“I—I—I’m sorry. If you two won’t leave, I am going to have to call Security.”
“Yes,” Camille said. “I think that’s best. Have this girl removed, please. I think it’s past her bedtime.”
Mattie hauled off and slapped Camille, hard enough for it to look real.
“Okay, that’s it.” The receptionist picked up the phone and the PA system crackled. “Code 10 to the reception desk, Code 10 to reception, and Eddie Gill, please report to the lobby. You have visitors.”
Code 10 was Lakeside speak for an out-of-control situation, a call which was quickly answered. Two men, one older and one young, both wearing the requisite blue uniforms, showed up to diffuse the situation.
Eddie wasn’t far behind them, which made it the perfect time for Ross to sneak in.
Ross put on his lab coat and went inside with his head down as if he belonged there.
Mattie feigned crying.
Camille shouted.
Of all the folks at the front desk—the receptionist, two security guards, and Eddie Gill—poor Eddie was the only sucker Ross had to worry about recognizing him.
“Eddie, I’m going to have to ask you to get your friends to leave,” said the older security guard.
“I’ve never seen these women before in my life.” Eddie’s pale face turned red, his eyes wide behind his dark glasses.
Camille swept her hand across the reception desk, tossing its contents on to the floor. “What do you mean you have no idea who I am? Eddie, you said you loved me.”
The look on Eddie’s face was priceless. He’d gone from sheet white to candy apple red in a matter of seconds and was so flustered that, after a minute, he couldn’t even speak. He met Camille’s outlandish accusations with stammering, and almost passed out when she offered Mattie a tissue. The two of them had ganged up on him, making a bigger distraction than Ross needed.
Eddie had been the perfect patsy.
Ross hurried up the stairs and onto the ward.
The patient floor was quiet, except for the sound of the community room television. No one was there watching.
A sinking feeling took hold as Ross considered the police cruisers.
What if Lila had been arrested?
Was the center under some sort of lockdown?
Where were the patients?
Ross crept down the hall, holding his breath as he closed in on Lila’s room. The pulled shade obscured his view through the window. He turned the knob and pushed the door open to find the room empty except for the over-pruned bonsai tree.
He was too late.
The thought made him sick to his stomach.
“I thought you’d be back,” said a male voice behind him.
Ross spun around to see a smugly grinning Guy.
“Where’s Lila?”
“She’s gone,” he said.
“Gone where?”
Guy clucked his tongue and shook his head. “After all that’s happened, is it so hard to figure out?”
“What did you do?” Ross prayed Lila hadn’t incriminated herself.
“That’s quite a distraction you have going on downstairs. I’m guessing the brunette is the on and off girlfriend you told me about. What was her name, Mattie?”
“Guy, I’m not playing around. What did you do with Lila?” Part of him wondered if maybe Guy had been expecting him and moved her to throw him off.
“Lila?” Ross called for her. “Lila, are you here?”
Kendra stepped out of her room, lips pursed and arms across her chest. “Dr. Reeves, why are you yelling?”
“Kendra, where’s Lila?”
Kendra shrugged, her large breast swelling from the deep V of her shirt. “How should I know?”
“When’s the last time you saw her?”
Guy stepped in. “Ross, Lila isn’t here and I don’t appreciate you upsetting the patients.”
“Who’s upset?” Kendra said.
“Kendra, please. Did you see the police?”
“What police?”
“Kendra, go back in your room please,” Guy said.
“I—”
“Back in your room and close the door.”
Kendra did as she was told.
Guy and Ross stood on opposite sides of the hallway, Guy looking up at Ross who was several inches taller. “You should have left well enough alone.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Between Jeremy Davis, his staff, and the people you asked favors from at the hospital back in Edinburgh, people are asking questions, saying Blake Wheeler wanted to die. You can’t blame Ruth for being upset.”
“All I know is that Blake didn’t want to live on life support.”
“According to Lila.”
“According to him. You know there was paperwork. Blake’s advance directive had him removed from life support.”
“The advance directive that Lila forged his signature on.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to. You might as well admit it now.”
“There’s nothing to admit.” He wouldn’t turn Lila in, even if it was already too late. Even if she had given herself up. He prayed that wasn’t the case. “Guy, please. Tell me where Lila is.”
Two security guards appeared at the end of the hall.
“Is she all right?” Ross said. “Can you at least tell me that?”
“She isn’t here.” Guy paused between each word.
“Dr. Reeves,” the younger of the two guards held his radio in his hand, “I’m going to have to ask you to surrender your key card and leave.”
“Guy, please. Stop this.”
“It’s too late, Ross. Take care now.” Guy headed toward the elevator.
“Dr. Reeves, will you come with me or do I have to call the police back?”
Back.
The word resonated.
Whatever business they had, they must have left.
Ross took one last look into Lila’s former room, wondering if she had gone with them, and handed over his key card. “That won’t be necessary.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
Back at the loft, Ross tried to recreate what had happened at Lakeside. When he met Camille and Mattie out front, the patrol cars were gone. “There’s no way policemen escorted a woman past you two and you didn’t notice, right?”
Camille, who had changed back into her own clothes, pursed her lips. “Really, Ross? We didn’t happen to notice an arrest in progress?”
“Is it possible you were so caught up in what you were doing that you missed them?”
“No. Absolutely not,” Camille said. “No one came down the stairs before you and those two guards.”
Mattie had been unusually quiet since leaving Lakeside.
“You okay?” Ross rubbed her shoulders from behind the chair.
“There were police, Ross. I’m fine, but we could’ve been arrested.”
“For impersonating a couple of girlfriends? Not likely,” Camille said. “Anyone up for a trip to the bar? I could use another martini.”
Mattie held her stomach. “No more pumpkin.”
“None for me, either. Thanks.” Ross had too many things on his mind to be interested in anything other than finding Lila. “What about a back door? There’s an emergency exit. Is it possible they took her out that way?”
Mattie turned to face him. “Anything’s possible, Ross, but if the police did take her away, what can you do about it?”
The answer, though Ross hated to admit it, was nothing.
“Mattie, I have to find her.”
“Okayyyy,” Camille stood up. “Since I know less than a fraction of what’s going on here, I’m going to show myself out so you can talk.”
“Camille, you don’t have to go,” Ross said.
“Maybe if you two brainstorm you can come up with something.”
“Or maybe you can help me talk him out of this,” Mattie said. “Ross, we’ve bent enough rules that I think you’r
e asking for trouble.”
“Mattie’s right,” Camille said. “You should probably leave this alone.”
Ross wasn’t ready to accept defeat. “What about Lila’s lawyer? If I can figure out who that is, they should know where she is, right? God, Guy looked so smug.”
“Not for nothing, Ross, but I’m not the only actress in town. What if he was bluffing? Trying to get you to admit to something you know? It wouldn’t be unheard of.”
“If it was an act, where’s Lila?”
“I have no idea and I’m out of the business of finding out. I’m hanging up my Adele Clements hat.” She hugged Mattie. “Take care of him, would you?” She hugged Ross next. “You have one of the good ones here. She’s smart, a better actress than she gives herself credit for, and she knows how to make a slap hurt. Think about that before you upset her.”
Ross half-heartedly returned the embrace, too preoccupied with possibilities to be in the moment. “Thanks, Camille, for everything.”
“What are friends for? Anyway, Ross, Mattie’s right. Don’t mess up a good thing over this. Sometimes you have to know when to let go.”
Ross knew she wasn’t only talking about Lila’s case.
“Take care,” Camille waved to Mattie, “and stay in touch.”
“I will,” Ross said, locked the door behind her and firing up his laptop.
“What are you doing?” Mattie said.
“I’m looking for the Wheelers’ attorney. They’re high-profile people. Maybe there’s something about who represents them, or has historically.”
More than a dozen pages of answers returned, none of them what Ross wanted. There were links to the hospital’s legal staff, to malpractice lawyers, and to lawyers in general, but nothing he could use to find Lila.
“Anything?” Mattie said.
Ross shook his head. “Nothing. What if she hasn’t been arrested? If she somehow got out of Lakeside she’d go home, right? To Edinburgh?”
“I don’t know what you base that on. Maybe that’s the last place she wants to be right now. She hasn’t been back since—”
“Blake’s funeral.”
“I was going to say since she tried to kill herself, but neither makes home more welcoming. Listen, I know you want to help, but you’re officially at a dead end.”
“I don’t believe that, Mattie. I came all the way here to help her. I can’t leave if I don’t know where she is.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. You can’t stay because you don’t know where she is. How long do we live in a hotel? A day? A week? What about when I have to go back to the doctor for my follow-up?”
“You said you wanted to be here.”
“I want to be wherever you are, Ross. Always. But you’re fighting a losing battle. We tried tonight. We went above and beyond, but Lila made a decision she has to live with. You did, too, and her being caught, if that’s what’s happened, has nothing to do with you. You didn’t incriminate her. When is it enough? What do you want to do? Drive back to her house? And if she’s not there, then what? Stalk her mother-in-law? Get Camille to play another role for you? You go from one obsession to the other. It’s like—”
“Say it.”
“I won’t, but you know you tend to hang on to things.”
“Mattie, Lila confided in me. What she did wasn’t wrong.”
“This is a gray area at best. Lila forging her husband’s signature is illegal, whether you agree with that or not. Right and wrong doesn’t come into play here.”
“She’ll lose everything if I don’t help her.”
Mattie took his hand, leaning against the edge of the desk facing him. “I’ll make you a deal. I can’t say I’ll stay indefinitely, but I’ll stay long enough to find out if Lila was arrested or not. Something like this would make headlines either tonight or by first thing tomorrow, right?”
Ross nodded.
“If by the morning’s news nothing shows up, we fly home,” she said. “You’ve gone borderline too far on this one. I’ve waited a long time for us to have a life together and I don’t want it to end with you in handcuffs. What do you say?”
“What if Lila has been arrested?”
“Then we’ll stay in New York long enough to meet with her attorney and see if there’s anything you can do. If you need to come back to testify or do a deposition then we’ll make arrangements. We’ll do what we can to help her, within the law. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Ross said.
“And we’ll pack just in case.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
The following morning held no news about Lila or Blake Wheeler, the forged advance directive, or what might have transpired at Lakeside for the police to have been called there. As agreed, Ross and Mattie had taken the first available flight home to Chicago. Mattie slept most of the way, giving Ross time to think about all that had happened. He wanted more than anything to believe that Camille was right, that Lila was somewhere safe, but with Ruth out for blood, he wasn’t sure there was such a thing.
Hours turned to days, Ross observing a strict morning ritual of searching both the Lake Placid and Edinburgh news. Lila had vanished, the only positive sign in all of it that her house had been taken off the market, and even that was questionable. There was no public record of a buyer. It could have easily been too soon.
Sitting back in his office chair, listening to Mattie unpacking her things in the next room, Ross knew that leaving New York was the right thing to do. There had been no more phone calls from Guy or Mark, and the only person that did call, Dr. Daniel Long, had gotten news he clearly hadn’t expected.
Ross tendered his resignation and promised to follow up with the formal written notice he had just finished writing. He printed the letter and checked to see that the pen he planned on signing with had ink in it.
“Mattie, can you come here a minute?” No matter how many times he read what he wrote, he wasn’t sure it was right.
“Everything okay?” Mattie wore a pair of baggy jeans and a sweatshirt. She had little makeup on and finally seemed at home.
Ross had rarely seen her so relaxed. “Can you take a look at this? I feel like I should say more about why I’m leaving, but I’m sure it doesn’t matter. It’s not like the hospital and I were on the best terms.”
“That wasn’t entirely your doing. You were crucified for doing what you were asked to. Dan knows how you are. He counted on it.” Mattie took the letter from his hand and sat on his lap to read it.
Ross wrapped his arms gently around her, though she insisted she was completely healed. She said he was going overboard in refusing to let her lift or carry anything. After all he had put her through, it was the least he could do.
“What do you think?”
“Short, sweet, and to the point.”
“You don’t think it’s too short and sweet?”
“It says what needed saying. Feels good to be out of there, right? I mean after what Dan did and this whole Lakeside thing.”
“I still don’t know what really happened there. When I saw Dan after your accident, he asked me to come back. He said he needed me.”
“He still suspended you.”
“True. Anyway, it’s over. Dropping off the letter is a formality.”
“Speaking of, did you make that phone call?”
“To Tim? Yes, this morning. He was happy I accepted the position.”
“He’s not the only one.” Mattie kissed him. “Think you can put up with me all day every day?”
Ross smiled, trying to push away the thoughts of New York and Lakeside. “I’m sure I can manage.”
“Manage. I’m flattered.” Mattie rolled her eyes. “No news is good news, you know?”
“What do you mean?”
“I can tell when your mind’s somewhere else by now. You might as well admit it.”
“I’m sorry. This whole thing with Lila has me bugged. The way Guy was acting, it was like he got exactly what he wanted. You don’t think Ruth o
r the lawyers made it so the news wouldn’t report Lila’s arrest, do you? People can do that, right? Not every crime makes headlines.”
“It’s been almost two weeks. I think it’s time to let this one go.” Mattie kissed his forehead and stood to leave.
“Where are you going?”
“I still have a couple more boxes to unpack and—” The doorbell interrupted her. “Are you expecting something?”
“No, you?”
“I haven’t even put in a change of address, but I’ll get it.”
“No, I’ll get it.”
“No. No. I insist. You have a letter to sign.”
“And you have boxes to unpack.” Ross chased Mattie downstairs, swerving around her in the foyer and pulling the door open with a smile.
A stunning brunette with crisp blue eyes and a tentative smile stood on the other side of the threshold, her arms folded across her chest.
“Lila?” Ross said.
Mattie’s eyes went wide.
“I’m sorry for showing up like this, Dr. Reeves.”
“Ross, please call me Ross. What are you doing in Chicago?”
“Strange coincidence. I had some business to take care of with Blake’s estate and the life insurance policy. The company is based in Chicago, so I thought I’d make the trip in person. You know, clear my head. It’s been a while since I’ve been anywhere.”
“How did you find me?”
“Mark. I hope you don’t mind. I asked him to get me your address out of your file. He had said you were looking for me, so he figured there was no harm.”
“That place is terrible with security.”
“Tell me about it.”
Mattie cleared her throat and locked her arm around Ross’s, looking up at him with an expression that said he had overlooked formality.
“I’m sorry. Lila, this is my girlfriend, Mattie. Mattie, meet Lila Wheeler.”
“I’ve heard a lot about you.” Mattie shook Lila’s hand.
“All good I hope. May I come in?”
“Please. Can I offer you something to drink?” Ross couldn’t believe the woman he had been looking for had turned up in his living room. “Make yourself comfortable.”
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