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“Thanks.” Gavin nodded to them.
Reed held the door, and then they walked across the parking lot to his truck. There were other vehicles in the parking lot still, probably guests staying at the beautiful lodge. No wonder Gavin hadn’t known they were still in the spa as they were parked by the lodge entrance.
He helped Esther into the truck and then walked around. Loading up, he clicked on the speaker button on the phone and selected the Bluetooth option. “Okay, Josh. You’ve got us both.”
“Hi, Esther.”
“Hi, Josh.” Esther clutched her hands together in her lap. Reed wasn’t sure if she was nervous about the news or trying to keep from holding his hand. He didn’t know why he’d even thought that. He didn’t lack confidence around women he dated, but this was Esther. He wanted everything to be perfect with her, to keep dating her, and it was hard not to think that the older, accomplished, and gorgeous lawyer and Delta-trained fighter was out of his league.
Reed backed out of the stall and then dropped it into drive and drove away from their beautiful evening together.
Josh started talking immediately. “So I was telling Reed that my buddy Niles from the Colorado Springs Police Department was thinking how he had a friend named Garret Thomson he knew from back home in North Carolina. The guy went to dental school in Chicago, but after he graduated nobody heard from him again. Niles thought it was an odd coincidence they were both dentists and both spelled their name the same. So he went digging for info.” He paused for breath. “Here’s where it gets weird.”
Reed glanced at Esther. In the glow of the dash lights, she looked even more unsteady.
“And?” he encouraged Josh.
“His Garret Thomson is gone, and he says the Garret Thomson who is a dentist in Colorado Springs now isnotthe same guy.”
“Gone? What do you mean?” There could be two dentists with the name Garret Thomson.
“Apparently Garret’s parents had passed while he was in undergrad and he didn’t have much other family besides a sister. None of the friends back home have heard from Garret since he graduated dental school and when Niles called the sister earlier tonight to see if he could get Garret’s current phone number, she said her brother had turned into a snob and told her he was a respectable dentist and not trailer trash any more so she shouldn’t expect to ever see him again. She said he didn’t even have the decency to call and dump his family. He sent it all in a text and then never responded to her calls or texts again.”
Reed’s neck tingled. He reached over and put his hand over Esther’s clasped ones. She didn’t hold his hand, but she didn’t move hers away.
“So my friend’s buddy Garret Thomson graduates from University of Illinois at Chicago School of Dentistry,” Josh rushed on, “and then he accepts a job working with an older dentist in Colorado Springs. A Dr. James Olson. The same Dr. Olson that Esther’s Garret Thomson worked with.”
“So they’re the same person?” Reed asked.
“I don’t think so. Let me keep going and you decide. So Dr. Olson dies of a drug overdose a couple years later.”
Reed’s stomach tightened. He upped his speed as they left the quiet valley of Lone Peak and entered the canyon. Esther turned her hand over and their palms aligned. He held on to her hand and felt some of the stress lighten.
“It’s not an uncommon thing, especially with the stress load of a dental practice, and the guy’s wife had just divorced him. Dentists have a higher rate of suicide than any profession. But given that Niles and I both believe that the Garret Thomson Esther dated, and are all creeped out by, may have killed and stolen the other Garret Thomson’s name, schooling, and accreditation, Dr. Olson’s death is a little … unsettling.”
“Unsettling? That escalated quickly. You think the Garret who was after Esther stole someone else’s identity, that he isn’t the Garret your buddy knew back in North Carolina? If that’s true, it’s horrifying. But could it be true?” Reed looked to Esther. She only shrugged. He had no love lost for the guy who’d semi-stalked Esther, but he’d seemed kind of shy and nerdy, not a killer. Could he really have stolen someone else’s name, degree, and life, and then killed the dentist he worked for so he could take over his clients? How did the guy fake dental school training and have a successful practice?
“Well. The photos of Garret Thomson in high school, college, and dental school bear a similarity to our Garret Thomson, but he either had plastic surgery done after dental school or he is not the same guy.”
Reed looked at Esther. “What do you think?”
“It’s pretty crazy. Garret just told me he was from Chicago, but that doesn’t make sense if he’s really from North Carolina.”
“Unless he doesn’t want anybody checking with people who knew him in North Carolina.” Reed thought this seemed pretty far-fetched, but Josh had already done a lot of research and he wanted to check every angle and make sure Esther was safe.
“I’ll get Papa to look into it with his channels,” Esther said.
He squeezed her hand. “That’ll be good. Josh, can you see what you can find out from Chicago PD? Maybe a body that they couldn’t identify close to Garret’s age at the time he finished dental school or a violent crime they never solved and a reason a guy would kill someone to steal his identity? Circulate the photos of both Garret Thomsons and see if anything comes up.”
“Sure thing.” Josh sounded excited about the possibility of solving a violent crime, or possibly creating drama that wasn’t there. “Chat soon.”
The line went dead. Reed cleared the valley and headed south toward home. “What are you thinking?” he asked into the silence, gently stroking the back of Esther’s soft hand with his thumb.
“It’s a pretty good stretch, but worth looking into.” She pursed her lips. “He gave me a free cleaning, X-rays, and filled a cavity for me. I thought he was a good dentist.”
“It seems like the years of training to be a dentist would be impossible to fake.” Which made him think there wasn’t any credence to this story.
“Exactly.” She was quiet for a second, then said, “I’d better call Papa.”
