"I said as far as I knew they were. Reese has it in for me, and he has his finger in just about every pie in Metro. He could have found out somehow, and…" She shrugged and shook her head. "I don't think much of the man, but I can't imagine him doing a thing like this."
"You know, Kate, you could have told me you were going to fake Geary's autopsy report. I mean, I am your husband."
Kate glared at him. "Jared, the three of us decided that nobody else should know. Call Mrs. Willoughby or Mrs. Finn and ask if their husbands told them. Do you share all the inner secrets of your work with me?"
"You never ask."
"Give me a break, will you? Listen, I know you're upset. You are a public figure, and directly or indirectly, you're getting negative press. But don't go blaming me, Jared. I didn't do anything."
Jared rose, shuffled to the stove, and began stoking embers that were already burning quite nicely. "I spoke with my father this morning, " he said over his shoulder. "My God, Winfield must be absolutely fried over all this. Do you think it would help matters if I called him?"
"He thinks you should call a press conference and admit that you sent the letters."
"What?"
"It's his feeling that as things stand, it looks like you performed an act of conscience, and then I talked you out of owning up to it."
"So my father-in-law wants me to lie in public to keep his protege from losing any votes."
Jared slammed the poker against the stove door. "Dammit, you already did lie. That's what caused all this trouble in the first place."
Kate felt herself about to cry. "I did what I thought was the kindest and fairest thing I could do for that boy and his family."
"Well, now you're going to have to think about what's kind and fair to this boy and his family."
"So you think that's what I should do, too?"
A loud pounding on the front door precluded Jared's response. "Police.
Open up."
Kate opened the door a slit and peered out, expecting to see another overly resourceful reporter. Instead, she saw Detective Lieutenant Martin Finn. Any lingering doubt they might have had about whether or not the policeman was responsible for the letters evaporated with the man's first words. "You really fucked me, Dr. Bennett. Do you know that?"
"I'm sorry, but I didn't send those letters, " she said with exaggerated calm. "Would you like to sit down? Can I get you some coffee?"
Finn ignored her questions, and instead, remained in the center of the room, pacing out a miniature circle on the rug. "I went along with this because I'm Irish and a fan, and look what it gets me. I was up for a promotion. Maybe captain. Now, thanks to you and your fucking grandstand play, I'm going to be lucky I don't get busted to dogcatcher."
"Went along with it? " Kate was incredulous. "Lieutenant Finn, it was your suggestion in the first place. For the kids of Boston. Don't you remember saying all that? " Her voice cracked. The day had been punishing enough without this. Suddenly, Jared pushed past her and confronted the man. Though he was taller than Finn, the policeman was far stockier. "Finn, if you've said what you came to say, I want you and your foul mouth out of here. If not, say it. Then leave."
"I'll leave when I'm fucking ready."
"Get out."
Jared stepped forward, his fists clenched in front of him. It was only then that Kate sensed how heavily Finn had been drinking. She moved toward them, but not quickly enough. With no warning or windup, Finn sank a vicious uppercut into Jared's solar plexus. A guttural grunt accompanied the explosion of air from his lungs, as he doubled over and dropped to his knees. Kate knelt beside her husband. "You damn animal," she screamed at Finn. "I wish it had been you, lady, " Finn said as he turned and walked clumsily from the house. The antique vase Kate threw shattered against the door as it closed behind him. Jared remained doubled over, but his breathing was deepening. "You okay? " she said softly. "Never laid a glove on me, " he responded with no little effort.
"Could you bring over the wastebasket, please? Just in case."
"You poor darling. Can I do anything else? Get you anything?"
Slowly, Jared sat back and straightened up. His eyes were glazed.
"Just remind me again what I told that minister."
"For better or for worse. That's what you told him. Jared, I don't want to sound corny, but that was a pretty wonderful thing you did standing up to that animal."
"For better or for worse? You sure that was it?"
"Uh-huh."
"Katey, I don't know how to tell you this, but in some perverse way getting hit the way I just did felt good."
"I don't understand."
"Right before Finn came in I was ready to tell you that I agreed with my father in thinking everything would be simpler and look better for all of us if you would just admit to writing the letter. Then that asshole started in. All of a sudden, I realized how wrong I was… and I'm sorry. I couldn't stand hearing him talk to you that way. Katey, please just try to remember that there's a lot going on that's confusing to me.
Sometimes I feel that living with you is like trying to ride a cyclone.
Sometimes I feel like a slab of luncheon meat between one slice of Winfield and one slice of Kate. Sometimes He whirled to the wastebasket and threw up. Sheila Pierce stared past Norton Reese's sweat-dampened pate at the stucco ceiling of their room in the Mid City Motel and reminded herself to continue the groans that the man found so exciting.
Careful not to disrupt his rhythm, she reached up and reassured herself that her new diamond studs hadn't come dislodged. "Oh, baby, " she murmured. "Oh, baby, you're so good. So good." She wished she could have seen Kate Bennett's face when the reporters started calling. Reese was hardly a Valentino for her, but she had to give credit where credit was due, and Reese deserved what she was giving him for what he had given Bennett. "Oh, baby, come to me. Come to me, " she moaned. It had been a thrill just to watch, Kathryn Bennett, MD, Miss Perfect, confused and irritable, suddenly not in control of every little thing. How good at last to be the one pulling the strings. Too bad there was no way for Bennett ever to know. "Don't stop, Norty. Oh, yes, baby, yes. Don't stop."
Friday 14 December
Compared with the conference rooms of other departments in Metropolitan Hospital of Boston, the one belonging to the pathology unit was spartan. French Impressionist prints mounted on poster board hung on stark, beige walls. Below them, metal, government-surplus bookcases were half filled with worn, dogeared texts and journals. The meager decor, plus a large, gouged oak table and two dozen variegated folding chairs did little to obscure the fact that prior to a modest department wide renovation in 1965, the room had been the hospital morgue. Some among the twenty-nine assembled for the hastily called meeting still sensed the auras of the thousands of bodies that had temporarily rested there. Kate, Stan Willoughby seated to her right, stood at one end of the table and surveyed the room. There were six pathologists besides the two of them, some residents, and a number of lab technicians. It bothered her terribly to think that one-or more-of them might be capable of an act as malicious as the Bobby Geary letter. Those in the room were, in a sense, her family-people she spent as many waking hours with each week as she did with her husband. It had always been her way to deal with them in a straightforward manner, respectfully, and with no hidden agendas. There were only two characteristics that they knew she would not tolerate-laziness and dishonesty. However, to the best of her knowledge, none in the room could be accused of either. The closest had been the business of Sheila Pierce's claiming she had misplaced the required vouchers and certification for her Miami trip, and even then, Kate had no proof of her suspicions. Besides, the matter had been settled between them with little disagreement. John Gilson, the unit's electron microscopist, Liu Huang, a meticulous pathologist, whom Kate tutored in English, Marvin Grimes, the always pleasantly inebriated deiner, Sheila, herself, so very bright, so dedicated to the department, momentarily, Kate's eyes met each of theirs. "I want to thank you all for taking the time out of your schedules to hear me out, " she began. "I know the last day and a half have been… how should I say, a bit disrupted around here."