“What do you mean, ‘relationship’ . . . ? Look, George, this isn’t the time or the place for this.”
“When is the time, Pia? I’ve wanted to tell you I love you for years.”
The elevator finally arrived, the doors opened, and a cluster of students noisily piled out. A party had started in someone’s room and now was moving to a bar up on Broadway.
George pulled Pia aside as the door closed. She rolled her eyes.
“George, come on. Not now.”
“I’m sorry, but I have to say it. I know you don’t want to hear this, but I don’t understand you.”
“That makes two of us.”
“But we need each other, don’t you think? I know I need you.”
“I don’t know what that means-to ‘need’ someone. Someone needing me, I don’t want that responsibility.”
The second elevator arrived with a straggling student who hurried to catch up with his friends. Pia got in the car and held the door for George.
“Get in, George, Jesus.”
Pia punched the eleventh floor for her room and seven for his. Message delivered. George reluctantly got in. Pia’s mind was already full of competing problems-Rothman, the Sisters, Africa, the rest of her life-and now here was another one. She wondered what it was like to think about someone constantly as George said he did of her. It was an alien concept. She glanced at George, who was looking at the floor. She had no idea what he was thinking or feeling. The elevator stopped on seven and Pia reached out and pressed the hold button. George hesitated for a moment, than stepped out.
“Good night, George,” Pia said.
George just nodded as the doors closed. To Pia he looked pathetic.
36.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER NEW YORK CITY MARCH 24, 2011, 11:15 P.M.
George knew something about loss. His own father, Morgan Wilson, died when George was three, and no matter how hard he tried, George couldn’t really remember anything specific about him other than a vague sense of contentment. He did have a few vague memories, but they’d been pieced together from photographs shown to him by his mother, Jean. There was one silent home movie of a time Jean and Morgan took George to see his grandparents, Sally and Preston, in Arizona. George had watched the film over and over and his father always looked impossibly young and endearing. In the short film Morgan is holding George on his lap and alternately kisses him on the cheek and hugs him. Morgan’s absence had caused George a degree of melancholy similar to the melancholy he was feeling at that moment.
George got up from his bed where he’d flopped after Pia’s rebuff. He needed to get out of his room if only for a short interval. There was always the vending machine room on the first floor. He needed to see people, normal people, and there were usually students getting sodas or bags of chips.
As George headed toward the elevators, he tried to concentrate on how much he was loved by his family. He’d always had that to fall back on whenever he felt lonely. He knew that Pia did not have an equivalent situation, which made her behavior even more confusing. Why did she so consistently reject the love that he wanted to share with her and finally had the courage to voice? It just didn’t make sense.
George slapped the down button. Almost as if the car had been sitting there waiting for him, the elevator doors opened. Inside was Will McKinley, perhaps the only person in the world who could have made George feel even lonelier.
“George!” Will said. “What a coincidence. You heading down for a snack? Hop in!” Will took George’s arm and pulled him in. The ground-floor button had already been pressed. George lacked the strength to resist.
“What’s the matter, George? You look terrible.”
“I’m just tired. It’s been that kind of day.”
“How’s Pia? Have you seen her? She must have taken what happened to Rothman real hard.”
“She did.”
“Lesley and I tried to call her but she’s not picking up.”
“She’s not great at staying in touch with people,” George said.
The elevator reached the ground floor and Will guided George off.
“Listen, George, if there’s anything I can do to help Pia, just let me know. Really. We want her to get through this in one piece, she’s a great girl.”
George simply nodded. Will walked away toward the vending room. When he realized George wasn’t accompanying him, he turned and waved to George to follow.
“Come on! My treat.”
George sighed, wearily turned, and pressed the button once more to call the elevator. He wanted company but not Will’s company.
37.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER NEW YORK CITY MARCH 24, 2011, 11:30 P.M.
The moment the elevator doors had closed on George, Pia had already relegated him to his proper place in her mind, well down the list of her immediate concerns. She didn’t like being abrupt with him, but she didn’t want to get into a long-drawn-out conversation either. She was exhausted from not sleeping well the previous night. Unfortunately, when she reached her floor, she had a bit of bad luck. She had run into Lesley and had had to have a conversation about Rothman and Yamamoto. Curious if Lesley had any interesting thoughts, Pia had tolerated the chat, but after ten minutes or so, when it was evident Lesley was not about to add anything significant, Pia broke it off.
Pia put the key in the lock and opened her door, walked in, and hooked the door with her right heel to slam it shut. In complete darkness, she felt the wall with her left hand to find the light switch and flicked it on. With her right hand she tossed her keys in the general direction of the desk. All Pia wanted to do was take a quick shower before going to bed. She’d been on the go all day and tomorrow wasn’t going to be any quieter with a planned visit to the OCME.
Pia walked over to the window and closed the blinds. She took off her lab coat and tossed it over the arm of her reading chair. Next she removed her sweater and laid it on top of the jacket. She opened her closet door and kicked her shoes directly inside, first the left, then the right. Next she shucked off her black skirt and then her bra and let them fall to the floor. Pia couldn’t wait to get into a hot shower. She put her hand on the bathroom door and thought it was odd that it was closed-she never closed the bathroom door, even when she was using the toilet.
Before Pia could process another thought, the door was yanked open away from her and the handle wrenched out of her hand. A tall figure materialized in the doorway and put the heel of his hand on Pia’s breastbone and pushed her hard to the ground. Pia’s head snapped back and smacked against the floor. A reflex cry rose in her throat, but it was choked off by the man, who was straddling her now with his knees on her arms, his left hand over her mouth. Pia tried to clear her head, but her ears were ringing. The man kneeling on her was wearing a balaclava, and she could see a second figure, obscured by the first. He was also hooded. Both wore hospital security uniforms.
The first man struggled to keep Pia still. He reached behind him with his right hand and the second man handed him a roll of duct tape. The first man looked back again and waved the tape.
“Cut me a piece,” he said in heavily accented English, and his colleague obliged. He freed Pia’s mouth, took the strip of tape in both hands, and clamped it down over Pia’s mouth before she could let out more than a stifled
