2 Multiple Exposures

by Audrey Claire

  Spencer refused to relent. “We can talk here, inside your house, or down at the station.”

  Lissa looked at Hardy Joe, and Hardy Joe stomped down the porch steps and rounded the side of the house. The way he threw up his hands before he went and the slump to his shoulders probably meant he wasn’t going to get his weapon, and Spencer confirmed my thinking by re-snapping the closure on his holster.

  “Come inside,” Lissa said and led the way into her home.

  Lissa’s home might look at bit neglected outside, but she had done a great job of decorating the interior. Modern furniture and a comfortable color scheme in the living room demonstrated her skills in creating a warm environment. I told her so, hoping it would calm her a little but to no avail. Her hands shook, and her gaze darted around the room so fast it made me dizzy. She didn’t look Spencer in the eye and was so jumpy I thought she might run out the door screaming if we said boo.

  I glanced at Spencer and then moved beside her on the couch to take her hands. “Lissa, I know you’re upset, but can you tell us what happened?”

  Spencer cut across my attempt at a soothing tone. “Did you kill Dr. Bloomberg?”

  She squawked, sounding very much like her chickens in the front yard. “No, I would never! I could never hurt anybody.”

  “Then why did you run?” Spencer insisted. “You were working in the office today, but when Dr. Bloomberg’s body was discovered, you were nowhere to be found. Would you like to explain that?”

  “Not really.” She gave a nervous chuckle and moaned. “I just wanted the police alerted. That’s all.”

  Spencer stiffened. “Alerted to what?”

  She squeezed my hands then freed hers from my hold. A check out the window maybe to see if Hardy Joe was returning and then she faced us. “Dr. Bloomberg was doing something nasty.”

  “Nasty like how?” I asked, scared to know the truth.

  Lissa peeked at Spencer and flushed. “He might have been using a uh…”

  “Camera pen,” I supplied and Spencer frowned me silent.

  She nodded. “To take pictures of women’s—” Here she cut herself off too embarrassed to say more in front of Spencer.

  “I get the gist of it,” he said, letting her off the hook. “And did you confront him about your suspicions?”

  “No!” She began ringing her hands again. “I contacted Makayla.”

  “We just met today, sweetheart.”

  “I wrote you a letter. I assumed you got it when you called in to make an appointment.”

  Ah ha! One mystery solved. I wish I could say the churning inside me had begun to settle. No such luck.

  Lissa went on. “I knew Makayla was dating you, sheriff.” She swallowed, staring at the floor rather than looking at him. “And maybe she could convince you to look into the what the doctor was doing. That way I could stay out of it.”

  “In essence you wanted to use me?” I clarified with a smile.

  “Yes. No. I’m sorry. You’re good with photography right? You would know right away what the pen was. I was sure of it.”

  Sure enough to risk my hoo-hoo.

  “Where is this letter now?” Trust Spencer to stay on target and not get his feelings hurt like me, but then he had no hoo-hoo jeopardize. Okay, I’m getting far off subject.

  “I burned it.”

  We both blinked at her.

  “Excuse me?” Spencer said.

  “I didn’t want to be accused of anything, so I burned it.”

  Spencer pulled out his notebook, which so far during the interview had remained inside his coat. I don’t mind admitting that at that point I felt intimidated, as if he were about to cross-exam me on the witness stand. I had been there, so I can tell you it is not a pleasant experience.

  “Let me get my facts straight, Ms. Maxwell. Uh, sorry, Mrs. Russell.”

  She trembled. Yup, caught in one lie, liable to tell more. Lissa did have my sympathies because I didn’t believe she had killed the doctor, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know who did it, or that she didn’t stand by while they did. For one, Hardy Joe looked quite capable, and in this situation—liable to have done it.

  “When did you retrieve the letter that you had already mailed to Makayla?”

  “I went to the room where I left her, but she wasn’t there. Her things were, so I searched her purse and found it.”

  “How did you know it would be there?”

  “I didn’t. I took a chance. I was going to work up my nerve and ask her about it. When she was gone, I started thinking she was snooping around—sorry, Makayla.”

  I waved a hand. My role in this debacle had already been established.

  “I believed she would find out the truth or try very hard to, but after I sent that letter, I started to panic.” She checked the window again. “You’ve seen Hardy Joe. He’s really jealous, and he’s not that bright. If he thought Dr. Bloomberg was taking pictures of me, I don’t know what he would do.”

  “Did the doctor take pictures of you?” Spencer asked.

  “Of course not! I was not one of his patients. Hardy Joe would never let me see a male doctor.” She sighed as if she had suffered years with the man. However, she had lied about her married name at work. Hardy Joe might assume she would obey him, and she might have just become one of Dr. Bloomberg’s patients for convenience sake.

  “Mrs. Russell, did you hear anything odd or see anyone who didn’t belong at the clinic either before you entered Makayla’s room or after you left it?”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Is there any additional information you can give me on this case?”

  Her head bobbled side to side. I think she’d reached her limit and was ready to collapse. “No.”

  Spencer dug out his business card and handed it to her. “If you can think of anything else that might help the case, please contact me.”

  I stood and gave Lissa an impromptu hug. “Give your brother-in-law a call. He’s worried about you.”

  “Pete?”

  “Is there another?” I snarked and smiled.

  Spencer and I started for the door, but Lissa’s voice stopped us, and we looked back.

  “Sheriff, please don’t discuss this with my husband. He doesn’t know anything about it, and I’d rather keep it that way.”

  Spencer turned slowly to face her. “Mrs. Russell, I will talk to anyone I feel may have information that will help my investigation. If I find out there was even a chance Dr. Bloomberg violated your rights, and your husband found out about it, I will without hesitation come looking for him. Good day.”

  Chapter Six

  “So do you believe her?” I asked Spencer on the way back from Lissa’s.

  He rubbed his jaw. “I’m not sure. She seems to be telling the truth, but I’m not crossing her or her husband off my list, especially not before I get the autopsy report.”

  I rested my hand on his thigh as I always did when we were together. He continued to focus on the road.

  “Could you tell by looking at him how he died?” I hesitated to know the details.

  “Maybe.”

  “What does that mean?” Spencer could be vague when he wanted to avoid answering my questions but also didn’t want to ignore me right out. I wondered if he held it against me that I hadn’t told him about the letter. Normally, he wasn’t trivial, but it was a particular pet peeve of his for me to keep information to myself regarding an open case. Go figure.

  His cell phone dinged, and he pulled it out of his pocket. A shutter seemed to drop down over his expression, and at the same time the muscles in his leg tensed. I frowned, curious, but he said nothing about what the text contained. While I was a nosy cat, I respected Spencer’s privacy and trusted him. Okay, with my background, most of my trust in the man beside me came from his openness with me from the start. I greatly appreciated his patience, and did my best to share in return. I was not perfect.

  “Is everything okay, Spencer?” I prompted.

&n
bsp; “Yeah.”

  Nothing more. I had no choice but to let it go. He dropped me off at Dr. Bloomberg’s offices, and I noticed the yellow tape across the front door. The police were already treating it like a crime scene. I turned to Spencer for clarification, but he wasn’t looking at me. He stared down at his phone, an expression I couldn’t interpret on his face. Normally, he was quite open about giving me a kiss in greeting and when we parted, but maybe because he was on duty?

  “I’ll call you later,” I said and started out of the car. He mumbled something, and I let the door shut a little harder than necessary. Spencer didn’t appear to notice. At least I supposed he didn’t because I did my darndest to keep my head up and marched toward my car as if I didn’t care either. Yes, that was a real bit of maturity there.

  I reached my car and stuck my key in the door when a hand grabbed my arm. The small yelp died when I looked up to find Spencer standing before me. He offered a half apologetic smile and kissed me. The touch was so brief, I scarcely felt it, but the hurt feelings died a quick death.

  “I’ll talk to you later?” He stroked my cheek.

  “Sure, I know you’re busy.” Now I was nothing if not gracious.

  He chuckled and strode toward the building at a clipped pace. I climbed into my car and drove away.

  * * * *

  I strode into my apartment a short while later, wondering what old Dr. Bloomberg had been up to specifically and at whose expense had he done it. The man must have had hundreds of patients over the years of his practice, and if even a fraction of them had husbands as angry and aggressive as Hardy Joe, who knew how Spencer would narrow down the list of suspects. Of course, that depended on him even figuring out if the information had been leaked.

  Had Lissa told anyone else? I considered whether she might have shared her suspicion with her sister. Then again, if she had, wouldn’t Reeza have told her husband as a policeman, and Pete would most certainly have informed Spencer.

  As I mentally ran over the possibilities, I started to feel less used with Lissa’s choice to bring me in on the secret and more special. Her assumption had been right, and if Dr. Bloomberg hadn’t died, then he could have continued on indefinitely violating his patients without their knowledge.

  I opened the refrigerator and remembered I hadn’t been shopping, so there was nothing to eat. I had skipped lunch because the prospect of going to the doctor had robbed me of appetite. Now it came rushing back with a vengeance. I groaned, considering what to do.

  Checking the time, I found it to be just past three. I shouldn’t have canceled my date with Edna, darn it. She had probably made other plans. Rather than wonder, I phoned her. She answered on the first ring.

  “Hi, Edna, I know I said I couldn’t come to tea, but well I was able to get away sooner than I thought. I don’t suppose you’re still free?”

  “Oh goodie,” she chirped like a small kid. “I just made plans with Talia, but I’ll call her and cancel.”

  “No, I don’t want to inconvenience you.”

  “Fiddlesticks.” She chuckled. “Talia cancels on me all the time at the last minute. And it’s for silly reasons she’s only too glad to share. I’m happy I have a chance to get her back for once.”

  I shook my head, amused. The two women might be in their seventies, but they behaved like teenagers in competition. “Well, if you’re sure…”

  “I’m positive. You just come right over, honey, and I’ll have everything ready and waiting.”

  “Wonderful. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes or less, Edna. See you then.”

  I freshened up a bit and retouched the light makeup I had worn that morning. Then I was headed out the door. Before I reached the street, my cell phone rang, and I paused to answer. At first, I didn’t recognize the name Russell, and there was no first name listed on the caller ID.

  “Hello?”

  “Makayla?”

  I identified Lissa’s voice right away and then recalled her actual last name. “Hi, Lissa, is everything all right?”

  “For now, yes, but I’m worried. What if Dr. Bloomberg was killed and—”

  “Hold on, Lissa. We don’t know that for sure. He was up in age, so there’s a strong possibility that he just died of natural causes. Let the police have time to get the report, and we’ll know for sure. There’s no sense working yourself into a lather for nothing. Besides that, we don’t know the doctor did anything with that camera.”

  Silence on the other end.

  “Lissa?”

  “Makayla, I know he used that camera.”

  “How do you know?” I reached my car but paused before sticking my key in the lock. The funny thing I had noticed with Briney Creek, many of the residents neglected to lock their cars, or their homes from what I heard. I, on the other hand, coming from New York never failed to lock mine. Of course, it had made no difference whatsoever to the man who had broken into my studio not once but twice. Consequently, I tended to look over my back a lot and double check those same locks that never made me feel completely safe.

  “I know because he always insisted on taking the pen into the examining room with him, and whenever he had forgotten it and one of us volunteered to get it for him, he said no. One day, I insisted since we were so backed up, and he snapped at me. Dr. Bloomberg was always a kind-hearted, patient man. That’s why I can’t fully reconcile him doing something like this. If I hadn’t seen the way he acted for myself, I would never have believed it.”

  “How long do you think he’s had the pen, Lissa?”

  “Maybe four months. Could be longer. I wasn’t paying much attention, and it took me a while to catch on.”

  Four months wasn’t long at all. Well, a minute was too long for one of the victims, but what if Dr. Bloomberg had had the camera pen much longer, and Lissa never knew? Just because she never noticed didn’t mean anything. I was still of a hopeful mind that the doctor hadn’t used the pen, but it seemed unlikely.

  I unlocked the car and slid behind the wheel. A neighbor was just walking by, so I waved and shut the door for privacy. “Lissa, is there any chance one of the other girls noticed the pen and told someone?”

  “I don’t think so. I hinted around to it with the others, and all of them dismissed his obsession with the pen, calling it a harmless quirk. Now that I think about it, I wish I had asked one of them if they noticed how long he had it.”

  Chewing on this information, I thought of another question. “What about one of the patients figuring it out?”

  “That’s possible. No one said anything to me, and I doubt they said anything to the others because we all discuss what they say if it’s funny or interesting.” The last of her sentence was spoken with an apologetic air.

  Very professional, ladies.

  “So a patient may have known and could have passed the information to her husband or boyfriend. Is that why you’re afraid he was murdered?”

  “No.”

  I tensed.

  “It’s because I think he had a partner.”

  My blood ran cold. “A partner? Are you sure?”

  “No, I’m not sure, but I remember a couple months ago, I was working late trying to get some filing done. After I had finished everything, I wanted to tell Dr. Bloomberg good night. When I walked down to his office, he was on the phone with someone. I couldn’t hear their part, but he was saying something like, “No, I don’t want that. Give me something more powerful with more features.”

  “That’s not so suspicious. He could have been referring to anything.”

  “True, but when I came into view, he started like I had caught him doing something he shouldn’t. He rushed the person off the phone, and I assumed he was trying to order medicine and didn’t know our procedures. I offered to help, and he said ‘I’ll handle it myself. Good night, Lissa.’ A dismissal just like that.”

  “I’m assuming you girls handle all the ordering, and he signs off on it.”

  “Not us girls,” Lissa corrected, “me. I
have run that office for four years, and it bothers me to think he would be… right under my nose.”

  I tried to order in my mind all she had told me up until that point. Did the evidence of what Lissa heard lead to a partner, or just a guy who supplied him? What did Dr. Bloomberg mean by “I don’t want that?” Was the supplier trying to give him a cheaper pen, one that would be too obvious? What additional features did he need? Then I recalled my own knowledge of the equipment, and it might be just as I had said. The original pen might only have been able to take photographs. Dr. Bloomberg might have decided he wanted more. He needed video.

  My stomach lurched, and I had to lean over the steering wheel with my eyes closed until it settled. Lissa was saying something in my ear, but I was busy sucking in deep breaths to keep from gagging.

  “Makayla, are you there?”

  I raised my head. “I’m here.”

  “Listen, I still don’t trust the police.”

  “Is there a reason for that?”

  She hesitated. “Never mind. I just don’t want Hardy Joe involved. So, I’m going to work with you on this. Please, will you help me? I feel responsible for not looking out for all the women that Dr. Bloomberg might have hurt.”

  “I’ll do what I can, sweetheart, but I’m not a trained officer.”

  “But you are dating the sheriff.”

  I groaned. “You might be overestimating my influence on the man. He’s good at what he does, and that has nothing to do with me.”

  “I think you’re underestimating your influence. We women have a lot of power, and we have to use it. Sometimes, we have to guide our men on the path they should take.”

  Why did that statement bring up an image of Lissa “guiding” Hardy Joe to kill Dr. Bloomberg for his sins? She was pretty insistent that he not be allowed to know about the issues with Dr. Bloomberg. I could see why Spencer decided not to cross her and her husband off of his suspect list should the doctor’s death be ruled a homicide. She certainly didn’t have an alibi, and I and several other people could put her at the scene. Still, I wanted to do all I could to help solve the mystery of what Dr. Bloomberg had been up to.