Pretending Perfection

Melanie 49-year-old Melanie Sherman felt her head slowly lowering as the dentist adjusted the chair she lay in. “How have you been?” the dentist asked with a smile. “Not very good,” said Melanie. “I lost my husband in an accident a month after I was last here nearly a year ago.” Dr. Patton’s smile dropped in an instant. “Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that.” “Yeah, it’s been rather rough,” said Melanie. “I’m slowly coming around.” “Oh…” said the dentist, placing a sympathetic hand on her arm and suddenly at a loss for words. “I’m so sorry for your loss, but I’m also glad to hear you’re pulling through. You know, I don’t know you very well, but you always struck me as a rather strong individual.” “Thanks, Doc, though I don’t always feel it.” The doctor smiled warmly with sympathy and continued on her task of cleaning Melanie’s teeth. Despite the hell she’d been through, Melanie was at least grateful to have a kind and competent dentist. The woman was what Melanie would describe as pleasantly plain. She had a great body, which Melanie guessed to be somewhere in its 40s, but the rest of her was very ordinary. Light eyes and light, straight blond hair worn in a ponytail that fell to her waist. Her bangs were swept to the side. The doctor was petite, much like herself, but she guessed her to be the same height—5’5”. She was a very pleasant, easygoing woman who was probably open-minded and easy to get along with. After her teeth were clean, it was agreed that Melanie would return the following day to have one cavity filled. When she returned, Pippa, the office manager, told her to take a seat. “Unfortunately, the doctor had to run out for something urgent, and she might be a few minutes late.” “That’s okay,” Melanie told her. “I don’t really have much else to do at the moment anyway.” She noticed the look of pity in Pippa’s eyes as she smiled softly at her. Melanie’s gaze dropped back to the game she was playing on her smartphone. She was the only one in the waiting room until the door opened a few minutes later. She glanced up to find a scruffy-looking guy who looked like he hadn’t had a shower in days and a shave in even longer. “Can I help you?” asked Pippa. “Yeah,” said the guy as he raised a gun. “Where’s Gisselle?” Pippa muttered, “Oh my God, oh my God,” as Melanie’s body tensed up. Melanie glanced from the guy’s back to the door. Maybe she could quickly sneak out since he was facing Pippa. The guy suddenly spun around and faced her. “Don’t even think of it!” he shouted. In the split second that he had turned to face Melanie, Pippa dove into the back area of the office. The guy was suddenly faced with indecision. He could either go after Pippa, or he could make sure Melanie didn’t leave the waiting room. He decided to do both. He fired a shot at Melanie and then ran toward the back of the building where Pippa had fled. But the bastard hadn’t hit Melanie, and she was able to quickly scramble outside just in time to stop the good doctor from entering the building. “D-don’t go in there!” she stammered. “What in the world is wrong?” the dentist asked with alarm. “Some guy’s in there shooting.” She looked down at her empty hands. “Oh no. My phone is still in there. Come on, let’s get away from here and get to a phone. We’ve got to call for help.” “I have a phone,” Dr. Patton said, pulling a smartphone out from her messenger bag. She quickly dialed 911, and Melanie took the phone from her before she was even aware that she had taken it. As soon as the dispatcher answered, Melanie spoke. She gave the name and address of the office. “A guy just came in with a gun and demanded that Pippa, who works in the office, tell him where Gisselle was. Gisselle is one of the assistants… No, I don’t work there. I’m just a patient, and this is the doctor’s phone because my phone is still in there… I was able to run out when he focused his attention on Pippa after she tried to run to the back of the building… Sure, hang on.” Melanie then passed the phone to the doctor. “Hello, this is Dr. Teresa Patton… Yes, I am the owner. I just returned from running an errand when my patient ran out the door and stopped me from entering.” She suddenly nudged Melanie forward and away from the office. “Okay, we’ll get in my car and drive down to the station right now.” The dentist ended the call and slipped her phone inside her bag. “Come on. This way.” Melanie followed the woman to a late-model Lexus. Inside the shiny, sea-green car, the dentist quickly started it and maneuvered out of the parking lot. “Okay, tell me everything that happened.” Melanie recounted the incident from the beginning. “Everything happened so quickly that I didn’t even have time to be all that scared,” she finished with. The dentist flashed her a quick look of gratitude. “Well, I really appreciate you keeping it together long enough to think fast and get out of there.” They didn’t say much else on the way to the police station. Once inside, they met with a detective. Detective Fergrove was a tall, wiry redhead with lots of freckles. He looked at the dentist and asked, “Do you have any idea who might be doing this?” “None. My assistant, Gisselle Rossini, has mentioned problems with an old boyfriend, but never did she express any fears that he may literally come after her like this.” “Did she mention any names?” The dentist shook her head. “If she did, I can’t remember any.” After the dentist provided any clues she could think of that might help the investigation lead to the identity of the shooter, Melanie gave her statement of what happened. “Anything else either of you can think of?” asked the detective. The dentist thought a moment and then shook her head. “I’m just afraid for my staff,” she said. “I understand. The negotiations experts are doing everything they can to bring everybody out of this unharmed.” The door to the small room in which the three of them had been talking opened, and a younger Black police officer entered. “Good news and bad news,” he said. “The good news is that no one has been harmed.” The dentist released a long, audible sigh of relief, and Melanie squeezed her hand with a triumphant smile. The dentist squeezed it back and then held it firmly between both her hands. The officer spoke again. “The bad news is that Cory Ennis escaped. We’re pretty sure that he got spooked out of doing anything to anybody when he realized that a call was being placed to the police and that there really wouldn’t be enough time for him to pull anything off or to abduct anybody from the scene, and so he fled.” “Oh my,” said the dentist. “That is both good and bad news.” The officer turned to Melanie. “Didn’t you say you dropped your smartphone in the waiting room?” “Yes, I did,” Melanie said, nodding. “No phone was found.” “That sucks to hear,” said Melanie. “Any personal information stored on it?” Melanie searched her mind for what was on the phone. “Well, I don’t have that many people in my contacts, and I’m pretty sure I don’t have any addresses on the phone. Just a few names and numbers, hers being one of them,” she said, nodding toward the dentist. “Who else was in your contacts?” “Nobody local. Other than the dentist and my landlord, there was just my sister in Florida, my friend in Massachusetts, and a cyber friend in Nebraska. There may have been a few other people, but I can’t think of them off the top of my head.” “Well, the less information the better,” said the detective as the redheaded detective continued to observe silently, “but you just never know if anything in there may lead directly to you. Therefore, we really think it’s best that you find someplace to stay until the guy is in custody. Any place you could stay tonight?” “No, there really isn’t.” The detective looked at the dentist and then his eyes shifted back to Melanie. “The department would like to put Miss Patton and her staff in a hotel until this matter is cleared, and I highly recommend you consider joining them.” “Okay,” said Melanie. “If the good doc here doesn’t mind the company, then I’m in.” Dr. Patton smiled for the first time since the incident. “Sounds like some of us might have some time on our hands, so…” she said with a shrug, “might as well have some company while we’re at it.” The others smiled as well, and Melanie had to wonder how the hell her life had become so adventurous so fast.