Gail’s lab was in a small block building in a strip mall in Foley. It looked open, which surprised Reid. He’d thought with the owner’s death it might have been closed. He navigated through the tourists parking at the ice cream shop next door and found a spot as someone else was backing out.
He held open the door for Jane, and they stepped into a small reception area with a digital check-in kiosk.
A harried-looking young man in a white lab coat shot them a glance, then stopped in his tracks at the sight of Jane’s uniform. “Is this about Gail?”
Jane flashed her badge. “It is. You have a few minutes?”
“I guess.” He glanced through the plate-glass window into the lot. “A couple of people will be coming in soon.”
“This shouldn’t take long.”
Reid glanced around while Jane was asking questions. He looked at some awards on the wall for the lab. At one time the lab was humming along legitimately. What had changed for Gail? His eyes fell on a desk with paperwork covering the top. Lab orders and results.
He turned back to sidle beside Jane.
“Did you ever have any disgruntled customers show up here?” Jane asked.
The man shifted from foot to foot. “There was one guy who came in madder than a hatter. It was that fireman. He was waving his results, and I thought he was going to hit her. Gail was scared, and she finally locked herself in the office there.” He pointed to a door off the reception area. “I had to get him to leave. There was a bulge in his pocket, and I thought he might have had a gun.”
So Finn had been mad enough to kill her?
“Were there any other disgruntled customers?” Jane asked.
“Not like that. I mean, when you work with drug addicts, you’re going to get a few people who aren’t happy that the test comes back positive. She had her tires slashed about a week before her death, but we never found who did it. The security camera showed a man all in black sticking a knife in them, but we couldn’t see his face.”
Jane stopped writing. “Was this reported?”
“Yeah, to the Foley police.”
What else did the Foley police know?
Jane scribbled in her notebook. “Did Gail ever mention her financial difficulties?”
He nodded. “She had to lay off a couple of people. We lost some government contracts to another lab. She was worried about paying her mortgage and keeping this place open.”
“Do you know why she lost the contracts?”
“Just business. Another lab had better prices and faster service. It upset her though.”
The door opened and a man stepped in. Reid assumed it was one of the clients the employee had mentioned.
Jane put her pad away. “Thank you for your time. If you think of anything else, please call me.” She slipped her card into the employee’s hand, and he put it in his lab coat.
Reid held open the door, and they went out to his vehicle. “So at least you know the reason for her financial difficulties.”
“I wish we’d found out more. Let’s go back to Pelican Harbor and talk to Drew’s neighbors.”
“You sound discouraged.”
“I am. I wanted to find a solid clue so we could get Will out of juvie.” She got in the passenger side and shut the door.
When he got behind the wheel, he found her with her forehead pressed to the dashboard. He put his hand on her back and felt her sobs. “We’ll get there, Jane. What investigation reveals the answer right away?”
“None,” she said in a muffled voice. “But this is so important. What’s happening to our boy?”
“I’m trying not to dwell on it. We can’t think about it or we won’t have the focus we need to figure it out.”
She lifted her head. “I know, I know. I’m not sure where to go next, what to do. All these piddly questions don’t seem to be getting us anywhere.”
“I don’t think it’s Drew, do you?”
Her hazel eyes were wet, and she shook her head. “Not really. He’s a bully, but I think he was telling the truth about the day Gail died.”
“So go with your gut, Jane. If your gut says this is the wrong direction, let’s focus elsewhere. We can talk to Finn’s associates and see how else he might be connected to this. We can check with the doctor whose signature she forged. Maybe she did something else to him and he did it. But you know who I keep circling back to?”
“Who?”
“Gabriel. Who else would want to cause us pain? Who has a motive to frame Will in order to make us hurt?”
She chewed her lip. “We could go out to the island and talk to him again.”
“I think we should.”
She swiped at her face. “Thanks for keeping me on track. I’m about to go out of my mind with worry. I’m a professional. I should be able to think more clearly. I don’t know what’s the matter with me.”
“You’ve been under a crazy amount of stress.”
“I know, but I shouldn’t let it affect me like this. I have to get it together. I feel like I’m about to shatter into a million pieces.”
He leaned over and cupped her cheek. “I wouldn’t let that happen. I have faith in you, Jane. I know how good you are at your job. It might take longer than you want, but you’ll find the killer. We’re going to get Will released. Have faith in yourself. And faith that God will lead you in the right direction.”
“I’ll try.” She pressed the back of his hand where it rested on her cheek. “You’re the best, Reid. Let’s talk to that doctor today. I have his name, and he’s here in Foley too.”
* * *
The doctor’s office was packed, but Jane wasn’t about to let something like that deter her. She marched to the reception desk and flashed her badge at the woman behind the glass. “I need to see Dr. Bix for a few minutes.”
The receptionist gave an exasperated sigh. “He’s got a packed schedule. We should be closing in five minutes, and it’s going to be seven by the time he sees everyone.”
“I understand, but this is important. It shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes.”
The receptionist rolled her eyes but got up and went out. Her jaw was tight when she returned. “The doctor is down the hall to your right. His nurse will take you to him. Please be considerate of our patients and make this as quick as possible.”
The door opened, and a nurse beckoned to them. She didn’t look as annoyed as the receptionist. Instead, her blue eyes held an avid curiosity. She escorted them to a small inner office.
A bald man was at a desk, and his dark eyes glanced Jane’s way as he rolled out from his desk a bit. “You’re here about Gail Briscoe.”
“I am. I appreciate your taking a few minutes. I know you’re busy.”
“Crazy busy. Allergy season.” Dr. Bix stretched out his legs. “I have to admit, I was shocked she was forging my name. I’d wondered why she wasn’t sending labs over to be reviewed, but I thought maybe she’d found someone else to analyze them.”
“Were you upset?”
He gestured toward his waiting room. “You saw it out there. You think I need more work? I was disconcerted that she put my name on something false and ruined people’s lives, but I didn’t do it. I did receive a few threats though.”
Jane’s ears perked. “Threats? Did you report them?”
“Nah, I didn’t take them seriously. Phone calls, a note or two from a man claiming I ruined his life and would pay for it. Some graffiti on the office windows. I knew they’d stop once the news media got a hold of the arrest.”
“You knew there was a warrant out for her arrest?”
“I assumed so when I was interviewed. It was a serious accusation. You can’t have people impersonating doctors.”
Jane nodded. “Was anyone in your office upset?”
“No. We have plenty of work.”
She put her pen and pad away. “Well, thank you for your time, Dr. Bix. I’ll let you get back to your patients.”
She and Reid went back through the packed waiting room and out into the heat. “You were right. I think this line of questioning is wasting our time.”
Reid glanced at the sky. “We should wait until tomorrow to confront Gabriel. By the time we return to Pelican Harbor and rent a boat, it’ll be getting dark. You don’t have enough manpower to crash in on him in the dark.”
While that was the prudent thing to do, she wanted to find out something now. She glanced at her watch. “We have a little time for some kind of investigation. Any ideas?”
“We have a ton of emails Elliot found on Lauren’s computer. Let’s grab some dinner and take it back to your place to review them. Once that’s done, we have more cleaning to do at my house. Olivia and Megan move in tomorrow morning.”
Jane felt such a sense of urgency, but she knew he was right. So much was pressing down on them right now. They had to take this step by step.