True Evil

With Ben so close, Thora watched the game in silence. Chris couldn't help but notice that almost everything Ben said was directed toward him. As the game wore on, Chris scanned the fences and the other bleachers. He knew nearly every face he saw. That was how it was in small towns. Some families had four generations sitting at this field, the infants rolling around in the dirt while their great-grandparents sat against the fence in wheelchairs. Looking down toward home plate, he saw a man about his own age waving at him. A strange numbness came into his hands and face. The man was Shane Lansing.

Before he was even aware of it, Chris found himself reappraising the surgeon's sharp-jawed handsomeness and athletic build. For the first time it struck him that Lansing bore a marked resemblance to Lars Rayner, Thora's absentee father. Their hair color was different, but apart from that, the similarities were considerable. They were both lean and muscular, both arrogant and sometimes cruel, both surgeons with outsize egos. Lars Rayner, of course, was a topflight vascular surgeon and thus had reason for his arrogance. Shane Lansing, on the other hand, was a journeyman cutter who cared as much about golf as he did about medicine. He was grinning now, and Thora was waving back as though Lansing were a long-lost relation.

'Wave, Chris,' she urged, nudging him in the side.

Fuck him, Chris thought, almost saying it aloud. He inclined his head slightly in Lansing's direction, then looked pointedly back at the game.

'What's gotten into you tonight?' Thora asked.

'Nothing, I told you.'

'I thought you liked Shane.'

'I thought he was waving at you.'

She looked at him strangely. 'What's going on with you? What's the matter?'

'Hey, Ben?' Chris said, taking out his wallet and handing the boy $2. 'Run get me some popcorn.'

'Aw, Dad, there's a line! A long one.'

Chris handed him the money and gave him a push. Ben got up and walked dejectedly down the steps.

'You ever see Lansing out at Avalon?' Chris asked in a casual tone.

'I saw him today,' Thora said without hesitation.

This admission brought Chris up short. 'You did?'

'Yes. He stopped by the site on his way home for lunch.'

'What for?'

'To look at the house, for one thing.'

'What else?'

For the first time, Thora looked uncomfortable. 'I've been meaning to talk to you about this. But you've been so busy lately-'

'About what?' Chris felt his face flushing. 'You've been meaning to talk to me about what?'

'God, Chris. What's the matter? Shane asked me to come work for him, that's all.'

Chris didn't know how to respond. Nothing could have surprised him more. 'Work for him? Doing what?'

'You can't tell anybody this, but Shane is planning to build a large outpatient surgery center. It will compete with the local hospitals, so you can imagine the stink it will cause.'

The idea that Shane Lansing wanted to build a surgical center didn't surprise Chris. Lansing was one of the new breed; they started building their empires the first year they could legally tack the letters MD after their names. But why Lansing would want Thora to work at his surgical center was beyond him.

'What does he want you to do?'

'Supervise the personnel. Nurses and technicians mostly.'

'But…'

'But what?'

'You're a multimillionaire, for God's sake. Why would you go to work as a nursing supervisor?'

Thora laughed, her eyes twinkling. 'I didn't say I was going to take it.'

'Are you considering it?'

She looked down at the field. 'I don't know. I get pretty bored sometimes playing the yuppie housewife.'

Chris said nothing.

She looked at him again, and this time she let her real self shine through. 'Are you going to tell me what you think? Or can I already tell?'

'Is that Lansing's only interest in you?'

Thora laughed louder this time, the sound like a handful of bells. 'What do you mean?' she asked, but the flicker in her eyes told him she knew exactly what he meant.

'Don't be disingenuous.'

Her smile faded. 'Shane's married, baby.'

'And if he wasn't?'

In the silence that followed this question, the give-and-take of their previous exchanges escalated to something more unsettling. 'Come on now,' Thora said. 'You're not serious?'

'Shane's had three affairs that I know about in the last year.'

'That's just gossip,' she said dismissively. 'You know this town.'

'No, the gossip has him screwing six or seven nurses in the past year. The three affairs I mentioned are fact. He had to pay off two of the women to make them go away.'

Two tall boys had joined Shane Lansing behind the backstop. The surgeon had four sons, all handsome, all good athletes.

'I hadn't heard that,' Thora said thoughtfully.

'I can't believe I've actually heard some gossip that you haven't.'

'I'm not in the hospital loop, you know that.'

Chris turned his attention back to the game. Thora's revelation of a job offer had flabbergasted him. Could that be the explanation for their secret contact? If Lansing was putting together his own surgical center, he was right to keep it a secret. The two local hospitals would do all they could to stop him. After a silent inning, Chris said, 'I've got to pee,' and climbed down to the ground, choosing a route that took him behind the backstop. When he passed Lansing, he stopped and shook the surgeon's hand, fighting a juvenile urge to crush it in his grip.

'Heard you guys lost tonight,' Lansing said.

Chris forced down a surprising amount of bile and nodded. 'What about y'all?'

The surgeon laughed. 'With four boys, you win some and lose some every night.'

'Hey, Thora told me you came by the house today.'

The remark seemed to take Lansing by surprise, but he recovered quickly. 'Yeah, the place is really coming along. It's hard to believe Thora designed it all.'

'Not if you know her. She can do pretty much anything she sets her mind to.'

Lansing chuckled again. 'Yeah, I heard she used to upset a lot of doctors by telling them how to do their jobs.'

'Where did you hear that?'

Lansing shrugged. 'Around. You know the hospital.'

Chris forced a smile. 'Been playing much golf lately?'

'When I can, you know me.'

'I was thinking about playing this week. You going to be in town?'

Lansing's eyes locked onto his. 'Yeah, sure.'

'All week?'

'Yeah. You want to play a couple of rounds?'

Chris nodded. 'I'll call you.'

Lansing smiled, then turned back to the field at the sound of a hit.

Chris walked toward the restroom, his ears ringing as though he had tinnitus. Halfway there, he looked back