A Witness in Disguise (Sarah Woods Mystery Book 10) Read online

  “That’s not necessary,” Carter said. “Sarah and I will be leaving, just as soon as you answer one last question.”

  Neal lifted his hands in exasperation. “What?”

  “Did you ever give drugs to Graham Taylor in return for sexual favors?”

  Neal’s eyes practically popped out of his head. “Okay, that’s quite enough. Get out of my office right now.”

  Carter reached into a wallet and found a fifty-dollar bill. He placed it on the table. “That should cover the ten minutes.”

  It was almost 5:00 as Carter drove us back to my apartment. He hadn’t said much about our meeting with Dr. Neal Walker and I figured he was mulling things over, possibly regretting the way he embarrassed the man.

  “What are you thinking?” I asked him, eager to find out what was going through his head.

  Carter hesitated. “All I know is that I’m beginning to think that maybe Graham and Meagan’s disappearances are related after all. I need to look through Dr. Neal’s files and find out if he ever wrote prescriptions for Graham. I’ll have to go back to his office tonight after hours.”

  “You’re gonna break in?”

  “Yep. While you keep a lookout. We’ll go back around nine o’clock.”

  “Do you really think he’s involved, or have you just run out of suspects?”

  Carter looked at me with an odd expression. “You know me better than that, Sarah. I don’t hassle people unless I’m convinced they’re up to something.”

  “Okay, just making sure.”

  Chapter 12

  When Carter dropped me at my apartment around 5:15, it was still hot and muggy. Since I didn’t have air conditioning, I decided to take a cold-water bath. As I sunk into the water and closed my eyes, I pretended to be in a luxurious pool at a spa. The lavender scented bubbles contributed to the effect. I could get used to a life of luxury if I had the means but about five minutes into my tranquility, I could hear my cell phone chirping from the bedroom.

  I had every intention of letting the call go to voicemail but then I wondered if it might be Carter, needing my assistance. So I hauled myself out of the tub, grabbed a towel, and padded to the bedroom dripping wet.

  The caller I.D. told me it was Max.

  I almost didn’t answer the call, but I was curious.

  “Hey, Max,” I said. “Is everything okay?”

  “Am I interrupting something?”

  “Not really,” I said with a chuckle. “I was in the bathtub.”

  A slight hesitation, “Oh, I’m sorry. Well, I was wondering if we could talk.”

  “What do you want to talk about?”

  “It’s just that, well, I guess I’m not really sure where things stand with us. I know you can’t move to California with me but does this mean we’re really done?”

  I closed my eyes and sat on the bed, knowing full well the blankets would get soaked. “Long distance relationships never work out,” I said to him. “I thought we talked about that.”

  “Yeah, we did. But you never came out and said we were through. I just want to be clear that that’s what you want.”

  “It’s not really what I want,” I said, “But remember, you were the one who decided to move away. You never consulted me about it until after you made that choice. Obviously, your career takes priority over our relationship. I get it. You’ve been working toward this opportunity your whole life. You’ve only known me for a year. I don’t blame you at all and I’m not upset.”

  There was silence on the other end and I wondered if he had taken offence to my candid remark. Finally, he cleared his throat and said, “You’re right. I guess I never really thought about it that way. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry,” I said. “I don’t regret the time we had together. Not one single minute and I hope we’ll stay in touch, because I regard you as a very close friend. I hope you feel the same.”

  “It’ll take some time,” he said. “Because right now, all I can think about is your wet naked body wrapped up in that towel.”

  I laughed. “By the way, what happened the other night after dinner? I don’t remember much after those margaritas.”

  “We made passionate love on your bedroom floor, don’t you remember?”

  I gasped. “Are you serious?”

  “No,” he said. “But I wish it were true.”

  I smiled to myself. I could picture Max’s devilish smile, with the dimples I adored so much. I would miss those dimples. “Good-night, Max,” I whispered.

  “Hey, by the way, do you mind if I stop by tomorrow afternoon. I left a few things at your apartment and I should probably give you back your key.”

  “Oh, sure. Come by any time you want.”

  Later that evening, Carter and I went back to Dr. Neal’s office. We hoped to break into his files to find a connection to Graham Taylor but, as we drove around to the front of the complex, I pointed to the man standing near the entrance. The overweight, middle-aged rent-a-cop was carrying a flashlight, pacing back and forth like a tired soldier who just wanted to be home watching TV.

  Carter chuckled, but there was no humor behind it. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

  “I guess Dr. Neal decided to beef up security after all,” I said. “Must mean he’s got something to hide and protect.”

  “Looks that way,” Carter said, glumly. “Should I try and take him?”

  “Who? The rent-a-cop? Are you serious?”

  He shrugged. “You don’t think I could take him?”

  I laughed when I realized he wasn’t seriously considering it. “As much as I’d like to see you try, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “Well, since we’re already out, wanna go get a drink? My treat.”

  “You always treat,” I said. “I’ll only go if you let me pick up the tab this time.”

  Carter said, “You bought us coffee frappes, remember? So it’s my turn and that’s final.”

  “Fine,” I said, in mock dejection. “Have it your way.”

  He chose to take me to O’Malley’s, the best Irish pub in town. We found two empty seats at the bar and ordered the special draft beer along with some stuffed pepper appetizers.

  “So,” Carter said, leaning close to me. “I have something to tell you.”

  My heart skipped a beat. “Okay, what is it?”

  He seemed hesitant as he slowly sipped his beer. “I got a call yesterday from someone in my past.”

  “And who might that be?”

  “My ex-wife.”

  I swallowed hard. “Why would she call you?”

  “She wants to hire me to look into something. It’s not an exciting job, just something to do with her new husband.”

  “Jeesh. She wants you to find out if her husband is cheating?”

  “No, nothing like that. It has to do with finances. Anyway, she practically begged for my help and I guess I couldn’t say no.”

  I felt a chill run over me. “When was the last time you spoke to her, before this?”

  “Three years. I didn’t even know she got remarried.”

  I looked at him and made a face. “I find that hard to believe. You mean to tell me you haven’t looked her up to see what she’s been doing?”

  He chuckled. “Honest, I haven’t.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Why did you feel the need to tell me this? You want my help?”

  “No, like I said, it’s an easy enough job, pretty cut and dried. I just wanted you to know.”

  “Well, I appreciate that.” I paused. “Will you be seeing her face to face?”

  “I don’t think so. She lives in Michigan.”

  I hoped Carter would fill me in on the details but I knew he wouldn’t. He still hadn’t told me why they got divorced, although I knew it had something to do with their daughter’s death.

  When the food came, we spent the rest of the night talking about work and what we should do about Elizabeth Walker and her husband, Dr. Neal.

  “First, we have to pro
ve that he and Meagan were having an affair before we assume he did anything to her. I searched her whole bedroom and there wasn’t one thing to suggest that.”

  “Maybe they weren’t having an affair,” Carter said. “Maybe Lizzy just thought they were.”

  “Wait,” I said. “Are you saying that maybe Lizzy killed her best friend?”

  He shrugged. “It’s a thought. I mean, you said it yourself; she acted as if she could not care less about Meagan when you talked to her today. She’s hiding something. We know that much.”

  I sipped on my beer and thought it over. “Okay, if you’re right, what would she have done with Meagan’s body?”

  “Good question. We can’t even prove that Lizzy was at her house that night.”

  “What color car does she drive?” I asked.

  “A BMW, navy blue.”

  “That passes for a dark-colored vehicle,” I said, “but that’s not good enough to convince the detective to get a search warrant. We need something more.”

  “Well, then, we’ll just have to find it.”

  Chapter 14

  The next morning I awoke around 8:00 and made a pot of coffee while I looked through my stack of bills. Fortunately, I knew I’d be able to cover all my debts this month. Work had been good and I had been frugal. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d splurged on anything for myself. Maybe it was time for a new pair of shoes.

  Just as I was slurping down a second cup of coffee, Carter called.

  “There’s been a development,” he said with a tinge of excitement. “Are you home?”

  “Yeah. What’s up?”

  “Mark Gillespie just called. He needs to see us; says it’s important.”

  “I’ll be ready by the time you get here. Where are we going?”

  “Mark wants to meet us at the mall, in the food court. I’ll swing by and pick you up in ten.”

  With no time to choose an outfit, I slipped on a pair of jeans, a cotton blouse and my Converse sneakers. My hair was a mess, probably because I’d gone to bed with it wet. It looked like a frizz catastrophe. A baseball would cure that.

  When Carter arrived, I was waiting for him on the sidewalk in front of my apartment. I got into his Buick and we took off toward the mall.

  “Did Mark tell you what happened?” I asked.

  “No, but something spooked him for sure. He’s acting all paranoid. He told me to be careful and make sure nobody followed us.”

  Instinctively, I peered into the rearview mirror and kept an eye on the cars behind us. There didn’t appear to be anyone tailing us but I stayed focused on the traffic, just in case.

  We parked in front of the food court and made our way inside. We spotted Mark sitting at a table in front of the Dunkin Donuts. His hair was a mess and his shirt was buttoned all wrong.

  When Mark looked up and saw us, he frowned and said, “Are you sure no one followed you here?”

  Carter and I took a seat at his table. “What’s going on, Mark?” Carter whispered. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  Mark leaned in close to us, his dark eyebrows furrowed. “I got an e-mail from Meagan last night.”

  Carter and I exchanged glances. I asked. “What did it say?”

  Mark unfolded a sheet of paper and gave it to us. “I printed it out.”

  Dear Mark,

  I’m sorry I can’t explain, but please do not contact the police or tell anyone about this email. If you continue to search for me, my life and yours might be in danger. If you truly care about me, you will respect my wishes. Please trust me on this.

  When I gazed across the table at Mark, his face was pale. His eyes were sunken and red. Despair seemed to be oozing out of his pores.

  “Are you sure this is from Meagan?” Carter whispered. “It doesn’t say who it’s from.”

  “I tried to respond but the email got bounced back to me, said something about an invalid e-mail address.”

  Carter pointed to the top group of numbers and said, “I can look up the IP address and maybe that will at least give us an address from where the email was sent. I have to say, there are lots of ways people can hide their identity online. Do you think someone is trying to mess with your head, or do you really think this is Meagan?”

  Mark shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  “Do you want us to trace the email or not?” Carter persisted.

  Mark’s hands were shaking as he sipped his iced-tea. He didn’t respond for a full minute as he thought it through. “Can you do it discreetly? If this is Meagan then she’s obviously in a lot of trouble.”

  “Okay,” Carter said, calmly. “Even though the account is closed, I should be able to find out where it was sent from, unless they used anonymous proxy servers.”

  Mark glanced at his watch. “Look, I need to get to work. I can’t afford to lose this job, too. Although I’m not sure how I’m going to focus. Will you call me as soon as you find out anything?”

  Carter reached out and squeezed Mark’s arm. “Try not to think the worst. We should have some answers for you soon.”

  Mark nodded. Without another word, he got to his feet and disappeared into the crowd of shoppers.

  Chapter 15

  Carter grabbed us a few bagels to go and we headed back to the Buick. We sat in the car and ate our breakfast, both of us thinking to ourselves.

  Finally, I said, “Do you think Meagan really sent Mark that email? What if it was Lizzy or her husband trying to throw us off their trail?”

  “Could be. They’d probably know Mark’s email address.” Carter unfolded the sheet of paper Mark gave us and studied it. “Looks as though this was sent from one of those disposable email accounts. There are dozens of them out there. This one in particular is called 10 Minute Mail. You can create a disposable account without using any of your personal information. Then ten minutes after you send the email, the account automatically cancels itself; however, my program will trace the IP address so, even though we may not get this person’s real name, we’ll get a physical address.”

  He reached into the back seat, withdrew a small laptop computer from his bag and immediately got to work on the program.

  Within a few minutes, he scribbled into his notebook and held it up for me to see. 316 Gilbert Street, Holbrook, New Hampshire.

  “Wait a minute, that’s weird,” Carter said, scratching his chin. “That’s the address of the Holbrook Facility where George Hart lives.”

  “Are you sure?” I said, consulting my own phone to double check the address on their website. Sure enough, it was. “Okay, this is freaking me out. Someone sent an email from one of their computers last night around 8:00. There must be dozens of computers in that place, so how will we know which one was used?”

  “Let’s assume for a moment that Meagan is alive. Maybe she went to visit her dad and used the computer at the nurse’s station.”

  “Someone would have recognized her,” I said; “besides, visiting hours are only from ten to six.”

  “Visiting hours may not necessarily be heavily enforced and Meagan could have worn a disguise.”

  “Well, Sue-Ann, the volunteer on George’s floor, did tell me the other day that they were understaffed. Meagan, or someone posing as Meagan, could have easily slipped in and out without anyone noticing.”

  “Do you remember seeing any security cameras near George’s room?”

  I gave it some thought and shook my head. “Not that I remember but there has to be some kind of security measures in place.”

  Carter put his computer tablet away and started the engine. “We’ll find out.”

  “With any luck, Sue-Ann was working last night. She’d know if George had any visitors around 8:00 but she was supposed to call me if anyone showed up to see him.”

  “If not, maybe one of the other nurses or doctors on duty last night can help us out.”

  It was almost ten by the time we got to the Holbrook facility, where Carter and I sat in his car and devis
ed a plan.

  “When you go in, don’t give too many details about the email,” Carter said.

  “What are you going to do?” I asked.

  “I’m going to speak to the director of security. I’ll find a way to convince him to show me the security footage from last night.”

  I had no doubt that Carter would be able to construct a compelling reason but I just hoped there would be footage available to watch. “Text me as soon as you find out and I’ll do the same.”

  When I got to the third floor, I made my way down the hall toward George Hart’s room and stopped at the nurses’ station. A young blonde, presumably a nurse or therapist, was talking on her cell phone. Her name badge said Holly. I cleared my throat to get her attention.

  She quickly ended her call and offered me a pleasant grin. “Hello, can I help you?”

  “Yes,” I said. “Is Sue-Ann here today?”

  Holly glanced up and down the hallway. “She’s the one with the southern accent, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “She should be back in a sec. I think she went down to the cafeteria for a snack.”

  “That’s fine. I’m here to visit George Hart,” I said, pointing to room 258. “How is he doing today?”

  “I believe he’s fine. Maybe you should wait for Sue-Ann and talk to her, though. She spends more time with Mr. Hart than anyone. He’s her favorite patient.”

  “Were you working here last night around 8:00?” I asked, keeping my tone casual.

  “No, I had yesterday off. Is there something I can help you with?”

  “No, thanks anyway. I’ll just wait and talk to Sue-Ann.”

  Another nurse approached the station and frantically asked Holly to help her with a patient who had just fallen on the floor. Holly gave me an apologetic wave as she rushed off with the other nurse, leaving me alone. I decided to use the opportunity to my advantage.

  I went behind the nurses’ station. I saw several computers and I tried logging onto one with no luck. When I heard heavy footsteps coming up the hall, I quickly went around the counter and tried to steady my racing heart. When I realized that the footsteps belonged to Sue-Ann, I let out a sigh of relief.