Matchpoint (30 page)

Spencer threw some cash on the table, stood, and put out his hand to help me up. “Let’s get out of here before I hear something I shouldn’t. I’m tired and want to call it a night.”

“What time is it?”

It was seven forty-five. I had fifteen minutes to get to Bliss Dental. Not enough time to get home and have the dress removed.

“Maybe I should skip the dentist,” I said. “Maybe my tooth will be better in the morning.” With the moment upon me, I was gripped with fear. Not only did I not want to have dental work, I didn’t want to go to Bliss Dental, especially at night.

“You can’t chicken out now,” Spencer said. “It’s bad enough I am seen with you while you’re wearing that dress. What would people say if you were toothless, too?”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to sully your reputation, Spencer. Lord knows you’re nothing without your reputation.”

He held the door open for me, and I stepped outside. The rain had calmed down to a light misting, but it had turned cold. I shivered, and Spencer put his arm around my shoulders. He was warm and strong, and I could feel my hormones pop despite myself.

“I want to make sure you get there and stay there,” he said. “That’s why I’m going with you.”

It was a thinly veiled act of kindness and sensitivity. I would feel a lot safer and more confident having Spencer with me.

“Don’t say thank you,” he said seriously. “It will give me a chance to study the scene of the crime, and besides, I might owe you for your hospitality.”

He had a point. He did owe me, but nevertheless, I was grateful for his presence. It was nice to have someone look after me, especially after Holden’s rejection.

Spencer was parked right outside. A steady stream of people walked by us on their way into Herbie’s Hoagies and Pies. I was surprised to see Bridget and Lucy among them. They went right past us without recognizing me.

“Hey, it’s me, Gladie!” I yelled after them.

They turned around and stared at me for a good minute.

“It glows at night. Amazing,” Bridget said.

“I thought Calamity’s wedding was tomorrow,” Lucy said.

“It is.”

“Can this wait?” Spencer asked.

“The cop!” Lucy shouted. “I thought you were hacked to death by your girlfriends.”

“Buried under the pears,” Bridget added. “How did you make it out?”

“I don’t stay dead for long,” he said. “We got to go. Gladie has a dentist appointment.”

“The dentist was murdered, darlin’,” Lucy said. “He was shot or hacked to death or something himself. Or did he cheat death, too?”

“Cause of death undetermined,” Spencer said. “And I’m aware he was murdered.”

“The replacement dentist, Lucy. Remember?” Bridget asked. “I’m glad Nathan set that up for you, Gladie.”

Bridget offered to go with me, but I could tell she was chomping at the bit to see the excitement of the meeting to plan the town’s last stand against the cult.

Spencer opened the passenger door of his car for me, and I got inside. It was only a ten-minute drive to Bliss Dental.

“NO LIGHTS outside, but I see a couple on inside,” Spencer said, parking the car.

It was spooky, and I was having flashbacks to the night of the murder. Spencer read my mind. He took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “I won’t leave you for a second,” he said.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. I’m hoping I can see up your skirt when you’re lying on the chair.”

Inside Bliss Dental, it was business as usual. Bright fluorescent lights blotted out any malevolent feeling, and I was calmer, almost relaxed. We were the only patients in the waiting room. Spencer sauntered over to the window separating the waiting room and Belinda’s office and dinged the bell several times.

“You got a patient here!” he yelled toward the back.

My heart skipped a beat, and the meatball hoagie turned in my stomach. “We don’t have to rush things,” I said. “If he’s busy, we can come back later.”

I turned toward the exit, but Spencer caught my arm. “Not so fast, Disco Scarlett.”

Nathan opened the door to the waiting room. He smiled when he saw me. “Here I am,” he sang. “Sorry to keep you waiting. I was taking a dinner break. It’s been crazy today. Back-to-back patients all afternoon and evening.”

Nathan introduced himself to Spencer and shook his hand. “I’ll bring her back,” Nathan told him. “There’s a couple magazines to read while you wait.”

“I promised I would stay with her,” Spencer said, much to my relief. “I won’t get in your way.”

Nathan smiled. “No problem. The replacement dentist is pretty laid back.”

He took us down the hallway. Belinda’s office was sad and empty. All traces of her deadly flower collection were gone.

I peeked in Dr. Dulur’s office. The eighties-style pictures were off the wall and had been replaced with black-and-white posters of Paris, London, and other big cities. On his desk were a couple boxes and a computer.

“I’ll have you wait in Exam Room One,” Nathan said. “He went out to eat and will be back in a jiffy. It shouldn’t be too long.”

I was relieved to see the carpeting had been replaced, and there was a new chair in Examination Room 2. It was like nothing nefarious had ever happened at Bliss Dental. My blood pressure was almost normal.

“Hey, Nathan, do you mind if I use the computer while I wait for the dentist?” I asked.

“Sure. That shouldn’t be a problem.”

“I’ll go with you,” Spencer said.

“No, I’ll be right back.”

“You’re not planning on making a run for it, are you?”

“No. In this dress, the wind would pick me up, and I would wind up in Chihuahua, Mexico, by morning. Hey, that’s not such a bad idea.”

“Fine. I have calls to make anyway,” Spencer said.

Nathan set me up at Dr. Dulur’s computer and went back to the exam room to keep Spencer company and to prepare for my filling. I closed the door to give myself extra privacy.

I quickly got to work. I Googled “William Burton,” Holden’s real name. I drummed my fingers on the desk while I waited for the computer to load. There were thousands of hits on his name.

Holden wasn’t lying. He had been an explorer and a successful writer. I clicked on his picture, taken in the Congo on assignment for
National Geographic
. In the photo, he was dirty, unshaven, strong, handsome, and happy. A man like that could never be content in Southern California, I thought.

There were a slew of books by him, the big coffee-table kind, still for sale on Amazon.
GQ
interviewed him in an article on the “Last Real Men in America,” and they had a photo of him, shirtless, on top of a mountain somewhere, his face tanned, his hair bleached by the sun. Happy.

And then there were the articles about the case. A
year ago, Holden was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he witnessed a murder. A hit on a nightclub owner by the head of a crime syndicate. Big Joe Moretti himself had put two bullets in Danny Fiorelli’s brain and one in his privates, in the alley behind Danny’s nightclub while Holden happened to walk by.

Any sane man would have run in the other direction. But I guessed the last real man in America felt a duty to Danny’s family and to justice, and Holden called the cops and testified against Big Joe at trial, knowing that he risked his life by doing so.

Big Joe threatened Holden during the trial. “You’re dead, Mountain Boy!” he yelled in the courthouse. “Dead! You hear me?”

Holden was heard to reply, “You’re a punk, Joe. I’m not scared of punks.”

That was the last anyone ever heard of William Burton. He vanished off the face of the earth. So did Big Joe. He escaped with the help of some dirty cops before his trial was over. There had been reported sightings of him in the Cayman Islands since, but they weren’t taken seriously.

Nothing on the Internet about Becky.

I could have Googled Holden for hours. Finally I had the answers to the questions I had been asking for the past month. Finally I knew who my boyfriend was and what he did for a living. Only now he wasn’t my boyfriend anymore. Now he didn’t live next door, at least not for the time being. I didn’t want to stop snooping into his life.

My dress was digging into me something awful, and I adjusted the bodice to give myself some room to breathe. That’s when I saw the framed photos in one of the boxes on the desk.

Dr. Dulur on vacation on a beach somewhere. Dr. Dulur at a dinner party, when he was much younger,
smiling, his receding hairline already pronounced. Dr. Dulur at Bliss Dental when it first opened.

I was hit with a lightning bolt of realization so strong that I jumped up from my seat. I covered my mouth with my hands to stifle a scream that was threatening to escape.

I knew who the killer was. Knew it as sure as I knew anything in the world. And I probably knew the motive, too.

“Spencer!” I croaked. “Spencer! Hurry! Help!” It all came out in a strangled whisper. I tried to clear my throat, but I couldn’t get sound out. I stood frozen in my spot, my chest heaving, pushing against Calamity Weiss’s maid-of-honor dress.

Nathan opened the door and peeked his head into the office. “You ready?”

“Did the dentist come back?”

“He called. He’s on his way. Let’s get you set up.”

“Well,” I said, “maybe today isn’t such a great day for dental work.”

“No time like the present,” Nathan said, his face all smiles and delight.

Then I found my voice. “Spencer!” I screamed. “Spencer!” I screamed so loud, I could hear the walls reverberate.

I stood back, expecting Spencer to burst through the office door. But there was nothing. Not a sound in answer to my screams.

Nathan raised his right eyebrow. “Is there something wrong?” he asked me.

“Spencer?” I called again. Still nothing.

I took a few more steps back until I reached the window. Quickly I tried to open it to make my escape.

“The window doesn’t open,” Nathan said. “The office is climate controlled. Why don’t you come with me, Gladie, and I’ll prep you for your filling?”

I let go of the window and turned around. “Where’s Spencer?”

“He’s resting. Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He took a step toward me.

“Don’t come any closer,” I said. “I’m not feeling well. I think I’ll go now. Stand back.”

“I’m sorry you don’t feel well, but I’m going to have to prep you now.”

I dashed to the left and knocked the box of photos onto the floor.

“Don’t touch that!” Nathan yelled. “Those aren’t yours.”

He moved toward the pictures, and I made a run for it out the door. I made it two steps into the hallway, but I got tangled up in the tulle and the dress took me down.

Nathan stood over me, a framed photo in one hand and a needle in the other. “Why are you making this hard?”

He looked at the photo, and his smile vanished. He tossed the photo aside and ordered me to get up. It wasn’t easy to maneuver in the dress, and he lost patience with me. He yanked at my arm, and I yelped in pain.

“I prepared Exam Room One for you,” he said, like I had hurt his feelings. He pushed me toward the room. On the floor with his back to the wall was Spencer. He was unconscious; a small trickle of blood flowed from his temple down his cheek. A gas mask was tied to his face, and he was trussed up like a Christmas goose.

“Spencer?” Tears bubbled up, and my throat was thick with emotion. “You didn’t, did you?” I asked Nathan.

“Not yet,” Nathan said, and pushed me down onto the chair. I studied Spencer and was relieved to see his chest rise and fall with his steady breath.

“You know something? My tooth pain is completely gone. Completely. I don’t think I need a filling anymore,” I said.

“You never needed a filling,” Nathan said, matter-of-fact. “Dr. Dulur liked to drum up business any way he could.”

I was truly outraged. “That’s terrible!” The pain in my tooth vanished like it had never existed.

“Yes! He was a bad man. A bad, bad man!”

It was a common refrain. There was no shortage of people who wanted to tell me just how bad Dr. Simon Dulur was.

“So, he deserved to die,” I said.

Nathan nodded.

“Even if he was your father,” I added.

He stumbled backward. “What do you mean?”

I sat up in the chair. “I thought you looked familiar, but I couldn’t figure out from where. Until I saw the photos. Duh. You look just like him, like Dr. Dulur. You’re his son. You told me you were an orphan. Did you know before you came here and took the job that he was your father, or did you find out after you started working here?”

A perfect tear rolled down Nathan’s cheek. “I found out before. He didn’t know.”

“I figured he didn’t know. He wasn’t the most paternal figure in the world. I mean, he was known for hurting children.”

“I didn’t know that until after,” Nathan said.

“Until after you killed him,” I supplied. “When did you tell him you were his son? Was it while I was under the gas?”

Nathan nodded. “I thought he would be happy. He had said I was a good assistant. I thought he liked me.”

“So, he wasn’t pleased to be approached by a long-lost son?”

“He called me a leech. And worse. He said he would call the police and tell them I was extorting money from him.”

Nathan was crying in earnest now. He wiped his nose with the sleeve of his shirt.
That’s not very hygienic if he’s going to work on my teeth
, I thought, like a crazy woman.

“So, you killed him? How? You hit him over the head?” I asked. I tried to think of a way to wake Spencer up so he could save me. What was the good of knowing the chief of police if he let himself get knocked out by a psychopathic killer?

Nathan sniffed. “No, I stabbed him in the eye with a big shot of novocaine. Went right through. It wasn’t hard at all.”

The memory seemed to please him. He stopped crying altogether and wiped his eyes with the hem of his shirt. He sobered up and seemed to notice me for the first time in a long time.

“Uh, Nathan, is there a replacement dentist?” I asked.

“I think he’s coming next Thursday.”

“Oh.” It was my time to wipe my nose, but I didn’t want to wipe it on Calamity’s dress. I guess I still held out hope of making it to her wedding. “Are you going to kill me?”