The Body Mafia by Stacy Dittrich

killed Michael. They had been close to making arrests in the investigation before Michael died. He had told me he would be wrapping things up in several weeks, so why was everything being held up now?
    Knowing I wouldn’t get any answers today, I gathered my things and decided to leave for Cleveland early. As I picked up my briefcase, my eyes fell to the calendar that lay on my desk. The holidays were right around the corner. I hadn’t paid attention to the changes in weather or the festive lights going up on my neighbor’s homes. I had been living in my own distorted reality. We always celebrated Christmas and Thanksgiving in a big way at our house. Our yearly ritual of decorating the house right before Thanksgiving, picking out a Christmas tree, and making Christmas cookies would not come this year. This year, I would be totally alone, and it scared me to death.
    I poked my head in Naomi’s office and told her where I was going and why. She still seemed a little miffed, but not to the extent that she’d been earlier. She even offered to go with me, but I declined.
    During my drive, I called Dr. Schmidt’s office and requested an appointment with him. The secretary immediately informed me that she had been told to relay a message that Dr. Schmidt would not speak tome unless he was in the presence of his attorney, and furthermore, that no interview would occur unless he was being charged with a crime.
    Expecting the same treatment at Dr. Esposito’s office, I was not surprised when his plastic wife glared at me as soon as I walked in the door. The waiting room was full of patients, so she waited until I got to the receptionist’s window before banning me from the office.
    “You are no longer welcome here, and you need to leave. Unless you have a search warrant or criminal charges against my husband, he doesn’t want to speak to you. If you don’t leave, I will be forced to contact the local police and have you removed,” she ordered.
    “How long did you have to practice that little dissertation for you to remember it? Since you probably don’t even know the definition of words like search warrant or criminal charges , I assume you must have all that written down in front of you somewhere. On that note, I’ll leave. No need to contact the locals.” Smiling, I left the office.
    Something had caused the turnaround from the doctors. Of course, they could’ve simply contacted their attorneys and explained my visit. Any attorney who had successfully passed the bar exam would tell them not to talk to me. I wouldn’t either, if I was them.
    Since it was nearing the end of the day and I didn’t want to go home, I decided to sit in my car and wait for Dr. Esposito to leave again. Maybe this time I’d follow him somewhere that actually linked him to my case. However, when he did leave, I didn’t believe that his drive to the nearest hotel to meet atwentysomething blonde would be the thing to do it. Not that his extramarital affair was against the law, but I snapped a few pictures anyway. They might have come in handy down the road if I had to turn his wife against him. If not, I could shove them in her face for the sheer thrill of it. After driving past Dr. Schmidt’s already-closed office, I headed home.
    It was dark by the time I pulled into my driveway. Seeing my own dark, looming house made me remember how it had once been. It made me remember how I couldn’t wait to get home. How when I’d walked through the door, my family barraged me with hugs and kisses. Michael would be cooking one of his specialty dishes in the kitchen, filling the house with wonderful aromas. Now it was cold and unfriendly, and I ached for those times.
    I couldn’t bring myself to go in just yet, so I sat out on the front porch swing for a while. The air was cold. After living in Ohio most of my life, the smell in the air alone told me snow was coming. Not that it mattered; there wouldn’t be any skiing, sled-riding, or making snowmen