Passenger- Part 7

Officer Parker conciously withheld the stomach acid that crept up his throat as he stood in the door way of the doctor's office. Doctor Gupta was a short man, at least in comparison to Parker's 6'3", and young. Parker thought to himself that Gupta was a funny little man and maybe a dead end as far as the investigation was concerned.


"Please, come in Officer Parker. Have a seat." The doctor pointed at the chair in front of his desk as he sat in his own chair behind the desk. "What can I do for you?"

Officer Parker sat down. He pulled a small note pad, and pen from his jacket. "I'm investigating a possible missing person who was last thought to have visited you on September 20th at 10:30 am. Her name is Deloris Tate."

Dr. Gupta turned to his computer and tapped at his keyboard quickly. "Tate. Tate.... Ok yes. I remember her. She came in with a possible head injury. I scheduled a CAT scan for her but she never showed up to it. Oh. This is the one that left her purse here." He picked up the phone on his desk. "Sandy, could you bring me Miss Tate's purse? Thanks."

Parker wrote in his notepad as Gupta made the call. His wrinkled brow indicated intrigue based on the context. But it was mostly distress he felt as sweat began to form on his head. The need to vomit was interfering with his concentration. "You say she had a head injury?"

Sandy walked in with the purse and Gupta motioned for her to hand it to Officer Parker.

"Well there were no physical indications of an injury but she complained of sleeping a lot, she was dissoriented...." Sandy held the purse out to Parker as if it were infected by something. It was covered in mud. ".... ahh.. and she was a mess. We needed to rule out any head trauma before moving forward."

Parker, who was holding the purse with one finger by it's strap turned to Gupta in amazement. "What kind of mess?"

"That kind." He said pointing at the purse. Gutpa replied. Parker peered down into the opening of the purse and pulled out a leaf. He marveled at it for a moment.

"She had dirt all over her. She had blood on her though I couldn't find a source so I assume it wasn't hers." Gupta explained.

"Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. A dissoriented, clearly distressed, possibley injured girl comes in here for your help and you just send her off on her own to get a CAT scan?" Parker raised an eyebrow as he looked at the doctor.

"Well... yeah. I mean... I advised her not to drive. She said she could get someone to drive her. There was no apparent wound. We get all kinds in here, Officer Parker. Domestic violence injuries, drug related stuff. To be honest it's none of my business if the patient doesn't offer the information."

"Did she say how she became such a..." Parker looked to the purse then to Gupta "...mess?"

Gupta shook his head. "I was way overbooked that day. It was a very brief visit."

"Is there anything else that stood out?" Parker asked.

"....Well considering the circumstances I should probably tell you we did run some labs on her."

"And?" Parker asked impatiently.

A look of discomfort painted Gupta's face. "Miss Tate is pregnant."