Where There's Smoke (9 page)

As soon as it was economically feasible, she intended to paint the dark paneling and replace the leather maroon furniture with something brighter and more contemporary.

These planned changes would be only cosmetic.
 
Changing the minds of people would take much more time and effort.
 
Before his retirement, Dr. Stewart Patton had been a general practitioner in Eden Pass for more than forty years and in that time he had never made a single enemy.
 
Since taking over his practice, Lara was frequently asked,

"Where's Doc?"
 
with' the same suspicious inflection as Key Tackett had used when he posed the question to her last night, as though she had displaced the elderly doctor for self-gain.

Dr. Lara Mallory had a long way to go before earning the same level of confidence as Doc Patton had held with the people of Eden Pass.
 
She knew she could never cultivate the affection of her patients that Doc Patton had enjoyed, because she was, after all, the scarlet woman who'd been involved with Clark Tackett.
 
Everyone in his hometown knew her as such.
 
That's why her arrival had taken them by surprise.
 
Lara had wishfully reasoned that once they recovered from the initial shock and realized that she was a qualified physician, they would forget the scandal.

Unfortunately, she had underestimated Jody Tackett's staggering influence over the community.
 
Although they'd never met face to face, Clark's mother was crippling her attempts to succeed.

One afternoon when she was feeling particularly despondent, she'd brought it up with Nancy.
 
"I guess it's no mystery why people in Eden Pass are willing to drive twenty miles to the next town to see a doctor."

"Course not,
 
Nancy said.
 
"Jody Tackett has put out the word that anybody who comes near this office, no matter how sick, will be on her shit list."

"Because of Clark?"

"Hmm.
 
Everyone in town knows the scintillating details of y'all's affair.
 
It had almost been laid to rest when Clark died.
 
Then you showed up a few months afterward.
 
Jody got pissed and set her mind to making you an outcast."

"Then why are you willing to work for me?"

Nancy took a deep breath.
 
"My daddy was a pumper for Tackett Oil and Gas for twenty-five years.
 
This was years ago, when Clark Senior was still head honcho."
 
She paused.
 
"You know that Clark your Clark was a third-generation Clark Tackett, don't you?
 
His granddaddy was Clark Senior and his daddy Clark Junior."

"Yes.
 
He told me.

"Okay, so anyway," Nancy resumed, "there was an accident at one of the wells and my daddy was killed."

"Did the Tacketts admit culpability?"

"They did what they had to do to cover themselves legally.
 
Mama got all the insurance money she was entitled to.
 
But none of them came to the funeral.
 
Nobody called.
 
They had the flower shop deliver a big spray of chrysanthemums to the church, but none of them saw fit to visit my mama.

"I was just a kid at the time, but I thought then, and still think, that it was rotten of them to be so standoffish.
 
True, Daddy's death didn't make a ripple in one barrel of their filthy oil, but he was a loyal, hardworking employee.
 
Since then I've had a low opinion of all the Tacketts, but particularly of Jody."

"Why particularly of jody?"

"Because she only married Clark junior to get her greedy hands on Tackett Oil."
 
Nancy inched forward in her chair.
 
"See, Clark Senior was a wildcatter at the height of the boom.
 
He struck oil the first time he drilled and made a shitload of money virtually overnight, then kept right on making it.
 
Clark Junior came along.
 
His main ambition in life was to have a good time and spend as much of his daddy's money as he could, mostly on gambling, whiskey, and women.

She sighed reminiscently.
 
"He was the best-looking man I ever laid eyes on.
 
Women from all over mourned his passing.
 
But jody sure as hell didn't.
 
When he died she got what she'd wanted all along."

"Tackett Oil?"

"Total control.
 
The old man was already dead.
 
When Clark Junior slid off that icy mountain in the Himalayas, I think it was-and broke his neck, Jody rolled up her shirtsleeves and went to work."

Nancy needed no encouragement to talk.

She's tough as boot leather.
 
Came from a poor farming family.

Their house got blown down by a tornado.
 
They all got killed except her.
 
A widow lady took her in and finished raising her.

"jody was as smart as they come and got a scholarship to Texas Tech.

Straiuht out of college she went to work for Clark Senior.
 
She was a land man and acquired some of his best leases even after everybody thought all the oil in East Texas was spoken for.
 
The old man liked her.
 
jody was everything that Clark Junior wasn't responsible, ambitious, driven.
 
I think Clark Senior was the one behind the marriage."

"What do you mean?"

"The story is that Clark Junior had knocked up a debutante from Fort Worth.
 
Her daddy had mob connections and, for all his money and social standing, was nothing but a glorified pimp.
 
Clark Senior wanted no part of that, so he rushed Clark Junior into marriage with Jody.

"I don't know if that's true, but it's possible.
 
Clark Junior loved to party.
 
He could have had his pick from hundreds of women.
 
Why would he agree to saddle himself with Jody if not to get out of a scrape with a mobster?

"Anyhow, they got married.
 
Clark the Third didn't come along for years.
 
The nastier gossips said it took Clark Junior that long to work up a hard-on for Jody, who never was a beauty.
 
In fact, she goes out of her way to be plain.
 
I guess she thinks that brains and beauty cancel out each other."

"Didn't she mind Clark Junior's womanizing?"

Nancy shrugged.
 
"If she did, she didn't let on.
 
She ignored his philandering and concentrated on running the business.
 
I guess she didn't care about him nearly as much as she did the price of crude.

Left to him, he probably would have bankrupted Tackett Oil.
 
Not Jody.

She's prospered when others have fallen by the wayside.
 
She's a ruthless businesswoman."

"I'm getting a taste of her ruthlessness," Lara said quietly.

"Well, you have to understand where she's coming from about that."

Nancy leaned forward and lowered her voice, although there was no one around to overhear them.
 
"The only thing Jody loved better than Tackett Oil was her boy, Clark.
 
She thought the sun rose and set in him.
 
I guess he never crossed her.
 
Anyway, she had his future all mapped out, including a stint in the White House.
 
She blames you for destroying that dream."

"She and everyone else."

After a reflective moment, Nancy said, "Be careful, Dr.
 
Mallory.

Jody has money and power and an ax to grind.
 
That makes her dangerous."
 
She patted Lara's hand.
 
"Personally, I'm rooting for anyone outside her favor."

Nancy was in the minority.
 
In the months since that conversation, there'd been no discernible increase in the number of patients who came to the clinic.
 
Only a few people in Eden Pass had risked Jody's disfavor by seeking Lara's professional services.
 
Ironically, one of them was Jody's own son.

Surely by now Key Tackett had discovered his blunder.
 
Her name had probably ricocheted off the walls of the Tacketts' house with the ferocity of a racquetball.

Let them curse her.
 
She had come to Eden Pass with a specific goal in mind, and it wasn't to win the Tacketts' regard.
 
She wanted something, but it wasn't approval.

When it came time for her to demand of them what they owed her, she didn't care if they liked her or not.

Relatively speaking, this was a busy morning.
 
She was scheduled to see five patients before noon.
 
Her first was an elderly woman who rattled off a litany of complaints.
 
Upon examining her, Lara discovered she was as healthy as a horse, if a bit lonely.
 
She prescribed some pills which were really multivitamin tablets and told the woman about the fun exercise classes at the Methodist Church.

Nancy ushered in the next patient, a cantankerous three-year-old boy with an earache and a fever of one hundred two.
 
Lara was getting the specifics of his illness from his frazzled mother when she heard a commotion coming from the reception area at the front of the building.

Returning the squalling three-year-old to the arms of his mother, she excused herself and stepped into the hallway.

"Nancy, what's going on?"
 
she called out.

It wasn't her receptionist who came crashing through the connecting door, but Key Tackett.
 
His crutches didn't slow him down as he stormed toward her.
 
Clearly he was furious.

Even though he came to within inches of her before stopping, Lara held her ground.
 
"Your appointment isn't until this afternoon, Mr.

Tackett."

The mother had followed Lara into the hallway and was standing behind her.
 
The child's wailing had risen to a deafening level.
 
Nancy had come up behind Key, looking ready to do battle in Lara's defense.

She and Key were between them, but only Lara felt trapped.

"Why didn't you tell me last night who you were?"

Ignoring his question, she said, "As you can see, I'm very busy this morning.
 
I have patients waiting.
 
If there's something you wish to discuss with me, please make an appointment with my receptionist."

"I've got something to discuss with you, all right."
 
A bead of sweat rolled down his temple.
 
Most of the color had been leeched from his face.
 
Both were manifestations of pain.

"I think you should sit down, Mr. Tackett.
 
You're in a weakened state, certainly in no condition to-" "Cut the medical bullshit," he shouted.
 
"Why didn't you tell me last night that you're the whore who ruined my brother's life?" chapter four. the ugly words struck like blows.
 
Feeling light-headed, Lara took a deep breath and held it.
 
The floor and walls of the corridor seemed to tilt precariously.
 
She reached out and braced herself against the wainscoting.

Nancy elbowed her way past Key.
 
"Now see here, Key Tackett, you can't barge into a doctor's office and create a ruckus like this."

"I'd love to chat with you, Nancy, and reminisce about old times, but I'm here to see the doctor."
 
He spoke the last word like an epithet.

By now Lara had regained some composure.
 
She motioned Nancy toward the mother and crying child.
 
"Please see to Mrs. Adams and Stevie.
 
I'll be with them as soon as possible."

Nancy was reluctant to comply, but after giving Key a threatening look, she shooed the woman and child back into the examination room and soundly closed the door behind them.

Lara stepped around Key and addressed the curious patients who were huddled in the doorway, peering down the hall.
 
"Please take your seats," Lara said in as calm a voice as she could muster.
 
"We've had a slight disruption in our office procedure.
 
As you can see, Mr. Tackett is hurt and needs immediate medical attention, but he'll be taken care of and on his way shortly."