Page 78 of Chosen Path
Greg, who’d turned beet red at the mention of his hypothetical death, sputtered, “Were you planning to kill me, too?”
Kimberly spoke from between clenched teeth, “Of course not.”
“I think you were, Kim. I think you’d do it for kicks. To the rest of us, it was a duty. A sad and somber, but necessary, duty. But I think you liked it.”
“Stop talking, you fool.”
Molly arched a brow. “How about this. We’ll do the talking? Stop us when we get something wrong.”
Kimberly leaned forward over the table. “Absolutely not.” She raised her voice and shouted, “Officer Perth, these people are trespassing!”
Perth’s square jaw appeared in the window set into the door. A moment later, he yanked the door open.
“So, here’s the deal. Officer Booth radioed me from the church basement. The village has convened an emergency meeting in light of the public health emergency caused by the recent wave of deaths.”
“That’s not possible. Wendy would never—”
“According to Officer Booth, a villager moved for the meeting under the charter. Mrs. Rockman deemed the request proper and granted the motion for an emergency meeting provided another resident seconded it.”
Kimberly turned on Greg, “Your wife, Greg. Your ownwife.”
“You might want to dial down the venom, Mrs. Dickerson,” Perth suggested. “Your husband seconded the motion.”
The color drained from Kimberly’s face as Officer Perth’s words registered.
Bodhi gave her a moment to compose herself, then said, “I think it’s time to give a full and complete accounting of the workings of the Ättestupa Council to the whole village. Don’t you, Greg?”
Greg seemed to have aged a decade. He nodded mournfully. “It’s over, Kim.”
Kimberly sat motionless. Perth snapped his fingers inches from her face. She didn’t react.
“Is she in shock?” he asked the two doctors.
“Medically, no. She’s stunned, possibly in denial. Upset, definitely. But she isn’t experiencing physical shock. Think of it as being in a daze,” Molly explained.
“Okay, then. Mrs. Dickerson, you can get up and walk over to the meeting with us under your own power or I’ll cuff you and drag you over. Please understand, ma’am, I will do it. It’s your choice.”
Kimberly didn’t react. Greg held up his hand. “Let me try.”
He leaned close to Kimberly’s face and spoke in a low voice. “Kimberly, stand up. We’re going to go next door and explain how things got so out of control, okay? We’re going to take responsibility. Me and you, together.”
Kimberly nodded, so he placed his hands under her elbows and lifted her to her feet. He draped her coat over her shoulders and picked up her purse.
“I’ll take that,” Perth said. “The stolen insulin’s in there, right?”
“Yes,” Molly confirmed. “She admitted to taking it.”
Greg handed the tote bag across the table to the police officer, then helped Kimberly shuffle across the room toward the door.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-EIGHT
Molly knocked on the door to Saint Olaf’s basement social room. Officer Booth unlocked it and ushered their strange little group inside. Then she relocked the door, and she and Officer Perth took up their posts in front of the doors. From the front of the room, Hope gestured for Molly and Bodhi to come forward. They left Greg and Kimberly under the watchful eye of the two county police officers and joined Hope up front.
Hope made the announcement. “You all know Doctor Hart. And this is Doctor Bodhi King. Doctor King is a forensic pathologist who consults on difficult cases. His area of speciality is sudden unexplained death clusters. He’s going to give us some background on what’s been going on in the village. And then I think folks will have questions for the village council and possibly Doctor Hart. Doctor King, it’s all yours.”
Hope plopped down into the nearest empty seat as if all the public speaking had taken a toll. She motioned for Molly to take the chair next to hers. Bodhi waited until Molly was settled into her seat and then he began to talk.
As he spoke, he kept two facts fixed firmly in mind: One, he was talking to a group of laypeople. And two, he was an outsider. The people of Scandia Bluff didn’t know him. But they knew and trusted Greg Rockman and Kimberly Dickerson. These facts shaped the story he told the villagers.
