MULTIPLE MOTIVES (The Kate Huntington mystery series Book 1) (31 page)

“He never actually saw or heard anything that identifies his captor,” Rose said. “But nothing he told us rules out a woman either.”

“It sounded like he was imagining it could be Cheryl and then started assuming it was her,” Kate said. “The line between imagined events and what really happened can get blurry, especially when one’s mind is impaired. We still need to check out that house, but now that we know there was indeed some shifting of his unconscious body required, that makes a woman a bit less likely in my book.”

Skip cocked his head to one side. “We’ve been assuming Rob’s shirt got torn and his back scraped up because he was dragged, but here’s another possibility. Maybe Cheryl brought the wheelbarrow into the building. It would fit in the elevator. How big a woman is she?”

“She’s a couple inches taller than me, and fairly muscular,” Kate said.

“If she brought the wheelbarrow up next to Rob’s body and leaned it over on its side, she could roll him into it and tip it up.” Skip pantomimed those actions with an imaginary body and wheelbarrow.

“So how’d he get scraped up?” Rose asked.

“Maybe she lost control of her load at some point and he dumped out onto the pavement. Then she had to shove him around some to get him in position to roll him back into the wheelbarrow.”

Rose nodded. “Shirt got torn up and bloody. Maybe ripped some more when she’s struggling to transfer him into her vehicle. She uses it to wipe down the ’barrow and then tosses it underneath it so we know she’s got him.”

“She drives a car, according to Ben,” Kate said.

“Easy enough to beg, borrow or steal a van or truck,” Mac pointed out.

Kate nodded as she spotted Dr. Walters coming down the hall. “Call Phillips,” she whispered to Rose, then stepped forward to intercept the doctor.

“Can I speak to you for a moment, Doctor?” Kate steered her away from the others, thinking the woman might be more willing to go along with what she was about to propose if there weren’t any witnesses to their conversation.

Kate paused to choose her words carefully. “Doctor, the lead police detective on our case is not very competent, but he is quite arrogant. He hasn’t handled the investigation very well so far. Now that Rob’s awake, Detective Phillips will probably be showing up at any moment. So I have a favor to ask.” She took a deep breath and then plunged ahead.

“Rob’s in a fragile mental state right now, and that’s not just a friend’s opinion. I’m a psychotherapist. I’m very concerned that Phillips is going to come barging in here and create additional stress for Rob. And I’m not at all sure he can handle that right now.”

“So you want me to stick around until this chap gets here,” the doctor said.

“Yes, but that’s not the entire favor.” Kate took another deep breath. “I was hoping that you wouldn’t let Detective Phillips in to see Rob, at least not tonight.”

The doctor took a step back and gave her a sharp look. “You’re asking me to obstruct justice?”

“No, ma’am, I’m asking you to protect your patient from one of the most obnoxious people on the planet!” Kate spat out.

So much for carefully chosen words.

“Besides,” she added less vehemently, “Officer Hernandez has questioned Rob and she can tell the detective what he said.”

She nervously watched the doctor’s face as the older woman mulled it over.

~~~~~~~~

On the one hand, it was a rather outrageous request. But on the other hand, Amy Walters was impressed by Ms. Huntington, who was obviously accepted as the leader of this group, even by the men. And she considered herself a good judge of character.

She’d also interacted enough with the police in her professional life to know that while most were dedicated and competent, some were not.

Dr. Walters looked at her watch. Her husband of thirty years had long since learned to expect her when he saw her. She wasn’t sure what she would do when the detective arrived but she was certainly sticking around to make sure he didn’t upset her patient.

“I’m going down to the cafeteria and get a snack,” she finally said. “Something tells me I don’t want to face this gentleman with low blood sugar. Have the nurse page me if he shows up before I get back.”

After buying an apple in the ground-floor cafeteria, Amy Walters went over to the bank of elevators. She punched the up button as she bit into the apple. One of the doors slid open. The only occupant of the elevator was a short, stocky man in a rumpled business suit. He was slouched against the back wall.

He eyed her white coat and stethoscope, then straightened up and threw his shoulders back. His chest puffed out a little.

The doctor stepped on, suppressing a smile at the man’s sudden transformation. She observed elevator etiquette by turning to face the front and pretending she was alone. As she worked on the apple, she checked the guy out in her peripheral vision.
Built like a fireplug, touch of gray in his hair. Early to mid forties maybe
.

When the elevator reached her floor, the man, honoring neither age, gender nor who was closest to the door, rushed past her with a self-important air. The doctor’s amusement shifted toward annoyance. The man paused, looking around, then headed briskly toward Mr. Franklin’s room.

Damn!
He’s the police detective.

Down the hall, her patient’s wife and her friends were lined up, touching shoulders–a human barricade in front of the door. It sounded like the wiry little guy was actually growling.

The detective raised his voice. “If you all don’t move aside, I’m going to arrest you for obstruction of justice!”

Amy Walters inserted herself into the middle of the group. “Detective, please lower your voice. You’re disturbing my patients. Shall we take this to my office?”

The detective glared at her. “Who are you, lady?”

Who the hell does he think I am, the janitor?

“I’m Mr. Franklin’s doctor. Amanda Walters.” She did not offer to shake the man’s hand. “If you will follow me, we can discuss in private when you may see my patient, instead of yelling in a hospital hallway. Officer Hernandez, Ms. Huntington, please join us.” She started to turn away.

“There’s nothing to discuss. I need to interrogate this man.”

Dr. Walters pivoted back around and stared at him for a beat. “Sir, I will call hospital security and have you forcibly removed from this hospital if you attempt to enter my patient’s room without my permission. Now follow me!” She tossed her apple core in a trash can as she marched down the hall.

She glanced back. The detective’s expression was not happy but he was following her. Ms. Huntington and the officer were trailing behind the man, staying well back.

In her office, the doctor settled intro her desk chair and gestured toward the cluster of visitor chairs in front of her desk. “Detective, ladies, have a seat.”

Phillips remained standing, glaring at Ms. Huntington. “Why is she here?”

It was a good question. She realized she’d invited Ms. Huntington as the leader of this ragtag group of folks associated with her patient. “Because
I
asked her to join us, as Mr. Franklin’s representative, if you will. It is my office, Detective. Please sit down.”

Ms. Huntington left an empty chair between them as she and Phillips sat down. The officer stood near the door at parade rest.

“Detective, Mr. Franklin was in critical condition when he arrived in our ER. I understand your need for information in order to catch whoever kidnapped him. So when he regained consciousness and was relatively stable, I allowed your officer to question him.” Watching this man’s scowling face, she was more and more inclined to keep him away from her patient, at least for tonight. “He is now sleeping so it’s unlikely you will be able to talk to him this evening. He needs to rest.”

Still looking at her, Phillips barked, “Hernandez, report!”

The young woman took a step forward and opened her pad. “Mr. Franklin stated he was held since Tuesday evening in a storage room, in the basement of a row house somewhere in Baltimore City. He managed to escape, passed out on the street and woke up here in the hospital. He never saw his kidnapper.”

“He give you an address?” Phillips snapped.

“No, sir. Just said the house was red brick, with a white marble stoop.”

Phillips sat back and a smirk spread across his face. “How very convenient. There are only several thousand such houses in the Baltimore area. Did he happen to notice what street it was on?”

“No, sir. He said he felt a sense of urgency to get away quickly.”

Phillips was still looking at the doctor rather than his subordinate. “So let me get this straight, Officer. This big man was taken by force by someone he never saw who managed to get him from Towson to somewhere in West Baltimore, locked him in a basement for several days, after which he miraculously escaped but can’t tell us the location of the house where he was held.”

Amy Walters shook her head slightly. It sounded like this guy didn’t believe her patient had actually been kidnapped. “Detective, this man arrived in our emergency room unconscious and seriously dehydrated.”

“Both of which can be faked.”

She pursed her lips. “No, actually they can’t. Any first-year resident can tell whether or not someone is unconscious. And the paramedics picked up right away that he was dehydrated. There are very obvious symptoms, especially when someone’s been without fluids for as long as Mr. Franklin was.”

“Or for as long as Mr. Franklin claims he was without fluids. Officer, did he have an explanation for why his kidnapper didn’t bother to feed and water him?”

“The kidnapper left food and water in the room when he was asleep, sir. But the first time he ate the food, he passed out for quite awhile and realized it had been drugged. He was afraid to consume anything after that.”

“And how did he escape?”

After the briefest of hesitations, the young officer said, “He was eventually able to break through a wall into the rest of the basement, and escape through the basement door to the street.”

Amy Walters put her hands on her desk to push herself to a stand. “Detective, assuming my patient hasn’t suffered any setbacks by morning, you may talk to him then.”

“Not acceptable. I need to interrogate him tonight.”

Startled, she dropped back into her chair. “That’s the second time you’ve used the word
interrogate
. That implies Mr. Franklin is a suspect rather than a victim.”

“That’s because he
is
a suspect, in the murder of this woman’s husband.” Phillips pointed at Ms. Huntington. “And the two of them have been staging all kinds of scenes since then to make it appear someone’s trying to kill them.”

Ms. Huntington opened her mouth. The doctor held up a hand in her direction.

“So let
me
get this straight, Detective,” Dr. Walters said. “You think this man staged his own kidnapping and went without food or water for almost five days, just to throw you off… after killing Mrs. Huntington’s husband? Why would he do that in the first place?”

Phillips leaned forward. “Because the two of them, Franklin and her, are having an affair. And the man’s wife is too stupid to see it.”

Mrs. Huntington’s eyes flashed with fury. She started to come up out of her chair. In an instant, Officer Hernandez was behind her, hands on her shoulders holding her down.

The doctor cocked an eyebrow in their direction, then turned her attention back to the detective. “My sense of Mrs. Franklin, sir, is that she’s anything but stupid. And I repeat, you seriously believe this man deliberately allowed himself to become dangerously dehydrated?”

“Well, now we only have your word for it that he was that dehydrated, Doctor.”

Okay, that does it!

Amy Walters stood up. Her voice low and even, she said, “I see. So I’m either incompetent or lying to cover for a couple of murderers. Sir, you are no longer welcome in my office and you cannot see my patient until tomorrow, if then. I will determine in the morning if he is strong enough to talk to you.”

Phillips stood, put his hands on her desk and leaned within inches of her face. “I will be back tomorrow and if you try to stop me from seeing him then, I’ll arrest you for obstruction of justice.”

She didn’t blink. She hadn’t carved out a successful career in the still male-dominated medical field by allowing herself to be bullied. While maintaining eye contact with Phillips, she reached toward her phone and hit the button for the intercom–that went to an empty clerk’s desk outside her office. “Carrie,” she calmly bluffed. “Call security. I need three officers in my office stat.”

She sat back down in her chair. “Would you care to wait, Detective, or would you prefer to show yourself out?”

Phillips stormed out, slamming the door behind him. She shook her head. “What an incredibly obnoxious little man!”

“Tends to be the common reaction to him, ma’am,” the officer replied evenly.

The doctor suppressed a snort. Even his subordinates didn’t like him. She turned to Mrs. Huntington. “He seriously thinks you and Mr. Franklin are having an affair, and set up a fake kidnapping, complete with very real dehydration, just to throw him off?”

Mrs. Huntington shrugged. “Actually at this point he probably realizes his theory is off base, which may be why he feels that much more compelled to defend it. He’s made some serious blunders in the investigation, because he was so convinced we were the culprits. Now, I think he’s getting desperate.”

The doctor nodded. “And unfortunately it isn’t hard for some people to believe that when a man and a woman are friends, there must be romance and sex involved as well.”

Mrs. Huntington gave her a startled look.

“I’ve been a doctor for three decades, most of them at this hospital. Of course, I’ve developed some friendships amongst my colleagues, many of whom are male. Every so often, my husband receives a note or phone call informing him that his wife is having an affair. I am fortunate to be married to a trusting man who thinks these communications are amusing.”

She looked at her watch and stood up. “And he is currently waiting patiently to have dinner with me. Ladies, I assume some of those big strapping fellows you have with you will be sticking around tonight to protect my patient from the kidnapper. I will send a hospital security officer up as well. His assignment will be to keep Detective Phillips out.”