Truth or Lies? by A. Gomez (book club recommendations txt) 📗

in our direction. I glanced at Jill and she was wearing a smirk with her eyes still closed. Sneaky girl, so she is feeling better. David took Ginger outside and I saw him talking to her, his lips moving rapidly, too fast for me to read. I walked to Jill’s bedside and kissed her forehead. I whispered that I’d come back when Ginger’s shift was over. She gave me a thumbs up. I headed to the elevators, trying to make a quick getaway. David saw me and caught me at the elevators.

“Isabel, I’m sorry for what just happened. I don’t know why Ginger is so insecure.”

“Spare me the platitudes, David. She’s insecure because you make her insecure, with whatever it is you told her or continue to tell her about me or us…” I rolled my eyes at him.

“I told her I’m still in love with you and I can’t be with her because of my feelings for you.” He twirled me around so I was facing him, looking for my reaction. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of any kind of reaction.

“David, this isn’t fair. I can’t deal with this right now, I have too many things on my plate at the moment and one of them is to get to my office and look up a few documents. We can talk at a later time.”

He agreed and let me go. I was sure I’d be hearing from him sooner rather than later since he thought Josh and I were an item.

10

I got to my office, not bothering to turn on the lights. It was a clear and sunny day; the sun was shining in nicely, warming up the room. I decided to type up an explanation of the Chinese Triads for Pam and email it to her so she’d be abreast of everything. As I was typing, I could hear voices coming from another office, more like laughter and what sounded like moans? I got up to go investigate. As I was walking in the direction of the voices, I assumed it was Patti, the newest psychologist we had just brought on. She was always with a new man and fooling around in her office. It was almost as if it were an aphrodisiac for her. Ew, I wasn’t sure if I should go investigate the sounds now.

I was passing Pam’s office when I heard a man’s voice from inside. I heard Pam moaning…I heard a man call her “baby”…I heard kissing? The door was cracked so I peeked inside. “Oh shit!” I covered my mouth, nearly giving myself away. It was FBI SAC Tim Conny and Pam! When did that happen? How long had that been going on? Was this why Pam was always at work? I couldn’t say that I blamed her. Her husband was always missing, lost somewhere in Chicago at a bar because he was too drunk to remember how to get home or even tell her his location. Why didn’t she just divorce him? I watched for a few more seconds and then flushed when I saw Conny start to undress her. Isabel, give them their privacy, I told myself. I hurried back to my office and closed the door. Whew, that was close.

I finished my document on the Chinese Triads and emailed it to her. I then pulled all the files I needed to catch up on and checked to see if we had any new patients coming Monday. Zero new patients. Hmm, slow Monday, thank my lucky stars. I decided to make sure our administrative assistant reserved the group therapy room for Monday and ordered snacks for the kids. I noticed she ordered triple the snacks and water than usual. Odd, we’ve never had that many kids come on any given day. I logged on to her computer and checked the RSVP list for Monday’s therapy. Yup, twenty kids coming, how very odd. And they were all girls, not one boy…all girls. That’s it! That was Tori’s intention. She was going to come to therapy, a safe haven, a place where she could talk and ask for help without the outside world knowing where she was at or what she was doing. She wanted to come to a place where no one knew her or of her. Away from the predators, pimps and pedophiles that were buying and selling her for money. She was going to come to me, to this hospital and ask for my help and divulge everything she knew about the Triads because my victim invited her. Tori must have told some other girls in her situation about the group therapy. I wouldn’t know for certain until group, but my gut was telling me that was the reason she might have gotten murdered.

I was so excited I got up and headed to my office to get my cell phone and call Josh but as I was hurrying, I realized I didn’t have his number nor he mine. I stopped in my tracks, looked in the direction of Pam’s office and let my head hang, closing my eyes. I shoved my hands in the back pockets of my jeans, feeling pathetic. I sauntered slowly back to my office. What was it with the women working on this case, anyway? Was there something in the water that we all had to be involved with an FBI agent? I got to my office and Josh was there on his phone, looking frantic. He hung up on whomever he was talking to, rushed over to me and took me in his arms.

“Baby, I’ve been out of my mind looking for you. When I saw that you had left, I came straight here but you weren’t here or with Jill. Stevens said he hadn’t seen you either. Thank goodness for Davis. He said he thought he saw you walk in here.” He let out a loud exhale. “I know