Murder on the Potomac by Margaret Truman

Author:Margaret Truman [Truman, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8041-5281-5
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2014-01-09T16:00:00+00:00

Dr. Bernard Kirshbaum, Mac and Annabel’s dentist, maintained elaborate offices in the Watergate complex. His patient roster read like a Washington Who’s Who list. It included familiar names from the Pentagon, State, the CIA, media, and the Washington Redskins. The hallways were lined with autographed pictures from patients, Kirshbaum’s personal rogues’ gallery: “Worst impacted wisdom tooth I’ve ever seen”; “Took three bullets in Nam but freaks out when the needle comes out”; or, “Spends most of the time in my chair taking calls from NATO and the White House.” He’d been after Smith to provide a photo, but Smith had balked. For Smith, cavities, like domestic quarrels, political preferences, and Oreo-cookie binges at midnight, were private affairs.

Smith settled in Kirshbaum’s high-tech chair. An assistant secured a bib around his neck. Smith did not have an undue fear of dentists. What bothered him most was that he invariably sat with mouth filled with cotton, plastic strips, and metal bands while the dentist chattered on about everything from Madonna to Monday Night Football. It wasn’t fair. The most Smith could manage was a grunt or a hiss, neither of which contributed to the conversation.

This visit was no different. Mouth chockablock with paraphernalia, he listened to a detailed accounting of Kirshbaum’s recent fly-fishing expedition to Nova Scotia. He held some photos from the trip in front of Smith, who did a lot of nodding, hoping the movement of his head wouldn’t disturb what was going on inside his mouth. Dr. K. worked, and rambled on.

“Read about that dental student being murdered last night?” Kirshbaum asked as he mixed a gooey substance on a glass plate.

“Uh-huh,” Smith managed.

The dentist continued mixing his potion with his right hand as he picked up a piece of paper from the counter with his left and handed it behind his back to his patient. Because he wasn’t wearing glasses, Smith had to hold the paper at arm’s length. It was a newsletter that had obviously been created on a computer. Across the top in blood-red letters was THE SCARLET SIN SOCIETY.

Dear Dentist:

Crime buffs don’t often think of dentists as being involved in the nasty business of murder and mayhem. But they’re wrong. Over the years there have been a number of murders associated with the field of dentistry. The Membership Committee of Tri-S wanted to relate but one example as an inducement for you to join the society.

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