suggested she stop by at seven. Then she asked to be transferred to Brie. When Brie picked up her line Lake got right to the point.
“I want to schedule my appointment to present to Dr. Levin and Dr. Sherman,” she said. “Is Thursday afternoon good for them?”
Thursday bought her another two days. She would have liked to stretch it to Friday but she knew Levin would not be pleased.
“Thursdays are usually insane around here,” Brie said. “It’s going to have to be Wednesday. Or even today.”
The woman was clearly a graduate of the Be a Better Bitch Academy, Lake thought.
“Unfortunately, as I mentioned when he suggested moving it up, I have several long-standing appointments with other clients,” Lake lied. “Thursday is the first day I can do it.”
Brie sighed audibly and began tapping into her computer, checking the calendar.
“Six-thirty on Thursday might work,” she said brusquely. “If you don’t hear from me, plan on doing it then.”
Lake wanted to talk to Maggie but rather than ask to be transferred, she hung up and called the main number again so Brie wouldn’t know. She worried Maggie might start to find all her attention odd—but she had to know if there were any new developments. She would express concern for Maggie’s state of mind and hope Maggie would fill her in on everything.
It was Rory who ended up picking up the phone.
“Oh, hi, it’s Lake,” she said. “I was looking for Maggie.”
“Maggie took the day off,” Rory said in a low voice.
“Is everything okay?” Lake asked, her concern piqued.
“From what I hear, she said she needed a day off to de-stress.”
“Oh…well, how are you doing?”
“To be perfectly honest, I’m worried about my baby. Last night I thought I was having contractions and I ended up going to the ER. It turned out it was just Braxton-Hicks, but it scared me.”
“Oh, Rory, I’m so sorry. You can’t take some time off?”
“Unfortunately that isn’t possible, especially if Maggie’s going to call in sick. It’s important for us to keep things together here, even if we’re upset. Emily thought Maggie was being silly for acting so scared, but now that she heard about the keys, even she’s wigged out.”
“Do you think someone could have taken those keys and then put them back?”
“That’s what the police were asking. Those detectives were back here yesterday for, like, an hour—after you left. The creepy thing is, I sit right next to Maggie—our desks actually touch.”
“And you never saw anyone going into her desk drawer?”
“No, not that I recall. Sometimes people—”
She paused then, as if interrupted or lost in thought. After a moment Lake wondered if she was still on the line.
“Rory?” she asked.
“I better go,” Rory said.
“But what were you going to say?”
“Um, nothing. I need to go. Dr. Levin is waiting.”
Lake hung up reluctantly. She couldn’t tell if Rory had been distracted or had just remembered something and was holding back on it. Lake tried Hayden next, anxious to connect to someone else who could update her, but the call went to voice mail.
After popping one more ibuprofen, Lake glued herself to her desk in her home office, her laptop opened in front of her. Both the PR person and the Web designer had come through for her, emailing their initial ideas. Neither batch was so dazzling that they’d scorch anyone’s corneas, but at least she had a few decent items to add to her list. She tapped away at her computer, shepherding her bullet points into categories so her PowerPoint would be easier to create. Generally this was the part of her work that she loved—organizing all her ideas and in the process tweaking them to be even better—but today she had to constantly force herself to concentrate on her task. Her mind relentlessly found its way back to a new tangle of worries: Rory’s unfinished comment; the doorbell last night; and the police visit yesterday. Did Hull’s surliness toward her mean something? Was she a suspect in the case?
Just once she got up to make tea. Though her throat felt less raw, the achiness all over her body had intensified.
At eleven, Hayden returned her call, though her attention had already been diverted by the time Lake answered.
“I don’t care if he sends the damn love train, I’m not attending,” Lake heard her yell to some underling.
“Oh, hi,” she said, turning back to Lake on the line. “You know, I must be getting old. My idea of a good time these days is staying home with