by Joanne Fluke
Hannah shook her head. “Not this time,” she said. “I’m pretty sure Dr. Gene Burroughs is dead. Marlene said Ben told her his brother was dead.”
“Oh, that’s sad,” Michelle said.
Hannah flipped through the pages. There were family photos, school portraits, snapshots of Christmas and other holidays. They were followed by graduation pictures and announcements. There was Dr. Gene Burroughs standing with a class of graduates, and an announcement of his graduation from medical school. Then there was the same type of photo of Ben, and the announcement of his medical school graduation.
“Here’s the last page,” Hannah said, flipping it over and staring at a clipping from the Seattle Times. The headline read, Local Doctor Murdered In Alley Behind Jazz Club, and there was a picture of Dr. Gene Burroughs.
“What is it?” Delores asked as Hannah gasped.
“It’s an article about Ben’s brother Gene. He’s dead. He was stabbed in the chest with a broken beer bottle in the alley behind a Seattle jazz club called Jazzmen.”
“Did they catch the killer?” Michelle asked.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t say. And there’s nothing else here except ...” Hannah stopped speaking and unfolded a piece of paper that was stuck to the back cover of the album.
“What is it?” Michelle asked when Hannah was silent.
“It’s a photo of the band that was playing the night that Ben’s brother was stabbed. They’re called Ticket To Tulsa.”
Michelle leaned closer to look at the photo. “That’s Buddy!” she said, and her voice was shaking. “His hair’s blond in the photo, but it’s him.”
“You’re right,” Hannah said. “It’s definitely Buddy. I wonder if Ben recognized him.”
“It’s Ben’s photo,” Delores pointed out. “I’m sure he must have noticed the resemblance. Even I noticed it and I only saw Buddy after he was ...” Delores stopped speaking and gave a little gulp. “Girls!”
“What is it, Mother?” Hannah asked.
“Ben must have known Buddy in Seattle. That much is clear. You don’t think that Ben ... that Ben killed Buddy, do you?”
Hannah was speechless for a moment and then she reached a conclusion. “I don’t know,” she said, “but we’d better show this photo album to Mike.”
“And we’d better get out of here,” Michelle added, grabbing the book from Hannah’s hands. “Let’s go, Mother.”
“Come on, Hannah.” Delores motioned to her. “Hurry! It’s too dangerous to stay here. Ben could be the killer!”
Hannah shook her head. “You two go and find Mike. Give him that scrapbook and tell him everything you know. I’ll be along in a minute. I just want to go through that box marked Mementos. There could be something important in there.”
“I think you should come with us now,” Delores argued.
“It’s okay, Mother. Ben’s working until eight tonight, and it’s only eleven in the morning. You know his schedule. You looked it up yourself. Just go on ahead with Michelle and I’ll meet you later.”
The first thing Hannah did after her mother and Michelle left was to get the silver watch and slip it into her purse. If Ben had killed Buddy, it could be important to the murder investigation. Then she went into Ben’s living room and dragged the heavy box to the couch. She had no intention of leaving Ben’s apartment. She was going to stay right here, gathering possible evidence, until her sister and her mother got back with Mike.
A little tingle of apprehension gave Hannah pause. She would have felt more secure if Ben’s apartment had been several miles from his workplace, but she convinced herself that she was perfectly safe. Ben was busy seeing patients and he had no idea that she was searching his apartment.
Hannah used the scissors on the coffee table to slit the tape on the box. So far everything they’d found was circumstantial. She didn’t expect to find a handwritten confession in the box, or the pair of gloves that Ben had worn when he stabbed Buddy Neiman in the treatment room, but a box labeled Mementos might contain something from Ben’s life in Seattle that would be useful.
Once she’d opened the box, Hannah removed the items one by one. She found photos of Ben’s parents, smiling at the camera, and one of the family dog romping with Gene. There was another of Ben and Gene in a rowboat on a lake. They were smiling and holding up fish on a stringer.
A stuffed toy cat was near the bottom of the box. One ear was shorter than the other. It had been mended with black thread, and Hannah decided that it had probably been a childhood toy. And then, very near the bottom, she pulled out a framed photo of Gene standing on stage with the man Hannah had known as Buddy Neiman. The photo was inscribed near the bottom right corner in silver ink. It read For my good friend, Gene. And it was signed Chaz Peyton.
That was when she heard it, a key in the lock. It wasn’t Mike. Even if they’d found him right away, he couldn’t have gotten here that fast. And it couldn’t be Michelle or Delores. There was no reason for them to come back. And if it wasn’t any of them, it had to be ...
Ben! No time to put things back in the box and tape it up. She had to get out. Now! He’d spot her if she tried to go out the back way. Ben had what was called a shotgun apartment. If you opened the front door and opened the back door, anyone standing on the steps outside could fire a shotgun straight through the apartment without hitting anything. No time to get out. And that meant she had to hide.
Quick as a bunny, the phrase flew through Hannah’s mind. But didn’t a very frightened bunny freeze? Her feet felt frozen to the floor, but she forced them to move to a spot just to the left of the front door. When Ben opened it, she’d be hidden. He’d spot the open box, walk over to it, and she’d slip out the door while his back was turned, and make a run for it.
The door opened. Hannah caught the knob so that it wouldn’t bounce back and close. Then she counted to five, just time enough for Ben to spot the box and walk over to it.
Cautiously, she peeked out. Yes! Just as she’d expected, he’d walked across the floor to the box. He was standing there staring at the contents, his back to her. It was time to get out. Now!
Hannah stepped out, her heart pounding so hard she was afraid he’d hear it, and slipped out the open doorway. And then she broke into a run for her very life.
Chapter Thirty
He’d seen her. She knew that from the pounding footfalls she heard behind her. Hannah ran down the hallway as fast as she could. She opened the door to the hospital corridor, dashed through, and made a sharp turn to the left, thanking her lucky stars that she was wearing her tennis shoes.
She’d never been down this corridor before. Lake Eden Memorial Hospital was expanding and this section was still under construction. Her hope was that Ben would expect her to flee in a straight line and not to veer off into a construction zone.
The lighting was dim in this section. The overhead fluorescents had yet to be installed, and only the occasional bare incandescent bulb hung from the open ceiling. This was uncharted territory for her, and her hope was that it would be uncharted territory for Ben as well.
Hannah rounded a corner and saw a door. It was painted bright yellow, and that was a good sign, wasn’t it? She paused, wondering if she should take a chance and go in.
The running footfalls she heard behind her were the deciding factor. Hannah yanked the door open and ran into another corridor. This one seemed to be leading downward and it was tiled. The walls were painted institutional green, and she passed another door with a stenciled sign on it that read Engine Room, and she knew where she was.
She was in the basement of the hospital. She remembered taking a tour when it was first built and the tour had included the basement. It ran under the entire hospital and it housed the power plant, the backup generators, the furnace, and the air conditioners. If she remembered correctly, there were also several storerooms for things like medical and janitorial supplies. There had once been a cafeteria in the corner of the basement, but it had closed several ye
ars ago and a new cafeteria for visitors and hospital workers was under construction on the ground floor as part of the expansion project.
Ben was gaining on her and Hannah didn’t know what to do. It had been over ten years since she’d taken the tour of the hospital basement and she couldn’t remember how to get up to the ground floor. Even if she did manage to locate a stairway, he’d catch her going up the stairs. It would be smarter to hide down here and use her cell phone to let Mike know where she was.
As she rounded the next corner, she saw a another door. She skidded to a stop, tugged it open, and ran into a large room. Then she stood leaning against the closed door, catching her breath, and hoping he hadn’t spotted her. She couldn’t keep running like this forever. There was a limit to her endurance.
Someone ran past the door. It had to be Ben. She heard his footfalls fade into the distance, and gave a sigh of relief. She was safe, at least for a while. But she didn’t know where she was.
It was quite dark in the cavernous room, and it took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the dim light. Low wattage bulbs were glowing in some ceiling fixtures, and Hannah could make out massive brushed steel cabinets with pull out drawers against the back wall. Perhaps this was a supply room?
A steel shelving unit sat against the wall, just to her left. It contained pairs of folded scrubs and plastic aprons. There were masks on the top shelf, along with booties, the type that operating room doctors wore, and there was a large sink on the opposite wall, the kind you’d find just outside an operating room.
A steel operating table was positioned in the center of the room. Next to it was a rolling cart that held a scale. A second steel cart was filled with various basins, beakers, and glass containers.
The tiled floor sloped down to a line of drains, the type you’d see in showers or locker rooms. It was clear that this room had been designed for easy cleaning. All you’d really have to do was hose it down. Any debris on the floor would wash down the drains.
Hannah spotted a microphone hanging from the ceiling over the operating table. There was also something that looked like a video recorder. What type of patient would give his doctor permission to record his surgery? And what type of operating room would be equipped this way?
She walked over to take a look as the two questions circled in her mind. She was stymied for a brief moment. and then she had the answer. A dead patient wouldn’t object if the doctor recorded his operation, and the pull-out drawers were built to contain dead bodies waiting for autopsies. She’d never seen this room before because it hadn’t been included in the tour she’d taken. She was hiding in the Lake Eden Hospital morgue!
Chapter Thirty-One
Hannah whirled as the door crashed open and the bright overhead lights flashed on, nearly blinding her. She blinked, and then, when she saw who was standing there, she gasped in fear. He’d found her! Ben had found her!
“Did you really think you could hide from me?” he asked.
“I ... yes! Yes, I did!” There was a button on the side of the autopsy table and Hannah surreptitiously reached out to press it. She hoped that it was the right button to turn on the microphone and the video camera. If Ben killed her, Mike would know who did it.
“I saw you duck in here. I would have come in right away, but I wanted to get a little something for you.” Ben held up his hand so she could see the syringe he carried. “I need to leave Lake Eden right now. And you’re trying to stop me.”
“No! No, I’m not. Go ahead. Leave!”
Ben laughed, but there was no humor in it. “I’ve got a little unfinished business first, and my unfinished business is you. I know you saw that photo, and I know you figured it out. Doc told me you were a good detective.”
“Figured what out” Hannah asked, stalling for time even though she hadn’t had the chance to call Mike to tell him where she was.
“That I killed Chaz. You put it all together when you saw that picture of Gene and Chaz, didn’t you?” Ben took a step closer, and Hannah backed up. “Come on now. I’ve got a nice injection for you. It won’t hurt a bit, I promise.”
“No!” Hannah shouted as loud as she could.
“Screaming won’t do you any good. Freddy’s already been down here to get supplies, and we don’t have any autopsies scheduled for today.”
Keep him talking, Hannah’s mind advised. So she asked, “Are you sure Buddy killed your stepbrother?”
“I’m sure. I was there at Jazzmen that night and they were arguing when I walked in.”
“What about?”
“They didn’t say anything in front of me, but I think it was about the dentist.”
“What dentist?”
“A dentist they both knew. Gene met her at the free clinic. He volunteered there one afternoon a week, and so did she. She told him she liked jazz, and he took her to Jazzmen. Ticket To Tulsa was playing, and Gene introduced her to Chaz. And a couple of weeks later, she dumped Gene and started going out with Chaz.”
A terrible suspicion crossed Hannah’s mind. “What was her name?” she asked.
“I don’t know. They never talked about her in front of me, and I never met her.”
“Then you didn’t hang out with Gene at Jazzmen?”
Ben shook his head. “I was in med school, and I didn’t have much free time. And I’ve never been a big jazz fan like Gene was. I just dropped in that night to have a quick drink with him, and then I left because I had to study for a chem test. Now I wish I’d stayed. Then everybody would still be alive.”
Hannah was silent, and so was Ben. They both stood there like statues, unmoving and barely breathing. Hannah was afraid to ask any more questions. She didn’t want to break the spell. And then Ben spoke again.
“I wish I hadn’t killed him. I wasn’t going to, you know. I just wanted him to tell me what happened. But then he said something about Gene that made me see red. And the next thing I knew, he was dead.”
“You snapped. That’s temporary insanity, and it’s your defense. Put the syringe down and let me call the best lawyer in town for you.”
“I can’t go to jail. It’ll kill me. I couldn’t stand to be locked up! My way’s better. I’ll get out of here and no one will ever find me.”
“Listen to me,” Hannah said, but she could tell it wouldn’t work. Ben’s eyes had turned hard and cold again, and he took another step closer.
“Noooo!” Hannah shouted. She tried to back up, but there was nowhere to go. She was up against the stationery autopsy table. Ben had her cornered. “Somebody! Help me!”
“What are you doing, Doctor Ben?”
Both Hannah and Ben turned toward the door. Freddy Sawyer was there, and he was pushing a gurney into the room.
“Get out of here, Freddy!” Ben ordered.
“No, Freddy. Don’t go!” Hannah contradicted him. “Doctor Ben is trying to hurt me.”
Freddy looked at Ben with a puzzled expression. “You can’t hurt people, Doctor Ben. Doctors are supposed to help people.”
“I am helping her, Freddy. She’s sick and I’m going to give her some medicine.”
“I’m not sick,” Hannah insisted.
“Isn’t that silly, Freddy? Hannah’s afraid to get an injection. I’m a doctor. All I want to do is help her.”
“He’s lying to you, Freddy. He’s going to hurt me. Doctor Ben is just like your cousin Jed.”
“Jed?!” Freddy began to frown. “I remember Jed. He was bad!”
“Get out of here, Freddy! I’m a doctor. You have to obey the doctor’s orders. Now leave or I’ll make sure Doc fires you!”
“I won’t leave. Not if you’re going to hurt Hannah. She said you’re like Jed. And Hannah doesn’t lie.”
Ben took another step toward Hannah, and that was when Freddy went into action. He shoved the gurney forward with such force, it knocked Ben right off his feet, and he landed hard on the tile floor. At the same time, the syringe went flying, Hannah ducked, and it landed next to Ben’s unc
onscious body.
For a moment, Hannah was too shocked to react, but she quickly recovered. “Help me get him on the gurney, Freddy. We have to strap him down before he wakes up.”
“I can do it,” Freddy said, picking Ben up like a sack of potatoes and dumping him on the gurney. “Doctor Marlene taught me how. She said I was the best gurney strapper she’d ever seen.”
Hannah watched, fascinated, as Freddy secured a maze of straps around Ben’s arms and legs. “You have to do this so they won’t hurt themselves,” he explained.
“Exactly right,” Hannah told him, and then she gave him a little hug. “And now Doctor Ben can’t hurt me either. Marlene is right. You’re the best gurney strapper I’ve ever seen.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
It was Friday morning and it seemed that spring was finally here. It was a balmy forty-nine degrees outside, and Hannah felt like opening the back door to let in the air, but she had six pans of Angel Kisses cooling on the baker’s rack, and it was important to keep meringue cookies out of drafts until they were completely cool.
A lot had happened since her chase down the hospital corridors. Ben Matson was in jail awaiting trial, but his defense lawyer was hopeful. Just as Hannah had thought, his lawyer would claim temporary insanity. The police lab had tested the syringe he’d attempted to use on Hannah, and they’d discovered that it contained a powerful sedative, enough to knock her out for three or four hours, but not enough to kill her. All Ben had intended to do was to give himself time to get away.
The button Hannah had pressed on the side of the autopsy table had indeed activated the microphone and the video camera. Ben’s confession that he’d killed the man they now knew was Chaz Peyton had recorded in sound and full color. The only unanswered question was whether the dentist that Gene and Chaz had both dated was Doctor Bev Thorndike.
“Your mother and Doc are coming over,” Lisa said, coming through the swinging door into the kitchen. “They got the DNA test results.”