Peter Clement - Mortal Remains

“My knees are bothering me again.”

Nell! Mark repressed a sigh, having no patience for their usual merry-go-round today. “When do you want to come in?” he said, trying not to sound too weary.

“Can’t. They’re too swollen. I need one of them house calls. And you bring that young new doctor I hear you’ve been traipsing all over the county with. Maybe she can help me.”

Despite himself, he started to laugh. “Nell, you old fraud.”

“Who are you callin’ old?”

He leaned back in his chair and chuckled again, feeling better for it.

“Are you still interested in that maternity center Braden used to run in Saratoga?” she asked.

Mark leaned forward again. “Yes.”

“Name’s Diane Whigston Lawler. Her place is just off Route 9 toward the town. She was a local girl, good family, married one of them big shots from New York. Shortly after her first child, he divorced her for some model-actress. Bastard had the better lawyers and took the kid plus everything that wasn’t nailed down. Her own family went bankrupt during one of those big savings and loans busts in the eighties. Lives kinda’ poor now.”

She gave him the exact address and telephone number. He recognized the street name, and figured the words “kinda poor” might be an understatement. The place was a trailer park.

“And I’ve been asking around like you wanted,” she continued. “Seeing if anybody noticed Chaz Braden doing anything weird just before Kelly went missing.”

“Any luck?”

“Also checked if Samantha McShane was around the area.”

He shot upright. “Damn it, Nell, I told you don’t do anything of the kind. In fact I gave you specific instructions not to go setting off rumors-”

“No luck with either. But I did come up with a few other tidbits and a name you might find interesting.”

“Who?”

“Be here at seven tomorrow night, and I’ll tell you over dinner.”

“Nell-”

“Don’t forget to bring your lady friend. Do you think she’d mind helping out in the kitchen? I can see if she’s up to scratch.”

“Nell, you stop that kitchen nonsense and tell me right now-”

He was talking to a dial tone.

He punched in her number.

Busy signal.

He asked the operator to interrupt, claiming it was a medical emergency.

The phone was off the hook. He sighed and glanced down at the scrap of paper where he’d jotted the number she’d given him. He dialed it, figuring anything would be more productive than trying to get Nell to behave.

A woman answered.

“Diane Whigston Lawler?” Nell hadn’t said if she still used her married name.

“It’s just Diane Whigston now.”

Her voice was melodious, but deep and a touch husky, the way a smoker’s can get. It also sounded big, and he imagined he was talking to a large woman. “Ms. Whigston, my name is Mark Roper. I’m a physician in Hampton Junction. I got your name from Nell-”

“Ah, of course. She told me you might be calling. I understand you’re interested in the maternity center Dr. Braden used to run.”

“Yes. I wonder if I could meet you and ask some questions about the place.”

“Sure, but I don’t understand. It’s been twenty-nine years since my son Ronald was born there, and it’s long been closed.”

Diane Whigston must be the only acquaintance of Nell’s who didn’t know about his investigating Kelly’s murder. Otherwise, she’d have guessed right away why he wanted to talk to her. For some reason Nell must not have told her. “Yes, it was a very long time ago, Ms. Whigston. You see, I’m looking into a twenty-seven-year-old murder, that of Kelly McShane. You probably read about the discovery of her body a few weeks ago-”

“So that’s why you wanted to talk about the maternity center? You’re after the Bradens! Well, if Nell had told me that, I never would have agreed to talk with you.” The deep tones had suddenly turned shrill.

“No, Ms. Whigston, please, I’m not after anyone, just trying to gather as much information-”

“Dr. Charles Braden saved my little Ronnie’s life, period. I’ve got nothing but praise and admiration for the man.”

“I understand-”

“Ronnie wouldn’t breathe when he came out, and that man went rushing out of the delivery room with him, giving mouth-to-mouth as he ran, and drove him to the hospital himself. Didn’t even wait for an ambulance. One week later I first got to hold my baby when he personally transported my child back to me and placed him in my arms, just before I went home. I’ll never forget that day, or my gratitude to Dr. Braden. So I won’t be saying anything against him, ever.”

“Ms. Whigston, please-”

“And Ronnie wasn’t the only one he did that for. I’ve since met other mothers who say the same thing. And the nurses, they called him the miracle man when it came to saving kids. One told me he even kept an incubator in his car for just such emergencies. You won’t find many former patients or staff willing to bad-mouth him.”

“If you’ll just let me explain-”

He found himself once more talking to a dial tone.

Now he understood why Nell hadn’t told her who he was. Jesus, she could have warned him Diane Whigston was so prickly. Approached properly, the woman might have at least been willing to discuss the routine of the place.

He dialed Nell’s number again. Maybe she could make things right with her friend, and he’d get another chance.

She picked up this time.

“Nell-”

And hung up.

He thought he really hadn’t time for this when his phone rang again.

“Nell?”

“No, it’s me,” said Victor Feldt. “I wanted to say how much I enjoyed last night.”

“Victor! Sorry, I just got cut off – I mean hung up on-”

“Old Nell giving you the gears again? I’ll bet it’s about Lucy. She want to meet her, check her out?”

“No-”

The big man gave a low, knowing chuckle.

It reminded Mark why he hated living in a goldfish bowl. “What can I do for you, Victor?”

“I haven’t made much progress in tracking down who owns Nucleus, but what I found is some pretty weird stuff.”

“Weird?”

“Yeah. The information is buried in a labyrinth of registered ownerships. The amount of subterfuge here is really fishy. I’m staying on this. It’s too strange.”

“Any idea how long it will take?”

“Give me until tomorrow. I also thought of something else we should check out. What if the sudden tightening of security has to do with a request from one of the lab’s clients? Maybe it’s somebody at their end who’s suddenly gone paranoid. Were that the case, would it help you to find out why?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been talking to a few of my contacts at the companies that deal with us, telling them what happened, saying good-bye – you know, that kind of thing – and a few have said they’re not surprised.”

“Not surprised you got fired?”

“Not surprised that someone in their organization might be hypersensitive over an outsider seeing medical data about their staff.”

“Well, they should be. Information like that is supposed to be confidential.”

“What I’m talking about is above and beyond those usual types of concern.”

“How do you mean?”

“There are huge shakeups going on in a host of companies, thousands of high executives being laid off. It shows up in the health plans, their policies not being renewed.”

“So? Layoffs are happening all over the country. It’s because of the economy.”

“Not when they immediately turn around and rehire thousands more new staff. There’s an equal number of new policies on replacements for the people they fired.”