A Desperate Search

by Amanda Stevens

She turned back to scour the water as they approached the bank. “I don’t see a boat at the dock. They must have come by car.”

  He shut off the engine and guided the prow toward the bank. Nikki ducked to avoid the trailing moss. They both climbed out and pulled the boat aground, and then Adam handed her one of the flashlights. “The moon is so bright, we shouldn’t need them, but just in case.”

  Nikki tucked the flashlight into the back of her jeans and nodded. They moved quickly along the bank to the steep wooden steps, pressing into the shadows as they climbed up to the deck. Adam peered through one of the glass doors, then slipped to the other side and motioned for Nikki to step up to the window.

  She pressed herself to the wall and then took a peek inside. A woman stood at Dr. Nance’s desk, rifling frantically through the drawers.

  Chapter Nine

  The intruder had her back to the deck, but Nikki immediately recognized the tall, elegant form and the chic, cropped hair. Dr. Patience Wingate’s movements were uncharacteristically hurried and desperate. Nikki had never known her to be anything but cool, calm and somewhat arrogant.

  She was so taken aback to find Dr. Nance’s partner going through his desk that she stepped from her hiding place without thinking. Adam motioned her back, but it was too late. Dr. Wingate must have heard a slight sound, for she whirled, clearly shocked to find someone peering in through the window.

  Casting a wary glance around the space, she strode across the room to draw back the French door.

  “Dr. Dresden! What are you doing here?” Caught in what for anyone else would have been an awkward situation, she quickly assumed her normal, haughty mask, placing one hand on the door and the other on her hip as she regarded Nikki with open suspicion.

  Nikki smiled, allowing nothing more than mild curiosity to seep into her tone. “Dr. Wingate! My goodness, you gave us quite a start. We saw the light from across the lake. We thought someone must have broken into Dr. Nance’s cabin.”

  “That’s preposterous. I didn’t break in.”

  Her defensive tone caught Nikki off guard. “No...of course not. But we didn’t know it was you.”

  “How did you get in?” Adam asked casually as he stepped forward. He seemed relaxed and, like Nikki, outwardly displayed benign curiosity, but she could detect tension in the set of his features and in the way his gaze scouted their surroundings.

  Dr. Wingate cocked her head slightly. “I’m sorry. Who are you?”

  Nikki hastened to make the introductions. “This is Adam Thayer. He’s a Dallas PD homicide detective.”

  “Is that so?” She didn’t sound at all impressed by his credentials, but Nikki caught the flash of something that might have been confusion in her gray eyes. Or was that fear? “What on earth are the two of you doing out on the lake at this time of night?”

  “Detective Thayer has a house just over there.” She gestured toward the opposite bank. “He came down to do some work on the place and has accepted a temporary assignment with the Nance County coroner’s office.” She could feel Adam’s surprised gaze on her in the dark, but she refused to glance his way. “We’re looking into Dr. Nance’s death.”

  “What’s there to look into?” Dr. Wingate demanded. “I was told his boat overturned and he drowned. Was I misinformed?”

  “There are still a lot of unanswered questions,” Nikki hedged.

  “What kind of questions?”

  “For starters, you never told us how you got in here.” Adam nodded toward the open desk drawers. “Or what you’re looking for.”

  She gave Nikki an irritated look. “Dr. Dresden, is this really necessary? I’ve already spoken to Sheriff Brannon.”

  Nikki forced a sympathetic note in her voice. “I know this is hard, considering how close you were with Dr. Nance. It’s difficult for me, too, but we’d really appreciate a few minutes of your time. The more information we can gather, the easier it will be for my colleagues and me to reach a consensus on cause of death.”

  Dr. Wingate sighed in frustration. “I don’t see this as anything but a monumental waste of my time, but if you must know, Charles gave me a key to the cabin years ago so that I could come out on weekends when we—when I needed a quick getaway. As to what I’m looking for, I’m here on clinic business.”

  “What kind of business?” Adam asked.

  “I need to make certain that any medical records Charles may have removed from the clinic have been appropriately secured under current privacy rules.”

  “Do you mind if we come in?” Adam asked.

  “Why would you need to come in?”

  “This conversation might be easier if we all just relax,” he said.

  “I suppose, but only for a minute or two.” She grudgingly stepped back from the door. “It’s getting late. I’d like to finish my task and get back to town.”

  “We won’t keep you long.” Adam motioned for Nikki to go ahead of him and then he closed the door.

  Dr. Wingate turned, clearly displeased by this turn of events and looking as if she wanted to boot them both right back out the door. “I honestly don’t know what more I can tell you.”

  “Did you locate the files you were looking for?” Adam asked as he glanced around the space.

  She hesitated. “I never said I was looking for specific files.”

  “You must have reason to believe that some are missing if you’re going to this much trouble.”

  She walked back over to the desk and rested a hip against the corner, a fifty-something woman of supreme confidence and little patience. Her personal style was sophisticated and spare, and yet there was a hint of sensuality in the way she leaned back on her hands and gazed across the room at them. “The clinic is fully computerized. We don’t even ask patients to fill out paper forms anymore. Charles was a little slow to adapt to our new system. He preferred the old-fashioned method of file folders and color-coded tabs. He’d even go so far at times as to have his assistant print out files just so he’d have a hard copy to study. When he was finished, he’d return the file to his assistant for shredding.”

  “Sounds like a lot of extra work,” Adam said.

  “Whatever Charles Nance wanted, he usually got,” she said with a trace of bitterness. She caught herself and shrugged. “He was the boss, after all. Anyway, his assistant came to me yesterday morning right after we heard the news. She said he’d requested several files a few weeks ago and never returned them for shredding. If those files were to fall into the wrong hands, the clinic could be subject to a number of costly fines and possibly the kind of lawsuits that could bankrupt us.”

  “Why did you think the files would be at the cabin?” Nikki asked.

  “Because Charles came here before he died. And because we couldn’t find them at the clinic or at his house. This was the last place I could think to look. I drove out the first chance I had to search.”

  “How many files are missing?” Adam asked.

  “At least a dozen, some of them dating back years.”

  “Do you have a list of the affected patients?”

  “I do, but I won’t release that information without a court order. Besides, the names are unimportant. Patient privacy is all that matters.”

  Adam nodded. “Do you have any idea why he wanted the files?”

  “Only that he told his assistant he was working on some mysterious project. I have no idea what that project might be, but then, we were all concerned about his behavior these past few months.”

  “Sheriff Brannon told me about some of the problems he’d had at the clinic,” Nikki said. “Do you know if he underwent any cognitive testing?”

  “Not that I’m aware. He knew something was wrong, though. At first it was small things like misplacing his keys and forgetting his phone. But the incidents grew progressively more serious. That’s when I knew I had to step in. He was devas
tated, of course, but he understood. In some ways, he may even have been relieved that I’d forced the issue. He agreed to phase out his practice as soon as he returned from his trip.”

  “I wonder why he never mentioned anything to me about his impending retirement,” Nikki said.

  “Maybe he hadn’t fully come to terms with it himself,” Dr. Wingate suggested. “Charles was a very proud man, and the aging process took a toll.”

  “When did you last speak to him?” Adam asked.

  “The day before he left on his trip. He was in good spirits, considering. He looked forward to reconnecting with some of his colleagues. He’d even planned a fishing trip.”

  “Why do you think he had a change of heart?” Adam asked.

  “I have no idea. Maybe he got confused and came to the first familiar place he could think of.”

  “You’re a full partner in the clinic?”

  “No. Dr. Nance kept fifty-one percent when he allowed me to buy in. He wasn’t one for relinquishing control.” There was that hint of bitterness again.

  “What sort of arrangement do you have in place in the event of a principal’s death?”

  She straightened. “How can that possibly be any of your business?”

  “I understand it’s an uncomfortable question,” he said. “But as Dr. Dresden mentioned, the more information we can gather, the easier it will be to determine what happened.”

  “Charles drowned. That’s what happened. Nothing I can tell you will change that tragic fact.”

  “He drowned,” Adam agreed. “But we’re not convinced it was an accident.”

  His bluntness drew a gasp. She gazed at them in shock. “You can’t possibly think Charles was murdered. He was beloved by the whole town.”

  “Maybe not by everyone,” Adam said. “His popularity aside, he was a successful doctor with a flourishing practice. When looking for motive, it’s always helpful to figure out who had the most to gain from his death.”

  Patience Wingate’s expression hardened as she rose from the desk. “Are you suggesting I had something to gain?”

  “Of course not,” Nikki said quickly, but Adam merely shrugged.

  “If the partnership was designed so that the surviving partner inherits the practice, then yes. You’d have a great deal to gain from Charles Nance’s death.”

  * * *

  “WOW,” NIKKI SAID AS they went down the steps together. “You really got under her skin. Did you see her face before she ushered us out?”

  “She looked pretty upset.”

  “Upset? If she’d had a gun, she might have shot you on the spot.”

  “Comes with the territory,” Adam said. “I don’t feel I’ve done my job unless I’ve ruffled a few feathers.”

  “Rest assured, you excel at what you do,” Nikki replied dryly. “Seriously, though, I find it hard to believe that Patience Wingate would be capable of murder. She’s a doctor, and a very good one, from what I hear, despite her abrasive bedside manner. Dr. Nance would never have allowed her to buy into the clinic if he didn’t think highly of her abilities.”

  “You think doctors—even good ones—are incapable of taking lives?” He sounded amused. “I don’t know, Dr. Dresden. She seemed wound pretty tight to me.”

  “Really? She’s always struck me as very cool and analytical. Not the type to get her hands dirty with homicide.”

  “Appearances are often deceiving,” Adam said.

  “So I’ve been told.”

  He paused halfway down the stairs and turned to her. She was a step or two above him so that they were standing eye to eye. The nearness quickened her pulse, but she told herself to settle down. If they agreed to enter into a working arrangement, it had to be temporary and remain strictly professional. She didn’t need the kind of messy complications that seemed to follow a man like Adam Thayer. Maybe that was an unfair assessment since she’d known him for such a short time, but he’d been living on Echo Lake for little more than a week and already he’d been shot at, beaten up and nearly run down by an unknown driver, all while recovering from his previous gunshot wounds. Danger followed him, too, apparently.

  “Think about it this way,” he said.

  “I’m sorry. Think about what?”

  He gave her a quizzical look. “You okay?”

  “Yes. I lost my train of thought for a moment.”

  “We were talking about Dr. Wingate and whether or not she might be capable of murder.”

  “Right.”

  “I say, who better than a medical doctor to commit the perfect homicide? She has access to drugs. She has a key to Dr. Nance’s cabin, possibly to his house, and she was familiar with his schedule and habits. That gives her means and opportunity. If she stood to gain from his death, there’s a motive. I’ll be interested to see what the tox screen reveals.”

  “After that long in the water? Possibly nothing,” Nikki reminded him.

  “We’ll see.”

  She glanced back at the cabin. The light had gone out, but she could make out Patience Wingate’s silhouette at the window. “She’s still inside. I think she’s watching us.”

  “Probably wants to make sure we leave.” He looked tense and pale in the moonlight. Deadly, Nikki thought with a shiver. In more ways than one. “Maybe she didn’t have anything to do with Dr. Nance’s death, but she’s hiding something.”

  “How can you be so sure? She seemed forthcoming about her reason for searching the cabin.”

  “Was she?”

  “You didn’t buy the story about the missing files?” Nikki asked.

  “Oh, I think she was looking for those files, all right, but maybe not for the reason she gave us. Do you happen to know the assistant she mentioned?”

  “Darla? She’s been with Dr. Nance for years. She and I went to high school together. We’re on friendly terms these days, but we aren’t friends.”

  “Do you think she’d be willing to do a favor for Dr. Nance’s protégée?”

  “You mean me?” Nikki frowned. “What kind of favor?”

  “We need to get our hands on a list of those patient names.”

  “Why? What do you think is in those files?”

  “I don’t know, but Dr. Wingate doesn’t strike me as the type to do her own grunt work. If she were only worried about HIPAA violations and patient privacy, why didn’t she give the key to the assistant and send her out here to search the cabin? Why wait until tonight if she learned about the missing records yesterday?”

  “I assume you have a theory.”

  His gaze flicked past her up the steps, probing the shadows behind them. Gooseflesh prickled at the back of her neck.

  “What is it? Did you see something?” she asked anxiously.

  “No, but we shouldn’t stand out here any longer. We’re too exposed. Let’s head back to the boat.”

  She hurried down the steps after him. “Okay, but what’s your theory?”

  “Maybe there’s something in those medical records she doesn’t want anyone else to see.”

  “Like what?” They were at the edge of the lake now. The water lapped softly against the bank.

  “I don’t know. Evidence of malpractice. Kickbacks from drug or insurance companies. Could be anything. When Dr. Nance called me, he said he’d pulled files and made notes. It was all there in black and white, but he needed my help to make sense of what he’d found.”

  “You think he meant these files?”

  “Seems a reasonable conclusion.”

  “But he never said anything about Dr. Wingate, right? He never even mentioned criminal activity. He said something strange was going on in Belle Pointe. Something dark. That could mean anything or nothing at all. I feel I need to point out that you’re building a case against Dr. Wingate from little more than thin air.”

  He nodded his
approval at her rebuke. “It’s good to play devil’s advocate. Keeps me honest. But I’m not accusing Dr. Wingate of anything. Yet.” He slapped a mosquito at the back of his neck as if to emphasize his point. “You have to admit, as a suspect she ticks a few boxes. I think a deeper dig is warranted.”

  They fell silent at the sound of an ignition turning over. Nikki cocked her head toward the steps. “Sounds like she’s leaving. Shouldn’t we go back up? We didn’t get the chance to conduct our search. Maybe we can find another piece of evidence.”

  “Let’s leave it for now. We’ve pressed our luck enough for one night. I’ll come back over in the morning and take another look.”

  They pushed the boat back into the water and hopped in. Adam steered them away from the bank and out into the moonlight. Nikki had to resist the urge to glance over her shoulder. Maybe it was her imagination, but she sensed invisible eyes upon them and she couldn’t help wondering if someone watched from the shadows at the top of the embankment. Or through the night vision scope of a rifle.

  She kept her eyes peeled and breathed a sigh of relief when they drifted up to the dock on the opposite side of the lake. Adam shut off the engine and they both climbed out. She stood on the dock keeping watch while he tied off.

  “See anything?” He moved up beside her at the rail.

  “No. Dr. Wingate is probably halfway back to town by now. Everything seems quiet enough. But...” Nikki trailed off on a shiver as she wrapped her arms around her middle.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “You don’t feel it?” When he shook his head, she turned back to the water. “I have the strongest sensation that someone is watching us.” She peered across the lake, trailing her gaze all along the bank and tree line. Or was the watcher behind them? She glanced over her shoulder, suppressing another shiver as she tried to calm her jitters.

  He braced his hands on the rail as he scanned the opposite bank. “Someone could be out there. Or you could be experiencing the aftermath of an adrenaline rush.”

  “I know the difference.”

  He straightened. “Then don’t discount your instincts. If we’re starting to rattle some cages, things could get dangerous. Don’t let down your guard.”