Page 96 of Last Girls Alive

“Nope.”

“Are you sure? You look tired. I would go home if I could…”

McGaven put his pen down and looked straight at her. “Katie, I’m fine. Yeah, I’m a bit tired, but you’re not holding the fort alone. I can handle a few interviews.”

Katie and McGaven hurried towards the medical center main entrance. The four-story building was large and bland. The interior smelt of cleaning agents and the walls were bare. It appeared to have no identity whatsoever, but it was bustling with people—medical personnel and patients.

Katie searched the list on the wall and saw that Dr. Samantha Rajal, general practitioner, was on the second floor so they made for the stairs.

Katie pushed open the door and saw that the waiting room was empty and the front desk was absent of a receptionist. She waited a moment. “Hello?” she finally said, looking around to see if anyone was there.

After a few minutes, a striking woman with long, dark hair opened the door and said, “Detective Scott?”

“Yes, and this is Deputy McGaven.”

“Nice to meet you both. Please come in to my office.”

Katie and McGaven followed the doctor down a long corridor and into a nice office with windows across the back overlooking the hills and trees of the county.

Katie noticed Mary’s file on the doctor’s desk.

After everyone sat down, Dr. Rajal spoke first. “I know that you’re here to ask about Mary Rodriguez. I’ll try to answer your questions.”

A red flag went up when Katie heard the word “try”.

“Mary Rodriguez’s body was discovered last Tuesday at Stately Park,” she said.

“Yes, I saw the news. It’s terrible.”

“During the autopsy, our medical examiner noticed that she had inserts for pain medication. Was she being treated for something?”

“Yes, she had chronic fatigue syndrome and suffered acute body pain. In patients like Mary, taking pills isn’t always the best practice, so I prescribed the intravenous pain medication for her. And it was helping.”

“How long have you been her doctor?”

“About two years.”

Katie wasn’t sure how to word her next question. “Did Mary have any trouble mentally? I realize you’re her general practitioner, but did you refer her to anyone else such as a specialist or psychologist?”

“No, no one like that,” she said, but it was clear that she was withholding information.

“Dr. Rajal, Mary was brutally murdered and it’s our job to find the killer. Anything that you can tell us would be helpful.”

The doctor sighed. “The only place that I referred her to was a clinic for an abortion. And from that, I don’t know anything else. I don’t know if she had the procedure because I didn’t see her after that.”

“I see,” said Katie. That was going to be her next question. “In your opinion, during her last visits here to your office, did you notice if she seemed anxious or upset about something? Did she seem different to you?”

“No,” she said. “If anything, she seemed happier than normal.”

“Really? Did she say why?”

“I think she’d met someone. She said something like, ‘I didn’t realize that there were still kind, wonderful men in the world.’”

“Did she say who or where she met him?”

The doctor stopped to think about it for a moment. “I think she said his name was Ray. She didn’t mention a last name.”

Katie stopped cold. Her heart pounded. Ray was the name of the man that Candace had escaped the foster home with. “Are you sure she said his name was Ray?” she barely said.