A Deal to Die For (18 page)

“What do you mean?”

“All he would tell me was the same thing he told the police, that he was called into
his office to see a patient, he assumed it was one of the patients he’d been monitoring,
and when he got there no one was there. Then he made a call to find out who the patient
was and heard someone in his waiting room. When he came out, he found Vera on the
floor, dead, with the syringe lying next to her.”

“And that’s all he said?” Maggie asked. “Nothing else?”

“Nothing. He says he doesn’t know why she was there or why he was called or anything.”

“Do you think he’s holding back?” Maggie asked.

“Yes,” Max said. “And if he doesn’t tell me what’s really going on, I can’t help him.”

Maggie fretted her lower lip between her teeth. She shifted on her seat as the hard
wooden bench was cold, and she could feel it cooling the back of her legs.

The leaves on the dogwoods were beginning to fall, and the grass had yellowed. It
wouldn’t be long before they got their first killing frost and then some snow.

“Maggie, Doc will talk to you,” Max said.

“Oh no, not you, too,” Maggie said.

“Sam has asked you to talk to him, too,” Max guessed.

Maggie nodded.

“Well, it’s not like I want to be in agreement with the person who interrogated my
client,” Max said. “But he’s right.”

“What do you want me to do?” she asked.

“Try to get him to tell you what he isn’t telling me,” Max said. “There was a reason
Vera was at his office that morning, and we need to know what it was.”

Maggie nodded. She really didn’t want to pressure Doc, but there was no getting around
it: If they were going to help him, they had to know what exactly had been going on
between him and Vera.

Maggie spent the next morning in her shop. Wednesday was usually her day off from
Dr. Franklin’s, and she was happy to watch Josh so that Sandy could go to class and
then meet with her study group.

Josh enjoyed Maggie’s shop, and while she cleaned and arranged and sorted, he set
up his trains on a short table in the corner. Maggie watched him for a few moments.
She hadn’t really planned what to do with this space, but now an idea was forming.

She remembered shopping with Laura when she was a toddler. A climber, Laura had considered
the tall shoe racks ladders made for touching the ceiling and the circular steel racks
at the store were for playing hide-and-seek in—unless, of course, they spun, and then
it was merry-go-round time. Maggie had left many a store with nothing because Laura
had worn out their welcome.

The area Josh was in now could alleviate that problem. She could put low shelves with
blocks and puzzles. A
chalkboard for drawing on and a train table with the tracks glued down so they couldn’t
go missing.

“Josh, I do believe I have an idea,” she said as she crouched down next to him and
put an arm around him to give him a quick hug.

“So does James,” Josh informed her as he hugged her back. He had a very serious look
on his face. “James no like bees.”

Josh pushed James the red train into the roundhouse and shut the door. Maggie smiled.
Obviously, Josh was keeping his train friend safe.

She heard the door to the shop open and glanced up to see Doc Franklin come in.

Normally she could tell what time of day it was by the state of Doc’s hair. He went
from smooth and neatly parted to wild in an eight-hour day like some people went from
neatly pressed to rumpled.

It was only just past lunchtime, but his thick white mane was already at full Einstein,
letting Maggie know that he was definitely feeling stressed. She had called the office
and asked him to stop by the shop during lunch, thinking they could talk in private.

He had sounded happy to do so, and she wondered if it was because being in the office
was too much of a reminder of what had just happened there.

“How is my favorite young engineer?” Doc asked as he crossed the room to join them.

Josh glanced up at him and broke into a smile. Doc was one of his favorite people.

“See? I go to the quarry, Doc,” Josh said and he made a train whistle sound and went
back to work.

Doc smiled at Maggie. “I like his concentration. That’s a real gift in one so young.”

“He’ll make a fine engineer one day,” she agreed. “Can I get you some coffee?”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Doc said. He took off his coat and draped it on a chair. “This
place is really coming along. It’s going to be a terrific shop. It has your detail-oriented
stamp on it already.”

“Thanks,” Maggie said.

She felt her throat get tight, and she swallowed hard. Why she would get emotional
about praise from Doc, she couldn’t imagine. He had always been supportive of her.
This was nothing new. Perhaps with everything that was going on, however, she felt
his kindness more acutely.

She shook her head and slipped into the break room to fetch the coffee. She came back
with two mugs. Doc’s had no sugar and a dribble of milk, just as he liked it.

“Thanks,” he said. He pursed his lips and took a sip. “Ah, that will chase the chill
out of your bones.”

“Have a seat,” Maggie said.

Doc sat in one of the two matching armchairs that had been left by the previous owner.
Maggie hadn’t yet decided if she would keep them or sell them. She liked the idea
of selling everything in the shop, as it would force her to have a continuously changing
look, but then again, she didn’t want to get caught without furniture.

The chairs were upholstered in a peach-colored velvet and looked to have been made
in the fifties. She liked their rounded lines and had put them by the window with
a glass coffee table. The only items missing to make it a truly vintage sitting area
were a bar cart, an ashtray and some
Better Homes and Gardens
magazines.

Maggie took the seat beside Doc, where she had a clear view of Josh busily conducting
his trains.

“Maggie, I know why you’ve called me in here,” he said.
He took a long sip on his coffee, as if to fortify himself. “I can’t say I’m surprised.”

“You’re not?” she asked.

“No, I’ve been wondering how long it would be before we had to have this conversation,”
he said. “I guess I was hoping for later, much later.”

“Me, too,” Maggie said. Somehow it made it so much worse to be asking Doc about his
personal life while he was being so agreeable about it. She had really expected him
to put up more of a mind-your-own-business shield. Now she wasn’t sure how to ask
what she had to ask.

“So, will you be giving me two weeks’ notice today or is this just to warn that it’s
coming?” he asked. “Alice told me it wouldn’t be long now, but I didn’t listen to
her.”

“Huh?” Maggie asked.

“Well, two weeks is customary,” he said. “And I was hoping you’d be available to train
whoever I hire to replace you, although you’re leaving some very big shoes to fill.”

“Doc, what are you talking about?”

“Didn’t you call me here to tell me that you’re resigning as my bookkeeper?” he asked.

“No!” Maggie said. “I need my job. I haven’t even opened this place yet, and what
if it bombs, and I discover that I can’t run a store, and I lose everything? If I
lose my job with you, I’ll be doomed. You’re not going to fire me, are you?”

“Heck, no!” he said.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Maggie said. Her heart was knocking around in her chest so hard,
she was surprised it wasn’t audible.

“I’d never fire you,” Doc assured her. “You’re the best bookkeeper I’ve ever had.”

Maggie blew out a breath. She wanted to believe him, but she’d opened her Pandora’s
box of worries, and there
was no stuffing them back in now. She needed Doc to understand how fragile her situation
was.

“I mean, look at this place,” she said. Suddenly, she felt as queasy as she did the
day she’d arrived with the mortgage papers in her hand. “It needs paint and merchandise,
and somehow I’m supposed to market it, and what if I open and no one comes in? What
if Summer and her lame shop across the street drive my customers away?”

“Maggie, breathe,” Doc said in his ever-patient voice.

“I can’t!” she wailed. “What have I done? I can’t do this! I must have been out of
my mind. I’m doomed, I tell you. Doomed!”

“Okay, then you’re having some panic. That’s not completely unexpected. Down you go.
Head between the knees,” Doc instructed as he took the coffee cup out of her hand
and put it on the coffee table. Then he gently eased her forward.

“Ugh,” Maggie grunted, and did as she was told. “I feel nauseous.”

“Maggie, you’re going to be fine,” he said. “You have excellent business sense, and
after tracking down all of the money owed to my office by the various insurance companies,
you’d have to, wouldn’t you?”

“But that’s different,” Maggie said. “I’m just really good at nagging them.”

“No, you’re good with people,” he said. “They like you and trust you. And you are
a bargain magnet. Alice still talks about that fancy designer dress you managed to
find for her at ninety percent off.”

Maggie hung her head lower. Here she was supposed to be talking to Doc about what
he wasn’t telling Max, and instead she was having a full-on panic attack about her
shop. It was ridiculous. She needed to get her priorities straight.

She blew out a breath and slowly raised herself back up to a sitting position. Doc
was watching her with a kindly expression of concern mingled with understanding.

“Better now?” he asked.

“Yes and no,” she said. “The shop only panics me when I think about it.”

“Then don’t think about it,” he teased, and Maggie smiled.

“Doc, I’m not quitting my part-time job at your office,” she said. “I can’t. I’m just
not ready on so many levels.”

“Well, I’m very glad to hear that,” he said. “Of course, it is a completely self-interested
reaction, but I can live with that.”

Maggie took a long sip of her coffee and braced herself to say what she had to say
next. There was no way to sugarcoat it. If Max was going to help Doc, they needed
to know the truth.

“Doc, why was Vera at the office that morning?” she asked.

Doc looked at her, and his face went from teasing to somber as swiftly as if Maggie
had pulled down a window shade and blocked the light.

“I’m not sure what you mean,” he said. He was staring into his coffee cup, obviously
avoiding her gaze.

“Max thinks you’re not telling him everything. Is he right?”

Maggie could swear that, without his even touching it, Doc’s hair rose another half
inch up in the air. He looked up at her with wide eyes.

“Why would you think…?” He trailed off, as if he was incapable of finishing his question.

Maggie figured she had offended him, but the flash she
saw in his pale blue eyes was not outrage. It was guilt. She went for a full-court
press.

“Doc, St. Stanley is not that big,” Maggie said. “Whatever you’re trying to keep quiet
is going to come out.”

“I know,” he said. “It’s just that this, having everyone talking about us, is going
to kill Alice.”

He looked stricken, and Maggie felt terrible. She didn’t like being the one who was
pushing him, but until the circumstances of Vera’s death were resolved, the questions
would not stop.

“Doc, I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t like this situation any more than you do, but
if you know why Vera was in your office that day, you have to tell. If not me, then
Max.”

“I just don’t see what it has to do with anything,” Doc said. “No good can come from
digging up the past.”

Maggie glanced at him, and he glanced away, as if he couldn’t meet her gaze. As if
he was ashamed. Maggie got a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach that everything
she knew about Doc was about to change.

Selfishly, she almost told him to forget it. She wanted to protect the sacred image
she’d had of him for the past twenty-four years. But then she looked at him, really
looked at him. She noted the laugh lines around his eyes, his sagging jowls and the
worry lines that creased his forehead and puckered the skin by his mouth.

Doc had stood by her through a broken heart, the birth of her daughter, the loss of
her husband and all of the other ups and downs, small and large, that make up a life.
Was there really anything Doc could do that would make her stop loving him, the father
figure in her fatherless life? No.

Doc was watching Josh as the young boy lined up his
trains, hunkered down to study them all and then rose up to realign them again.

Maggie often wondered what Josh was thinking when he did this: Was he telling himself
a story in his head? Working out spatial equations? Or just enjoying being the one
in control for a change? She didn’t know, but the boy could stay busy with his trains
for two hours at a time all by himself, for which both she and his mother were very
grateful.

Maggie glanced back at Doc. His pale eyes were looking at her but not really seeing
her, and his voice was very quiet when he spoke. “The truth is, I don’t know.”