“I don’t mean to sound unsympathetic, Ms. Jenks,” Jill stepped in, “but under the circumstances you really shouldn’t be talking with us.”
“I have nothing to hide,” she came back. Then she looked downcast. “I already know what you know.”
I was dumbfounded. I already know what you know?
“I spoke with Joanna,” Chessy Jenks continued. “She told me you’d been by. I know what she told you about him. She’s bitter. She’s got every right to be. But she doesn’t know Nick like I do.”
“You should review the evidence, Ms. Jenks,” I told her.
She shook her head. “Guns…maybe, Inspector. If that’s all there was. But a knife. That first murder. Slicing that poor couple to bits. Nick can’t even fillet a fish.”
My first thought was that she was young and deluded. How had Jenks described it? Impressionable …but something struck me as curious. “You said that you and Joanna talk?”
“We have. A lot more in the past year. I’ve even had her over. When Nick was away, of course. I know she was bitter after the divorce. I know he hurt her. But it’s sort of our own support group.”
“Your husband knew about this?” I asked.
She forced a smile. “He didn’t even mind. He still likes Joanna. And, Inspector, she’s still in love with him.”
The elevator returned and we said good-bye. As the door closed, I looked at Jill. Her eyes were wide and her tongue was puffing out her cheek.
“Whole fucking family gives me the creeps,” she said with a shudder.
Chapter 99
I KNEW IT the minute Medved walked in the office.
I saw it in his face. He didn’t have to say a word.
“I’m afraid I can’t be very positive, Lindsay,” he said, meeting my eyes. “Your red count continues to decline. The dizzy spells, the fatigue, blood in your chest. The disease is progressing.”
“Progressing?”
Medved nodded soberly. “Stage three.”
The words thundered in my head, bringing with them the fear of the increased treatments I dreaded. “What’s the next step?” I asked weakly.
“We can give it one more month,” Medved said. “Your count’s twenty-four hundred. If it continues to decline, your strength will start to go. You’ll have to be hospitalized.”
I could ha
rdly comprehend what he was saying; it was all crashing in my brain so fast. A month. That’s too close. Too fast. Things were just starting to work out now that Jenks had been arrested. Everything else, everything I wanted to hold on to, was resolving, too.
A month — four lousy weeks.
When I got back to the office, a few of the guys were standing around grinning at me. There was a beautiful bouquet of flowers on my desk. Wildflowers.
I smelled them, taking in the sweet, natural scent. I read the card. There’s a hill of these where I have a cabin up at Heavenly. Tomorrow’s Friday. Take the day off. Let’s go there.
It was signed Chris.
It sounded like what I needed. The mountains. Chris. I would have to tell him, now that the truth would come clear soon.
My phone rang. It was Chris. “So?” No doubt someone in the office, playing cupid, had alerted him that I was back.
“Haven’t opened your card yet.” I bit my lip. “Too many others to sort through.”
I heard a disappointed sigh, let it linger just a moment. “But on the chance you were asking me away, the answer is, I’d love to. It sounds great. Let’s be on the road by eight.”