Authors: Kassandra Lamb
Or was she indulging in wishful thinking because she didn’t want Father Sam to be the abuser? Mrs. Hartin had said that Josie was nervous at church after the day she’d blurted that out. But the little girl could have been picking up on her mother’s anxiety.
A receptionist answered her call and directed her to William Coleman’s office.
Kate glanced at the clock. It was almost one. Her first afternoon client was probably already out in the waiting room.
Another young woman picked up the phone. Kate quickly gave her name and asked to speak to Mr. Coleman.
“Uh, may I ask what you’re calling about?”
“It’s personal. Tell him it’s about St. Bartholomew’s Church.”
“Okay. I’ll see if he’s back from lunch yet.”
Kate drummed her fingers on the desk.
What did priests do when someone reported abuse during a confession, either as the abuser or the victim? By Maryland law, they would be mandated to report the abuse. But would a priest really do so? The confidentiality of the confessional was considered a sacred vow. Maybe Bill Coleman wouldn’t tell her even now, assuming he knew anything useful.
“I’m sorry,” the young woman said in her ear. “He isn’t back yet. Can I take a message?”
Kate hesitated. She really wouldn’t be reachable for the rest of the day. And she didn’t want him calling her back this evening, during family time.
“Just tell him I called and that it’s important that I reach him. I’ll try him again later.”
“Okay, I’ll tell him,” the woman said cheerfully, then disconnected.
Kate hung up her desk phone and raced out to her waiting room to apologize to her client for running late.
The woman looked distinctly nervous. She was watching Manny, who sat at the opposite end of the waiting room, his head back against the wall, eyes closed.
He seemed to be asleep, but Kate knew he wasn’t.
“It’s okay,” she said to her client. “He’s a friend of mine.” She didn’t offer any more of an explanation. There was no way to explain the presence of a beefy man in her waiting room, other than the truth. And she wasn’t about to scare the woman even more by telling her that she’d received a threatening note.
We have got to get this resolved soon.
Not only was it costing Skip’s agency money to pay Manny but having him around was not good for her clients, especially the paranoid or anxious ones. Which was over half of her client load.
~~~~~~~~
At the end of the day, she had only one message.
The male voice was sharp. “Mrs. Huntington. This is Phillip Hartin. What part of ‘we are suing you so you should communicate only through our attorneys’ don’t you understand. Leave me and my wife alone.”
Kate gritted her teeth, wishing now that she had asked Mrs. Hartin to keep their meeting confidential. How much had she told her husband? Maybe very little. But she might have come home upset enough that he’d noticed. Did Mr. Hartin really care all that much about his wife’s feelings, or was he just pissed because Kate wasn’t following the rules?
Or did he have something to hide? Kate shuddered at the thought that he might be able to perpetrate such a premeditated crime against his only child. As bad as things could get in highly dysfunctional families, rarely did parents intentionally kill their children.
She shook her head and quickly gathered her things. She needed to get going.
On the way to the parking lot, she asked Manny to check out Mr. Hartin the next day. “Liz did a background check and he came up clean, but see if you can dig up anything else on him.”
“Will do.” Manny sketched her a small salute and headed for his car to follow her home.
When Kate pulled up in front of the house, Skip’s truck wasn’t parked out front. Once she was on the porch, she waved to Manny. He waved back and drove away.
Too late, she realized she should have asked him to wait and follow her to her appointment with the veterinarian. She could call him and ask him to come back. Or was she being a wuss?
It was still daylight, she would be around other people the whole time, and she would have a large dog with her. Was anybody really likely to mess with her?
A quick glance at her watch. Five-thirty-five, and it took a good twenty minutes to get to the vet’s office. She raced inside to get Toby.
Edie was stretched out on the living room floor, drawing in her sketch pad.
“Where’s Maria?” Kate said.
“Out back with Billy,” Edie said without looking up.
“I’ve got to take Toby to the vet’s to get his shots. Tell Maria not to wait dinner for me, and tell your dad that I’ll be home by about seven-ish.”
“Okay, Mommy.”
“Don’t forget now,” Kate said back over her shoulder as she went into the study to get the record of Toby’s vaccines.
She checked her watch again. With Friday afternoon rush-hour traffic, she’d be very lucky if she made it to her appointment on time.
Why hadn’t the dog greeted her at the door like he normally did? “Toby, where are you, boy?”
As she went into the laundry room to get his leash and travel harness, she found her answer. He was outside with Maria and Billy, chasing the frisbee the little boy was tossing in the air.
Kate stuck her head out the door. “Sorry to break up your fun, Billy, but I need Toby.” She whistled and the puppy loped over to her. Snapping the leash on his collar, she debated whether to explain to Maria where she was going.
There really wasn’t time. She just waved and led the dog toward the front of the house. Edie would deliver her messages.
The clock on her dashboard read two minutes after six when Kate pulled into the parking lot of the small shopping center where the vet’s office was located. The lot was crowded with people stopping off to run errands or get groceries on their way home from work. Rather than take the time to hunt for something closer, Kate headed for the far side of the lot where spaces were plentiful.
She parked, grabbed her cell phone off of the central console and her purse from the passenger seat, then jumped out of the car. Stuffing her phone into the pocket of her slacks, she opened the back door. She leaned in and unhooked Toby’s harness from the safety tether connected to the seatbelt. “Come on, boy.”
He licked her face, then jumped out of the car.
“Ick,” she muttered as she led him at a jog toward the vet’s office. She liked dogs and Toby was a sweetie, but she’d never be able to think of being licked in the face as a kiss.
.
Her anxiety over being late was all for nothing. It was almost six-thirty before her name was called. Or to be more precise, Toby’s name was called.
She and the pup followed the vet’s assistant into one of the examining rooms.
The assistant lifted Toby onto the table. “Dr. Blake will be right with you.”
The vet came in a minute later, a piece of paper in her hand. Kate recognized it as the list of vaccines she had turned over to the receptionist when she’d arrived.
“Sorry, to keep you waiting, Mrs. Huntington. We’re running behind schedule. A couple of emergencies earlier.”
Kate caught herself before she blurted out,
I know how that goes
. She didn’t want to have to explain that she was a mental health professional who also sometimes had emergencies that threw her off schedule.
Dr. Blake was looking down at the paper. “It’s really too soon to give Toby his booster shots.”
“Well, uh, I didn’t want to wait too long, and maybe forget.”
Okay, that sounded pretty lame.
“Yeah, but over-immunizing animals can actually compromise their natural immune systems.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that.”
“Most people don’t. In this case, more is not better.”
“Okay, well…” Kate fumbled for something to say. She’d counted on a little time, while the vet gave Toby his shots, to lead up to her questions.
Dr. Blake was lifting a shivering Toby down to the floor. Once he was there, he gratefully licked her hand. “We’ll just reschedule you for June.” The vet turned to leave the room.
“Wait, Dr. Blake.”
The woman turned back.
“Can I take up a little of your time anyway? I wanted to ask you a couple things, about Josie Hartin.”
The vet’s eyebrows went up. “Oh?”
Kate opted for honesty. “I have a confession to make. I was using Toby’s shots as an excuse to see you again. Some evidence has been uncovered that suggests Josie didn’t commit suicide.”
“The overdose was accidental?”
“No, she was murdered.”
The vet’s eyebrows flew up again. “Oh!”
“Yes, and I’ve been looking into it. Well my husband and I. He’s a private detective.” Kate hoped that would make her seem more legit, not just a nosy friend of the deceased.
Dr. Blake leaned a hip against the examining table. It was a casual pose but her eyes had gone wary. “How can I help?”
“I’m not really sure. Had she said anything to you about something she was investigating?”
The vet stiffened, then cocked her head to one side. “No.”
“Was anything upsetting her that you knew of?”
The vet’s body was now rigid, her face a neutral mask. She shook her head.
Is this what Josie meant about the woman shutting down?
Dr. Blake frowned. “As I said before, she seemed to be in a good mood right before…” Her voice trailed off.
“I know, but maybe a little further back than that. Had she indicated she was thinking about confronting someone about something?”
“No.” The word came out a little too vehemently. “She hadn’t been coming here that long. We were really just getting to know each other.”
“I know Josie was very fond of you.”
The vet didn’t respond.
“She seemed to have a crush on you.”
“A crush? What do you mean?”
Kate was in a quandary. She was skirting on the edge of confidentiality already. Without thinking it through, she blurted out, “Dr. Blake, are you gay?”
Now the vet’s eyebrows were almost touching her hairline. “What’s that got to do with anything?” Her tone was angry, but her body had actually relaxed a little.
Butterflies fluttered in Kate’s chest. How safe was this, confronting the woman when they were alone in the room? She strained to hear signs of human activity outside the room. Had the staff gone home?
Would Toby protect her? That seemed unlikely since he was currently rubbing against the vet’s leg, begging to be petted.
Dr. Blake suddenly stood up straight.
Toby jumped back and whined softly.
Heart beating faster, Kate wrapped the slack in the leash around her hand to keep the dog near her. “Well, are you?”
Dr. Blake planted her hands on her hips. “Yes, as if that’s any of your business.”
“That’s what I meant, about Josie having a crush on you.”
The vet’s face was unreadable as she digested that. “So Josie was gay.”
“More likely bisexual.”
“I have a partner.” The tone was terse. “We’ve been together for six years.”
Even though Dr. Blake was visibly angry, Kate couldn’t help feeling that she was less uptight than she had been a few minutes ago. Was there something else this woman was worried about?
“Did Josie know that?”
“Not that I know of. I don’t hide my sexual orientation but I don’t flaunt it either.”
“Thank you for your candor, Doctor.” Kate was hoping to mollify the woman, but her words seemed to have the opposite effect.
Dr. Blake narrowed her eyes. “You’re her therapist, aren’t you?”
“She told you she was in therapy?”
“Yes.” Suddenly the anger drained out of the woman’s body. Her shoulders slumped. “She said you were great.” Her voice was soft now. “That you really cared.”
“I’m sorry for the interrogation. I started out trying to figure out why she killed herself, but now… There’s a murderer out there.” She didn’t know what else to say.
“And you want justice for Josie. So do I, Mrs. Huntington. Honestly, if I knew anything that might help, I’d tell you.”
Kate’s own shoulders slumped. “Okay. Well, if you think of anything, can I give you my cell number? Would you call me?”
“Of course.”
Kate rooted in her purse for a business card. Dr. Blake handed her a pen. She wrote her cell phone number on the back and gave it to her. “Thank you for your time.”
The vet moved aside as Kate and Toby headed for the door.
“Mrs. Huntington.” The anger was back in Dr. Blake’s voice.
Kate pivoted, bracing herself physically.
“Get the bastard!”
Kate relaxed, feeling a bit sheepish. “I’m gonna try to.”
As she and Toby left the building, dusk was moving toward full dark. The parking lot was far less crowded, with only a few cars scattered near the grocery store at the other end of the shopping center.
Kate moved quickly across the lot to her car, tugging on Toby’s leash each time he tried to stop and sniff.
It dawned on her that the vet had asked if the overdose was accidental. How had she known that Josie died of a drug overdose? That hadn’t been in the obituary. How readily available would that information be to the general public? Had the police talked to Dr. Blake before the case was ruled a suicide? They must have, since she ended up with Josie’s dog. But police officers didn’t usually volunteer much information.
She flashed back to her first conversation with the Hartins. They had discussed the dog’s fate with the vet. So somewhere in there, Laurie Blake could have learned the cause of death.
She yanked Toby away from what was apparently a particularly enticing odor. “Sorry, boy.” They needed to take him for more walks and work on his manners on a leash.
At the car, she opened the back door. The dog jumped up on the seat and she leaned in to hook his travel harness to the safety tether that was attached to the seatbelt. This rig gave him some leeway to move around on the seat, but theoretically would help keep him safe in an accident. She hoped that never got tested.
She’d no sooner gotten the tether hooked and was pulling her head back out of the car when Toby erupted, utilizing his ability to jump around and barking loudly.
Kate clapped her hands over her ears. “Sheez, pup, will you settle down.”