Chapter Fifteen

The private office Edgar Baxter had occupied for over four decades was much neater than I had expected. It was situated in a large interior room with no windows to distract him. There were two doors: the door from the hallway and another one which opened to a bathroom. The bathroom had another door as well, that opened into the dark pharmacy. The facilities were apparently shared.

Each of us had brought little penlights, but I now turned on the larger flashlight I had tucked into the back of my jeans and upended it on the desk as we looked around the room.

One wall was occupied by floor-to-ceiling shelves of medical books and journals. I checked some of the dates. Most of them were current issues. Apparently the doc kept up with the latest professional news.

All of the drawers of his big old oak desk were unlocked and opened easily but neither of us could find anything of interest—just pens and paper clips and other office supplies.

Baxter had no computer. Old-fashioned oak file cabinets no doubt held the information I was seeking. I took the list of patients I had printed from Ethan’s computer out of my pocket and went to pull the charts.

“Hey Mom,” whispered Cassie, “look at this!”

How many times had I heard my daughter say that during the last twenty years?

“Don’t bother me now, Cassie. We can’t stay here forever,” I replied in an irritable whisper.

“Okay then, if you don’t want to examine a large cardboard filing box labeled ‘Obstetrical Patients 1997-2000.’”

“You’re kidding!”

“Shsssss!”

“Wonder what this is doing here?”

“I don’t know. I just found it tucked under the desk. It looks like he was planning to move it somewhere.”

“Terrific! Let’s just take the whole box home.”

“But, Mom, he’s bound to come back looking for it. What’ll we do then?”

“Look, Cassie, we can’t possibly review all the charts under these conditions.”

“You’re right there, Sherlock. You’re sweating like a pig, and I’m about to die in this wool sweater. It’s like a greenhouse in here. You’d think they would have turned off the furnace to save money when they closed the office.”

“Probably can’t. These old buildings only have one common furnace, and the pharmacy is still open for business.”

“So what’s your plan, Mom?”

My throat ached from the forced whispering and I was dying for a cold drink.

“Let’s take this file box home and go over it at our leisure—meaning tonight and tomorrow. We can bring it back tomorrow night and no one will be the wiser.”

“We hope!”

“We hope.”

“Okay, I’m with you. You grab that end. I’ve got this one.”

Cass hefted her end of the box. It was heavier than it looked. She staggered and accidentally backed into a small table in the corner. There was a loud crash and the sudden smell of something pungent and medicinal.

“Damn! What in the world is that?”

I held my nose against the odor as I bent down to pick up the broken bottle. The wet label was already smeared and barely legible.

“All I can tell is it’s ‘highly flammable.’”

“Great!”

Cass set the box down and opened the door to the bathroom.

“There are some paper towels in here. We can clean it up and toss the bottle. Maybe the doctor will forget it was ever here by the time he comes back.”

“What’s that!”

Our voices had grown increasingly louder. I dropped mine back to an urgent whisper as I turned my flashlight off and peeked out of the crack in the door to the hallway. Down by the entrance, another light was bobbing along with someone’s measured tread. We only had a few moments before they reached us. I closed the door as quietly as I could.

“Quick! Grab the box and let’s get out of here.”

“How?”

There was panic in her voice.

“Through the bathroom. The pharmacy is on the other side. We can get outside from there. Hurry!”

We each lifted the heavy file box and lugged it into the bathroom. I closed that door and turned the inside lock hoping the locked door would buy us some extra time.

Cass braced her end of the box on her hip as she opened the other door into the pharmacy. The street lights shone in brightly through the big front windows. We no longer needed our flashlights. As a matter of fact, if anyone had peered in from the street they could have seen us huffing and puffing as we dragged the heavy box across the back of the store to the side exit.

“Do you think they have an alarm system?”

“There’s only one way to find out.” I told her. “Open the door and get ready to run.”

Cass bit her lip and opened the door. Nothing happened.

“Thank God! Now let’s go!”

Cass opened the door wider and peeked out.

“Gran’s gone!”

“Don’t be silly. You just can’t see Watson under those trees.”

I awkwardly maneuvered my side of the box around to the door and looked out to the empty street.

“Mother’s gone!”

“Duh!”

“My God, what’ll we do?” My mouth was dry as a bone and my breath rattled in my throat like a pair of dice.

“Well, we could walk out of here totin’ this one ton box. It’s only four miles or so to the farm,” Cassie hissed. “I’m sure no one will notice us, including whoever that is in the doctor’s office.”

“Twit!”

“Okay, then tell me ‘O great writer of mysteries,’ what would The Honorable Leonard Paisley do?”

My heart leapt with joy and relief as I saw Watson speeding down the side street with my beloved mother behind the wheel.

“He would hitch a ride with Mata Hari! Let’s go!”

Mother careened to the curb and slammed on the brakes. We dashed out and opened the back door—overhead light be damned! Cassie pulled and I pushed the heavy box into the back seat, and we piled in on top of it. I started to shout something dramatic like “Fly like the wind!” but Mother needed no encouragement. She was down the block, around the courthouse, and halfway home before I caught enough of my breath to admonish her.

“Where have you been? You had us scared half to death!”

“I had a nature call,” she sniffed. “I had to run home for a moment.”

“You had to pee! And you left us swinging in the wind for that?”

“Don’t be common, Paisley. What was I supposed to do? I don’t have a car commode like Queen Elizabeth, and I really had to go. Maybe we should invest in…”

I sank down on the cardboard box. The top folded in under my weight, but I was exhausted and way past caring. I let her prattle on about the advisability of our purchasing a port-a-potty for Watson until we reached the safety and comfort of home sweet home.

Cass and I carried the box to the library and dropped it in front of the fireplace with weary relief. Mother hurried to the kitchen to try and appease our anger at being abandoned by fixing us a celebratory feast.

I was in the middle of my second roast beef and horseradish on a sourdough bun when I heard the siren.

“Is that the fire alarm?”

“Yes, dear. It’s still mounted on the top of the fire station. They only use it when there’s a really big fire and they need to call out the volunteer firemen.”

“Too bad Mavis is still so angry, Mother. You could phone and find out what’s going on.”

“I imagine it will be quite some time before Mavis speaks to me again. Amy from our Sunday School class called this afternoon to tell me Mavis was sitting propped up on the sofa with her leg bandaged to the hip. She has that poor simple husband of hers running around fetching ice cream and bonbons and magazines. Mavis is quite the actress.”

I was still curious about the fire. “Who else has a police radio?”

“Forget about calling anyone, Mom. In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s twenty past three.”

I yawned hugely, “No wonder I’m so sleepy. Those files will have to wait until tomorrow. After all, ‘tomorrow is another day.’”

“I’ve heard that before. If I weren’t so sleepy, I might remember where.”

“You poor culturally deprived little child. What did the sisters at the Escuela San Romero teach you? Remind me to take your not-so-classical literary education in hand some day.”

Mother had slipped off her high-heeled boots, and looked petite and fragile in her stocking feet. I was beginning to feel guilty about my outburst in the car.

“I’m sorry I got angry, Mother. I was just acting out of fear. You really had us scared there for a moment.”

She waved her hand distractedly. “Forget about it.”

“Then is something else the matter?”

She looked at me with the lovely brown eyes that Cass had inherited. “It’s just that sometimes I think perhaps we get carried away and do things we shouldn’t.”

“Like break into your doctor’s office and steal his files?”

“Exactly.”

“Point well taken. Let’s go to bed.”

“Goodnight, dear.”

She leaned over and gave me a quick peck on the cheek. “In case you haven’t noticed, your daughter has fallen asleep on her plate.”