“That’d be great, C.C.,” Eugene agreed. “I’ll see you there at eight.”
“Eight o’clock it is.” C.C. reached just far enough off his chair to hang up the phone.
So it was all set. Over dinner at the most expensive steak house in Atlanta, they’d meet with the State Democratic sub-chairman to nail down plans for C.C.’s grand announcement for the governor’s race.
It had to be classy and steeped in judicial decorum, something he’d learned early on from the other members of the bench. Judges could get away with pretty much anything if they just kept looking judicial, and even more so if they spoke with their robe on.
But damn, he’d have to invite Betty up from Dooley County for the El Grande Candidacy Announcement Celebration. Somehow, he’d have to ditch Betty and sneak Tina over. This would take some doing.
Think…think…think!
Betty’s presence in Atlanta would mean he’d have to say bye-bye to any thoughts of an after-party with Tina. C.C.’s pink fuzzy would be pissed beyond belief. She loved special moments together.
How on earth could he maneuver this?
Oh, hell, he’d just have to burn that bridge when he got there.
He opened his top drawer and pulled out his flask. It was cool and comforting, smooth and familiar to the touch. It had seen him through some mighty tough times, mighty tough. He needed it now-and how.
The phone call with Eugene arranging tonight’s meeting put him so on edge he could barely throw back a drink.
Shit. There was something freaky about that man, always so damn secretive, so damn uptight, meticulously demanding all sorts of details about C.C.’s calendar and whereabouts.
But hey…who gave a crap? C.C. was packing for the state capital, thanks to Eugene.
He took a pull before his secretary could barge back in. Now that was nice… bourbon, room temp. Why spoil it with ice?
36
New York City
PATIENTS CAME AND WENT. THE AFTERNOON DWINDLED AND DISAPPEARED before Hailey looked out the double windows into the courtyard again, and when she did, darkness was settling across the Village.
The building was silent-no more muffled noises seeping up through hardwood floors. The ring of office phones, doors below opening and closing, muffled laughter of receptionists and dental hygienists and their patients, even the occasional strains of dentist-office Muzak had all ceased for the day.
Hailey clicked off one of the floor lamps near the foyer and walked through the office, straightening things here and there, wondering uneasily why Melissa never called back.
It wasn’t necessarily uncharacteristic of her to ignore a message-but she usually kept her appointments, and when she couldn’t, she always called to cancel.
According to the microwave’s clock, glowing green in the darkened kitchen, it was already six fifteen.
Hailey dialed over to Dana to ask if she’d like to have dinner, deciding to forgo running the East River in lieu of companionship tonight. No answer.
That was strange. Dana always stuck her head in to say good-night.
Hailey considered trying to catch her on her cell, then opted not to.
Maybe it was a blessing in disguise; she’d logged eight hours straight without a lunch break, then another hour’s work on an article she hoped to publish, about the origins of self-hatred. Her session with Hayden today had infused her with new thought and perspective, but also left her tired, more mentally than physically.
She had noticed dark circles showing under her eyes in her office bathroom earlier that afternoon when she’d splashed water on her face between patients.
Okay. So maybe she’d still skip her jog and try her best to sleep. But before she left the office, she’d try Melissa one more time. She flipped open her appointment book and dialed the number.
“Hi, it’s Melissa…I’m not here, so please leave me a message. I promise I’ll call you back.”
The simple greeting was somehow haunting, almost wistful. Maybe a tiny clue of a yearning for a childhood lost.
“Hey, Melissa…it’s Hailey again.” She made sure her voice was casually upbeat. Melissa didn’t need a guilt trip over the missed appointment. “I wanted to check with you about rescheduling today’s session. I know you have my home and cell.”
Hailey hung up, hearing footsteps heading up the hallway and into Dana’s office.
She hurriedly threw the rest of her things into her bag, closed and locked her door, and crossed the hall. She’d make a peace offering of dinner at Candle Café, one of their favorites.
“Dana?”
No reply, but the door was ajar, so Hailey slipped in.
Darkness and an eerie quiet blanketed the room, though Hailey could hear distant music from a radio somewhere in the building.
“Dana?”
Maybe she wasn’t here after all. Where was she? Hailey had just heard her come back up the steps. The door was unlocked, but Dana, like the dentists downstairs, wasn’t concerned about security. She often said that if anyone wanted to steal anything from her cluttered office, they were welcome to it.
“Dana?”
Hailey glanced out Dana’s windows across the street at the vacant building under reconstruction, looking shell-shocked in the night. She was so glad she had ended up with the back office-what a dismal view.
She turned away and spotted Dana’s office trash can, tipped over by the door, Hailey’s kidnapped Post spilling out of it.
Trash can spilling, no good-bye, and no returned Post as customary…Dana must have really been in a hurry tonight. She usually returned the paper every afternoon, with the same clocklike regularity as taking it.
Well, hopefully she was on a date, although Vegas odds were next to nothing Dana could have a date and not talk about it for days ahead of time.
She fished the Post out of the trash, the pages out of order. She went over to Dana’s coffee table to spread it out neatly, reassembling it in order to read it on the way home.
Pages two and forty-three, joined at the spine, were missing.
She made another trip to the trash can and found the missing pages, oddly singled out, balled up tightly and buried in a pile of discarded bills and psych journals.
Hailey flattened the missing pages out on the table.
She froze. The grainy black-and-white photo.
It was Melissa.
Melissa Everett was on page two.
Melissa was the dead girl…the girl they’d found on the East Side last night.
An anguished, painful moan came from somewhere far away.
It took a moment for Hailey to recognize that it had come from the back of her own throat.
She tried to hold up the paper to look again at the photo, but her hands were shaking erratically, as if they belonged to someone else. She saw them, but couldn’t make them stop. Ice water ran through her veins, instead of warm, red blood.
She stumbled toward a cushioned chair to sit down in the darkened room.
Yes…sit down and read the article…there had to be a mistake…Melissa couldn’t be dead…she was scheduled for an appointment…Hailey could help her…
Before she could make it to the chair, quietly, out of nowhere, someone came up behind her.
She sensed movement, started to turn, but it was too late.
A crushing blow landed on the back of Hailey’s head and neck.
Pain shot through her face as she tried to stand, but she tumbled forward from the momentum of the blow. Careening across the sidearm of the chair, she went down hard onto the sharp corner of Dana’s coffee table.
Warm blood began to seep from just behind her temple. Through dark gray swirls that were closing in on her, she saw a pair of blue-jeaned legs approach her at floor level. One of them was limping.