Page 40 of Donut Disaster
Keelie raises a hand. “I think I see Bear.”
“No, you don’t.” I pull her in close in order to foil her getaway.
“Did you ever cross carnal paths with a man by the name of Morgan Dawson? Was he ever a customer of yours?” I don’t break eye contact with Aspen in the event her mind and her body decide this were a good time to stray.
Her eyes expand the size of dinner dishes, and both she and those denim heels are getting mighty twitchy.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” I lean in. “I need you to tell me everything, Aspen. I have a badge and gun issued to me from a detective at the Ashford Sheriff’s Department. If I have to, I can take you downtown. I don’t want to do this the hard way, but if you force my hand, I’ll do what I must.”
A horrific wailing sound sirens out of her mouth, and soon the entire room is craning their necks this way once I spout the lie. Mom pretends to slit my throat, telling me to knock off whatever it is I’m doing. A maneuver I’m familiar with from my teenage years.
“Would you hush?” I pull her out to the hall where the ghosts of little Lea and Cookie are playing fetch with one of my mother’s high heels. Keelie didn’t follow along. Coward. “I’m sorry.” My voice softens as I look into her big blue eyes. “It’s just sometimes I need to exert a little pressure to get people to talk. So you knew him? Morgan? I mean, he seemed like a nice guy.”
She nods and mumbles while pulling a tissue from her purse. “A great guy.” She dabs her left eye, and her false eyelash sticks to the tissue like a caterpillar on the run. “I thought he was the one. I just can’t believe he’d take his own life.”
I’m about to correct her, but it’s probably best to let the killer think they’ve gotten away with this. They might be easier to apprehend if they’re breathing easy. And Lord knows Aspen here is on the managerial committee of the rumor mill.
“I can’t believe it either.” I lay my hand on her arm. “This must be very hard for you. But Aspen, I have to ask you to think back. Is there anything at all that seemed off to you?”
“No.” She shakes her head, her gaze focused on the floor. “I was with him a week before he passed. He was in good spirits. He said he had the chief of surgery in the bag. In fact, he invited me to some ceremony where they were going to make it official. I thought”—her chest bucks as she presses the tissue to her nose—“I thought that would sort of be our coming out. I mean, I know he had others. But he really made me feel as if I was special.”
“Can I ask how the two of you met? I know it was through the agency, but what were the circumstances?”
She nods. “The EE isn’t at all what people think it is. We’re under no obligation whatsoever to take things further than we want. But, of course, once I laid eyes on Morgan, I knew I had to have him—all of him. The EE sent a bunch of girls and me to some hospital benefit about a year ago. You’d be surprised how many doctors are clients. A lot of them don’t have time to socialize, so the EE comes in handy when they need a pretty girl on their side.”
Or their back. But I leave that little quip out for now.
Something Sandra said to me last night at the gala comes to mind. “You said a lot of doctors? Like from Honey Hollow General.”
“Yup. Most of them aren’t married. Most.” She glowers past me at the wall when she says that last part.
“Oh, so what about Dr. Drake? I think his first name is Colin.” I know it is, but I want this to feel casual even if it’s anything but.
She nods. “Colin for sure. He’s not nearly as cute as Morgan was, but he’s pretty exciting.”
“How so?” And just as the words leave my mouth, it occurs to me that I don’t want to know.
“You know, the house in Vail, an estate in Hawaii, a beachfront condo on the Florida coast. Not to mention the fact the man is practically a saint. He worked with Doctors without Borders for years, and just before that he was a Ranger in the Army. He rescued an entire school of young girls from a bomb attack singlehandedly, and when he was a kid, he had some horrible disease that left him bedridden for all of middle school. It’s a wonder he’s alive, let alone that he accomplished all of those things.”
“Wow.” I suddenly see Dr. Drake in a whole new light. “The man really is a saint.” My heart aches that I have to ask the next question. “Is Dr. Drake one of your clients?”
Aspen slouches as she glances to the mouth of the dining room where our families roam free. “Yes. He’s a good tipper. And I just like being around him. He knows how to make people feel good, you know?”
“So is he a nice guy like Morgan?”
“On a sliding scale, he’d be somewhere in the middle. No one is as nice as Morgan was. It just doesn’t make sense.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
She sniffs hard as she rummages through her purse for another tissue but comes up empty.
“Excuse me, Lottie.” She starts to take off then backtracks, her eyes needling hard into mine. “And don’t you dare try to expose me to my father. I may have caved and given you what you wanted, but only because I know I’m not above the law. But don’t think this gives you the moral high ground. I’ve seen you running around with two different men. You’re no different than me.”
Ouch. That potshot actually hurt.
“You’re right. Aspen, I’d like for us to be friends in the least. I’m not asking for you to welcome me into the sister fold along with Kelleth, but I think we could get along pretty well if we tried.”
A weak smile plays on her lips. “I’d like that.”