Winter Witness by Tina deBellegarde

Author:Tina deBellegarde [Tina deBellegarde]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Level Best Books
Published: 2020-08-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Doctor Robert Spenser sipped his coffee and read the Gazette at the counter. This afternoon’s headline of course was Sister Elaine’s murder. From his corner of Stella’s he could hear the agitation in everyone’s voices as they speculated about the murder.

Lester Quirke was boasting that Mike Riley had questioned him since he was one of Elaine’s dearest friends. Unfortunately, he had nothing of value to offer the sheriff. But Lester did have some gossip to share with the locals. He had it on good authority that the owners of the Groenmeer Inn said they saw Trevor and his gang of friends riding around the lake that night. They had complained to the sheriff many times in the past about the noise and they were convinced that Trevor was up to no good.

Old Man Quirke certainly enjoyed being center stage, Robert noticed. Dressed in his striped suit and bowtie, he looked like a vaudeville performer. He was certainly old enough to be one.

Lester also heard that Ishikawa’s dog, Tengo, was the one really responsible for finding Elaine. Angelica, the convent cocker spaniel, was circling Elaine’s body whimpering when Tengo had led Ishikawa straight to them.

Robert Spenser sat wondering how he came to find himself in a village of only nine hundred and seventy-two people and his first two jobs were preparing coroner reports: one for a woman who died of hypothermia in her own bed and another for a murdered nun in her nineties. He arrived in Batavia two weeks ago and had yet to see any living patients.

The bell rang as Lester Quirke left the diner. Robert heard a whistle outside just as Monica arrived at the counter again. She poured him another cup of coffee, smiled and moved on. His eyes lingered on her as she walked away and then he went back to his coffee and paper. The Community Center ribbon cutting was today at noon. Maybe he should go to that and see if he could get the locals to warm up to him. Maybe follow that up with the Winter Solstice celebration later in the week. He was hoping that the reason he didn’t have any patients had to do with the exceptional health of the Batavians but he suspected it was more complicated than that.

Someone somewhere must have a sore throat or a backache. He hadn’t expected it to be an exciting place to work but he had expected to work. Maybe he could run a special of some kind: two physicals for the price of one, or free flu shots with a checkup. Pretty pathetic, but it made him chuckle. Monica walked past with the coffee pot in her hand and raised her eyebrows at the sound of his laugh.

Great, now the locals will think he’s nuts too. Sobered by Monica’s expression, he wondered that if he was having trouble attracting patients how he would ever be able to attract a date.

Fresh out of his residency three years ago Doctor Spenser had joined a large practice in the city.

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