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.”
25
LAKE CHECKED THE surge of hope that had already begun to build in her. She’d had a similar call hours earlier from Harry. And though he’d disclosed Levin’s latest tactic against her, it hadn’t been the kind of information she’d needed.
“What’s it about?” Lake asked. “I assume you know I’m not with the clinic anymore.”
“Yes, I know that. Everyone does. But”—and she lowered her voice even more—“I overheard Maggie talking to Chelsea. I know what you told her.”
“Yes?” Lake asked quietly.
“It made me think. You see, something funny happened here recently. Something maybe you should know about.”
Lake wondered if this was finally it—the break she had desperately longed for.
“What happened?” Lake asked. She realized she was whispering, too.
There was a pause. Lake sensed that Rory had turned around and checked behind her.
“I’m afraid to talk about it right now. I can’t believe I’m even calling you from here—someone might overhear.”
Quickly, Lake tried to think of a plan. “Do you want to come to my place? After work. We could talk here.”
“No. I can meet you after work, but I don’t want to go to your place. Someone from here might see me going into your building.”
“Your place, then?” Lake asked. She remembered that Rory lived north of the city; Lake could drive there.
“That’s too far,” Rory said. “I’m all the way up in Bedford Hills. Oh gosh, I don’t know. Maybe I—”
“I’ve got an idea,” Lake said, her mind forming the plan as she spoke. “There’s a little piano bar in the Eighties. It’s not far from the clinic, but no one on staff would ever go there. Why don’t we meet there when you finish up today?”
Rory sighed. Lake bit her tongue, afraid of pushing too hard.
“Okay,” Rory said finally.
Lake gave her the name of the bar—a place she used to go with Jack to hear music—and they agreed to meet at six-thirty.
Next she called Archer to fill him in on her conversations with Maggie and Rory.
“Sounds like we might be in luck. When are you going to speak to her?”
“At the end of the workday.”
“Call me, okay? As soon as you’re done talking to her.”
For the next hour she sat in her home office, trying to concentrate on the rest of her consulting business, which she’d almost totally ignored lately. She hadn’t read her emails in days, and there were dozens and dozens of them, many of which should have been answered immediately. She responded to