When Hannah and Andrea were finished with their lunch, they headed off toward the tables. The room was huge, and they split up, each taking half. Hannah headed straight toward Mr. Rutlege. She wanted to see how he was feeling after his ordeal in Norman’s dental chair.
“Hi, Mr. Rutlege.” Hannah reached out to shake his hand. “I’m so sorry you had to bow out of the judging.”
“I’m not.” The pretty brown-haired woman sitting next to him smiled at Hannah. “I’m Belle Rutlege.”
“Hannah Swensen.”
“I know. I saw you on television last night. Jeremy and I were the only ones here. Everyone else went to the school.”
“Are you sorry that your husband couldn’t be a judge?”
“I’m sorry that his tooth acted up and he had such a rough time. But I’m glad he didn’t have to speak on television last night!”
“Why?”
“All of our friends back home would have thought he’d fallen off the wagon. He was slurring his words, and he’s the head of our local AA chapter!”
Hannah’s senses went on full alert at this news. She turned to Jeremy Rutlege, and asked, “You sounded drunk?”
“As a hoot owl. I tried to explain to Belle that it was the packing. Norman said to leave it in for twelve hours. But every time I tried to talk, she laughed so hard she couldn’t hear me.”
Hannah spent another few minutes chatting with them, then she went over to get Andrea. She waited for Andrea to finish her conversation with the group she’d joined and pulled her out into the hall. “Mission accomplished.”
“You found the woman who made the phone call?” Andrea was clearly excited.
“No, but I know where to look. Come on, Andrea. I’ll explain it all on the way back to town. We have to go to see Norman Rhodes before his afternoon patients come in.”
* * *
Hannah pressed the buzzer at the reception window and when Norman slid back the frosted glass panel, she was shocked. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he seemed nervous and ill at ease.
“What’s wrong, Norman?” Hannah blurted out.
“Nothing. I guess I’ve just been working too late lately.”
“Well, don’t’ work so hard.” Hannah said the first thing that came into her mind. Something was wrong, and it had nothing to do with Norman’s dental practice, but this wasn’t the time to ask about it. She’d wait until she had a moment alone with him.
“That’s great advice, Hannah.” Norman smiled, but it was a pale imitation of his normal grin. “Hello, Andrea. Do you have an emergency?”
“Yes, but it has nothing to do with our teeth,” Hannah told him. “I need to look at your appointment book, Norman. It’s really important.”
“Why?”
“I can’t tell you. It’s confidential.”
“And I can’t let you look for the same reason.”
“Come on, Norman.” Hannah did her best wheedle, but she could tell that Norman wasn’t buying it. “Okay, I’ll tell you why I need it. It has to do with Boyd Watson’s murder.”
“You’re investigating again?” Norman’s eyebrows rose.
“Yes, but Bill doesn’t know, and he’ll kill me if he finds out,” Andrea answered. “We can trust you to keep our secret, can’t we?”
“Of course.”
“Then we can look at your appointment book?” Hannah pressed her advantage.
Norman considered it for a moment and then he shook his head. “I can’t let you do that, Hannah. It’d be different if you were actually working for the sheriff’s department. Then I’d have to cooperate. But you’re not. You do understand, don’t you?”
Hannah stared at Norman. He looked very intense and as she watched, one of his eyelids closed in a wink. “Of course, I understand. You can’t give us permission. It would be a violation of your dental code of ethics.”
“Right. Hold on a second. I’ll let you in the back.” Norman slid the glass panel shut. A moment later, he opened the door to the inner part of his clinic and motioned them in. “I’d better close this. It’s my appointment book.” Norman closed a red-covered spiral book on the counter. “Will you excuse me for a minute? I have some X- rays to check.”
After Norman had gone off down the hallway, Andrea turned to Hannah. “What was all that about?”
“Norman treats his patient list like a state secret. He takes this whole confidentiality issue very seriously. He can’t give us permission to look at his appointment book, but he’s giving us the chance to sneak a peek while he’s gone.”
Andrea followed Hannah around the desk so that they could look at the appointment book. “That seems a little silly to me, but I’m not a dentist. I’m a real-estate agent.”
“And real-estate agents don’t have ethics?” Hannah couldn’t resist teasing her a bit.
“Of course they do. They’re just different, that’s all. You want to check Tuesday, right?”
“Monday and Tuesday. Mr. Rutlege said he had to leave his packing in for twelve hours, and Norman handles after-hours emergencies. The woman who called Boyd could have been a late patient on Monday night.”
Andrea flipped the appointment book open to Monday’s date. “There’s nothing after six, and his last two appointments were men.”
“Okay. Try Tuesday morning.”
Both sisters stared down at the page after Andrea had flipped it. Norman had been busy on Tuesday morning.
“Write down the names, Andrea. I’ll read them off to you.” Hannah waited until Andrea had grabbed a pad of notepaper and a pen. “Luanne Hanks at eight. Mr. Hodges had a nine o’clock appointment, but you don’t have to write him down. Then Amalia Greerson came in at nine-thirty, and Norman saw Eleanor Cox at eleven.”
“Luanne Hanks, Amalia Greerson, and Eleanor Cox. Is that it?”
“That’s it.” Hannah closed the book and stepped out from behind the desk.
“It can’t be Amalia.” Andrea followed her, staring down at the notes she made. “She called the office right before noon on Tuesday and asked for Al. I answered, and she wasn’t slurring her words.”
“Okay. Scratch her off. And scratch off Eleanor, too.”
“Why?”
“Because Danielle knows her voice. They used to be neighbors before Otis and Eleanor moved out to the lake.”
Andrea sighed. “That leaves Luanne. Do you think we should talk to her?”
“Of course. She works at the cafe until six. Let’s drop by on our way back to the shop.”
“I’m all through with the X-rays,” Norman called out, ducking out of a treatment room and walking down the hallway toward them.
Hannah took one look at his worried face and wondered if what Delores had told her about Lucy Richards had anything to do with it. She’d promised her mother to make time for Norman, and she did want to talk to him alone. “Are you going to the bake-off tonight, Norman?”
“I wouldn’t miss it. I should have said something before, Hannah, but I guess I’m just not very social.”
“Huh?” Hannah was puzzled.
“The bake-off. I meant to tell you that you looked really good on television. And I thought you did a nice job making the contestants feel better after Boyd got through with them. He was pretty nasty, but I guess I probably shouldn’t say that, now that he’s dead.”
“I don’t know why you shouldn’t say it. It’s the truth.” Hannah wondered what Norman’s reaction would be if he knew exactly how nasty Boyd had really been.
“I know, but Mother’s always saying that you’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead.”
“That’s just an old superstition. In some parts of Medieval Europe, people believed that if you maligned someone who’d died, they’d come back to haunt you. You don’t believe in ghosts, do you, Norman?”
