“Of course not, just a plausible story as to why you’re not seeing clients.”
Jade heard Margo’s stern voice. Not wanting Katy to get in any trouble because of her, Jade said no more about Covid. She wanted her phone and began to search her desk where she usually kept it. Not there. She glanced around at the bookcase full of textbooks, research books, and the DSM, which stood for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. She had not set her phone there either. She pulled open the drawers of a credenza behind her desk as Franco opened the door to a small closet.
“I may have found it,” Franco said, bringing a raincoat out of her closet. He indicated the right pocket of the raincoat, which was hanging lower than the left one. “I don’t wish to be intrusive,” he said, holding the coat out to her, “you check and see if it’s your phone.”
Jade reached into the pocket and pulled out her phone. “So it was raining…that day?”
“Yes.” Franco hung her raincoat back in the closet.
“We need rain, but it hasn’t rained in three weeks.” Speaking those words seemed almost like an echo to Jade.
Without commenting, Franco said, “Let’s be on our way, my dear.”
Jade picked up the card from Katy and, emerging from her office, spotted her friend at the end of the hall. The other therapists were in session, so rather than call out her thanks, she waved the card and mouthed, “Thank you, Katy.”
Franco tried to take the card from her, but Jade held tight to it. “I was just going to hold it for you while we go downstairs so that you could hold on to the banister again,” he said, leading her to the rear staircase.
“I can manage a card, Franco. Thank you,” Jade said, placing it and her phone into her purse. She took the lead down the stairs and out of the house to the employee parking lot. When Franco opened the door to his Mercedes, Jade saw a flash of getting into his car in this exact same parking spot. If so, then today wasn’t her first time riding in his Mercedes. Just as importantly, how did her phone end up in her raincoat? She sat, he closed the car door and scurried around to the driver’s side. As he drove away from the office, she said, “I remember my phone being in my purse, not my raincoat.”
“If you’ve forgotten the passcode, perhaps we can figure it out together,” he offered.
Again, his disconnected replies. “Since we’re this close, I’d like to go to my house.”
“No!” he said sharply, irritation wrinkling his forehead. “That’s where…”
“Where what?” Jade asked.
“Where the trauma happened.”
“I’d like to confront it.”
“No.” Franco shook his head. “Your house is out of the question so soon.”
* * *
Takingthe same route back down Cascade Avenue to Tejon Street, this time, as it was on her side of the car, she noticed Southside Suzy’s. A couple of Harley-Davidson motorcycles were parked out front. Jade stared until they’d passed by the place. Something tugged at her memory. She wasn’t sure if it was good or bad. She was lost in thought, trying to remember as they drove along Cheyenne Boulevard to Lake Avenue. Lake. She had a flash of a lake. But what lake?
“Let’s go back to Southside Suzy’s for a bite to eat,” Jade said.
“You should have eaten your breakfast.”
“I wasn’t hungry then, but I am now.”
“We will never eat there.”
“Why not?”
“Well, it’s not refined.” Franco guffawed awkwardly, tugging on his ear. “I um—we’d not emerge alive. Close your eyes now, dear lady, and we’ll be home before you know it.”
Continuing to fight the drowsiness was difficult, but Jade did not shut her eyes as told. Soon, they were back at the white gate to the Spatafore compound. Turning in such a way he blocked her view, Franco punched a code into a box. The wrought iron doors swung inward and quickly closed behind them. Along the paved driveway, they passed a statue standing on a giant scalloped shell in a spraying fountain. Though she hadn’t asked going or coming, Franco told her the statue depicted the birth of Venus, a goddess as perfect and rare as a blue pearl.Whatever.
“Our mansion awaits you,” Franco said.
Mausoleum inside a prison,Jade thought.
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
Southside Suzy’s had been Chase’s second stop. His first stop was Jade’s house on the off chance the woman in the Audi had returned or left clues of some kind. Bill had spotted him, and together, they inspected the outside of Jade’s house. Bill told him the woman in the Audi had not returned. Looking through the plate glass windows, Chase noticed the breakfast dishes were not in the sink, and the wine bottle and glasses were no longer next to the sofa. Somebody was eliminating the trail that led to him spending the night and having breakfast with Jade. For whose sake? Jade’s?
