A Body in the Backyard: #4

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve 

"What?" Miles looked as though she'd suggested a trip to Mars instead of the dentist. 

"I'm proposing that you have a dental cleaning, Miles. Men are notoriously bad at scheduling visits to take care of their health and I'm a concerned friend." 

"Or a nosy one," muttered Miles. 

"Regardless. When was the last time you had your teeth cleaned, Miles?" 

Miles tightened his lips. 

"That long, huh? Well, this will be perfect. We'll head over to see Dr. Bass and I'll come along for moral support," said Myrtle. 

"My teeth are in wonderful shape. I've never even had a cavity." Miles sounded sullen. 

"They certainly won't stay that way for very long if you don't get them cleaned. You're clearly phobic, Miles. It's a good thing that I came along when I did," said Myrtle. 

"I have all my own teeth," said Miles, stressing the point. 

Myrtle blinked at him. "For heaven's sake. So do I! Just because I'm old doesn't mean I have dentures. How biased of you, Miles." Of course, most of her teeth had fillings in them, but she certainly wasn't going to tell him that. It was all due to the fact that the tap water hadn't had fluoride during her formative years.  

Miles groaned. "I can see I'm not getting out of this. I'd rather not see your dentist, though. Don't you suspect him of murder? It seems dumb for me to put myself in harm's way." 

"He's an excellent dentist. Besides, he's the only dentist in town." 

"I have a car. I could drive to another town to see a dentist elsewhere," said Miles. 

"Don't rub in the fact that you still own wheels, Miles. And there's no point in seeing another dentist, because the whole reason we're doing this is to find out what Dr. Bass's connection with Charles Clayborne was." 

"I thought the whole reason we were going was out of concern for my dental health," grumbled Miles. 

"We're knocking out two birds with one stone," said Myrtle coolly. "Besides, I think you owe me a favor." 

"For....?" Miles frowned at her. 

"Hosting a lovely reception for your cousin's funeral, of course." 

"Was it lovely?" Miles squinted doubtfully at the ceiling. "As I recall, it ended rather abruptly with a dead body on the premises." 

"That was, naturally, out of my hands. I had no idea there was a body outside my house," said Myrtle sternly. She pulled a small notebook out of her purse and opened it. "Here's his office number." Myrtle watched as Miles reluctantly walked over to the phone and made the appointment for the next morning. 

He sighed as he got off the phone. "Well, that's done. Tell me again why you're suspecting your dentist has something to do with all this?" 

"You remember my telling you about Elaine's new hobby, don't you?" 

Miles winced. "Yes. How is the hobby du jour going? Have you seen lots of headless people in her pictures?" 

"Mostly a lot of close-ups of Elaine's fingers. But I have seen one interesting thing. I've noticed that Dr. Bass keeps popping up in her pictures," said Myrtle. "He was in one of her pictures taken after the sudden ending of my reception." 

Miles shrugged. "He's a resident of the town. And the whole town was there. Maybe he just happened to be passing, wondered what was going on, and then decided to stop by."