CHAPTER 6
After hitting up one of the fast food restaurants for breakfast, Matt went to interview Mrs. Siler. He arrived at her home, which was not too far from the Belieu home. The door was answered by a maid and he was shown into the den. Margaret Siler came down in a few minutes. She was still obviously grieving, and looked as if she hadn't slept a wink since the death of her husband.
"Mrs. Siler, I hate to bother you at such a hard time, but I'm consulting with LAPD on the death of your husband, as well as the deaths of Dr. Belieu and Dr. Anthony."
"Greg Anthony?" The widow suddenly had a seat. "When did that happen?"
"He was found this morning in his office." Matt sat down next to her on the sofa. "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you."
"Greg was such a nice man! I can't believe it. But so were Henry and my George. Why, Mr. Houston? Who? Who would want to do this?"
"I don't know ma'am, but I'm doing my best to find out. Do you know if Dr. Anthony was in the Mu Delta Sigma fraternity as well?"
"Yes, he was. He, George, and Henry all were. They went all through medical school together and graduated together."
"Can you think of anyone in connection with the fraternity that would hold a grudge against your husband or the other two?" Matt felt like he was grasping at straws, but he felt deep down that the connection was related to their time in medical school.
"My goodness, I can't imagine it. Granted, I didn't meet George until he was already in practice. But from the time that we spent with other members at reunions and such, I don't think so."
"Did your husband have any problems with anyone at his office? A patient or an employee?"
"No…well, he did get sued one time by a patient, but that happens quite frequently in the profession. And as far as employees, he has a great group of people working with him. They've all been there since he went into practice for himself. It's like a family."
"Yes, ma'am. Here's one of my cards…" He handed it to her. "If you should happen to think of anything, no matter how small it seems, please let me know."
She stood up to walk him out. "Find whoever did this, Mr. Houston. Please."
"Yes ma'am." Matt stepped outside and headed down to his truck not feeling overly optimistic about the case. He left and went to the home of Dr. Greg Anthony, a large Greek-style house surrounded by lush gardens, the entire property surrounded by a white stone wall. As he rang the doorbell he looked around at the yard. There were flowers everywhere. Mrs. Anthony herself opened the door. She had obviously been crying.
"Mr. Houston, Lt. Hoyt called and told me that you would be here to ask some questions about Greg." She led him into the living room. In the center was a baby grand piano covered with photos of the couple. "I don't know what I'm going to do without him." Her eyes welled up with tears and she began to shake. Matt helped her over to the sofa.
"Mrs. Anthony, is there someone that you would like me to call? It's a bad time to be alone."
"My sister is on her way over. She lives in Palm Springs. It shouldn't be too long." She tried her best to calm the shaking.
"I understand that your husband went to school with Dr. Siler and Dr. Belieu. They were also in the same fraternity."
"Yes." She smiled. "They were very good friends. And friendships in medical school can be hard – there's always so much competition – especially at a school like UCLA."
"Did he have any problems with patients or employees?"
"Not that I ever heard about. Greg didn't bring his work home with him, Mr. Houston."
The doorbell rang. Matt headed into the foyer with her as she opened the door for her sister. The minute they saw each other they both burst into tears and Matt felt completely helpless. "Mrs. Anthony, here's my card. If you should happen to think of anything else, please call." He stepped outside and closed the door behind him, grateful that the interview was over.
As he headed back toward his office, Matt was thinking through the case. Three men, all plastic surgeons who had gone through school and graduated together, belonged to the same fraternity, and all practiced in the Los Angeles area. All three were killed by what appeared to be a .22, identical kill shots, all in their offices, and there were no signs of forced entry. From what he had been able to gather so far, all three men were well liked by patients and employees alike. So who would want to kill them? He had no idea.
When he got back to the office he was still puzzling over the murders. He went in, plopped down in front of BABY, and started doing research on Dr. Anthony. It appeared that he had also donated his skills to the underprivileged of the world. Matt sat back on the couch and thought about it. Something kept telling him to go back to the school and the fraternity. He got up and walked out on the patio, leaning on the wall as he so often did, and watched the traffic. Mrs. Anthony had talked about the competition in medical school. As that thought went through his head it was immediately followed by another: maybe the competition had gotten to be too much for one of their classmates.
Matt walked back in and went back to BABY. He dug through the records that he had received from UCLA and began looking at who didn't graduate. Maybe that was the key. As he pored through the records, Matt didn't hear CJ walk up behind him. She leaned down and to give him a hug and scared the living daylights out of him. He reached around and pulled her down onto the couch with him. "What's the big idea of sneaking up on a fella?" His wife was now sitting in his lap with a surprised look on her face. Both began to laugh. He pulled her closer and kissed her. She put her arms around his neck and returned the kiss. Uncle Roy walked in just then.
"Oh boy, we're still doing the newlywed routine, are we?" He shook his head. Matt made the okay sign and continued to kiss his wife. "I'm going to work on the project, Matt. The jewelry store security system is all set up and working." Once again, his nephew gave him the okay sign. Roy sighed and went into Matt's office and closed the door behind him.
When the couple came up for air, both smiling and giggling like teenagers, CJ scooted off of his lap and sat down on the couch. "So what have you gotten so far?"
"Not much I'm afraid. All of these guys were at UCLA, in the same fraternity, and graduated at the same time. What I'm wondering now is could it be someone who wasn't as fortunate? Maybe they didn't graduate and for some reason they blame the others in the class?"
"That sounds about as reasonable as anything else." She sat back and thought about it. "When I was at Harvard the competition was absolutely terrifying. There were a lot of folks who didn't graduate. Actually there were a few who ended up needing counseling before it was over."
"So how did you deal with it - the stress?" He leaned back and put an arm around her shoulders.
"Well, I was determined that I was going to make it – because I dreamed about going to work with my best friend." She put her head over on his shoulder.
"So what you're really saying is you put your nose to the grindstone and ignored the competition?" He smiled down at her.
"Yeah, that too."
"Uh huh, I thought so." He kissed the top of her head. "Of course it really wasn't that hard for you to begin with – you were the smartest one there."
"I don't know about that – but being stubborn sure helped a lot."
They were both quiet for a minute. "I wonder how many of this graduating class are practicing in the LA area."
CJ leaned forward and started working on that. "Well, it seems there are quite a few. Not counting the victims, there are twenty three others."
Matt let out a low whistle. "No way we can babysit all twenty three of 'em." He pondered over it a little more. "But, we could advise them not to stay late at their offices." He pulled out his cell phone and called Hoyt.
"Have you gotten a break in the case?" Hoyt almost sounded hopeful.
"No, not exactly, but I have an idea. According to CJ, there are twenty three others from the class of '84 who are practicing in the LA area. What if we warned them against staying late at their offices? It won't catch the guy, but it could keep someone else from getting killed."
"Um. Why do I get the feeling that some of them would anyway? Still, I guess it's worth a try. Have you gotten any new information out of the widows?"
"No, they all appear to have been good guys from what I've been able to find out. But I do wonder about something: could it be a classmate that didn't graduate?"
"That is interesting. Very interesting." Hoyt was pulling the bottle of antacid out of the drawer.
"Have you had your yogurt today?" Matt knew what his friend was doing, even without seeing him.
"How in the hell do you know what I'm doing? Do you have one of those damn critters of yours stuck somewhere in my office? You do, don't you!" He got up from his chair and started searching. Matt covered up the phone to keep Hoyt from hearing him laugh. "I'm telling you, PI, if I find one of those things I'm gonna…"
"Hoyt, stay focused. Are you going to warn the other plastic surgeons?" He was having a hard time not laughing.
"Uh yeah, yeah, I can do that." The police detective was looking all over his office. Matt could hear him moving things around. "Alright, PI, where is it?"
"'Bye, Hoyt." Matt hung up the phone and burst into laughter.
"You know, that really wasn't nice…but it sure was funny." She cracked up. "That poor man. He'll get another ulcer trying to find a critter that isn't there."
"Okay, now that we've had some fun we need to find out about the non-graduates." They got back to work on the list and then started checking on the whereabouts of the nineteen who didn't make it to graduation.
