Constable Molly Smith 01 - In the Shadow of the Glacier

in the middle, a long colorful skirt, red eyes, and a clump of tissues held to her right cheek. She glared at the interlopers.
    “If I could have a couple of minutes of your time, Dr. Tyler,” Winters said. “On a police matter.” He smiled at the young woman, obviously in dental distress. “We won’t be long, Miss.”
    Tyler escorted them to the back. “You see how much we need subsidized dental care. That woman should have been to see me months ago. But she couldn’t afford it and now she’s in for a substantially larger bill. Don’t you agree, Mr. uh, what did you say your name was?”
    “I’m Sergeant Winters, and you know Constable Smith.”
    “Please sit down. Let me ask Rachel to bring in another chair, I won’t be a moment.” He headed for the door.
    “That’s not necessary, Doctor. I’ll stand,” Smith said, pulling out her notebook. “This isn’t a social visit.”
    “I suppose not.” Tyler settled himself behind his desk. His office was small, tucked behind the examination rooms. The practice was decorated in soothing shades of peach and pale green; soft music came from hidden speakers. “What can I do for you, Sergeant?”
    “Have you read the paper this morning, Doctor? Or listened to the news on a Kootenay radio station?”
    “Never do. Nothing but shootings and stabbings and wars and famine. I’m from Manhattan originally. I fled the urban jungle and moved my bride and my practice more than twenty years ago. My family tells me that New York has improved a great deal since then, but I don’t know whether or not to believe them. My mother is always trying to entice me back. More her grandchildren than me, I suspect.”
    Winters stepped into the flow of words. “You’re unaware there was a death in town last night?”
    The cheerful expression drained from his face. “Someone I know? It must be, because you’re here. My daughters and my wife, I saw them at breakfast not an hour ago. Don’t tell me….”
    “Your family’s fine, as far as we know,” Smith said from her place against the wall.
    The dentist blinked. “Then who?”
    “You’re friends with Mrs. Eleanor Montgomery?”
    “Ellie? Not Ellie?”
    “Mrs. Montgomery is in perfect health. Can you tell me what your relationship is with her?”
    A curtain closed over Dr. Tyler’s face. “We’re friends.”
    “Good friends?”
    “How do you define good, Sergeant? I meet a lot of people due to my practice and my participation in community affairs. I have good friends in New York I haven’t seen in years, but there are people in Trafalgar who I dine with on a regular basis without even knowing if they have children.”
    “Stop prevaricating, man.” The fellow couldn’t say one word if a hundred would do. “I asked you a straightforward question. Answer it.”
    Tyler looked at a framed picture on his desk. Winters couldn’t see what it contained, but he could guess. The happy Tyler family, no doubt. “Mrs. Montgomery told me that you and she were having an extramarital affair. Would you dispute that?”
    Color drained from Tyler’s face. Winters could almost feel the heat of Smith’s interest hitting him in the back.
    “Ellie can be blunt at times, Sergeant. She has scant interest in common social conventions.”
    “Is that a yes or a no?”
    “Perhaps you could wait outside, Molly?”
    “Constable Smith isn’t going anywhere, Dr. Tyler, at least not until we’re finished here. Did you have dinner last night at the Montgomery home?”
    “Yes.”
    “What time did you leave?”
    “Eight forty-five on the dot.”
    “You’re sure of the time?”
    “Ellie likes to keep a regular schedule.”
    “What time did you arrive at their home?”
    “Four. I close the practice early on Thursdays and Fridays.”
    “That was a long dinner.”
    Tyler looked up. “Why are you asking me all this, Sergeant?”
    “Reginald Montgomery died last night. Shortly before nine o’clock. It takes, what, five minutes to drive from the Montgomery home into town?”
    Tyler leapt to his feet with such force that his chair fell to the floor behind him. The long strands of his comb-over flapped to one side of his head. “Are you accusing me of killing him?”
    “Should I be?”
    “This is ridiculous. Get out of my office, now. I’m calling my lawyer.” He snatched up the phone.
    Winters remained seated. “It is, of course, your privilege to call counsel. Although I’m asking you a simple question. What were you