Diagnosis: Danger by Marie Ferrarella Read Free Book Online Page B

lower it and Clancy categorically refused. It wasn’t until he passed out that the doctor managed to give him the shot.” She looked at Mike. “Clancy was murdered.”
    He had just one question for her. “Why?”
    Natalya blew out a breath, frustrated. If she knew why, she might know who. “I don’t know, Detective. That’s your job.”
    The M.E. shifted from one foot to another. Mike nodded at the man and the latter happily withdrew from what was gearing up to be the field of battle.
    “What was his job?” Mike wanted to know. Maybe that had something to do with the way the man had wound up.
    “He worked at a mortuary. Ellis Brothers.” Exceptthat the brothers had long since sold the business. The funeral parlor was now owned by a chain that in turn had hired Walter Tolliver to run it. “He was the one who brought the bodies in from the hospital.” She raised her eyes to look at the closed door. A door Clancy was now behind. “Or the morgue.” She saw Mike shaking his head. She couldn’t make out his expression. “What?”
    “I don’t get it,” he told her honestly.
    “Don’t get what?” she asked. “Why Clancy was murdered?”
    “No, what you and he had in common. You’re a bright, outgoing, intelligent, professional woman with a good practice and he was an irritating loser with a dead-end job and no friends. I don’t see the connection.”
    For the first time, he saw anger enter her eyes. It occurred to him that she could be a formidable force when stirred.
    “Clancy wasn’t a loser. People didn’t get him. He was irritating because that was what he used as a defense mechanism. So many people made fun of him, he blocked them out, turned them away before they could say something hurtful. Under all that barbed wire was a funny, smart, warm person who just wanted to be liked.” Even as she defended him, her heart ached because now Clancy would never find any happiness. Because now there were no more tomorrows for him.
    Lowering her voice Natalya continued. “He wanted to be a doctor, you know, but he’d spent so much time skipping school—keeping away from bullies,” she added before the detective could say something cryptic, “that he didn’t have the grades to get into medical school.”
    He supposed, in some odd way, there was a connection between the two. “So he worked with dead bodies instead.”
    “It wasn’t going to be permanent,” she informed him tersely. Even dead, she was still defending him. “But he had bills to pay, so he took a job. He didn’t like it, but it was a living. For the time being,” she emphasized. She saw what looked like a smile descend over the detective’s face. Was he laughing at her? At Clancy? “What?”
    “He was lucky to have you.” And he meant it. Few people had friends that would have stood by them the way she had.
    “It wasn’t just one-sided,” she told him. “He would have done anything for me.” Once he was certain that she wasn’t going to tease him herself, Clancy couldn’t do enough to show her his gratitude for their friendship. “Loyalty is a very rare thing, Detective. Clancy knew how to be loyal. And I wasn’t his only friend,” she added with feeling. “My family liked him.”
    He nodded. “The five doctors.”
    “And my parents,” she added. Taking a breath,she braced her shoulders. Since she’d convinced him, in a manner, that Clancy had been murdered, maybe it was time to go home. For now. “When can I claim the body?”
    “Not for at least another twenty-four hours. If we determined that it’s a homicide—”
    Obviously the battle wasn’t quite won. “When,” she corrected tersely.
    “When,” he allowed. “We might have to keep the body a little longer. In either case, I’ll let you know. Now, why don’t you go home and get some rest?” He took out his cell phone and flipped it open. “I’ll get an officer to drive you.”
    She could only interpret that one way. “You’re staying