“Did they?”
“I know James and his wife separated for a time, but it didn’t stick.You never know what goes on in a person’s marriage, that’s for sure.”
“We found Henry’s appointment book,” I told her.
She laughed.“And good luck deciphering it.Chicken scratches and initials.I don’t know how he kept up with what.I’d take his messages and make his appointments for him, and then go put sticky notes on his desk so he could transfer it into his appointment book.I knew every board member by name, every donor who called, every patient who had a complaint.”She tilted her head.
“Did Henry have a personal life?Any outside relationships that you know of?”Dash asked.I could tell he was testing the waters of her knowledge.
“It doesn’t feel right to speak of the dead that way.”
I took that to mean that she was going to anyway.
“But Henry was a man after all, and like the Bible says, ‘it’s not good for man to be alone.’”She patted the back of her head, and none of the sausage-like curls on her head moved an inch.
“Serena Jameson,” she said, clucking her tongue.“Beautiful young thing.She came by the clinic a few times.The first time she’d made an appointment as a patient, but I caught on pretty quick that she was never just a patient.But I didn’t tell anyone.The scandal would have rocked the whole island.”
“Did you ever listen in on calls?”Dash asked her candidly.
She met his eyes without a flicker.“Occasionally a call would come through on the wrong line and I’d stay on a moment before I hung off.”She said it without apology.“But there’s nothing I can think of that can help you find who killed Henry.”
“Would Henry have been upset about James and Jackie’s affair?”I asked.
“Oh, yes,” she said.“He thought the world of James’s wife, Edie.I never liked Jackie.She was like a cat in heat.She had her cap set for Henry when she first got to the office, and he never paid her the time of day.So I guess she decided to settle for James since he was one of those men who had a wandering eye.”
“Did Jackie know about Henry and Serena?”Dash asked.
For the first time Noreen stopped and thought before she answered.“Yes.She did.”
CHAPTERTWELVE
Chowder metus at the door with his bow tie askew and his attitude firmly in place.He sat in the middle of the foyer and stared at me with the flat, unblinking accusation of a hanging judge.
“I’m sorry,” I told him.
He turned his back and waddled toward the kitchen.
“He’s going to make you pay for leaving him home all day,” Dash said.
“He knows how to hold a grudge.”
The Silver Sleuths had let themselves in with the spare key I’d left under the rock in the back flower bed.Walt had been at my house since early this morning, the designated organizer of the boxes, while Hank and Dottie and Bea and Deidre had gone about the tasks of interviewing the former board members.
They were seated around the dining room table.Walt had spread papers in orderly stacks that suggested a military briefing was imminent.Deidre had her tote bag open beside her chair.Bea had a glass of something that wasn’t sweet tea.
“James spent the day here going through boxes with me,” Walt said, without looking up from his papers.“He said he wished he could be here, but he already had dinner plans for the evening.”
“Speaking of dinner,” Hank said.“Maybe we could use one of those apps my grandson has and order dinner.It’s really quite convenient.”
“You still have a flip phone,” Bea said.“Even I know you’ve got to have a smart phone for the apps.It’s how I schedule the vet appointments for my cat.”
“How about Chinese,” Dash said, pulling out his phone.
Once everyone agreed that was acceptable and gave Dash their orders, Dottie asked, “So how was your day?”
Chowder chose that moment to appear from wherever he’d been sulking and stationed himself under the table on my feet.
“Very productive,” Dash said, taking the chair across from Bea.“Winston Malone gave us a lot to work with.”
