Chapter 25
Nell invited herself to go with Izzy to the Virgilio Clinic later that Wednesday.
She knew Izzy wouldn’t mind; she liked the company, especially when Sam wasn’t available. And Nell loved the chance to listen to Lily talk about the baby, to watch Izzy’s face glow. And of course she’d go to the ends of the earth to hear the baby’s heartbeat, a miraculous moment that seemed to put the entire universe back on its proper orbit—at least for those few precious seconds.
But today Nell had another reason, although she couldn’t even put it into words. Justin’s connection to the clinic had been playing at the edges of her mind, as if it were somehow an important part of this puzzle that would lead them to his killer. It was Birdie who started her on this track, and perhaps Tyler Gibson—their contention that maybe they were looking in all the wrong places to find the person who killed Justin Dorsey. Maybe their concentration on his activity at Paley’s Cove was as transitory as the sand that was washed away by the tide.
Working for Dr. Lily was the only job Justin hadn’t completely messed up, Janie had said—even though there were other staff members who hadn’t been completely happy with him. It seemed an odd job for him to enjoy: not a bustling restaurant where he’d see friends and meet people, or working down at the docks or on one of the many fishing boats looking for summer help—things you’d think a young man would enjoy. But a women’s clinic of all places. What had engaged him so there?
Jerry Thompson had told Ben they had completely ruled out these murders being random events. There was no vagrant theory or psychopath theory, not an accidental encounter. It was purposeful—the mechanical failure on Justin’s regulator and the drug in Horace’s whiskey. Intentional. Purposeful.
The words had sounded ugly when Ben repeated them. Someone wanted Justin dead. Someone wanted Horace dead. And it was probably, circumstances told them, the same person. Justin did something. Horace knew something. It was a theory that made sense, but left big yawning gaps searching for answers.
Maybe looking around a place where Justin worked, Nell thought, trying to follow in his footsteps and mine his thoughts, figuring out what made him tick—maybe those things would give them a hint of what he had done to get himself murdered.
• • •
Izzy picked up Nell in midafternoon and, before she got in the car, announced that they had an extra companion. Words were hardly necessary, though. Before Nell reached the car door, a long golden snout in the open back window broke into a canine grin. Izzy quickly assured her that Red would wait in the car when they got to the medical office. He had attached himself to Izzy’s Volkswagen—and riding in the backseat with the window partly open and his nose sticking out was a magnificent treat that Izzy simply couldn’t deny him.
“You’re spoiling him,” Nell said as they walked into the clinic.
Izzy glanced back at the car. Red was seated comfortably in the backseat, the window open a crack. “Yes,” she said happily. “I’m getting in practice. Dogs and babies should be spoiled. I expect you to do your share, too.”
Nell had every intention of doing her share. She followed Izzy through the door.
Janie was on the phone, her back to them, when they walked into the reception area. But her words were distinct and audible in the empty waiting room.
“I know how difficult this is,” she said. Each word was professional—but softened with compassion. “Yes, stay on the couch, take it easy—and call us back in an hour if there isn’t a change, or sooner if you need to.” She listened, nodded as if the caller could feel her assurance, and then told the unseen person that everything would be all right.
Nell listened to the tone in her voice, remembering back to a wintery night when Birdie had slipped and fallen on Harbor Road. Janie had appeared, her voice filled with that same compassion and caring.
She hung up and turned around, slipping a smile back into place.
Izzy glanced at the phone. “I hope everything’s okay.”
“It will be. Sometimes things don’t work out the way we plan,” she said. “And when that happens, well, there’s a reason. But it’s difficult just the same—more for some people than for others. I think this patient will be fine. I’m not so sure about the father, though.”
Then she changed the subject and her smile grew warmer. “Seeing you two is always a good thing. It brightens my day.”
“If you need another day brightener, Red is out in the car. If you get a second, he’d love to see you and lick your hand.”
Janie laughed. “I love Red. He’s amazing, Iz. If you ever need a dog sitter, please call on me and Purl. In fact, I found the coolest plaid dog bed at a garage sale. I’m going to wash it and keep it in the apartment for Red’s visits.”
Janie seemed in better shape than the day before, Nell thought, although she admitted to Izzy earlier that she had had nightmares about baby carriers. But the nurse’s smile was back, and her voice more confident. A few light lines appeared about her eyes, ones that spoke to life’s trials. Ones Janie had earned.
They walked through the reception area to the inner offices. Nell paused inside the door and glanced into the library and records room where she’d seen Justin so diligently filing that day, humming, happy. As if he had the world at his fingertips. She half expected to see his head bobbing to the music pumping through his headphones. How long ago was that? Time was difficult to mark these days. Tuesdays, Saturdays, Thursdays—they all merged together in a blur. Instead of the days being neatly marked by the weekend, they were marked by murders, something that turned the calendar into a jumbled maze.
“Is this where Justin worked most of the time?” she asked.
Janie nodded. “Yes and no. There are computers in all the offices and the examining room around the clinic, and he was great at fixing them. So he kind of wandered around everywhere, I guess you’d say, much to Dr. Seltzer’s annoyance.”
“He didn’t like Justin much, did he?”
Janie lowered her voice and turned her back to the long hallway leading to the examining rooms. “No, he hated him. Especially the last month or so. I tried to keep them apart because even the sight of Justin seemed to upset him.”
“Did Justin feel the same way about him?”
“No. Justin said the doc was ‘a great dude’—his words, not mine.” She covered a sad laugh and whispered as they walked into the examining room, “Calling Dr. Seltzer a ‘dude’ never seemed quite right—but it was so Justin.”
“Do you know what Dr. Seltzer’s main complaint about Justin was?”
“Where should I start? Mostly he thought Justin nosed into things that were none of his business. He complained to Dr. Lily about it all the time. He said she was too trusting, and the way Justin nosed into things was way out of line. He swore he saw Justin listening outside his office one day when he was talking to a patient, but Dr. Lily told him Justin was just waiting to get in to fix a computer—and that was the truth.
“Then the next day he came up with the idea that Justin wasn’t just fixing computers, he might have been reading personal files, too. Dr. Lily made sure everyone used pass codes on patient records after that.”
“I know he was upset with Justin that day we were here—and you were, too,” Nell said.
Janie thought back to that day. The same day Justin had unwisely washed Izzy’s windows—or tried to. The same day he was messing around in the filing room. She nodded at the recollection. “I was furious with him that day. The thing Dr. Seltzer hated the most was when Justin would sneak out to smoke. First he’d done it out in the parking lot, but Dr. Lily said it looked bad for the clinic. Then he discovered the steps to the widow’s walk and he’d go up there to smoke. The widow’s walk was strictly off-limits to all of us. Dangerous, even, Dr. Lily said. Not just the smoking itself, but the railing up there was weak and could break—and no one ever went up there. Until Justin, of course. And to make it worse, Dr. Seltzer’s apartment is on the second floor, so Justin had to sneak past the apartment back door to get up there. But somehow he managed to do it, until Dr. Lily caught him coming down the stairs one day. She was angry and I think came close to firing him.
“So he promised he wouldn’t do it again, but I know he went up there anyway. It was that awful smoking habit he had. I hated it. That day you were here was one of those times I caught him doing it. The door to the stairway was ajar and I could smell the cigarette smoke on his shirt, so I knew he’d been up there. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“Those things don’t seem so awful,” Izzy said, slipping up onto the examining table. “I mean, for Dr. Seltzer to dislike him as much as he does.”
“No, I guess not. Except it wasn’t Justin’s place to say what the rules were. He just worked here,” Janie said sadly. She slipped Izzy’s file into the holder on the door, ushered them into the room, and said she’d be back later.
Dr. Lily’s exam was brief and efficient, and then the three of them took turns listening through the stethoscope to the heartbeats, the quick and exhilarating thumps indicating, in Nell’s mind, that baby Perry was a happy baby, eager to meet his mom and dad.
Nell rubbed her goose bumps into submission.
“It won’t be long now, Izzy,” Lily said. “You’ve started to dilate, so it could be any day. But you just never know about babies. They have minds of their own and can surprise you—it could be a couple weeks. Some like to stay in there a little longer, where it’s warm and safe.”
Nell and Izzy looked at each other, reading each other’s thoughts.
Yes, above all, this baby would be kept warm and safe.
The bark that snaked around the corner of the examining room wasn’t loud, but definitely distinct. The flurry of fur that followed nearly knocked Nell onto the chair. But it was Izzy whom Red wanted, and Izzy he found.
“Sorry,” Sam said, shamefaced, as he trailed Red into the room. “I had a little extra time and knew Izzy was here, so I stopped in to hear my baby’s report. Izzy isn’t always detailed enough for me.” He leaned over Red and kissed Izzy on the top of her head. “Janie was saying hello to Red through the car window and suggested we bring him in for a drink—”
“It was hot in the car,” Janie said, reappearing in the doorway. “He needed some hydration. Dogs are eighty percent water, you know.”
Lily was down on one knee, scratching the dog behind his ears. “He’s a sweet dog. Horace loved him so. Sweet dog. Sweet man.”
“It’s interesting that in life Horace appeared to be almost a recluse. But in death we’re finding he had a wide array of friends,” Nell said. “Everyone seems to have known him.”
Lily laughed. “I love Paley’s Cove. My—Dr. Seltzer and I walk there often. And Horace was always welcoming, though I do think he considered that sandy stretch his property. We were a little worried about his eyesight and brought him drops sometimes, even suggesting surgery. But he’d have none of it. He said he got along fine. And then he’d prove it by naming a bush or even the kind of sunscreen someone running by was wearing. He didn’t miss much.”
Nell laughed. “He’ll be missed.”
“Agreed.” The male voice came from the doorway. Martin Seltzer stood there, slightly stooped but with a smile on his face, his eyes on Red. He was rewarded immediately by a short bark as Red moved across the room to his side, waiting for a pat.
Nell watched the interaction with a mixture of pleasure and surprise. Red clearly was fond of both Lily and Martin. She wondered how many other friends he’d made during his years of walking the beach at Paley’s Cove. His presence seemed to bring life to Martin Seltzer.
“Goldens are great,” the older doctor said. “Best pets in the world. We had one years ago.” He looked over at Lily, then back to the dog. “They love you no matter what, right, Red?”
His eyes were on the dog and his voice was slightly muffled, as if speaking to himself and the dog, no one else.
Lily watched him with an unusual expression on her face. Then she cleared her throat and said briskly, “All right, now, back to work, everyone. We’ve a baby to check.”
Martin disappeared and Janie urged Red to follow her down the hall to her office.
Lily closed the door and looked at Sam, somehow knowing that he was the one who would be peppering her with questions.
Nell sat back in a corner, listening to Sam’s litany of questions and Lily’s patient responses as she attempted to satisfy the new father’s insatiable quest for information about all things baby. Sam had embraced the role fully, and was fast becoming an expert on coaching, breathing techniques, and relaxation methods. Her thoughts turned to the phone call they’d overheard, a husband who apparently wouldn’t have that experience, at least not now, not as planned. She presumed it was a miscarriage Janie was dealing with. A difficult event—but not the end of dreams. She and Ben were certainly testimony to that.
It wasn’t until Janie rapped on the door and pushed it open that they realized they’d been there for nearly half an hour.
“Is Red in here?” she asked.
“No,” Izzy said, slipping on her shoes. “He’s not with you?”
“He was sleeping in my office. I left to pick up some things from the dispensary, and when I came back, he was gone. But no worries, he’s here someplace.” Janie forced a calmness into her voice. “No one would let him outside, so we know he’s safe.”
She headed down the hall, nearly colliding with Martin, who listened to the concern, then joined in the search. Several patients, in the office for quick weigh-ins or to pick up medicine or vitamins, offered reports of hearing Red in one hall or another, and someone saw a waving golden tail disappearing around a corner. But Red seemed to have disappeared.
“Martin, please check down in Dr. Hamilton’s section of the building and we’ll cover these rooms.”
Nell walked into the break room, but the only one inside was a nurse’s aide. She hadn’t seen a dog, she said, though she thought she had heard one a little earlier.
Nell heard a frantic yelp from Janie, and hurried into the hall, stopping short at the look on Janie’s face.
A narrow door at the end of the hall was partially open, a curving flight of stairs visible through the opening.
Justin’s escape route for a quick smoke.
“No, he couldn’t have,” Janie said, but not believing her own words, she headed toward the stairs with Sam and Nell in close pursuit. The stairs wound upward to the second floor and the closed door that opened into Martin Seltzer’s apartment. From there the staircase narrowed and grew steep, twisting around like a belfry passage, until finally a door appeared with a sliver of light falling onto the wooden step.
“It’s open,” Janie whispered, then pushed it wider and stepped out into daylight.
The widow’s walk was postcard perfect, a wooden platform surrounded by an ornate white railing. In the distance clouds billowed and puffed over a whitecapped sea, gulls floated overhead, their wings moving in slow motion, and the sounds of traffic were a muted hum in the background. In the center of the walk was a raised garden, tilled and weeded, filled with lush spiky plants.
And on the other side of the garden, lying in the sun, was Red.
Janie ran around the herb garden to the sleepy dog. “Red, you silly old dog, you worried us,” she cried, relief rushing her words.
Sam yelled down to Izzy that Red was fine, they’d be down in a second, then walked over to Nell. She was standing at the edge of the roof, looking down over the town of Sea Harbor. It lay at their feet like a tapestry. “Breathtaking,” she murmured.
On the other side of the widow’s walk, Janie was kneeling next to the dog, peering into his eyes, a deep frown on her forehead. Red pushed himself up, then wobbled toward Nell and Sam, his tail moving back and forth against the raised garden wall. “Something’s wrong with him,” Janie said. “His eyes are droopy. I think he’s sick.”
“Red?” Sam walked over to his side and crouched down, holding the dog’s nose in his palm. “You okay, boy?”
Red’s tail flapped, but his feet didn’t seem to move in harmony, and he stumbled once, then continued walking toward the rooftop door. Sam followed close behind, watching him carefully as he made his way across the widow’s walk. Just before he reached the door, his head dropped low and he gagged slightly, as if he was going to vomit. But he recovered and made it to the door.
Nell looked over at the garden. “I think he’s been eating the herbs.”
Sam looked over, frowned, then picked the dog up in his arms and carried him down two stories to the clinic offices.
Lily and Izzy were waiting. “He’s sick,” Sam said, and followed Lily into an empty examining room.
Martin Seltzer came hurrying down the hallway. “You found him,” he said, then stopped short as he looked into the room at the woozy dog. “Where was he?”
“On the roof,” Lily said, grabbing a slender flashlight and shining it into Red’s eyes.
Martin paled, then moved around Izzy and Sam and gently moved Lily out of the way. He took the flashlight from her and looked into the dog’s mouth, checked his eyes, and finally released the breath trapped in his chest. “He’ll be okay. I’ll watch him for a bit, just to be sure.” He looked toward the hallway, where a worried Janie stood. “Janie, would you please get him a bowl of water?”
Janie rushed off.
Lily stared at Martin. “What is it? What’s wrong with him?”
For a long, awkward minute, Martin stared back at Lily, as if her questions were an affront to him. At first his look had an edge of anger about it. But that faded almost instantly, and his long face grew longer.
“He’ll be fine after a while. It wasn’t that much.”
“Exactly what wasn’t that much? What made him sick?”
Martin’s answer was firm, but his words short and heavy. “He ate a few cannabis leaves.”