One Small Sacrifice

by Hilary Davidson

  “Of course.” Emily opened the door wide. “Come in. Would you like some tea?”

  The apartment was different with Emily at home. There were flowers in vases scattered around the room and the smell of perfume in the air.

  “No, thank you. I’m here unofficially, but still on business, Dr. Teare.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you to call me Emily?”

  “I think you’d best sit down,” Sheryn said.

  A shadow crossed Emily’s face, but she obeyed and perched on the sofa. “You look so serious. What’s happened?”

  “The case has really come together,” Sheryn said, taking a seat across from her. “Magda Zimmermann has been singing like a canary since we arrested her. I think Kevin Stanton’s death shook her hard. It’s not like she has any real animus toward you or Alex. She’s been released on bail, but we don’t see her as a threat to you. Obviously, if you see her around your office or your neighborhood, let me know. She’ll be back in jail so fast her head will spin. And just so you know, she cried the whole time she was in jail. I doubt she wants to go back.”

  “That’s good to know.”

  “We haven’t found any other accomplices who worked with Stanton,” Sheryn added. “When there’s been a conspiracy against a person, or a couple, I’m normally pretty cautious, but in this case, I think you should feel free to go out as you see fit.”

  “I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear that.”

  “That brings me to the second case, which is not so cut and dried,” Sheryn said. “I need to talk to you about Will Sipher.”

  “What about him?”

  “What kind of relationship do you have with him?”

  “I know Will through Alex.” Emily shrugged. “Alex has known him since they were little kids. There’s a bond between them because of that. Will’s mother unofficially adopted Alex in high school. I guess they’re like brothers who don’t like each other much.”

  “But you and Mr. Sipher became rather close over the past few months, didn’t you?”

  “I’ve had to spend more time around him because of living with Alex,” Emily said.

  “We actually started wondering, during our investigation of your disappearance, whether you and Mr. Sipher had perhaps become romantically involved.”

  “That would never happen in a million years,” Emily said firmly.

  “I can see that now.” Sheryn gave her a small smile. “But we’re still wondering about your professional relationship with him.”

  “We don’t have one.”

  Sheryn cocked her head to the side. “Didn’t you ask your good friend CJ Leeward about the possibility of overturning Mr. Sipher’s conviction?”

  “Will was very upset about not being able to work,” Emily said. “It came up literally every time I saw him. Part of me felt sorry for him, I guess. I’d like to think that a person isn’t defined by one bad action.”

  “Redemption. I like to believe in that too,” Sheryn said. “But here’s the thing. We’ve been digging into Mr. Sipher’s life, and we’ve found evidence that he’s engaged in a scheme involving prescriptions for opiates and other narcotics.”

  “Really? I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Will uses those drugs,” Emily said evenly. “But running an operation?”

  “Opiates are a big business, and a massive problem, in this country. You don’t need to be bright to sell them. Though I’d argue that finding doctors to write prescriptions for you is fairly clever.”

  “Will did that?”

  Sheryn admired Emily’s poker face. She’d heard this woman was solid under pressure, and suddenly she could imagine her in a war zone.

  “Cards on the table,” Sheryn said. “We know that you provided Mr. Sipher with prescriptions for narcotics. I’m sure you know that is a federal crime. If I arrest you for it, the FBI will be involved, and the least awful thing that will happen to you is that you will lose your medical license. You’ll be sentenced under mandatory minimum rules. The last doctor we arrested for this got two hundred years. With good behavior, he’ll be out in sixty-seven.”

  “I’m not sure what evidence you think you have,” Emily said. “It’s true that I’ve written plenty of prescriptions for narcotics. Many people who have spinal surgery are in such pain that it prevents them from living any kind of normal life. I’ve also seen patients at various clinics in New York and New Jersey.”

  “Your colleague Yasmeen Khan noticed that you were writing prescriptions for people who weren’t patients.”

  “That’s true,” Emily said. “Some of those people didn’t have insurance. Some weren’t in the country legally. They didn’t have the luxury of visiting Presbyterian.”

  Sheryn sat back in her chair. She’d suspected Emily Teare would be a tough nut to crack. While she’d found evidence of the prescriptions the doctor had written, it would be hard to prove that she was involved in a scheme. The doctor had done a good job of covering her tracks.

  “It was very clever of you to use that nursing home in Garwood as cover,” Sheryn observed. “That certainly gave you a lot of leeway.” Before Emily could answer, she put up her hand. “You don’t have to say it. I know you’re worried that I could be recording this. I’m not, but of course, how can you trust that? The fact is that Will Sipher is a menace and needs to be brought down. He’s got a whole network of people working for his operation. I need your help.”

  “I don’t know what I could do,” Emily said.

  “I’ll let you think about that,” Sheryn answered. “Here’s another thing we’re looking at: You know that Cori Stanton’s death was ruled a death by misadventure, and because you’re a physician, you know what that means. There are people I work with who would be happy to consider her death a suicide, but I’m not done with it yet. There are too many inconsistencies about that night, too many factors that haven’t been fully explained. Right now, I’m considering the possibility that Will Sipher may have been responsible for Cori Stanton’s death.”

  Emily stared at her but didn’t speak.

  “Speaking for myself and the NYPD, we no longer consider Alex a suspect,” Sheryn went on. “We know Mr. Sipher was in the building that night. We also know he’d had a romantic relationship with Ms. Stanton that ended badly.”

  “Yes,” Emily said. “I believe that’s true.”

  “We also suspect that Mr. Sipher tried to frame Alex by putting the smashed remains of a burner phone in a bag planted in this apartment. Our theory is that he tried to incriminate your fiancé.”

  “I want to say that I can’t believe Will would do that,” Emily answered. “But the truth is I can.”

  “I don’t recommend revenge as a motivation, but I think you’ve got a great opportunity here,” Sheryn said. “Because if you saw Mr. Sipher on that roof . . .”

  “I didn’t,” Emily answered softly.

  “We have motive and opportunity,” Sheryn prompted.

  Emily was silent for a moment. “I hate Will,” she said. “But I can’t pretend that he killed Cori. He didn’t do it.”

  It was Sheryn’s turn to be silent. She’d known Emily Teare would not come clean about the prescription racket, but she’d suspected she would leap at the chance to put Will away for Cori Stanton’s death. It was a kind of test, and it left Sheryn convinced of her mettle but unsure what motivated her.

  “There’s one other thing,” Sheryn said, pulling a large, shiny silver disk out of her pocket and holding it up. The medallion was like a small starburst, catching the sunlight pouring in through the window and reflecting it in every direction.

  Emily moved one hand toward it, as if to take it, but pulled back.

  “It’s your Saint Christopher medal,” Sheryn said. “We found it in your office.”

  “I haven’t looked at it in a long time,” Emily admitted.

  “Funny story,” Sheryn said. “I was going to bring it to you in the hospital last Friday. I had the idea it might give you some comfort.
But I guess I held it too tight, because it cut into my palm. That was when I realized the mark it made looked familiar to me, so I sent it to the lab.”

  She waited for Emily to answer, but the woman’s expression was calm. It was, Sheryn felt, a studied blankness, the kind of face a doctor needed to make awful news seem less harrowing and to hold others steady in a war zone when everything was grim.

  “They examined it for DNA,” Sheryn continued, “but they didn’t find any traces. Of course, a doctor would know how to get rid of the tiniest shred of DNA.”

  Emily’s eyes were damp. She stared at the necklace as if hypnotized by it.

  “But we do know that this object, or one identical to it, cut Cori Stanton’s palm,” Sheryn added.

  She waited for the doctor to answer that, but she didn’t. Emily seemed frozen in place, barely blinking or breathing. When Sheryn realized no explanation was forthcoming, she prodded, “Can you tell me how that happened?”

  “She grabbed it from my neck.” Emily’s voice was soft. “I can still picture her face.”

  Sheryn set the medallion on the coffee table. “I’d get that chain fixed if I were you. It’s no good to anyone broken.”

  “Thank you,” Emily said.

  “Don’t thank me yet,” Sheryn said. “Because we’re not done. You’re smart, and you have an answer for everything, but that’s not going to keep you out of harm’s way. I think you should’ve learned that by now.”

  CHAPTER 56

  EMILY

  By the time Alex brought Sid back from his walk, Emily had stopped crying and washed her face.

  “What’s wrong?” Alex asked.

  “We need to talk,” Emily told him. “Could you take Sid over to Mrs. DiGregorio’s for a bit?” As much as she would have loved to have the distraction of having Sid underfoot, it wouldn’t help. Once she decided on a course of action, she thought like a battlefield surgeon. No point easing that bandage off; it only hurt more in the long run.

  When Alex came back a couple of minutes later, Emily was standing in front of the window, looking outside. “I need you to listen to me,” she said. “There are some things I’ve never told you, and I was wrong to hold them back.”

  “I know about CJ,” Alex said. “He explained everything. I’ve been waiting to talk to you about that. I didn’t want to until you felt better.”

  “You deserve an explanation for that,” Emily said. “It honestly felt like another lifetime to me. We were married for three months, right after my parents . . .” She swallowed a hard lump that rose in her throat. “Right after they were killed.” She took a breath. “What I need to tell you is a lot more painful than that.”

  Alex stared at her. “Why are you crying?”

  Emily could feel tears rolling down her cheeks. She’d been kidnapped, trapped in a basement for days, and she hadn’t wept. Now she was sobbing? She gulped. “Just listen to what I have to tell you. That’s all I’m asking.”

  “Okay.”

  “When I was flying back to New York last Thanksgiving, you sent me a message. I didn’t get it until I got home, because the battery died on my phone. I remember it word for word. I love you with every last piece of my heart. Goodbye. I knew it was your version of a suicide note.”

  “I was never much of a writer,” Alex said softly. “I didn’t know how else to put it. I wrote what was true.”

  “I came straight over to your building. I heard a woman’s voice saying, ‘Jump!’ I looked up, and there you were, up on the roof with Cori. You were standing on the ledge, and she was holding your hand, telling you to jump. I lost my mind. I grabbed the edge of the fire escape and pulled myself to the second floor, and then I ran all the way up. I know I shouted, ‘Don’t do it.’ Cori heard me, and she started chanting. ‘Jump, jump, jump.’ She was trying to get you to step off that ledge with her.”

  Alex didn’t say anything, but his eyes stayed on her face.

  “I shoved you back, off the ledge, when I got to the top,” Emily said. “You collapsed on the roof, and I couldn’t get you to come around. You were barely breathing anymore. I called 911 to get help, but Cori snatched the phone out of my hand and hung up. She said I didn’t get to play hero and save you.”

  She gulped down air and continued.

  “She grabbed my hair and told me I should go to hell. Then she put her hands around my throat and tried to choke me. I shoved her away, and . . . that was it.”

  She wiped her eyes. Alex didn’t say a word.

  “Her hand caught on my necklace. The chain snapped as she fell.” Emily closed her eyes and took a shaky breath; in her mind, it was all unfolding again, exactly as it had happened. “I was in shock. All I wanted to do was get you help. And I wanted her gone. But not like that.” Emily struggled to get enough air into her lungs; it felt as if there were a stone sitting on her chest, squeezing oxygen out. “She was still alive after she landed. She made a little squawk like a baby bird. I jumped down to the fire escape and ran to her. I called 911 again and gave her CPR. That’s why the police found me in the street with her.”

  Alex was shaking his head slowly. “Cori died . . . because of you.”

  “I didn’t mean to hurt her. I’m so sorry.” She wiped her face; she couldn’t control the tears. “I told the police she fell. It never occurred to me that you would be blamed for her death. I thought it would be considered an accident. But then the police started questioning you. That’s when I told them I’d seen Cori jump off the building.”

  “Why did you lie?”

  “At first, it was because I was horrified by what I’d done,” Emily said. “But then, the day after she died, Will came to see me. He’d been listening to everything from his window. He’d seen me run up and down the fire escape. He also watched me pry my medallion out of Cori’s fist. He knew exactly what had happened. He told me that unless I did as he said, he’d tell the police that you killed her.”

  “Me?”

  “He said they were champing at the bit to arrest you, and all it would take would be his testimony to put you away.”

  “He was involved with Cori,” Alex said softly. “And he used her death to his advantage. Remember that burner phone the police found? Will must’ve planted it here.”

  “I was afraid to say anything. He was like a spider. For a while, he didn’t do anything else. Like an idiot, I thought maybe he’d changed his mind. But then it started, with him asking for small sums of money that got bigger and bigger. Then he started demanding prescriptions. At first it was just some sedatives. Then Vicodin. I told myself I could live with that, because that was for his personal use.” She took a couple of breaths. “When he started asking for fentanyl, I wrote the prescriptions, but I realized I could never give them to him. That was a line I couldn’t cross. Kids have died just from accidentally touching a fentanyl patch. I couldn’t put anyone in harm’s way like that. Instead, I told Will I was writing the prescriptions but couldn’t hand them over until it was safe. They just sat in my dresser. I would take them out and think about how low I’d fallen.” She gulped down air. “I thought Will put me in that basement cell to punish me. Part of me felt like I deserved it.”

  Alex looked her in the eye. “Why are you confessing to me now?”

  “Because I need to be honest about this,” Emily said. “For months, I’ve been lying to you and everyone else. I can’t ever publicly admit the truth about Will and the prescriptions—no matter how much Detective Sterling wants me to—because I’d lose my medical license and never be able to help people again. But she just offered me the chance to frame Will for Cori’s death . . .”

  “Why would she do that?”

  “Maybe it’s a way to lock him up? I don’t know. The only thing I’m sure of is that I can’t lie about it anymore. I have to take responsibility for her death.” There was a lump in her throat that wouldn’t go away, no matter how hard she swallowed. “It was an accident. I never meant to hurt Cori, and I never meant to hurt you.”


  Alex was quiet for a long time. Emily wanted to ask him what he was thinking, but she knew how much she was asking him to process.

  “Cori wanted to die that night,” Alex said quietly. “She said that to me, but she also told her father.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “He told me, up on the roof,” Alex said. “He blamed me for it. Kevin Stanton wanted to hold everyone but himself accountable.”

  “He wasn’t on the roof,” Emily said. “I was.”

  “But what you’re describing . . .” Alex took a breath. “I know Cori could be violent. Of course you shoved her away. She knew you would do that when she grabbed your throat.”

  “I don’t know if Detective Sterling will see it that way,” Emily said. “But I still need to tell her.”

  “I understand that. Confession is good for the soul. I just don’t think it will change anything about the case,” Alex said. “Cori attacked you, and you had to defend yourself. But if you want to do something brave, you have to help Sterling take down Will. Not by lying about his involvement in Cori’s death. You need to tell the truth about the prescriptions.”

  “I’ll lose my medical license . . .”

  “If he keeps on doing what he’s doing, he’ll get people killed,” Alex said. “You were involved in his scheme, even if it was against your will. You know he’s amoral. He has to be stopped.”

  Emily stared at her hands for a long moment. Growing up, she’d always wanted to be a doctor. She remembered the first time her mother told her, You have the hands of a surgeon. Her parents had been so proud of her wanting to study medicine. She couldn’t imagine doing anything else, yet she knew Alex was right. “The police didn’t find my phone, did they?”

  “Your phone?” Alex looked astonished. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “I recorded Will,” Emily said. “Three, maybe four times. I definitely taped our last conversation. He was always angry that I wouldn’t give him the prescriptions he really wanted, and he lost it when I told him I wasn’t doing this anymore.”