sheepdog. I told her I wanted to send a condolence card to Dr.
Laurence Ashmore’s widow and asked for his home address.
She said, “Oh, yes, isn’t it terrible? What’s this place coming to?”
in a smoker’s voice, and consulted a folder the size of a smalltown
phone book. “Here you go, Doctor-North Whittier Drive, over in Beverly
Hills.” She recited a street address in the 900’s.
North Beverly Hills-prime real estate. The 900 block placed it just
above Sunset. Prime of the prime; Ashmore had lived on more than
research grants.
The clerk sighed. “Poor man. Just goes to show you, you can’t buy
your safety.”
I said, “Isn’t that the truth?”
“Would they be obvious, given all the other sticks she’s had?Isn’t it,
though?”
“Not obvious, but I’m careful when I do my exams, Alex. The kids’ bods
get gone over pretty thoroughly.”
“Could the insulin have been administered other than by injection?”
She shook her head as we continued to descend. “There are oral
hypoglycemics, but their metabolites would show up on the tox panel.”
Thinking of Cindy’s health discharge from the army, I said, Any
diabetes in the family?”
“Someone sharing their insulin with Cassie?” She shook her head.
“Back at the beginning, when we were looking at Cassie’s metabolics, we
had both Chip and Cindy tested. Normal.”
“Okay,” I said. “Good luck pinning it down.”
She stopped and gave me a light kiss on the cheek. “I appreciate your
comments, Alex. I’m so thrilled to be dealing with biochemistry, I run
the risk of narrowing my perspective.”
We traded wise smiles.
“Nice dog,” I said, indicating the badge.
She beamed. “That’s my honey-my champ. I breed true Old English, for
temperament and working ability.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“It’s more than that. Animals give without expecting anything in
return. We could learn a few things from them.
I nodded. “One more thing. Dr. Ashmore had someone working with
him-D. Kent Herbert? The medical staff would like him to be informed
of the charity fund the hospital’s establishing in Dr. Ashmore’s honor
but no one’s been able to locate him. I was appointed to get hold of
him but I’m not even sure he’s still working here, so if you have some
sort of an address, I’d be much obliged.”
“Herbert,” she said. “Hmm. So you think he terminated?”
“I don’t know. I think he was still on the payroll in January or
February, if that helps.”
“It might. Herbert . . . let’s see.”
Walking to her desk, she pulled another thick folder from a wall
shelf.
“Herbert, Herbert, Herbert . . . Well, I’ve got two here, but neither
of them sound like yours. Herbert, Ronald, in Food Services, and
Herbert, Dawn, in Toxicology.”
“Maybe it’s Dawn. Toxicology was Dr. Ashmore’s specialty.”
She screwed up her face. “Dawn’s a girl’s name. Thought you were
trying to find a man.”
I gave a helpless shrug. “Probably a mixup-the doctor who gave me the
name didn’t actually know this person, so both of us assumed it was a
man. Sorry for the sexism.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” she said. “I don’t mess with all that
stuff.”
“Does this Dawn have a middle initial K’?”
She looked down. “Yes, she does.”
“Then, there you go,” I said. “The name I was given was D.
Kent. What’s her job description?”
“Um, five thirty-three A-let me see. . . Thumbing through another
book. “That looks like a research assistant, Level One.”
“Did she transfer to another department in the hospital, by any
chance?”
Consulting yet another volume, she said, “Nope. Looks like a
termination.”
“Hmm. . . Do you have an address for her?”
“Nope, nothing. We throw out personal stuff thirty days after they’re
gone-got a real space problem.
“When exactly did she terminate?”
“That I can tell you.” She flipped a few pages and pointed to a code
that I couldn’t comprehend. “Here we go. You’re right-about her being
here in February. But that was her last month-she gave notice on the
fifteenth, went officially off payroll on the twentyeighth.”
“The fifteenth,” I said. The day after pulling Chad Jones’s chart.
“That’s right. See right here? Two slash fifteen?”