Music in the Night (Logan 4)

"Do you want any of her things, anything you sent?"

"Not at the moment, no," Olivia said. "I hesitate to ask, because I have some doubts about your competence now, but was she making any progress?"

"Oh, yes. I think in time I could have effected a complete recovery," he bragged.

"What did she recall before . . . before this?" Olivia asked.

"Her family, her parents, her brother and sister, and most of the tragic event," he replied.

"She said nothing about me?"

"Not a word during my sessions and from what I see of Southerby's results, not a word with him either," Doctor Scanlon said.

"What about him?"

"That's taken care of," he said quickly.

"Good. I want it all taken care of, Herbert." She turned again and fixed her piercing eyes on him, turning his spine to ice. "I mean it."

"I understand. Is there anything special you want at the gravesite?"

"No," she said. "Leave me for a moment," she ordered. "Yes, of course. I'm sorry, Mrs. Logan. Truly."

She said nothing and he left.

For a long while, she stared at Laura's face. Then she took a short, deep breath and looked up at the ceiling.

"I'm sorry about you," she said. "I know you won't ever understand now, but what I did, I did for my family. Family is all that really matters, family name, family loyalty. It's who we are when we come into this world and who we are when we leave it, and we must cling tenaciously to it all the time in between, Laura."

She gazed at her granddaughter and thought how beautiful she looked, even in death.

"Somehow I knew that after you lost your precious Robert, you would never have a really happy moment, Laura. Maybe . . maybe you weren't so mad, as sick as the doctors think. Maybe you heard him calling.

"In a strange way," she whispered, "I envy you, my dear."

She reached out and touched Laura's cold face. Then she turned and left the room.

Doctor Scanlon escorted her to the front entrance.

"My lawyer will be in contact with you to be sure all is done as I instruct," she said.

"Yes, I understand," Doctor Scanlon said with a small nod.

"I want you to do something else for me."

"Of course," Doctor Scanlon said without hesitation, without hearing it first.

"I want you to tell that young man, that other patient something."

"Yes?"

"I want you to tell him I don't blame him for anything. Tell him I thank him for being her friend. Will you do that?"

"I will. It will help him, Mrs. Logan. It's very kind of you."

"I'm not doing it for him. II doing it for Laura and," she said, looking at the Rolls-Royce, "for myself."

She started down the steps. Raymond got out quickly and opened the door. Doctor Scanlon wiped his face with his handkerchief as he watched her get into her automobile. When the door closed, he backed up and closed the clinic's front door.