I glanced back at Whitney, tears of anxiety welling in my eyes. It was pretty clear she was dead.
Five hours later, I was sitting in one of Landon’s armchairs, bundled up in a thick sweater and sniffling and dabbing at my nose with a tissue. An hour earlier, a Godzilla-sized cold had suddenly invaded my system, in about the time it takes to say, “Please no, I so don’t need this right now.” My throat throbbed and my head ached. Landon had just served me a bowl of homemade lentil soup, but I was having a hard time even tasting it.
“I feel so guilty,” Landon said. “I’m sure I’m the one who gave you this dreadful cold.”
“Stop,” I said. “I’ve been freezing my ass off in barns and on balconies for the last few days, and I probably have no one to blame but myself.”
“And Whitney, of course.”
“Yes,” I murmured. “And Whitney.”
The EMS team had arrived less than ten minutes after my futile attempts at mouth-to-mouth. Two patrol cops had followed practically on their heels. And not, it turned out, because of my 911 call. Someone from a nearby high-rise had seen the struggle on the terrace and alerted the police to it. Thankfully they had included the fact that a woman in a light-colored blouse was trying to give a woman in black the heave-ho over the edge. This provided me with a certain amount of credibility as I tried to explain my role in such a fucked-up mess to first the patrol cops, and then second, at greater length, to the two detectives who arrived at the scene about fifteen minutes later.
I was asked to accompany one of the detectives to the precinct, which was good because it spared me coming face-to-face with Cap—though I managed to catch a glimpse of him charging into the building just as I was being driven away in an unmarked police car. His face was drained of blood.
At the precinct I gave my statement in as much detail as possible, and when I was done, urged the detective to call Officer Collinson. They talked for at least fifteen minutes, with the detective standing far enough away from me that I couldn’t hear what he was saying. He eyed me, though, through the entire conversation. I had a feeling Collinson was giving him an earful about what a bad girl I’d been. I knew I would have to call Collinson later and try to make peace with him.
“You can go now,” the detective said, after snapping his phone shut. “But please be available tomorrow. We’ll need to talk to you further as we pursue this matter.”
On the cab ride home, I tried Beau but reached only his voice mail. As I disconnected I saw that I had a message. And lo and behold it turned out that my old friend at
As soon as I reached my apartment, I did a quick search about asthma on the Internet and then staggered into a hot shower. It was while I was toweling off that the cold virus staged a sneak attack on my system, which sent me to Landon’s for over-the-counter cold remedies and sustenance. He always seemed to have both.
“Does it bother you?’ Landon asked me quietly. “That you couldn’t save her?”
“Yes,” I said, sniffling. “Though I probably shouldn’t care—she thought nothing of turning me into a big, ugly splat on Amsterdam Avenue. You know, I just read on the Internet that cold air can trigger asthma. Whitney had obviously started to have an attack when we were in the apartment, but she was in such a rage about me threatening to tell Cap that she clearly wasn’t thinking straight. She made her situation worse by luring me outside.”
“Did her inhaler just malfunction?”
“The bottom was punctured, which must have caused all the medication inside to seep out. But I’m not sure how that could have happened. Some sharp object in her purse maybe—like a pen?”
“You don’t think Cap did it, do you? That he got wind of what she was up to and decided to secretly off her?”
“No, that’s not Cap’s style. If he knew that Whitney had killed his star client, he would have just throttled her.”
A few minutes later I nearly crawled back to my apartment. I threw myself onto the couch and pulled an old throw blanket up to my chin. As I was dozing off, Jessie called. I suspected by the silence behind her that she was probably safely sequestered in a conference room at
“I can’t believe you didn’t call me,” she said. “You’ve got to tell me everything.”
“Oh God, sorry—I planned to call you. I’ve just got a bitch of a cold right now.” I took her quickly through an abbreviated version of what had happened.
“Gosh, how weird and sad and everything else. I feel sorry for Cap, actually. He seemed like an okay guy.”
“Yeah, I don’t think he had any idea how unbalanced Whitney really was. She clearly loved the life she had with Cap. She’d said that they’d had a whirlwind courtship, and my guess is that she saw right away what the possibilities could be—a big fancy apartment, furs and jewelry, a ranch in Texas someday. And as long as everything was on an even keel, she probably seemed fairly normal. But then, to help preserve that lifestyle, she ended up giving Devon her eggs. And when she learned what Devon had done, she just snapped.”
“If she hadn’t gone off the deep end today, do you think she would have been arrested?”
“I honestly don’t know. The fertility doctor Devon used might have confirmed that Whitney was the donor, and there would also be the confirmation of Whitney’s call to the gyno. But unless they could have traced the Lasix to her, it would have been hard to prove she doctored the water.”
I told her then that Nash had left me a few messages.
“I assume he’s calling about Whitney’s death,” I said. “I’m sure it’s eating him alive that I’m at the center of this whole thing but no longer on his payroll.”
“You better believe it. Plus, one of the lawyers was down in his office earlier. I have a feeling they now realize that Whitney must have put Sherrie up to this.”
“Whitney never came right out and said it, but it’s clearly the case.”
“So you’re going to call Nash, right?”
“Sure. I want my name cleared.”
“But what about the magazine? Are you going to write the story for
I hesitated. The answer was forming in my mind right then and there, and it caught me a little by surprise. I should have seen it coming, but I’d been so preoccupied, I hadn’t.
“You know, I don’t think so,” I said. “I can’t ever go back there after what Nash did to me.”
“Oh, wow,” Jessie said. “Though I can’t blame you. Just promise me you won’t make any rash decisions. Talk to Nash, see what he has to say. I don’t think I can face this place every day without you.”
“Thanks, Jess. Lets talk more tomorrow.”
I had just laid my head back down on the pillow when Beau called. It felt so good to hear his voice. I gave him the same short version I’d offered Jessie because now my throat hurt so much I could barely talk. He said he wanted to come by, but I explained I was conked out, almost in a coma.
“I don’t care, I want to see you,” Beau said. “You shouldn’t be alone at a time like this. Why don’t I come over and let myself in, so that way I won’t wake you. Later I can fix you something to eat.”
It was a tough offer to refuse. After I hung up, I forced myself off the couch. Better to be in bed, I thought. As I staggered to my bedroom, I kept thinking about how much Beau had been there for me over the past few days. Not so elusive after all.
I fell into a deep sleep, waking only briefly when I thought I heard Beau come in the front door of the apartment. What seemed like hours later, I stirred again to find Beau sitting on the edge of my bed, dressed in jeans and a black pullover sweater.
“Don’t get too close,” I muttered. “This is brutal.”
“How about something to eat? I could make you an omelet.”
“Yeah, I am kind of hungry.”
He returned a few minutes later with tea, toast, and a cheese omelet. I couldn’t eat much of the omelet in the end, but the toast and tea definitely helped me to rally. I scooted up even higher in bed and mustered a smile at Beau. He was now sitting in the armchair at the foot of my bed.
“Thanks for the food,” I told him. “I feel vaguely human now.”
“The sleep probably helped, too. I checked a few online sites for you. This story has exploded. Lots and lots of speculation, of course, because most people don’t have any clue what really happened. I bet a ton of outlets are
