what happened when you went to see Newcomber?”
“Are you ready for this? When I asked to review Grace’s films with him, he got really frightened. He was gripping the edge of his desk so tightly I thought it was going to splinter. Then he said he needed a notarized release from Grace to show me anything. Then, when I said that was a ridiculous demand to make to a fellow physician, without any warning he reached in his desk drawer and pulled a gun on me.”
“A what?”
“A snub-nosed revolver. He threatened to shoot me if I didn’t get out, and it seemed he was just panicked enough to do it. His face was flaming red and his hand was shaking. I half expected to see smoke coming out of his ears.”
“If he had done that to me, he wouldn’t have had to bother pulling the trigger, because I would have just died on the spot. So, what do you want to do?”
“I want to see him again, this time with you in tow and clutching a notarized release from Grace Davis. And if he makes a move for that right-hand desk drawer, I’m going to launch myself over his desk, rip off that god-awful hairpiece of his, and ram it down his throat.”
“Goodness. The dark side of Will Grant.”
“Believe me, there is one. No one’s ever pointed a gun at
“Should I call and make an appointment with him?”
“The cancer center’s not that far away from here. I favor just showing up. Maybe I’ll sort of hang back in the corridor until you’re through the door of his office, then I’ll slide in behind you.”
“Nine A.M. okay?”
“Fine. I’ll meet you here and we can drive over together.”
“And the notarized release?”
“Jill Leary, that hospital attorney, will be here tonight when we look for the shoes. If she can’t or won’t do it, I’ll figure out something.”
“I hope this search works out for you, Will. I’m sick of people getting angry at me because you’re not here to take care of them and they have to settle for me.”
“That’s nonsense. Just keep your fingers crossed tonight while you’re at the Fleet Center screaming for Springsteen.”
Susan stood and held up four sets of crossed fingers.
“Just practicing,” she said. “Hey, one more thing, could you give me the names of a couple of Springsteen’s songs? In case you couldn’t guess, I really don’t know much about him except that he’s a hunk.”
“‘I’m On Fire,’ ‘Born to Run,’ and ‘Badlands’-all theme songs of mine at the moment. For that information, I want a T-shirt.”
“See you in the morning, Doc. If my date’s impressed with those titles, you get your shirt.”
CHAPTER 24
“Detective Kristine Zurowski, please. Tell her it’s Detective Moriarity calling.”
Her phone on hands-off, Patty was mired in traffic halfway to Serenity Lane in Dover. The cartons she had taken from Ben Morales’s study rested on the backseat of the Camaro. Although she hadn’t made it through all of Morales’s papers, what she had read and learned from Wendy Morales had her head spinning. Morales had blocked a merger attempt by Boyd Halliday and Excelsius Health. Not long after that, he was murdered. Now it was time to see if she had stumbled onto a pattern. One memo, nearly lost within reams of paper, suggested that the new corporation, which would include Morales’s Premier Care, would also include Cyrill Davenport’s Unity Comprehensive Health.
“Hey, Patty, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Kristine.”
“Someone just told me you got taken off the big case.”
“The rumor mill is really cranking. You heard about it almost as soon as I did.”
“That thug Brasco?”
“He had some help from our CO, but yes. They thought some new blood was needed.”
“Blood with Y chromosomes?”
“Possibly. No, make that
“You should file a complaint.”
“Maybe someday. Right now I’m complaining the only way I know how, by staying on the case without their knowing it.”
“Yea, Patty.”
“Thanks. So, Kristine, have you guys made any progress?”
“Nada. The going theory is that these are vengeance killings, but what else is new? We have the alphabet letters, but no one’s been able to crack them yet. We hear HQ is putting together a task force to centralize all information. I thought you might actually be involved in that.”
“Only by not being on it. Listen, as far as the letters go, I can make you a hero. Brasco and the cryptographer have come up with
“You believe that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. The killer sure as hell wants us to believe that, so I’m at least a
“Clementine,” Kristine mused. “You know anyone named Clementine?”
“Only the one who is lost and gone forever.”
“Dreadful sorry. It does sound a little bogus to me.”
“See what I mean? I’m going to ignore Clementine for the time being and keep heading in this direction.”
“You need a buddy?”
“Do yourself and your career a favor and steer clear of me for the time being. If I can ever get out of this one-twenty-eight traffic, I’m on my way over right now to speak with Gloria Davenport. That’s actually why I’m calling you.”
“She know you’re coming?”
“Yes. I wanted to clear my visiting her with you first, though, being as she’s in your bailiwick.”
“Consider it cleared, especially after giving me Remember Clementine.”
“I also want to know anything you’ve got on her.”
“You think she’s got something to do with her husband being blown up?”
“No, but you may be closer than you realize.”
“Well, we’ve interviewed her twice. The first time she was intoxicated, and the second time she was merely drunk. She handles her booze impressively well, though, I’ll give that to her. And she puts up a pretty good front. No one here including me is suspicious of her except for the fact that she is, as of the explosion, one wealthy woman.”
“How wealthy?”
“You saw where they live. I don’t know how much the stock she’s about to inherit is worth, but I can tell you that as of this moment the company is privately owned, and I must believe that a good chunk of those tens of tens of millions once possessed by her husband now belong to her.”
“Interesting.”
“Listen, you’ll keep me up to speed?”
“If I know it, you’ll know it.”
It was nearing six when Patty pulled up the driveway of 3 Serenity Lane. Cocktail time. As she approached the front door, she was thinking, at least in part, of how good a gentle gin and tonic with a wedge of lime would taste, provided she could put her feet up on something at the same time.
The massive colonial showed no sign of the carnage and wreckage that had so recently occurred there-a
