“This is correct,” Seldine said. “Dr. Lissa was in the office all morning, took her lunch break in the lounge at one, and had afternoon appointments beginning at two-fifteen. Is this helpful?”
“Very.” Peabody added a quiet smile.
They went around the table. Receptionists, nurses, the physician assistant, the two day-care workers, the cleaning crew.
Rendi was right, they’d all worked for Abner from seven years to twenty.
They ran through whereabouts, alibis, tears.
They’d check the alibis, Eve thought, but wasn’t hopeful anything would shake loose from them.
What she saw was a tight-knit office of people who got along well, and it all centered around Kent Abner, and his personality and professionalism.
“Did Dr. Abner have any problems or issues with anyone? A patient—the parents or guardian—someone who used to work here, another associate?”
“It’s crazy to think anybody hurt him on purpose.” The youngest of the staff at twenty-six, Olivia Tressle burst out with the objection. “It has to have been some horrible mistake, or just somebody crazy. A crazy person.”
“Olivia,” Seldine said gently. “This was not Lieutenant Dallas’s question.”
“I know, but … He was such a wonderful man. Such a good doctor. This is such a great place to work. It’s all … it’s all just wrong.”
“She’s right.” One of the nurses spoke up now, a male, early forties. “It’s just wrong. He was a really good man, and he had this way. The kids loved him. I tell you he had a way. Say a kid or baby would come in sick or fussy, he could find the key to smoothing it out. So the parents loved him. He even gave hours a month to a free clinic. During the holidays? Every kid who came in got a little gift—just a little gift, but it came out of his pocket, not the office. Every kid got a card on their birthday. He cared. It wasn’t just a job to him, wasn’t even just about healing. It was caring. When you find who did this … prison isn’t bad enough.”
They ran through all that until Rendi spoke again.
“I don’t know if he told anyone else, but he had words with a doctor—I think it was Ponti or Ponto—at the ER at Unger Memorial.”
“What about?”
“Kent went in because one of his patients had a fall, greenstick wrist fracture, and the parents contacted Kent because the kid was a little hysterical and wanted his Dr. Kent. Kent, being Kent, went in. And while he was there, this other doctor was, Kent told me, berating and humiliating a woman because her kid was dirty—or that’s what the guy said. He was reaming her for not cleaning the kid up before bringing him in. It’s a damn ER,” Rendi said with feeling, “and Kent said the woman was obviously homeless or the next thing to it, and doing her best. Besides, you don’t treat people that way.”
“What happened?”
“Kent said he pulled rank—he has privileges there—and told the stupid ER doc to take a walk. He dealt with the kid and his mother, told them about Louise Dimatto’s clinic—that’s where Kent gave time. Then he unloaded on the guy, and the guy got back in his face about how it wasn’t his business. How he should work a few doubles in the ER instead of his fancy private practice before he spouted off.”
“When was this?” Eve asked her.
“It was months ago, I think like, October—no, November. It was November, before Thanksgiving. I’m sure of that. Like, a week before Thanksgiving because we had the turkeys up, and the Halloween stuff down. I want to say it can wear on you, ER shifts. I did some of my residency in ER. I don’t mean to get this doctor in trouble, but it’s one of the rare times I’ve seen Kent really angry.”
“It’s helpful to have any information. Anything else like this? Any time Dr. Abner had words with someone, or was angry with someone?”
“A few years ago he reported a parent for child abuse.” Sarah Eisner, one of the other nurses, looked over at Seldine. “He was angry—who wouldn’t be? The mother brought the little boy in for a routine, and he had all these bruises. She tried to say he was just clumsy, but she broke down, told Kent—I was in the exam room—her husband got angry and hit the boy.”
“Yes, Thomas Thane. I remember. He was … three?”
“That’s right,” Sarah confirmed. “And when Kent managed to get through the fear, he told us about his father getting mad because he broke something. And it wasn’t the first time.”
“There would be a police report?”
“Yes,” Seldine said. “Dr. Kent talked to the police. I know he spoke to the mother about taking the boy to a shelter, or getting counseling. But they didn’t come back. I don’t know what happened.”
“We’ll find out. Is this the only time Dr. Abner reported on an abused patient?”
“Only two others since I’ve worked for him. So three that I know of in twenty years.”
“We’ll need names, dates, any information. We will be taking Dr. Abner’s electronics, and—”
“Oh, but the patient data.”
Seldine looked at Rendi. “It is Dr. Kent. It is for him.”
“I understand, but there are laws and privacy issues. We—”
“We have a warrant,” Eve interrupted. “You can separate out private and confidential patient records, but we take the rest.”
“I can do this,” Seldine assured her. “It will be done by midday if you would give me that time.”
“That’s fine. We’ll need to look at his office now. If there’s any confidential patient information in there, you need to separate it now.”
“I will do this. If you would help?” she asked Rendi.
“Sure.” She rose. “I—I want you to know that I want you to find who did this. But I have a duty to our patients. Kent always put the patients first.”
“Understood. Peabody, contact EDD, let them know they’ll need to come in here at, say, thirteen hundred.” She looked around the table at those who remained in the room. “You can contact me through Cop Central at any time if you think of anything else. Another person Dr. Abner had words with or trouble with, another time there was something out of the ordinary.”
“You get this son of a bitch,” the male nurse said. “You get him. I swear when he goes on trial, I’m going to be there every damn day until they put him away. Kent and Martin are two of the best people I know. Things like this shouldn’t happen to them. It shouldn’t happen to anyone.”
Eve left them in the conference room, walked back down to Abner’s office.
She found Seldine in tears, and Rendi trying to comfort her.
“I am sorry.” Seldine swiped at her face. “We … I found in his calendar … He had planned a party for me, next month. Twenty years, you see. He had—he had already ordered a cake. I loved him. He was a father to me.”
“Please, can I take her out? I closed off the patient records. Can I take her upstairs for now?”
“Yes.”
“Please.” Seldine fought for composure. “If I can help in any other way, please tell me. And please, would you please tell Martin we are all here for him when he is ready? We send him love and comfort. Would you do that?”