The Doctor

The Doctor
By Chris Taylor


Doctor Thomas Baker, formerly a medical officer for the navy, now spends his free time on his sailboat. Tom was discharged from the navy after a routine procedure on his friend David went horribly wrong and resulted in his death. Tom still suffers nightmares from the incident and has reoccurring flashbacks. Due to this, Tom rarely practices medicine these days; though sometimes acting as a consultant for a local hospital. Tom is also no longer a very personable person, his only companion and friend being his faithful black lab Romana. Even with an I.Q. of 150, his lack of “people skills” often leaves those who work around him at the hospital feeling insulted, belittled, and disrespected. No one at the hospital knows of Tom’s past, except for his personal secretary, Rose.

It was a beautiful, sunny day in late June. Tom was on his sailboat with Romana just watching the boats come in and out of Oak Bluffs Harbor. Tom's boat is a modest 25 footer with just a single mast with two sails. The cabin was not very large, just enough room for Tom and Romana to move around comfortably. Inside the cabin was a basic natural wood grain trim, which went nicely with the black appliances and furniture. It was a little difficult for Tom at times to run a sailboat alone, but it helped keep his mind focused and prevented him from thinking of his horrible accident. Tom had been vacationing on Martha's Vineyard since he was a small boy. Every summer Tom's parents would vacation there with the rest of Tom's family. It had become more than just a vacation spot for him. It was a home away from home. There was no where on Earth Tom felt more relaxed. Now that Tom had a boat of his own, he docked in the Oak Bluffs Harbor, which was right in front of the Wesley Hotel. The Wesley Hotel was the hotel Tom and his family stayed when he was a child and it brought him great memories.

Later in the evening, after the sun had set, Tom was relaxing in his cabin. He was reading a book to pass the time before he took the boat in to dock for the night. Suddenly, Romana started barking frantically and scratching at the door to get outside. Tom found this odd because whenever Romana had to go "out" she would simply circle and stare at him. Not knowing what else to do, Tom let her out and followed her to see what was causing her to act so crazy. It was dark, so he grabbed a flashlight as he left the cabin. Romana went straight to the bow of the ship and kept barking. Tom came up behind her with the flash light. He started shining the light around the boat first and found nothing. Once he shined it in the water, however, he discovered why Romana had been barking. There was a half dressed body floating in the water backside up. Judging by the long hair, Tom assumed it was a woman. After pulling the body on board with a net, Tom flipped the body over to try to resusitate it. He was horrified with what he saw. It was Rose. He was in shock. Tom tried mouth to mouth, but knew it was too late. Her body was bloated and had obvious been in the water quite awhile. Tom, in tears, ran into the cabin and called the police. As he waited for them to arrive, Tom's anger grew. He vowed to himself to catch whoever had done this to Rose. He went back to the deck and tried searching her body of any clues. Knowing her body had been in the water some time, Tom knew that any kind of fiber or DNA evidence would have been washed away. As he went over the body, he found marks around her neck. They didn't seem to normal strangulation marks; not made from human hands, rope, or wire. He also found a strange zigzag stab wound on her side. There were so many bruises on her body, but Tom could not tell if they had helped cause her death or if they happened while she was in the water. This was the best Tom could do on his boat in the dark. When the police boat arrived, they found Tom holding the body.

The officer who responded to the call was detective Harry Sullivan, a long time friend of Tom's. He was in disbelief when he came on board and found Tom holding Rose's body. He knew how close Tom and Rose were and couldn't believe that Tom had anything to do with this. After Tom told Harry what had happened, he asked Harry if he could help with the autopsy and the investigation. Knowing how intelligent Tom was and that most of his officers had never had to deal with a homicide, Harry agreed. When they reached the hospital, Harry had to go through protocol and take down Tom's statement. Following that, Harry instructed the coroner to allow Tom help autopsy the body. It was discovered that Rose had been killed before she had been dumped into the water. Tom analyzed the zigzag wound. He measured it to be approximately three inches long and it was very deep; deep enough to have punctured her right lung. The marks on her neck were crisscrossed and look like they could have been caused by a fishing net. Any evidence that might have been under her fingernails had been washed away. Judging by the contents of her stomach, Rose had been murdered around 2 a.m. the previous day. They sent out the contents of her stomach to get tested to see if it could be determined what she had ate. Hair and blood samples were also sent out for a tox-screen. Tom had to take a break; he couldn’t look at her body anymore tonight. So, he looked through the clothing that she had had on. It was a chilly evening but she had no coat. There was no purse or shoes either. She had been dressed as if she had been out socializing. He checked the pockets of her pants and found some money and a few business cards. There were three business cards, but the writing had been washed off. The first was a blue one, which Tom assumed was his. The others were a green one and a black one. Tom figured a good place to start would be finding some local business that had business cards that matched the colors of the ones found in Rose’s pocket.

Tom spent the following night walking up and down Circuit Avenue. This was where most of the bars in town were. First, Tom stopped in Dave's Island House. He showed the bartender a picture of Rose and asked if she had seen her the previous night. The bartender told Tom that she had seen her, but she had one drink and left alone. The next stop was The Lamppost, one of the more popular bars in town. Tom was friendly with staff here, as this was his island hangout. The head bouncer, Allister Stewart, had seen Rose in the bar the night before. Allister told Tom that she had spent most of the night upstairs because they had a live band playing that night. Tom asked him if he noticed her dancing with anyone. Allister told Tom that she was out on the dance floor, but did not notice if she was with anyone in particular. Tom thanked Allister for his help. As Tom was leaving, Allister handed Tom his card and told him to call him if he needed anymore help. Tom again thanked him and started walking down the street to the next bar. When Tom went to put the card in his pocket he looked at it and saw that it was black with The Lamppost logo on it. Tom figured that this card had to be the same as the one found in Rose's pocket. The next stop on Tom's investigation was The Ritz Cafe. Tom thought it would be odd that Rose had been in here since it was the dive bar of the island. However, Tom felt the need to stop in and ask questions anyway. Tom also knew the bartender that worked here. Her name was Leela. She had been working at The Ritz Cafe for many years and although Tom was not a big fan of the bar, he liked Leela very much. When Tom asked Leela if she had seen Rose he was surprised at the answer. Leela told him that Rose was in the bar the night before close to closing time. Without divulging what had happened to Rose, Tom continued to question her. Leela told him that Rose had stayed after the bar had closed and helped her clean up. Leela also said that she had offered to walk Rose to her hotel room, but Allister had stopped by and Rose had left with him. Tom felt that this was all he needed to know. He thanked Leela and headed back to the police station to share the information he gathered with Detective Sullivan.


Tom tried to call Harry on his way back to the police station, but the call went straight to voicemail. He found this odd considering the ongoing investigation. Tom arrived at the station a few minutes later and was surprised at what he saw. All the lights were off and the front door was cracked open. He knew that this could not have been good, but felt compelled to go in. He looked around his car for something to arm himself with, but all he had was a small flashlight and a screwdriver. He took it, figuring that is was better than nothing. He had Romana with him, but told her to stay in the car. Tom thought maybe Allister had found out that he knew Allister had lied to him and took extreme measures to set up a trap for him. The door creaked as Tom opened it. He shined his flashlight around the lobby and called out for Harry, no response. Tom was trying to keep his cool, but was very nervous. He started to make his way towards Detective Sullivan's office. As Tom turned the corner, he found a trail of blood leading towards Harry's office. He cautiously followed the trail and came upon the door to Harry's office. The door was closed and Tom figured this had to be a trap, but felt compelled to go in. Tom slowly opened the door just enough to shine his light and peak his head in. He saw that the trail of blood went behind Harry's desk. He then looked up and saw that the chair behind the desk was facing the opposite direction. After scanning the corners of the room, Tom went in and slowly walked up to the desk. He put his hand on the chair and spun it around. He was not expecting to see what he saw; it was Allister. He had been stabbed in the neck with what looked like the same object that had been used to kill Rose. He also had two business cards in his mouth. One was black, which Tom figured was one of Allister’s. The other was a green one. As Tom reached for the green card, he heard a noise and hid under the desk. He heard the door open and saw a light on the wall. The light then shut off and he heard the door close. Not knowing whether the person was gone Tom decided to wait a few minutes under the desk. He was glad he did because moments later he heard footsteps in the room and they were heading in his direction. As Tom crunched down as much as he could, he could see through the crack under the desk two black shoes standing in front of the desk.

Tom didn't think he was going to be able to get out of this situation. He thought that he was only moments away from being caught by the killer. Tom watched as the feet began to circle the desk. Suddenly, he heard Romana start barking. This startled the killer and he ran out of the room to investigate the barking. Tom thought the barking sounded awfully close. He was thankful that Romana didn't listen to him, but was also concerned for her safety. Luckily it was dark and she was a black dog. After Tom saw the light leave the room, he poked his head out from under the desk to make sure the coast was clear. As he entered the hallway, Tom still saw no signs of whomever it was in the office with him. He figured it would be best to just get out of the police station for the night. Tom started to make his way back to the parking lot hoping that Romana had made it back to the car. As he reached the front door, he heard a gunshot. Tom feared that his faithful dog had been shot. While he debated whether or not to go back and look for her, he heard a man scream in agony. Shortly after the scream, Romana came running out the front door towards Tom. Tom was so relieved to see her, but thought the celebration needed to be put on hold. They both jumped into the car and Tom raced back to the center of Oak Bluffs. It was about two hours after the bars called last call, but Tom stopped by The Ritz Cafe anyway hoping that Leela would still be there. Thankfully she was. Tom ran up to the door and started knocking frantically. Leela came out from the back and let him and Romana in. Tom told her what had happened, and she started calling all the police officers, both on and off duty, she knew.

While Leela called some of the police officers she knew, Tom called Harry to tell him what had happened. Harry told Tom he was going to call some back up and head for the station. Tom said he would meet him there. As he went to leave, Leela asked Tom if he thought he should really go back. Tom told her that he had to. She told him that she had some officers heading for the station. Tom and Romana hopped back in the car and started back to the police station. As Tom pulled up to the station, he saw Harry's car parked out front. Tom got out of the car, leaving Romana in the passenger's seat, and headed for the door. He was surprised when he reached the front door and Harry opened the door for him. Suddenly Romana started barking, but Tom just ignored her thinking she was mad that he left her in the car. Tom walked in and noticed that Harry was walking with a limp and had a cane, which had a lightning bolt on the top of it. When he asked Harry what had happened, Harry told him that he twisted his ankle. Tom and Harry walked down the hall towards the crime scene. Harry asked Tom to help him start processing it while they waited for other officers to arrive. Tom agreed and so they entered the office. Harry asked Tom to take a closer look at the body, so Tom moved closer to the desk. As he did, he heard the door slam shut and quickly turned around. Harry was pointing a gun at Tom and laughing. “Not as smart as you thought you were,” said Harry as he continued to laugh. When Tom asked him why he had done all this, Harry said, “Someone had to put you in your place. You walk around all pompous, thinking you are so much better than everyone. I had to do something to bring you down.” Tom was shocked and felt overwhelmed but figured that if he kept Harry talking it would buy some time for the other officers to get there. Tom then asked him why Rose; he said it was because she was the one closest to him. After a few more minutes, Harry knew that Tom was stalling. Then he heard the sirens of the other police cars pulling up. Harry seemed surprised. Then Tom told him that Leela was the one that called them. Harry told Tom to head toward the door. He was going to make him wave off the rest of the officers. As Harry opened the door to make Tom head back toward the entrance, Romana came bursting in like a cannon ball. She knocked Harry down and Tom was able to grab his gun. The back-up officers came in behind Romana and couldn't believe what they saw. Harry tried to tell his officers that it was Tom who was the murder, but Tom then pulled out his phone., which had been on the whole time. Leela along with the rest of the officers in the parking lot heard everything that was said. Harry had no way out. Tom had caught the man who killed his closest friend.