by Leslie Leigh
“No, I slept across the hall which was my room growing up.”
“Can you step in here and look at a few things?” Brian asked.
“Sure.”
“It looks to me like someone has been here recently.” He pointed to the impression on the bedspread, the towel and the medicine cabinet door. “Can you verify whether this belongs to either you or your mother?” he asked, showing her the camisole.
“No,” she said. “My mother never owned a camisole in her life, and, even if I’m wrong about that, my mother was my size, and that camisole is for a much larger busted woman.”
“I think I know why the nurse was suddenly here every day. By all appearances, she was living here.”
“What?” cried Corinne.
“I’m going to bag this up and see if I can get the sheriff to verify who this belongs to. Hopefully, we can get a print off of it somewhere.”
“Would the nurse be in the crime database?” Corinne asked.
“Every nurse is fingerprinted before she is hired, so her prints would most definitely be in that registry,” Brian responded.
“Now I feel almost too creeped out to stay here,” Corinne said.
“I don’t blame you,” Melissa said, “and I certainly can offer to let you stay in my guest room, if you like, but actually, your presence, especially with your rental car out front, is likely enough to deter her from coming back.”
“I hope so,” Corinne responded.
“If she did come back, it would likely be to steal something or to tamper with something,” Brian said, “so it’s best if there is a presence here.”
“I understand. So, do we have a crime here?”
“Well, there are certainly some things that need to be looked into. At the moment, we don’t have anything we could arrest her for, but if this,” he said, indicating the camisole, “does turn out to be hers, we will definitely have something to talk to the County Health people about.”
“Thank you. I so appreciate anything you can do.”
“One more thing, Corinne. It might be helpful if you would call the county and tell them you need to get in touch with his nurse and get any contact information you can. Are you his medical power of attorney?”
“I am, and I’ll take care of that. Do you want me to call you with the info?”
“Please,” Brian responded.
# # #
“Kim? Hey, it’s Melissa. How’s it going? Is everything all right?”
“Oh, yes! We’re having a great time. I’ve been showing him some of the local sites, you know, Tombstone, Bisbee…we’re on our way to Tucson right now.”
“I’m relieved to know you’re having a good time. Tomorrow is Chelsea Bun Day, and you know it’s always wonderful when I have your help.”
“Yes, of course. I’m sorry I haven’t called. I will definitely be there at five.”
Good, thought Melissa, that will give us time to talk, alone.
Melissa had barely disconnected one call and another came in. It was Brian. “Corinne called the County, and guess what? Donna Rae Magnusson is no longer employed with them, and based on that, they couldn’t give her any contact information. Go figure.”
“That does not bode well.”
“No, it doesn’t. I’m going to do my PI snooping thing. Is there any chance of getting any more tests on the body?”
“He’s already been embalmed, but at this point I wouldn’t even know what to look for. The tox screen and physical examination pretty much covers it at this point. You can snoop on your end, and I’ll sleuth on mine. I’m going to see if Dr. Mercer has any ideas.”
Melissa pondered the situation for most of the day. Even though all medical signs pointed to the fact that the death was from natural causes, Corinne’s gut feeling—plus a conceivably fleeing nurse—troubled her.
Late in the afternoon, when she figured that his last patient was gone, Melissa called Dr. Mercer. “Hal,” she said, “I have a medical puzzle that you may be able to help me piece together.”
“Sure,” he replied. “What’s up?”
“A patient on Digitalis experiences a few days of extreme confusion, and even suicidal ideation where he had no depression at all before that. Just before death he’s both tachy and brady. Tox screen showed no digoxin elevation, but low electrolytes.”
“Any evidence of vomiting or diarrhea?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Cramping, dark urine?”
“He was alone, so there’s no way of knowing. He had a nurse, but apparently not a very observant one.”
“Well, it’s a little hard to say. I would expect the heart to be arrhythmic, experiencing some palpitations, but tachy and brady are a bit extreme if he’s not showing other symptoms. But if he wasn’t having diarrhea, why were his electrolytes low?”
“Oddly, I found his prescriptions for the Digitalis and his diuretic, but I saw no evidence of any potassium, calcium, or magnesium supplements.”
“Maybe the nurse took them to have them refilled?”
“That’s what Brian suggested, too. I haven’t called the pharmacy yet.”
“Well, the most telling thing is the suicide ideation. If that came out of nowhere, that sounds more like severe digoxin overdose.”
“That’s what I thought, too, but the tox screen didn’t show it.”
“Hmm…let me think on it.”
“Okay, I appreciate it.”
“Speaking of Brian, Eileen and I would like to have you two for dinner sometime soon.”
“We’d like that. Well, I’d like that, and I’m sure he would agree.”
“When will he be in town again?”
“Actually, he’s here now. He just got some big news, so he drove down to tell me, and then this case came up….”
“Oh, so the mystery patient is actually a case?”
“Yes, Corinne Johnston—er Bailey, now—hired him to look into her father’s death.”
“Well, this sounds interesting. Why don’t you come to dinner tomorrow night? I’d say tonight, but Eileen might kill me if I just call her up and tell her I’m bringing you two for dinner without enough time to prepare.”
Melissa chuckled. “I understand. Maybe we’ll have more information by then, too. We can bring you up to speed then.”
“I look forward to it.”
“Thanks, Hal,” she said.
Chapter 3
Melissa saw that the prescriptions had been filled at a pharmacy in Douglas which she found odd, considering Douglas was 50 miles farther than Nogales, which is where the nearest pharmacy would be. Hmm…maybe she was Hispanic and preferred shopping in Douglas with a higher Spanish-speaking population? But no, a name like Donna Rae Magnusson did not sound Hispanic, even if Magnusson was her married name.
She glanced at the clock and decided to wait until tomorrow to call the pharmacy when she’d have a better chance of talking with the head pharmacist. Her phone rang yet again.
“Are you coming home soon, Melissa?” Brian asked. “We have quite a lot to discuss.”
“Sure, you can meet me there in ten. Vivian can close.”
Vivian agreed to close for her, chiming, “I’ll see you in the morning—Chelsea Bun Day.” Melissa grinned. She loved Vivian’s ever-cheerful demeanor.
# # #
Kim was sparkling when she came in at five to help Melissa. The girl gushed on and on about James’s brother, Brandon.
“It’s very comforting,” Kim said, “to be with someone who reminds me so much of Jim.”
Melissa listened silently while she rolled out bun dough. She brushed it with liquid butter, and Kim spread cinnamon sugar and generous amounts of the various fruits and fillings that Melissa prepared. Then, Melissa rolled them, and Kim cut them and placed them on the pans for the oven.
Through all of this, Kim talked breathlessly.
When the ovens were ready, the two of them loaded the buns in and set the timers. By the time they set the last tim
er, they had a few minutes reprieve before the first timer would announce that its contents were ready for the cooling rack.
“How long did you and Jim go together before you started living together, Kim?”
“Well, we had an online relationship for several months. We were in love when he got here, so we rented the apartment right away.”
“And how long did you live together before you got married?”
“A year,” Kim replied.
“So you had a year to get to know him really well.”
“Yes, but he wasn’t drinking at that point.”
“Does Brandon drink?”
She wouldn’t meet Melissa’s eyes when answering this question. She busied herself preparing the glaze for some of the buns.
“He’s had a few cocktails when we went out to eat.”
“He hasn’t purchased any bottles of booze to drink?”
“Well, he said my bar wasn’t very well stocked, so he helped me by showing me what the best things to keep in it were.”
“Ah. And is he teaching you how to make cocktails?”
“A little. Mostly, he says cocktails are too fussy. He just prefers whisky, neat.” She bit her lip, as she waited for Melissa’s response.
It was all Melissa could do to keep from rolling her eyes or shaking the girl silly.
“Has he talked to you at all about how his parents died?”
She shook her head. “Just that it was very tragic for them all.”
“So he didn’t tell you that his father’s blood alcohol greatly exceeded the limit?”
Kim shook her head again and looked down at the prep table.
“Kim, I realize that you haven’t asked me for advice, and that I’m being really pushy about this. But, believe it or not, we all like you and care for you a lot around here. We don’t want to see you hurt again, physically or psychologically.”
“Are you familiar with Al-anon, Kim?”
“Is that anything like Alcoholics Anonymous?”
“That’s AA, and that’s for the alcoholics themselves. Al-Anon is a support group for people whose lives have been impacted by alcoholics.”
“Oh,” Kim said.
“Would you consider going to something like that?”
“I’m not sure Brandon would like that.”
Melissa nearly came unglued. “Kim! You’ve known the guy for three days and already you’re kowtowing to what he might think if you went to Al-Anon?”
The look on Kim’s face made Melissa realized she had overstepped her boundary. “I’m sorry I sounded angry, Kim. I just don’t want anyone to hurt you again.”
“Yeah, that’s what my mom always used to say, too.”
Now it was Melissa’s turn to bite her lip. She didn’t want her actions to be the same kind that Kim had experienced from everyone her entire life.
“Am I not old enough to start thinking for myself?”
“You are old enough, but I don’t think age or intelligence is what’s in question here.”
“Well, what is, then?”
“Can we approach this from a different angle?”
“I guess so,” was Kim’s response.
“Let’s just inject some logic. Arizona is a community property state. If you marry Brandon and then get divorced, you will have to give him half of the estate. If you live together for three years and separate, you may be liable for palimony, which means you would have to give him a settlement which would allow him to live in the same manner to which he has grown accustomed while he’s with you.”
“Now who’s jumping the gun?” Kim asked.
“We’ve been together for two days and already you have us married and divorced?”
Just then the first timer went off and they got busy removing the hot buns to the cooling racks. After cooling for a short while, Kim started glazing the buns while Melissa prepared more dough to refrigerate in case it looked as though they were going to run out.
The rest of the work went by in silence.
Melissa loaded the pastry case while Kim finished the cleanup. Once that was complete, Kim announced that she was going home to take a shower, and that she would be back at nine to help serve and bus.
When Kim closed the door behind her, Melissa couldn’t help feeling like she had completely blown everything, and that perhaps she had no right to say anything to her at all. But she didn’t really want to apologize, either. She had already apologized for her angry outburst, to apologize further might allow Kim to dismiss the things she had said. Everything she had said was true; she just wasn’t so sure about her method of delivery.
# # #
When the Chelsea bun crowd had died down, Melissa went to her office to make the call to the pharmacy.
“Hi,” she told the aide answering the phone. “I’d like to check on a prescription for potassium for Lloyd Johnston. No, I apologize, I don’t have the prescription number. I have his address, would that help?”
After giving him the address, she was put on hold briefly. “There is no prescription for potassium? I have one for Digoxin and one for Lacex which were recently filled. Are there any others holding? No? All right, then, I appreciate your help.”
It didn’t necessarily mean there weren’t others being filled at the moment, only that they weren’t being filled there. This nurse was definitely spreading things around to try to hide her tracks.
Melissa heard the bell above the door, and when she looked up, she knew she was looking at Brandon. His features showed him to be Jim James’s brother. Not quite as fetching perhaps, but certainly handsome enough. She thought he was probably closer to Kim’s age than to James was.
Since the rest of them could handle what crowd there was left, Melissa told Kim she was welcome to take a break with Brandon. Kim brought him a cup of coffee and proudly set a glazed Chelsea bun in front of him.
“What’s this?” he said.
“This is a famous Chelsea Bun,” she said. “I helped make it.”
Brandon pushed the plate away from him. “I can’t eat stuff like that at this hour of the day.”
“Oh, no problem,” Kim said. “I can box it up, and you can take it with you.”
“Don’t bother,” he said. “It would probably get stale before I would eat it.”
Melissa watched Kim’s face. She thought she saw a shadow of hurt cross it, but Kim was very adept at not showing those things.
Melissa moved away from their table. She had been going to introduce herself to him, but she was too irritated now and wasn’t sure she could keep from showing it.
She kept glancing their way, and they were talking. Or rather, Brandon was talking, Kim was sitting enrapt. After a while, once she let it go, Melissa thought she would try again to introduce herself. Her meditation practice had taught her to try not to be judgmental of people, and she realized she should get to know Brandon James for herself rather than what she feared he would be.
As she approached the table, she heard his voice again.
“I don’t see,” he said to Kim, “why on earth with all the money you have you think it’s necessary to work here. It takes time away from us.”
Melissa deflected, turning away from their table. She went back to get a cloth so that she could wipe the tables. Takes time away from us? Two days and this guy is already talking about us? He and Jim James are definitely two peas in a pod—manipulators all the way.”
She looked back at the table, and, although she couldn’t hear their conversation, she could see the way Kim held her head down. He must be browbeating her about something.
She had to be calm and realize that one can’t save people from themselves. She had said everything she was going to say to Kim James about her life unless she was asked a direct question. However, this was very difficult to watch. So, don’t watch, she told herself. Melissa walked back up to the counter, and shortly after, Kim came to ask her permission to take the afternoon off.
“Sure, Kim. We can handle it now. I rea
lly appreciate you and appreciate your being here to help.”
Kim gave her a thin smile and left with Brando—who hadn’t bothered to introduce himself to anyone nor did Kim try to introduce him.
Flora and Vivian were exchanging looks when Melissa walked up, but Melissa put up her hand. “If it has anything to do with Brandon James, I’m not in a mood to hear it right now.”
Both women retreated and busied themselves at other tasks.
Melissa felt more lighthearted, as she remembered her and Brian’s dinner date at the Mercer’s house. She wondered whether he had heard more from Corinne, so she gave him a call.
“I talked briefly with Corinne, just to bring her up-to-date,” he said. “The big news is that we got a fingerprint from the camisole. I’m waiting now to receive the file, so I can do some more research.”
“I’m going to take off early today, so I can fix a dish to take with us to the Mercer’s home and then get ready. Why don’t you meet me at my house at five-thirty?”
“See you then.”
Chapter 4
Brian looked positively grim as he sat down at Melissa’s kitchen table while she prepared a chopped salad to take with them.
“You won’t even believe this,” he said. “I didn’t. I checked the information three times to make sure I wasn’t doing something wrong. I guess the database doesn’t crosscheck fingerprints because the same fingerprints came up to three different women.”
“Three different women? How could something like that happen?”
He shook his head. “I honestly don’t know. It means she had to falsify a lot of documents, or, I should say, buy a lot of false documents. In order to get fingerprinted, she would have had to present a photo ID and her Social Security card. Then, in order to be listed on the Arizona State Nursing Registry, she would have had to presented documents showing that she passed the NCLEX, that’s the nursing license examination—and she did it all under three different identities. It is mind-blowing that she could do this because there are so many obstacles at so many different points—for the express reason of preventing something like this. Now that I think about it, it’s more likely that she paid someone to hack into the database and alter everything there. Perhaps she is a real nurse, under one of these names, and then it was falsified from there.”