Murder By Proxy

It was Tuesday afternoon, just a day after the detectives Beth Reed and Bob Garcia had met with Nurse Anne Whitcomb, and the two were in a conference room at headquarters discussing what they thought should be the next step in their investigation of the “convenience store murder,” which it had become known as in the office. They were distracted when Beth Reed’s cell phone tinkled; she answered quickly, “Reed here.” It was Anne Whitcomb. “This is Anne Whitcomb, detective. Would it be possible for us to meet soon, detective, maybe this afternoon?” Anne asked. “I have some information for you that may or may not be helpful, but it would take too much time to give it to you over the phone, and you will probably want to make some notes or tape the data I have for you. I am anxious to give you whatever you need so I can get back to clearing up some of the paperwork that has piled up on my desk. I also have some questions that you might answer to satisfy my curiosity, or have you already solved the mystery as to who killed Dr. Carnes?” Reed was pleased that Anne had called back so soon, and was eager to meet with the nurse, but she laughed at Anne’s question. “No, I wish that I could say that we have solved the case, and I’m sorry to say that we haven’t made much progress on the crime so far, Anne. Actually, we’re hoping that we can use some of the information that you have to steer us in the right direction. We are both available now, so we will be very happy to meet with you at the clinic; how about if we meet you there in about half an hour?” “That would be perfect; I’m here now,” Nurse Ann agreed. “I’m anxious to get this out of the way so I can begin to work with Mrs. Carnes and her lawyer to settle all of the problems involved with closing up the clinic for good, or turning it over to another dermatologist.