A Sticky Situation by Jessie Crockett Page B

blocks to the town hall and Celadon hopped out.
    â€œI’ll pick you up in a couple of hours.” I waved and drove off toward the puzzle shop for a bribe for the doctor.
    *   *   *
    Doc MacIntyre’s house sat two streets back from the main road through town. The location was convenient for him and for the patients who had reason to visit his office. The doc made a lot of house calls, too. With no public transportation system in Sugar Grove, or much of the state, truth be told, he often tended to the elderly in their own homes.
    I slid the Midget into a spot at the far side of the parking area and checked my purse for the pad of Yahtzee score sheets I knew I’d need to offer to have a chance of loosening the doctor’s lips. Every man has a price. Some will sell their souls for booze and some for the promises of affection from a pretty young woman. For others, their sweet tooth leads them around like a pig with a nose ring.
    For the doc it was his unquenchable desire to play Yahtzee. It was never a good idea to show up healthy, or even just a little bit sick at the doctor’s office without urgent business that needed you elsewhere or you’d better be prepared to play a few rounds.
    I pushed open the hot pink door of his office and almost tripped over his big tomcat, Brutus. People with a cat allergy usually choose to go to the doctor in the next town over because Brutus is always in the office, sometimes even in the exam room, depending on how much he likes the patient. Brutus isn’t too particular. He likes most people. We’ve always gotten along just fine. For which I am grateful, considering his size.
    Brutus is not a cat you’d be wise to offend. He’s twenty-five pounds of fluff-covered muscle. Once he got fleas so bad the doctor had him shaved. With all his fur gone he looked like a competitive bodybuilder on one of the sports channels whenever he walked around the room.
    I bent down to give him a pat, then listened for the doctor’s booming voice from inside his exam room. Upon hearing it I took a seat in the tiny waiting room and picked up a ragged copy of
Reader’s Digest
. Before I had finished increasing my word power Doc yanked open the exam room door and ushered William Foley out through it.
    Will scowled at me but I didn’t take it to heart. His face is just one of those permanently set in a scowl and he doesn’t mean anything by it. I’ve seen his wedding photos. He scowled at his bride, Eunice, through all of them. They’ve been married fifty-four years and according to Eunice, he’s never said a cross word to her in all that time.
    â€œYou let me know if that ointment doesn’t work, now, you hear?” Doc said, thumping William gently on the shoulder. William scowled at him, dipped his head at me in greeting, then shuffled out the door.
    â€œDani, what brings you by? You haven’t come down with something just as sugaring season is starting up, have you?” The doctor’s voice was completely oversize for the tiny space. If he didn’t lower his volume I was going to have an earache. Or become spontaneously deaf.
    â€œNo, no. Nothing like that. I was actually wondering if you’ve spoken to Tansey.”
    â€œAbout what?”
    â€œWell, she was so upset about Spooner Duffy’s body being found in the town hall I thought she might have ended up needing to see you.”
    â€œWell, even if she did there is no way I could tell you about it. My patient visits are confidential.”
    â€œI didn’t want to pry into her business. I was just worried about her. It isn’t like Tansey at all to be so upset about anything. She’s always such an even-tempered person.”
    â€œNot much fazes her, I will say that.”
    â€œI didn’t want to go over to her house with a Bundt ring and check on her without having a better idea of her mind-set. I wouldn’t want to upset her