are you doing, anyway?” she asked. “Did your sister end up staying with you?”
“Yes—but it didn’t do much good. I had the worst nightmares. I might ask Dr. Kline for some advice when he gets a minute today.”
“Oh, he’s here?” Lake asked, realizing she hadn’t seen him since before all this happened.
“Yes, he was away for a few days but he’s back now. He was totally shocked to hear the news.”
Lake and Maggie agreed to try to get their minds off everything and get some work done. At five minutes to eight, Hayden Culbreth arrived, wearing a dazzling purple silk shift that contrasted boldly with her blond bob. As promised, she hit the ground running.
“Let’s start,” she said to Levin as soon as Lake had introduced them.
Sherman had joined them in Levin’s office, along with Hoss and Brie, notebook and pen in hand. Brie ran her eyes up and down Hayden, her disapproval loud and clear.
“So far you’ve done a decent job of handling things,” Hayden announced. “By that I mean no one on your staff has blabbed to the press. But they still might be tempted to. We need to implement a lock-and-load strategy.”
“Good God,” Sherman said. “It sounds like you’re suggesting firearms.”
Hayden pursed her lips and gave her head a little shake. “Of course not. But to protect the reputation of the clinic, you have to lock down communication—make sure that no one, and I mean no one, discusses this with the media. Let them know that their asses will be in the ringer if they do.
“But at the same time,” she continued, “keep people here in the loop and give them updates on what you learn from the cops. When there’s secrecy and people don’t know what the hell is going on, they start buzzing—sometimes to reporters.”
“I assume you’ll handle all the press calls,” Levin said to her.
“No, we’ll let the NYPD do that.”
“The NYPD?” Levin exclaimed. “But—”
“It’s best to have the police take those calls. When the press contacts you here, the person fielding those calls—and let’s designate someone smart to do it—should say that all calls are being referred to the New York City Police.”
“But isn’t that why we’ve hired you—to handle those calls?” said Hoss. Despite her haughtiness, she looked tired and drained, her black hair lanky, as if she hadn’t bothered to wash it today. She was probably concerned, like everyone else, Lake thought, about what all this might do to her reputation.
“You’ve hired me to devise a strategy,” Hayden said. “If I talk to the press and they quote me, they’ll say I’m a rep for your clinic—and name the clinic. And you want to distance yourself from this as much as possible. We’re following the same approach abortion clinics use when they’ve been bombed—keep the name of the clinic out of the paper by letting the cops do all the talking. Now let’s talk about ‘load.’ That means you load me up on information. I need to know about Dr. Keaton.”
Levin, who was still wincing from the abortion clinic comment, briefly went over Keaton’s bio—Cornell med, a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology, the L.A. practice. Again, no hint that Keaton might have had second thoughts about coming on board. Had Keaton not had a chance to share his misgivings with Levin, Lake wondered—or was Levin keeping something to himself?
“Well, that’s all nice and good,” Hayden said, “but what I’m really interested in is why someone wanted to murder him. According to the papers, it doesn’t sound like he was killed during a burglary.”
“We really don’t know much about his personal life or the people he associated with outside of the clinic,” Levin said. “Up until now, he’d only worked with us on a consulting basis.”
“Have the police shared any details?” Lake interjected. Desperate to know, she couldn’t resist asking, and she knew the question had come out abruptly. Hoss eyed her quizzically.
“Nothing,” Levin said. “All we know is what’s in the papers.”
“He was an attractive guy,” Hayden said. “Was he gay?”
“Hardly,” Sherman said.
“A womanizer, then?” Hayden asked. “Could he have been killed by a jealous lover?”
“As Dr. Levin explained already, we really only knew the man professionally,” Sherman said, sounding exasperated. Lake noticed that Brie was watching smugly, as if she found the whole process positively stupid.
“There is one thing you should know,” Levin said soberly, “something I had to share with the police.” Everyone jerked their heads toward him in surprise. Lake held her breath in anticipation.