The Perils of Peaches (Scents of Murder Book 3) (23 page)

“Well, I know people will be glad to see you. And so will Barkha. At the office, I mean. She’s been pretty busy.” Oh dear. I hadn’t meant it as if she’d be happy to see him personally.

“I highly doubt she’ll be glad to see me, although I’d like to convince her . . .”

“I just meant she’ll be glad for her case load to be lighter.”

Dr. Gupta nodded.

“Did you know Dr. Bradley at all, before you agreed to join the practice?”

He gave me a sharp look. “I never met him until the first day I visited Greenburg.”

“Barkha told me about how he threatened her over what happened in medical school. I imagine that bothered you a lot.” I hadn’t intended on doing any sleuthing, not today, and not in this manner, but we had the man literally to ourselves. A few questions couldn’t hurt.

“I knew she’d have trouble if that issue was ever brought to light by the wrong person. Her medical career is young. Once she’s more established, she’ll have less to worry about with that . . . that matter.”

“Since the police have determined the doctor’s death was suspicious, did you worry she might face scrutiny because of what happened?”

“Now, Andi, I don’t know what good these questions will do.” Ben squeezed my hand. “Let’s just take Hannah home.”

“Your husband’s smart.” Dr. Gupta checked the machine then turned it off. I moved out of the way so he could remove the mask. “You’d do well to listen to him. Isn’t that right, Hannah?”

“I’m sorry. I’ve just been worried. We both know Barkha didn’t harm the doctor, but someone with medical knowledge, and not necessarily a physician or nurse, did something to him.”

“You're suspicious of me?” He sounded incredulous. “The day before he died, I told Dr. Bradley I didn’t approve of his strong-arm tactics , but that didn’t mean I wanted to kill him. I only wanted to protect Barkha.”

Dr. Gupta quirked a smile at Hannah and gave her back to me. She still sounded congested, but he checked her breathing.

“There, I think you’re moving air much better. I think she’s stable to travel, but I’ll give you a sample inhaler she can use on the way home. Your physician at home should check her for RSV, just to be safe.” Then he looked me in the eye. “Your brother-in-law asked me about my relationship with Dr. Bradley, and I gave him a statement. I’d never met Dr. Bradley before that day, and after I left his office, I never saw him again.”

“But . . . you agreed to join the practice so quickly when Franklin asked you.”

“Mrs. Hartley, things aren’t always what they seem.” Dr. Gupta frowned and tore a prescription off a pad. “If you must know, the practice here is downsizing. As of July thirtieth, my contract is dissolved. So when this opportunity presented itself, I knew I should seize the chance. I’ve known Barkha since we were children, and we work well together.”

“Oh, I . . . I didn’t realize you were losing your job.” The man had done us a huge favor, and I’d bumbled. “I am so sorry.”

“Let the police do their work. I’m sure the medical examiner’s office is diligently looking into possible causes of death. These things take time, not an hour like it does on TV.” He touched my arm gently. “I know you were worried about your daughter today. She’s going to be fine. I’ve prescribed some syrup that will have the same effect as the breathing treatment. Give that to her every four to six hours. Plus, you might want to pick up an antihistamine. She’s probably allergic to something in her environment here, and that’s causing her airways to constrict as well. You should also schedule a follow-up visit with her physician when you get home.”

“We will. Thank you so much for seeing us.”

Ben shook hands with Dr. Gupta. “Yes, we certainly appreciate it. Andi means well, she really does.”

Dr. Gupta smiled. “Barkha has loyal friends in town. That’s a good thing. I’ll consider her friends my friends too. I’ll see you at the health fair.”

We took Hannah and left, and if I had a tail it would have been between my legs.

“Andromeda Clark Hartley, what in the world was all that about?” He unlocked the doors, and I moved to tuck Hannah into her car seat.

“I wanted to see what he knew about Dr. Bradley.”

“Well, you almost started interrogating him. No wonder the poor guy went on the defensive.”

“I . . . I . . .” Of course I had no explanation. What a fine Christian example I was. Here the man was moving to Greenburg—through completely innocent circumstances. “I wasn’t thinking.”

We climbed inside the Jeep. “All I can say is I’m glad he saw us under such short notice, and that nothing serious was wrong with Hannah.”

“Me too.” I glanced into the back seat. “We’ll get back to the hotel and check out. And then go home. I’d wanted to stay and explore a little, but with Hannah not feeling well, I’d rather leave now.”

“Same here.” Ben pulled out into traffic, and we were on our way.

The trip back to the hotel took our attention, so Ben wouldn’t miss a turn and I wouldn’t direct us the wrong way, but we made it back without incident. The earlier feeling of celebration over Tennessee River Soaps had shifted to the back of my mind. We’d be sittin’ pretty, as Momma would say, because of Purely Skin Care’s business offer. Still, I just wanted to be home again.

I toted Hannah into the hotel room, and once we packed, we loaded up the truck and headed back to Tennessee.

Chapter Twenty

With free time in the evenings now, I spent my time with Hannah instead of in front of the computer and tried to push the investigation from my mind. Ben and I also met with a business lawyer about the offer from Purely Skin Care. It looked like it was definitely in my favor. Basically they would pay me to hire people, rent a building, purchase production equipment, and ship products. I would have a say in product development, and I’d have to go to Atlanta for quarterly meetings. All this for a nice yearly stipend.

We ladies had just finished our Wednesday Mommy’s Morning when my phone rang. Eunice. I had no idea why she’d be calling, unless she wanted to vent about a last-minute crisis that presented itself before the health fair that weekend.

“Andi, I need your help. We have a problem with some of the dictations.”

“We just finished here. I’ll stop by the office on my way home.” I tried not to roll my eyes as I snapped my cell phone shut. This job would not let me go for some reason. “Y’all, feel free to drink the rest of the coffee. Hannah and I need to stop by the doctor’s office on the way home.”

“Oh, is she okay? I heard y’all had a scare when you were in Atlanta.” said Mia.

“She’s much better. No more wheezing or anything. I think she’s allergic to Georgia.” I picked up Hannah from her little play circle.

We entered Bradley Medical ten minutes later. The office buzzed with activity, and Eunice’s reception desk at the hub. She presided over the goings-on.

“Wonderful. You’re here. I have a stack of charts you need to see.” Eunice tapped a stack of about five charts.

“And what’s wrong? You said there was a problem with some of the dictations.” I shifted Hannah on my hip and scanned the names. Okay, so I knew these were Dr. Bradley’s dictations.

“The problem is, we’re missing dictations in these charts for the nineteenth of June. Do you have any dictation CDs left at home?”

“No, I’m sure I brought them all back.” I was sure I had. Of course, I didn’t realize I hadn’t brought the insulin vial into the office right away.

“I want to make sure these are done before Franklin swoops through again. He’s been real busy getting things ready for the health fair, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d come by and breath down our necks a while. I think he’s been waiting for the swelling on his nose to go down.” Eunice smiled at a patient who entered the office. “Be right with you, Clydene.”

“Do you know if there are any CDs in Dr. Bradley’s desk? I don’t remember seeing any,except for his package of blank ones.”

“Honestly, I haven’t had a chance to look in his office for CDs yet,” Eunice admitted. “I’ve been busy boxing up Dr. Bradley’s books.”

“Isn’t Dr. Gupta going to want them?”

“Hon, Franklin’s not going to part with anything he doesn’t have to. He’s got that much of his uncle in him.”

“Is it okay if I go in there? I’ll see if there’s any CDs in the drawers.”

“Sure, sure. Go on in. Franklin probably wouldn’t like it, but I don’t have the time right now.” Eunice moved around to the other side of the counter. “Clydene, let’s go get your vitals so I can put you back in a room.”

The door squeaked when I opened it, as if to call me an intruder. A sunny haze lit the room. Dr. Bradley’s wooden bookshelves were now bare. I caught a whiff of lemony furniture polish.

Once more, I sat behind the desk. CDs. That’s all I needed. Towards the back of the top drawer, I found three CDs. Usually Dr. Bradley would put a rubber band around all the charts he’d dictated, and tuck the CD on the top of the pile, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to check them for sound files.

I stuck the first CD into the player on the credenza and pressed the playback button. Nothing. But by the third CD, I heard Dr. Bradley’s voice loud and clear.

“Dictation for Brenda Lee Bricker, Friday, June twenty-second. The patient comes in today with a complaint of headache.” I clicked the stop button. A missing CD meant my work still wasn’t complete for Bradley Medical. And this oversight wasn’t even my own scatterbrained fault.

Again, in true Dr. Bradley fashion, another space of silence punctuated by an opening and closing desk drawer. The door to the office swung open. Then the sound file clicked, as if Dr. Bradley had pressed the pause button.

“—you simply cannot penalize Dr. Mukherjee for what happened years ago.”

Interesting. Dr. Gupta’s voice.

“She did not disclose this to me when I interviewed her. An ethics reprimand on her record leads me to question her integrity.”

“We all have secrets, don’t we, Dr. Bradley?” Tushar’s voice boomed.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Who gambled away his family’s legacy? How do you think your beloved fans in Greenburg would think of their faithful family doctor, if they knew?”

“I made no secret of my trips.”

“But that DUI in Biloxi fifteen years ago . . . and you struck that pedestrian. Left him paralyzed.”

“That is a matter of public record, and I was exonerated. But no one knows that around here. How did you find out?”

“It wasn’t so difficult. When Barkha called, upset that she’d been found out, she wanted to know if I’d said something. Of course, I knew it had to be you.”

“How much will it take to keep you quiet?”

“Let Barkha keep her position here.”

“You love her. Fool. Love complicates matters and causes men to act irrationally.”

“I’m not irrational. But if you ruin her career . . .” The silence made me wonder if the tape had cut out once again. Then came footsteps. A gurgling sound.

“You’re . . . hurting . . . me.”

“That’s the idea. I don’t want you to forget.”

A rustle of fabric, and Dr. Bradley gasping. The door banged open, and the recording went silent. No wonder Dr. Bradley had held this CD back. If anything happened to him—which it had—Tushar Gupta would look very guilty indeed. When i'd seen him in Atlanta, he'd led me to believe that he and Dr. Bradley had a simple, one-time conversation. This recording sounded like much more. And now the good doctor was due to arrive in Greenburg on Friday for the health care on Saturday.

As if that did nothing but compound everything else I'd learned. I hadn’t heard anything more about the investigation about Eunice and the missing narcotics and Justin Finley. Jerry probably passed that on to whichever detective was handling the narcotics investigation. If it was Detective Harris, I wondered at his competence.

I brought the CD home and typed the few recorded dictations, and then called Jerry to tell him about what I’d heard. At the very least, Jerry would be calling Tushar in for questioning again.

Chapter Twenty-One

A person would have thought the circus had come to town because of the gigantic white tent set up in the parking lot of Bradley Medical. Cars lined the main street by the time I arrived back at the medical center with Hannah. I’d gotten there early to set up without the baby, and Momma was meeting me to take her now. The rear parking lot had already filled at the medical building, so I’d parked the Jeep on the downtown square, and Hannah and I made the three-block trek to the medical building.

“Nana should be here soon, sweetie,” I assured her. Momma had promised to meet me at the fair so she could take Hannah around the fair and spoil her, while I worked the hand-washing booth.

A car horn honked, and I jumped. Hannah squealed. Momma had just stopped her car. An unfamiliar woman rode in the front passenger seat next to her. A blue disabled parking placard hung from the rearview mirror. The window glided down and Momma leaned toward her friend and the open window.

“Andi, we’re here. Just as soon as we can find a handicapped parking spot, we’ll join you at the tent. Maisey brought her fold-up scooter.”