Page 13 of Chosen Path
She dropped the key into Bodhi’s upturned palm. He eased the key into the lock and turned it smoothly. “I live in an old house like this. You have to get to know the locks,” he told her as he twisted the doorknob and ushered her across the threshold.
She grabbed the shopping bags and went inside in a daze.
CHAPTERSIX
Bodhi filled Molly’s tea kettle with water while she put her groceries away. It was evident that the encounter with the village councilwoman had rattled her, and, in Bodhi’s experience, a mug of hot tea was always a comfort.
“That was weird, right?” Molly said with her back to him as she placed her vegetables in her crisper bin.
He considered his response for a moment, then turned the knob on the gas stove and placed the kettle on the burner. Kimberly Dickersonhadreacted strongly, almost violently, to the suggestion that there was a death cluster in her hamlet.
Was that weird? Maybe. Maybe not.
“Well?” Molly closed the refrigerator and turned toward him with an expectant expression.
“She was definitely emotional,” he answered.
“Which makes no sense, right?”
Bodhi wished he could reassure the young doctor that Kimberly’s reaction was an aberration. But some diffuse feeling, some thought not yet fully formed, told him it wasn’t. He just couldn’t articulate his thinking. Not yet.
He spoke slowly and chose his words with care, “I wouldn’t expect someone living in this town to be so opposed to looking into a cluster of deaths. I would have thought, given how small the village is and how remote it is, that this is a close-knit community.”
“Itis,” she agreed excitedly. “So she shouldwantme to get to the bottom of this.”
“But she doesn’t.”
The simple observation animated her even further.
“But sheshould.”
“Why should she?”
She blinked. “You just said why. This is a small, remote community, and people are dropping like flies. Maybe Kimberly’s defensive because she’s on the village council. Like for some reason, she feels responsible.”
“Maybe.”
She narrowed her eyes. “But you don’t think that’s it.”
“You said your patient this morning, Mrs. Wolf, also dismissed the idea of a death cluster.”
After a moment, the fight left her eyes and she looked at him in sheer confusion. “I did say that. She was angry that I wanted to look into the deaths. The funny thing is, she’s on the village council, too. Why don’t they want me to get to the bottom of all these deaths?”
The kettle whistled, saving him from having to answer. He turned off the gas.
“Where do you keep your mugs?”
She opened the cabinet to the left of the sink and pulled down two dark green mugs. He opened one of the boxes of tea he’d picked up at the store and fixed them each a cup.
They sat across from one another at her small kitchen table. She cupped her hands around her steaming mug of tea and stared down into the cup. He sipped his tea and watched her.
After a while, she lifted her head and gave it a little shake as if she were snapping out of a trance. “I’m so sorry. You must be hungry. You’ve been traveling all day. I should get dinner started.”
He placed a hand on her forearm as she started to push back her chair. “Molly, wait.”
She stopped and plunked herself back into her chair. “You have a theory, don’t you?”
“Yes and no. Not about the cause of the deaths.”
