An Anonymous Girl

by Greer Hendricks

  I envisioned her staring down at her present, stunned, as I hit her with the second part of my one-two punch: I know you gave April the Vicodin she overdosed on.

  She would be dangerously mad. But she wouldn’t be able to touch me, because I’d also tell her about how I’d set up e-mails on my computer addressed to Thomas, Mrs. Voss, Ben Quick—and the private investigator—with the evidence I’ve compiled, including a photograph of the pill Dr. Shields gave me. I wrote that I was on my way to see you. The e-mails are scheduled to be automatically sent tonight unless I get home and delete them, I’d planned to say. But if don’t hand what have me, then I won’t hand over what I have on you.

  That last part would be a lie because I still intended to find a way to turn in Dr. Shields. But if I could shock her into saying something incriminating on my secret recording, I’d at least have evidence to offset whatever story she concocted.

  Now, as I sit in the library watching Thomas wipe his mouth with a napkin, I know I need to figure out a new strategy—fast.

  I can’t believe Dr. Shields just told Thomas she knows he slept with April and that April was his client.

  Thomas suddenly looks like a completely different man than the confident, take-charge guy who pulled off his jacket and covered the elderly woman who was hit by a taxi outside the museum.

  My mind swirls as I try to reframe everything I thought I knew. I was right; April went to Thomas for therapy. But Dr. Shields doesn’t realize I’m aware of this, or that I already knew Thomas slept with April. It’s an explosive secret, one that could cost them everything. Why was she so cavalier about stating that information in front of me?

  All of Dr. Shields’s moves are premeditated. So this wasn’t a slip. It was deliberate.

  My stomach clenches like a fist as I realize she must already be certain that I’m not going to tell anyone.

  A secret is only a secret if one person holds it.

  What is she going to do to ensure I won’t reveal it?

  My mind flashes to a vision of April, slumped on the park bench.

  I shrink back against my seat as my entire body begins to tremble. My mouth is so dry I can’t swallow.

  Dr. Shields tucks back a stray tendril of hair and I see the vein on her temple throb, a blue-green blemish on an otherwise-perfect sheet of marble.

  The tasteful platter of hors d’oeuvres, the crackling fire, the elegant library with leather-bound volumes lining a shelf—how could I ever have thought bad things couldn’t happen in such an enviable setting?

  Focus, I instruct myself.

  Dr. Shields isn’t a physically violent person, I tell myself again. Her sharpest weapon is her mind. She wields it mercilessly. If I succumb to panic, I’ll lose.

  I force myself to stare at her as Thomas gasps, “Lydia, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

  She interrupts him: “I’m sorry, too, Thomas.”

  Then I hear it: the disconnect between her words and her tone.

  She doesn’t sound furious or cuttingly sarcastic, as a wife should in this moment.

  Compassion fills her voice instead. It’s as though she believes she and Thomas are aligned together against the adulterous affair; as though they are both innocent parties.

  As my gaze seesaws between them, it hits me why Dr. Shields hasn’t simply left Thomas: She can’t.

  Because she’s desperately in love with him.

  She didn’t give April the pills only because she was jealous and furious. She also did it to protect Thomas, so that April could never reveal she’d been his client. I told Dr. Shields that I’d seen what love looks like in other people. And now I realize it’s true: I see it on her face whenever she talks about or gazes at her husband. Even now.

  But her love for Thomas is as twisted as everything else about her: It’s all-consuming and toxic and dangerous.

  Dr. Shields replaces the visitor’s log under the laptop. Then she takes a seat on the chair opposite me. “Shall we begin?”

  She appears completely composed, like a professor in front of an audience, conducting a lecture.

  She spreads out her hands. “Now, I’ll ask my question again, this time to both of you: Do either of you have anything to confess about the true nature of your relationship?”

  Thomas starts to say something, but Dr. Shields cuts him off immediately: “Hold on. Think very carefully before you reply. So that you don’t influence one another, I’ll speak to each of you privately. You have two minutes to decide how you are going to answer.” She glances down at her watch and I push up my sleeve to check mine.

  “Your time starts now,’ Dr. Shields says.

  I look at Thomas, trying to read what he’s going to say, but his eyes are tightly shut. He looks so awful I wonder if he’s going to get sick again.

  I feel nauseated, too, but my mind is leaping through all the scenarios and the possible repercussions.

  We could both confess the truth: We did sleep together.

  We could both lie: We could stick to our script.

  I could lie and Thomas could divulge the truth: He might sell me out to get the visitor’s log.

  Thomas could lie and I could disclose the truth: I could blame it on him, say he pursued me. If I do this, Dr. Shields claims she’ll give me the digital recording. But will it really end then?

  No, I realize. There is no right move.

  Dr. Shields takes a sip of wine, her eyes staring at me from over the rim of the glass.

  The Prisoner’s Dilemma, I think. That’s what she’s re-creating. I read about it once in an article someone posted on Facebook. It’s a common tactic in which suspects are placed in solitary confinement and given incentives to see if they’ll rat each other out.

  Dr. Shields sets down her wineglass, the crystal making a delicate chime as it touches the coaster.

  There can’t be much time left.

  Images collide in my brain: Dr. Shields alone in the French restaurant at a table for two. I see her stroking the crest of the falcon, and feel the warm press of cashmere around my shoulders as I sobbed in her office. A line from her notes in her precise, graceful script: You could become a pioneer in the field of psychological research.

  I tried to use the lessons she taught me to trap her tonight. She outmaneuvered me even before I began.

  But now I realize it isn’t over, because I’ve finally pinpointed her weak spot: Thomas. He’s the key to undoing her.

  My breathing is shallow; a rushing noise fills my head.

  I need to think several steps ahead, like she always does. I know that no matter how we answer, Dr. Shields is never going to turn him in; she needs to find a way to blame this on me. Just like she probably did with April to justify giving her the Vicodin.

  I was the one under scrutiny by Dr. Shields from the moment I entered her study, but I’ve been scrutinizing her all along, too. I know so much more about her than I realized—everything from the way she walks down a street to what she keeps in her refrigerator and, more important, how her mind operates.

  Will it be enough?

  “Time’s up,” Dr. Shields announces. “Thomas, would you join me in the dining room?”

  I watch the two of them disappear from view and my mind flashes through all of the variables again from Thomas’s perspective. I think about what’s at stake for him: The tabloids would pounce on a story about a handsome therapist and his affair with a wealthy, damaged young woman who committed suicide. He’d probably lose his license, and the Voss family might sue him.

  I know quite a bit about Thomas, too. I think back to our encounters, from the museum to the bars to my apartment to the Conservatory Gardens. And the final one, in his office.

  With a sudden, swift certainty, I know how he is going to answer.

  Dr. Shields comes back into the room less than a minute later, alone. I can’t read what might have just transpired from her expression; it’s as if she is wearing a mask.

  She sits down on the end of the love seat
closest to my chair. She reaches out and lightly touches my bare leg where there’s a gap between my boots and the hem of my dress. I force myself to remain still, even though I want to recoil.

  “Jessica, do you have anything to confess about the true nature of your relationship with my husband?”

  I look directly at her. “You’re right. I wasn’t completely honest before. We slept together.” I was worried my voice would waver, but it doesn’t; it sounds assured. “It happened before I knew he was your husband.”

  Something changes in her eyes. The light blue of her irises appears to darken. She remains perfectly still for a moment. Then she nods crisply, as it this has confirmed something she already knows. She rises and smooths her dress before heading back toward the dining room.

  “Thomas, can you join us?” she calls.

  He walks into the room slowly.

  “Will you please share with Jessica what you just told me?” she prompts him.

  I clasp my hands firmly on my lap and try to smile, but my jaw is clenched too tightly. I can still feel the icy touch of her fingers on my leg.

  Thomas drags his eyes to mine. In them I see pure defeat.

  “I told her nothing happened between us,” Thomas says dully.

  He lied.

  I guessed correctly.

  He didn’t do it to protect himself, he did it to protect me. He is giving up the opportunity to obtain the visitor’s log.

  Dr. Shields is obsessed with morality, with telling the truth. But Thomas understands the nuances of ethical choices; he lied because he thought it would save me, even if it meant sacrificing himself. For all his failings, there is a core of goodness in him. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why she loves him so desperately.

  I can feel Dr. Shields’s anger; it’s like a swelling, red force in the room, pressing in on me, stealing away my breath.

  The silence hangs heavily for a moment, then Dr. Shields says, “Jessica, can you repeat what you told me?”

  I swallow hard. “I said we slept together.”

  Thomas cringes.

  “Now, one of you is clearly lying,” Dr. Shields says. She folds her arms across her chest. “And it seems pretty obvious it’s you, Thomas, since Jessica has nothing to gain from a false confession.”

  I nod, because she’s right.

  What she does next is going to reveal if the risk I took paid off.

  Dr. Shields walks over to the piano and pats the laptop. “Jessica, I’ll be happy to give you the recording. All you need to do is return what you took from me first.” Her gaze flits to Thomas and I know exactly what she means. She isn’t talking about a necklace.

  She’s re-creating what happened with Gene French in her own warped way; she’s using my secrets to inflict maximum pain.

  “I can’t,” I say. “I never took any of your jewelry and you know that.”

  “Jessica, I’m disappointed in you,” she says.

  Thomas takes a step deeper into the room. Closer to me.

  “Lydia, let the poor girl go. She told you the truth; I was the one who lied. Now this is between the two of us.”

  Dr. Shields shakes her head sorrowfully. “That necklace is irreplaceable.”

  “Lydia, I’m sure she didn’t take it,” Thomas says.

  This is what I gambled on by telling the truth. I need him to see that despite the fact that I’ve followed her rules, she’s going to find an excuse to destroy me.

  She gives me a gentle smile. “I will wait until tomorrow morning to alert the authorities, since it is Christmas.” She pauses. “This will also give you some time to talk to your parents first. After all, once they know the truth about Becky, they’ll understand why you were so desperate for money. Because of your guilt.”

  This is exactly how she did it to April, I think as I drop my head into my hands and feel my shoulders shake. She coaxed out April’s secrets and used them like knives against her. She made April feel completely hopeless, as though everything she loved had been taken away. As though life was no longer worth living. Then she gave her the pills.

  Dr. Shields believes she has stripped away everything from me, too: My job. Noah. My freedom. My family.

  She’s giving me the night alone because she wants me to follow April’s path.

  I wait a bit longer.

  Then I lift my head.

  Nothing in the room has changed: Dr. Shields stands by the piano, Thomas hovers behind the chair opposite me, and the platter of food rests on the table.

  I look at Dr. Shields.

  “Okay,” I say, making sure my voice sounds meek. “But before I go, can I ask you a question?”

  She nods.

  “Is it ethical for a psychiatrist to dispense Vicodin to a client without giving her a prescription?” I ask.

  Dr. Shields smiles. I know she’s thinking about the pill she gave me.

  “If a friend is going through a difficult time, it isn’t unheard of to offer a single dose,” she says. “Of course, I would never officially condone it.”

  I lean back and cross my legs. Thomas is staring at me quizzically, probably wondering why I seem so composed all of a sudden.

  “Yes, well, you gave Subject 5 far more than a single dose,” I say, locking eyes with her. “You gave April enough to kill her.”

  Thomas inhales sharply. He moves another step closer to me; he’s still trying to protect me.

  Dr. Shields is frozen; she doesn’t even appear to be breathing. But I can sense her brain whirling, composing a new narrative to offset my accusation.

  Finally, she walks across the room to take the chair opposite mine.

  “Jessica, I have no idea what you are talking about,” she says. “You think I wrote April a prescription for Vicodin?”

  “You’re a psychiatrist—you’re allowed to prescribe medicine,” I challenge.

  “True, but there would be a record if I ever wrote her a prescription,” she says, spreading out her hands. “And I didn’t.”

  “I can ask Mrs. Voss,” I say.

  “Go right ahead,” Dr. Shields responds.

  “I know you gave her the pills,” I say. But I’m losing ground; she’s blocking everything I throw at her.

  Thomas reaches up and touches his left shoulder. The gesture appears reflexive.

  “How could I give Vicodin to someone else, when I’ve never even taken it myself?” Dr. Shields asks in a reasonable tone, the one that tried to convince me she hadn’t gotten to Noah or made me lose my job.

  My watch is recording everything, but Dr. Shields hasn’t incriminated herself. Worse, I’ve enraged her. I can see it in the glint in her narrowed eyes; I can hear it in her steely tone.

  I’m losing.

  “You’ve never taken it,” Thomas says. He’s speaking in an odd-sounding monotone.

  We both turn to look at him. His hand is still on his left shoulder—the one with the recent scar from his rotator cuff surgery. “But I have.”

  The slight smile drops from her face.

  “Thomas,” Dr. Shields whispers.

  “I didn’t need more than a few,” he says slowly. “But I never threw out the rest of the bottle. April was in this house the night she died, Lydia. You told me she came to see you and that she was upset. Did you give her my old pills?”

  He turns, as if he is going upstairs to check.

  “Wait,” Dr. Shields says.

  She remains perfectly still for a moment, then her face crumbles. “I did it for you!” she cries.

  Thomas staggers, then collapses onto the love seat. “You killed her? Because I slept with her?”

  “Thomas, I didn’t do anything wrong. April made her own choice to swallow those pills!”

  “Is it murder if you only provide the weapon?” I ask.

  They both whip around to face me. For once, Dr. Shields doesn’t have a response.

  “But you did more than that,” I continue. “What did you say to April to drive her to the edge? You must have known
she was suicidal in high school.”

  “What did you say to her?” Thomas echoes hoarsely.

  “I told her that my husband had a one-night stand and he regretted it!” The words burst out of Dr. Shields in a torrent. “I said he called her a nothing. He said it was the biggest mistake of his life and he would give anything to undo it.”

  Thomas shakes his head, looking dazed.

  “Don’t you see?” Dr. Shields pleads. “She was such a foolish girl! She would have told somebody about you!”

  “You knew how fragile she was,” Thomas says. “How could you?”

  Dr. shields’s face tightens. “She was disposable. Even her own father didn’t want to be around her.” Dr. Shields reaches out for Thomas, but he roughly pulls his hand away. “We can say April took those pills from our medicine cabinet; we knew nothing about it.”

  “I don’t think the police will see it that way,” I say.

  Dr. Shields doesn’t even look at me; she’s staring at Thomas beseechingly.

  “The authorities won’t believe Jessica. She broke in here, she stalked you, she was obsessed with me,” she says. “Did you know she was accused of stealing before? There’s a respected director who fired her because of it. She sleeps around and she lies to her family. Jessica is a very disturbed young woman. I have all her survey answers to prove it.”

  He briefly slides down his glasses and rubs the bridge of his nose.

  When he speaks, his voice booms through the room: “No.”

  Thomas finally has the courage to confront Dr. Shields directly. He is no longer trying to escape from her with fake texts and fabricated stories.

  “If our stories match, we’ll be okay,” she says desperately. “It’s two respected professionals against one unstable girl.”

  He looks at her for a long moment.

  “Thomas, I love you so much,” she whispers. “Please.”

  Her eyes are glassy with tears.

  He shakes his head and stands up. “Jess, I’m going to make sure you get safely home,” he says.

  “Lydia, I’ll come back tomorrow morning. We can call the police together then.” He pauses. “If you bring up the video, I’ll tell them I gave Jess the key to our house and she was picking up something for me.”