The office on Friday morning was nothing short of chaotic. Debra was overwhelmed with the schedule changes, and Angie stepped in to help where she could.

Nick had definitely been arrested.

Katie leaned over the counter in the reception area and spoke quietly to Debra.

“Do you have any news about Nick?”

Debra pressed her lips into a grim line and shook her head.

“Sean can’t tell you anything?”

Debra stabbed the buttons on her desk phone to place a call on hold and set the receiver in its cradle.

“Sean says Chief Carlson threatened to fire him if any information leaked out about Dr. Hawkins.” She narrowed her eyes. “I’m just concerned about my doc; there was no need for him to get all threaten-y.”

Katie nodded and made reassuring noises but privately wondered why it had taken John so long to plug the leak in his department. She went back to her office to prepare for the onslaught.

Emmett showed up looking as if he’d been up all night with a terminal patient. He said he’d cover Nick’s clinic, but Katie was worried he was too distracted to see patients. Emmett was definitely old school and came from the generation of male doctors who saw it as a badge of honor that they’d never been to their children’s births, school events, or emergency room visits. Too busy saving the lives of their patients, they’d ceded all domestic chores to their wives. If they were still married.

When Katie suggested that Emmett might want to cancel Nick’s clinic and let Katie deal with all the patients for the day, Emmett calmly told her that the best way to help Nick would be to ensure his patients didn’t suffer while he was gone.

Angie told her that half of Nick’s regular patients had canceled when they were told that Nick was unavailable. She was shuffling in “urgent” appointments to keep Emmett’s schedule full.

Angie knew Emmett much better than Katie, and she must have realized that he needed to stay busy. Katie was relieved she’d only have to do a half-day clinic. She wanted to go to the police station and talk to John. And she wanted to follow up on some of the names that were in Sylvia’s book. If she couldn’t track them down on the Internet, she’d have to visit the library again.

Two hours later, Katie was halfway through a full but relatively easy clinic. Most of the appointments were for sick visits, and since only a few of them were actually sick, it moved along quickly. She picked up the next file and read the name: Eric Swanson. Lynn’s abusive husband.

She had met Eric one time when she was a resident following Nick in his pain clinic. Now that she knew more about him, she had to take a moment to prepare herself. It was always difficult to take care of patients that she didn’t like. In those moments, she fell back on her training and her oath to do no harm. Even though she’d love to do some harm to this man. This urge was tempered only slightly by the new information about his own childhood.

She took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

He sat in the patient chair, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. He looked smaller than Katie remembered. Maybe her new knowledge of him had inflated his stature in her mind. He was likely not much taller than Katie, but he had a taut, wiry energy about him that put her on guard.

“Hello, Mr. Swanson.” Katie put her hand out to shake. “I’m Dr. LeClair. I think we met a while back when I was a resident.”

He took her hand and held onto it longer than necessary. “I remember you.”

After extricating her hand and situating herself on the wheeled stool with a clear path to the door, she opened his chart.

“How can I help you today?”

“I need more of the pain medicine Dr. Nick gives me.” He gestured at the chart.

Katie looked at the med sheet. Vicodin. She was surprised to see that he wasn’t taking a lot of the medication. Even though it had been prescribed on an as-needed basis, he hadn’t been in for a refill in six weeks. She was relieved. She hadn’t wanted to engage in a battle over how much of the medicine to give him. She had incorrectly assumed that because he beat his wife, he probably also was a prescription drug abuser.

“I see you had an accident at work and have had back pain ever since?”

He nodded. “It only flares up every once in a while, but when it does, I can hardly move.” He turned in his chair to show her where it hurt.

“Are you in pain today?”

“No, just a bit of aching, but that’s usually how it starts. By Sunday, I’ll be in bed with the pain.”

“Okay, can you sit up on the table? I just want to do a quick exam.”

He climbed onto the table, and Katie ran through a brief neuro exam and felt for trigger points along his back—areas that might have spasmed muscles causing pain. Sometimes those could be massaged or injected with lidocaine to relieve the pain before it got worse.

His nervous system was intact, and she didn’t find any significant trigger points. She knew she wouldn’t be able to solve his long-term pain problems in one visit and wrote him the prescription.

Eric took the prescription from her and winked. “Thanks, doc. I’ll tell Lynn I saw you today.”

Katie felt a cold discomfort settle in her gut.

Before her next patient, she called Debra and asked why one of Nick’s patients had been added to her schedule instead of Emmett’s.

“He asked for you,” Debra said. “When I told him Nick was out of the office, he said he wanted to be scheduled with you. Is everything all right?”

“Yup,” Katie said. “Thanks, Debra.” Why would he ask for her? She had an uneasy feeling about it, knowing that Lynn was actively arranging to leave him. It was well known that abusers became more volatile when they felt they were losing control. She hoped that Lynn hadn’t slipped and let on that she was planning to leave. She replaced the phone in its cradle and glanced up and down the hall to see which room was next.

The rest of the morning passed quickly as Katie moved from room to room without pausing to think about anything but the next patient in line. When she finally finished, she had a stack of charts to write in and a burgeoning headache. She escaped to the break room to load up on caffeine before tackling her charts. She didn’t want to let them sit over the weekend.

She breezed into the room intent on the coffeepot and didn’t notice Emmett standing at the window until she turned around and took her first sip.

“Emmett, I didn’t see you there.”

Emmett turned slowly and nodded at her.

“Was your morning as hectic as mine?” he asked.

Katie nodded. “It was pretty crazy.”

“I’m sorry you’ve been thrown into this situation. You shouldn’t have to keep covering for Nick. And now I don’t even know when he’ll be coming back. The police won’t tell me anything.”

Katie set her coffee cup down and went to stand with him. They both stared out at the back parking lot and the woods beyond.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Katie was on her way to the police station. She had left her charts stacked in her office with a promise to herself that she would return that afternoon to finish them. She didn’t believe it.

The police department was wedged between an antique store and a yarn shop. Its bright-yellow door blended with the rest of the vibrantly colored shop windows and doors.

She pulled the door open and stepped inside to a utilitarian office space with a large desk blocking a narrow hallway.

“Hello, how can I help you?” a chirpy young woman asked as Katie approached the desk.

“Is Chief Carlson in?”

“Nope.” The woman showed a toothy grin. “He just went to lunch.”

Katie’s stomach grumbled at the mention of lunch.

“Do you know where he went?”

“Probably Pete’s, just down the street. It’s where he usually goes.”

Katie thanked her and headed back outside toward Pete’s sandwich shop. She walked into the small, casual restaurant and spotted John at the back. There was a long deli counter down the left side of the room with sandwiches named and described on huge chalkboards. Pete’s was a mostly self-serve type of establishment. They made the sandwich, but the rest was up to the customer. She ordered a grilled roast beef and cheddar and grabbed a plastic cup.

She wove through the tables toward John Carlson. He was lost in thought and sifting through some papers that covered his small table.

“Mind some company?” Katie asked and, not waiting for a reply, set her drink on the few uncovered inches of the table.

He startled, then smiled.

“Well, if it isn’t my favorite doc!” He gathered his papers to make room for Katie’s lunch. “You look like you’ve had a rough morning.”

Katie nodded. “As you know, we’re down one doctor, and we’ve had to see extra patients and fend off gossip seekers.”

Carlson gave her a sympathetic smile but didn’t seem inclined to engage in her conversational gambit. So Katie settled in for a test of wills. She knew she looked kind and somewhat naïve, but no one got through medical school without a steel spine and a hefty dose of stubborn.

Pete signaled that Katie’s food was ready, and John hopped up to get it for her. She hoped he didn’t think she would be swayed from her mission by a sandwich and some chips.

“Thanks, John. You didn’t have to do that.”

“It’s partly my fault you had such a rough morning.” He set the basket of food next to a precariously tilting pile of papers. And Katie thought she had to deal with a lot of paperwork.

“I suppose you’re right,” Katie said.

The chief stacked his files and papers and set them on an extra chair near their table. He glanced nervously at Katie. “Aren’t you going to eat?”

“John, why are you keeping Nick?” Katie knew why. Because Nick looked guilty; she had suspected him herself. But she trusted Emmett, and he said he was with Nick.

He started shaking his head at the word “why.” “I can’t talk about an active case, Doc.”

“I have a stressed-out and devastated father back at the clinic. He needs to know what’s going on. I know Nick is an adult, but can you tell me anything that I can share with Emmett?”

John blew out air and looked everywhere in the restaurant except at Katie.

“He’s a person of interest, and we’re trying to either clear him or get enough evidence to keep him. He’ll probably be out on bail later today if we find enough reason to officially charge him.”

“What would you be charging him with?”

“Murder, of course.”

“What? What do you mean, ‘of course’?”

“How much crime do you think we have here in Baxter? Besides some drunk and disorderly on the weekends and a few domestic calls, we aren’t exactly a hotbed of criminal activity. Ellen Riley’s murder is about the only thing we’re working on.”

“You can’t possibly think he would kill Ellen. He and Christopher were friends. I know the couples used to go out together.”

“He has a lousy alibi, he didn’t answer his service that night, and he’s been seen visiting the house when Christopher was out.”

Katie shook her head. “You think he was having an affair with her and then killed her?”

John spread his hands out on the table. “It’s a theory.”

“I think you’re off track on this.”

“He’s been acting guilty since he came into the station. He has access to Demerol. He knows how to administer it.” Carlson ticked his points off on his fingers.

“So do I. So does Emmett. You aren’t questioning us.” Katie shoved the memory of Nick standing by the drug cabinet when the clinic was empty aside. Carlson was right. Nick had easy access to any drug he’d want. And he’d know the dose and the method.

“You both have alibis. Your brother was with you all evening, and Emmett was at a meeting for the church fund-raiser.”

Katie took a deep breath. “I was a suspect?” She was surprised at how hurt she was that John could have suspected her even for a moment. Then she realized what John had said. Emmett was at a church fundraiser. So had Emmett lied to her or to John? And if he lied to John, what was the penalty when he finally did have to tell the truth?

“No, of course not.” He scowled at her. “You brought it up.”

“What can I tell Emmett?”

“Tell him Nick will likely be out by this evening. But I’d appreciate it if you would keep the rest of this to yourself.”

“Of course. Can I help?”

“Do you have a time machine? I’d like to go back to Wednesday night and do things differently. We’ve been treating it like suicide all along. The rescue workers contaminated her room. The medicine bottle is missing. And there was no sign of a syringe or any narcotic at the scene. I was so certain . . .”

“It’s what everyone thought, John.”

“That’s what everyone was supposed to think. You didn’t buy it, though, and I wish I’d listened to you.” He hunched forward and lowered his voice as some people sat down near them. “Now I might have a very clever killer out there, or I just have an accident that I can’t explain.”

Katie glanced at the papers on the table and saw it was the autopsy report.

“Can I look?” Maybe there was something in the report that would exonerate Nick once and for all.

Carlson frowned and then pushed the pages toward her. “Sure, but only in the capacity of medical consultant. I can’t have civilians seeing this kind of stuff.”

She scanned the report. Bruising to her neck and arms. The coroner couldn’t say whether it was from her time in the ER or earlier. Stomach contents consisted of brownies and milk consumed about two hours before death. After the labs had come back with high levels of narcotic, they’d found the puncture wound on her arm where the drug must have been injected.

There was nothing in it that could rule Nick in or out as the murderer.

When she was done flipping through the report, John gathered his papers and left her to finish her lunch. She barely touched it. She picked at her sandwich and stared off into space. She had many questions and no answers. If someone had drugged Ellen, how had they gotten her to swallow the pills? She did have some diazepam in her system. If she only took a few, where were the rest? Who had written that prescription? And where did the Demerol come from? She added all these questions to her notebook and then flipped it shut.

Katie sighed.

She walked to the counter with her half-eaten sandwich to get it wrapped. Autopsy reports and thoughts of murderers tended to dampen the appetite.

Katie returned to her office and dumped her bag on her desk. Emmett was seeing patients. Friday afternoons were reserved for sick patients, and the weekend on-call doctor worked until they were all seen. Usually it was a short day and helped avoid calls and ER visits over the weekend.

She walked over to Emmett’s hallway and waited by the nurse’s station for him to exit the exam room. She knew he’d want to hear her news as soon as possible.

The door opened, and Emmett backed out of the room. “You should be feeling better by the end of the weekend,” he said. “Call me if you get worse.”

He turned and saw Katie standing there.

“Katie, do you have any news?”

Katie nodded and gestured down the hall toward his office. Even though most of the town would know soon, she didn’t want to broadcast Nick’s situation in the clinic.

They walked down the hall together, and Katie wondered if it was her imagination or if Emmett was slower and more stooped than just two days ago. She felt terrible for him and almost put her hand on his arm but stopped. If he were anything like her, any expression of sympathy would just make the whole thing even harder to bear.

He sat behind his desk and indicated the patient chair on the other side.

“I didn’t get a lot of information, but I know that they are keeping him under suspicion of murder.”

“Murder? Of Ellen Riley?” Emmett sat back in his chair and almost seemed to relax. “But that’s ridiculous. Nick wouldn’t hurt Ellen.”

“He doesn’t have an alibi, and there are witnesses that have seen him visiting her.” Katie stopped. She didn’t want to be the one to tell him about the rumors, but she had to. “There are rumors that he and Ellen were having an affair.”

Emmett laughed. “Carlson must be desperate. This makes me feel much better. I thought it was about the meds. That would have been bad.”

“Your son under suspicion for murder makes you feel better?”

“Yes. I know he didn’t murder Ellen. They’ll have to let him go.” Emmett reached for the phone.

Katie held up her hand. “Emmett, Chief Carlson told me your alibi for that night was a church meeting.”

Emmett’s smile faded. “What are you asking?”

Katie took a deep breath. She couldn’t let this slide. Her career might be just as much in danger as either of her partners. “Did you lie to me or to John?”

Emmett sat back in his chair and looked at Katie for a long moment. “Do you know why I offered you the job here?”

Katie felt like she had just walked in on another conversation. She looked away from him and studied the corkboard full of baby pictures. She loved this practice. And she loved working with Emmett. “I assumed it was because you thought I was a good doctor and we got along well.”

Emmett nodded. “That’s part of it. But there are a lot of good doctors out there.” He spread his hands out on his desk. “And I get along with everyone.”

Katie smiled then. “So why?”

“Because you never back down when you think you’re right. I had gotten a bit bored and very set in my ways. Then you came along for your rotation and challenged every outdated diagnosis or treatment you came across. You never accepted someone else’s treatment plan until you had done your own exam. I admired that.”

Katie looked at her feet. She had no idea how to respond to such a compliment. They came so rarely in medical training, she didn’t know what to say.

“Thank you. That means a lot coming from you,” she said. She looked up then and met his eyes. “So were you with Nick or at a meeting?”

Emmett laughed until his eyes watered. “I was with Nick. There was a meeting at the church, and I hoped that whoever checked my alibi would only check to see that there was a meeting, not whether I was in attendance. I couldn’t tell them about Nick—not without opening him up to investigation. I had hoped I could get him some help and shut down whatever he was doing in his pain clinic without involving the police.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Katie said. And she was glad. She understood why Emmett had covered for Nick and hoped for all their sakes that they would be able to fix the problem before Nick destroyed the practice.

Emmett raised his eyebrows and glanced at the phone.

Katie nodded.

“I’ll tell Debra to keep his patients on the books for next week. I’m sure it will all work out by then,” Emmett said.

After his brief conversation with Debra, Emmett thanked Katie and walked back down the hall to the next exam room. There was a definite jauntiness to his stride this time. Katie was glad that he felt better even though she couldn’t share his enthusiasm or certainty that Nick would be fine.