David Baldacci - Simple Genius

An hour later the lights went dark and still Michelle did not close her eyes. She was waiting for footsteps, stealthy and motivated by evil purpose. Around one in the morning she finally told herself, “He just touched your arm, for God’s sake, and made a suggestive comment.” Was she adding paranoia to her other issues? No, she told herself, I don’t have issues.

At two in the morning she was awakened by footsteps passing down the hallway. She slowly sat up and checked Cheryl’s bed, but the straw sucker was dead asleep. Michelle slipped the covers off and put on her tennis shoes. A moment later she was out in the corridor. At night there was a reduced number of staff on duty and the rental guard had a lot of ground to cover and not a lot of motivation to do it.

She followed the sounds of the footsteps down another corridor. Michelle heard a door open and then close. She crept closer, straining to hear something. Then she froze. She’d heard another sound, but this one was behind Michelle. She took a few steps back and then cut down another corridor.

An instant later, coming around the corner was Barry, the gold chain attendant. He strode right past Michelle’s hiding place in the darkened hall. As soon as it was safe, Michelle ran back to her room.

THE NEXT MORNING MICHELLE RETURNED to that part of the building. Two things caught her eye: the lovely, well-dressed lady who was being wheeled out of her room by a nurse; and the pharmacy at the end of the hall.

Later that afternoon, Michelle had her session with Horatio.

“No more nightmares last night?” Horatio asked.

“No, it was really peaceful. There’s a woman in a wheelchair in a room at the end of the patient corridor on the east wing?”

Horatio looked up from his notes. “Yes, what about her?”

“Who is she?”

“She’s not one of my patients. But if she were, I couldn’t tell you anything about her. Patient confidentiality, you understand. That’s why I don’t talk to anyone else about you. ” He added jokingly, “Unless they pay me an enormous amount of money of course. I have my ethics, but I’m not stupid.”

“But you do to Sean. Talk about me, I mean.”

“Only because you signed that release.”

“Can you at least tell me why she’s in a wheelchair? That’s not mental, right?”

“It certainly could be. But as I said, she’s not my patient. Why do you want to know?”

“Just curious. There’s not a lot to hold one’s attention around here.”

“Well, I’ll give you something. How about we focus on getting you better?”

“Okay, what’s on the menu today?”

“Not Salisbury steak, but the spaghetti isn’t much better. Now yesterday we finished up with your thinking about why you’re here. What conclusions did you draw?”

“Not many, I’ve been busy.”

“Busy? Really? I thought you just said you were bored?”

“Okay, I’m here because I want to get better.”

“Are you just saying that or do you mean it?”

“I don’t know, which answer do you want?”

“I can play games with the best of them, Michelle, but it does waste a lot of time.”

“Is that what you’ve been telling Sean, that I’m wasting his time, and his money ? I know he’s paying for all this.”

“And does that matter to you?”

“I know he’s trying to help me. He’s a good guy. It’s just…”

“Just what?”

“I think he could probably spend his time and money better elsewhere, that’s all.”

“Meaning you’d rather he abandoned you to your fate? You going melodramatic on me? Do I have to add that to the list of weird shit to look out for in you?” Horatio’s smile managed to defuse this comment.

Michelle studied the floor for a few moments.

“Do you think you know Sean well?” Horatio finally asked.

“Of course. We went through some pretty dangerous things together.”

“He told me you saved his life, more than once in fact.”

“He did the same for me,” she said quickly.

“If you know Sean so well you have to realize that he’s not going to walk away from you.”

“All I’m doing right now is holding him back.”

“Oh, he told you this?”

“Of course not. He’d never say it. But I’m not stupid.”

“Were you two ever physically intimate?”

Horatio’s question caught Michelle so off-guard that she could only gape.

“It’s a fairly standard query, Michelle. I need to understand the different roles that people close to you play in your life. And sexual roles are very powerful influences for both good and bad.”

“We were never intimate like that,” she said in a mechanical tone.

“Okay. Did you want to have sex with him?”

“You can ask me this shit?” Michelle exploded.

“I can ask you pretty much anything. It’s up to you to answer or not.”

“I don’t understand the question.”

“It’s not too difficult, is it? Sean King is tall and handsome, smart and brave, honest and true.” Horatio smiled. “Frankly, I think those traits are given inflated importance in life, but who am I to say? And he’s a good guy too, as you said. You’re a young, attractive woman. You worked closely together.”

“Just because you work with someone doesn’t mean you have to sleep with him.”

“You’re absolutely right. So if I said you did not have thoughts of being intimate with Sean that would be correct?” He smiled. “I need to check off the right box on the multiple choice test here.”

“God, I feel like I’m on the witness stand being cross-examined.”

“ Self -examination can be even harder than getting drop-kicked by a skillful shyster in the courtroom. So, no feelings of intimacy toward the big teddy bear?”

“Just go with your gut, Doc. That’s all I can tell you.”

“That actually tells me a lot. Thank you.”

“Now that we’re finished with Sean, I suppose you’ll want to know if I wanted to sleep with my dad.”

“Let’s talk about that.”

“Come on, I wasn’t being serious.”

“I get that. But how is your relationship with your father? Good?”

“No, great! He was a police chief, retired now. He and Mom are in Hawaii on a second honeymoon. That’s the reason I didn’t want to let them know about me. They would’ve just rushed back.”

Horatio didn’t let on that he had already learned part of this from Sean. “Very thoughtful of you. Do you think they’d be surprised you’re here?”

“I hope they’d be stunned !”

“I understand your brothers are cops as well. Ever think of doing something else for a paycheck?”

Michelle shrugged. “Not really. I mean I had the usual pie-in-the-sky ambition to be a professional athlete, but that wasn’t going to happen.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. You’re the first Olympian I’ve ever treated. A silver medal in rowing, Sean said.”

“Yeah,” she replied, a smile tugging at her mouth. “That was great. The high point of my life, or at least I thought so at the time. Maybe it was after all,” she added quietly.

“And then you were a cop for a while and then you joined the Secret Service. Any special reason for the change?”

“All my brothers were cops. I thought it would be cool to be a fed.”

“And your father was okay with that?”

“Not really. He wasn’t big on me being a cop actually.”

“And how’d that make you feel?”

“I understood. Daddy’s little girl and all. My mom didn’t like any of us being cops. But I did it anyway. I’m sort of independent.”

“You’ll be stunned to learn that one I’d already diagnosed,” Horatio said.