Healed to Death, page 14
“Whatever he has planned? Like what?”
“I don’t know. Maybe something to do with the case. Maybe they want us to relax our vigilance. Maybe something to do with Maria or the homeless population. Why would someone be following her? We don’t really know yet. Except that she isn’t afraid to reach out to an outsider. Criminal enterprises don’t like people who talk and ask for help.”
“No one is out to get Maria. She is paranoid. You know what it’s like to see danger where there isn’t any. She thinks someone is following her, but that doesn’t make it true.”
“She’s the one who told you about the Night Doctor. Now you know everything she said is true. She was right about that; what makes you think she isn’t right about the rest?”
“Because it was clearly paranoia. You saw the way she was talking and acting.”
“She was right about the Night Doctor.”
“Yes. She was right about him. And now we have more information from Simon. A possible ID. But you’re acting like that is a bad thing instead of a good one.”
“You don’t know that it is true. You only have his word for it.”
Kenzie shook her head. “I know Simon. He wouldn’t be lying to me.”
“What about the phone calls?”
“What phone calls?” It took Kenzie a few seconds to remember the discussion with Zachary before Simon’s arrival. “That was nothing. I get hang-ups and blocked calls all the time. So do you.”
“It could have been Simon. Checking to see whether you were home or not.”
“He was already in the neighborhood. Why would he come all the way here before checking? And why wouldn’t he just call to ask me if I was home? I don’t think it was someone trying to track me, and I don’t think Simon was trying to track me or verify my location.”
“But you don’t know that. And you don’t know that anything he said tonight was true.”
“Well, I should be able to verify some of it,” Kenzie said, grabbing her computer.
She opened the clamshell and navigated to her browser window. It only took a few seconds to find the licensed doctors database, where she searched Evan Hartfield’s name and found dates for both his license issuance and revocation.
“So that much is true,” she informed Zachary.
“But that doesn’t tell you anything about him.”
“No. But would Simon come here to tell me stories like that about someone? He would know it would come out if he lied to me. Would he ask me to go to the police about it if it was just lies? The repercussions against him would be… I don’t know—he could get charged with interfering with an investigation. Libel. It might make the medical board look again at the facts he swore to before when he reported Dr. Hartfield. Why would he want to face all of that? What exactly would he accomplish by telling me a story like that?”
“I don’t know. But we can’t always see what is right in front of us. Sometimes it takes someone with distance. Some perspective.”
31
Kenzie knew that her perspective would be better in the morning. It was always difficult to gauge things at night when she was tired and she didn’t know if she might be overreacting because of her fatigue. Things always seemed much bigger and more worrisome late at night when she needed to sleep. She told herself that she would be able to judge better whether she was right about Simon being a concerned citizen just trying to help her out and to make sure that the Night Doctor didn’t cause any more harm in the future, or whether he had a grudge against Dr. Hartfield or another reason to lie or exaggerate and implicate him.
Simon had been one of her mentors in medical school. She had interned with him—which had, happily, gone much better than Evan Hartfield’s internship—and they touched base occasionally when their paths crossed or one of them wanted to use the other as a sounding board.
She was sure she could say that Dr. Simon wouldn’t lie to her about Evan Hartfield. But he wouldn’t have any reason to, anyway. The only thing that either of them wanted to do was to protect the public. Especially those who were more vulnerable.
Kenzie had a restless night, tossing and turning and muttering at herself to just relax, stop thinking about anything, and go to sleep. It didn’t work, and she arose in the morning feeling like she hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep. She felt more tired getting up in the morning than she had been going to bed.
She didn’t get into the shower right away, but pulled on her housecoat and went to make some fresh coffee and talk to Zachary.
He had not spent much time in bed the night before. Kenzie knew that her tossing and turning had probably kept him awake. He was not an easy sleeper and only got a few hours every night. He had slipped away from the bed at two or three in the morning, not saying anything to her. If he was lucky, he had fallen asleep on the couch for a couple of hours, away from Kenzie’s restless kicking.
Kenzie walked into the living room yawning, caught by surprise by a huge, throat-opening yawn, her mouth wide open and showing Zachary a fine view of her tonsils until she managed to cover the yawn and then force her jaw closed again. A shudder went through her body like the yawn had awakened something deep inside her.
Zachary was grinning when Kenzie closed her mouth and opened her eyes. “Still a little tired?” he guessed.
“Oh, my goodness. I don’t think I’ve ever opened my mouth that wide in my life.” Tears squeezed out the corners of Kenzie’s eyes, and she wiped them away. “That must have been terrifying,” she joked.
“Like looking into the jaws of death,” he agreed with a laugh. “Did you get any sleep?”
“A few hours, I guess. Not very restful, though. How about you?” She smothered another yawn, forcing her jaw to stay closed this time and breathing the yawn out through her nose.
“I’m not sure how long,” Zachary said with a shrug. “I’m okay this morning. You need some coffee? A pot or two?”
“Yes.” Kenzie turned toward the kitchen.
“What’s in there is pretty fresh. I figured you would be up before long. Grab your travel mug and you can drink it in the shower. I’ll get another pot on while you’re in there.”
“I’ll be wired by the time I get to work.”
“Hopefully,” he agreed.
Kenzie chuckled to herself and did what Zachary had suggested, taking the mug with her so she could nurse the coffee while she showered, dressed, and prepared herself for the day. By the time she was presentable, she was not feeling too bad. Her lack of sleep was not obvious in the image in the mirror. The circles under her eyes were carefully concealed, and she’d had enough caffeine that she was no longer dragging and yawning. She could hear Zachary in the kitchen as she finished getting ready and, when she walked in, he already had out her plate and marmalade and was taking her toast out of the toaster to butter it.
“How are you doing now?” he asked as Kenzie sat down.
“Not bad, actually. I think I’ll manage until early afternoon, at least. Then I will have to find something active to do, or I’ll fall asleep at my desk.”
“Maybe there will be a body to dissect.”
“I live in hope.”
Zachary chuckled. He watched Kenzie get settled and got a yogurt out of the fridge for himself. He was probably too anxious to deal with the misophonia caused by the noise of the granola bar wrapper, his other go-to choice for breakfast. Maybe later, after she was gone and there was no other activity in the house, he would be able to deal with the pain and anxiety caused by the noise, which was like fingernails on the blackboard to him, only amplified.
“So,” he said casually, “Have you already talked to Dr. Cook about the Night Doctor?”
“Briefly,” Kenzie assured him. “Obviously, we didn’t know who it was at that point, but he thought it was interesting.”
“Does he know Dr. Simon?”
“Uh… I have no idea. They have probably run into each other at some point. Vermont is a small place, and the medical community is even smaller. You do tend to run into the same people over and over again. Like Simon did with Dr. Hartfield.”
Kenzie took a couple more bites of toast, then raised her brows at him. “Why?”
“He and Hartfield know each other.”
Kenzie looked at Zachary, trying to figure out what he was saying. “Who? Simon and Cook?”
“Hartfield and Cook.”
Kenzie blinked. “Well… like I said, it is a small community. They could have met. How do you know they know each other?”
“Found a couple of news articles. Did you know that Cook defended Hartfield when he was accused of being a danger to the homeless population he was serving through the mobile clinic?”
“Well, no, obviously I didn’t. If I didn’t know they knew each other, I didn’t know that Cook defended him. What did he say?”
“That the only reason Hartfield was being accused of anything was an old grudge. That he was a good doctor and hadn’t done anything wrong. People sometimes have adverse reactions. Medical procedures sometimes go wrong. No doctor is infallible.”
“Well… Dr. Cook is entitled to his opinion.”
Kenzie was already trying to figure out how to handle this information. How could she go in to work now and tell Dr Cook that they might have identified the Night Doctor, and it was his old friend Evan Hartfield? And worse, that he might have been somehow responsible for Jack Lane’s death.
She was still thinking about it, trying to figure it all out, when she arrived at the medical examiner’s office. She went about her morning tasks without any thought, working through the familiar procedures by rote. She phoned Detective Samuels and left a message on his voicemail with Hartfield’s name. If he wanted to look into the ex-doctor, he could. He had much better resources than Kenzie and would undoubtedly be able to come up with something. She left him Simon’s name as well, letting him know that he might get a visit or call from the doctor.
Eventually, she knew she had no choice but to go see Dr. Cook and advise him of the information she had received. It would have to go into her report, so he would see it anyway. Better if she did not surprise him with it or try to bury it in her report in an obscure footnote. She was glad that Zachary had given her advance warning that Cook and Hartfield were friends. This way, she was prepared for him to react negatively to it and would not be taken off guard.
She tapped on his open door as she entered his office. Cook looked up at her.
“Kenzie, I was just going to bring these two preliminary reports out to you. They look just fine. Go ahead and issue them; send copies to the appropriate parties.” he twirled his finger to indicate the circulation. “Then those can be put to bed until we get any lab reports back.”
Kenzie took them from him. “Great. I’ll get them out. I, uh, got some more information on the Jack Lane file. On the Night Doctor…?”
“Uh-huh?” He looked down to flip through the pages of a report, then looked up again. “What did you find?”
“It has been suggested that it might be a former doctor, Evan Hartfield.”
Dr. Cook raised his brows. He searched Kenzie’s face. “Well, that’s a name from the past. Who gave you that information? Is it reliable?”
“Dr. Simon. I interned under him. Apparently, Dr. Hartfield did too. Different years, of course. Dr. Simon had… some issues with Hartfield.”
“I’ll say he did. Tried to ruin his career. And eventually did, I suppose. It was a nasty business.”
“That’s too bad. I guess you heard Dr. Hartfield’s side of it?”
“He was a good doctor, Kenzie. Really smart. Great bedside manner. Patients liked him. Other doctors were sometimes jealous of how well he was liked. He was just one of those doctors with a magnetic personality, the kind that patients are drawn to.”
Like Dr. Cook himself. Kenzie had been surprised at his choice of pathology, where he wouldn’t be treating live patients. With his Hollywood good looks and charming smile, she was sure the patients he had treated as he had been training had loved him too. But he had chosen not to deal with them. But then, so had Kenzie. She was pretty. Not Hollywood pretty, maybe, but she knew she was attractive. She related well to people. Her parents could have introduced her to plenty of different contacts, and she could have gotten a good job at the hospital or in private practice. But she had not gone into medicine to treat patients. She had been focused on pathology from the start.
“And you don’t think he had anything wrong,” she said. “You think it was just a personal vendetta for some reason.”
Cook shrugged. “I don’t know all of his reasons. I’m not inside his head and haven’t talked to him about it. But I know Hartfield, and he’s a good doctor who really cares about people and outreach to the poor, especially the homeless. Would you want to shut down someone like that?”
“No. But I guess it would depend on what was going on. If he was doing harm, I would have to say something, even if I didn’t want to.”
“And what evidence do you have that he was doing harm?”
“We don’t know what happened in Jack Lane’s case. But he did treat him without a license.”
“If he did, then he gave a dying man an IV. Is that a crime?”
“No. Well, I don’t know all the ins and outs of charging someone with practicing medicine without a license. I imagine the authorities would need more than just giving a patient blood. I don’t know what level of involvement it would actually take.”
“Nurses and paramedics can give IVs.”
“Do you know how to get ahold of him? We should talk to him about what happened. If you are his friend, maybe you could set it up.”
“Do you have proof that he did anything improper or caused any harm? Do you have some physical evidence that I don’t know about?”
“I have a witness who suggested that it might be him.”
“Might be. Based on evidence?”
“Nothing physical. Only circumstantial.”
“Then I suggest we leave it alone. See if any other physical evidence comes in. See what the police find. At this point, there is nothing to suggest that anyone did anything that resulted in Mr. Lane’s death. Nothing but what he did to himself. Let’s not start a witch hunt. Especially a witch hunt for a man who is dedicated to helping others who have fallen through the cracks and has already been unfairly vilified and harassed.”
Kenzie looked for some counterargument, but couldn’t find any.
“I would consider it a personal favor,” Dr. Cook told her, gazing at her with his dreamy blue eyes. “I’m not going to order you not to do something that is required by your position. But in this case, I think you have plenty of discretion. You have done the autopsy and are waiting for lab results back. You have interviewed witnesses, and no one can point to any wrongdoing being committed.”
“There are rumors around the Night Doctor. That he has made mistakes and that he might be a danger to the community.”
“The people who know him and have firsthand experience are the ones who are responsible to report any wrongdoing. You are not required to investigate or report on rumors. And you have already attempted to get clarification without any success. I think you have done all that you can. You’ve told the detective on the case already, haven’t you?”
Kenzie nodded. “Yes. He has been updated on everything.”
“Then leave it to him to investigate and take any appropriate action.”
Kenzie nodded slowly. As much as she wanted Dr. Cook to be outraged at the possibility that his friend was possibly engaged in something illegal, she had to admit that she had done everything that her job or the law required of her.
She could set the Jack Lane file aside until she had all of the tests back. She had done all she could.
32
It was an uneventful day, which was probably a good thing. Kenzie turned her attention to the routine cases she needed to take care of, catching up on her emails and reports, making sure that all forensic samples were appropriately cataloged and sent out for testing. Keeping track of evidence and making sure that all of the files kept progressing until everything had been properly processed. It was tedious, but one of those things that could not be forgotten or put to the side.
She was home in good time, and she and Zachary had a pleasant, quiet dinner together. But as much as she tried to ignore it, Kenzie could see that something was bothering Zachary. He didn’t bring up any concerns even when she prodded him for information about his day and how everything had gone.
But the next day was couple’s therapy, and she could bring it up and see whether Zachary was willing to discuss whatever it was with Dr. Boyle, his therapist. In the meantime, she would have to accept that he didn’t want to bring it up.
She was stretched out on the bed with a book unwinding after dinner, ignoring the fact that she had chores and other responsibilities to attend to. Some days were just not meant for vacuuming and dusting.
“Kenzie?”
She heard Zachary call her from the living room, but pretended she didn’t. She didn’t want to get up, and it was probably just some random question that had popped into his head, which there was an even chance he would forget in the time it took her to walk from the bedroom to the living room. If she pretended not to hear him, he would forget he had called her and just go on with other things. She would be sure to spend some time with him later, after she’d had some alone time.
“Kenzie!” Zachary was coming down the hall toward the bedroom to make sure she had heard. Maybe someone was coming to the door, or he had a question about the next weekend they were planning to spend with Lorne and Pat.
She looked up as he came through the doorway. His expression was worried, a pronounced frown line on his brow.
“What is it?” Kenzie asked.
“On the TV. You should come see this.”
Kenzie grabbed her phone and checked the screen. If there had been a natural disaster or a bad traffic accident, she hadn’t been called out to the scene yet. But that could be because it was still too dangerous. A shooting or chemical spill that hadn’t yet been cleared.
“I don’t know. Maybe something to do with the case. Maybe they want us to relax our vigilance. Maybe something to do with Maria or the homeless population. Why would someone be following her? We don’t really know yet. Except that she isn’t afraid to reach out to an outsider. Criminal enterprises don’t like people who talk and ask for help.”
“No one is out to get Maria. She is paranoid. You know what it’s like to see danger where there isn’t any. She thinks someone is following her, but that doesn’t make it true.”
“She’s the one who told you about the Night Doctor. Now you know everything she said is true. She was right about that; what makes you think she isn’t right about the rest?”
“Because it was clearly paranoia. You saw the way she was talking and acting.”
“She was right about the Night Doctor.”
“Yes. She was right about him. And now we have more information from Simon. A possible ID. But you’re acting like that is a bad thing instead of a good one.”
“You don’t know that it is true. You only have his word for it.”
Kenzie shook her head. “I know Simon. He wouldn’t be lying to me.”
“What about the phone calls?”
“What phone calls?” It took Kenzie a few seconds to remember the discussion with Zachary before Simon’s arrival. “That was nothing. I get hang-ups and blocked calls all the time. So do you.”
“It could have been Simon. Checking to see whether you were home or not.”
“He was already in the neighborhood. Why would he come all the way here before checking? And why wouldn’t he just call to ask me if I was home? I don’t think it was someone trying to track me, and I don’t think Simon was trying to track me or verify my location.”
“But you don’t know that. And you don’t know that anything he said tonight was true.”
“Well, I should be able to verify some of it,” Kenzie said, grabbing her computer.
She opened the clamshell and navigated to her browser window. It only took a few seconds to find the licensed doctors database, where she searched Evan Hartfield’s name and found dates for both his license issuance and revocation.
“So that much is true,” she informed Zachary.
“But that doesn’t tell you anything about him.”
“No. But would Simon come here to tell me stories like that about someone? He would know it would come out if he lied to me. Would he ask me to go to the police about it if it was just lies? The repercussions against him would be… I don’t know—he could get charged with interfering with an investigation. Libel. It might make the medical board look again at the facts he swore to before when he reported Dr. Hartfield. Why would he want to face all of that? What exactly would he accomplish by telling me a story like that?”
“I don’t know. But we can’t always see what is right in front of us. Sometimes it takes someone with distance. Some perspective.”
31
Kenzie knew that her perspective would be better in the morning. It was always difficult to gauge things at night when she was tired and she didn’t know if she might be overreacting because of her fatigue. Things always seemed much bigger and more worrisome late at night when she needed to sleep. She told herself that she would be able to judge better whether she was right about Simon being a concerned citizen just trying to help her out and to make sure that the Night Doctor didn’t cause any more harm in the future, or whether he had a grudge against Dr. Hartfield or another reason to lie or exaggerate and implicate him.
Simon had been one of her mentors in medical school. She had interned with him—which had, happily, gone much better than Evan Hartfield’s internship—and they touched base occasionally when their paths crossed or one of them wanted to use the other as a sounding board.
She was sure she could say that Dr. Simon wouldn’t lie to her about Evan Hartfield. But he wouldn’t have any reason to, anyway. The only thing that either of them wanted to do was to protect the public. Especially those who were more vulnerable.
Kenzie had a restless night, tossing and turning and muttering at herself to just relax, stop thinking about anything, and go to sleep. It didn’t work, and she arose in the morning feeling like she hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep. She felt more tired getting up in the morning than she had been going to bed.
She didn’t get into the shower right away, but pulled on her housecoat and went to make some fresh coffee and talk to Zachary.
He had not spent much time in bed the night before. Kenzie knew that her tossing and turning had probably kept him awake. He was not an easy sleeper and only got a few hours every night. He had slipped away from the bed at two or three in the morning, not saying anything to her. If he was lucky, he had fallen asleep on the couch for a couple of hours, away from Kenzie’s restless kicking.
Kenzie walked into the living room yawning, caught by surprise by a huge, throat-opening yawn, her mouth wide open and showing Zachary a fine view of her tonsils until she managed to cover the yawn and then force her jaw closed again. A shudder went through her body like the yawn had awakened something deep inside her.
Zachary was grinning when Kenzie closed her mouth and opened her eyes. “Still a little tired?” he guessed.
“Oh, my goodness. I don’t think I’ve ever opened my mouth that wide in my life.” Tears squeezed out the corners of Kenzie’s eyes, and she wiped them away. “That must have been terrifying,” she joked.
“Like looking into the jaws of death,” he agreed with a laugh. “Did you get any sleep?”
“A few hours, I guess. Not very restful, though. How about you?” She smothered another yawn, forcing her jaw to stay closed this time and breathing the yawn out through her nose.
“I’m not sure how long,” Zachary said with a shrug. “I’m okay this morning. You need some coffee? A pot or two?”
“Yes.” Kenzie turned toward the kitchen.
“What’s in there is pretty fresh. I figured you would be up before long. Grab your travel mug and you can drink it in the shower. I’ll get another pot on while you’re in there.”
“I’ll be wired by the time I get to work.”
“Hopefully,” he agreed.
Kenzie chuckled to herself and did what Zachary had suggested, taking the mug with her so she could nurse the coffee while she showered, dressed, and prepared herself for the day. By the time she was presentable, she was not feeling too bad. Her lack of sleep was not obvious in the image in the mirror. The circles under her eyes were carefully concealed, and she’d had enough caffeine that she was no longer dragging and yawning. She could hear Zachary in the kitchen as she finished getting ready and, when she walked in, he already had out her plate and marmalade and was taking her toast out of the toaster to butter it.
“How are you doing now?” he asked as Kenzie sat down.
“Not bad, actually. I think I’ll manage until early afternoon, at least. Then I will have to find something active to do, or I’ll fall asleep at my desk.”
“Maybe there will be a body to dissect.”
“I live in hope.”
Zachary chuckled. He watched Kenzie get settled and got a yogurt out of the fridge for himself. He was probably too anxious to deal with the misophonia caused by the noise of the granola bar wrapper, his other go-to choice for breakfast. Maybe later, after she was gone and there was no other activity in the house, he would be able to deal with the pain and anxiety caused by the noise, which was like fingernails on the blackboard to him, only amplified.
“So,” he said casually, “Have you already talked to Dr. Cook about the Night Doctor?”
“Briefly,” Kenzie assured him. “Obviously, we didn’t know who it was at that point, but he thought it was interesting.”
“Does he know Dr. Simon?”
“Uh… I have no idea. They have probably run into each other at some point. Vermont is a small place, and the medical community is even smaller. You do tend to run into the same people over and over again. Like Simon did with Dr. Hartfield.”
Kenzie took a couple more bites of toast, then raised her brows at him. “Why?”
“He and Hartfield know each other.”
Kenzie looked at Zachary, trying to figure out what he was saying. “Who? Simon and Cook?”
“Hartfield and Cook.”
Kenzie blinked. “Well… like I said, it is a small community. They could have met. How do you know they know each other?”
“Found a couple of news articles. Did you know that Cook defended Hartfield when he was accused of being a danger to the homeless population he was serving through the mobile clinic?”
“Well, no, obviously I didn’t. If I didn’t know they knew each other, I didn’t know that Cook defended him. What did he say?”
“That the only reason Hartfield was being accused of anything was an old grudge. That he was a good doctor and hadn’t done anything wrong. People sometimes have adverse reactions. Medical procedures sometimes go wrong. No doctor is infallible.”
“Well… Dr. Cook is entitled to his opinion.”
Kenzie was already trying to figure out how to handle this information. How could she go in to work now and tell Dr Cook that they might have identified the Night Doctor, and it was his old friend Evan Hartfield? And worse, that he might have been somehow responsible for Jack Lane’s death.
She was still thinking about it, trying to figure it all out, when she arrived at the medical examiner’s office. She went about her morning tasks without any thought, working through the familiar procedures by rote. She phoned Detective Samuels and left a message on his voicemail with Hartfield’s name. If he wanted to look into the ex-doctor, he could. He had much better resources than Kenzie and would undoubtedly be able to come up with something. She left him Simon’s name as well, letting him know that he might get a visit or call from the doctor.
Eventually, she knew she had no choice but to go see Dr. Cook and advise him of the information she had received. It would have to go into her report, so he would see it anyway. Better if she did not surprise him with it or try to bury it in her report in an obscure footnote. She was glad that Zachary had given her advance warning that Cook and Hartfield were friends. This way, she was prepared for him to react negatively to it and would not be taken off guard.
She tapped on his open door as she entered his office. Cook looked up at her.
“Kenzie, I was just going to bring these two preliminary reports out to you. They look just fine. Go ahead and issue them; send copies to the appropriate parties.” he twirled his finger to indicate the circulation. “Then those can be put to bed until we get any lab reports back.”
Kenzie took them from him. “Great. I’ll get them out. I, uh, got some more information on the Jack Lane file. On the Night Doctor…?”
“Uh-huh?” He looked down to flip through the pages of a report, then looked up again. “What did you find?”
“It has been suggested that it might be a former doctor, Evan Hartfield.”
Dr. Cook raised his brows. He searched Kenzie’s face. “Well, that’s a name from the past. Who gave you that information? Is it reliable?”
“Dr. Simon. I interned under him. Apparently, Dr. Hartfield did too. Different years, of course. Dr. Simon had… some issues with Hartfield.”
“I’ll say he did. Tried to ruin his career. And eventually did, I suppose. It was a nasty business.”
“That’s too bad. I guess you heard Dr. Hartfield’s side of it?”
“He was a good doctor, Kenzie. Really smart. Great bedside manner. Patients liked him. Other doctors were sometimes jealous of how well he was liked. He was just one of those doctors with a magnetic personality, the kind that patients are drawn to.”
Like Dr. Cook himself. Kenzie had been surprised at his choice of pathology, where he wouldn’t be treating live patients. With his Hollywood good looks and charming smile, she was sure the patients he had treated as he had been training had loved him too. But he had chosen not to deal with them. But then, so had Kenzie. She was pretty. Not Hollywood pretty, maybe, but she knew she was attractive. She related well to people. Her parents could have introduced her to plenty of different contacts, and she could have gotten a good job at the hospital or in private practice. But she had not gone into medicine to treat patients. She had been focused on pathology from the start.
“And you don’t think he had anything wrong,” she said. “You think it was just a personal vendetta for some reason.”
Cook shrugged. “I don’t know all of his reasons. I’m not inside his head and haven’t talked to him about it. But I know Hartfield, and he’s a good doctor who really cares about people and outreach to the poor, especially the homeless. Would you want to shut down someone like that?”
“No. But I guess it would depend on what was going on. If he was doing harm, I would have to say something, even if I didn’t want to.”
“And what evidence do you have that he was doing harm?”
“We don’t know what happened in Jack Lane’s case. But he did treat him without a license.”
“If he did, then he gave a dying man an IV. Is that a crime?”
“No. Well, I don’t know all the ins and outs of charging someone with practicing medicine without a license. I imagine the authorities would need more than just giving a patient blood. I don’t know what level of involvement it would actually take.”
“Nurses and paramedics can give IVs.”
“Do you know how to get ahold of him? We should talk to him about what happened. If you are his friend, maybe you could set it up.”
“Do you have proof that he did anything improper or caused any harm? Do you have some physical evidence that I don’t know about?”
“I have a witness who suggested that it might be him.”
“Might be. Based on evidence?”
“Nothing physical. Only circumstantial.”
“Then I suggest we leave it alone. See if any other physical evidence comes in. See what the police find. At this point, there is nothing to suggest that anyone did anything that resulted in Mr. Lane’s death. Nothing but what he did to himself. Let’s not start a witch hunt. Especially a witch hunt for a man who is dedicated to helping others who have fallen through the cracks and has already been unfairly vilified and harassed.”
Kenzie looked for some counterargument, but couldn’t find any.
“I would consider it a personal favor,” Dr. Cook told her, gazing at her with his dreamy blue eyes. “I’m not going to order you not to do something that is required by your position. But in this case, I think you have plenty of discretion. You have done the autopsy and are waiting for lab results back. You have interviewed witnesses, and no one can point to any wrongdoing being committed.”
“There are rumors around the Night Doctor. That he has made mistakes and that he might be a danger to the community.”
“The people who know him and have firsthand experience are the ones who are responsible to report any wrongdoing. You are not required to investigate or report on rumors. And you have already attempted to get clarification without any success. I think you have done all that you can. You’ve told the detective on the case already, haven’t you?”
Kenzie nodded. “Yes. He has been updated on everything.”
“Then leave it to him to investigate and take any appropriate action.”
Kenzie nodded slowly. As much as she wanted Dr. Cook to be outraged at the possibility that his friend was possibly engaged in something illegal, she had to admit that she had done everything that her job or the law required of her.
She could set the Jack Lane file aside until she had all of the tests back. She had done all she could.
32
It was an uneventful day, which was probably a good thing. Kenzie turned her attention to the routine cases she needed to take care of, catching up on her emails and reports, making sure that all forensic samples were appropriately cataloged and sent out for testing. Keeping track of evidence and making sure that all of the files kept progressing until everything had been properly processed. It was tedious, but one of those things that could not be forgotten or put to the side.
She was home in good time, and she and Zachary had a pleasant, quiet dinner together. But as much as she tried to ignore it, Kenzie could see that something was bothering Zachary. He didn’t bring up any concerns even when she prodded him for information about his day and how everything had gone.
But the next day was couple’s therapy, and she could bring it up and see whether Zachary was willing to discuss whatever it was with Dr. Boyle, his therapist. In the meantime, she would have to accept that he didn’t want to bring it up.
She was stretched out on the bed with a book unwinding after dinner, ignoring the fact that she had chores and other responsibilities to attend to. Some days were just not meant for vacuuming and dusting.
“Kenzie?”
She heard Zachary call her from the living room, but pretended she didn’t. She didn’t want to get up, and it was probably just some random question that had popped into his head, which there was an even chance he would forget in the time it took her to walk from the bedroom to the living room. If she pretended not to hear him, he would forget he had called her and just go on with other things. She would be sure to spend some time with him later, after she’d had some alone time.
“Kenzie!” Zachary was coming down the hall toward the bedroom to make sure she had heard. Maybe someone was coming to the door, or he had a question about the next weekend they were planning to spend with Lorne and Pat.
She looked up as he came through the doorway. His expression was worried, a pronounced frown line on his brow.
“What is it?” Kenzie asked.
“On the TV. You should come see this.”
Kenzie grabbed her phone and checked the screen. If there had been a natural disaster or a bad traffic accident, she hadn’t been called out to the scene yet. But that could be because it was still too dangerous. A shooting or chemical spill that hadn’t yet been cleared.
