Page 92 of Shattered Hearts

I ignore him. He can explode later. “Dr. Pederson still practices.”

“Yes, but he no longer participates in the drug trials. He’s back to strictly psychiatric care. Therapy. I heard he’s dabbling in holistic medicine of all things.”

“He works with Dr. Jerricka Solis.”

She shrugs. “He’s a well-respected doctor. I’m sure he collaborates with several therapists in the area.”

“Do you know her?”

“She walked the rounds at Quiet Meadows now and again.”

“Did she ever visit Zarah?”

Iona leans back and rubs her cheeks. “I don’t know. I was the facility’s director and spent most of my time in my office. I was rarely informed of what the doctors did, unless they needed more staffing. The human resources paperwork went through me for approval.”

“The girls who are dead, you’re saying they relapsed because they were no longer under Dr. Pederson’s care.”

“I’m saying that could be why Stacy Birmingham is dead. The other girls you mentioned sound like they passed away due to other causes.”

It’s hard to argue with that. When the ME says a woman died from cardiac arrest, the woman died from cardiac arrest.

I look to Zane to see if he has anything else to ask. Apparently, he hadn’t been any better prepared for this appointment than I was. He doesn’t have much to say.

“What did the facility do with patients who didn’t have the capacity to recover?” he asks.

“Nothing. They were treated just like all our other patients, so long as their families could afford to pay. We had a few elderly celebrity clients who couldn’t live on their own and their families hid them at Quiet Meadows to keep them out of the news. Ahandful of the patients had been clients well before I was hired. If you hadn’t discharged Miss Maddox, she could have been a resident for the rest of her life.”

“You never thought to question Ashton Black?”

“Why? When he visited, he did what he liked and everyone answered to him. Even Dr. Pederson. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of the funding Dr. Pederson received came from Mr. Black. He was very curious about Dr. Pederson’s drug trials. After he’d visit Miss Maddox, he would follow Dr. Pederson on his rounds. He quite enjoyed seeing those patients miserable, defeated, depressed. There was a spark in his eyes whenever he toured the facility. He enjoyed others’ suffering, as I’m sure you are aware.”

“Yes, he liked to hurt people,” Zane mutters.

There’s a lot of talk about Ash, but...“Did Senator Cook ever visit Quiet Meadows?”

Iona swallows and looks like she wants to be anywhere but in her little office under our interrogation. “Why are you asking?”

“Because we’ve come into some information he owns Quiet Meadows and did during the years Zarah was a patient there.”

She forces herself to smile. “Then it stands to reason he would visit, yes?”

“I was just wondering.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”

“Thanks for your time, Miss Belsely.”

Zane pauses like he wants to say something else, but in the end, trails Baby out the door. In the lobby, we put on our jackets and step into the bright morning, the sun reflecting off the snow.

I don’t last a second. “Zarah needs to stop seeing Dr. Solis.Now, Zane.”

He leans against my truck, his jacket flapping open, his black and silver striped tie hanging crisply from his neck. He looks elegant, snazzy. I can see why women go for him, if they like that kind of thing. “You’re right.”

I move to get into the truck, but Zane pulls his cell out of the pocket of his jacket. He searches for a number, connects, and holds the phone up to his ear. “Dr. Solis, please. This is Zane Maddox.”

He waits, listens, but I can’t hear who answered the phone.

Zane stares across the parking lot of the assisted living facility. I wonder what he’s really seeing.

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