Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky

Author:Sara Paretsky [Paretsky, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Mystery
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2012-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

11

Friendly Persuasion

I stopped at the clinic before going to the apartment to let Lotty know I’d made free with her hospitality and to see if she thought Jill needed anything for shock. A small group of women, most of them with younger children, were waiting in the little anteroom. Jill looked around her curiously. I poked my head into the inner door, where Lotty’s nurse, a young Puerto Rican woman, saw me. “Hello, Vic,” she said. “Lotty’s with a patient. Do you need something?”

“Hi, Carol. Tell her that I’d like to bring my young friend back to her apartment—the one I went out this morning to see. She’ll know whom you mean. And ask her if she can take a quick look at her—healthy kid, but she’s had a lot of stress lately.”

Carol went into the tiny examining room where she spoke for a few minutes. “Bring her into the office. Lotty will take a quick look at her after Mrs. Segi has left. And of course, take her to the apartment.”

I took Jill into Lotty’s office, among disapproving frowns from those who had been waiting longer. While we waited, I told her a little bit about Lotty, Austrian war refugee, brilliant London University medical student, maverick doctor, warm friend. Lotty herself came bustling in.

“So, this is Miss Thayer,” she said briskly. “Vic has brought you down for a little rest? That’s good.” She lifted Jill’s chin with her hand, looked at her pupils, made her do some simple tests, talking all the while.

“What was the trouble?” she asked.

“Her father was shot,” I explained.

Lotty clicked her tongue and shook her head, then turned to Jill. “Now, open your mouth. No, I know you haven’t got a sore throat, but it’s free, I’m a doctor, and I have to look. Good. Nothing wrong with you, but you need some rest and something to eat. Vic, when you get her home, a little brandy. Don’t talk too much, let her get some rest. Are you going out? ”

“Yes, I’ve got a lot to do.”

She pursed her lips and thought a minute. “I’ll send Carol over in about an hour. She can stay with Jill until one of us gets home.”

At that moment I realized how much I liked Lotty. I’d been a little uneasy about leaving Jill alone, in case Earl was close on my trail. Whether Lotty knew that, or simply felt a scared young girl should not be left alone, it was a worry I now did not have to speak aloud.

“Great. I’ll wait until she gets there.”

We left the clinic among more baleful stares while Carol summoned the next patient. “She’s nice, isn’t she? ” Jill said as we got into the car. “Lotty or Carol?”

“Both, but Lotty, I meant. She really doesn’t mind me showing up like this, does she?”

“No,” I agreed. “All of Lotty’s instincts are directed at helping people. She’s just not sentimental about it.”

When we got back to the apartment, I made Jill stay in the car while I checked the street and the entranceway.

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