Organized to Death Page 23

  Again, she told him.

  “I’m only three blocks away. Stay cool.”

  Then she spotted Hank, coming in her direction. As he approached, she glanced in her rearview mirror and saw the other car turn into a side street and speed away.

  Tina pulled over to the curb, shaking. She put the car in park and sat grasping the steering wheel until her fingers ached.

  Hank did a U-turn and parked behind her. She watched him in her side rearview, rushing toward her.

  “Are you okay?” he asked as she rolled down the window.

  “I’m fine.” She loosened her death grip on the steering wheel and took a couple of deep breaths. “Shouldn’t you go after him? You did see him?”

  “Yeah, but didn’t have time to get the license number. Did you?”

  “No. Oh, damn, I didn’t think of it.”

  Hank’s face remained expressionless. “I can’t do anything, Tina. No one threatened you. You didn’t see a gun?”

  “No.”

  “We can guess it’s the same car Nicky and Charles saw, but we have no proof.”

  “Did you talk to Charles?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is Ted in jail?”

  “He’s out on bail.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yes. I know. But there’s nothing to tie him to Crystal’s murder. We can guess that she found out his dirty little secret, but we could be totally wrong about that. You happen to know what kind of car Ted drives?”

  “Not exactly. Something foreign, sporty. Red.”

  Hank laughed. “If it’s not a Volkswagen, you have no clue.”

  “I know what a Porsche looks like. Dr. Stevenson has one—an older model. I saw it in his driveway.”

  “So, if it’s either one of them, they’re using a different car.”

  “And just driving around, looking for anyone connected to Crystal to bump off?” Tina asked.

  Hank didn’t say anything.

  “And if it’s Ted, he has an accomplice. Remember, I was in his office with him when Nicky was shot. He doesn’t have time to roam around in an old white car. I’m going home.”

  CHAPTER 40

  Uncle Bob sat at the kitchen table and Tina’s mother stood at the crock pot with a wooden spoon in her hand. Tina didn’t know what atrocity was hidden inside the pot—it smelled like wet socks—so she ignored the whole thing and went to give her uncle a hug.

  “Kumquat, there you are! Where have you been?”

  Tina put her purse on the floor, took off her coat, and sat down. “I’ve been helping Rachel with her house. We got the whole front hall cleared. And that’s a rather long hall!”

  “Better than a shortfall,” Uncle Bob said, grinning.

  “You. You must be feeling a lot better.”

  “I am. Right as rain.”

  “What on earth does that mean?” Laura asked. “How can rain be right? And why should that apply to how someone feels?” She shook her head and sat down. Took a sip of her cocktail.

  “I have no idea,” Uncle Bob said.

  “And you don’t care,” Tina said, laughing.

  “Heck no. I never met a cliché I didn’t like.”

  “You can say that again!” Tina said.

  “It’s catching!”

  When both Tina and Laura looked puzzled, Uncle Bob said, “‘You can say that again’ is used so much, it’s really a cliché.”

  “Oh,” Tina said. “Hank said I was catching your sense of humor. Maybe I am.”

  “How is old Hank?”

  “He’s fine. Right as rain, I should say.” She looked at Laura who, as usual, was not participating in their banter. “Did you tell Uncle Bob the Lunch Bunch’s secret?”

  Laura leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “Yes. And I consider this very poor timing.”

  “As was Crystal’s death,” Tina shot back. She almost said that good timing would have been back when the girls were in their late teens, but bit her tongue. They’d already had that argument and it got them nowhere. “Do you happen to know when doctors stopped giving their patients DES?”

  “No,” Laura said, uncrossing her arms. “I guess we could find out online?”

  “Probably. I’m going to check in just a minute. How did you find each other, anyway?”

  “Dr. Stevenson asked each of us if we’d like to meet other mothers who had taken the drug, and the ones in the Bunch agreed. I imagine he asked other mothers who didn’t agree.”

  Tina hadn’t thought of that. There hadn’t been that many folders in the file cabinet, but she couldn’t really tell how many there’d been.

  “I’m going to check out some dates on the computer,” she said and stood up.

  Her mother stood as well and went to look inside the crock pot. “Dinner in an hour.”

  “Okay.” She resigned herself to eating gruel. Then she remembered the Milky Way bar in her purse. She’d save it for after dinner.

  After a bit of searching on the computer, Tina found that most doctors had discontinued the use of DES to prevent miscarriages in 1971. The government had issued a bulletin. So, Dr. Stevenson either hadn’t gotten the word or he’d continued to use it anyway. What was worse, in 1953 studies found it didn’t really prevent miscarriages. The drug companies continued to market it as a miscarriage preventative, though, and many young women had paid the price since.

  Disgusted, Tina called Hank.

  “Where are you?” she asked when he answered.

  “Outside the Morris house again.”

  “Seen any white cars?”

  “No. I think whoever is driving it knows my car. They stopped following you as soon as I came along, remember?”

  “That’s right. Who could it be?”

  “I don’t know. Unless Ted stashed another car somewhere, it’s not him.”

  “Well, couldn’t he do that? Did you search both the garages at his house and his office?”

  “I’m not running this investigation, Red, so I don’t know if they were both searched. But I’ll find out.”

  “Okay. Also, they need to check out the file cabinet upstairs at Ted’s office. There are a bunch of files in there, and I think all of them have to do with women who were given DES by Dr. Stevenson back in the 1970s and maybe even the ‘80s. If this has anything to do with that, then everyone in those files could be in danger from the murderer.” Mother? Tina thought suddenly and put it away for later. It had to be Ted.

  Tina shivered.

  “Be careful.” Hank’s voice was a low growl. Tina shivered again, but not from fright.

  “What? Yes, of course. Mother’s cooking tonight. I probably have more to worry about from that than anything else.”

  Hank laughed. Then he sobered. “How’s Uncle Bob? Hope his stomach can survive that.”

  “He’s a lot better. Weak, I think, but pain free, happy.”

  “Good.” The growl was gone from his voice, and Tina missed it. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Okay.” When, she wondered.

  After they hung up, Tina’s stomach growled. She grinned to herself. Snatching up her purse, which she’d brought with her into the office, she looked for the Milky Way. She’d live dangerously and have dessert first. But it wasn’t there.

  Thinking it might have fallen out in the car, she grabbed her jacket and went outside.

  As she leaned into the passenger’s side of her Volkswagen, a voice behind her said, “Tina?”

  She jerked, recognizing Ted’s baritone. Fear clutched at her stomach, and she backed out of the car slowly. Gathering all her courage, she stood up and faced him.

  He didn’t look at all threatening. More defeated than anything. Head hung, hands in his pockets, he couldn’t meet her eyes.

  “I… I wanted to talk to you before the news got around, into the papers.”

  She leaned against her car to steady herself. He didn’t know she’d been the one to find out.

  “I’m not really a doctor,” Ted
said. “I’ve always wanted to be, but I didn’t do well in school… “

  Tina realized she was nodding and couldn’t seem to stop. Her mouth felt so dry it was painful to swallow. She put her hands in her coat pockets, feeling the pepper spray. But that didn’t reassure her because she remembered how easily Ted had taken it from her the night before. He didn’t seem aggressive, but it could be an act. He was an excellent actor, after all. How many people had he fooled since setting up practice?

  Cold sweat washed over her when he took a step forward. He gave her a puzzled look. “You already know.”

  Too late, she realized she should have acted surprised, shocked. “No,” she protested, her voice feeble. She wanted to get away from him, but she felt rooted to the spot, too scared to move.

  He grasped her shoulders. She felt her mouth go slack with shock. She yelped.

  “Sorry.” He backed off. “You’re afraid of me?”

  “N-n-no, of course not.”

  “Yes, you are. I’d never hurt you. I’d never hurt anyone. I just wanted to help.” He rubbed his face with his hand. “I referred everyone on when I didn’t know enough to treat them. I never did more than first aid!”

  She almost felt sorry for him. He looked haunted, a ghost of himself.

  “I don’t understand how the police found out,” he muttered.

  Tina didn’t want to pursue that. “What made you do it?”

  “I’d always had an interest. Then when I found out my father was a doctor, I began to study on my own. After I’d saved enough money to come east, I looked him up and found out he was giving up his practice. It seemed like the perfect opportunity. He never questioned me. Instead, he seemed proud, happy he had a son since he didn’t have any other children. He even gave me the house with his office. But I couldn’t live there, for some reason.” Ted’s voice caught. “It was going so well … “

  Tina didn’t say anything. Couldn’t say anything.

  “How did you find out?”

  “I have some friends in the police department. They knew I was working for you. So they told me.” When had she learned to lie so smoothly?

  Daylight was fading fast, but Tina could still see Ted’s eyes, gleaming with doubt. Suddenly he grabbed her upper arms, squeezing so hard she cried out. “You told them!” He gave her a shake. Her teeth rattled, but she didn’t know if it was because of the shake or from fear.

  “No. No.”

  He squeezed some more. “I remember you looking at my diploma. Even then, you doubted me.”

  She struggled against him, but his strength was too much for her.

  “Please, let me go. Ted! Don’t make it worse on yourself. Let me go!” She gave a huge wrench, and his grip loosened but then tightened again.

  “It can’t get any worse. I’m going to jail for a long, long time.” He shook her again. “And it’s all your fault!” His voice was full of rage.

  She didn’t know what to do. If she screamed, she was afraid he’d throttle her or drag her away.

  She forced herself to relax in his grip, then threw herself forward, planting a huge kiss on his mouth, pushing her tongue against his lips, forcing it into his mouth.

  He stiffened but then relaxed just enough for her to break loose. She couldn’t back away because she was up against the Volkswagen. She tried to duck around him, but he caught her easily. “Let’s do that again.”

  Tina closed her eyes, trying to blot out the horror. His mouth mashed onto hers, and this time it was his tongue that probed. Bile rose in her throat, and she remembered being sick the day before. She let it come, prayed it would come.

  And it did. He pulled away in disgust, choking. This time Tina ran past him, spitting as she went.

  Two feet from the back door, he grabbed her by her jacket collar. She screamed and sawed her elbows backward, hoping to connect with something that would hurt him. He pulled harder on her collar and she felt herself choking, unable to take a breath.

  The back door opened, light spilling out. Uncle Bob and Princess stood there. “What’s going on?” Uncle Bob asked as he took a step forward.

  Princess growled low in her throat, then lunged toward Ted. He screamed, letting go of Tina’s collar. She almost fell to her knees but steadied herself. Uncle Bob took her elbow.

  She turned around to see Ted flat on his back on the ground, Princess standing over him, his arm in her mouth, her head shaking back and forth vigorously.

  “Get her off!” Ted yelled. “Get her off!”

  Laura came to stand next to Uncle Bob, the portable phone in her hand. “I called nine one one. What happened? Is that Doctor Ted?”

  Tina nodded. They watched the man and the dog struggle for a while, then heard the sirens. Ted finally quit moving, and Princess stopped shaking his arm but didn’t let go.

  “Get her off,” Ted said a few times, but softly. It looked as if all the fight had gone out of him.

  A police car pulled up, siren squalling and lights flashing, a second car right behind. Four officers jumped out of the vehicles and came up to the group, weapons drawn.

  “Don’t shoot the dog!” Uncle Bob shouted. “She’s protecting my niece.”

  “Call her off,” one of the officers shouted back.

  “What?” Uncle Bob asked.

  Tina whirled in front of him and said slowly, clearly, so he could read her lips, “Call her off.”

  “Princess!” Uncle Bob’s voice shook. “Come here!”

  The golden retriever whined and looked at Uncle Bob for a long moment.

  “Here, girl.”

  Princess let go of Ted’s arm and backed away from him until she reached Uncle Bob’s side. Then she sat down, her eyes never leaving Ted.

  Ted started to get up. Princess growled.

  “Stay where you are,” the same officer said. “Well-trained dog,” he said to Uncle Bob.

  Uncle Bob just stared at him. “He said she’s well trained,” Tina shouted over the noise of the sirens. She turned back to the officers. “Can’t you turn those things off? My uncle is hard of hearing, and he won’t hear a thing you say with all that noise. The dog is a hearing service dog, and yes, she’s very well trained.” Tina put her hand on Princess’s head and stroked her just a bit. She knew she shouldn’t—Princess was working—but the dog had probably saved her life. What she really wanted to do was get down on her knees and bury her face in the dog’s fur, hugging her tight.

  One of the officers holstered her gun and walked away to turn off the sirens.

  The one who had first spoken said, “Okay, what’s going on here?”

  “He attacked me.” Tina pointed a shaking finger at Ted. “I was running for the house, and he caught me by the collar. My uncle opened the door, and Princess jumped on him and kept him down. My mother called nine one one.” She looked at Laura, who leaned against the doorjamb, the phone still clutched in her hand.

  One of the officers walked over to Ted, gun drawn, and told him to roll over and cuffed him, then helped him up. The officer searched him and asked him his name. When Ted told him, he said, “You the doctor they just had in this morning? The fake doctor?”

  Ted’s head was bowed, and no one but the two standing next to him heard his answer.

  “We’ll take him in,” the officer said, grasping Ted by the elbow and leading him to one of the cars.

  The female officer had come back after turning off the siren. “It’s chilly out here. Can we go indoors and take your statements?”

  “Of course,” Tina said. She watched Laura let go of the doorjamb and turn around. Her mother looked ten years older all of a sudden. Tina hurried inside and took off her jacket, fishing out her worry stone from her blazer and pressing it hard as everyone trooped into the living room and found places to sit.

  “You go first,” the officer told Tina.

  As Tina talked, she saw both her mother and Uncle Bob become more and more upset. When she got to the part of almost reaching the door and Uncle Bob and P
rincess standing there, she stopped.

  Uncle Bob took over the story. Tina noticed that both officers often glanced at Princess.

  “Princess lets me know I need to attend to something by placing her head against my leg if I’m standing, or by putting her chin on my knee if I’m sitting. She came over to me and kept nudging my leg. Laura and I couldn’t figure out what she wanted because we both knew the phone wasn’t ringing, none of the alarms had gone off, and the doorbell hadn’t rung. But after a bit, I decided to follow her. She led me to the back door, and when I opened it, she ran out and attacked that man. He was holding onto Tina’s collar and was choking her.”

  Uncle Bob stopped and took a few deep breaths. The shock was wearing off, Tina realized, and now he and her mother were going to have a rough time.

  “She must have known something was wrong before Tina even screamed,” her mother said. “I heard Tina when we got to the kitchen, but not before.”

  The doorbell rang. Both officers stared at the blinking light over the doorway. Laura stood to answer it, and no one said anything until she came back with Lisbeth and John. Lisbeth walked right into the living room, but John hesitated at the doorway, watching Princess, who stayed by Uncle Bob, wagging her tail.

  Tina grinned. It felt good. Big bad policeman, afraid of golden retriever. Unless he attacked someone in the room, he had nothing to fear. Tina remembered now that goldens rarely attacked anyone, were one of the gentlest of dogs. Relief washed over her when she realized what might have happened if Princess hadn’t acted against her natural instinct.

  “Are you all right?” Lisbeth asked Tina.

  Surprised, Tina nodded. A policewoman with a heart of gold? She realized she was being unfair. Why else would Lisbeth become a police officer if not because she wanted to help people?

  “Have a seat,” Laura said to John and Lisbeth. “Can I get anyone something to drink?”

  “I could use a soda,” Tina said. She wondered if she’d ever get the taste of bile out of her throat. She hadn’t told the police about the kissing. She shuddered.

  Lisbeth noticed her discomfort. “You might want to call your doctor and get some sleeping pills and tranqs if you feel the need.”

  Tina and Uncle Bob stared at her. Laura stopped on her way out the door and looked back.