Reversal of Fortune (A Claire Rollins Mystery Book 2)

by J A Whiting

  “You can’t feel guilty,” Nicole declared. “You probably saved the doctor’s life. You could not stay in the apartment with him for all of the reasons you just mentioned. I should have gone with you. What if the person who attacked Dr. Dodd was still in there?”

  “Then I guess he would have attacked me, too,” Claire mumbled weakly.

  Nicole groaned. “You know … my life was a lot less dramatic before I met you.”

  A little smile spread over Claire’s lips. “You mean your life was a lot more boring before you met me.”

  “That, too.” Nicole headed for her kitchen. “I’m going to make you some toast and tea. That will make you feel better.” In a few minutes she returned to the sitting room with a tray carrying teacups, honey, and two small plates with buttered toast. “I decided it looked good so I’m having some, too.”

  Claire thanked her friend and slid a bit on the sofa cushion to get closer to the coffee table. “What should I do about telling Vanessa?”

  “Nothing.” Nicole added a spoonful of honey to her tea. “People know Dr. Dodd at the hospital. God, his face has been plastered all over the news, everyone must know who he is. Someone will notify her that he’s been brought in.”

  “It feels awful to know and not tell her.”

  “It’s the right thing to do. It will be okay.” Nicole tilted her head slightly. “What made you leave the chocolate shop so quickly to go to find Dr. Dodd?”

  “When we were sitting by the window, remember we saw that woman trip and the other person help her? The word help kept echoing in my head. The other day, Tony told me that Dr. Dodd needed help and asked why no one was helping the man. He meant because Dodd seemed to be losing it, but when he said those words, they kept repeating in my head. When we were at the shop, it suddenly hit me that I needed to find Dr. Dodd. I knew he needed help.” Claire shrugged.

  “Well, I bet you saved his life.” Nicole frowned. “Not sure that’s a good thing.”

  “I know, but I had to do it.”

  “I understand. I would’ve done the same thing.”

  “I’m feeling on edge, Nic … about the attacker. We need to figure out who did it.”

  “How can we do that?” Nicole didn’t think it would be possible to determine who attacked Dodd. They had no clues and no one stood out. “He may have killed the two women who might’ve wanted revenge on him. Who’s left who would want him dead? Could the attack have been random?”

  “No,” Claire’s voice was emphatic. “It definitely wasn’t random.”

  Nicole sucked in a nervous breath. “Not Vanessa or Maddy? It can’t be them.”

  “I thought we took them off the suspect list when you and Vanessa found the rope in their kitchen? I was with Maddy and you were with Vanessa. Neither one had time alone to get the rope and drop it in the kitchen.” Claire shook her head. “No, I don’t feel that either one has anything to do with any part of this mess.”

  Nicole slumped back against the cushion. “Except live in the mess that somebody made for them.”

  Claire looked across the room, focusing on nothing. Her chest tightened, a rope of anxiety choking her. “Something’s on the air.”

  Nicole shifted her eyes to her friend and waited.

  “We need to figure it out. Fast.” The muscles in Claire’s body tensed and she whispered, “I feel like it’s right in front of us, staring us in the face.”

  “Don’t get all wonky on me.” Nicole could feel the anxiety and sense of panic pouring off of Claire. “You just came back from a horrible scene. You cannot start getting all shook up again. It’s important to stay level-headed. Listen, Dr. Dodd will wake up and he’ll be able to tell the police about his attacker.”

  “You’re right.” Claire tried the breathing-deeply method to calm herself. “I need to clear my head.”

  “Maybe the doctor even knows the person who attacked him,” Nicole offered cheerfully. “Then the guy will be in custody before we know it.”

  Claire sat bolt upright. “I think he does know the person who attacked him. But how would he? Who could it be?”

  Nicole sat straight. “What about Bob Cooney? He doesn’t exactly seem like an upstanding guy. He might have killed Dodd over money. He could have easily gone back to the bar after he killed him so he’d have an alibi.”

  “I don’t think it’s Cooney.” Ice cold anxiety gripped Claire’s stomach. “And I don’t think the doctor is going to wake up in time to stop what’s going to happen next.”

  Nicole shivered. “You’re scaring me.”

  Claire stood up and started pacing around the room. “Think. We have to think.” She walked up and down the length of the living room for a few minutes before wheeling around. “Cooney told us Dr. Dodd was paranoid. The doctor thought someone was after him.” Ideas swirled in her head. “If that’s true, who would it be? Who might be angry at him besides his daughters?”

  “Well, he’s a doctor. One of his patients could be angry over something.” Nicole had another idea. “Or one of the women he dated and ditched might want to get back at him.”

  Pieces of the puzzle began to align in Claire’s mind. “You’re a genius. I bet that could be it, one of his patients.” She said excitedly, “Let’s look up Dr. Dodd. Look for any malpractice cases against him.”

  They moved to the kitchen table and after a few clicks on the keyboard, pages of information showed on the screen.

  “Here are some things.” Nicole leaned forward to better read the information.

  It took more than fifteen minutes to sort through the material on the computer and to follow from one thread to another. They were about to give up on the idea when Nicole said, “Wait a minute.” She pointed to the words on the laptop with a shaky finger. “Look at this.”

  Claire read what it said. “Geoffrey Matthew McAdams vs. Dr. Ronald Dodd.” Her vision began to spin. “Matthew McAdams … Matthew Adams, that’s the name of the guy Vanessa was dating. He’s using only part of his name. What does the article say?”

  Nicole paraphrased. “McAdams’s wife died while in surgery with Dr. Dodd. It was a second surgery. The first one didn’t go well so Dodd did a different procedure, but was unable to save the woman. McAdams sued. The doctor was cleared of any wrong-doing.”

  “Is there a picture of this McAdams person?” Claire asked.

  Nicole tapped at the keys and let out a gasp. “It’s him. The guy we met.” She looked up at Claire. “Oh, no. It’s Vanessa’s Matthew, isn’t it? This is too weird. He sued the doctor over his wife’s death and didn’t get satisfaction from the court or medical board.” Nicole’s hand went to her throat. “Did he take things into his own hands and try to kill the doctor?”

  “Every time Vanessa brought that guy up, I got a strange feeling. Maddy didn’t like him when she met him. He’s started harassing Vanessa recently.”

  “So what? He attacks Dr. Dodd because he lost the case against him?” Nicole narrowed her eyes. “He starts dating the doctor’s daughter? Why?”

  “To get back at the doctor,” Claire suggested.

  Nicole shook her head. “It can’t be true. It’s too outlandish.”

  Claire leveled her eyes at her friend. “Isn’t everything about this case outlandish?”

  “Are we jumping to conclusions? Is this possible?”

  “His wife died under the doctor’s care. He sued, but didn’t get the outcome he hoped for. Vanessa said that Matthew isn’t someone who appreciates the word no. If he was angry enough … who knows?”

  Nicole’s phone buzzed with a text. “It’s Vanessa. She’s at the hospital. Her father has been stabbed and is in critical condition, but is expected to live. He’s unconscious. She’s going to stay there.”

  Nicole sent off a text with words of sympathy and a question asking if the police knew who attacked her father. She read the reply aloud. “No one knows who did it.”

  Claire’s heart thudded. “Ask Vanessa if Maddy is with her.”

&nbs
p; Nicole sent the text and an answer came in almost immediately. “It says, ‘Maddy wouldn’t come with me to the hospital. She stayed at Claire’s.’”

  Claire stood up, her blue eyes dark. “Maddy.” The word was like a wisp on the air.

  An expression of alarm washed over Nicole’s face. “Oh, no.”

  27

  “Call Maddy,” Claire grabbed her bag. “Tell her to keep the door locked and if anyone knocks or rings, don’t answer the door.”

  “Do you think Matthew is going to try and hurt Maddy and Vanessa?” Nicole wanted desperately to hear Claire say no, but she knew what the answer would be.

  “I think they should be cautious until the police can check Matthew out.”

  “She isn’t answering.” Nicole’s voice held a tone of panic.

  “Leave a message. Tell her to call you back as soon as she hears it.” Claire called a cab and it met them outside Nicole’s apartment.

  “At least the dogs are with her,” Nicole said as she settled into the back seat of the taxi.

  “I left the dogs with Tony.” Claire’s face was tense.

  Nicole quickly placed another call to Maddy. “Why won’t she answer?”

  As soon as she clicked off, the phone tweeted.

  “It’s Maddy,” Nicole said with relief and talked into the phone. “Claire and I are on our way back to her place. We’ll see you in a few minutes.”

  Nicole listened to Maddy’s reply and then she turned to Claire. “Maddy isn’t at your townhouse. She went home to get some things.”

  Claire groaned and gave the address in Greendale to the cab driver while Nicole gave Maddy instructions about locking up and not answering if someone came to the door.

  “Be ready to leave when we get there. I’m sure everything will be fine, but precautions need to be taken because of the attack on your father,” Nicole told the girl. “Wait for us. We’ll pick you up and then head back to Claire’s house.”

  Nicole ended the call and let out a sigh of relief. “I feel better now that I’ve talked to her.”

  “I don’t.” Claire watched out the window at the city shrouded in darkness. Clenching and unclenching her fists, she counted the seconds until they arrived at the Dodds’s house.

  “Will you wait?” Claire asked the driver after he pulled to the curb. “We won’t be long.”

  Claire and Nicole got out of the cab and moved up the walkway to the grand front porch. Lights shined in several of the downstairs windows. Claire rang the bell.

  Nicole nervously looked back to be sure the cab was still at the curb.

  When no one answered, the young women exchanged quick glances and as waves of unease pounded at Claire, she pressed the bell a second time.

  As soon as Maddy clicked off from Nicole, she hurried to her room to find some books from last semester’s classes that she wanted to go over again before the fall term started. She shoved them into the duffel bag along with some clothes and toiletries and then swung the bag over her shoulder to head back downstairs. Pausing at the threshold, she let her eyes rove over her room, the bed, the bookshelves, her desk, the curtains her mother had helped her pick out. A heavy sense of loss nearly crushed her, and despite the rage she harbored for her father, she thought about him resting on a hospital bed fighting for his life and her heart contracted. Part of her never wanted to see the man again, yet another part wanted to rush to his side and hold his hand. How did this happen to our family? How did things go so wrong?

  The doorbell rang and Maddy left her room with a confused and heavy heart. She dropped her bag in the foyer and went to open the door, surprised that Nicole and Claire had arrived so fast.

  “I’m almost ready,” Maddy said as she unlocked the door and swung it open. When she saw who was standing there under the porch light, panic shot through her body.

  “Hi, Maddy.” The man smiled, but his eyes were dark and intense. His form took up most of the doorway.

  The young woman’s senses screamed a warning and she took a step back and pushed the door as hard as she could.

  Matthew McAdams lunged, stopped the door from slamming in his face, grabbed Maddy by the arm and shoved her into the foyer, and with one smooth movement, kicked the door shut with his foot.

  “Why don’t you call her and tell her we’re here.” Claire shifted nervously from foot to foot. “She might be afraid to answer the door.”

  Nicole made the call, but all it did was ring and ring and ring. “Nothing.”

  Claire stepped off the porch, tilted her head, and looked up to the dark, second floor rooms.

  “What should we do?” Nicole asked. “Go around back?”

  “Let’s go take a look. Maybe she’s in the kitchen.” Claire started to walk around to the rear of the house.

  “Maybe the bell is broken,” Nicole said hopefully as she started down the steps.

  “But, I heard it ring.” Claire stopped and looked back at the front door and unease wrapped itself around her throat. She moved up the steps past Nicole, walked to the door, took the handle in her hand, and turned it. It clicked open.

  A waterfall of anxiety crashed over Claire’s head, and giving Nicole a look of alarm, she lifted her index finger to her lips, and whispered, “Shh.”

  From the foyer, Matthew pulled Maddy by her long hair into Dr. Dodd’s office and shoved her across the room.

  “What do you want?” Maddy glared at Matthew and despite the fear racing through her body, she made the decision that if she had to, she would fight this man to the death.

  “I want to hurt your father.” Sweat beaded up on Matthew’s forehead.

  “It was you, wasn’t it?” Maddy growled. “You attacked my father, didn’t you?”

  “Why didn’t you go the hospital with your sister?”

  “None of your business.”

  “I think you didn’t go because you hate your father.” Matthew sneered at Maddy trying to unnerve her.

  “Think what you want.” Maddy moved her feet backwards to position herself behind the desk. A pile of items had been placed on the desktop when Vanessa and Maddy removed the things from the floor after their father’s office had been trashed by the intruder. Papers, pencils, binders, and folders were scattered over the smooth dark wood … and something else was there that interested Maddy … a pair of scissors.

  The man laughed. “Big talk for a little girl.”

  “What do you have against my father?” Maddy wanted to keep the man talking.

  Matthew’s facial expression turned hard and cold and his eyes had a crazy look to them. “He killed my wife.”

  “Was she a patient?”

  Matthew ignored the question. “He killed my wife … so I killed his.”

  Maddy’s throat constricted. “You … killed my mother?”

  “And now I’m going to kill the rest of the family.”

  Maddy’s head spun and her vision began to dim, but she shook herself and forced her voice to be strong and even. “He isn’t dead, you know. My father is going to live.”

  “Good,” Matthew jeered. “Then he’ll be alive to mourn the death of his daughters.” His started his advance on Maddy, moving slowly and menacingly towards the desk.

  Maddy waited. She knew she’d have to be quick.

  As the man lunged to wrap his hands around Maddy’s neck, her fingers scrambled over the desk to grab the scissors.

  His big hands tightened on her throat.

  Maddy lifted her arm and slashed at Matthew’s face just as Claire and Nicole rushed through the door.

  Claire jumped onto the man’s back, wrapped her arm around his throat, and pummeled him with her fist. Matthew lost his balance and he and Claire crashed to the floor.

  Nicole grabbed a pedestal lamp and smashed it over the fallen man’s head as Claire rolled to the side.

  Matthew screamed and covered his head with his arms as Ian Fuller dashed into the room with his gun drawn.

  Nicole hurried behind the desk and took
Maddy into her arms.

  “I’m okay,” Maddy said, her body shaking. “I’m okay.”

  Claire pushed herself up off the floor, walked to Maddy and Nicole and put her arms around them. She smiled with relief at Ian who had his phone to his ear and his gun pointed at Matthew.

  Ian turned his eyes to Claire and his smile warmed her heart.

  “I texted Ian from the cab while you were talking to Maddy,” Claire told Nicole. “I thought we might need some backup.”

  “Smart,” Nicole said, still holding tight to the young woman in her arms. “But we did pretty well on our own, didn’t we?”

  Claire hugged them as tightly as she could.

  28

  Under a bright blue sky, Claire, Nicole, and Augustus sat at the patio table on the sidewalk outside of Tony’s market. Fruits and vegetables were displayed on a covered wooden cart to the side of the front entrance to his store and blue ceramic pots spilled over with summer flowers. The Corgis sat in the shade of the building next to the table watching the people passing by.

  Ian Fuller and his friend, Detective Miles who served the Greendale area, sat opposite Augustus and the two women.

  Tony carried out a tray of iced tea and placed a glass in front of everyone. He pulled up a metal chair and squeezed in to listen to the updates on the Dodd case.

  Detective Miles said, “Geoffrey Matthew McAdams, also known as Matthew Adams, is in custody and has confessed to the attack on Dr. Dodd and the murder of Grace Dodd. McAdams harbors rage against the doctor for the death of his own wife so he came up with a plot to get back at him by killing his family. McAdams broke into the house the night Vanessa and Maddy went to the Opera House. He found Dr. Dodd asleep in his room. Mrs. Dodd ran into McAdams in the hall, they fought, she broke away, ran to the third floor, and was pushed from the window to her death.”

  The detective went on. “Dr. Dodd heard some noise, but was drowsy because he’d taken a sleeping pill earlier in the evening. He managed to rouse himself, but by then it was too late. McAdams had already run from the house to the backyard. He stood at the tree line waiting to see if the doctor would get up to investigate.” Detective Miles shook his head. “He wanted to see the man’s reaction.”