Sure enough, just past a wooden shack was a cruiser.
Grace decelerated to five miles under the limit, passed a couple of intersections before coming upon the on-ramps to the 101.
Another choice: northbound or southbound. Randomly, she chose the latter.
Big lie, the decision had been anything but random. But it took her twenty miles to realize it.
An hour after leaving her home, she was back in her office.
In the absence of human interaction, the entire cottage felt sterile and cold and that began to settle Grace down.
A safe place. Here, she determined the rules.
Here she could phone her service, yet again, and not be judged as neurotic because she was simply a responsible practitioner doing her job.
She waited an itchy five minutes before doing so, figuring she needed to test herself, the past day and a half had been... different.
Different required adaptation.
No message from Andrew Toner, nor from any other patient. But a Detective Henke had left a 213 number for callback.
“Did he say what it was about?” Grace asked the operator.
“No, Doctor. And he’s a she.”
She Googled Henke, found no Facebook, just a single citation in a three-year-old Daily News piece on a North Hollywood Division gang bust. Detective Elaine Henke termed the arrests “the culmination of extended teamwork on the parts of LAPD, the district attorney, and the county sheriffs.”
Henke had probably been chosen to talk to the press because she was dependable, media-friendly, knew how to speak bureaucratese.
Three years ago, she’d worked North Hollywood. Today, she’d left a downtown number.
Probably a referral. The only people Grace knew downtown were the occasional prosecutor or D.A.’s secretary who asked her to see patients.
Sorry, Detective, I’m on vacation.
Or not. Let’s hear what Elaine has to say.
She called the number. A girlish pleasant voice said, “Detective Henke.”
“This is Dr. Grace Blades returning your call.”
“Doctor, thanks for getting back to me.” Suddenly serious.
“If this is a referral, I was planning to be out of the office for two weeks. But if it’s an emergency—”
“Actually,” said Henke, “I called about a homicide that I picked up last night downtown — early morning, actually. The victim’s a white male, early to midthirties with no identification, which is the worst thing for us. That’s where I’m hoping you can help us, Doctor. When they got him to the morgue and undressed him they found one of your business cards in his left shoe.”
“His shoe,” said Grace, fighting to keep her voice even.
“Odd, no? Does that physical description mean anything to you?”
The queasy, vertiginous waves that had gnawed Grace since last night were replaced with new discomfort: a sudden, piercing stab of... despair?
Reality catching up with the signals her body had been giving her.
Fighting to sound unruffled, she said, “Can you tell me more than that?”
“Hmm, okay,” said Henke. “Hold on... brown hair, blue eyes, wearing a Harris Tweed sport coat and khaki pants... brown shoes. Kind of generic, Doctor, but I’m afraid that’s it. If only everyone had tattoos.”
Grace said, “I can’t be sure.” Oh, yes, I can! “He might be a patient I saw yesterday evening.”
“Name?”
“If it’s not him, I’m bound by confidentiality.”
“Hmm,” said Henke. “I could email you a photo right now. I promise to pick one of the... easier ones. You can stay on the line. Up for that, Doctor?”
“Sure.” Grace gave her the address.
Moments later, the terrible truth flashed on her screen. Close-up of Andrew’s handsome face, slackened and grayed by death. No blood, no obvious wounds, maybe the bad stuff was beneath his neckline.
She said, “The name he gave me was Andrew Toner. He said he was from San Antonio, Texas.”
“He said? You have reason to doubt him?”
Well, his real name could be Roger. Or Beano. Or Rumpelstiltskin. “No... I’m just... thrown by this. I saw him last night at six p.m. He left around fifteen minutes later.”
“That’s kind of a short session, no?” said Henke. “For a psychologist, I mean. Unless it was just to dole out medication — but no, you don’t do that, that’s for psychiatrists, right?”
“Mr. Toner left the session early.”
“May I ask why?”
“It was a first session, that kind of thing happens.”
“Did he make a second appointment?”
All business, Elaine. “No.”
“From Texas,” said Henke. “That’s pretty far to come for therapy.”
“It is.”
“What else can you tell me about Mr. Toner?”
“Unfortunately, that’s it.”
“He’s dead, Doctor, you don’t need to worry about confidentiality.”
“It’s not that,” said Grace. “As I said, I only met him once and not for very long.”
Twice, really, but no sense getting into that, Elaine.
Though cradled by her desk chair, Grace felt her balance give way. Her head wobbled, unmoored, like overripe fruit swaying on a flimsy stalk. She clamped one hand on her desktop to steady herself.
“Well,” said Henke, “at this point you’re all I’ve got so would you mind if we chatted a bit further? I’m in the neighborhood.”
The murder had taken place downtown. Why would Henke be in West Hollywood? Unless she considered Grace — what did the police call it — a person of interest?
Last person to see Andrew alive. Of course she did.
Or was it something Grace had said? Hadn’t said. Had her voice, despite her best efforts, betrayed the turmoil coursing through her?
Or maybe Henke was just thorough.
Grace said, “Sure, I could see you right now.”
“Um,” said Henke. “How about in an hour, Doctor?”
In the neighborhood, indeed.
As soon as Henke hung up, Grace phoned the Beverly Opus and put on her own version of a chirpy Cal-Gal voice.
“Andrew Toner, please.”
The desk clerk clicked an unseen mouse. “Sorry, no one by that name is registered.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am, miss.”
“Oh, geez, how can that be? He said he’d be there — the Beverly Opus.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, miss—”
“Wow,” she said. “Oh, yeah, sometimes Andy uses his nickname. Roger.”
“I searched using the surname, miss,” said the clerk. “It wouldn’t make a difference.”
“This is weird. Did he maybe check in a few days ago and leave early for some reason? Why didn’t he tell me? I’m supposed to pick him up for the reunion.”
“Hold on.” Click click. Muffled voices. “No one by that name has been here, miss.”
“Okay... there are other hotels near where you are, right?”
“This is Beverly Hills,” said the clerk and he hung up.
Andrew Roger Roger Andrew.
Grace had assumed he was staying at the Opus but obviously he’d just dropped in to... have a drink? A confidence-building snort before tomorrow’s therapy when he’d be dealing with moral parameters?
He’d ended up with much more than booze.
Roger, the engineer. If the name was false, the same could apply to the occupation. Ditto a flight from Texas.