Doug Allyn: v108 n03-04_1996-09-10

“Doctor?” Bettina stuck her head around his office doorjamb. “There’s a Cindy Meyers to see you. She says it’s urgent.”

“Meyers? Oh, that would be Inga Crane’s niece. I’d better see her now, if no one’s bleeding to death on the waiting-room floor.”

“Nope, everything out front’s routine. I’ll send her back.”

David met Cindy at the door. She was wearing a Def Leppard sweatshirt and jeans. Her eyes were red, but she seemed more nervous than sad. She scanned the office warily, as if she were scheduled for some uncomfortable procedure.

“I’m very sorry about your aunt,” David said, taking her hand and leading her to the chair beside his desk. “If there’s anything I can do...”

“Actually, maybe there is,” Cindy said, glancing uneasily around the office. “I need to talk to you privately. Would you mind closing the door?”

David hesitated, then complied. “What is it?” he asked.

“Ted called me around ten this morning,” she said. “I was visiting a girlfriend over at Central Michigan. He... he sounded pretty loaded, you know, drunk?”

“I suppose that’s understandable, wouldn’t you say?”

“I guess it is,” she said, taking a deep breath. “Anyway, I drove straight back, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought I’d better talk to you before I went home.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The thing is, Ted said that Hector killed Aunt Inga. That he’d been chewing on the respirator plug and pulled it out somehow. He said the sheriff even called you out to look at it.”

“That’s right. There were tooth marks on the plug—”

“How many marks were there?” Cindy interrupted. “I mean, was it all chewed up? Or were there just a few?”

“Well, I didn’t actually count the marks but the cord wasn’t badly chewed. They were definitely toothmarks, though.”

“I know they were,” she said. “I’ve seen them.”

“What do you mean you’ve seen them?”

“Hector’s been chewing up things for the past few weeks,” Cindy said carefully, her voice tautly controlled. “Slippers, shoes, table legs, anything he can reach, really. And Inga caught him chewing on the cord a couple of days ago. She had me paddle his bottom good.”

“He’s just a pup,” David said. “Sometimes one lesson isn’t enough.”

“You don’t understand. Inga and Ted had a big fight about it. He wanted her to get rid of the dog, said if it happened again, he’d get rid of it whether she agreed or not. So she was real careful to watch Hector when he was with her, and she’s been shutting him out of her room at night.”

“What are you saying?” David asked.

“I’m not saying anything,” Cindy said. “I’m just trying to... understand how Inga died. Ted said it must have happened during the night, right?”

“I believe the EMT people got there about three-thirty,” David said.

“And Inga seldom went to sleep before midnight,” Cindy said. “So, let’s say Clare forgot and left the door open or something and Hector got in. The first thing he would have done was jump on her bed to say hello. He always did.”

David started to speak but she waved him off.

“I know,” she said. “He’s only a pup. So maybe he didn’t say hello. Maybe he went straight to that cord and chewed on it until he pulled it out. But he couldn’t have done that without drooling on it, could he?”

“No,” David said, “I suppose not.”

“So? Was the plug damp?”

“No,” David said slowly, remembering. “It was dry. A little dusty, in fact. I... brushed my hands off after I handled it.” Neither of them spoke for a moment, each of them considering what the other had said.

“You don’t think the pup unplugged that cord, do you?” David asked at last.

“I don’t know what to think,” Cindy said. “You’ve got to understand, I’m in kind of a shaky situation here. Inga took me in when my parents died, but everything will belong to Ted now and he can put me out in a heartbeat if he wants to. I wouldn’t mind so much for myself, but who’ll take care of Clare? She can’t fend for herself and she loves that house. So I don’t want to make waves, but I think I’d better take a look at that cord. After all the fuss about it earlier, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to tell if Hector chewed on it again. The thing is, I think I should have a witness, but if I ask the sheriff to go with me and nothing’s wrong, Ted might... Look, these past weeks you’ve been the closest friend Inga had. Would you come with me? Please.”

“I — of course,” David said abruptly. “Let’s go.”

Cindy entered the house without knocking. “With any luck, we’ll be in and outa here before anybody knows it,” she said quietly. “I’m probably just making a fuss over nothing anyway.”

David followed her quietly up the main staircase. He felt a bit like a burglar, but he hoped to avoid trouble with Ted Crane if possible. Clare was still in Inga’s room, sitting beside the empty bed where David last saw her, hours before. She might have been there the whole time, except that she’d exchanged her bathrobe for a prim gray housedress and sensible shoes.

“Hello, Dr. Westbrook,” she said vaguely. “Inga’s not here now.”

“It’s all right, Gran,” Cindy said, swallowing. “Everything will be all right. We’ll just be a moment.” She moved around the bed, knelt beside the respirator, and examined the plug. Her mouth narrowed to a thin line. She rose slowly.

“I can’t be absolutely positive, of course,” she said grimly, “but I’d swear the plug doesn’t look any different than it did before. Gran, when you... found Inga last night, was Hector in the room with her?”

“Hector?” the old woman echoed.

“Just tell us what happened,” Cindy said impatiently. “One step at a time. You came into the room, right?”

“Yes, something woke me... The phone? Or the doorbell? I can’t remember. I thought at first it was morning. The pills I take... usually I sleep very soundly. But when I woke up I had a bad feeling about Inga. And so I went to her room. But... she wasn’t there anymore. She was gone.” Clare looked away.

“The room,” Cindy prompted. “Tell us about the room.”

“It was... a little messy,” Clare said. “And you know how fussy Inga was about things being neat. So I straightened up a bit. I didn’t want... strangers to see it like that.”

“And Hector?” Cindy asked. “Was he in the room?”

“Hector? No,” Clare said. “He was on his blanket in the hall. He came in with me and jumped on the bed but... he didn’t get all excited the way he usually does. He just... licked at Inga’s face a little, and then he curled up at the foot of her bed. He didn’t move after that until the ambulance men came. He got excited then, tried to keep them away from her, so they put him in the next room.”

“So he was out in the hall until you let him in,” Cindy said. Her eyes met David’s for a moment.

“Yes.” Clare nodded. “Hector was outside.”

Cindy took a deep breath. “You said you straightened up the room? Why, Gran? Was it messed up?”

“The... bedclothes were disarranged,” Clare said vaguely. “As though... she must have had trouble... at the last.”

“And is that all you did? Fix the bedclothes?”

“No, I... her book was on the bed,” Clare said. “It was open and I knew she wouldn’t want people to read it, so I put it away.”

“Her book?” David echoed.

“Her diary,” Cindy said, moving to the bookcase and picking out a slim volume.

“You shouldn’t touch that,” Clare said. “Inga will be angry...” Her voice trailed off as she realized what she’d said.