Detour From Oz

Chapter 14- Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

“Thank you for seeing us again Dr. Crane.” Detective Connors said with a small smile on his face.

“No problem; what can I help you with today?” Jonathan asked, already knowing the answer.

“Well, I am sure you heard of your colleague killing himself in the room his wife stayed in before she died.” Detective Franco spoke up. Jonathan put up a façade of sympathy.

“Ah, yes Dr. West; I certainly did hear about that.”

“Now, our sources told me you were here on the night he killed himself.” Connors said, with a squint of his beady eyes.

“Yes, and what shame too, I might have been able to talk him out of it.” Connors and Franco glanced at each other.

“Do you know why he would purchase a gun Dr. Crane? We found it in his office, with the suicide note. Apparently he was going to shoot himself, but he sliced his wrist instead.”

“Well I can imagine it’s because he lives on the more corrupt side of town.” Jonathan kept his tone calm, and his heart beat steady. “May I ask, what exactly does this have to do with me detectives?”

“Well, we have reason to believe that Dr. West had been behind these killings of patients.” They didn’t know how wrong they were. It almost sickened him to hear that they thought that fool could perform such a beautiful experiment.

“They were suicides.” Jonathan stated.

“Yes; but we thought maybe he was talking them into killing themselves. He does have a lot of complaints from some of his more… rational patients.”

“We guessed he was making patients feel horrible, so he could feel better about himself.” Franco speculated. Connors shot him a look and turned his attention back to Jonathan.

“We imagine you must be taking this upsetting news very difficult Dr. Crane; the two of you were considered to be close according to the personnel.”

“While I find his premature death unfortunate; I can’t say I that I feel anything but pity for him.” Jonathan said with the honesty absent from his sentence.

“Oh yeah, you and him had somewhat of a fallout right?” So that is where they were going with this. Their vague line of questioning told him that he was the actual suspect, not Dr. West.

“I wouldn’t call it that. I just found it unethical that he issued drugs—roofies at that, to my patient by without my consent.”

“I bet that made you enraged right Dr. Crane?” Franco inquired.

“Yeah, I heard he didn’t even get probation for forging your signature.” Connors pestered, hoping to provoke some type of reaction from Jonathan.

“Detectives, just because Dr. West was disreputable and wore tasteless ties, don’t mean I killed him.”

Riley sat on the couch with her legs Indian style. Her blonde hair was once again tamed by her black ‘bad hair day’ slouch beanie; and she wore simple pair of red skinny jeans and a black long-sleeved sweatshirt. She animatedly talked about that rush of adrenaline she felt when she stuck the needle in West’s arm. That same euphoric feeling was a feeling both of them shared; and Jonathan couldn’t be happier.  He unanticipated finding someone who understood him as well as Riley did. Jonathan never took the time to engage in an intimate relationship; his life’s work—the fear toxin, was the only thing that meant something to him. Never did he think in a million years, that he would be able to share that with someone. Everyone had told him he was frivolous for pursuing such research, but Riley was the one that actually was fascinated by it. The way her eyes lit up, and the way she asked a bunch of questions, reminded him of the days when he was just starting his research.