“You saw?”
“Yes.”
Liddy raised her eyes. Saw Beth’s alarm.
“You’re thinking maybe I did it? Wentcrazy, painted the face myself and those words?”
Beth swallowed, then shook her head. Her eyeswere deadly serious. “I’ve never known you to talk of ghosts or see things or…hell,none of it has ever been you - but this is worse than the nightmares. What’shappened? Something new has happened.”
Liddy dropped her head; poured out lastnight in long, shaky breaths. Seeing or thinking she’d seen Sasha Perry runningfrom her. Then the unlocked front door that should have been locked; then, threein the morning, Sasha’s ghost hanging over there. Liddy raised a finger topoint. Now…Sasha’s face in the watercolor, begging for help…
Liddy’s face crumpled, tried not to cry. “Soif you like ghost stories or believe in that stuff, she must really be dead,and she’s come to tell me and wants help, revenge. Isn’t that how ghost storiesgo?”
Beth stared at her. If you like ghoststories or believe in that stuff… It sounded totally, undeniably sane. There’dbeen almost a note of self-deprecating humor: Isn’t that how ghost storiesgo? She tried to process it all. “Dare I ask what Paul’s reaction was tothe ghost?”
A whisper: “Double hysteria but supportive.”Liddy inhaled slowly, deeply. “We’d had an argument before it, about Carl. Wewere with him at a restaurant-”
“Wait. You’re so pale. Have you eaten?”
“Couldn’t. Coffee this morning…”
“Oh my Lord, great. Fainting on an emptystomach.”
Beth got Liddy to the kitchen, where shedrooped on a barstool while Beth microwaved oatmeal mixed with milk and lots ofsugar. “For strength,” she said, stirring the mush, pushing the bowl to Liddy.“My mother used to swear by sugary oatmeal. You can have your shrinks,oatmeal cures.”
A spoonful of it stopped near Liddy’smouth. “Shrink. Oh jeez, what time is it?”
“Four-forty.”
A minute later Beth was on her phone toMinton, saying she was a friend and that, so sorry, Liddy would have to cancel.
“Yes, she’s okay. Has to rest, that’s all.Thank you, I’ll tell her.” Disconnecting, Beth announced that the good doctorwas behind anyway. “Lots of emergencies,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Freakingout in his waiting room is not where you’d want to be.”
Liddy managed the weakest little snicker asshe spooned more oatmeal, commenting that it really did make you feel better. Italso felt better just to talk, spew everything to a loving friend without fearof being called crazy.
Beth leaned and put her elbows on thecounter, facing her. “So…a fight about Carl?”
Liddy filled her in. The evening atRighetti’s. Carl’s date pushing the sketch of Sasha at him, insisting he’dknown her because she’d been in his class. “You should have seen him practicallyducking the sketch, refusing to look at it.”
“Ah - and why would he squirm andrefuse to look if it were just another student?”
“Exactly. He’s usually smoother; could havesaid, ‘pretty, nope, never saw her’ - only he’d been drinking.” Liddy frowned.“Which again isn’t like Carl. He hates loss of control from too much booze, andhe’d been planning to return to the lab for serious work.”
“Drinking makes it sound like he wasnervous. Deteriorating, even.”
A nod. “There’s been tension. He was mad atPaul because the cops tried to pursue a Sasha connection to him and got nowhere.”
“Wait - Carl was mad at Paul?”
“And me.” Liddy toyed mournfully with herspoon. Her strength was returning. “Carl had seen my sketch of Sasha, blamed mefor the cops’ visit because…I’m guessing…Paul must have mentioned or complainedthat I’d gone to them. That seems the only logical explanation.”
Beth frowned. “So they’d been talking aboutthis. The case.”
“Apparently.”
“Why? Sounds like mutual nervousness.”
Liddy sighed; tapped her spoon on the edgeof her empty bowl. It made a sad, hollow sound in the kitchen. “After lastnight’s fight, I realized Paul would cover for Carl even if he did suspectsomething. Either denial or twin ambition, it amounts to the same.” She sighedagain. “Anyway, slippery Carl told the cops he’d never laid eyes on Sasha, showedthere was no record of her in his class…then last night - boom! His drunk date insistedshe’d just heard that Sasha only audited his course, that’s why norecord. Things got really tense after that.”
“Tell the police.” Beth started angrily fussingwith the pepper shaker.
“I’d wanted to. Paul read my thoughts andgot frantic, insisted I was being paranoid. How could Sasha be harmed by anyoneif I saw her running in the street? Why damage the world-shaking important workthey were doing?” Liddy shook her head. “I really would have called KerriBlasco this morning if I hadn’t seen - correction, sleepwalked and seen - Sashaswinging from a rope in our living room. So that confirms my paranoia, right?”
“Bullshit.” Beth’s cell phone buzzed. She slammedthe pepper shaker down and checked her screen; ignored it; muttered aboutletting it go to voice mail.
“A client?”
“Just some annoying hedge funder confirminga five-thirty.” She pocketed her phone and started pacing angrily. “If you callthe cops you’ll be Anonymous. No one needs to know where it came from.”
“Yes they will. Right after my hearing itlast night?” Liddy took an unhappy breath and looked out the window. It hadclouded over; was an early dusk with the air looking almost dark. “Last night’sargument…Paul actually cried, insisted any connection between Carl and Sashawas off the wall craziness, told me don’t don’t don’t.”
“Sure, even a whiff of this would threatentheir whole grant, right?”
“You know how the media would jump on it -that’s their nightmare, every story outdoing the competition insalaciousness.” Liddy’s brow furrowed. “What kills me is, Paul’s just asbrilliant as Carl and could carry on alone – maybe not get the thing done intime - but they’re way past the halfway point; have shown that they’ve reallygot something there, and Big Pharma’s excited. Aren’t they bottom line guysanyway, these corporations? If they smell a profit, do they care if halfthe team gets embroiled in a scandal?”
“Maybe they do.”
“That’s what Paul thinks.” Liddy shook herhead. “I don’t understand why he feels so beholden, why he clings to his cherishedidea that he and Carl have
