The Night Before (13 page)

“There is that little problem of patient-doctor privilege.”

“Work around it. It’s just too convenient that she’s missing.”

“You think her patient killed her?”

“I don’t know what to think, not until we locate her. Meanwhile, I’ll double-check Caitlyn Bandeaux’s alibi.”

“That would be a good start,” she said, slapping the top of his desk, “a damned good start.”

“And that’s another quarter. At this rate you’ll have both kids’ college tuition funded by Christmas.”

“Very funny,” she muttered under her breath and looked as if she wanted to cuss him out big time, but held her tongue. “I’ll let you know when I find Dr. Wade. In the meantime, get over your fantasies and figure out how to prove that Caitlyn Bandeaux killed her husband.”

“So I take it you don’t believe in innocent until proven guilty?”

“I think that’s pure, unadulterated . . . hogwash. I’ll stake all of my kids’ college fund that Mrs. Bandeaux is guilty as sin.”

 

 

The dream replayed as it always did.

 

 

Caitlyn’s eyes flew open.

She was alone, lying upon the canopied bed that had been hers during the years that she’d occupied this room. The flowered canopy was faded now and the afghan she’d pulled to her neck smelled of must and age. She’d been tired after the funeral, had taken her mother’s advice and rested, here, in her old bed.

She swallowed hard. Remnants of the dream still lingered: the sucking sound of the arrow loosening from Charles’s flesh, the cold whistle of the wind, the horrid accusations in her mother’s voice. This recurring nightmare had chased after her since she was a child, ever since the day when she actually had found her brother dying in the snow.

If only she’d listened to Griffin. If only she hadn’t panicked and pulled that damned arrow from his chest.

But she had. So many years earlier.

It had been the day before Thanksgiving, and most of the family had gathered at their hunting lodge in the mountains of West Virginia. Her father had been alive then, and Charles had been out hunting by himself. Caitlyn, Kelly and Griffin had been playing hide-and-seek in the woods when Caitlyn had become lost and wandered farther from the house, deeper into the forest. Calling for her twin, she’d stumbled upon the half-frozen body of her brother. That was where the dream parted from reality, or at least she thought it did because from the moment she’d seen Charles lying faceup in the snow, she couldn’t remember a thing, only that she’d somehow ended up back at the lodge, blood streaking her coat and insulated pants, the deadly arrow clutched in one mittened hand. She’d been catatonic for days . . . unable to talk, withdrawn inside herself. The entire episode was now a black hole, a void she could only fill in the middle of the night when her subconscious would call up a nightmare as bleak and stark as the sky on that icy November day.

“God help me,” she whispered, trying to get a grip on herself. Her nerves were shot, her memory filled with holes, her life careening out of control. She couldn’t let this happen. Not again. Flipping on the bedside lamp, she noticed the crisp business card that had fallen from her purse.

A phone number was listed on the bottom line.

She saw it as a lifeline to her sanity.

Finding her purse where it had fallen to the floor, Caitlyn leaned over the side of the bed, reached inside and dragged out her cell phone. Her battery had run down again, but there was still a little power. Without thinking twice, she punched out Adam Hunt’s telephone number. She had to get help. She couldn’t take this much longer or she would completely crack up. Just like her grandmother Evelyn had.

She shuddered as the phone rang.

Bad lady
.

Adam waited.

In Rebecca’s office.

He’d made arrangements with the rental management company, not that it was legal. But he was able to talk his way in as Rebecca was a couple of months behind on the rent and Adam agreed to pay the money due, explaining that he was a friend. Fortunately, the building manager wasn’t all that concerned about the legality of the transaction—just the cash. Adam slipped him an extra five-hundred dollars in cash, promised to vacate if Dr. Wade showed up, and the louse managed to turn a greedy blind eye.

So much for ethics in property management.

But Adam couldn’t complain. He was eyeball deep in the illegal transaction, and he’d spent the past three days reading everything he could about Caitlyn Montgomery, sensing she was somehow the key to Rebecca’s disappearance.

But he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Really wrong this time. Rebecca had mentioned a breakthrough with one of her patients, a major breakthrough, and then she’d disappeared. True, she’d been talking about taking some time off, heading west and seeing parts of the country she’d never visited before, but to leave without saying good-bye, to never call or send a postcard? No, it didn’t feel right. And yet he hadn’t gone to the police again. Not after the last time. Not until he was certain. He’d already gone to her house and picked the locks. The house was deserted, but not emptied. Too many personal items had remained . . . he’d have to talk to the landlady, but he hadn’t caught up with her yet. Had avoided her until he’d had a quick look for himself.

Now he heard a slight rap on the partially opened door, and then Caitlyn Montgomery Bandeaux poked her head around the corner. Mahogany-colored hair framed a heart-shaped face sculpted with high cheekbones, arched eyebrows and intelligent, troubled eyes.

He was on his feet in an instant. “Come in.”

Cautiously, she slid through the door. “This is kind of weird,” she admitted, surveying the surroundings.

“Because this was Rebecca’s office?” God, she was beautiful. He’d remembered that from the cemetery, but it seemed that today, without the strain of the funeral, she was prettier, had more color. Not that it should matter.

“Yes.” She managed a shy smile. “Because it’s Rebecca’s office.”

“Will it make you uncomfortable?”

“I don’t know.” She managed a smile and smoothed the nonexistent wrinkles from a khaki skirt that buttoned up the front. Her hair was piled loosely onto her head, falling down in some places, and she looked nervous. Edgy. A little ragged around the edges. But then she’d been through quite a bit in the past few days.

“You changed things around,” she said, tugging at the sleeves of her pale sweater.

“A bit.” He’d replaced a couple of the lamps, thrown two new rugs over the floors, put up cheap prints he’d bought at an estate sale, and prominently displayed his degrees behind the desk. He’d repositioned the couch and chairs and thrown out the dead plants, replacing them with a couple of ferns.

“This does seem a little surreal,” she admitted as she took a seat in the rocker and dropped her purse onto the floor beside her.

“I imagine.”

“Kind of like a bad movie. A really bad movie.”

He grinned and saw a bit of amusement in her eyes, just beneath the strain. So she had a sense of humor. That would help.

“I think I’ve been coming here for two-and-a-half years—well, before I stopped a few months back—and I always saw Rebecca, er, Dr. Wade, in that chair—” Caitlyn motioned toward the desk chair and shrugged, then rubbed her arms as if an eerie sensation had stolen up her skin. Crossing her legs, she flashed him a bit of calf, though she seemed unaware of the movement. Surely she knew she was a striking woman . . . then again, maybe not.

“Maybe we should just take this session to get to know each other,” he suggested, reining in his thoughts. Rebecca’s desk chair squeaked as he shifted in it. “How about this? I’ll tell you a little about myself and then you can tell me about you.”

“Kind of like that old kids’ game? You show me yours and I’ll show you mine?” she asked, then seemed horrified at the insinuation.

“Not that intense. At least I hope not today.”

“Good. I’m not sure I’m up to intense.” She shoved her hair out of her face and managed a thin smile.

So far this wasn’t going as he’d planned. He wheeled the chair to a small table where a pitcher of iced tea was sweating and a small electric soup maker was warming water. “Coffee? It’s instant. Hot or cold tea?” he asked, and she shook her head.

“I’m fine—well, maybe tea.”

He poured hot water into a mug, then handed the cup, spoon and tea bag to her. “Sorry, fresh out of honey or lemon or cream or sugar or even sugar substitute.”

“That’s fine. I’m a purist.” Dunking the tea bag in her mug, she leaned back in the rocker and again he noticed that she was a striking woman. Paler than most, her fair complexion complemented a toned and supple body. A few light freckles bridged her straight nose and thick, red-brown lashes rimmed wide hazel eyes that, in the right light, looked green. Full lips turned down thoughtfully at the corners, and the space between her eyebrows puckered as if she were in deep, troubling thought. When she looked up at him, he was taken with the intensity of her stare, those hazel eyes dark with worry. “I thought you were going to tell me about yourself.”

“That’s right.” He managed a smile. “I’m afraid it’s pretty boring. Born and raised in Wisconsin, one brother, went to school in Madison, then transferred to Michigan for grad school. I taught for a few years, then went into private practice. I was working in the D.C. area and was thinking of moving when I talked to Rebecca and she suggested I come down here. Savannah sounded interesting. A real change. So I decided to go for it.”

“What about all your patients in D.C.?”

His smile broadened. “I weaned them.”

“They’re all healed?” she asked, snapping her fingers. “Psychoses, depression, whatever. Just like that?”

“Healed? Hmm. A relative term, but yes, actually, most of them are in pretty good shape. A few I referred to colleagues.”

“How long have you been here?”

“About two weeks.”

“Am I your first patient?”

“In Savannah, yes.”

“Do you have references?” she asked, then glanced at the diplomas and awards for service that he’d hung over the now-cold fireplace. “Oh . . .”

“You can call Michigan. Talk to Dean Billings in the Psych Department. Last I heard he was still working, but he could’ve retired, I suppose.”

“So why did you show up at Josh’s funeral? That’s kind of weird. You knew about me.”

His smile stretched. “You caught me. I was looking for you. Figured you’d be there. I’d been talking to Rebecca—Dr. Wade. She’d called me specifically about you. She’d mentioned you before, then called when she read about Josh’s death in the on-line version of the
Savannah Sentinel
. She thought you might like to talk about it.”

“She should have called me.”

“I think she tried. No answer.”

“I didn’t answer for a few days . . . wasn’t up to it. The press was calling and I was upset.” Her brows pulled into a tighter knot. “But she didn’t leave a message.”

“Maybe she intends to call back,” Adam suggested, knowing it was a lie as he stared into the hazel eyes of this beautiful, vulnerable woman. He felt like a heel, but tamped the feeling down.

Caitlyn dunked her tea bag and didn’t comment, but he knew the wheels were turning in her mind and she was second-guessing her appointment. Maybe he’d blown it. He leaned back in his chair and tented his hands. “So, now tell me about you.”

She visibly started. Then placed her tea bag on a napkin. “I guess that’s why I’m here, right?” She glanced out the window, appeared to struggle. “Where do you want me to start?”

“Wherever you like.” When she didn’t immediately respond, he said gently, “How about why you were seeing Dr. Wade and then you can go back as far as you want.” He sent her a reassuring smile, knew the rimless glasses he’d donned helped soften his visage, and made him look more intellectual than intimidating. “We’ll work forward or backward from the starting point. I just want you to be comfortable.”

“Kinda hard to do when someone’s dissecting your life.”

“Not dissecting.”

“Then examining.”

He leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees, his chin propped in his hands. “Look, I don’t know how you did things with Dr. Wade, but let’s start fresh. Don’t think of me as dissecting or examining, or looking too deep into areas you want to keep hidden. We can begin with a dialogue and go from there. We can begin by talking about your family.”

“My family,” she said and sighed so deeply that her hair ruffled. “Well, okay. Let’s start by saying we didn’t put the fun in dysfunctional. The Montgomerys have been in Savannah about as long as there’s been a Savannah,” she said, looking away from him as she rubbed a finger over the edge of the couch. She seemed to loosen up a bit, explaining that in the first few years of her life she’d thought everything was perfect. She had a twin, Kelly, and they were close; her other siblings, five of them, were spread above and below; the twins were the middle children. One of her brothers, “Baby Parker,” had died as an infant from SIDS, and the eldest, Charles, had been killed in a freak hunting accident, and she had recurring dreams about finding him in the woods. The other hunter, whoever he was, had never been found. As for the remaining siblings, her older sister Amanda, the lawyer, was “driven,” her brother Troy, “controlling,” and her baby sister, Hannah, a “worry.”

She talked for nearly two hours and he learned that her oldest sibling, Charles, had been the heir apparent. Then he’d died. Now the duty of running the vast Montgomery wealth was split between Amanda as the oldest sibling and Troy, the next to youngest, who just happened to be the last standing male in the family.

As Caitlyn spoke, Adam observed how careful she was, how she looked him squarely in the eye, only to quickly glance away, as if suddenly shy. He’d gone through Rebecca’s notes on Caitlyn, but some of them were obviously missing, the pages having disappeared. Unless Rebecca had stored them somewhere else. He hadn’t found them yet, though he’d torn this office upside down and come up empty-handed. The quick search of Rebecca’s house hadn’t shed any light on the missing pages, either. Odd, he thought. Had she taken them with her?

Everything Caitlyn confided he already knew about her, though he played the innocent, leaning back in his chair, scribbling notes, asking the appropriate questions or nodding thoughtfully. He even made a couple of jokes and was rewarded with her lips twitching into a beguiling smile.

“. . . so then I got married,” she said and lifted a shoulder. “No one was happy about it.”

“No one, meaning your family.”

“Right.”

“Why did they disapprove?”

“Josh had been married before to an older woman, Maude Havenbrooke. He’d even adopted her child from a previous marriage.”

“Divorce is fairly common.”

“That was only the first strike against him. Josh had a reputation for being . . . er, making reckless investments. My family thought Josh was after my money—I, um, have a trust fund.” She cleared her throat. “But I didn’t care what anyone thought about Josh. I was in love.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head, then hesitated before adding, “And . . . and I was pregnant.” She blinked and looked at her hands. “Jamie was born seven months later and she would have been five if . . .” She cleared her throat. Struggled for words. “. . . If she had survived. She died.” Nodding her head as if to convince herself, she added huskily, “She was my baby and . . . and my whole life.” Tears gathered in her eyes and she blinked.

He felt a pang of sympathy for this woman trying so hard to hold herself together. Without saying a word, he rolled Rebecca’s chair to the bookcase, picked up a box of tissues and handed the box to her.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Don’t be. It’s hard to lose a child.”

“It’s hell,” she corrected, spitting out the words and touching a tissue to the corner of her eyes. “Do you have any children, Dr. Hunt?”

“No.” His ex-wife had never wanted any. It was a bone of contention and had contributed to the breakdown of his marriage.

“Then you can’t begin to imagine the pain I’ve gone through, the guilt I’ve borne, the . . . the desperation I’ve felt. I wake up every morning and think about her, wish that I could have taken her place. I would trade in an instant.” Her eyes were suddenly dry, her shoulders stiffening, the tissue crumpled in her fist. “But I don’t have that choice and my husband . . .” She let her breath out and visibly stiffened. “My
husband
was going to file a wrongful death suit against me. Can you imagine? As if I . . . I had killed my daughter, our daughter.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I!” She shot to her feet. “He claimed I was neglectful . . . that I didn’t get her to the hospital in time, that I was too wrapped up in myself. It’s ridiculous. I was still recovering from a sprained wrist, but I was well enough to take care of my daughter. I just thought she had the flu and . . . well, by the time I got her to the hospital . . .” Her words faded and she stopped talking to stare out the window, as if mesmerized by a dove roosting on the eave of the next building. Sunlight gilded the dark strands of her hair, made the red in it appear. “It was too late. Josh blamed me. And I blamed myself. I should have taken her in sooner, but I didn’t know.” She turned, her wide eyes red-rimmed, one small fist clenched tight. “He went to his grave believing that I’d somehow purposely endangered my child’s life.” Her shoulders slumped. “I went over all this with Dr. Wade—well, not about the lawsuit. I didn’t know about it until after our last session.” She flopped back on the couch, checked the time and said, “I think I’ve run over.”