“You wouldn’t say that she is more attracted to the dementia patients? That she is eager to spend more time with them?”
“No,” Ellie shook her head slowly. She looked at Kenzie, her brows drawing down. She glanced around her. “Are you visiting someone today? I don’t think we have met before.”
“I’m doing some interviews. My name is Kenzie Kirsch, from the Medical Examiner’s Office. I am following up with some questions on Willis Cartwright.”
“Oh, poor Willie. I was very sad to see him go. He was such a nice man.”
“Did Lola spend a lot of time with him?”
Ellie stared into the distance as she considered the question. Then she shook her head. “A lot? No, I wouldn’t say a lot. They liked each other’s company, but Lola didn’t spend a lot more time with him than with anyone else.”
“I remember something in the reports I received about Lola being with Mr. Cartwright when he died,” Kenzie lied. It hadn’t made it to the official reports; it had just been mentioned by Nurse Summers. But Kenzie didn’t see any problem with fudging the source of her intel.
“I don’t know if she was with him when he died,” Ellie hedged. “But she was in there in the morning when he was found.”
“You don’t think she was with him when he died?”
“Well, no, I just don’t know for sure. Maybe she was, or maybe she went in afterward. None of us knows exactly when he died. But she was in there in the morning when he was found. I guess... she wanted to keep him warm. She knew something was wrong.”
“Has she done that before?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve had other deaths here. That’s natural with a nursing home. People are not here because they are healthy and starting out on some new venture in their lives. They come here because they are getting older or have health problems. They are approaching the end of their lives.”
“Well, yes. Of course that’s true.”
“I’m just wondering if there’s any pattern. Has she shown any particular attention to someone who was dying or had just died before this?”
Ellie pushed a hank of blond hair back from her face. “I told you she doesn’t have any special training. She wouldn’t know someone was sick or dying.”
“I just wondered if there was a pattern. Like you said, sometimes they can sense these things.”
“No.” Ellie looked away. “I don’t know. I can’t think if she’s spent any more time than usual with someone who has been sick lately. I mean... everyone around here gets sick sometimes, even if they are in good shape like Mr. Cartwright.”
“Have you had many deaths in this unit lately?”
“No more than usual. It is a nursing home. Usually, they are moved out of this unit as their health declines, so they don’t die here.”
Kenzie thought back to the cases they’d had come through the Medical Examiner’s Office recently. There hadn’t been any major influx. Most of the people who died at the nursing home were under a doctor’s care at the time, so their deaths did not need to be investigated. She would have to go through the files to track down the last few deaths. Just to make sure there weren’t any connections.
“Well, it’s been very nice to meet Lola.” Kenzie bent down and scratched the dog’s ears vigorously, looking into her eyes. “She is a very nice girl.”
17
It had been a long day, and Kenzie was late getting home. She dropped off her files and notes at the ME’s office before finally getting on her way. The night guards were on and the sky was dark. She hadn’t intended to let the job keep her so late, but there wasn’t much she could do about it.
She couldn’t face the idea of having to cook a meal after the rest of the day, so she stopped off at a fast food place on the way home. It would probably have been healthier to go out to the all-you-can-eat buffet, which boasted a pretty good salad bar, but she couldn’t bring herself to go out and deal with people around her. She was a social person, but sometimes even she needed to get away from everybody at the end of the day.
Except for Zachary, of course. He was going to be waiting for her at the house, assuming he was back from whatever work he had been doing, and he would want to know all about her case and why it had run so late.
She started scripting it in her head, justifying why she had been so late and hadn’t bothered to call him.
After all, they were both grown adults, and neither was required to account to the other for every minute.
Then why did she feel like she had to justify it?
She thought about the couples sessions they’d had with Dr. Boyle and tried to put her finger on the problem. She was making assumptions about how Zachary would handle her being late, which wasn’t fair to him. He hadn’t been calling her, demanding to know why she’d been silent all day or when she was going to get in. He wasn’t usually the type of person who jumped all over her for a variation in her schedule. So why was she feeling so defensive?
Maybe just because she was tired and hungry and hadn’t yet sorted out her thoughts about the Cartwright case.
When she got to the house, the outside light was on, but she didn’t see any lights on inside. It would be very strange for Zachary to be sitting in the dark if he were home.
Kenzie entered through the garage door and put the bag of food down on the table. The aroma of fried food had been filling the car and she was famished. She took a quick look around and turned on lights, which confirmed her impression. Zachary wasn’t around. She pulled out her phone and dialed him while trying to open the food bag one-handedly. Not so easy with the way it was stapled shut.
The phone rang many times and she was preparing to hang up, not wanting to talk to his voicemail. There was a click and then Zachary’s voice, sounding very far away.
“Hello?”
“It’s Kenzie. I just got home. I’ve got food.”
“Oh, good. You must have been busy today.”
Kenzie strained to hear him. “Where are you? Are you on surveillance?”
“Just doing a little job. I was going to swing by my apartment on the way home... you should go ahead and eat without me.”
“Really? I thought we were going to always try to be home and eat dinner together.”
“When we can,” Zachary agreed. “But you were working late and I’ve got this thing. I should have said something, I guess... I didn’t know you were going to pick something up.”
“It’s not going to keep. Everything will just get soggy.”
There was no answer. Kenzie tried to picture Zachary. Where was he? In his car? He was right, of course. He had no way of knowing she would pick up food for him. If it was anyone’s fault that the food would go to waste, it was hers.
“How long will you be?”
“Uh... maybe an hour. Don’t wait for me. I’m really not hungry anyway.”
“You need to eat. You’ve been losing weight lately.”
“Maybe a little. I’ll try to have something when I get home.”
“You are coming back here?” Kenzie asked.
There was a brief pause before Zachary answered. “Yes... I was planning to. That’s okay?” Even though his voice was faint, she could hear the anxiety kick up another notch.
“Yes, of course. I want you to come back here. You said you were going back to your apartment and I just wanted to make sure you were still planning to come back after.”
He blew out his breath noisily. “Yeah. About an hour, I think. I’ll be there.”
“Okay. See you then.”
Kenzie waited to see if Zachary would hang up first, and when he didn’t, she ended the call. Now he was going to be worrying half the night that she hadn’t actually wanted him to come home, that she’d been hoping he was staying at his own apartment. Because... she didn’t know what he would imagine. Because she was bored with him or angry at him? Because she wanted to see someone else? She was sure he could come up with a dozen scenarios to feed his fears that she
didn’t actually want to be with him anymore.
She sat down at the table to unpack the burgers. She had lost her appetite. Zachary not being home and her worry that something was going on with him had thrown her off. Though she’d asked, he hadn’t verified whether he was on surveillance or doing something else. Usually, if he were going to be away when she got home, he gave her a heads-up and told her what was going on. But this time, he hadn’t. He might have called her to tell her during the day and she had been too busy to answer. And she hadn’t checked her email since she’d been waiting at Champlain House for Dr. Able.
Kenzie forced herself to eat anyway, checking her social networks and her email and glancing over the day’s news to see if the world was ending yet. It wasn’t like she needed to worry about keeping up her weight like Zachary did, but if she were going to be in a reasonable mood when he eventually got home, she needed to eat.
It was closer to two hours before Zachary returned. Kenzie was not happy about the delay. She was tired from her day and ready to head to bed, and he wasn’t even home. Maybe she should have just told him to stay at his apartment so she could spend the evening how she wanted to and get a good solid sleep without being awakened by his nightmares.
But she immediately regretted the thought. She didn’t like to think of him lying in his bed alone, fighting his demons. She wanted him to feel safe and to be comforted when he awoke from a nightmare.
“It’s late,” she said, keeping her tone neutral. “Were you working this whole time?”
He rubbed his forehead as if trying to erase the worry lines. “Yeah. Some work and some errands. When you work for yourself, there isn’t anyone else to pass stuff off to.”
Although he had been using his sister Heather as a consultant for some work, teaching her how to do skip tracing and some other basic detective work.
Zachary didn’t have any shopping bags or boxes to indicate that he’d picked anything up. He could have been dropping something off, or he might have left whatever it was at his own apartment, but she thought his behavior seemed a little off.
That thought led her to segue to Cartwright’s behavioral changes before he had died. Not because they were anything like Zachary’s behaviors or she thought that he was going to drop dead. Just because she wondered how significant the changes had been and what they had meant.
Zachary joined Kenzie on the couch and put his arm around her tentatively. He pulled her close and kissed her cheek gently.
“It sounds like you had a long day. Dr. Wiltshire kept you? Was there an accident...?”
Other days when there had been a sudden influx of bodies from a traffic accident or some other tragedy, Kenzie and Dr. Wiltshire had stayed after hours to get a chunk of the work done without disrupting their usual workflow.
“No.” Kenzie snuggled into him and closed her eyes, letting her body relax. “I was actually out doing detective work.”
“Really?” Zachary was immediately interested. “What were you doing? If you can talk about it.”
“Interviewing subjects at a care facility to get more information about the deceased. It’s an interesting case and we need more information to sort it out.”
“Isn’t that usually the job of the police?”
“Yes and no. It isn’t because we think it was a homicide; we’re just trying to get background on his behavior and health before he died. Trying to solve all of the clues to put together the puzzle.”
“Can you tell me anything about the case? Why is it hard to determine what happened, if you think it was natural causes?”
“Because the guy’s brain pathology doesn’t match what we were told about his behavior before his death.”
“He was behaving erratically, but there wasn’t any indication in the brain?” Zachary asked. Then he shook his head. “No... someone’s behavior can change without being able to see any difference in the brain. But the opposite...” He looked at her, eyes sparkling in that way that they only did when he had an intriguing puzzle to solve. “You saw changes in the brain that should have affected his behavior.”
Kenzie nodded, impressed that he had figured that out from the little she had said. “You nailed it. I thought you were tired!”
He smiled proudly, though he immediately tried to wipe it away. Always trying to keep his emotions hidden from the world. Kenzie pulled his head down toward her to kiss him. “There’s nothing wrong with showing that you’re proud of yourself.”
He looked away from her. “No one likes a show-off.”
She kissed him again. “I do. We both like solving mysteries, so why can’t you show that you’re happy about figuring my riddle out so quickly?”
He shrugged, but allowed another smile to cross his face again fleetingly. “So how did it go at the care center? Were you able to find anything out?”
“Some interesting stuff came up. I’m going to need to write up a report for Dr. Wiltshire tomorrow and... to see what I really got, I guess. Think it all through and see where it leads me. I know a few more tests that I’ll want to run, and we might need to do some research, because what we’re seeing doesn’t really make sense.”
“You ruled out human error?”
“Yeah. I made new slides and looked at them myself this morning. There’s no mistaking the brain pathology. But his behavior was normal, right up until a few days before his death, and even then, he only had mild symptoms. Symptoms that could have had other explanations.”
“So was it this brain disease that killed him?”
“I don’t know. Anything is possible. But if he was somehow resistant to the disease until the final stages... it could be significant. It could point the way for future medical study. Maybe a treatment or vaccination.”
18
“What about you?” Kenzie turned the conversation back around to Zachary. “What case were you working on so late?”
“A few different things.” His answer was uninformative.
“Did you make any progress on your adulterous husband?”
His brows went up, surprised.
“You sent me a question on his prescriptions,” Kenzie reminded him.
“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Well... I never know whether a client will be happy to have it confirmed that a lover is fooling around on the side or devastated that they were right. Or both. It’s never easy news to break.”
“I can imagine. But if she knows what prescriptions were in his medicine cabinet, then she probably already has a pretty good idea.”
“I don’t think she really has much doubt. She just wants proof that she can see with her own eyes.”
Kenzie grimaced. “I don’t think I would want to see for myself. What does she want? Pictures of him with another woman? In the act?”
“I don’t do pictures ‘in the act.’ Too dangerous and inflammatory. Pictures of him with another partner, going into a hotel or out at a restaurant or somewhere romantic. But if someone actually wants intimate photographs or videos, they’ll have to find someone else. I’m not giving someone ammunition for blackmail or a manslaughter defense.”
Kenzie nodded, impressed with the thought that he had put into the policy. “I don’t think I would want to gather that kind of evidence, personally. Talk about awkward. And how do you get it without getting caught?” She pictured Zachary peering in a bedroom window with his camera to get a picture or masquerading as a waiter bringing them champagne and sneaking off a picture of the two culprits.
“Well, a hidden camera would be the best option. Remote operated or motion-triggered. But like I say, I don’t do that.”
“Good. You’ve gotten yourself into enough dangerous situations without that one to add to the list.”
“I don’t intentionally get into trouble.”
“I hope not,” Kenzie agreed. She knew that he was too impulsive and that he tended to jump in to help other people without thinking through the possible consequences to himself. All part of his ADHD. She stretched and nestled h
erself into his shoulder again. “Do you want to watch something before bed? I’m beat, but I could unwind for a bit longer.”
“Sure.” Zachary looked at the blank TV screen for a moment before looking for the remote, which was on his side of the couch. He stretched to reach it, then handed it to Kenzie.
“What do you want to watch?”
“Anything is fine. Whatever you want.”
He looked over at his computer. He probably wanted to work while they watched, but that would be a bad idea. He would get caught up in work and not pay any attention to the show or to her, and when it was time to go to bed, he would be all wound up and would not be able to settle in to sleep for even the few hours that his brain would allow.
“Time for a break,” Kenzie told him. “Some ‘us’ time.”
He nodded and dragged his gaze back to the TV screen. He tilted his head to rest it against hers while she turned on the TV and browsed through the guide for something that would be acceptable to them both, eventually settling on a classic mystery show. How weird was it that they both worked in crime, yet that was what they watched to unwind together? Not a sitcom or soap or something to escape into, but more crime-solving TV. And some of it was pretty bad, if she were to admit the truth. Not even close to the way things played out in real life. And maybe that was why they liked it.
They watched for a few minutes. Kenzie thought that Zachary seemed distracted, but he didn’t say anything and she didn’t want to force him to reveal his thoughts if he wasn’t ready to or it was nothing to do with her.
“Did you have anything to eat?”
“Uh...” Zachary’s eyes were distant.
“Zachary. Food. You need food to keep your body running and to fuel your brain.”
“I know.”
“But you didn’t eat anything tonight?”
“I might have picked something up.”
“If you can’t remember it, then you probably didn’t.”
“Well. Maybe not.”
Doctored Death Page 7