Do No Harm

by Dawn Eastman

  “Divide and conquer?” Matt said.

  35

  Wednesday afternoon, Katie pulled into the small neighborhood of bungalows and ranches about a mile outside campus. She had lucked out when she arranged the meeting. Hope had the day off due to parent-teacher conferences. Two young children played in the yard and stopped their game of kicking a ball back and forth in a lackluster fashion.

  They stood and stared at her as she got out of the car. The older one, who was maybe about seven, grabbed the ball and ran inside yelling, “Mom! Someone’s here!”

  The younger one slid a thumb in her mouth as she watched Katie approach. “Hi,” Katie said. “How are you?”

  The little girl ran up the steps and into the house, slamming the door behind her. Katie convinced herself the girl had been trained in “stranger danger” protocol and wasn’t just frightened because Katie seemed threatening. She straightened her shoulders and faced the house. She couldn’t be that scary. All of her pediatric patients loved her. The nurses gave the shots, allowing Katie to be untainted by the trauma. She noticed movement in the window and glanced over to see both kids watching her climb the steps to the porch. She didn’t have a chance to knock before the door swung open.

  “Hi, you must be Dr. LeClair,” the woman said. She was taller than Katie by an inch or so and had long golden hair pulled up into a ponytail. Katie recognized her from all the photos she had seen online. She smiled warmly at Katie and opened the door wider to allow her to enter.

  Katie put her hand out once she was in the entryway. “Call me Katie, please. You’re Hope?”

  The woman nodded. “Please come in. Welcome to the chaos!”

  Hope gestured to a family room cluttered with trucks, dolls, board games, and DVD cases. It looked like a hurricane had been through. Hope rolled her eyes at Katie. “It’s okay; you can be shocked. It’s the reason they were outside playing. I went upstairs for about two minutes, and this is what they did. Normally, I’d make them clean up, but I promised them a movie to watch when you came.”

  Hope turned to her son. “Okay, you can start the movie, but keep the volume low.”

  The kids plunked down in front of the TV and ignored the two adults.

  “Let’s go into the kitchen. They should be good for at least fifteen minutes.”

  Katie followed her down the hallway to the kitchen, which was bright and cheerful. The walls were painted a soft yellow, complementing the blue countertops and white tile backsplash. A red table with colorful mismatched chairs sat against one wall, and large windows looked into the backyard. The effect was one of homey comfort.

  Hope offered Katie coffee and used one of those fancy machines with the little plastic cups of coffee grounds. She put the mug in front of Katie and sat across the kitchen table with her own drink.

  “You said on the phone that you wanted to talk about Heather?” Hope said.

  Katie nodded, grateful for Hope’s straightforward manner. She had decided to lead with Eugene’s situation in case Hope hadn’t yet connected the dots that Taylor was the missing girl. Katie knew from Taylor’s notes that they had met.

  “I met Eugene Lowe recently, and I wanted to find out more about the events surrounding Heather’s death.”

  “You’re a doctor, though, not a lawyer, right?”

  Katie nodded. “I am, but you see, Eugene has had a tough reentry into society, and I’m trying to figure out how best to help him.”

  Hope shook her head. “I’m not sure I can help you. And honestly, I’m not sure I would want to if I could.” Hope turned and looked out the window. When she looked back at Katie, there were tears in her eyes. “Heather was my best friend. Losing her was devastating. Not only because we were so close, but also because the campus that I’d grown to love was suddenly dangerous and scary.”

  “I’m so sorry for your loss,” Katie said. “I’m sure it was a very difficult time.”

  Hope pulled a tissue out of the box that sat on the table and dabbed her eyes. “What’s been happening to Eugene Lowe?” she asked.

  “There have been some threats, some damage to his property, and some violence.”

  “Oh, I see. Baxter doesn’t want him back?”

  “You could say that.”

  “Like I said, I’m the last person who would want to help him, Dr. LeClair. I never thought ten years was enough.”

  “What if he was innocent?”

  Hope sniffled. “What?”

  “What if he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and he never touched Heather?”

  “Is that what he claims?”

  “I think it’s what he has always claimed.”

  Hope nodded. “I guess I do remember that.”

  “I’m trying to piece together Heather’s life leading up to that Halloween party to see if anything got missed before,” Katie said. “The truth is, I’m worried someone has gotten away with murder all these years.”

  “Mama?” the little girl stood in the doorway, her thumb in her mouth again. “Why you crying?”

  “I’m fine, sweetheart,” Hope said. “Do you need something?”

  “Go potty.”

  “Excuse me,” Hope said. “I’ll be right back.”

  She hustled her daughter out of the room. Katie wondered if this had been a waste of time. Maybe this whole thing was a waste of time. But if Eugene was innocent, that meant a murderer had been free all this time. And she was convinced that whoever had killed Taylor had also killed Heather. She felt a shiver of dread as she followed her line of thought. If Taylor had been killed because she had learned something about Heather’s death, what would that mean for Katie? And Caleb. Even Matt might be in danger just for helping. It was too late now to back away from this investigation, but she’d better figure things out quickly.

  Hope came back into the room. “Sorry about that.” She sat down again.

  Katie could sense she had come to a decision. She braced herself for Hope telling her there was nothing she could do to help.

  “I do have a couple of things I remember that always bothered me. To be honest, I tried not to think about them at all, but maybe it will help.”

  Katie waited and nodded to encourage her.

  “Heather always had boyfriends. She was the sort of girl who collected admirers but never really committed, you know?”

  Katie took a sip of coffee and, thinking of Gabrielle, nodded again.

  “That fall, she had met someone who really turned things around on her. Instead of her being chased, she was doing the chasing. My sense was that she had just met her match in the manipulation game.” Hope stopped and blushed. “I know that sounds terrible to say. She really was my best friend, but I never liked the way she treated the guys in her life. Partly because I was always the one picking up the pieces when she moved on to the next one. I don’t know why Brad stayed in the apartment after the way she treated him. Even after she broke up with him, he still followed her every move. It wasn’t until after she died that we got together. Anyway, she met this older guy, and they were having a pretty intense thing for a while. She’d been dating another student, Nate, who seemed like a nice guy and gorgeous. I could never figure out why she ended it with him. But I guess this older guy swept her off her feet. I know it sounds awful, but I was almost glad to see the tables turned on her.”

  “Do you remember his name?” Katie had leaned forward in her chair.

  “Russ something. He was her TA in a psych or sociology course she was taking.”

  Katie swallowed. It couldn’t be. “Russell Hunt?”

  “That’s it!” Hope said. “But how did you know that?”

  “I think I saw it in one of the newspaper articles from the time,” Katie lied.

  “Well, anyway, I think the police did talk to him, because he was the last person she had called and she was found not far from his apartment.”

  “Really? I didn’t realize that.” Katie didn’t need to tell Hope she had access to the phone r
ecords from Taylor’s files. She wanted to keep her talking and feeling like she was being helpful. Katie had found that the more excited she seemed at the information a patient gave, the more likely they were to offer more. And she had gotten some new information. She hadn’t realized that Russell had lived close to the Law Quad where Heather had been found. Or that they were much more serious than he had claimed.

  Hope nodded. “I always wondered why she was found where she was. She never would have cut through the Law Quad on her own. She thought it was creepy at night. And, of course, it was a mess at that time. But she must have been desperate to see him. I know they had some kind of argument at the party, because she followed him outside, and when I saw her come back in she looked upset. I asked her what was wrong, and she said Russ was being a jerk but it was nothing a few shots of vodka couldn’t cure.”

  Katie thought back to the file about Russell. She wondered if Taylor had known all of this, or if she had known only what was in the police report.

  “Hope, this might seem like a weird question, but has anyone else contacted you to talk about Heather’s death?”

  “No, not recently.”

  “But at some point?”

  Hope looked down at her coffee mug. “About two years ago we were at a block party—we had just moved in—and I got talking to one of our neighbors. They lived just down the street. He was an ex–police officer and he said he recognized me from that time. We got talking, and I told him the same thing I just told you.” She hesitated and took a deep breath. “He got irritated with me, claiming I should have come forward with the information about Heather and her TA. I said I assumed they knew, since I knew he’d been interviewed.”

  “Did anything ever come of it?”

  Hope shook her head. “Not really. The family moved out about a year ago. He had died from a heart attack, and the wife and kids moved across town. I think I heard they had moved in with the wife’s mother, who was in poor health but had a bigger house. Anyway, I did hear from Taylor, the daughter, a week or so ago. She said she was going through her dad’s things and doing a project for school and just wanted to verify some things about Heather’s death.”

  “And you told her what you just told me?”

  Hope nodded. “It seemed like she already knew everything. She said her dad had kept notes for years trying to figure out what might have happened because he never believed it was Eugene.”

  Katie struggled with herself. Should she tell Hope about Taylor? Should she leave it for now? She wondered if Taylor had known this part about Russell Hunt. It wasn’t in her notes. Was it possible that Taylor had died because she knew? And, if so, was Hope now in danger?

  “Hope, I have some bad news for you. Have you heard about the young woman who was found strangled in Baxter?”

  Hope nodded, her eyes wide. “I just heard a snippet on the news this morning but switched it off right away. I don’t like the kids hearing about every bad thing that happens.”

  “The young woman was Taylor Knox.”

  Hope’s eyes filled with tears again. Her hand went to her mouth, and she just stared at Katie for a long moment. “Oh that poor girl. And her poor mother. Oh my God.” Hope stood up and paced around the kitchen.

  “Mom?” a small voice said from the hallway. The boy came into the room and looked at his mother, then cast an angry look at Katie. Probably assuming—rightly so—that Katie had distressed his mom.

  Hope spun around and tried to smile at her son. “What do you need, honey?”

  “Just a drink for me and Lizzie.”

  Hope went to the fridge and pulled out two juice boxes. The boy’s eyes went wide. This must be a special treat. “Thanks, Mom.” He ran out of the room with no further concerns about his mother’s emotional state.

  “I don’t want to scare you, Hope,” Katie began. “But it’s possible that Taylor was killed because she was looking into Eugene’s case.” Katie held up her hands at Hope’s surprised expression. “I can’t be sure, and I don’t know if the police are pursuing this line of questioning, but just be careful.”

  “Be careful?” Hope said. “What does that even mean? I have two little kids. I don’t know anything.” Hope sat and put her head in her hands. “I knew it would be a bad idea to talk about this again. I remember Nate telling us to all keep quiet and only answer direct questions.”

  “Heather’s ex-boyfriend said that?”

  Hope nodded. “His dad was a lawyer, and Nate said we should just lie low.”

  Katie paused, wondering how to proceed with her next question.

  “But did you know anything that would help the police?”

  “No! I don’t think so.” Hope stood and dumped her coffee in the sink. “We had all been drinking a lot that night. I don’t remember what time I got home, or what time I went to bed. Nate said we should all alibi each other and then we’d be out of it.”

  “So you lied?” Katie asked quietly.

  “Not really. I told them I didn’t really remember anything, and by the time they questioned us, they already had Eugene in custody. It didn’t seem to matter if I came home at ten thirty or midnight.” Hope turned to face Katie. “I was clear that I didn’t really remember, which I didn’t, but I told them the story that we had all agreed to.”

  “That you were all back to the apartment before Heather was killed?”

  Hope nodded and sat across the table from Katie. “I thought I was doing the right thing. In fact, I don’t even remember now which one of us came up with the time and the story. It could have been Brad or even Alicia.”

  Katie didn’t know what to make of Hope’s story. She had definitely noticed the discrepancy in their statements to the police, but what did it mean? Were they just kids trying to keep their heads down? Or did one of them know more than they had said?

  “Mom! Lizzie spilled her juice box!”

  “Did not! You did!” Lizzie yelled at her brother.

  “I’ll be right there,” Hope called into the other room.

  “Thank you for talking to me, Hope,” Katie said. She stood and held out her hand. “I won’t take up any more of your time.”

  Hope followed her to the door.

  “Dr. LeClair, will you let me know what you find out?”

  “Of course,” Katie said. She pulled open the door and stepped outside, shutting it on the juice box catastrophe.

  36

  Katie drove back to Baxter on autopilot. Thoughts were flying through her mind so quickly, she could barely acknowledge one before the next shoved its way to the forefront. It was like trying to keep track of a multicar accident. Which victim was the most hurt? Which one could wait to be treated? Her fingers itched to write in her notebook and to compare her new and unwelcome theory to the rest of her information. She had to tell Caleb and Matt to see what they thought.

  She also had to tell Gabrielle.

  Katie took the exit to Baxter a little too quickly and had to focus to make the turn without driving into the ditch. Apparently, distracted driving didn’t apply only to people looking at their phones. Contemplating the possibility that your best friend was dating a double murderer could throw off your driving skills as well.

  That’s what this all came down to. Gabrielle might be in love with a murderer. And how was Katie going to tell her? Should she wait and be sure that he was a likely suspect or tell her right away? Was Gabrielle in danger?

  Katie argued with herself all the way home and was still arguing when she pulled into her driveway. She got out and went inside.

  Caleb was in the living room, laptop open but staring into space.

  “Hey,” Katie said. “What’s up?”

  “It’s finished,” Caleb said.

  “What is?”

  “My app. I just worked out the last bug and I’ve got a beta tester running it through its paces, but I think it’s done with only two days to spare before Halloween.”

  “Caleb, that’s awesome!” Katie said. She held up her ha
nd for a high five, and Caleb tapped her hand with his. “How come you don’t seem very excited?”

  “I am, but now I’m also nervous. I’m going to send it out into the world and wait to see how many stars it gets.”

  “I see,” Katie said. And she did understand, sort of. He’d been working so hard on the app that she had forgotten about the judgy aspect of releasing something you care about into the great unknown. It might be like putting your kid on the school bus for the first time. You had to let it fend for itself. “You’re about to give up control of where it goes and what it does.”

  “Yeah. I’ll be a terrible parent. I can’t imagine handing over my car keys to some teenager.”

  Katie laughed. “That’s what I was just thinking. At least your app won’t crash your car.”

  “No, just my reputation,” Caleb said. He took a breath and smiled. “I think we should celebrate with one of those girly drinks you made the other night.”

  Katie suppressed a self-satisfied smile and went into the kitchen for the ingredients. When she came back, the laptop was closed and Caleb looked a little less bereft.

  “Want something to take your mind off the nervousness?” She handed him a martini glass.

  “Always,” Caleb said, and took a big swig of his drink.

  “Not the drink, a puzzle,” Katie said.

  Caleb’s face lit up. “Of course,” he said. He leaned forward and put the drink on the table.

  “Matt is on his way; let’s wait for him, and then I have an interesting story for you.”

  Right on cue, the doorbell rang.

  “I’ll get it,” Caleb said, and hopped up to answer the door.

  Katie heard mumbled voices and a bit of backslapping from the front hall. Matt and Caleb came into the room grinning.

  “Did you hear?” Matt said. “The app is ready to go.”

  “Yes, I heard,” Katie said. “Want a drink?”

  “Sure.” Matt frowned at Katie’s martini. “But maybe not one of those.”