He slipped the pages back into the boxes. He didn’t have the energy to stow them in the closet, but knew Jason would be the first person to arrive this morning. He climbed back into bed and removed his prosthesis. Then he pulled the table over to him. He clicked his pen to life and touched it to the blank page. The heading was easy:
Dear Ms. Ryan,
I believe you’ve made a great error ...
CHAPTER 44
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
SIDNEY SPENT THE DAY ON LONG ISLAND SHOOTING SCENES WITHGrace for the final episodes. Grace had a few destinations in mind that she told Sidney she had dreamed about in Bordelais. One of them was the Montauk Point Lighthouse at the far tip of Long Island. Derrick shot footage of Grace climbing the tower and looking out across the water. Sidney, watching Grace stand at the top of the lighthouse, propped on her tiptoes while holding the railing, and with the breeze splaying her sweater behind her like a cape, considered that the scene exemplified the very definition offreedomand might make for the perfect ending to episode ten.
Finished filming for the day, Sidney crossed the East River at 6:00 p.m., Tuesday, in bumper-to-bumper traffic through the Midtown Tunnel on her way into the city. It was past seven when she dropped the fare over the front seat. A muggy summer night, Sidney immediately missed the cool air-conditioning of the taxi as she walked along East Forty-second Street on the way to McFadden’s Saloon.
In jeans and a tank top, her skin glowed with a subtle layerof perspiration by the time she entered the restaurant. The air-conditioned interior gave her a chill when she walked in, quickly turning her skin to goose bumps. She spotted Graham Cromwell across the bar and he raised his hand to wave. He slid off the stool as she approached, and Sidney was surprised when he kissed her on the cheek. An overtly private man, Graham had never shown any form of public affection during their brief relationship. What might have transpired between them was a mystery, one that lately Sidney sensed Graham was interested in solving. During times of pure honesty, Sidney admitted to herself that she wondered, too. But there weren’t many success stories that started by sleeping with your boss, and as a fiercely independent woman, Sidney refused to give anyone a reason to call her success something it was not.
It had been more than a year now since the two had been intimate, and Sidney’s longings had finally faded like an old scar, just a faint splotch of pink remaining where once a wide wound had been. Nowadays their relationship was such that they usually managed at least one lunch during the week, or coffee in the mornings. Sometimes they met for drinks in the evening. Work was always the topic, but it was nice to get away from the stuffiness of the office.
“Hi,” Graham said.
Sidney smiled. “What’s gotten into you?”
“Relax. I’m happy to see you outside the office.”
“Things have been crazy for the last week or so.”
“How’d it go?”
“Today? I don’t know. I got some good footage and sound bites from her. But her reunion last night? Probably the saddest thing I’ve ever seen,” Sidney said. “She’s almost forty years old and she has no one in her life.”
Graham sat back onto his stool. “But she’s out of jail, so you can hang your hat on that.”
Sidney took the stool next to him. “It’s so goddamn unfair. She was a young girl on her way to a surgical residency and a promising career. Then, in an effort to put a notch on his belt and settle a terrible crime, some tropical-beach ranger pinned a murder conviction around her neck and ruined her life.”
“Sid, you’ve done this before. Without you, she’d still be sitting in jail. What’s worse? To be free and starting over, or to be incarcerated? Because those are the only two options.”
“She didn’t do it, Graham.”
“Which is why she’s free today.”
“How does she get the last ten years back?”
“She doesn’t.” Graham lifted his hand when the bartender passed by. “She’s going to need something. Quickly.”
“Casamigos on the rocks,” Sidney said.
“I thought you were a tequila drinker.”
“I am. It’s George Clooney’s brand.”
“George Clooney makes tequila?”
Sidney looked at Graham in the dim light of the tavern. “How oldareyou?”
The bartender delivered her drink. Sidney squeezed a lime over the top and took a sip.
“She doesn’t get the years back, Sid,” Graham said after a moment of silence. “But she gets the next ten years. And the ten after that. And it’s all because of your work.”
“You know the worst part? Her best friend, one of the only people who stayed in touch with her, is a successful doctor.”
