Hush

24

AS LAKE WAS about to toss the phone down, it rang yet again. It was a cell phone number she didn’t recognize

“Lake, hi, it’s Harry Kline. Have you got a minute?”

His voice had that familiar soothing tone, but she bristled at the sound of his voice.

“What is it?” she asked. Was he calling to forewarn her about her situation and then ask how she was feeling? she wondered bitterly.

“There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“If it’s about me getting my walking papers, I’ve already heard.”

“No, it’s more than that. Can you meet me this morning?”

“You can’t tell me over the phone?” she said impatiently.

“No. I’m at the clinic and I’m not comfortable talking here-even with my door closed. I could just hop in a cab and meet you. Are you home now?”

That was the last place she wanted to meet.

“Um, why don’t we meet in Riverside Park? By the entrance at Eighty-third Street. That would be easiest for me.”

He said he would be there in twenty-five minutes. She threw on a skirt and a top and pinned her hair up in a loose bun. Her mind raced, trying to figure out what Harry wanted to tell her. Things must be tense at the clinic right now. Harry may have overheard a heated discussion about her. Or perhaps he picked up on something in the air and began snooping around himself.

She was at the park ten minutes early. On the walk over she’d reassured herself that nothing could happen in daylight on a busy street, but she was still hypervigilant. There weren’t many people in the park-an elderly woman tossing birdseed to pigeons, a few mommies and nannies watching toddlers in a sandbox. People were away on vacation. Like she used to be in August.

“Lake?”

She spun around in surprise at the sound of Harry’s voice. He’d also arrived early. He was dressed in his standard dark pants and cobalt-blue dress shirt.

“Thanks for meeting me,” he said. “Shall we find a bench?”

They walked farther into the park. Across the Hudson the buildings in New Jersey gleamed in the sunshine and through the trees she saw a speedboat slicing through the water, leaving a row of foam. It made her remember last night, holding on to the pylon for dear life in the deep, dark water. Harry motioned for them to take a seat on an empty bench.

“So what is it you need to talk about?” she asked. As she caught his eyes, she was shocked at how troubled they seemed.

“Look, I may be on the periphery of things at the clinic,” he said, “but I’m involved enough to know that something isn’t right.”

It was all Lake could do to keep from shaking the words out of Harry.

“What do you mean exactly?” she said.

“I don’t like what’s going on with you.”

“With me?” she blurted out.

“The way they’ve just suddenly terminated your agreement.”

“I told you I was aware of that,” she said. “I haven’t received the letter but I hear it’s on the way.”

“But are you aware of what they’re saying?”

“No-what?” she said hoarsely.

“As soon as I heard that they’d ended things with you, I asked Levin why. He said that you’d been unprofessional. In fact, he said some of your behavior could even be categorized as unethical.”

“What?” Lake exclaimed in shock. “Did-did he explain what he meant?”

“He said you’d been caught going through patient records. I pointed out that part of your job is to gather information, but he said he had reason to believe that you were passing confidential details about our procedures on to another clinic.”

Lake’s eyes welled up in anger.

“That’s a lie,” she said. “I would never do something like that.”

Harry leaned back against the park bench, his face pensive. A light breeze lifted the waves of his black hair. “Do you have any idea why he’s claiming it, then?”

“I-no, I don’t,” Lake said. She wondered why Harry was sharing all this with her. Was he trolling for information of his own?

“You don’t know? Or you don’t want to share it with me?”

“Maybe I should start by asking what your role is in this,” Lake said. “Why are you being so forthcoming?”

Harry bit his lip, as if hesitant to say.

“We’ve only known each other a few weeks, but I like you, and I respect you a lot,” he said after a moment. “It’s hard for me to buy what Levin said. And I want to help you if I can.”

“Help me?” Lake asked. She could feel her anger close to the surface. “Like you helped me when you told the police things about me?”

“What are you talking about?” Harry asked, looking surprised.

“When we were having coffee last Sunday, you pointed out that I’d seemed unusually upset after the murder. And then suddenly the police are at my apartment, telling me that someone told them the same thing.”

He took a deep breath and leaned toward her.

“So that’s why you were so cool to me the other day. Lake, I give you my word-I never said anything about you to those detectives. For starters, I’m a therapist, and breaking a confidence runs against every instinct I have as a person and everything in my professional training. Secondly, I’d never do anything to hurt you.”

She studied his face as he spoke. His eyes, his mouth, his body language-everything suggested he was telling the truth. But as he’d just pointed out, he was a therapist, someone all too familiar with how people could be manipulated and fooled.

“Look,” he added. “I can see that you’re still skeptical. So I’m going to admit something that seems ridiculous to put out there right now, but it may lend me an ounce of credibility.”

He lifted his shoulders and flipped over both palms in an almost boyish gesture. “The reason I asked you for coffee the other day is that I was looking for an excuse to be with you. I’d like to go out with you, Lake. So the last thing I would have wanted is to put you in any kind of weird situation with the cops.”

Lake almost laughed at the sheer absurdity of it all. People were trying to kill her, the cops might suspect her of murder, and this guy was confessing a crush on her.

“I don’t know what to say,” she said. “I mean-”

“There’s no need to say anything at the moment. We can cross that bridge later. The thing we need to deal with right now is your situation with Levin and Sherman. There’s obviously been some kind of terrible misunderstanding and we should clear it up. I’d be happy to intervene.”

Lake shook her head emphatically.

“Thank you, but once I get the letter from Levin and have a chance to digest what he’s saying, I’ll make my case with him myself.”

“Is there anything I can do, then?”

Should I tell him? Lake wondered. What if she enlisted him rather than Maggie to search through the files? But despite how genuine he sounded, she felt a lingering suspicion about him. And she needed to stick with the plan she worked out with Archer.

She glanced at her watch. She wanted to position herself near the coffee shop at just a little after noon so as not to risk missing Maggie.

“No, Harry, but thank you. Look, I have an appointment and I need to get back.”

“I’m off for the rest of the afternoon, but I’ll be at the clinic tomorrow,” he said. “Let me know how it goes, okay?”

“Will do.”

They stood and walked back toward the entrance. Two boys, nine or ten years old, whooshed by them on skateboards, their faces tight with concentration. One made Lake think of Will, pinching her heart. At the same moment she felt a cloud pass over the sun and she glanced up instinctively. She quickly said goodbye to Harry and hurried home.

Back in her apartment, she made coffee and paced. She felt outraged about the approach Levin was taking-telling people that she’d engaged in some kind of espionage for another clinic. Word would get around in her professional circles and the story could dog her for years, perhaps even ruin her business. Was this Levin’s backup plan? If he couldn’t manage to kill her, he’d destroy her reputation?

If, of course, Levin was the one behind it all. What if someone else at the clinic was the mastermind of the embryo stealing? Maybe it was Sherman, in cahoots with Hoss. Or, if he’d found the right person in the lab to assist him, even Steve might have been able to pull it off. It would be in his interest, too, to keep the clinic’s success rate high. If it was someone else, that person could have convinced Levin that Lake was stealing information-while also arranging to have her attacked.

She hailed a cab at 11:40 and was outside the coffee shop by 12:05. She felt exposed standing right in the front of the restaurant, so after a few minutes she ducked into the doorway of the shoe store next door, where she’d still be able to see Maggie coming. As she waited, she rehearsed what she’d say to Maggie. She would have to sound very credible, especially if Maggie had been told that Lake was a spy.

By 12:40 Lake started to worry. Based on her routine, Maggie should have been there by now. Maybe, in light of everything going on, Maggie felt the pressure to stay close to base. Lake shifted her position again and again because her body still ached from last night. Please, please come, Maggie, she pleaded in her head.

And then Lake saw her. She’d made the turn onto Lexington and was hurrying up the block, her shoulders slumped and her face blank. She was wearing another pretty dress today and carrying the same tiny summer purse-the reason she’d left Keaton’s keys in her desk.

“Hi, Maggie,” Lake said, stepping out from the doorway. “I hate to interrupt your lunch today but I was hoping I could sit with you for a few minutes.”

Maggie shook her head back and forth.

“That’s not-that’s not a good idea,” she said.

“Could I just talk to you out here for a few minutes, then?”

Maggie looked off, refusing to make eye contact.

“I’m sorry-I can’t.”

Lake’s heart sank.

“But why not, Maggie?” she asked. “What have I done to upset you?”

“It’s not me. It’s what you’ve done to the clinic. Dr. Levin told me all about it. He said you’ve been giving another clinic confidential information of ours-information about the techniques we use.”

“Maggie, I need you to understand the truth. Yes, I did look through a few files but not so I could pass the information to other doctors. I think the clinic is transferring some couples’ embryos to other women without anyone’s permission. That’s the real reason they want me out of there.”

Maggie’s brown eyes flashed with anger.

“That’s not true,” she said defiantly. “Dr. Levin is an amazing man-he’s a miracle worker really. All he wants is to help people.”

“I’ve spoken to a patient whose embryos were probably stolen,” Lake said. She could hear desperation beginning to seep into her voice and tried to squelch it. “And last night a man attacked me. I’m almost positive he was hired by the clinic.”

Maggie shook her head again.

“I don’t believe you,” she said. “That’s ridiculous.”

“But why would I just make all this up? What would I have to gain from it?”

Maggie raised her chin and looked Lake directly in the eye.

“Because Dr. Levin caught you stealing. And you need to cover your tracks.” There had been a slight hesitancy in her words, as if a part of her was still weighing what Lake had said.

“Maggie, over the last few weeks you’ve gotten to know me a little. Do you really think I’m capable of that?”

Maggie bit her lip. Have I made a dent, Lake wondered?

“I have gotten to know you a little, but I know Dr. Levin much better,” Maggie said. “And he’s the one I trust.”

She started to turn. Lake couldn’t believe it. This had been her chance and she’d blown it.

“Maggie, please,” she said. Lake reached for the nurse’s arm and grabbed it at the wrist. A man walking by with a bulldog caught the gesture out of the corner of his eye and swiveled his head in their direction. Lake dropped Maggie’s arm. “I can prove to you that what I’m saying is true-you just need to do one thing to help me.”

“I can’t,” she said. “I want you to leave me alone.”

Maggie rushed past her, started to enter the coffee shop, and then changed course, continuing north on Lexington. She obviously didn’t want to take the chance of Lake following her inside and pleading with her further.

Lake glanced around to make sure no one was watching her. Then she hailed a cab.

Now what, she wondered? letting her body sink wearily into the backseat. She’d banked everything on Maggie, which in hindsight was a stupid plan. Yes, Maggie seemed like a decent person, and, yes, Maggie had clearly liked her, but Maggie was also young and naïve. And probably fearful of getting involved in any way.

At home Lake poured a glass of wine and drank it with a piece of cheese-the only edible thing she had in the fridge. As she paced up and down the long hall in her apartment, she mentally ticked through the clinic’s other staff, wondering if she dared contact any of them for help.

Steve. He was her friend’s brother, the whole reason Lake was at the clinic to begin with. But as far as she knew, he might very well be in on things. Plus, she couldn’t ignore the fact that he hadn’t called to hear her side of the story or to ask if he could help. Which made her think of Harry. But she still didn’t know if she could trust him.

She glanced down and saw that she had drained the entire glass of wine. I need to get in touch with Archer and come up with a new plan, she thought. As she set her wineglass down, she heard her BlackBerry ring in her purse. Grabbing it, she saw to her shock that it was the number of the clinic. Could it be Maggie, she wondered, having a change of heart?

“This is Lake Warren,” she answered.

“It’s Rory,” the voice on the other end said, nearly in a whisper. “From Advanced Fertility.”

“Yes?” she asked. It was the last person she expected to hear from.

“I know something,” Rory said. “I think you should know it, too.”