Bonnie - Iris Johansen [43]
“Enough to make a living.” She waited for him at the plate-glass door. “I’m no martyr, John. I can’t be—”
“Excuse me.” A tall, tanned man in his early fifties had come out of the door. He was dressed in white shorts and T-shirt and gave Eve a dazzling smile. “Beautiful day, isn’t it?” He jumped into the red sports car and the next minute had roared out of the parking lot.
“Dr. Temple. I couldn’t reach—” A blond woman in a nurse’s uniform had run out of the building and was staring in exasperation at the sports car disappearing down the block. “Dammit to hell.”
“That was Dr. Temple?” Gallo asked. “We need to see him.” He glanced at the badge on her uniform. “Ms. Dawbler.”
“Stand in line,” the nurse said sourly. “He’s booked solid for the rest of the day.” Then she forced a smile. “He had an emergency, and I’ve had to cancel everything for the afternoon. I couldn’t reach his noon appointment, and I was trying to tell him before he left. If you’ll come inside, I’ll try to set you up for tomorrow.”
“Emergency?” Eve repeated. “He didn’t look as if he were rushing off to the hospital.”
“I can’t help how it looked,” she said shortly. “Dr. Temple told me it was an emergency. Would you like to make an appointment or not?”
“He had a golf bag in that sports car,” Gallo said. “Does he play at a local country club?”
She started to nod, then repeated, “It was an emergency. Excuse me, I have to go back inside and phone him.” She turned and went back into the medical center.
“What a charming man,” Eve murmured ironically. “It’s a beautiful day, and he ditches all his patients and takes off.” She headed back to the car. “But I have no intention of waiting around to see him tomorrow. I’ll check out all the country clubs in this general area on the computer, then start calling. I’d bet it’s not too far from the medical center. He impressed me as a man who wouldn’t want business to interfere with pleasure.”
Twenty minutes later, she turned to Gallo and handed him the number she’d scrawled on a notepad. “Diaz Country Club. It’s near the river. About a fifteen-minute drive.”
“Right.” Gallo started the car. “You did the search. Now I’ll do the interrogation. Okay?”
“I’ll see when we get there.” She was thinking of what Gallo had told her. “When did Temple leave his job at the VA hospital?”
“Three months after he signed the death certificate for my uncle.”
“What a coincidence. How convenient. And then he came here and settled down in the lap of luxury.”
“A payoff? Look, my uncle had no money. He couldn’t have even had treatment if it weren’t paid for by the government.”
“But Nate Queen and Thomas Jacobs had money to burn with all the drugs and smuggling they were doing. And Ted Danner had some connection to them, or he wouldn’t have killed Jacobs.” She glanced at him. “So we have to look for that connection, John.”
He shook his head. “Uncle Ted wouldn’t have—” He stopped. “Okay, I’m in denial. But it doesn’t make sense.”
It didn’t make sense to Eve either. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t true. “Then prove me wrong. Heaven knows that I feel like I’m walking through a maze. I’m just trying to follow the trail and hope I get a break.”
* * *
“DR. TEMPLE?” EVE ASKED. “Could we have a moment?”
“No, can’t you see I’m busy?” Lawrence Temple frowned as he glanced up at Gallo and Eve, who had pulled up in a golf cart next to where he was teeing off. He looked down at his ball again. “Who told you where to find me?” Then he glanced back at Eve. “Didn’t I see you at my office?”
“Barely. You were in a hurry.”
“Make an appointment.”
“I don’t think so,” Gallo said. “We’re in a hurry. Answer our questions and we won’t bother you again. I want to know about a patient, Ted Danner, you had at the Atlanta VA Medical Center shortly before you came here.”
Temple stiffened warily. “I don’t have time for past history. Please leave, or I’ll call security.”
“That might not be a good idea. Falsifying a death certificate is a criminal offense. Your new patients might not appreciate being treated by a