Hanging Time

51

Jason picked up the phone on the first ring. “Dr. Frank.”

“It’s Milicia.”

Jason waited.

“Am I calling at a bad time?” she asked after a beat.

“No, I’m between patients. I have a few minutes.”

“Jason, I’m so worried.”

Jason cringed just a little. The situation slipped into the background as he worried about a patient calling him by his first name. No matter what Milicia thought, they were in a clinical setting and had a clinical relationship. He didn’t allow anybody to use his first name in a clinical setting. His first name was reserved for colleagues and family members.

For a second he considered changing the footing by insisting they use last names. Then he elected to let it pass.

“Jason, what’s wrong?”

What was wrong was he let the temperature drop when she put him off. Now he let it drop some more.

“What’s going on?” he said finally.

“I’ve been so nervous since you opened this whole thing with the police. I can’t contain myself.”

Her voice took on a baby-talk quality. Childish was not a style that appealed to him. Jason had to remind himself that this was how Milicia acted with all men. It had nothing to do with him. She had learned to appear vulnerable because most men could be relied on to respond well to cute and cuddly. But Jason knew this girl had a steel blade for a heart.

“But you’ve been to the police.”

“I know, but it really weirded me out.”

Jason didn’t say anything. He could see how it would.

“I need to see you. I need to compare notes with you. We need to be together on this.”

“Why?” Jason looked at the bull clock on the shelf. He had thirty seconds before he saw his last patient. Then he was going to go out into the evening and get something to eat.

She’d already seen him that day. Why did Milicia need to see him again? He told himself that this was how she was with men. But at the same time, in the sleeping part of his mind, he thought maybe this wasn’t the way Milicia acted with all men. Maybe this was how she chose to be with him.

“Remember when you were a kid, and sometimes you had to go to a scary place that seemed to have monsters in the shadows? Well, I want you to tell me there are no monsters in the shadows. I want you to tell me my fears are silly. Jason, I need to feel protected, and you’re not protecting me.”

Jason shifted in his chair, genuinely irritated now. He was really put off when grown women talked baby talk to him. He struggled to shake off his annoyance. This was an open clinical situation. The idea of murder—homicide—was disconcerting. It was a horrible thing. He didn’t have patients who came to him worried their siblings were killers.

Milicia had held that piece of information back until the second murder. Horrible.

He felt manipulated.

“When I was there,” he said suddenly, “they gave me a tuna fish sandwich. I was surprised how homey it was.”

“You were at the precinct today?” Milicia jumped on the revelation. “What did you say?”

“Not today,” Jason told her. “I was there for something else.”

“Well, what did you tell them today? Tell me exactly what you said.”

“You were here. You heard what I said.”

There was a brief pause. “Are you sure?”

What did she mean? Jason couldn’t let it go by. What was she really asking?

“Do you think there’s something wrong with my memory?” he persisted.

“No, no.”

“Do you think I’m not telling the truth?”

“No, silly. Sometimes little things slip away, that’s all.”

The door closed in the waiting room. His next patient was there. It was time to go. Jason did not reassure Milicia there were no monsters in the shadows.