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“Do you have a current number where I can reach her?” I asked next, hoping I didn’t sound too desperate.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t give out that information. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“No, that’s all,” I replied. “Thank you.”
I ended the call and set my cell phone down on the counter, trying not to grimace. Sure, this was a minor setback, but nothing I couldn’t overcome. Just because Kimberly Parker had left her school nurse position didn’t mean she’d bailed on Globe entirely.
Or so I hoped. What if she’d decided she’d had enough of small-town life and had relocated to Phoenix or Tucson or someplace even farther away?
But no, that theory didn’t make much sense. Why go to all that work getting Danny to fall in love with her if she wasn’t even living here anymore?
Well, when all else fails, try Google.
I brought up the browser on my phone and typed in,Kimberly Parker Globe Arizona.
The first hits were obviously out of date, referencing her position at Globe High School. A few more were from those outfits that tried to charge you big bucks to do a reverse phone number lookup — not that something like that would even help me, since I didn’t have a number or an address, only a name.
A bit farther down, however, I saw something a little more promising. There was a Kimberly Parker listed among the staff at a local doctor’s office. Dr. Maxwell, whom I’d met at one of Josie’s mixers for supporters of the Old Globe Theatre Company. He seemed like a nice guy — older, probably a few years away from retirement.
Had Kimberly jumped ship so she wouldn’t have to see the object of her unrequited passion every day?
I knew there was a huge amount of conjecture in that scenario. For one thing, I was only going on the guidance from my pendulum. It rarely steered me wrong, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t infallible.
Still, this was the only lead I had, and I knew I needed to follow it as long as I could. Anyway, all I was doing was making a few phone calls. Even Calvin couldn’t be too upset with me for taking unnecessary risks when I was doing something so innocuous.
Looking up the number for Dr. Maxwell’s practice took me a moment longer. Luckily, his practice was open Tuesday through Saturday, probably to give people with nine-to-five jobs the opportunity to come in without having to take time off from work.
I pressed the button to connect the call and waited.
“Doctor’s office, how can I help you?”
Some things seemed to be universal no matter where I lived, including canned greetings such as that. “Hi,” I said, trying to sound upbeat and not as though I was trying to get in touch with a possible murder suspect, “could I speak to Kimberly Parker?”
“She’s with a patient right now,” the receptionist told me. “Can I take a message?”
Great. There was no way in the world I could leave my real name, because even though Kimberly and I weren’t at all acquainted, I’d gained something of a reputation in Globe for my amateur sleuthing, and she’d be sure to guess I was hot on her trail.
If, of course, my pendulum was right about her being guilty, and I wasn’t embarking on yet another wild goose chase.
“Oh, that’s okay,” I said quickly. “I was just trying to catch her at work. I’ll give her a call when she gets home.”
And I hung up right after that, and prayed the receptionist hadn’t been paying much attention to the caller ID display on her office phone. If I’d been thinking straight, I would have blocked my number before I made the call. Maybe Henry Lewis’s visit had rattled me more than I thought.
Speaking of which….
I set down my cell phone and picked up the handset of the shop phone, then called Joyce. She didn’t answer right away, and sounded breathless as she said, “Hi, this is Joyce.”
“Hi, Joyce,” I said. “It’s Selena.”
“Oh, Selena,” she replied. I hoped her current breathlessness wasn’t a result of running around, trying to fill my order. “You got my message?”
“Yes,” I said. “And really, it’s fine whenever you can get those candles over to me. No rush at all.”
A hopeful note entered her voice. “You’re sure?”
“Absolutely.”
“Thanks for being so understanding,” she said. “I guess it’s more work than I thought to scale all this up.”
