Kate tried to hold her down. "You had another one of those spells. Just rest for a moment."
"No." She struggled to a sitting position. "That can't be. How did I get over here?"
Jeanette was back to the remote woman Jack had met when he'd arrived; she seemed concerned but not as much as Jack thought she should be.
"We helped you," Gia said. Her face was pale, she looked shaken. "You almost passed out."
"This is the second time now, Jeanette," Kate said. "You can't go on like this. You've got to let Dr. Fielding check you over."
"He's an idiot."
"Then let's see someone else."
"What for? I'm fine." She shook off Kate's hand and rose to her feet. "Everybody just give me some space."
Kate and Gia stepped back.
"Jeanette—"
"Please, Kate, would you ask Jack and Gia to go. I'd like to be alone."
Kate blinked. "Do… do you want me to leave too?"
"No, of course not. This is your home too." She turned to Jack. "I'm sorry. It was nice meeting you both. I know we'll meet again soon."
She turned and headed for a doorway at the far end of the room.
"I don't know what to say," Kate said when the door closed behind Jeanette. "She did this yesterday morning, and now again…"
"For a few moments there," Gia said, "she seemed like another person."
"A terrified one," Jack added.
Kate nodded. "I know. A true multiple personality disorder is so rare it's almost nonexistent… but I don't know how else to explain this."
"And why does she refuse to see a doctor?" Jack said. "If I'd just become another person for a few minutes and didn't remember it, I'd be on the phone demanding an appointment yesterday."
"Look," Kate said. "Why don't you two go on. I'm really sorry about this but—"
"Not your fault, Kate. Why don't you come out and catch a bite with us?"
"No. I should stay here in case she needs me. You two go ahead." She hugged Gia and kissed her cheek. "It was wonderful meeting you." Then she turned to Jack and hugged him.
He wrapped his arms around his sister and held her close. Had he ever done this? He couldn't remember. If not, he shouldn't have waited this long. It felt good, and would have felt better if not for a nagging fear for her.
"You're sure you don't want to come along?"
She stepped back and nodded. "I'll be fine. Call me tomorrow."
Jack didn't feel right about leaving her but didn't see any options. He opened the door.
"Okay. I will. First thing. And you have my home phone number. If you need me, you call, no matter what the hour."
In the kitchen the microwave oven dinged. The avocado dip was ready.
9
Jack and Gia took the stairs down.
"Did you see how Jeanette changed?" Gia said. "Isn't that the strangest thing you've ever seen?"
He knew they'd both seen stranger things, but…
"Yeah. Pretty damn strange. Creepy."
"I'll say," she said as they reached street level. She laid a hand on his arm. "And by the way, how come you never told me your sister was gay?"
"What?" He was stunned. His big sister, the pediatrician mother of two, a lesbian? Was Gia nuts? "How can you even think that?"
"Well, there may not be Melissa Etheridge posters on the wall, but there's a whole collection of Cris Williamson CDs in the rack, and if she and Jeanette aren't a couple, I'll remarry Richard when he returns."
They both knew her ex was gone for good—as in dead and digested. But Gia was way off here.
As they pushed through the front door into the night air Jack said, "Kate's not—"
And then it all came together. Of course she was. Kate was a giving person, but Jack suddenly realized she'd never take a leave from her practice and her kids to nursemaid some old sorority sister. When she'd said she was seeing someone special but foresaw no wedding bells, it wasn't a married man, it was a woman.
Jack turned and stared through the glass doors into the vestibule of the apartment building. "I didn't see it. How could I miss it?"
"With any other pair of women I'm sure you would have, right off. But your brain wasn't offering you options for your big sister's sexual orientation. So unless Kate showed up on a motorcycle with a shaved head and 'Bitch On Wheels' tattooed on her arm, you weren't going to see it. Her being a lipstick lesbian just made it harder."
"No wonder she seems to be walking on eggs when I'm around. Kate… I can't get over it."
"Does it bother you?" Gia said. "Come on, Jack, talk. You keep things in and stew about them. Don't do that here. Talk to me."
"Okay. Am I bothered? No. Anything Kate wants to be is fine with me. But am I shocked? Yes. Because I never saw it coming. I grew up with her, Gia. Never a sign, never a hint."
"At least not that you saw."
"Granted. I was a kid and I wasn't looking. But she always had boyfriends and… Gia, it's like the direction I always thought was north has suddenly become south. Should I go back and talk to her? Tell her I know and it's all right? Maybe that way she can relax around me."
Jack was used to knowing what to do in most situations, but here he was foundering.
"Since you asked," Gia said, "yes. Otherwise the two of you will go on dodging each other: she'll be hiding who she is and you'll be hiding that you know what she's hiding. But it's not my decision. And whatever you do, save it for tomorrow. Kate's got enough on her plate tonight, don't you think?"
Jack slipped his hand around the back of Gia's neck and kissed her lips. What would he do without her?
"Thanks."
She brushed her fingers against his hair. "Not a good day for Repairman Jack, hmmm?"
"Lousy."
"Well, Vicky's sitter is good till midnight. We could go back to your place and maybe, just maybe, if we think real hard, we might come up with a way to help you forget your troubles."
It had been a whole week. Jack felt more than ready.
"I think that's a perfectly wonderful—"
He noticed a woman standing across the street, staring. Not at them. Above them. She seemed to be in a trance. Something familiar about her face.
"What's wrong?" Gia said.
"Check out that blond woman over there. Do we know her?"
"Never seen her before."
Jack followed the line of the woman's stare and felt a stab of uneasiness when he realized she'd drawn a bead on the west corner of the third floor.
Gia whispered, "She's staring at Jeanette's apartment."
He looked at the woman again and now he recognized her. From the seance or whatever it was in the Bronx last night.
"I don't like this," Jack said. Not with Kate in that apartment.
"Look over there," Gia said, cocking her head to the left. "Down on the corner."
Jack spotted the man immediately. Although Jack didn't recognize him—a number of people at the seance had had their backs to him when he'd peeked in—he felt sure he was with the cult. Because he too was staring up at Jeanette's apartment.
How many more weirdos out tonight? he wondered as he scanned the block. He spotted none beyond these two.
Jack stepped to the curb for his own look at Jeanette's windows and spotted a human silhouette standing in one of them. A Bates Motel chill rippled across his shoulders. The open-mouthed terra cotta head glaring down at him from atop the window arch frieze only added to his unease.
Then the shadow disappeared from the window. Jack did a quick review of the apartment layout and decided it had to be Jeanette's study. Was she coming out to join the others?
"Let's move over here," Jack said, guiding Gia away from the vestibule's light wash and into the shadows.