there are two instances I know of—Alexis is one—where the patient has fewer frozen embryos than she thought.”
Archer placed a hand on his cheek and let out a long breath.
“I clearly hit a nerve with them,” Lake continued. “The reason I was in Brooklyn was that I tracked Melanie Turnbull down, too. At first she didn’t want anything to do with me, but then she agreed to meet me in a restaurant in her neighborhood. I waited an hour and she never showed. As I was walking back to my car, this man started following me—and then chasing me. And guess what else? He was also in the bar at the Waldorf the night I met you. He must have followed me there, too.”
“So you think this woman reported back to the clinic that you’d called her and they arranged for this guy to try to kill you—a guy they’d already hired to keep you in his sights?”
“Yes, it seems that way. Levin obviously had him start watching me after he discovered I was getting snoopy. Then the assignment escalated.” Suddenly she felt her whole body sag from exhaustion. “There’s so much I’ve got to tell you. But I’d love to wash up first. After being in that river, I’m worried I’m on the verge of coming down with cholera.” She managed a smile.
“Of course. How about a shower? I think that would be better than just washing up.”
“Yes, great,” she said.
“Come on, then. The main bathroom’s upstairs.” As he started to get up, he caught himself. “Wait, what about the police. What have you told them so far?”
“Nothing,” she said quietly.
“Nothing? What do you mean?”
“I haven’t called them. Not yet.”
“But you need to.”
“Th-there’s a reason I haven’t. I can explain later, okay?”
He eyed her curiously.
“All right,” was all he said. He led her back out into the hallway and up a set of stairs to his bedroom.
“Give me a second to find you a clean towel,” he said.
As he rustled through a linen closet in the hallway, her eyes scanned the room. Though the space, with its big oak bed and bedside table stacked with books, bore no resemblance to Keaton’s sleek, spare room, she felt momentarily unsettled. The last time she had been in a strange man’s bedroom, he’d been brutally murdered. And her world had fallen apart.
Archer returned to the room and pointed to the attached bathroom. He said he’d meet her downstairs when she was done.
“Tea or brandy?” he asked before he closed the bedroom door behind him.
“I could use both, if you don’t mind,” she said, smiling.
Within a minute she was in the shower, with the water as hot as she could stand. She felt off kilter being naked in a strange bathroom, and yet it was good to get the river stench off her. As she shampooed her hair, her eyes ran along the sides of the tub. There was nothing to suggest that a woman currently spent time on Archer’s premises. Suddenly her thoughts rushed back to Jack and Molly. She’d been so preoccupied talking to Archer that she’d lost track of that part of the night’s horror show. All those months she’d obsessed over what had happened to her marriage and why she’d been abandoned. Had the answer been literally right in front of her?
When she emerged from the steamy bathroom fifteen minutes later, she discovered a sundress lying across the bed. So, she thought, there is someone in his life and he’s loaning me her clothes. She slipped the sundress over her head, put her sneakers back on, and carried her wet skirt and underwear downstairs in a bundle. Archer was reading in an armchair. On the coffee table was a tray with a pot of tea, an empty mug, and a glass of brandy.
“Better?” he asked, looking up.
“Yes, much. I can’t believe how I’ve imposed on you—without even knowing you. Thanks for the dress, by the way.”
“One of my stepson’s girlfriends left it here—I believe she’s gone off to Finland, so I’m sure it won’t be missed.”
Tucking her wet hair behind her ears, she settled onto the couch.
“I hope you’re not an Earl Grey kind of girl,” Archer said, raising his chin in the direction of the teapot. “All I had was English Breakfast.”
“That’s perfect,” she said, pouring.
“Why don’t you start at the beginning,” Archer said. “I want to hear everything.”
He wasn’t going to let her just sit there and decompress. He was a reporter, after all. But she’d known