionally at the coffee shop when she came in after school to help you. One day she was waiting for me in the parking lot when I pulled in at the usual time. She wondered if I was named Doc because I was a real doctor. I told her I was, but that I was no longer practicing medicine. I told her I’d retired. I thought that was the end of it. It wasn’t. The next day she was waiting for me at the same time. She asked if she could come out to the ranch and talk to me about something. I liked her and I knew that it must be important if she wanted to talk to me privately at the ranch.”
“I can’t believe Roxie and I missed seeing the two of you in the parking lot two days in a row. Guess I’m not as good at noticing what’s up with people as I thought I was.”
“Don’t feel bad. Both times were very short. Anyway, that afternoon she came out to the ranch. To make a long story short, she told me she was pregnant and she was debating whether or not to have an abortion. She told me she was struggling with it because of her deep religious faith. She went on to say it would kill her parents if she kept the baby because it would mean she couldn’t go to college and they’d been so proud of her, but as strong Catholics, it would kill them just as much if she had the abortion. I told her what had happened to me in California when I’d performed an abortion on a young woman. We really bonded that afternoon. I felt in some ways like she was the daughter I’d never had.”
“I’ll be back in a minute Doc. I need a Kleenex. This is so, so sad.” She returned, blowing her nose with her eyes much brighter than usual. “Please go on.”
“It was like ‘déjà vu’. I told her if she made the decision to have an abortion, I would be happy to give her information, but that I would not do an abortion on her under any circumstances. When I heard she’d died, that was my first thought, that she’d gone ahead and had an abortion and someone had botched it. Then I heard she’d been murdered. I don’t understand why anyone would want to kill her.”
“Doc, did she tell you who the father was?”
He looked at her, shocked she would even ask the question. “No. It never occurred to me to ask. I assumed it was that football guy she goes with. I think his name is Brandon Black. Do you think someone else could have been the father?”
“I don’t know. I’m trying to look for a motive, but I’m sure not finding one. I have a hard time believing that Brandon murdered her. There must be someone else. Doc, I hate to say this, but if people find out about your past and her pregnancy, even though it looks like she didn’t have an abortion, you really might become a person of interest in the murder investigation.”
“Yes, that was my first thought when I heard about it. That’s why I asked you to tell me anything you knew. Besides me, you’re the only one who knows she was pregnant and had asked me for advice. She told me she hadn’t even told Brandon because she wanted to make the decision on her own. You’re also the only one who knows that I told her about my past. Kelly, I know you and Mike are close, but since I had nothing to do with Amber’s murder, I would ask that you not tell him about this conversation.”
“I won’t, Doc,” she said, inwardly crossing her fingers. Sheesh
, two major lies in one day. The next time I walk into church every bell will probably ring, letting everyone know I’m a liar. “Doc, it’s getting late and I need to pick up an order from Lucy, drop it off at the coffee shop, and get some sleep. Thanks for talking to me and I’m so sorry about what happened to you. I wish I could think of some way you could use all that good medical knowledge you have. Seems like a shame to waste it.”
“I’ve thought the same. If you come up with an idea, let me know. Rebel, time for you to go. Kelly, mind if I give him a little treat?”
“No. It’s past his dinner time anyway.” At the words “dinner time,” Rebel’s tail began wagging and he walked over to Doc who had opened the refrigerator.
“Rebel, sit,” Doc said. He cut a piece of meat for Rebel and handed it to him. Even though Rebel weighed ninety pounds, he delicately took it from Doc’s fingers.
“Doc, that looks like a filet mignon steak. Did you just give my dog filet mignon?”
“Yeah,” Doc said sheepishly. “It’s one of my vices.”
“Well when I feed him and he won’t eat his canned dog food, I’ll be thinking evil thoughts of you,” she said laughing. “Come on Rebel, time to go. Doc, I’ll see you tomorrow and thanks for the tour. With these beautiful things, you might think about getting a couple of guard dogs yourself.”
“Been tossing the idea around, Kelly. I’ll let you know if I do. Course if you ever want to get rid of Rebel, you know where to come. See you tomorrow.”
CHAPTER 14
The next morning Rebel’s growl woke Kelly up a few minutes before her alarm clock was scheduled to go off. He was standing by the open window, guard hairs raised all along his back, creating a dark line. “What’s up, Rebel? Something wrong?” He continued the low, rumbling sound. She stood up and walked over to the window.
Kelly's Koffee Shop (A Cedar Bay Cozy Mystey Book 1) Page 7
