Hunter's Moon.htm by Adams C T & Clamp Cath

Author:Adams, C T & Clamp, Cath [Adams, C T & Clamp, Cath]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: A Tor Book

Chapter 20

I went over the details of the bodyguard agreement as we drove to my office. It would cover all contingencies but have a specific exclusion for suicide. That's standard. You can protect a person from the world but not from themselves. So her death would appear to be a suicide. She nodded nervously. Worry and fear surrounded her like a cloud.

"How much?" she asked when I had finished the conditions.

I sighed. It had been tough to imagine watching her die. I could do it— I'd seen others I cared for go away— but I didn't like it much.

"A million." I didn't watch her face as I said it. I kept them squarely on the road. The resulting silence in the car seemed endless.

I finally glanced at her but it wasn't long enough to read her eyes. When I looked back again, tears were streaming down her face. I couldn't tell whether she was happy, sad or angry. The smells were all mixed. So I waited to hear it from her own lips.

"Deal." She started to cry into her hands. Great. I still didn't know what she was feeling. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the tears. She's an emotional wreck right now. She could use someone to talk to who wasn't so involved.

Ah. I knew just the person.

I placed another call using the speaker phone attached to the cell. I really hate people who drive with a phone glued to their ear. A woman answered, "Good afternoon, Dr. Corbin's office."

"Hey, Karen!" I said. "Is John-Boy in?"

A deep-throated chuckle escaped her, but then she must have heard Sue crying in the background. Her voice grew more serious, concerned. "Can I tell him who's calling?"

"Yeah. Father Guido Sarducci." I tried to ignore Sue sobbing beside me. She was exploding with anger and gratitude and pain. I started sneezing and nearly ran off the road. Damn, what a cocktail. I didn't even know if it had anything to do with me. I acknowledged her tears by handing her a tissue from a box tucked under my seat. She accepted it with a glance in my direction and I heard her blow her nose. I turned on the first road east toward the 'burbs.

"This is Dr. Corbin," said a pleasant tenor. "Who is this?"

"Trouble. With a capital T. How you doin', John-Boy?"

There was a sigh deep enough that it came over the speaker. "I really hate it when you call me that, Tony."

"Hey." I shrugged automatically even though I knew he couldn't see me. "You started it."

"We were kids! We grew up."

We could continue bantering all day but I had other issues. "Yeah, well… anyway, I need an appointment for a new patient."

Dr. John Corbin is one of the top psychiatrists in the city. He's also a childhood friend. I trusted him to help Sue get through some of her problems. I hadn't been lying. I wasn't a therapist or a social worker. John is. Sue needed someone to help her work through stuff— with her mom and with me.

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