Organized to Death (28 page)

Mrs. Morris nodded, all the blood leaving her face. Tina was afraid she’d faint.

“Can I get you some water?” Tina half rose from her chair.

“No. No, I’ll be all right. Please explain what you mean.”

“When did Crystal find out?”

“Just a few days before she was killed.”

“She mentioned to Charles that she knew something about Dr. Stevenson. Dr. Stevenson had another secret—that Ted is his son.”

“Ted? The doctor who took over his practice?”

“The ‘doctor’ who is not a real doctor, it turns out. I doubt Dr. Stevenson knew that, but Crystal may have found out.”

“Oh my. Oh my goodness.” Mrs. Morris sat shaking her head over and over again.

“And Charles says he’s been threatened—almost run off the road. I think the murderer is afraid Crystal told other people close to her about the secrets and is trying to silence them. You need to be very careful, Mrs. Morris. Have you been out of the house lately?”

“No. Not since they told me about Crystal.”

“Maybe that’s why they haven’t tried anything with you.”

“Oh my. Tina, I just can’t believe this. If what you say about this Ted is true, won’t they keep him in jail?”

“I’m not sure. I think that he might be able to get out on bail.” Tina saw that Mrs. Morris looked to be in shock. Her skin had become even paler. “Are you sure you’re all right? Let me get you some water.”

Tina went to the kitchen, checked the refrigerator to see if there was any bottled water. She found a six pack, grabbed one, grabbed a glass and poured the water into it and took it back to the living room.

“Thank you,” Mrs. Morris said, grasping the glass.

“I’m sorry to be the bearer of such bad news. I suggest you don’t let anyone in. And you might want to consider telling Rachel about the DES before she finds it out some other way.”

“Yes. Yes, you’re right.” Mrs. Morris set the glass down decisively on the table next to her and stood up. Tina could see her gathering her strength for the days ahead. A woman who refused to be defeated by anything.

Tina took a few steps toward Crystal’s mother and impulsively gave her a hug. Mrs. Morris clung to her for a moment, then stepped away.

“You’re a good girl, Tina,” she said. “I’m glad you’re here right now for Rachel.”

Tina smiled. “So am I. She’s going to be all right. She’ll make you proud.”

“Yes.”

They walked to the front door and said goodbye.

Driving home, Tina glanced in her rearview mirror and noticed a car she realized she’d seen several times before in the last two or three days. She had no idea what make it was. Small and white, it had a dent on the front bumper, a busted light, and a crack in the windshield on the passenger’s side.

Tina sped up. The car stayed close. Tina began to sweat in her winter coat. She turned off the heater. She’d warned Mrs. Morris but hadn’t thought for one moment that she might be in danger herself. Trying to get a better look at the driver, she tapped her brake. The other car came closer. The driver wore a hat and sunglasses.

She didn’t know what to do. She did know she should keep to the side streets where the other driver couldn’t force her into a ditch.

She could call Hank. But if she were wrong, he’d laugh at her. Call her ridiculous. Did that matter when her life might be at stake?

She picked up the cell phone. Hesitated, then punched number three. When he answered, she said, “There’s a white car following me. Dented front bumper, cracked windshield. Driver with hat and dark glasses.”

“Where are you?”

She told him.

“I’m on my way. Don’t hang up. Don’t let the other driver get too close if you can help it. Stay away from streets with stop lights where you might have to stop. Just drive, letting me know where you go.”

“Okay,” Tina said faintly. “You don’t think I’m overreacting.”

“No, Red. You did the right thing by calling me. Keep your head. Where are you now?”

Again, she told him.

“I’m only three blocks away. Stay cool.”

Then she spotted Hank, coming in her direction. As he approached, she glanced in her rearview mirror and saw the other car turn into a side street and speed away.

Tina pulled over to the curb, shaking. She put the car in park and sat grasping the steering wheel until her fingers ached.

Hank did a U-turn and parked behind her. She watched him in her side rearview, rushing toward her.

“Are you okay?” he asked as she rolled down the window.

“I’m fine.” She loosened her death grip on the steering wheel and took a couple of deep breaths. “Shouldn’t you go after him? You did see him?”

“Yeah, but didn’t have time to get the license number. Did you?”

“No. Oh, damn, I didn’t think of it.”

Hank’s face remained expressionless. “I can’t do anything, Tina. No one threatened you. You didn’t see a gun?”

“No.”

“We can guess it’s the same car Nicky and Charles saw, but we have no proof.”

“Did you talk to Charles?”

“Yes.”

“Is Ted in jail?”

“He’s out on bail.”

“Shit.”

“Yes. I know. But there’s nothing to tie him to Crystal’s murder. We can guess that she found out his dirty little secret, but we could be totally wrong about that. You happen to know what kind of car Ted drives?”

“Not exactly. Something foreign, sporty. Red.”

Hank laughed. “If it’s not a Volkswagen, you have no clue.”

“I know what a Porsche looks like. Dr. Stevenson has one—an older model. I saw it in his driveway.”

“So, if it’s either one of them, they’re using a different car.”

“And just driving around, looking for anyone connected to Crystal to bump off?” Tina asked.

Hank didn’t say anything.

“And if it’s Ted, he has an accomplice. Remember, I was in his office with him when Nicky was shot. He doesn’t have time to roam around in an old white car. I’m going home.”

Uncle Bob sat at the kitchen table and Tina’s mother stood at the crock pot with a wooden spoon in her hand. Tina didn’t know what atrocity was hidden inside the pot—it smelled like wet socks—so she ignored the whole thing and went to give her uncle a hug.

“Kumquat, there you are! Where have you been?”

Tina put her purse on the floor, took off her coat, and sat down. “I’ve been helping Rachel with her house. We got the whole front hall cleared. And that’s a rather long hall!”

“Better than a shortfall,” Uncle Bob said, grinning.

“You. You must be feeling a lot better.”

“I am. Right as rain.”

“What on earth does that mean?” Laura asked. “How can rain be right? And why should that apply to how someone feels?” She shook her head and sat down. Took a sip of her cocktail.

“I have no idea,” Uncle Bob said.

“And you don’t care,” Tina said, laughing.

“Heck no. I never met a cliché I didn’t like.”

“You can say that again!” Tina said.

“It’s catching!”

When both Tina and Laura looked puzzled, Uncle Bob said, “‘You can say that again’ is used so much, it’s really a cliché.”

“Oh,” Tina said. “Hank said I was catching your sense of humor. Maybe I am.”

“How is old Hank?”

“He’s fine. Right as rain, I should say.” She looked at Laura who, as usual, was not participating in their banter. “Did you tell Uncle Bob the Lunch Bunch’s secret?”

Laura leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “Yes. And I consider this very poor timing.”

“As was Crystal’s death,” Tina shot back. She almost said that good timing would have been back when the girls were in their late teens, but bit her tongue. They’d already had that argument and it got them nowhere. “Do you happen to know when doctors stopped giving their patients DES?”

“No,” Laura said, uncrossing her arms. “I guess we could find out online?”

“Probably. I’m going to check in just a minute. How did you find each other, anyway?”

“Dr. Stevenson asked each of us if we’d like to meet other mothers who had taken the drug, and the ones in the Bunch agreed. I imagine he asked other mothers who didn’t agree.”

Tina hadn’t thought of that. There hadn’t been that many folders in the file cabinet, but she couldn’t really tell how many there’d been.

“I’m going to check out some dates on the computer,” she said and stood up.

Her mother stood as well and went to look inside the crock pot. “Dinner in an hour.”

“Okay.” She resigned herself to eating gruel. Then she remembered the Milky Way bar in her purse. She’d save it for after dinner.

After a bit of searching on the computer, Tina found that most doctors had discontinued the use of DES to prevent miscarriages in 1971. The government had issued a bulletin. So, Dr. Stevenson either hadn’t gotten the word or he’d continued to use it anyway. What was worse, in 1953 studies found it didn’t really prevent miscarriages. The drug companies continued to market it as a miscarriage preventative, though, and many young women had paid the price since.

Disgusted, Tina called Hank.

“Where are you?” she asked when he answered.

“Outside the Morris house again.”

“Seen any white cars?”

“No. I think whoever is driving it knows my car. They stopped following you as soon as I came along, remember?”

“That’s right. Who could it be?”

“I don’t know. Unless Ted stashed another car somewhere, it’s not him.”

“Well, couldn’t he do that? Did you search both the garages at his house and his office?”

“I’m not running this investigation, Red, so I don’t know if they were both searched. But I’ll find out.”

“Okay. Also, they need to check out the file cabinet upstairs at Ted’s office. There are a bunch of files in there, and I think all of them have to do with women who were given DES by Dr. Stevenson back in the 1970s and maybe even the ‘80s. If this has anything to do with that, then everyone in those files could be in danger from the murderer.”
Mother
? Tina thought suddenly and put it away for later. It had to be Ted.

Tina shivered.

“Be careful.” Hank’s voice was a low growl. Tina shivered again, but not from fright.

“What? Yes, of course. Mother’s cooking tonight. I probably have more to worry about from that than anything else.”

Hank laughed. Then he sobered. “How’s Uncle Bob? Hope his stomach can survive that.”

“He’s a lot better. Weak, I think, but pain free, happy.”

“Good.” The growl was gone from his voice, and Tina missed it. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay.”
When
, she wondered.

After they hung up, Tina’s stomach growled. She grinned to herself. Snatching up her purse, which she’d brought with her into the office, she looked for the Milky Way. She’d live dangerously and have dessert first. But it wasn’t there.

Thinking it might have fallen out in the car, she grabbed her jacket and went outside.

As she leaned into the passenger’s side of her Volkswagen, a voice behind her said, “Tina?”

She jerked, recognizing Ted’s baritone. Fear clutched at her stomach, and she backed out of the car slowly. Gathering all her courage, she stood up and faced him.

He didn’t look at all threatening. More defeated than anything. Head hung, hands in his pockets, he couldn’t meet her eyes.

“I… I wanted to talk to you before the news got around, into the papers.”

She leaned against her car to steady herself. He didn’t know she’d been the one to find out.

“I’m not really a doctor,” Ted said. “I’ve always wanted to be, but I didn’t do well in school… “

Tina realized she was nodding and couldn’t seem to stop. Her mouth felt so dry it was painful to swallow. She put her hands in her coat pockets, feeling the pepper spray. But that didn’t reassure her because she remembered how easily Ted had taken it from her the night before. He didn’t seem aggressive, but it could be an act. He was an excellent actor, after all. How many people had he fooled since setting up practice?

Cold sweat washed over her when he took a step forward. He gave her a puzzled look. “You already know.”

Too late, she realized she should have acted surprised, shocked. “No,” she protested, her voice feeble. She wanted to get away from him, but she felt rooted to the spot, too scared to move.

He grasped her shoulders. She felt her mouth go slack with shock. She yelped.

“Sorry.” He backed off. “You’re afraid of me?”

“N-n-no, of course not.”

“Yes, you are. I’d never hurt you. I’d never hurt anyone. I just wanted to help.” He rubbed his face with his hand. “I referred everyone on when I didn’t know enough to treat them. I never did more than first aid!”

She almost felt sorry for him. He looked haunted, a ghost of himself.

“I don’t understand how the police found out,” he muttered.

Tina didn’t want to pursue that. “What made you do it?”

“I’d always had an interest. Then when I found out my father was a doctor, I began to study on my own. After I’d saved enough money to come east, I looked him up and found out he was giving up his practice. It seemed like the perfect opportunity. He never questioned me. Instead, he seemed proud, happy he had a son since he didn’t have any other children. He even gave me the house with his office. But I couldn’t live there, for some reason.” Ted’s voice caught. “It was going so well … “

Tina didn’t say anything. Couldn’t say anything.

“How did you find out?”

“I have some friends in the police department. They knew I was working for you. So they told me.” When had she learned to lie so smoothly?

Daylight was fading fast, but Tina could still see Ted’s eyes, gleaming with doubt. Suddenly he grabbed her upper arms, squeezing so hard she cried out. “You told them!” He gave her a shake. Her teeth rattled, but she didn’t know if it was because of the shake or from fear.

“No. No.”

He squeezed some more. “I remember you looking at my diploma. Even then, you doubted me.”

She struggled against him, but his strength was too much for her.

“Please, let me go. Ted! Don’t make it worse on yourself. Let me go!” She gave a huge wrench, and his grip loosened but then tightened again.