Her morning was busy with physio appointments. She worked with a seventy-two-year-old woman recovering from a hip replacement. She taught exercises to a thirty-something man dealing with a pinched nerve in his neck. A sixteen-year-old girl who’d broken her ankle playing soccer came in for work on the weight machines and got an extended lecture from Cindy about safe sex.
At lunchtime, she wandered around the corner of 3rd Street to St. Anne’s to eat in the cafeteria, but when she spotted the cardiac wing on the hospital sign, she took an impulsive detour and headed for Janine Snow’s office. She hadn’t seen her friend since the night of the murder.
Cindy asked the receptionist to get a message to Janine, and she sat down to wait. It was a typical doctor’s office. Old magazines. Soothing paintings on the wall. Children’s books and toys. The only other people in the waiting room were a black woman and her son. The boy was around ten, and he had his face pushed against an aquarium, making nose prints as he watched the brightly colored tropical fish.
‘Sherman,’ the woman called to her son. She was probably in her late twenties but had the tired posture and foghorn cough of an older woman. When he didn’t answer, she spoke more sharply: ‘Sherman, you look at me right now.’
The boy turned away from the aquarium and folded his arms across his chest. ‘What?’
‘See if this nice woman here would like a cup of coffee.’
Cindy smiled. ‘Oh, I’m fine, thank you.’
‘No, it’s the polite thing to do,’ the woman said. ‘He has to be polite. Sherman Aloysious, what did I say?’
With an exaggerated sigh, the boy wandered to a coffee urn on a corner table and filled a Styrofoam cup. The woman winked at Cindy. ‘We named him after his grandfathers, but truth to tell, he’s not so fond of either name.’
Sherman Aloysious brought Cindy a cup of coffee, and she thanked him profusely. He was at that little-boy stage where his ears had grown faster than the rest of his head, and his skinny arms and long legs looked out of proportion. Even so, he was cute. She won him over enough to get a shy smile, and he returned to his previous job of studying the fish.
‘You here to see Dr. Janine?’ the woman asked, with a hint of concern. People who came to see Janine typically had big problems.
‘I am, but I’m not a patient. Janine’s a friend.’
‘Oh, I’m glad she has friends. Awful thing she’s going through. She’s a good woman.’
‘Yes, she is,’ Cindy said.
‘The police should just leave her alone,’ the woman announced defiantly, ‘instead of hassling her the way they are. Damn cops.’
Cindy didn’t identify herself or her husband. ‘The police have a job to do. I’m sure everyone just wants the truth to come out.’
The woman shook her head. She had a narrow face with too much eye makeup, a big pile of dark hair, and a curvy, over-padded figure. ‘Wish I could believe that’s true,’ she said, ‘but you know how it goes. Woman gets too uppity, men want to tear her down. That husband of hers is no big loss.’
‘Did you know Jay?’ Cindy asked.
She shook her head. ‘I know his type, that’s all. Think a white wife makes them God’s gift.’
‘Well, the whole thing is a tragedy,’ Cindy said.
‘You’re right about that.’
Cindy got up and crossed the small office and sat down next to the woman. ‘Is he your only child?’ she asked, nodding at the boy.
‘Lord, no, three more back home. All girls. He’s the oldest. My husband’s watching the others. Didn’t think Dr. Janine needed the whole clan running around. My boy was born with a heart problem. Started getting worse last year. We thought we were going to lose him, but Dr. Janine saved his life. Believe me, I love that woman to pieces. It makes me mad to see the police and the newspapers talking about her the way they do. Anybody says something bad about Dr. Janine around me, I’ll kick their ass.’
Near the aquarium, the boy giggled at his mother’s language. Looking at him, Cindy could see the beginnings of a zipper scar on his skin, where his loose T-shirt hung on his chest.
‘Want the truth?’ the woman went on. ‘I don’t much care whether Dr. Janine killed her husband or not. Everything that woman does for people? All the lives she saves? I say, put that man in the ground and move on. Give her a medal or something for who she is. The world needs her doing what she’s doing.’
Cindy gave the woman a weak smile but didn’t reply. The trouble was that even people who defended Janine still thought she’d pulled the trigger. This woman didn’t believe that Janine was innocent. She simply didn’t care if Janine was guilty.
‘Cindy,’ said a Texas voice. ‘This is a surprise.’
Janine stood in the doorway in a white coat over her blouse and skirt. She looked better than she had on the night of the party. She was calm, strong, a professional — not a woman suspected of murder.
‘I’m sorry to barge in on you,’ Cindy said. ‘Do you have five minutes?’
‘I suppose.’ Janine nodded at the woman next to Cindy. ‘Toiana, do you mind?’
The woman waved a hand. ‘You two friends take all the time you want. We’re just fine here.’
Janine led her into her office. Cindy had been here many times, but it felt different now, and she felt out of place. Janine sat down behind her desk and said what Cindy was thinking. ‘You probably shouldn’t be here, you know. We shouldn’t be talking. Your husband and my lawyer wouldn’t be happy with us.’
‘I don’t care,’ Cindy said. ‘Do you?’
Janine laughed, showing a little bit of her old self. ‘Not really.’
‘So how are you?’
‘Trying to go on with my life as if nothing was happening,’ Janine replied. ‘Which is impossible, of course.’
‘Sure.’ Cindy bit her lip and then said: ‘I just wanted to tell you that I believe you about Jay. I told Jonny you didn’t do it.’
‘I appreciate that. Most people seem to have their minds made up about me.’
‘You have lots of defenders.’
‘I’m not so sure. Everywhere I go now, people suddenly stop talking. I realize it’s because they were gossiping about me and Jay. And not because they think I’m innocent.’
‘That woman outside thinks you’re a saint.’
Janine didn’t look comforted. ‘Oh, patients, yes. You save a life, they love you forever. Mind you, if you fail, they hate you just as much. I’m not comfortable with it either way.’
She got up and went to the window. She put a hand on the glass, and when she took her fingers away, the warmth left behind a ghost of steam. ‘I’m not looking forward to facing a jury of my peers,’ she added. ‘I don’t have peers. I know how arrogant that sounds, but I don’t. I’m not sure an ordinary person could understand my life.’
‘It won’t come to that,’ Cindy said.
‘Yes, it will. Let’s not kid ourselves. There’s a courtroom in my future.’
‘Jonny won’t ignore evidence that exonerates you.’
‘Maybe not, but it’s hard to dislodge an idea in someone’s head, once it puts down roots.’
Cindy wanted to say something more, but Janine held up a hand to stop her. Her friend came closer. For a moment, Cindy thought Janine might hug her, but she stopped short. Janine wasn’t a physical woman in that way. She shied away from sentiment.
‘Listen, you should probably go,’ Janine told her. ‘I appreciate your coming to see me, though. Really. No one does now, if they don’t have to. I’m a pariah.’
‘I’m always here if you need me. If there’s any way I can help you, I will.’
‘Thank you.’ Janine looked at her in a strange way, as if seeing her for the first time. Cindy wondered what she saw. For a woman who was typically self-confident and happy with her life, Cindy felt a nagging sense of inferiority around Janine Snow.