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graduate of the Culinary Institute and could do some pretty special things in
that kitchen. I carried a couple of bottles of wine under my arm because, like
this whole end of the island, Gay Head was dry.
We walked across the lawn to the entrance of the inn. Jeanie welcomed us
warmly as I introduced my friends to her and she asked if we wanted to go out
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on the veranda to sip some wine before we sat down in the dining room. The bar
was actually outside, on a wide terrace facing the water, and I told Joan and
Nina that if they liked my view they absolutely had to see this one.
I led the way out onto the porch and froze in the doorway. Hughie was playing
the piano and a chorus of familiar faces was singing Happy Birthday to me,
champagne glasses in everyone s hand. Mike was behind the bar, of course,
helping out Hollis, the regular bartender. Mercer had brought Francine with
him and they were flanked by Sarah and Jim, Charles and Maureen, Rod Squires,
and Renee and David. Joanie and Nina had filled every room at the Inn and the
party was on.
I was radiating my happiness as I made the rounds of the crowd, kissing
everyone and learning how three carloads of friends had banded together to
keep the plan secret and drive up here this morning.
Open your presents! Mike shouted at me pointing at the pile of boxes
stacked up at the far end of the bar.
You re a few weeks early, I chided my pals. I m hanging on to thirty-four
every minute that I can.
Yeah, but Nina said you were flying down to visit your parents on the
thirtieth for your birthday. And we figured the only way to surprise you was
to start early.
I accepted a cold glass of champagne and worked my way through the group.
Joan steered me to a tall vase of yellow roses on the bar with a card nestled
among them that was signed from Drew. I bit the inside of my lip and promised
myself to call him tomorrow to make a date for dinner and a chance to talk
about the past few weeks.
While I walked on to thank Sarah and Francine and compliment them on their
well-kept secret, I could hear Mike and Mercer over my shoulder, back to
talking about the murder of Gemma Dogen.
You remember that conversation we had in the precinct, about whether love or
money was the motive in more cases? Well, I was right again. Coleman Harper.
Can you imagine, for whatever reason the guy wasn t content to be one kind of
doctor, he had to have more?
You d think some of the people we ve interviewed this week would have come
forward before now, when she was killed, Mercer responded. Now they re
jumping out of the woodwork to tell us how resentful Harper was of Dogen, how
angry he was at the way she treated him when she met him almost ten years
ago.
You should see the crap they recovered when Zotos and Losenti executed the
search warrant on the guy s apartment.
I was in a great position to do an overheard since Tom Kendris hadn t wanted
to tell me about any of the other evidence in the cases now that I was a
witness. Mike was talking. All kinds of disguise stuff fake hair, mustaches,
makeup. They even got a note that Robert Spector had sent him months ago
saying he was doing his best, but Dogen has blackballed you all over the
world. Harper must have been thinking of every kind of way to get the job
done.
My guess is he went there in the middle of the night, knowing he d find her
alone, to talk her out of rejecting him again. He had Spector s support and
she was the only thing standing in the way of his admission to the program. If
she was leaving town anyway, she was just being a spoiler in his view. I m
thinkin she told him to forget about it right then and there, so he stabbed
her. He had come ready with his butcher knife prepared to get his revenge.
I couldn t pretend not to listen any longer. I leaned on the bar, and even
though Mike shot me a look he and Mercer kept talking.
You know when it all started?
I shook my head back and forth.
Gemma Dogen s predecessor had been the first one to have reservations about
Harper s ability. That s a decade ago, kid. This Dr. Randall is the one who
said he would admit him into the neurosurgical program, but only if he
completed a residency in neurology first.
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Dogen took over when Randall left later that same year only she made her own
decision. She evaluated the reports on Harper s work and she flat out refused
to be bound by the promise that Randall had made to him. Effectively, she
ended his chances of getting into the program.
What about the Met Games ? I asked.
That was all Spector s doing. It was his idea to park Harper over there for
a year, figuring he d have a chance to change Dogen s mind. But Harper
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