Hemlock Bay

There was a daughter as well. Tansy was her name and she was, what? Twenty-eight? Thirty? Older than Lily, Sherlock thought. Tansy-an odd name, nearly as whimsical as Te

Elcott Frasier walked to Sherlock and grabbed her hand, shook it hard. “Mrs. Savich, what a pleasure.” He looked ever so pleased to see her. She wondered how pleased he was to see Dillon, since she knew, right to her toes, that Mr. Elcott Frasier had little respect for women. It was in his eyes, in his very stance-condescending, patronizing.

“Mr. Frasier,” she said and gave him her patented, guileless su

“Your poor husband is very upset by all this,” Mr. Frasier said. “Given all that’s happened, I can’t say I blame him.”

Sherlock said, “Certainly he’s upset. It’s good to see you again, Te

“It is about time for a bit more pain medication,” a nurse said as she came through the door, Savich at her heels. No one said a word as she injected the painkiller into Lily’s IV. She leaned over, checked Lily’s pulse, smoothed the thin blanket to her shoulders, then straightened. “The pain will lessen almost immediately. Call if you have too much more discomfort, Mrs. Frasier.”

Lily closed her eyes. After a few minutes, she said quietly, “Thank you, Dillon. It was pretty bad, but not now. Thank you.” Then, without another word, she was asleep.

“Good,” said Savich and motioned for them all to leave. “Let’s go to the waiting room. Last time I looked, it was empty.”

“My wife and I are grateful to you for being here,” Elcott Frasier said. “Te

“That’s just what I was thinking,” Savich said. “Lily hitting that redwood gave us just the excuse we needed to come here and support Te

“My father didn’t mean it the way it sounded, Dillon,” Te

He left them with Elcott Frasier, who asked a passing nurse to fetch him a cup of coffee. She did without hesitation because, Sherlock knew, she wasn’t stupid. She recognized the Big Man on the hospital board of directors when she saw him. Sherlock wanted to punch his lights out.

Savich leaned down, kissed Sherlock on the mouth, and said low, “No, don’t belt him. Now, I’ve got all sorts of warning whistles going off in my head. I’m going to look at that car. Grill our brother-in-law’s father, okay?”

“No problem,” Sherlock said.

When Dillon found Sherlock two hours later, she was in the hospital cafeteria eating a Caesar salad and speaking to Dr. Theodore Larch.

“So do you think she was so depressed that she decided to end it? Again?”

“I’m a surgeon, Mrs. Savich, not a psychiatrist. I can’t speculate.”

“Yeah, but you see lots of people in distress, Dr. Larch. What do you think of Lily Frasier’s state of mind?”

“I think the surgical pain is masking a lot of her symptoms right now-that is, if she has any symptoms. I haven’t seen any myself. But what do I know?”

“What do you think of Dr. Rossetti?”

Dr. Larch wouldn’t quite meet her eyes. “He’s, ah, rather new here. I don’t know him all that well. Dr. Frasier, however, knows him very well. They went to medical school together, I understand. Columbia Presbyterian Medical School, in New York City.”

“I didn’t know that,” Sherlock said and tucked it away. She wanted to meet this Dr. Rossetti, the pompous man Lily didn’t like and whom Te

She smiled at Dr. Larch, took a bite of her salad, which was surprisingly good, and said, “Well, you know, Dr. Larch, if Lily didn’t try to kill herself, then that means that just perhaps someone is up to no good. What do you think?”

Dr. Ted Larch nearly swallowed the ice cube he was rolling around in his mouth.

“I can’t imagine, no, surely not-that’s crazy. If she didn’t do it on purpose, then it’s more likely that something just went wrong with the car, an accident, nothing more than a tragic accident.”

“Yes, you’re probably right. Since I’m a cop, I always leap to the sinister first. Occupational hazard. Hey, I know. She just lost control of the car-maybe a raccoon ran in front of the Explorer and she tried not to hit it-and ended up smacking the redwood.”

“That sounds more likely than someone trying to kill her, Mrs. Savich.”

“Yes, the raccoon theory is always preferable, isn’t it?”

Sherlock saw Dillon out of the corner of her eye. She rose, patted Dr. Larch on his shoulder, and said, “Take good care of Lily, Doctor.” At least now, she thought, walking quickly toward Dillon, Dr. Larch would keep a very close eye on Lily because he wouldn’t forget what she’d said. He would want to dismiss it as nonsense, but he wouldn’t be able to, not entirely.

Savich nodded across the cafeteria to Dr. Larch, then smiled down at his wife. Her light blue eyes seemed brighter than when he’d left her, and he knew why. She was up to something. And she was very pleased with herself.

“What about the car?”

“Nothing at all. It’s been compacted.”

“That was awfully fast, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, sort of like cremating a body before the autopsy could be done.”

“Exactly. Dr. Larch thinks Lily is just fine, mentally, thank you very much. Actually, I think he has a crush on her. It’s Dr. Rossetti he doesn’t like, but who knows why? Did you know that Dr. Rossetti and Te

“No. That’s interesting. Okay, Sherlock. I know that look. You either want me to haul you to the nearest hot tub and have my way with you, or you’ve done something. No hot tub? Too bad. All right, then. What have you done?”

“I planted a small bug just inside the slat on Lily’s hospital bed. I already heard some interesting stuff. Come along and I’ll play it back for you. Hmmm. About that hot tub, Dillon…”

They went to Lily’s room, saw that she was still asleep and no one else was there, and Sherlock shut the door. She walked to the window, fiddled with the tiny receiver and recorder, turned on rewind, then play.

“Dammit, she needs more pain medication.”

Savich said, “Who’s that?”

“Dr. Larch.”

“I cut it back, just like you ordered, but it was too much. Listen, there’s no need to make her suffer like this.”

“She doesn’t react well to pain meds, I’ve told you that several times. It makes her even crazier than she already is. Keep the pain meds way down. I don’t want her hurt anymore.”

Sherlock pressed the stop button and said, “That was Te

Sherlock slipped the tiny recorder back into her jacket pocket.

“It could be perfectly i

“Yes, it’s voice-activated. It turns off when there’s more than six seconds of silence. I got it from Dickie in Perso