Knife Edge (A Dead Cold Mystery Book 27) by Blake Banner (most inspirational books of all time .TXT) 📗

was open and through it we found an office paneled in wood, with a desk and a couple of filing cabinets. Behind the desk was a woman in her fifties with gunmetal hair and pale blue eyes that could kill a warm feeling at three hundred paces without blinking. She didn’t say hello, she said, “May I see your identification, please?”

We showed her our badges, which she inspected briefly before adding, “Dr. Wagner can spare you ten minutes. Please keep the interview as brief as possible.”

Neither of us answered, so she stood, moved to the door that was behind her desk and to the right, knocked and leaned in.

“The detectives from New York, Dr. Wagner…”

She paused a moment, listening, then stood back and held the door open for us. As we filed past she repeated, under her breath, “Please, keep it brief.”

Dehan scowled at her. “Go file something, sister.”

Dr. Wagner was standing behind her desk. Your first impression when you looked at her was that you were looking at a very attractive woman. She was tall, and elegant in her movements. She had an abundance of well-cut blonde hair, deep, warm brown eyes and skin that looked naturally youthful. Then you noticed that there were things that were wrong. She was just a bit too tall, her body was bony and angular and her mouth was too wide. Then you looked again and realized it didn’t matter, because in her it all came together and worked. I decided she was a woman a lot of men would find it easy to have an affair with.

I heard the door close behind me and moved across the room. I showed her my badge.

“Dr. Wagner, I am Detective John Stone from the New York Police Department, and this is my partner, Detective Carmen Dehan.”

She smiled at Dehan and said, “Congratulations. Female detectives are still a minority. How can I help you? Please, sit down.”

This last was also addressed to Dehan. The three of us sat and I waited for Dehan to speak. Wagner spoke first.

“If it’s one of our patients you are interested in, I’m afraid I will need a court order. We don’t want to be obstructive, and we will give the broadest interpretation to any court order you have, but our patients pay a great deal for our therapies…”

Dehan was shaking her head. “We are not here about any of your patients, Dr. Wagner. We are actually here about your relationship with Dr. Brad Mitchell.”

She froze. Her eyebrows rose suddenly and her pale cheeks flushed pink.

“My…” She leaned forward slightly. “My what?”

Neither of us answered her. We just watched her, trying to read the signs. She laughed and shook her head. “My relationship with Dr. Mitchell is purely professional.”

Dehan asked, “How long have you known each other?”

“I don’t know!” She gazed up and to the left, shaking her head. “Ten, eleven years? Perhaps a little more. Do you mind telling me what this is about?”

Dehan shook her head. “Not at all. How did you meet? Was it at the university?”

She frowned. “Yes. We were in the same department. We were colleagues.”

Dehan spread her hands, cocked her head on one side. “A little more than colleagues.”

“What do you mean? No, absolutely not! We were colleagues!”

Dehan gestured at the desk with both hands. “He appointed you as the director of his clinic. That is more than just colleagues.”

Now she was frowning hard and her cheeks had deepened to red.

“I don’t know what you’re driving at, Detective, but there was absolutely no impropriety in my appointment to this position. I worked damn hard for it, and I earned it!”

“I have no doubt about that, Dr. Wagner. I just wanted to make the point that your relationship was not one of mere colleagues. Now that’s right, isn’t it, Doctor? You were not merely colleagues, were you?”

Dr. Wagner took a deep breath and let it out slow.

“All right, Detective, we were not merely colleagues. We were, and are, also good friends. We tend to play down our friendship because people do love to gossip and spread rumors. But obviously, we planned the clinic from scratch together and eventually he put up the money and I run the place. We are not quite partners, but that is on the cards. It is impossible to make that kind of commitment together without becoming close friends…”

Dehan was nodding. When Dr. Wagner trailed off, Dehan spoke patiently, almost kindly. “I had got about that far by myself, Doctor. What I am asking you is how close that friendship is.”

She hesitated, looked at her desk for a while and then into Dehan’s eyes. There was defiance there. “And I am going to ask you again, Detective, what is this about?”

Dehan was about to answer, but I cut in.

“It’s about your affair with Dr. Mitchell. We need to know when it started, Dr. Wagner.”

Her eyes went wide and her jaw sagged slightly. Her voice, when she answered, was slightly shrill.

“I don’t know where to begin! I mean… Quite aside from the fact that I am not having an affair with Brad, I resent your nosing around in my personal affairs! And since when is it the business of the police whether consenting adults have affairs or not?”

I didn’t pause or hesitate. “Since those affairs might provide the motive for murder, Dr. Wagner.”

“…Murder?”

“Yes. This is a murder inquiry, Dr. Wagner. Now, would you please answer the question? When did your affair with Dr. Mitchell begin?”

Three

She sat for a long moment, staring at nothing a couple of inches above her desk. Eventually she frowned at her own thoughts and turned her gaze to me.

“Am I a suspect? I have a right to know. And what about Brad? Is he a suspect?”

Dehan glanced at me. Her face said my play hadn’t worked out. I disagreed, but shook my head at Dr. Wagner.

“You’re not a suspect, Dr. Wagner. Right now we have no real suspects. What we are trying to do is establish