The dental school, on the hill overlooking Portland, occupied a tiny bit of the sprawling Oregon Health Sciences University campus. Inside the aging gray walls, every dental chair held a body with an open mouth.
Hovering beside a male student, Lacey watched him remove the decay from a little girl’s tooth. From Nick’s raised eyebrows and wide eyes Lacey knew he couldn’t believe the size of the cavity. She agreed. The cavity looked like a moon crater. Ten years old and the child had never been to the dentist. At least she was holding still while Nick worked. Some of the pediatric patients wiggled like...damn it! Lacey stepped closer and spoke in Nick’s ear.
“If you prep any deeper, you’re going to be doing a root canal instead of a filling.”
At her voice, Nick whipped the handpiece out of the child’s mouth and straightened his back. Lacey watched a flush shoot across his face and she silently grinned. She always flustered the male dental students. Nick swallowed dryly and Lacey saw his Adam’s apple bob below his blue mask. The little girl’s confused eyes blinked at Nick.
Good girl. Very patient with her wannabe dentist.
Lacey glanced at the clock, praying clinic hours were nearly over for Monday. Two hours left. She winced at the surging headache behind her eyes, inflamed by the bright fluorescent lights of the ancient clinic.
And aggravated by the stress of her weekend.
It wasn’t every day she discovered the missing skeleton of her best friend. After hours of being grilled by police on Saturday, she’d slept away the entire next day.
Tranquilizers deterred her nightmares.
She’d broken her cardinal rule by taking the tranquilizers. They were too easy to use for escape.
She’d been on an emotional seesaw since Saturday morning. A heartbreaking ride she hadn’t experienced since her mother died. Lacey rubbed at her temples. The emotions she’d carefully bottled were threatening to explode.
She’d avoided the phone all weekend. Her father had left several messages, but not nearly as many as Michael. She figured Michael had heard about Suzanne early on Saturday, a perk of being a newspaper reporter. Michael knew all about Lacey’s history and Suzanne’s. Every twisted bit of it.
Lacey wasn’t ready to talk.
Michael’s last phone message had said he’d come bang on her door if she didn’t answer the phone. That call had come in Sunday at 2:00 a.m., and Lacey knew he wasn’t bluffing. For an ex-boyfriend turned close friend he was way too protective. She’d sent a text message, “NOT NOW.” The phone calls stopped.
She should have talked to Michael. He would have warned her about today’s front-page newspaper article on the recovery. With her coffee in hand, she’d picked the paper off the front porch and felt her throat close as she read the headline. “Remains of the Co-Ed Slayer’s Final Victim Found in Lakefield.” Her throat had eased when her gaze found Michael’s byline. She’d immediately tossed the paper in the recycling, unread, knowing Michael would cut off his hand before he put her name in one of his articles.
In the crowded clinic, Lacey scanned the bustling mass of dental students, patients, and instructors. Not seeing any panicked students trying to catch her eye, she headed for the staff lounge. The bottle of Advil in her purse beckoned.
Making tracks for the clinic door, she stopped at the sight of fumbling fingers in a senior citizen’s mouth. Sighing, she slapped on a pair of gloves and placed her hands over Jeff’s to take control of his weak attempt at an impression of the woman’s lower teeth.
“Pull her lip out. Get the goop down into the vestibule and plant the tray firmly, or your impression won’t look anything like her teeth.” Lacey’s fingers deftly maneuvered the lower lip out of the way and settled the metal tray full of alginate impression material into the correct position. Jeff’s brows were tight in concentration and he glanced at his watch.
“How long should it take to set up?”
“Don’t look at your watch.” She tapped a gloved finger on the sticky pink goo oozing over the woman’s lip. “Just test the texture every twenty seconds or so. When it’s no longer sticky and feels firm, it’s done. It won’t be more than a minute or two.”
Jeff seriously nodded and proceeded to test the alginate every five seconds. Lacey tried not to roll her eyes.
Lacey forced herself to wait with him until the impression was finished. Trying to ignore her blistering headache, she glanced at the Panorex film on the view box, and her gaze flew to the handwritten date on the edge.
“That’s a current film? You took that today?”
The film revealed the patient was edentulous on the maxilla—no teeth on top—and the remaining eight lower teeth each had barely six millimeters of bone holding them in place. A fraction of what it should be. Decades of gum disease had destroyed the bone support, and now the teeth were very, very wiggly.
Jeff nodded, concentrating on checking the sticky goo. “I took it this morning. I need an impression of her remaining teeth before her appointment next week, when we’ll extract them and get her prepared for a lower denture.”
Lacey bit her lip, trying not to grin. She looked around for another instructor, wanting to snag a witness. Darn it. No one was close.
The alginate was finally firm, and Jeff tugged halfheartedly at the tray in the woman’s mouth. Strong suction was keeping it firmly in place.
The patient had an odd look in her pale eyes, but Lacey knew what was about to happen wouldn’t hurt. “Slip a fingertip under the edge to break the seal, then lift.” Lacey mangled the words as she fought to keep her laughter in check. Jeff gave a strong yank.
“Holy crap!”
Jeff dumped the tray in the woman’s lap and sprang out of his chair as his shout rang through the noisy clinic. All eyes turned in their direction. Five bloody teeth smiled at him from the pink goop in the tray.
The patient didn’t budge.
“You OK, hon?” Lacey asked, laying a hand on the woman’s shoulder.
The woman wiped at some alginate stuck to her lip and raised a brow as she took in the mess in her lap. “Didn’t feel a thing. Easiest tooth pullin’ I’ve ever had.” She touched the remaining three teeth in her mouth. “Can you take these out that way too?”
“Hmm.” Lacey tapped a toe, feeling her headache evaporate. “We’ll see what we can do. But definitely no charge for those extractions today.”