by Nancy Bush
It was Friday and the Nook was busy. Spying Chuck talking loudly with another older man—who looked as pained as I felt—I zigged the other direction. Julie saw me and handed me an empty paper cup without comment. I filled it up with black coffee and circled to the other side of the bar. Billy Leonard wasn’t at his usual stool, but then I was later than normal.
Jenny said, “You look like you need breakfast.”
“I do?” I was hunkered down in my spot, leaning forward over my coffee, blowing across the top.
“How about a sesame bagel with cream cheese?”
“Put it on my coffee card,” I said. Coffee Nook has prepaid cards that are set up for ten drinks, but other items can be substituted in coffee’s place. The great thing about the cards is, once you’ve been stamped ten times, you get a free cup.
“What’s wrong with you?” Jenny asked, slicing the bagel in half and slamming it in the toaster.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re sprawled across the counter.”
It was true. My arms were spread out in front of me. I looked like I was going to lay my head down on the laminate and pass out. It sounded like a pretty good idea, too. Well, okay, maybe I was feeling some reaction from last night’s events. Or maybe it was an overall malaise brought on by everything going on in my life.
“My landlord’s selling my cottage,” I informed her. “He’s already got an offer. And he’s having a garage sale tomorrow. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“How much was the offer for?”
“I don’t know.”
Julie looked up from the espresso machine. “Can you make an offer, too?”
“He hasn’t accepted the first offer yet. Or at least he hadn’t the last I talked to him. He said for me to get on it, if I were going to do it. But it’s just not possible.”
“What about that boss of yours?” Jenny suggested, handing me my bagel with an individual packet of cream cheese. “The cute one who owns the cabana. Have him buy it for you.”
“Yeah, right.” Dwayne was a last resort.
“Your cottage is on the canal?” Julie asked.
“West Bay,” I corrected, giving her my address. “At least for the moment.”
They commiserated with me while they went about their business making lattés, mochas and Nook-a-chinos, frozen coffee drinks that required a blender-type device that’s loud enough to split eardrums. I was heading out the door for my run back, one eye on the low, threatening clouds, when Chuck sidled up to me. “That fellow you work for? Dwayne Durbin? Think he’d do something for me?”
No.
“What do you need?” I asked reluctantly. I try so very hard not to engage Chuck. I never want to meet his eye, never want to give him the slightest indication that I might be interested in speaking with him, because I’m not. Though he’s been around the Nook for years, it’s just recently that he seems to be everywhere. I don’t know what’s changed but I don’t like it.
“I need a background check on a guy my daughter’s marrying. Wanna make sure he’s not after her money, y’know?”
I didn’t have a business card on me, so I gave Chuck Dwayne’s home landline, which is basically his office number. I left as Chuck was placing the call and was scarcely out of the Nook’s parking lot when my cell phone buzzed. Pulling it out of my pocket, I guessed that it was Dwayne.
“Who’s this Chuck character?” he greeted me.
“How should I know?” I responded, just to be ornery.
“He said you gave him my number.”
Oh. I picked up my pace, knowing the two-and-a-half-mile trip was going to feel a whole lot longer on the return. “He’s a guy who comes into the Nook.”
“You’re jogging. Call me when you get back. We’ve got things to talk about.”
Yeah, yeah.
“And smithereens are extremely small smithers.” He clicked off.
I smiled in spite of myself.
All the way back I felt the stretch in my muscles and when I let myself inside the cottage I headed straight for the shower, asking myself, as I often did, if exercise can truly be good for you.
On my way, I popped my head inside my bedroom. Dark, marble eyes looked at me from a tangle of covers and a tail wagged. No other movement. “Get out of bed!” I ordered the dog, but she was still there when I got out of the shower and changed into clean jeans and an oversized, ribbed black sweater.
If I didn’t know The Binkster I might have thought there was something wrong with her, but she’s a slug by nature. I said, “Breakfast,” and headed to her bowl. Instantly I heard a thunk as she landed on the floor, and the click of her toenails as she hurried after me. When I turned to her bowl, dog food bag in hand, she was standing beside it like a sentry, one paw lifted just in case this was going to be one of those times I threw Kiblets across the floor for her to chase. I’m not the only one who should suffer through exercise.
This morning I just poured the crunchies into the bowl and she stuck her head in before I was finished, so the little brown nuggets bounced off her ears and onto the floor. Not a problem. She doesn’t miss a single one.
I worked on my hair, brushing it down to my shoulders, then added some makeup, pleased with the result. I dug through some of my desk drawers till I found some more business cards, something Dwayne had ordered for me, just to look official. I didn’t care that I hadn’t had one for Chuck, but Dr. Daniel Wu might need some proof of who I was. He’d said he would be at the Eastmoreland clinic all day today, so I was determined to see him as soon as possible. Then I was going to call Sean and see if he could shed some light on that conversation with his father that took place the morning of Gigi’s wedding day.
Melinda deigned to return my call as I was driving across the Sellwood Bridge to the east side of the Willamette. “Hi,” I greeted her.
“What are you doing?” she demanded before I could say anything else. “Yes, I met Roland at CMC. Yes, it’s how we met. I am so tired of having to explain it to everyone!”
Wow. Touchy. “I’m just following up,” I said, negotiating the bridge. Is it a law, or something, that the lanes have to be narrower than the vehicle?
She made a disparaging noise. Clearly I hadn’t given her a reason to believe I was any better at my craft than she’d felt before. “I don’t know why you’re still bothering.”
“I guess, if you met him there, that Roland was a member of the club.”
“You guess right.”
“I’m just asking.”
She relented enough to say, “He joined after he and Violet broke up, and let me tell you, he was a mess. That marriage nearly destroyed him. I mean, here he was, recovering from his problems, and she just aggravated everything.”
“Were you a member, too?”
“Why are you asking these questions?”
“Are the women members?”
“It’s a men’s club, mostly,” she said after a long moment. “But they have special memberships for women as long as you’re interested in dating. Once you’re married, that’s it. Well, for the women anyway.”
“The men can still belong?”
“Roland didn’t,” she assured me quickly. “Once we got together, that was it. I’d been going to the parties for a while and was about to chuck the whole thing. It can get really old, you know, meeting new people, going through all the same rituals. And then I saw him. He was standing by the fireplace, staring into it, and he looked so sad,” she said wistfully. “We just started talking and we never stopped. He told me he was in the middle of a messy divorce. That’s the first time I heard about Violet.”
“How long were you part of CMC?”
“I went to enough parties to know most of the men were frogs.”
“What’s the procedure?”
“Oh, for God’s sake. Why don’t you go find out for yourself? I haven’t been part of it for years!”
She hung up with a click.
“I just might,” I sai
d to empty air.
The Eastmoreland Clinic was a low, sprawling white stucco building with a gray tile roof. I pegged its era as early to mid-seventies with the architect vacillating between Spanish style and cheap industrial. There were four visitors’ spots freshly marked with yellow lines. I pulled into one of two that were still empty, locked my car, walked to the swinging glass door that led to reception and pushed my way inside.
To my left was a low counter in fake wood grain that served as the receptionist’s desk. The receptionist was young and attractive, but not an out-and-out beauty. She had great skin, though, a warm, peachy tone with smooth lines and no shadows around her eyes. Her name tag read CARLA.
Two women, one in her forties and one about my age, sat in the overstuffed chairs done in gray, taupe and black. They eyed me over the top of their magazines as I walked up to Carla’s desk.
“May I help you?” she said, her smile practiced.
“I’m here to see Dr. Wu. He told me he would be here all day and to stop by when I could.” I dug in my purse for my business card and slid it in her direction.
She ignored the card. I almost pointed out the gold letters that spelled out my name. I’m rather proud of those cards, even if I’m still working toward my license. “Today’s Dr. Wu’s first day since his trip with Willamette Medical Services to offer aid to weather-ravaged areas in Southeast Asia, specifically the Philippines,” Carla said, as if giving a speech. There was admonition in her tone as well. The man was “too busy” to see me.
“That’s why I came today instead of yesterday.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t believe he has time.”
“Maybe you should check with him,” I suggested reasonably.
Her face turned to stone. That fast, we were at war with each other. I don’t know what it is about me, but I don’t do authority well. I piss people off in record time, and it works the same on me. She glared and I met her glare.
“Dr. Wu is busy all day,” she said coldly.
“Why don’t you call him and verify that?”
The other two women in the room had dropped their magazines and were hanging on our every word. Carla’s eyes darted their way. She really wanted to get into a full-blown battle with me, but she had witnesses.
She picked up the phone and bit out, “Alma, is Dr. Wu with a patient?” A pause. “That’s what I thought. No, don’t bother him,” she said quickly. She slammed down the phone. “You can wait if you’d like,” she said sneerily.
Read that to mean: you can wait till hell ices over and beyond.
“I’ll be right over there.” I pointed to a seat. “In case you should forget me.”
Her face flushed.
As I took my seat the other women couldn’t stop looking at me. I shot them each a quelling glance and they hid behind their magazines. One’s was upside down for a good five minutes before she righted it.
Carla touched a finger to my card and slid it to the left side of her desk as if it were poisonous. Another woman entered the clinic and Carla got all perky and sweet again. The two women waiting before me were called inside by a nurse’s aide who opened an inner door and read their names from the files in her arms. Time crawled by. When this newest woman’s name was called, neatly bypassing mine entirely, I simply followed right after her.
Carla opened and shut her mouth like a fish as I passed by. “Excuse me.” She tried to get up from her desk, but her phone rang.
The nurse’s aide, whose tag read BUNNY, frowned at me.
“I left my jacket in room six,” I said, brushing right past her and heading down the hall.
“Room six is the other way.”
“That’s right.” I sent her an apologetic smile and turned around on my heel. Bunny was mildly concerned but the woman whose name had just been called was a pile of nerves and started firing questions like artillery. When was the doctor planning the surgery? Was it really awful? Was there lot of pain? How long would it take before she could be seen in public? Wasn’t there any way to get her insurance company to pay for some of it?
I turned at the first corner, heading into a narrow hall with numbered doors on either side. Room six was empty, as luck would have it, and I stepped inside to get my bearings.
It wouldn’t take long for Carla to be on my scent. As I stood there, another woman in a blue smock stopped at my open door. Alma Lucas, RN. “Are you waiting for someone?” she asked, perplexed, her gaze on the rack outside the door that would hold a patient’s chart.
I started crying for all I was worth, hoping to God I could actually scare up some tears. “Dr. Wu!” I wailed, burying my face in my hands.
“What’s this about?”
I just sobbed and sobbed. Okay, it wasn’t the most sophisticated plan, but she finally grew uncomfortable and hurried off. As soon as she was gone I lifted my head. No tears. I was going to have to work on that.
I left room six and walked swiftly down the hall, listening at doors until I heard low, male tones coming from the other side of the panels. From my conversation with him yesterday, I was pretty sure it was Wu’s voice. I hesitated. I didn’t want to alienate him before I had a chance to talk to him, so I decided to try and catch him on his way out rather than barging into the room while he was with a patient.
Hearing approaching footsteps, I ducked around the corner, rattling the handles of a couple of doors. Most were unlocked. I peeked inside. There were several more examination rooms and a storeroom. I really wanted the storeroom, but there was a paper smock laid out on a padded table in one of the examining rooms. Quickly, I stripped off my shirt and bra and slipped on the smock, then lay down on the table, staring at the ceiling. Okay. This was a plastic surgery clinic, not a gynecologist’s office. Maybe they didn’t lie down. Maybe I should sit up.
I heard some discussion out in the hall. Carla’s voice squeaked with fury. She was going to have to get back to the front. But they needed to find this Jane Kelly person before she did something criminal like stealing drugs, for God’s sake!
I was outraged. Stealing drugs?
The door to my room started to open. I flung my arm over my eyes.
Dr. Wu said, “Excuse me. I thought this room was empty.”
I dropped my arm and struggled to sit up. He gave me a quick look as he started to close the door. “Dr. Wu?” I asked hurriedly.
“Yes?”
“I’m Jane Kelly, the private investigator who called you yesterday about Roland Hatchmere. Your staff wouldn’t let me in to see you. I’m not here for anything nefarious. I just needed to talk to you. Could you talk to me? Just for a few minutes?”
“Did you want an exam?” he asked, faintly confused.
I held the paper top close, clamping my arms to my side to pin it in place. It was my turn to flush. “No.”
He shut the door behind him and leaned back against it. He was middle-aged, his shock of black hair shot with gray. He wore narrow, wire-rimmed glasses and I couldn’t read his expression. He didn’t seem to find my appearance unsettling or even particularly surprising. He seemed tired.
“I’ve been looking forward to talking to you,” he admitted. “I was good friends with Roland. He was always fair and when we sold the clinics, he made certain I had a contract with the new owners. I owe him a lot. I’m sorry about the staff. It’s been controlled chaos since I got back.”
“I appreciate that,” I said, thrilled that he wasn’t going to toss me out on my ass. “I’m looking into a motive for Roland’s death. I was hoping you could tell me about the clinics. Maybe there’s some financial gain I’m not aware of?”
“I thought it was established that his girlfriend killed him.”
“It may be something else entirely.”
A storm was gathering in the hall outside. “Dr. Wu?” Alma called, knocking lightly on our door.
“I’ll be right there,” he told her. Strident voices surged, then purposely lowered to a murmur on the other side of the door. Dr. Wu ignored them.
“Have you looked at Roland’s children, Gigi and Sean?”
“Gigi and Sean?”
“If it’s a financial motive, they would be the most likely, I would think. Roland was disinheriting them. Sean, because of his drug use. Roland couldn’t bear watching his son go down the same path that had ruined his medical career. He and Sean had a serious argument about two weeks before the wedding, and Roland decided the only way to get through to him was cut him off completely. He planned to sever all financial ties. Permanently.”