Our Husband (a humorous romantic mystery) (40 page)

"Don't worry yourself too much." Laverne handed her a folded pink garment. "Now, put on your lab coat."

Ruby stared, then squealed with joy.

Chapter 38

Natalie sneezed from the motes she stirred with a feather duster as she moved around her office. Patients were few and far

between, so she decided to take advantage of the opportunity to clean. Tony kept telling her things would pick up, but things

hadn't, even though Mrs. Ratchet had run notice of the state medical board reinstating her license on the front page of the paper,

in return for an exclusive interview at some point in the near future. Still, patients stayed away. Being an urban legend was

great if someone needed a dinner guest, but not if they needed a doctor.

A buzzer sounded, alerting her to visitors. Since she couldn't afford to hire a receptionist or a nurse, she was handling all

duties. When she walked into the waiting room, Brian stood between his nieces, one towheaded, and one brunette, chained

together by their disproportionate hands. Both the girls had been crying, and he looked close to a breakdown himself.

She was careful not to betray her cheer at seeing him again. She'd scrupulously avoided his calls for a week, determined to

disentangle herself from everyone until she could come to grips with the fact that Beatrix had murdered Raymond. On the one

hand, she should have been furious, but knowing the extent of his betrayal to all of them had tempered her reaction to numbness.

She simply couldn't believe the woman she'd come to know—or thought she'd come to know—could plan and execute a

murder.

Which was further proof her judgment of character was enormously skewed.

"Hello," she said.

"Hi. I heard the doctor was back in."

"And this must be Ally and Jeanie."

The girls nodded and huddled closer to Brian's legs. "I think they picked up a bug while they were at Mom's," he said.

"Ah." She smiled at the girls. "I'm Dr. Natalie, and I'll do my best to make you feel better."

"How come no one else is here, Uncle Brian?" Ally asked, looking around the empty waiting room.

"Because no one else is sick. Isn't that nice?"

Natalie gave him a wry smile. "Bring them back to the Blue Room—I think you know the way."

His mouth quirked to one side, then he herded them along. The girls were a wriggling, giggling, runny-nosed mess, but she

was finally able to ascertain they both had mild respiratory infections.

"Are you going to give us a shot?" Ally asked, her eyes welling up.

"No." Natalie tugged on her pigtail. "Just some pink medicine you'll have to take for a few days."

"She's pretty, Uncle Brian," she whispered loudly behind her hand.

"Yes, she is," Brian said, locking gazes with her over the girls' heads.

"Why don't you bring her home sometime for spaghetti?" Jeanie suggested.

"Um, girls," he said, lifting them from the examination table to the floor. "I think I saw a bowl of lollipops in the waiting

room. Why don't you each get
one
and wait for me there? And don't run," he added, his words drowned out by their tennis

shoes pounding on the carpet.

Natalie squirmed, dreading the conversation.

"So how's business?"

She laughed softly. "It isn't."

"Things will pick up again."

"I'm moving."

He blinked. "You're
moving
? I hope you mean across town."

"I've been sending résumés to Florida. I'm putting my house up for sale."

"Just like that, you're leaving?"

She scowled. "Not just like that—I've given this decision some thought."

His jaw hardened. "Did I imagine there was something between us?"

"Friendship," she said quickly, then busied herself with the girls' files.

His fingers curled loosely around her wrist. She lifted her gaze and swallowed. "What happened was a mistake, Brian. My

life has been a roller coaster, we were both lonely—"

"Don't give me that crap, Natalie. We're good together."

She pressed her lips together, not wanting to hurt his feelings. "We're moving in different directions. You're a family man.

After everything that's happened, I need to acclimate."

"You mean you want to be alone."

"Can you blame me?"

He sighed. "No. But I don't like it."

"I'm sorry, Brian. I appreciate the way you've helped me and Tony. And I'll make sure you get the money Raymond owed

you as soon as I sell the house or receive the life insurance settlement."

At the mention of the money, his mouth turned down. "Is Tony going with you?"

"I think so."

"How soon are you leaving?"

"As soon as I can sell the house. A real estate agent is coming by this weekend."

He ran his hand down over his face. "Can we at least spend time together until you have to go?"

She shook her head. "It'll only make things harder."

"For you?"

Yes. "No."

He pursed his mouth, then laughed humorlessly. "Okay, I'm hard-headed, but I think I'm getting the picture here."

Her heart squeezed. Another time, another place...

Suddenly his face rearranged into a smile. "But, hey, we can still be friends, right?"

Relieved, she nodded. "Absolutely."

He leaned back against the exam table and crossed his arms. "How is the case going?"

"Against Beatrix? Full speed ahead, I assume. My lawyer says I'll have to testify."

"Do you think she'll be convicted?"

"I honestly don't know. Her lawyer will bring up the fact that Ruby and I were both arrested for the murder—that's bound

to create some doubt in the minds of the jurors."

"But I thought she confessed."

Natalie shook her head. "After they presented her with evidence about the poisoned cologne, she simply told the detective

and the district attorney that she had planned to kill him, but someone else beat her to it."

"But no one believed her."

She sighed. "No. They dropped the charges against me and Ruby because we passed a polygraph test."

"Did Beatrix take one?"

"No." She straightened the folders, then straightened them again.

"Something's bothering you."

Natalie chewed on the inside of her cheek, wondering how crazy she would sound if she voiced her opinion. "I don't think

she killed him."

"Of course she killed him. Who else is left?"

"The mystery woman."

"But you told me that Beatrix was the mystery woman."

"I thought so the day we were all talking to Aldrich and Keane, with the evidence against her piling up in my mind. But

I've had time to think about our little road trip, and when that maid told us that Raymond was going to propose to someone else,

I swear she was as shocked as I was."

"Maybe she's a good actress. She probably paid the maid to say all that."

"Then the maid was a good actress, too."

"But Beatrix had made some kind of murder to-do list, hadn't she?"

She nodded. "But like I said, she doesn't deny
wanting
to kill him."

"And you still think she didn't do it?"

"It's just a gut feeling."

"Have you talked to her lately?"

"I left a message yesterday, but she didn't return my call."

Brian straightened. "Mom came back with me to help with the girls. After I fill their prescriptions, let's you and I drive to

Northbend."

She frowned. "I don't know—"

"I tracked down a set of silver candlesticks that belonged to Beatrix but were already gone when she came by the shop. I

was going to mail them, but Northbend is only an hour and a half from here."

Natalie hesitated. The last time she and Brian had taken a drive, they'd ended up rolling around in the back of the van. "On

one condition."

"What's that?"

"We take
my
car."

Chapter 39

The bad thing about driving, Natalie realized about a mile down the road, is that it allows the passenger free license to

stare. "Do I have something on my face?"

"Yes," Brian said. "Freckles."

"I've been gardening, trying to get the back yard in shape to sell."

"Such a shame, seeing as how you love that house."

Tears on her pillow every night. "I have to be able to practice medicine, and I can't do it in Smiley."

"I think you're giving up. Too soon."

"Yeah, well you don't have to endure the stares and the whispers at the grocery."

"Oh, I get stared at and whispered about a lot. People seem to think I'm a gangster or something."

"It's the scar," she said. "How'd you get it?"

"Brother," he said simply. "We were kids, playing war or something. He threw a half brick, and I looked up to meet it."

"You could have been killed."

He laughed. "Between me and my brother, I think my mom had a reserved seat in the emergency room."

"Where is your brother?"

"In Germany. Career military man."

"And your parents?"

"Pop died when I was a teenager. Mom remarried after I left home and moved to Key Valley."

"On the other side of St. Louis."

"That's right, your brother told me you and Raymond lived there for a while."

She swallowed.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have brought it up."

"His name? Don't be silly. Raymond was a big part of my life for a long time. I can't expect not to think about him, or for

other people not to mention him." She glanced sideways. "What did you think about him?"

He shrugged. "Seemed like a nice enough guy, but I knew he was in a money bind. He was desperate, making crazy bets."

"Trying to win enough money to juggle three households. He was robbing Peter to pay Paul. Did you think he was a—"

What were the words Tony used? "A player?"

"Oh, sure."

Her hands gripped the wheel tighter. "How?"

"I don't know. It's like you said about thinking Beatrix is innocent, just a gut feeling."

She wondered why she hadn't interpreted the stone in her stomach at the time she took her vows as uncertainty rather than

nervousness. She'd been so caught up in the momentum of her husband's spirit. There was nothing casual about Raymond—no

puttering in the garden, no estate sales and roadside picnics, no lovemaking on yellow shag carpet in the back of a van.

Really coarse yellow shag carpet that smelled of a citrusy cleaner and felt rather remarkable on bare skin.

"Natalie?"

"Hmm?"

"I asked if you've talked to the other wife, the young one?"

"Ruby? Yes, I called her a couple of times, to make sure she's getting prenatal care."

"How does that make you feel?"

She ignored his question. "Like a doctor."

"I mean, how does it make you feel that she's having Raymond's baby?"

She sighed. "Sorry for her, actually. She's so young, and she has no family around that seems to care. I hate Raymond for

betraying me, but I don't think I'll ever forgive him for what he did to that girl. Her life will always be a struggle. She was even

fired from her dancing job."

"I think Tony mentioned it."

"He has a crush on her. Anyway, I can't imagine how she's going to make ends meet
and
take care of that baby."

"Won't she get life insurance, child support, social security?"

"Since the policy was so new, the company opted to refund the premiums instead of paying the death benefit. I doubt if

there will be anything left of Raymond's estate once the bills are paid, so the baby stands to inherit very little. She might get

social security, though, or welfare. I wish I could help her, but I have to get my own affairs in order first."

"Did you ever want children?"

His voice was innocent enough, but his sudden preoccupation with the passing scenery betrayed his interest.