“I really don’t know, Mr. Green. That’s what we’re trying to find out.”
“You’ve seen me before?”
She nodded.
“How often?”
“Does it matter?”
“It does to me. Very much. How often?”
She flipped through the file folder on her desk. “This is your eighth visit. Why is it so important?”
“Because I can only remember coming here once before.”
She frowned. “Interesting. When was that?”
“March fourteenth. Do you remember what I asked you then?”
“I have notes from our interview. You were looking for a young woman called Lara Morgan. Did you find her?”
“No. Do you have a picture of Lora Masterman?”
“If I did, Mr. Green, I wouldn’t let you look at it. Ms. Masterman no longer works here, and I wouldn’t want her annoyed by my patients.”
“She left you pretty suddenly,” he said. “I talked to her when I called from the store. She put me on hold, and after ten minutes or so you answered. When I got here, she was gone.”
The doctor nodded again. “It’s true she gave no notice, Mr. Green. Nevertheless, her resignation is my problem, not yours.”
“Tell me one thing, and I won’t ask you anything else about her. Does she fit the description of Lara I gave you when I was here in March?”
“I must have your solemn word, Mr. Green.”
“All right, I give you my solemn word that if you’ll answer that one question I won’t ask you anything else about her.”
Dr. Nilson nodded. “Agreed, then. Let me read over what you told me.” She scanned the paper before her. “You said that Lara Morgan had red hair and was about five feet, nine inches tall. You also said that she had freckles. She was wearing a green dress, silk or nylon, and gold jewelry. No, Mr. Green, the description doesn’t fit Lora at all.”
He leaned forward in the hard, wooden chair. “Is it just the hair color? Because—”
“Mr. Green, you gave me your word that you’d ask me no more questions if I told you whether Lora’s appearance corresponded to the description you gave. I have told you: it does not. My time isn’t unlimited, and there are patients waiting to see me—patients who were waiting before you came.”
He nodded and offered her the Lora Masterman pen. “I have to have a note from you saying I’ve been to see you. Otherwise they won’t let me come back to work. If you’ll give me that, I’ll go.”
“Then I won’t, at least not right this moment. You have no more questions for me, Mr. Green. At least, no more about Lora; so you promised. But I have several for you. My first was why you’ve come to see me today, but you’ve just answered that. The second is why you must have this note. You haven’t been at work for some time?”
He shook his head. “Not since March thirteenth, the day before I came to see you last.”
“You devoted your full time to your unsuccessful search for Lara Morgan?”
“Yes.”
“I see.” Dr. Nilson made a notation on her pad. “Prove to me that Lara Morgan exists, Mr. Green.”
“All right, I will—if you’ll prove to me first that Lora Masterman existed.”
For a second or two Dr. Nilson glared at him, then a smile tugged at her lips. “You’re either much worse or much better, Mr. Green, and I swear I don’t know which. You’re a conundrum wrapped in an enigma. Winston Churchill said that about Russia, I believe.”
“Can you do it?”
“Yes, indeed. Quite easily, as it happens. We now have a full-time attorney here. About two weeks ago, he bought a new camera and went through the building snapping pictures to try it out. One he took of Lora and me was so good—at least, in his opinion—that he had prints made for both of us.” Dr. Nilson pulled out one of her desk drawers. “I still have mine, right here.”
She produced a brown envelope about five by seven, with the words CANDID CAMERA SHOPS across the top.
“Don’t!”
“Don’t what, Mr. Green?”
He did not reply.
“You don’t want to see my picture?”
“There isn’t any picture there,” he said. “Or if there is, it won’t show Lara. Lora.” He did not know how he knew, yet he did.
“You’re quite correct in thinking that it doesn’t show your Lara Morgan, but it shows Lora Masterman and me. As a matter of fact, I was looking at it just a few minutes ago, after Lora left so abruptly. She was the best receptionist I’ve ever had.”
