A Clean Kill Read Online Free Page B

Adderson.”
    “Oh.”
    “Did I catch you at a bad time?”
    I shook my head, which wasn’t all that helpful to someone on the other end of a phone line. “No. Not at all. I just thought it was going to be someone else. What can I do for you?”
    “Well, Tom, I’ve been thinking. And I’ve been talking to the hospital’s in-house lawyer.”
    “I thought he might want a report on our meeting.”
    “Wouldn’t you?” Dr. Adderson sounded unfazed. “Anyway, I convinced him that you and Sheri aren’t out for blood. And—don’t make me sorry I did this—but I also convinced him that it might help resolve the family’s concerns about the death if he let me go over some of Kate Baneberry’s records with you.”
    This was unexpected. “From the night she died?”
    “Yes. If you can get her husband to sign a waiver of doctor-patient confidentiality, then I can show you something that’s been bothering me about the progression of her illness.”
    As the doctor talked, I had walked back into the kitchen. I pulled the chili out of the microwave and reached for an onion. “How about this? Sheri’s father, Jim, is …”
    “Angry.”
    “Well, yes, he is.” I grabbed a chef’s knife from a wooden block on the counter and began peeling the onion. “As I told you this afternoon, he’s got his own lawyers. If I ask him to sign a legal waiver, red flags are going to go up and we’ll be buried in pinstripe suits. So, how about if I ask Sheri to get her mother’s medical records from her father? He has the right to access those records, and he can’t very well object to letting his own daughter look at them.” I stepped on the trash can lever and dropped the crinkled-gold onion skin inside. “Since I’m her attorney, she can let me see the file without his permission.”
    Dr. Adderson let a few seconds go unfilled. “But that doesn’t give me the all’s-clear to discuss her condition with you.”
    I made horizontal cuts through the onion. “At the risk of sounding insensitive, Kate Baneberry no longer has any confidentiality to protect. She’s dead. And besides, we already discussed her this afternoon.”
    The line went silent, and I thought I may have offended her. Then she said, “Do you shoot?”
    “Yeah. I guess. I go bird hunting about twice a year.” I separated three thick slices of onion and chopped them up.
    “Come to the club Wednesday at one. We’ll eat and go over the records. Two o’clock is my usual tee time at the clays range. We’ll shoot and talk.”
    I thanked her for calling and got no response. “Dr. Adderson? This may sound crazy, but something’s been bothering me all afternoon. I got directions today from a guy in the bar at your club. He was … he was intimidating as hell is what he was.”
    “Charlie? Charlie’s big but he’s not what I’d call intimidating, especially not to a man like you.”
    I put the knife down and turned to lean my backside against the kitchen counter. “This guy was about my age or a little younger. Black hair. Gaunt cheeks. Build like a fighter, like somebody who works out for strength, not bulk.”
    Laurel Adderson laughed. “That’s not Charlie. Our bartender’s tall and round, with a big red beard. The guy you described … if there is someone like that who works at the club, I don’t know him. And he doesn’t sound much like he’d be one of our members.”
    “No. I’d say this guy would scare the living hell out of the membership committee. Thanks anyway.”
    “Sure. See you Wednesday.”
    I punched the off button on the phone, dropped it on the counter, and scooped chopped onions off the cutting board and dumped them on top of my dinner. The chili, a cold bottle of Guinness, and I went into the living room, where I parked my food on the coffee table and then walked to the front hallway.
    I peered out at the driveway, where I could have sworn I caught a flicker of movement in the shadows, but then there was nothing there. I