As You Wish (The Summerhouse 3)

“I’m glad he’s married.” The owner put a tuna salad sandwich on whole wheat and an iced tea in front of Elise, who thanked her. After the woman left, Elise said, “If you don’t want to stay, please tell me of a hotel or a B and B in town.”

“I think I’d like to stay with you two, but you should know that Ray seems very nice. Not a predator at all.”

“But he’s here as part of his therapy, so there has to be something wrong with him. I wonder what he did to get sent here?”

“Not to be unkind, but couldn’t the same be said about you?”

Elise had her mouth full and waited while she chewed. “I didn’t do anything. Jeanne rescued me from a mental institution.”

“Oh.” Olivia tried to keep her eyebrows from going skyward. She wanted to fire questions at the girl. Was she bipolar? Schizophrenic? Did she have violent episodes? “Should you...?” she began, but didn’t know where to go from there.

“It’s okay,” Elise said. “I didn’t hurt anyone. They think I tried to commit suicide so they had me locked up.”

“Who did?”

“My parents and my husband. This sandwich is really good. Quite fresh.”

“You tried to commit suicide?” Olivia’s voice was soft and caring.

Elise took a long drink of her tea. “No, I didn’t. I was so angry at my husband, Kent, that I couldn’t sleep, so I took one of his sleeping pills. What I didn’t know is that he had crushed four of them and put them in the drink he made for me. When I woke up in a hospital, Kent was crying and begging me to forgive him for slipping me the extra pills and nearly killing me. I told him I wanted a divorce. In the next minute, in came my parents with a therapist who was telling them that I’d tried to commit suicide. My throat was so raw I couldn’t talk but I looked to Kent to tell them the truth. But he lied and said I’d taken the pills by myself. And of course no one was going to believe me because I’d just tried to kill myself, right? So anyway, I was locked away for ‘protection’ and talked to for weeks about my suicidal depression. Only Jeanne believed me when I said that if I was going to kill anyone it would be my husband and not myself. Do you think they have any pie? I haven’t eaten much lately because I was hidden inside the trunk of Jeanne’s car for so long, then I was too angry to eat. Is there a restroom here?”

Olivia was blinking so hard she had trouble reacting. Hiding in the doctor’s trunk? She very much wanted to hear this story. She pointed out the restroom door, then raised her hand to the owner. She came to the table as Elise left.

“What do you need, Olivia? And I’m sorry about the waitress. She broke up with her boyfriend and is looking for a new one.” She glanced up as Ray came back in. “Is he available?”

“No. Not at all. Could you bring us a slice of every kind of pie you have?”

“There are six of them.”

“That’s great. One of each, and put everything on Kit’s bill, with a twenty-five percent tip.”

“You got it.” She was watching Ray as he started back inside. “If I were ten years younger...” With a sigh, she took the empty dishes and left.

Ray sat down across from Olivia, then looked at Elise’s glass of tea. “Did she show up?”

“She did.” Olivia was still trying to digest all that she’d heard.

“Is she crazy? I mean, she is one of Jeanne’s patients.”

“She’s not crazy at all,” Olivia said. “Would you like to have some pie? I’ve ordered rather a lot of it.”

“I’d love some.”

Chapter Two

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Kit asked. “Is Estelle’s house comfortable?”

Olivia held the cell phone close to her ear as she watched Ray and Elise looking at the flowers in her friend’s garden. Ray was big and handsome in a rough sort of way, while Elise looked as fragile as a butterfly. The two of them were so different they didn’t seem to be the same species.

“Are you still there?” Kit asked.

“Yes,” Olivia answered. “I’m here and listening. I heard you say you might have to stay in DC for a whole week. Which country are you trying to save?”

“I, uh—”

She cut him off. “I know. You can’t tell me. What do you know about Dr. Jeanne Hightower?”

“Nothing, really. My cousin Cale’s friend Ellie Abbott swears by her.”