Healed to Death, page 24
“Physician, heal thyself,” Maria said, and laughed. She motioned to the storage unit. “You have supplies here.”
“Yes. But I can’t do it myself. I’ll need a couple of extra hands.”
“No hands in there?” Maria teased.
Kenzie sincerely hoped that there were not any body parts in the storage unit, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that the reason Hartfield had brought Maria there was to dispose of her. She supposed those morbid thoughts came naturally to a medical examiner, forever dealing with human remains collected from very diverse locations.
“Maybe you’d better give the scalpel to one of the cops,” Zachary suggested. “You trust them, don’t you?”
“Trust the police?” Maria laughed. “No one trusts the police.”
“Then maybe that’s who you can trust,” Zachary suggested. “If no one trusts them, they can’t do anything wrong without being caught.”
For a moment, it seemed as if this twisted logic appealed to Maria, but then she shook her head. “You can’t trust the cops.”
“Who do you trust? Can we get someone here that you trust, so we can straighten everything out without anyone getting hurt?”
“Zachary is a good guy,” Maria offered. “Always a good guy.”
“Do you think you can trust me? Do you think you could give me the knife, and then we could help you with whatever other errands you need to do today?”
“Hmm.” Maria hummed. She looked around her thoughtfully. “Why am I even here? I didn’t want to come up. I was in Roxboro. You live in Roxboro.”
“Yes, I do.”
“But not in Clintock. Not for a long time.” She stretched the word out.
“You’re right,” Zachary agreed. “I moved away from Clintock as fast as I could.”
She giggled. “Did you run?”
“Well… maybe not the whole way,” he teased. “But I didn’t want to stay there, and I didn’t want to be reminded of all the bad stuff that happened here.” He paused, staring at Maria on the screen, trying to discern as much from her face as he could. “But you like Clintock, right? That is your home.”
“Yes, I would not want to run away.”
“It was nice of you to come to Roxboro to talk to Kenzie about Jack Lane. You remember that?”
“I’m old, Zachary. I haven’t completely lost my mind. I remember.”
“Did you come to Roxboro to see the doctor? Before Jack died?”
“Sometimes he is in Clintock, and sometimes he is in Roxboro. Sometimes in another town.” She looked at Hartfield. “It’s very hard to keep track,” she told him sternly.
“Well, you seem to be able to figure out my schedule,” he said with a smile.
Kenzie tried to evaluate his face from the video feed. He was pale, but it was hard to tell if that was just his natural complexion or an artifact of the video feed. It didn’t appear that he’d lost enough blood to be concerned about him, but he seemed frail.
Maybe it was just his thinness. He was a tall, slim person, and his slenderness seemed exaggerated on the monitors.
“I came to see the doctor,” Maria agreed in answer to Zachary’s question. “A long way to bike. But it only takes me a day.”
“You must be in really good shape,” Zachary said admiringly.
“There are lots of things wrong with me, and sometimes I am in a lot of pain, but I can still bike.”
“Better than me. I try to get out and walk, but I spend too much time sitting at my computer staring at the screen. And too much time driving from place to place in the car when I could be walking or biking.”
Maria shifted her grip on the phone. She seemed to be tiring of the conversation or of having to stand there without anything being resolved.
“You were in Roxboro when Dr. Hartfield treated Jack,” Zachary suggested.
Kenzie caught Zachary’s eye and shook her head. He hadn’t been in the room when Hartfield had told his story, and Kenzie didn’t think it would do them much good to hear it again, from Maria’s or Hartfield’s perspective. It was best just to let that rest now.
Zachary covered up his mic, cocking his head to the side. “What?”
“We already got it from Hartfield,” Kenzie whispered. “It will just wind her up again.”
Zachary nodded.
Morrison was looking at his watch, scowling. “I don’t like to let this go for too long,” he warned. “I know you can’t rush negotiations and, for the moment, she is quiet and compliant, which is progress, but…” He pressed his lips together, looking at Hartfield on the screen. “You’re a doctor,” he said to Kenzie. “Maybe not the kind we want in this situation, but… am I right in thinking that the doctor isn’t looking too good?”
Zachary looked back at the screen. Kenzie nodded. “I was thinking that too. Maybe that wound is deeper than it looks, or he is getting woozy. We don’t want to leave it too long with him needing first aid. Maybe it is nothing, but I do think he is getting paler.”
Zachary nodded. He uncovered his mic.
53
“The doctor needs some attention,” Zachary told Maria firmly. “You remember Kenzie? She’s a doctor.”
“A mortician,” Maria said, then corrected herself, “A medical examiner.”
“Yes, but she still can be handy with live people, too,” Zachary said with a chuckle. “And she’s worried about the doctor. She wants to come and give him first aid. You wouldn’t want anything to happen to him.”
Maria turned to look at the doctor, frowning and turning her head this way and that.
“What is going on here?” she mused. She started to lower the phone from her ear and then caught herself, as if she were falling asleep on the bus and then waking herself up abruptly. She blinked and put the phone to her ear.
“I think the doctor isn’t feeling very well,” she observed. “Maybe someone should take a look at him.”
“I think you’re right,” Zachary agreed. “Why don’t you put his scalpel down with the other stuff, and Kenzie will come over and have a look at him.”
Once she put it down, Kenzie would probably not be allowed anywhere near the scene. But if the doctor needed attention, she might be called upon. Zachary was just saying whatever he needed to. He needed Maria to put down the knife. That was the only real point at the moment.
Maria looked around her as if she wasn’t quite sure about this action, then she nodded and set the scalpel down.
The police didn’t yell or rush her. Bleaker and his partner, Kenzie assumed, were the closest ones, and they were watching the body cam of one of them. The camera view closed in slowly as the cop slowly approached the woman. He did not tackle her and take her to the ground, but put his hand on her arm. “We’ll just take you out this way,” he advised, and Maria went with him quietly. The other cop was Bleaker; Kenzie saw his face as he approached Hartfield and took him into custody. But he didn’t shove him around and immediately frisk him either. They were trying to keep things from blowing up. They were quiet and deliberate and, Kenzie assumed, would ensure they both got medical attention immediately. Hartfield for his laceration, and Maria for a mental health assessment.
Both could face charges, but Kenzie hoped they wouldn’t charge Maria. It was clear that she was not in control of her faculties and had only attacked because of her instability. If they could get her compliant on a drug that would minimize her symptoms, then hopefully she could live an easier life. She was already in transitional housing, so that meant she had access to a fridge if she needed one, and had a place where she could leave her things instead of carting around all of her earthly possessions with her all day. Kenzie was happy to know that her family foundation was helping Maria already and that they were doing something that would make a difference in her life.
She and Zachary stood outside the van, breathing the fresh air and watching the first responders dealing with the situation. Kenzie was feeling a definite chill from Dr. Cook. He was clearly upset with her for calling in the police, even though, at this point, it should have been evident to him that it had been required. If they hadn’t called the police… who knew what would have happened. Kenzie was glad that everything had been resolved peacefully without anyone getting hurt. Or at least, not getting hurt by Hartfield. They had not foreseen the hostage becoming the threat. Cook talked to the police about what would happen to Hartfield and where he would be held. Then he headed back to his SUV without a word to Kenzie.
Zachary was watching Cook’s departure as well.
“There’s going to be trouble there.”
“Yeah. I feel bad. I didn’t mean to make things strained between us, but we had to do what we did.”
“Hartfield was his friend. There’s nothing you could do to make him feel better about it.”
“I guess not. But I wish there was. I didn’t do it because I wanted to get Hartfield in trouble. But… someone had to stop him.”
“Yeah,” Zachary agreed. “You couldn’t let him keep operating when he was putting people in danger. I can’t believe Dr. Cook would let it go on without doing anything about it. I mean, he could get in trouble for that, couldn’t he?”
“Knowingly letting someone else commit malpractice?” Kenzie asked. “Yeah, I would say so.”
Zachary nodded. He looked at his phone. “Time for dinner?” he suggested.
Kenzie looked at her own phone and was surprised her stomach hadn’t been rumbling. It had been a long time since she had eaten a sandwich at the coffee shop. Everything had taken much longer than she had thought it had. It seemed like the events of the afternoon had rushed by, everything happening quickly. But it had not all happened in a few minutes like she thought it had.
“Yeah, for sure. We’d better have something before we hit the road back.”
“What do you want to get?”
“I actually have no idea what’s good around here. You’re from Clintock. Are there any must-see dining places?”
Zachary shook his head ruefully. “I never had money to eat anywhere when I lived here. I was in foster care or living on soup kitchens and what I could afford at the convenience store.”
He didn’t say he had been eating out of garbage bins, but Kenzie suspected panhandling and dumpster diving had not been outside Zachary’s experience.
“Okay, well, do you want to find somewhere nice, or just a drive-thru?”
Zachary looked at the time again, considering.
“I’m not working tomorrow,” Kenzie told him, “if that makes any difference to you. If you want to stay out late, it’s not a ‘school night.’”
“Well, it might be nice to sit down, relax, and have a date night before heading home.”
“Okay, why don’t you check the map and see what is around that we might be interested in? I just want to check in with Morrison before we leave, make sure he doesn’t need anything else…”
Zachary nodded and bent over his phone to see what he could find that they might be interested in.
“I didn’t want to leave without talking to you,” Kenzie told Morrison. “I feel like we kind of threw a wrench in the works for you guys today. I appreciated you not making a big deal of us making the call and being in the way here.”
Morrison shrugged. “Campbell had good things to say about you, said it was a legitimate call, so we didn’t sweep in here thinking it was a crank call or ready to take some civilian’s head off. This guy was a murderer.” He shook his head. “Some of these strait-laced guys can really fool you. You think you’ve got it all figured out and they are the type who would never put a foot wrong. And then you find out they’re really rebels who would never listen to the rules of the game.”
Kenzie didn’t know if she would classify Hartfield as a murderer. He had certainly never intended to kill anyone, as far as she knew. He seemed devoted to being a healer. He just wasn’t as good as he thought he was. A doctor who was that erratic and who you could never trust to perform under pressure could be more dangerous than any intentional murderer.
“I’m glad to get him off the street,” she admitted. “It’s lucky that Dr. Cook got a confession out of him. That will help.”
“It’s on the record,” Morrison agreed. “Unless some lawyer figures out a way to get it thrown out.”
“Then we’ve still got Maria. She said she was there and that Hartfield gave Jack Lane a blood transfusion, and the lab reports show that he died from being given an incompatible blood type. So even without his confession, we’ve still got enough. Hopefully. I mean, I’m not the detective on the case, so I’m speaking out of school…”
“I get it,” Morrison said with a nod. He hooked his thumbs over his belt and watched the activity of the other cops as they finished up their various duties. “We’re talking about evidence that should be admitted and should show that his treatment resulted in the victim’s death. Even if things don’t always turn out the way we expect…”
“Yeah. So before we head out, do you need anything more from us? Dr. Cook already left.” Kenzie motioned to where his SUV had been parked. “Zachary and I are going to get some dinner before we head back to Roxboro.”
“I know where to reach you, so if I need any statements from you, I’ll just contact your office. Your detective will be in touch from his end. We’ll let him coordinate everything.”
Kenzie nodded. “Okay. Thanks again. I appreciate you being here to support us.”
He gave her a little salute. “You bring me the murderers and I’ll lock them up.”
Kenzie smiled and returned to Zachary’s side. “I’m done here. Let’s head out.”
He walked alongside her, apparently navigating by echolocation, since he never looked up from his phone. “What do you feel like? Anything in particular? There’s an Italian place with good reviews.”
“I could do Italian.” Kenzie smiled. “Do they have garlic bread?”
Zachary grinned without looking up. “With five-star reviews, apparently.”
“Italian it is.”
54
She expected Zachary to be completely relaxed when they sat down. They had sorted everything out, done everything they could, and now it was time to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Or at least the fruits of the olive tree. But Zachary was still hypervigilant. He sat with his back to the wall and his face to the door to evaluate anyone who might come in while they were there. His head was constantly turning, checking out everyone present. He startled at a crash of crockery in the kitchen and was turned around and halfway out of his seat before he caught himself and forced himself to sit back down again.
Kenzie didn’t comment on his anxiety until they had both made it halfway through their meals, and he’d consumed a considerable amount of garlic bread. With the calming effect of the complex carbs at work and no longer on edge from the stand-off, he should be more relaxed, but he still seemed to be just as wound up as he had been for days.
“So, what’s going on?” Kenzie finally asked. “You said that the only reason you’ve been so paranoid and vigilant lately is because of Maria’s concerns. Thinking that she was being followed. But now you’ve seen how unstable she is. She was being paranoid. There was never anyone following her.”
“There wasn’t?” Zachary repeated. “She said that she had been followed since she had been treated by the Night Doctor. And today, we saw her being held hostage by the Night Doctor. After he tracked her to Roxboro to get her and bring her back here.”
Kenzie opened her mouth, trying to find the words. She shook her head. “That’s just spin. She wasn’t being followed. Hartfield just found her because… they met up by chance at the soup kitchen. And he didn’t exactly take her hostage. I’m not sure how to describe what happened out there today, but it wasn’t exactly a hostage-taking.”
“They just coincidentally ran into each other?”
“Why would he follow her?” Kenzie asked reasonably.
“Because she had seen him kill someone and he was afraid that she would talk about it… which she did.”
“You don’t believe that he’d been following her that whole time, from the time Lane died until today.”
“Him personally? No. She said people. More than one person. He had friends, colleagues, people who believed in what he was doing and were helping him out somehow. There were street people networked together to help coordinate his appearances, where he would be, when, and what time he would be able to see everyone. He was moving from town to town, so he had people all over the area, not just in Clintock. Could he have had a few people following her and keeping an eye on what she was doing to report back to him? Or even just watching for her in the usual places? You don’t think so?”
“Well, I suppose,” Kenzie admitted. “There might have been someone… keeping track of where she was. Loosely. Or people in the community that gave him a heads-up when they saw her. But not… spies on her tail, watching her every move. That just doesn’t seem believable.”
Zachary shrugged. His eyes shifted to the door as someone came in, then eventually back to her again.
“But even if someone was following Maria, that’s over now,” Kenzie pointed out. “They have the Night Doctor in custody. It’s all over.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe? He is in custody.”
“Doesn’t mean he’ll stay there. The chances that they’ll keep some doctor in jail until he’s tried for malpractice are… pretty low. And he still has this network on the outside. We don’t know who is involved and how deeply. We don’t know if people will be really upset that he was arrested and retaliate.”
“Retaliate for what? He’s the one who made a mistake. Nothing was done intentionally. I’m just doing my job, following up on how Lane was killed and who was responsible.”
“That’s not necessarily how everyone will see it. People were real fans of the Night Doctor and what he was accomplishing. Even Maria admired him and said he was a better doctor than any of the others. Half the time, she was worried about the people following her, and half the time, she was worried about him and making sure that he could still operate.”
