Healed to Death, page 25
Kenzie considered this uneasily. She didn’t like to admit that Zachary had some good points. She had seen not only that Maria admired the disgraced doctor, but also how Dr. Cook and Dr. Simon felt about him. They both said that he was a good doctor. They both talked about how committed he was to helping people, especially the homeless. He was one of the few doctors she had met who was committed to finding a solution to treating the homeless and ensuring they got regular, consistent care. He didn’t want them to slip through the cracks of the system, and that wasn’t just ego. It was something that was deeply ingrained in his makeup.
People recognized that, and they didn’t want to lose him as a doctor.
But that didn’t mean that Zachary and Kenzie faced any threat of violence. Hartfield’s admirers would understand that he couldn’t be allowed to continue practicing without a license, especially when he took extra risks and made serious mistakes in his treatment. Anyone could see that he must not be allowed to continue. Even Dr. Cook.
“I don’t think you need to worry that someone is going to come after us here,” she told Zachary logically. “That’s all I’m saying. Maybe you’re right; maybe there are a lot of people who will be disappointed or angry about the Night Doctor not being able to operate anymore. But I don’t think that they’re going to come after us. We don’t live here and they do not know where we are.”
She sipped her water, watching his face and trying to evaluate how he was taking her comments.
“So you can relax and just enjoy the evening. Think about retaliatory action later, when we’re home and you’ve had a good rest and a chance to think about what is or isn’t likely to happen. I think you’ll decide that the risk is pretty small, and you don’t need to spend time worrying about it.”
There was an uncomfortable silence as Zachary thought about this, and Kenzie reconsidered how she had worded it. Could she have put it in a way less likely to offend him? She hadn’t accused him of overreacting. Not really. She hadn’t told him that he was being unreasonable or paranoid. Just that he could relax now and think about it more later.
“You’re not a PI,” Zachary told her eventually.
“No.” Kenzie wondered where this was leading.
“You don’t know how easy it is to surveil someone, track them, or predict what they will do next. The people that you deal with are not part of that world. They are either doctors or they are past doing anything. Your patients are not going to track you to try to get back for the way you treated them.” He gave her a little smile.
“No,” Kenzie agreed dryly. She was glad to see that Zachary was maintaining his sense of humor, no matter how much the situation had stirred things up for him. “My patients are not likely to complain about their medical care.”
“That lot was full of cops. But there were other people around, too. The manager who was on duty. The people across the street were rubbernecking, trying to see what was going on, texting and tweeting to each other. Dr. Cook. Who knows how many of the people who were watching to see what went down were former patients of Dr. Hartfield? You know that he arranged things so that he could treat several people at a time. There might have been a number of people there to see him tonight who paid attention to who else was there. You and I were in the van, and the car was unattended. Someone could easily have put a tracker on it.”
“With all of the police everywhere?” Kenzie shook her head. “I don’t think anyone could have gotten in there unnoticed.”
“They may have been noticed, but it only takes a few seconds to attach a tracking device to a vehicle. You kneel down to tie your shoe, lean over on the car, pick up something you’ve dropped. You act like it is your own vehicle, and the cops will not know the difference. They all had other things to do. They were distracted by the standoff.”
“Well… you can check the car for trackers tomorrow.”
“You said that they couldn’t know that we were here. You said that they couldn’t track us to the house.” He gazed at her. “But they could. And if they didn’t put a tracker on the car, they might have followed us. I watched for a tail, but we only went a short distance. It can be hard to spot a tail in that time, especially if it is more than one car. Or someone could have guessed where we went by what was in the area. It wouldn’t take long to check out the favorite and well-reviewed restaurants in the area. Especially if they have more than one person acting in concert.”
Kenzie looked around uneasily. Not as worried about Zachary’s paranoia now as she was the chance that someone there had been involved with the Night Doctor’s network and had followed them there. Or even just been hungry like they had been and gone to the nearest good restaurant, where they might then have spotted Kenzie and Zachary and recognized them from the standoff. She didn’t know how much of what had happened was known to the public. Had the police given any information to the public? To the people who had hung around with their phones, trying to get a shot of something interesting?
“You don’t really think there is anyone here who intends us any harm?”
Zachary held his hands palms up in a surrendering motion. “I don’t know. I’ve been watching pretty carefully, and I don’t see anyone who appears to have recognized us or is watching us. But I don’t know if anyone is tracking our movements or waiting for us to go back outside.”
Kenzie turned to look out the window. Of course it was dark outside, and it was impossible to tell if anyone was sitting in a car in the parking lot waiting for Zachary and Kenzie to reappear. She and Zachary had once been in an accident after someone had cut his brake lines.
But someone who was upset over their doctor being taken into custody would not retaliate with that kind of violence. That didn’t make any sense. Someone upset about their doctor being taken away might shout at her, get in her face about what a terrible thing she had done, about how great their needs were. But they wouldn’t resort to violence.
“I think we’re fine,” she said firmly, hoping to convince both herself and Zachary. “I don’t think that anyone would react violently to this. If they want to protest what I have done, it’s not hard to find the medical examiner’s office and either write a letter or make a phone call. There’s no need for anyone to track us.”
Zachary shrugged but didn’t say that he agreed or disagreed. He obviously had his reservations, and it made sense for him to be careful. They had both been through some tense situations in the past. But she couldn’t see anyone reacting violently to what they had done.
Kenzie found that she wasn’t hungry anymore, and laid down her fork.
55
Zachary’s phone rang, making both of them jump. Kenzie laughed and put her hand over her heart while Zachary fumbled to answer it.
“Sheesh, I hope you don’t use that alarm while you’re on surveillance,” Kenzie laughed.
Zachary chuckled. He swiped the phone screen and answered the call, which surprised her.
“Zachary,” he announced himself. His brows went up, and he pursed his lips as he listened.
Eventually, he nodded. He looked down at the phone and then across the table at Kenzie. He covered up the mic and spoke to her.
“Do you mind if we make a stop before we head back to Roxboro?”
“Uh, yeah, if you need to.”
If he had to see someone in Clintock, it made more sense to cover it tonight than to return tomorrow or the next day.
“It’s just… an old friend. She heard about Maria and is concerned.”
Kenzie tried to remember the names Maria had mentioned the first time they had met with her. “Is it… Ivy?”
“Yes.” Zachary nodded quickly. “I don’t think it will take very long. But she’s a friend; I don’t want to just put her off, and it would be rude to try to discuss it over dinner.” He motioned to Kenzie and the table.
“Yeah.”
“Sorry. Be right with you.” He spoke into his phone again. “Yeah, I’ll be there within the next hour. You’re going to be around?”
He listened for a moment, then said a quick goodbye and hung up.
“Sorry,” he apologized again. “I know we don’t let the phone interrupt dinner, usually… but she’s here in town and I didn’t want to miss her if she needed something while I’m here.”
“Yeah, I get it. Unusual circumstances. We’ll finish up here, then, and then head over to…”
“It’s a community outreach center. She runs… everything. Takes care of everyone in the neighborhood.”
Zachary seemed hesitant to talk about her. She was part of his former life. A life that Kenzie had only caught glimpses of through Mr. Peterson and Pat and the very occasional windows that Zachary opened himself. Kenzie knew that Ivy Shane had been an important part of his past, but didn’t know much about her.
“She sounds like a wonderful person.”
A smile illuminated Zachary’s face. “Yeah. She is. It’s amazing what she’s done with herself.”
“I’m looking forward to meeting her.”
Another brief shadow passed over his face. Was he worried that she wouldn’t like Ivy? That she would look down on her for some reason? Kenzie came from a very different background from Zachary and Ivy. Zachary had seen the privileged life Kenzie had led. But she thought that she had proven herself in the time that they had known each other. He should know that she did not judge people by how they were raised or their poverty or wealth. She got along with the Petersons and with Zachary’s siblings, other than Joss, and she did the best she could with Joss.
But this was another test she had to pass. Another part of Zachary’s life that might be opened up to her if she could show him that she was accepting and nonjudgmental.
Zachary looked at the food remaining on his plate and then at Kenzie’s. She had already decided that she was finished eating.
“Do you think… we’ve got an hour to get over there if you are still hungry.”
“No, I’m ready to go. And I think you could probably stand to get out of here. You’re just a ball of anxiety right now.”
But he’d moved on. Now he was focused on getting to the appointment with Ivy and, while he still took a careful look around the restaurant as they stood up and paid for the meals, it was more perfunctory. He was less tense than he had been. Still careful, but not all wound up in it.
56
Clintock was, on the whole, not as wealthy as Roxboro. It had a few newer, more affluent areas, but most of it consisted of houses built in the sixties and seventies without much imagination. There was denser housing with townhouses, duplexes, and row houses. Not much in the way of apartments, it still had a rural feel, with few buildings taller than two or three stories.
The area they had eaten dinner in, just outside the industrial park the storage units were in, had been reasonably nice. The restaurant was good for family dinners or dates, not too expensive or fancy, but also not fast food; a place you could sit down and take your time getting to know the person you were eating with and not feel rushed. But within a few minutes of driving, they were in a much poorer, run-down area. A number of the houses they drove by had boarded-up windows. Some were occupied, and some looked abandoned.
Zachary’s eyes were alert as he navigated through the area, darting back and forth, watching for movement and dangers that Kenzie was unfamiliar with. If she had been there by herself, she would have gotten out of the area as quickly as possible. She didn’t feel unsafe being there with Zachary. He might be small and not carry a weapon, but he was still tough. He’d been through a lot, and he could fight like a wolverine when cornered or when someone he loved was in danger. He wouldn’t just buckle under pressure. And he knew how to talk himself into and out of places. Talking would always be his first layer of defense. He could use his brain and his mouth to get out of almost anything.
Kenzie had hoped that they were just driving through the sad, run-down neighborhood but, in a few minutes, Zachary was pulling into a small parking lot behind a low-slung older building that had been added onto haphazardly, resulting in a number of dangerous-looking dark corners.
Zachary parked in the pool of light below a streetlight. He got out of the car and looked around. He bent down to look back into the car at Kenzie. “Looks okay. Let’s go in.”
“This isn’t the best place to be at night. Are you sure… maybe you could call or video chat with Ivy, or come back here during daylight.”
Though she wasn’t sure it looked like it would be that much safer in the daylight. It seemed clear that it was a rough area day or night.
Zachary didn’t answer, but walked around the car and reached his hand out to her when he got close. Kenzie climbed out of the car and took his hand. Zachary had the key fob in his other hand and locked the doors and set the security alarm. He had a small flashlight on his keychain, and he shone it in the window, checking the position of the locks. He pushed the button a couple more times and looked around.
“You okay with this?” Kenzie questioned.
He nodded. He shone the flashlight around them as they stepped out of the pool of light cast by the streetlight. It wasn’t a powerful light, but it did make Kenzie feel a little better. He ran it along the outside wall of the community center in either direction, lighting up all of the pockets of darkness to ensure that there could be no one hiding in the shadows before he reached the door.
Before he could open the door to see if it was unlocked or whether they would need to knock or phone Ivy, it was pushed open and a tall black man stood there scowling at them.
“Zachary Goldman?” he demanded.
Zachary nodded. “Yes. That’s me.”
“I wasn’t told you would have a guest.”
“This is Dr. Kenzie Kirsch,” Zachary said briefly, not indicating that she was his girlfriend or the assistant medical examiner in Roxboro. Apparently, this man was not entitled to that information.
He grunted and held the door open for Zachary and Kenzie to enter. When they were inside, he locked the heavy door.
“This way.”
The inside of the building was a bit of a maze, having been built onto so many times like it was. Some of the flooring and construction looked like it had survived from the sixties and seventies, and some had been upgraded. It smelled of a mixture of sweat and old food and something Kenzie associated with kids, though she couldn’t identify what it was. Throughout the center, there were pictures on the walls drawn by children and teens, and a number of community awards and athletic team plaques were hung here and there. Old and new plaques hung side by side; there didn’t appear to be any chronological order.
The man led them to an office with an open door and gestured, but didn’t enter. Apparently, he was not part of whatever this meeting was.
“Zachary!” She heard the woman greet Zachary with enthusiasm as he entered ahead of Kenzie, but he blocked Ivy from Kenzie’s view, so she could not see the woman until the hug was complete and the two broke apart.
“This is Kenzie,” Zachary introduced, stepping to the side so that he wasn’t between them. “My girlfriend.”
Ivy nodded, her eyes dancing. She was a small, pixielike woman, with short blond hair and an intensity that felt out of place at the end of the day. If she was the director of all or many of the programs at the community center, she must be exhausted at the end of the day, especially at the end of a Saturday, when she must have had programs running all day long. But Kenzie never would have guessed it by her energy level and demeanor.
“Well, come sit down, both of you,” Ivy instructed. “We’ll try to make this quick. I’m sure you want to get back home early tonight.” Ivy’s hand rested lightly on Kenzie’s arm for a moment as she ushered them into their seats, then squeezed between the desk and the wall to sit back down behind her desk. She looked at Kenzie. “I just have to say… you’re a very lucky woman,” she told Kenzie. “This kid,” she indicated Zachary with a tilt of her head, “is a very special guy. You know he saved my life once?”
Zachary flushed red and waved his hand to dismiss this. “I didn’t save her life. I just helped… get her out of a fix when the police thought she had done something she hadn’t.”
“I would have gone to prison,” Ivy said. “I was looking down the barrel of an armed robbery charge, and it would have been the end for me.”’
Zachary was still shaking his head, still blushing. “She always tells people that. But if they had sent her to juvie, she would just have taken over the block there. She would have been telling the COs and matrons what to do and have everything whipped into shipshape in a few months. It wasn’t the end of anything.”
Ivy grinned in appreciation at his words and settled into her seat.
Most people did not consider Zachary a catch. Kenzie’s friends wondered why she had gotten together with him, why they had even dated in the first place, let alone started a long-term live-in arrangement with him. Her parents liked Zachary, for the most part, but still didn’t understand how they had gotten together or how the relationship worked. Too many people saw it as Kenzie helping Zachary out when that was far from the truth. She was not his mother or his babysitter. She got just as much out of their partnership as he did. Though when they were going through hard times, she sometimes needed to be reminded of the fact. She liked Ivy and the fact that she thought Zachary was a good catch and still made a big deal of what he had done for her all of those years ago.
Ivy was a few years Zachary’s senior, but not a lot, which made it difficult to figure out what their relationship had been all of those years ago and how Zachary had helped Ivy stay out of juvie. If she had been a juvenile, then he had too. Even younger than she was. Mr. Peterson had said something about it one time. It had been something to do with Zachary and some photos he had taken.
“You’ll have to tell me about it sometime,” she told Ivy. “I think Zachary’s too modest.”
