Chapter 5 #2
Her expression was one of genuine surprise. “Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. He was the sweetest man. Why do you want to know about Henry?”
“His sister paid me a visit. She believes Henry didn’t kill himself. That he was murdered.”
“Are you taking the case?” she asked, intrigued. “I’ve read all about you and the Silver Sleuths.”
“Yes,” I said. “We believe Milton was hasty in calling his death a suicide.”
She made an unladylike sound and propped her feet on the balcony ledge.
“Milton was an idiot. No one believed Henry killed himself at the time, but by the time Milton got finished spreading the tale it had everyone who knew Henry wondering if we ever really knew him at all. I’m glad you’re taking the case. How can I help?”
“I’d like to get to know him,” I said. “And I figured as his nurse, you were probably the best place to start.”
“Oh, I had such a crush on him,” she said.
“I’m happily married now, but I was looking for a husband back then.
My plans didn’t include being a nurse forever.
He was so handsome. Tall and tanned and athletic.
But Henry only had room in his heart for Charlotte, and he never even glanced in the direction of another woman.
And boy did I try to get him to glance in my direction. ”
She winked and her smile was open and genuine, and I liked her instantly. I could see why Walt had been so complimentary.
“I came to work for him right after I finished nursing school, and I stayed with him for three years until his death. And then I stayed on with Dr. Everett for a few more months. By that time I’d met Kirk and we were planning a wedding, so I didn’t see a need to stay on longer.
And Dr. Everett was planning to close the clinic anyway.
He never really got over Henry’s death. They’d been friends and partners for a long time. ”
“Tell me what he was like to work for.”
“Kind,” she said immediately. “Always. He knew the name of every patient he had and remembered everything about them and their children too. It was amazing. He made house calls in an era when nobody was making house calls anymore.
“Did he have a temper?”
“Not that I ever saw. There was the occasional disgruntled patient, and he’d gotten threats once, but he was always calm and level headed.”
A cool breeze blew in from the water, ruffling my hair in the breeze, and I took a sip of tea hoping it would cool me off. It didn’t.
“What about his personal life?” I asked. “Did you know anything about that?”
“Well, it’s Grimm Island, so it was a lot harder to keep secrets back then than it is now.
He was always at the office by eight. And our last appointment was at four o’clock.
He had a housekeeper who prepared his meals, but she didn’t live on the property.
She drove in every day, but I’m not sure from where.
I think she’s the one who found him. Must have been awful. ”
“Josephine mentioned he’d been seeing someone. That he’d found love again. Do you know who it was?”
She looked surprised at that bit of information and not all too happy about it.
“I’ve never even heard a whisper of him dating at all.
And if he’d had overnight guests at his home the whole island would have known about it.
Estelle Pruitt is his neighbor. He said she used to watch the street with binoculars. ”
I arched a brow at that. Estelle Pruitt sounded exactly like someone I needed to talk to.
“Did he have hobbies? Any vices?”
She laughed and the glass in her ice clinked as she remembered.
“He put everything he had into his work. He was often called out in the evenings for sick patients. And if I recall he sat on a couple of local boards. He did humanitarian work, and every summer he’d go with a group of doctors to do free exams in places that didn’t have access to medical care. He was a deacon at the Baptist church.”
“What about friends?” I asked, starting to get a picture of who Henry Wainwright really was.
“He and Charlotte had friends, other couples they’d go to dinner with or vacation with. The Everetts, the Phillipses, and the Walkers.”
“Was he left-handed?”
“Oh, Lordy yes. Had the worst handwriting you could imagine. Noreen, she was the office manager at the time, she couldn’t hardly read his notes to update patient files.
His signature was barely a scribble. He’d told me when he was a kid his teachers tried to make him write with his right hand, but his mother put a stop to that real quick. Apparently she was a formidable woman.”
“Did you ever meet his wife?”
“Charlotte?” she asked. “Unfortunately, no. She’d been gone two years by the time I came on.
And honestly, he never talked about her.
I think it was too painful for him. From time to time he’d say something to Dr. Everett and mention Charlotte, as if he’d forgotten she was gone.
And then you could just see this sadness come over him. ”
“Were you surprised when you’d heard the suicide verdict?”
She paused for a moment and said, “I have to admit that for a brief moment I thought he could have. But it was only a brief moment. There was nothing about him that made me worried about his mental health. He wasn’t depressed.
He had friends and colleagues. He lived a full life, and though he missed Charlotte deeply, it didn’t stop him from living. ”
“Did you know about the gun in his desk?”
She rolled her eyes. “Everyone knew about it. That man loved guns. I guess when he’d been younger he was something of a hunter, so he had rifles and those kinds of things.
We had a Christmas party at his house once and he had a whole gun case in his downstairs den.
But I guess the one in his desk was something special because anyone who knew anything about guns seemed excited about it when he brought it up.
I know nothing about guns, so I’m no help with what kind it was. ”
“I heard he bought it after the break-in at the office,” I said.