“It had better be you. Someone else might get hurt.”
“I brought you coffee,” she said.
“You’re an angel.”
“Yo, to quote Marino. That’s what everybody says about me.”
“I was just trying to be nice.” I yawned.
She bent over to hug me, and I smelled the English soap I had placed in her bathroom. I felt her strength and firmness, and I felt old.
“You make me feel like hell.” I rolled on my back, placing my hands behind my head.
“Why do you say that?” She wore a pair of my loose cotton flannel pajamas and looked puzzled.
“Because I don’t think I could even do the Yellow Brick Road anymore,” I said, referring to the Academy’s obstacle course.
“I’ve never heard anyone call it easy.”
“It is for you.”
She hesitated. “Well, it is now. But it’s not like you have to hang out with HRT.”
“For that I am thankful. She paused, then added with a sigh, “You know, at first I was pissed when the Academy decided to send me back to UVA for a month. But it may end up being a relief. I can work in the lab, ride my bike and jog around the campus like a normal person.”
Lucy was not a normal person, nor would she ever be. I had decided that in many sad ways, individuals with IQs as high as hers are as different from others as are the mentally impaired. She was gazing out the window and the snow was becoming bright. Her hair was rosegold in shy morning light, and I was amazed I could be related to anyone so beautiful.
“it may be a relief not being around Quantico right now, too.” She paused, her face very serious when she turned back to me. “Aunt Kay, there’s something I need to tell you. I’m not sure you’re really going to want to hear this.
Or maybe it would be easier if you didn’t hear it. I would have told you yesterday if Marino hadn’t been here.”
“I’m listening.” I was immediately tense.
She paused again. “Especially since you may be seeing Wesley today, I think you ought to know. There’s a rumor in the Bureau that he and Connie have split.”
I did not know what to say.
“Obviously, I can’t verify that this is true,” she went on. “But I’ve heard some of what’s being said. And some of it concerns you.”
“Why would any of it concern me?” I said too quickly.
“Come on.” She met my eyes. “There have been suspicions ever since you started working so many cases with him. Some of the agents think that’s the only reason you agreed to be a consultant. So you could be with him, travel with him, you know.”
“That’s patently untrue,” I angrily said as I sat up. “I agreed to be the consulting forensic pathologist because the director asked Benton, who asked me, not the other way around. I assist in cases as a service to the FBI and. . .”
“Aunt Kay,” she interrupted me. “You don’t have to defend yourself.”
But I would not be soothed. “That is an absolutely outrageous thing for anyone to say. I have never allowed a friendship with anyone to interfere with my professional integrity.”
Lucy got quiet, then spoke again. “We’re not talking about a mere friendship.”
“Benton and I are very good friends.”
“You are more than friends.”
“At this moment, no, we are not. And it is none of your business.”
She impatiently got up from my bed. “It’s not right for you to get mad at me.”
She stared at me but I could not speak, for I was very close to tears.
“All I’m doing is reporting to you what I’ve heard so you don’t end up hearing it from someone else,” she said.
till, I said nothing, and she started to leave.
I reached for her hand. “I’m not angry with you. Please try to understand. It’s inevitable I’m going to react when I hear something like this. I feel certain you would, too.”
She pulled away from me. “What makes you think I didn’t react when I heard it?”