"That sounds terrible, Jaswinder. Do you think someone is out to get you?"
Jaswinder told her friend about the car parked outside the police station when she left Detective Osborne's office.
"So you're sure it's the same car that almost ran over your Dad?”
"Yes, I am. I don't think I want to wait another minute. I was going to call tomorrow but I just feel like I shouldn't wait." She went over and picked up the downstairs telephone. "Hopefully, Mom or Dad won't press the history button and find out I called him."
Jaswinder called the number on the card that the young officer had given her that night when they first identified the grey car that tried to run over her Dad. It was a different officer that answered the telephone but he seemed to know what she was talking about after he found their file in the police computer system. "Is the car outside your home now?”
"No, well not that I saw when I came home, although I haven't looked outside since."
"How about we send an unmarked police car to drive by your house, just to check."
"Okay, I'd appreciate that."
Jaswinder hung up and turned back to her friend. "I went over most of what I know with Detective Osborne. He was much pleasanter this time and I was able to tell him some things he didn't know."
"Good for you, Jas."
"Remember we were talking about the two things you need in a murder case?"
"Right, opportunity and motive. Are there any more chips?"
"Just wait a minute, Manisha, and I'll go up and get them."
"I've been thinking that Carl is the one with the motive, because of his brother, right? The protester guy, has a motive but it is less than Carl's. I just can't think it's him. And anyway, unless he's crazy, I can't think he would kill anyone and think that would hurt Dr. Atkinson."
"Makes sense to me. I'll run up and get the chips, Jaswinder."
"Okay, Get a couple of Cokes while you're up there. You know where they are."
Jaswinder took a long drink when Manisha brought the soft drinks down. All this talking did make you thirsty. "Now, I haven't been thinking very much about Cheryl because she doesn't have any motive that I can see. Can you, Manisha?"
"We decided she wasn't Chechen or from any of those other countries Russia had wars with, didn't we? There were a lot of them, you know, depending upon how many years you go back."
"Her last name is MacKenzie. That can't be Chechen."
"Sounds Scottish. So even though she had as much opportunity as Carl and the protester, she doesn't have any reason to kill him."
"That we know of. But I don't think we've thought this through. What have I told you about Cheryl? You remember she was working there when I started?"
"So she was there when this Jim Buckle had his abscessed tooth that was misdiagnosed. . . Do you think they are in cahoots?"
Jaswinder had to laugh. Jim Buckle was at least twenty years older and definitely unappealing. Cheryl was attractive in a hard-edged kind of way. "No, no romance there, I'm sure. But, wait a minute. Cheryl did have a romance. He was even her fiancé so they must have been planning to marry."
"Yeah, I remember you told me that."
"What’s that old saying, 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?' I read that in a book once."
"How was Cheryl scorned? I thought her fiancé died."
"But that old saying means that a woman has a lot of fury if someone treats her badly. Her fiancé didn't just die, he was killed, in what was said to be a gang shooting. I think that's what Marnie told me. Cheryl has never said anything to me about it."
"But didn't Cheryl say that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time?"
"Yes, but, you see, it was Cheryl who told Marnie what happened. Marnie must have taken her word for it. "
"But who would lie about something like that? Are you saying that she killed her own fiancé"
"No, no, I'm not. At least I don't think I am. But what if there was more to it? I've read that gang shootings are usually between rival gangs or revenge shootings or somebody on someone else's territory. Things like that."
"Wasn't there a young girl killed in a gang shooting back in Ontario last summer? She was out shopping with her mom or something."
"I know the one you're talking about, but I think that was different."
"Let's just pretend that Cheryl's fiancé was a gang member or maybe owed a gang money."
"Maybe he had to borrow money for her engagement ring?"
"From a gang? That would be stupid. No man would be that stupid. Okay, let's not talk about all men. We should stick to Cheryl's fiancé."
"Who would know about him? Did Detective Osborne or the other the police look into him?"
"Why would they? He's been dead for a year and I don't think Cheryl would have brought him up when she was interviewed. She never talks about him. They obviously didn't have the same last name. She doesn't even have a picture up. I guess they must have looked into it at the time he was killed. Cheryl never said if anyone was charged or convicted. But would Detective Osborne or any of his people make the connection?"
"Maybe there never was a fiancé. Maybe she's one of these women who pretends when she can't get a boyfriend."
"Are there women like that? How dumb. Okay, let's not get distracted. What I think we need to do, is find out more about Cheryl's fiancé and how he died. If he was just some 'innocent by-stander' then I think I'll give up on Cheryl as a potential suspect."
"Is that something I can help with, Jas?"
"It would be great if you could. Jovan's busy studying for final exams and he was already nice enough to go down to the College of Dentists for me. I don't want to bother him again."
"Do you know her fiancé's name?"
"No, I don't. See, that shows she never talks about him. I'll ask Marnie; I don't want to ask Dr. Parker. He'd want to know why and I don't think I could come up with a plausible reason. Marnie might know but she might not remember. You'll probably have to read old newspapers from last spring and summer.
"They must have things on computer by now. I can't see paging through hundreds of old newspapers. Imagine the ink I'll get on my hands."
"You might go to see Detective Osborne. He'd know about the case, probably."
"No, he doesn't even know me. I'll try the newspaper office first."
"Thanks a lot, Manisha. I just can't shake the feeling that I need to find this out and fast."
"Let's talk about something else then. I don't have to go home for another hour."
They spent a pleasant hour and half going through Jaswinder's magazine supply: Elle, People, Marie Claire and even Today's Bridal. Jaswinder noticed that someone, probably her younger sister, had started cutting out some of the pages. She'd have to talk to her about that.
Chapter 17
The next workday, Jaswinder sent a text message to Marnie to ask her the name of Cheryl's former fiancé. She waited until Cheryl had gone in with a patient, just in case. Marnie would get back to her quickly, she knew. Jaswinder looked around hastily as she finished. A patient she recognized was walking towards the front door. One good thing, there had been no sign of Jim Buckle and his protest sign since the murder. Could that because he had gone in hiding after killing Plinsky? There were so many possibilities to consider.
After she got that patient settled with the new CDA, Roberta was her name, Jaswinder checked her phone. Sure enough, Marnie had been able to get back to her.
I remember, Jas, his name was Keith Jagger. That's how I remember, you know, Keith Richards and
Mick Jagger. I had a boyfriend once who was a Stones fan.
Who was that? Never mind. Jaswinder wrote the name down on the corner of the appointment book and texted back:
Thanks a lot, Marnie. I appreciate it. Oh, the new CDA started today; I don't think she's as experienced as you. I can hear Dr. Parker giving her a lot of explanations.
Is that right? Maybe she won't work out. Let me know, I might give Dr. Par
ker a call.
The day became very busy all of a sudden with two emergency patients. Too bad for Roberta. It would have been better if she had started on a slow day. Jaswinder didn't get a chance to text Manisha and give her the name of Cheryl's fiance until lunchtime. Then she rubbed the name out, right after she called, going over and over to make sure it couldn't be read. Should have put it on a piece of paper, instead.
Jaswinder remembered an old movie where someone had been able to read what had been written on a sheet of paper that had been removed by making pencil lines on the page below. Nobody would be able to do that here, would they? Then she scolded herself. This isn't a movie, Jas, and don't you dare call Detective Osborne and ask him. Then he would really have a good laugh. She remembered the shopping bag with the garbage from her wastebasket that was going to be picked up from the bottom of Bev's filing cabinet by a police officer. Had that happened?
Jaswinder walked as nonchalantly as she could over to Bev's area, picking up an invoice there and pretending to study it. There was no one at Reception; the last patient was in Operatory 2 with Roberta and Dr. Parker. She slid open the bottom drawer. Had it always squeaked like that? Empty. The police must have picked it up; I wonder if it was useful.
Chapter 17
Manisha was pleased to have been entrusted with the task of tracking down Keith Jagger's history. She'd been out of work for over three months now and it was seriously getting boring. The boutique she'd been working in had closed; Manisha had seen it coming for months. She might have been able to give them some advice or suggestions if they'd been interested. The store was poorly laid out and over crowded. She suggested once that rather than put out all the clothes they had in the front, they hold some back. That way the items on display weren't crowded and the customers would see the items as more special, more precious, rather than like some crowded bargain basement rack. They could always retrieve something from the back if a customer asked for herringbone pants or something else unusual. But her manager had insisted that head office wanted it done this way. ‘Gives the customer lots of selection.’ Ha! Who'd been proven right! Manisha had a secret wish to have her own shop one day but that would take serious cash, something she didn't have.
She decided to check on-line before she looked into going down to the newspaper office. She typed Keith Jagger's name in the Search engine, just to see if anything turned up. Wow! Over a thousand hits, and that was just on Google. She scanned down to see which one looked the most promising. After opening half a dozen sites, she felt ready to give up. They all must use the same source of information because they all wrote the same thing in slightly different wording. The words 'targeted hit' was used a couple of times. As Manisha read a few more follow-up articles, some said that the general public had nothing to worry about. I thought Jaswinder said that he was an innocent by-stander at some gang shoot-out. It doesn't sound like that here.
This one looked promising; two whole pages. Some reporter had been doing a longer investigative piece on gangs in Vancouver. He actually named names: Sergio Petrov and Viktor Plinsky were suspected to be involved in some sort of people smuggling operation. But what was people smuggling exactly? Wasn't that people who wanted to immigrate to a country but didn't have the paperwork.? Like the people who try to get across the Mexican border. Who could blame them really for wanting a better life for themselves? But then Manisha thought of how she hadn't been able to find another job in the past few months. There are only so many jobs out there it seemed.
Now, if this Viktor had been in the gang that killed her fiancé, Cheryl would probably know that. She'd know his name or she would be able to find it out as quickly as Manisha had done. So . . . when he showed up at Summerland Dental Clinic and Cheryl saw his name in the appointment book, she'd be mad. Mad enough to kill him?
Manisha kept reading through the Google reports, searching for news stories a few months after. It didn't look like anyone was ever charged although the police had their suspicions. Isn't that the way it goes too often? Her father was a real law and order guy, like Jaswinder's dad. Manisha had heard him go on about that too often.
Maybe the police don't know about Cheryl's fiancé. Manisha hadn't seen her name come up in any of the reports she'd read on-line. A fiancé is probably considered like a girlfriend and not enough to mention. It was true some men had a new girlfriend ever two months. Manisha had met a couple of guys like that and gotten rid of them as soon as she figured out what they were after.
Was Jaswinder in any danger at work? The thought sprung into Manisha's mind. No, she's been working at the dental clinic for two weeks since the murder and nothing had happened. I mean, there are other people there, although Jaswinder is sometimes the last one to leave, she's told me. What if she's getting close to the answer? Everyone was thinking that Carl was the likeliest suspect or that crazy protester, but what if it was Cheryl? Maybe Cheryl knew that Jaswinder was getting close to the answer.
What would Jaswinder want her to do? What would Jaswinder's mother and father want her to do? Should she call that Detective? Osborne, that was his name. Jaswinder hadn't given her the number. I suppose it would be possible to track him down with just the name. She looked at her watch: 5:30. The clinic closed at five, didn't it? She could drive over to Jaswinder's house. But, they'd probably be starting dinner soon. She could wait for her to be finished eating and then they could maybe go out and grab a coffee somewhere and go over her findings. Maybe I'll just call and leave a message for that Detective. Having decided, she Googled the non-emergency telephone number for the police and dialed. This wasn’t an emergency, was it?
"Hello, I was wondering if Detective Osborne was there."
"What department, please?"
"Oh, I don't know, sorry."
"One moment, please, I'll look that up for you."
Should she hang up? Could she get into trouble calling him?"
"Detective Osborne."
Oh, they found him. "Uh, hello, you don't know me. I'm a friend of Jaswinder, Jaswinder Pandher. My name is Manisha Sunner."
"All right."
"Maybe I shouldn't have called. Jaswinder didn't give me permission or tell me to or anything." Manisha was having regrets but she couldn't just hang up, could she? "Jaswinder asked me to look into something for her, like research, you know."
There was silence on the other end. He probably thinks we're interfering amateurs. "I wouldn't have called except I got worried, scared, actually."
“What about?"
"Jaswinder asked me to look into Cheryl's fiancé for her because she's busy at work and I'm, well, I'm unemployed right now. Between jobs." Manisha took a deep breath. "Cheryl's fiancé was killed last year. We were told, or rather Jaswinder was told by Cheryl, or maybe it was Marnie, you know, the CDA . . . " Oh, she really was starting to babble, wasn't she? "Cheryl's fiancé's name, Jaswinder just found out this morning, was Keith Jagger."
Silence, then, "Are you certain of that?" He sounded interested.
"Marnie said she remembered because there used to be a music group called The Rolling Stones long ago. Maybe you've heard of them? Anyway his name was the same as the name of two of the members of that group. Her boyfriend, I mean, Marnie's boyfriend, well, a previous boyfriend, played their music a lot. He was an older guy."
There was a long silence on the other end then finally, when Manisha was about to say, 'Hello?', the Detective came back. "You did the right thing to call. Thanks." There was a click as he hung up.
Talk about abrupt. I guess police officers don't have time for those long conversations about relationships that the cops of T.V. seem to have.
Chapter 18
Jaswinder felt bad for Roberta and a little guilty. She should have spread the day out more. Roberta was really slow; they were running almost forty-five minutes behind. The problem was, many of the patients had been booked in well before Marnie quit.
I suppose I could have thought of trying to re-book some of them. But most p
eople didn't appreciate that on short notice. Some had changed their schedules at work or made babysitting arrangements. It was true though, most people thought that their reasons for wanting to re-schedule at the last minute were completely valid but often balked if the dentist had a reason to re-schedule.
They'd just have to get through the day somehow. Maybe she should offer to help. She could do some chairside assisting if they were working at operatory one and then she could still watch the front, at least for a few days. It wouldn't be ideal but some of the patients were grumbling a bit at the wait. Jaswinder decided she'd suggest it to Dr. Parker and went down to where he was working on a patient in operatory three with Roberta.
Operatory of Death: A Jaswinder Mystery Page 12