"How about after work tomorrow, say around 5 p.m?"
He must know when her day ended. Well, we'll see tomorrow if there's something he doesn't know. "That would work well for me. I'll see you then." She hung up the telephone, not sure whether to feel relieved or worried.
The next day seemed almost like the old days. The patients were friendly, or worried or worried and friendly. The drills hummed, the coffee pot beeped, the front door buzzed. They were busy; only a half hour gap in the afternoon that hadn't been booked. Dr. Parker's practice had already built up in the three months since he started and some of the new patients said that they had been referred by existing patients. That was the best type of publicity Dr. Parker had said -- word of mouth from satisfied patients. It probably helped that he allowed patients divide their bill into three payments over three months if they needed to. Jaswinder had to admit it could be difficult for some people to come up with, say, a thousand dollars for a root canal and crown, on short notice.
After work, she headed straight for Detective Osborne's office. "Come in, Jaswinder. Want a coffee?" His office was cluttered with files stacked on one side and a computer on the other.
What? He didn't know that she didn't drink coffee? Remember, Jaswinder, be nice. "No, thanks, I was just wondering how the investigations were going. Unless you don't want to tell me because you think I'm a suspect." It was a possibility.
He didn't answer that, but she hadn't really expected him to.
"We're not ready to make any arrests, as yet. We do have the autopsy report, Jaswinder."
"And?"
"Well, you were right about the sedation gas. That was the cause of death -- a lethal dose. We’ve just picked up the machine for evidence."
"The victim never knew it. That's the creepy part."
"It's like any kind of anesthesia in that way. So, thanks for the heads up. We were able to discuss it with the pathologist. Was there anything else you wanted to share?"
Might as well let him know everything. "To me, the only possible suspects are Carl, Cheryl and the protester, Jim Buckle." She pulled her chair closer to his desk. "Maybe if I could sketch a diagram. I already did it at home, but I haven't brought it. But, I remember."
Detective Osborne grabbed a piece of paper and placed it in front of her, along with a pencil and eraser. "Go ahead, Jaswinder." He seemed interested. Maybe, my being right about the sedation has impressed him sufficiently that he'll listen to me.
She recreated the sketch she had made with Manisha, stopping and making a few erasures and places 'x's' with the name beside the person. "So this is where I figure everyone was, just before, I mean."
"Who was in with Marnie in the first chair? Who's that 'x'?"
"There was a girl, Krystal, getting her braces adjusted. Dr. Parker sent her home right away, before the police or ambulance even came. She's just a kid."
"So, Marnie was working on her, when the old lady screamed?"
"Yes, she was, and for about ten minutes before. It was a more major process; her wires were being replaced."
Detective Osborne pulled out his notebook. "What's the last name of this Krystal?"
Jaswinder gave it to him.
"You've got Dr. Parker here at the back, at the last station, sorry, operatory."
"That's right, Mrs. Harrington, the lady who found Mr. Plinsky and screamed, was his patient, at Operatory 3. I heard him talking to her for quite awhile. She always wants to hear all her options." She looked up at Detective Osborne but he was sitting back in his chair, looking interested. "One thing, I haven't mentioned . . . well I'd forgotten about it until lately, is about Cheryl. She has her room right beside Operatory four. Her patient, Florence McNeill, came out after her appointment but was only at Reception for a minute. She has left her credit card details for us to bill so she just gets a card with a six month recall appointment. I remember Mr. Plinsky was . . . was looking at her . . . you know, and helping her on with her coat. She went out the door and I took Mr. Plinsky to Op four. He was complaining of a lot of pain and I know an impacted wisdom tooth was one of the things that was suspected. The sedation machine was not there when I sat him down.
Dr. Parker was busy with Mrs. Harrington for a good fifteen minutes, what with the examination and then her wanting to know all the options. He wouldn't have had a chance to roll in the sedation machine, even if he had decided he was going to use it. It's possible he told Cheryl to." Jaswinder paused. Should she suggest to Detective Osborne that he ask Dr. Parker that? No, he could figure that out for himself.
"I never saw anyone wheel in the unit. It's quick to set up, though. I know that Cheryl wasn't around after I took Mr. Plinsky back. I assumed she was cleaning her Operatory. I remember that was when Herbie, he's the dog that Mrs. Harrington brought into the clinic, even though she isn't supposed to, got loose. Then I phoned Carl on the inter-office phone for his help. He was in his lab and answered the phone. It did take him a few minutes to come to the front because Herbie managed to run down to his owner, jump on her lap and lick her all over. I picked Herbie up off her lap and put him in the washroom."
Detective Osborne paged back through his notes. "Didn't you tell me that Mr. Buckle was in the washroom at that time?"
Jaswinder felt gratified; he had noted down her observations. "He had been but he must have left because the washroom door was ajar when I came back with Herbie. I remember the smell. But I never saw him leave but he was out front of the clinic soon afterwards so he must have left by the back door. But then he left very soon after because he was gone by the time the ambulance pulled up. You know he had been a patient of Dr. Atkinson so he must have known the clinic layout. That back door has to be kept unlocked when we're open -- fire regulations. We don't use it much and patients don't. I mean they have to come to the front to pay and get their next appointment. Carl could leave by that door, I guess, but I asked him once to let me know if he’s going to do that so I don’t send a delivery down to him or something. Cheryl sneaks out the back door for a smoke sometimes, I think, but I haven't actually seen her, smoking I mean."
Jaswinder stopped to collect her thoughts. "Is any of this worthwhile to you? I mean is any of it new or interesting?" Maybe she was just wasting her time. Well, at least she tried.
"Keep going; it's useful to hear another perspective. You were there, after all."
Jaswinder continued, "I'm not going to talk about myself, so you will have to decide whether you think I did it. That five or ten minutes was so hectic I don't know how I could have fit in killing anyone, if I can put it so crudely."
"Hmm. How long was Mrs. Harrington out of sight?"
He didn't actually think of her as a suspect, did he? "Maybe ten seconds. It would take thirty seconds at least for the gas to kill someone." Jaswinder remembered something. “Her father was killed at a place called Stalingrad. In World War II. That’s in Russia, isn’t it?”
"When I looked at that machine, it seemed relatively easy to operate," Detective Osborne commented. "Once the patient has the mask on, the dial is turned up. The patient goes out and then the dial can be turned as far to the right as is possible, into the red zone. Does that about sum it up?"
"That's right. It's done by patient weight. But I don't think Mr. Plinsky would sit still and allow Mrs. Harrington to put the mask on his face and sedate him. She doesn't look like she works in a dental clinic."
"You've got a point there."
"I had told Mr. Plinsky that the hygienist would be doing a pan x-ray so he could be expecting either a man or a woman. But if Carl came into the room or something, in his lab coat, I don't think he would have said anything. He might have thought Carl was the dentist. Mr. Plinsky had never met Dr. Parker, just talked to him on the telephone."
"He'd never been in the clinic before, correct?”
"Yes. I just remembered, Mrs. Harrington told me that she saw Mr. Buckle disappear out the back door, when she went down the hallway. Of course, she doesn't know his name,
but she described him to me."
"How?"
Jaswinder concentrated, "That disagreeable man that parades around out front, that was how she put it. And she described his clothes. She called them army clothes. He did wear green fatigues."
Detective Osborne was writing in his notebook at some length. "You've certainly added some interesting information, Jaswinder. Maybe I will have to make you an honourable detective, after all."
He sounded almost nice. Maybe it was frustrating to him to not be able to solve cases. There were probably always new ones coming along. "I almost forgot. When Cheryl came out, this was after Mrs. Harrington had screamed and we had guided her back to Reception area, she, Cheryl, I mean, just said she was ready for the patient. She meant Mr. Plinsky. Probably almost ten minutes had passed since I sat Mr. Plinsky in the chair in Operatory four. Anyway, Cheryl said she was ready to take the x-ray. So she either hadn't heard the scream or . . . but, I have seen her listen to an iPod, with an earphone, I mean, so that could be the explanation. I don’t know if you would hear a scream then. Depends on the music, I guess.”
"And one other thing. She came out wearing blue gloves, the latex free ones. She would want to take them off after using them for cleaning her room and before she started working on the next patient. I mean, you wouldn't touch a patient's mouth and teeth with gloves that had been in cleaning solutions. We take infection control very seriously. But usually she would have taken them off in her room and dropped them in the garbage in there. Instead, she dropped them in my wastebasket.
I didn't think too much of it then but, at the end of the Monday, I stayed a little late. I was alone in the clinic and the cleaners were coming for the first time since, well since the Wednesday before. They hadn't been allowed in on Friday. They usually come Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. They have their own key. I don't know why but I . . . I dumped the wastebasket contents into a shopping bag and tied it shut and put it in an empty file drawer in Bev's file cabinet. That's our office manager."
"Have you taken this bag out since?"
Jaswinder shook her head. "With everything that's been going on, I've forgotten about it. Mr. Plinsky’s cigarette butt is in there, too, and half of my sandwich from that day. I don't know why I saved it, except maybe, I'd never had anyone toss their gloves in my wastebasket before."
"Is it still in the filing cabinet?"
"I don't know. I suppose Bev might have found it and tossed it out."
"I'd better have that picked that up but we'll do it unobtrusively. I'll arrange for one of the officers to go there. We have a key to the premises."
"So what else can you tell me?" Jaswinder figured it was his turn.
"Now that you've shared some information with me, you mean."
"I guess so." Had she made a mistake coming here?
"We're not close to making an arrest, Jaswinder. You're the person in the center. I don't mean that you're a suspect; I mean that you're the person who knows the most about everyone's whereabouts. Think about it. You're also observant. No one else has been able to give us the details you have. Despite what sounds like a hectic ten minutes or so, you can now remember a lot of detail. I've underestimated you and I mean that as a compliment."
Jaswinder hardly knew what to say.
"Was there anything else?"
"I asked someone, well, it was my boyfriend, Jovan, to go to the College of Dental Surgeons to see what he could find out."
"And?"
"It didn't really tell me anything new. Dr. Atkinson was much worse than I imagined and Dr. Parker is even nicer than I thought. I suppose that it something but it doesn't help the case, not really."
"One thing you find out in this line of work -- not everything pans out. But that doesn't mean you don't explore all possibilities."
"Can you tell me something about Jim Buckle? I mean, we haven't seen him around since.”
"What do you think?"
"Mostly, I think he's a kook, except that there's no doubt he was treated badly by the previous dentist, Dr. Atkinson. And he's had a crummy life. I don't think he's a killer."
Detective Osborne didn't respond. Jaswinder couldn't think of anything more so she started to gather her things.
The detective held up his hand to stop her. "You're the first person in, right?"
"Yes, almost always."
"Are you the last one to leave?"
"It depends, but usually. Someone might stay behind to do some paperwork or something."
"For the next little while, I would avoid staying behind with only one other person. It won't be for long, maybe a week."
"Okay, I can do that." Did he know something he wasn't telling her?
"Can I keep your sketch?"
"Oh, sure I have another one at home."
Jaswinder walked out of the police station, feel pensive about what had taken place and headed to the left at first, her thoughts elsewhere. She looked up and then around. Where had she parked her car? It better not have been towed, not when she was here on police business. She looked up and down the street.
Two men were sitting in a car on the other side. Were they looking at her? One seemed to be reading a newspaper. People don't sit in a car reading newspapers, do they? Was that the same car that almost ran over her Dad? What had Simratpal said - an Infiniti with tinted windows and custom hubcaps. Those hubcaps weren't like anything she had on her Yaris. Maybe she could get the last three digits in the license plate this time.
She bent down and pretended to tie her shoelace, looking up while keeping her face downcast. Yes, it was the same car: LCF then 391. LCF 391, LCF 391. Jaswinder turned right, ignoring the car and got in her small car. She decided to call the police officer who had visited her house with the rest of the license number in case he hadn't found it out himself.
Jaswinder hardly said anything at the dinner table, thinking over what Detective Osborne had said.
"So, how are things at work, Jazzy?" Mrs. Pandher enquired.
"Everything's fine; we have a new CDA starting next week. You remember I told you that Marnie left?
"That's right. You liked working with her, didn't you?"
"Yeah, I did."
Her father joined the conversation. "That's always the way it goes. The person you are wishing would find a job somewhere else, never leaves. The good worker goes. I remember this painter we had, actually it was a small company, what was it called? New Jersey Painters, that was it."
Her father was off on one of his stories.
"These guys, now they were not good at their job. They were just not good painters. But somehow they managed to do work that was just one little bit, one tiny little bit, above the level that would get them fired." He looked expectantly at his wife and daughter to see what they thought of this revelation. Fortunately, Jaswinder had heard about these painters before.
"So you couldn't fire them, Dad."
"No, I couldn't, Jaswinder. And Head Office kept hiring them because they kept submitting bids lower than anyone else. Of course, they don't come to the job site and see the work these guys do."
Her father was really in full flow now, on one of his favourite topics. Her mother sat patiently listening to him. "That's really too bad, Parminder. It's not fair to you."
"Oh, never mind about that, I can handle Head Office. But do you think these guys, these New Jersey painters will ever quit?" He answered himself. "No, they will not. But the good workers . . . the best electrician I ever had only stayed three months before he got a job . . . you'll never guess where."
"Where, Dad?" Simratpal probably hadn't heard this story before.
Her father looked pleased at the disclosure he was about to make. "On a movie set. They were filming a big movie here, I'm a Robot or something like that."
"Was it 'I, Robot', Dad?"
"Probably. Anyway, they paid him quite a bit more and he probably got to eat lunch with the movie stars as opposed to me and the other guys. Ha!"
Jaswinder stole a g
lance at her mother. She must have heard Dad's stories multiple times each. Is that what marriage is like -- listening to the same story over and over and pretending you haven't heard it before?
"I'm going to ask Manisha if she can come over tonight, okay Mom?"
"Sure, Jas. Just load up these dishes first, would you?"
After Manisher and Jaswinder were settled in the sofa downstairs, bowl of chips on the table and baby carrots on a plate, they were ready to review and compare notes.
"I feel like I need to find an answer soon, Manisha. A new dental assistant is starting next week and it would be nice if everything was back to normal."
"I don't blame you, Jas."
"Also, I've been having this funny feeling, like a prickling at the back of my neck. I don't like it; it makes me feel like some kind of danger is around."
Operatory of Death: A Jaswinder Mystery Page 11