"You were supposed to be on a three o'clock bus this afternoon, weren't you?" Selim's English was heavily accented as he cut Jean off before she could answer.

"Yeah, except Cara and I were a bit sick today. Nauseous and dizzy. We just couldn't face a ten-hour bus ride."

"But you're still going tonight, aren't you?"

"Nothing leaves for Toronto until the morning."

"You want to come back here? I'm still up. I haven't been home very long. Wait at my apartment until then."

"Oh, no. I think I'm going to take Cara to the hospital. She's really feeling bad and I think she should be examined before she travels. I was wondering if-"

"You don't want to start with that, Jean," Selim said, sounding almost angry as he raised his voice to get her attention. "I'm a doctor. Tell me what her symptoms are and I can figure out if anything's wrong. Probably something she ate. You'll waste too much time waiting in an emergency room. You don't have any insurance coverage in this country, do you? So it's going to be very expensive for her."

He seemed to be scrambling for any ideas that would keep the women away from a medical exam.

"We didn't eat anything unusual, Selim. Each of us had a salad. And we didn't drink anything except bottled water until we got to your place."

"Yeah, well, maybe there was something wrong with the salad. Like it wasn't clean or the dressing had turned already."

"That's a good enough reason for us to go to the hospital. Could be food poisoning. At least they can do blood tests there, can't they?"

Jean was quick. I had told her not to be confrontational with Selim, knowing that might anger him and cause him to hang up the phone. Roll with him. Bring him back to talking about the cocktail he mixed for you.

"That drink you gave us tasted kind of weird. Lucky I didn't have more of it."

"Hmm."

"Hmm" didn't tell me anything I needed to know. Selim was probably trying to think of an excuse for her observation. I scribbled a note to Jean and slid it across the table. I wanted on record that she had not been drinking more alcohol than she told Mercer and me. I wanted to hear it from Selim. The defense at a trial like this would just try to convince the jury that she and Cara were blottoed.