by Diane Weiner
Chapter 14
While Henry was at the hospital, Emily and Maddy walked over to Rebecca and Abby’s place. Abby was photographing flowers in their garden and smiled as soon as she saw them. “Come on in. Rebecca’s making bread.”
Emily’s stomach growled when she drank in the aroma of freshly baked bread the minute she walked through the door. Rebecca dusted off her hands and offered them drinks. “What can I help you with?”
Emily was embarrassed. “I’m sorry. It seems every time I come by it’s to get technical help.”
“Don’t be silly. I enjoy it.”
Abby walked into the living room with a basket of bread. “Here, have some.”
Emily took a bite. She’d put on ten pounds since moving to Sugarbury Falls, even with her running. “This is delicious. You could start a business.”
“Just a hobby. My photography business keeps me plenty busy.”
Emily turned to Rebecca. “Can you dig up some information on Dr. Dan Fischer? He lived in California before coming here. See if there were any complaints filed.”
“Sure, I can search. By the way, I got some more info on Professor Carlson. No charges were ever filed in his wife’s death because he had an alibi. One he didn’t want made public.”
“An affair?”
“An AA meeting. He didn’t want it made public, but enough members came forward despite anonymity to vouch for the fact he was there all evening.”
“Then who gave his wife all that morphine?”
“She wasn’t yet all that incapacitated. Her prints were found on the morphine bottle. Consensus was she did it herself. Carlson tried to keep that under wraps too. Didn’t want her memory tainted.”
“So he had a heart. Wasn’t a demon after all. That’ll make it harder to cast suspicion on him in court.”
“There’s more. I dug far and wide and couldn’t find any evidence that he did anything more than advise Damari or any past students. He had a history of mentoring students and including them in on his research. I don’t think he’s your guy.”
Emily sipped her lemonade, while Maddy scratched Milo between the ears. With Carlson looking doubtful, Emily was now convinced the gray-haired man was actually Dan Fischer. Fischer claimed he saw Damari at the picnic, but not at the fireworks later that evening. Was he at the festivities continually, or did he slip out to meet Damari? She looked at Rebecca, who seemed to have found something.
“Emily, this is interesting. Your Dr. Dan received frequent packages from a pharmaceutical lab in Mexico City. Doesn’t he use the pharmacy at the hospital?”
“You hacked into the postal service?” Maddy sounded impressed. Emily made a note to discuss this with her later.
“It’s all in a day’s work,” said Rebecca. “How does that tie into him as Damari’s killer?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe she found out what he was up to and threatened to turn him in. She worked at the hospital. It’s not out of reach to think she heard things.”
Maddy tossed Milo a toy. “Or she was an egg donor.”
“What?” Both Rebecca and Emily stared at her.
“As long as we’re brainstorming…”
“She could be right,” said Rebecca.
Emily’s phone vibrated. “It’s Jonathan, Robby’s lawyer. He says he has some new information and we should meet him at Coralee’s.”
“Hope it works in Robby’s favor.”
“Thanks, Rebecca. For everything. And Abby, thanks for the bread.”
Emily and Maddy walked back to their cabin, to find Dallas, toolbox in hand, waiting on the stoop. Emily had forgotten he was coming.
“Did you open the other envelopes?” said Dallas.
With all the events since yesterday, she’d practically forgotten about the mystery.
“Not yet. Hey, would you mind if I let you in, then go out for a bit?”
“I’m trustworthy. I’ll lock up when I’m done if you’re not back.”
“Great. I can’t wait to see those new cabinets.”
After unlocking the door and flicking on the lights, Emily and Maddy jumped in the Audi. Jonathan’s text sounded urgent, yet optimistic. He had gone to interview witnesses from the picnic. Maybe he’d found someone who saw Damari with Dan Fischer, or came up with some sort of alibi for Robby. Emily turned on the wipers, imagining the drops of rain were Mrs. Cooper’s tears. Did love for your biological child keep growing over time, or was your heart saturated with love the first time you held your baby? Her love for Maddy was more like the way she fell in love with Henry. It started slowly, grew, then overcame her.
“What do you think those clues mean?” said Maddy. “We didn’t even get a chance to open the others.”
“We can do it tonight when Henry’s home. Don’t get your hopes up. It might be from an old Easter egg hunt for all we know.”
She pulled into the parking lot, noticing the rain had kept visitors off the usually teeming front porch. “Come on, Maddy. Let’s go right to his room. You can visit the cats later.”
Jonathan opened the door. The walls were bright yellow, with an accent wall covered in green and white striped wallpaper. An ivory duvet covered the four poster bed.
“Not a whole lot of sitting room, but you’re welcome to the desk chair, Emily.”
Maddy sat on the edge of the bed. “Did you find something to clear Robby?”
“I found a witness who saw Damari with an older man out on the lake, must have been just before she died. He was out fishing and saw an older gentleman stand up in the boat. The man appeared to be angry because he was stomping and the boat shook side to side.”
“Why didn’t he get help?” said Maddy.
“He was with his grandson and wanted to shield him from it.”
Emily said, “Can he identify the man as Carlson?”
“No, but here’s the thing. The detectives have CCTV footage of Carlson getting gas near his home at dusk, the same time the witness saw the boat. Carlson was clear across town. He couldn’t have been two places at once.”
“And what’s the likelihood that Damari was with two different gray-haired men on the same night, in a boat.” Emily wondered if the witness could identify the man in the boat as Dr. Dan Fischer. “If we showed him a picture, do you think he would recognize the man in the boat?”
“You’re thinking it was that doctor I met at dinner the other night. The man gave me a description, though he wasn’t close enough to clearly see the face. He said the man was wearing a light-weight navy jacket with a hood—like a rain jacket. I checked the footage of Professor Carlson. He had on a tan, wool jacket when he was pumping gas.”
“Did you tell the police?”
“Of course. Detective O’Leary and I spent quite some time together going over the evidence after I found that witness.”
Maddy said, “We ruled out Carlson, and a witness saw Damari with an older man in the boat. Isn’t that enough to clear Robby?”
“Detective O’Leary and her partner are picking up the witness as we speak. Hopefully, it’s enough for reasonable doubt, but if we can prove Robby was nowhere near the lake that night we’d have a strong defense. I have to get back to work.”
“Call us if you find anything new,” said Emily.
“Emily, can’t we stop and see the cats?”
“Of course.”
They opened the door to the cat café and carefully made their way in. Coralee’s son, Noah, had built a second door so the cats couldn’t escape. The instructions outside the café said to close the first door before opening the second glass door.
Half a dozen cats were in full view, while others hid inside cat tents and behind furniture. A gray tabby and a calico were perched on the cat tree Henry made for them. Two black cats, one twice the size of the other, slept in cat beds on the floor. A white cat, who Maddy had named Annie, slept in a large tube in front of the wall with the jungle mural.
Maddy picked up a feather cat toy and coaxed the larger black cat i
nto playing. A young couple sat on a sofa petting a sandy colored cat with long hair.
The woman said, “Excuse me, but do you know the process for adopting a cat?”
“Sure. There are applications right here.” She handed the young lady a clipboard. “Are you going to adopt?”
“We’ve been visiting this little lady for weeks, and have decided we can’t wait to make her part of our family. Meet LuLu.” She scooped up the cat and nuzzled it.
“Congratulations! She had a sister who was adopted a while ago.”
The young man stood up. “Whoever came up with the idea for this place was a genius. In a million years I never would have figured out I was a cat person if I hadn’t started tagging along with my wife.”
Emily burst with pride over what Maddy had accomplished. To think the cat café idea was born because of Sugarbury High’s community service graduation requirement!
After their quick stop at the cat café, she and Maddy headed home. She’d forgotten that she’d left Dallas to work on the kitchen and was startled for a moment when she saw a van in her driveway. She joked about becoming senile when she forgot where she’d put her reading glasses or whether or not she’d started the dishwasher, but in the back of her mind, she worried if it was true. She just didn’t feel as sharp or quick as she did in her forties.
When they walked into the cabin, Dallas was packing his toolbox. Emily looked around the kitchen, which looked like it had suffered the wrath of a determined tornado. She tried to smile, and said, “It’s really coming along.”
“Yeah,” said Dallas. “Getting rid of the old cabinets is half the battle right there. Do you want me to stack them outside?”
Emily hadn’t even thought about it and decided to talk to Henry first. Maybe he could use some of the scraps in one of his woodworking projects. “Not yet.”
“I heard something on the news about that girl who was killed. They caught the guy, right? Said they were preparing for a trial.”
“It’s not a slam dunk. We were just talking to the young man’s lawyer and there are other suspects the police are considering.”
“Really? I heard he was seen with her the night of the murder and that they found his shirt or something at the crime scene. Not a slam dunk?”
“Innocent until proven guilty,” said Emily. “Things aren’t always as they seem. Shouldn’t you be getting home to that wife and baby of yours?”
Dallas looked at his watch. “I didn’t realize it was that late. I’ll try to come back tomorrow after I finish up at the inn.”
As Dallas started his van, Henry pulled into the driveway. Chester heard the Jeep and jumped down from the back of the sofa to wait in front of the cabin door. Henry came in bearing a large pizza box.
“You read my mind,” said Emily. “I was wondering how I was going to maneuver in that kitchen. Dallas tore out the old cabinets and I didn’t know if you wanted to save any of the wood.”
“I think the remnants of the kitchen before have seen their day and deserve to rest in peace at the town dump. Did you see Jonathan?”
“Yes, and he found something interesting. A witness who was fishing with his grandson came forward and said he saw a gray-haired man in the boat with Damari the night she died.”
“That professor, Carlson, right?”
“No. The police have Carlton on CCTV at the time the witness saw the man in the boat. He’s a dead end. We’re looking for yet another gray-haired man.”
Maddy said, “I told you to look at that doctor who Li Min was yelling at. Dr. Fischer, right?”
“I’m beginning to think so,” said Henry. “Pat said a woman died of an overdose of an infertility drug about six months ago. When we tried to find the records, they didn’t exist.”
“And she was Dan Fischer’s patient?” asked Emily.
“Bingo. And that’s not all.”
Maddy scooped up Chester. “Well, tell us.”
“Dan was receiving packages from a pharmaceutical company in Mexico. We have a pharmacy at the hospital. He’d have no reason to be importing drugs.”
“Unless he had a side business helping infertile couples, right? Did you explore the idea that Damari was an egg donor?”
“Maddy, that’s creative, but there’s no evidence of it.”
Emily said, “We could talk to Li Min. She was Damari’s best friend. Maybe she was donating eggs for Li Min!”
“I’ll pass the idea along to the detectives,” said Henry.
“Can’t we just talk to her first? The whole idea sounds far-fetched. It’d be better if we had something more concrete to go to them with.”
Changing the subject, Henry said, “We never opened the other envelopes! Let’s eat our pizza out here in the living room and see if we can figure out what Grandpa was trying to tell us.”
Emily grabbed paper plates and napkins from the kitchen and set them on the coffee table, while Chester surreptitiously lifted his paws onto the pizza box. Henry shooed him away.
“Okay, so the first envelope gave us a clue about a river. Maddy, open up the next one,” said Henry.
She carefully opened the yellowed envelope with the number two. “In the chiming comes unity as many tones turn into one.”
“Huh?” said Henry.
“What chiming places do we know of around here?” said Emily.
“There’s that hand bell choir that plays in the amphitheater.”
“And doorbells sound like chimes,” added Emily. “Was there ever a doorbell here at the cabin?”
“Not that I remember,” said Henry. “Open number three.”
Maddy peeled off the wax seal and carefully removed the next clue. “The curfew tolls the knell of parting day; there at the foot of yonder nodding Beech that wreathes its old fantastic roots so high, his listless length at noontide would he stretch and pour upon the brook that babbles by.”
“That sounds familiar,” said Henry.
“It’s from a poem. Maddy, grab my laptop.” Emily typed in a quick search. “Here it is. Elegy on a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray.” She skimmed the poem. “Here! The lines are right out of this poem.”
Henry’s phone vibrated. “It’s the hospital.” He took the phone into the kitchen.
“Maddy, the clues are from the poem. Let’s see what we have so far.”
“Obviously, it points to a cemetery. Maybe there’s buried treasure there.”
“What about the Beech and the babbling brook? That has to mean something.”
“So we have a river, chimes, and a cemetery,” said Maddy. She carefully tore open the fourth envelope.
“Well?” said Emily, looking over Maddy’s shoulder.
“I don’t know what this is. Looks like a code or maybe an anagram. ragdemtill. What’s that mean?”
Henry ran back into the living room. “I’ve got to go. There was a hit and run in front of the hospital. I’ll call when I can.” He took his plate of pizza and ran out the door.
Chapter 15
Henry rushed into the emergency room. “What have we got?”
“It’s one of our own. Chauncey Wells.”
“The nurse?”
“Yeah. He was struck by a car crossing the parking lot. A witness said a car screeched by out of nowhere and didn’t stop even for a moment.”
“A hit and run.” Henry ran to the cubicle, where an intern stood over the husky, black body covered with road rash. Henry carefully examined the body. “Looks like several broken bones. Get me the portable ultrasound, and bolus two liters of normal saline. His pressure is low.”
Henry ran the ultrasound over his patient. “There’s fluid in the abdomen. Positive fast exam.”
One of the nurses entered Henry’s notes on her iPad and said, “Witnesses say it was intentional.”
A few years ago, Henry would have fluffed off the comment, but after his experiences in Sugarbury Falls, he gave it serious consideration.
“His wife should be here any minute.” The nurse a
djusted his IV.
“When she gets here, have the consent forms ready. Order a CT scan and prep him for surgery. On second thought, let’s get him right up to the OR. I’ll contact the surgeon on call.”
“Detective Wooster is outside. He wants to know if he can interview the victim.”
“Certainly not while he’s unconscious. I’ll speak to him.”
Henry found Detective Wooster in the corridor.
“How’s he doing?”
“He’s in bad shape. Rumors say it was a hit and run.”
Detective Wooster said, “There were no skid marks and according to witnesses, the car made no attempt to stop.”
“So it was deliberate?”
“We’re at the early stages of assessment. When can I speak to the victim?”
“He’s going to surgery. It’ll be at least a few hours and I can’t guarantee he’ll be conscious.”
“What can you tell me about him?” Detective Wooster pulled out a tablet.
“He’s been an ER nurse since I started here. He’s well liked, especially since his family owns the barbecue place downtown and he shows up bearing ribs at least once a week. The other nurses can probably tell you more.”
Henry went back in to check on Chauncey one last time. Damari and Chauncey both worked here in the ER. Was there some connection between the two incidents? Did it have something to do with imported pharmaceuticals or fertility treatments? Had they seen something they weren’t supposed to see?
As if on cue, “Paging Dr. Fischer. Dr. Fischer to ER,” boomed through the PA system. Henry waited in the hallway. The announcement was repeated. Again, Henry waited to see if Dan would show up. When he didn’t, Henry went up to Dan’s office. The door was open and the light on.
“Dan, are you here?” He felt the mug of coffee on the desk, which was still warm. Maybe he went to the restroom, or he finally heard the page. He walked behind the desk and noticed the open drawer in the filing cabinet next to the desk. He flipped through. The files were alphabetized, but those between the letters of m and q were missing. He went out into the hall, then knocked on the bathroom door.
“Dan, are you in there? Dan, it’s Henry.”