Smiling at me. “You’re not allowed to be angry, right?”

“What would I be angry about?”

“If I wasn’t totally up front-okay, let me just get it out. The real reason I’m here is that you work with that detective-Dr. Silverman’s significant other. I would’ve gone straight to Dr. Silverman but I really don’t know him that well and you were my therapist so I can tell you anything.” Deep breath. “Right?”

“You want me to put you in contact with Detective Sturgis.”

“If you think he can help.”

“With…?”

“Investigating,” she said. “Finding out exactly what happened.”

“The ‘terrible thing’ your mother confessed.”

“It wasn’t a confession, more like…there was drive there, Dr. Delaware. Drive and determination. Exactly the way Mommy got when a problem needed to be solved. You’re thinking I’m being ridiculous, she was sick, her brain was impaired. But as sick as she was, she clearly wanted me to focus.”

“On the terrible thing.”

She blinked. “My eyes itch. May I have a tissue, please?”

Swiping her lids, she exhaled.

Blanche’s flews billowed.

Tanya looked down at her. “Did she just imitate me?”

“Think of it as empathy.”

“Whoa. She’s the perfect psychologist’s dog.” Sudden smile. “When does she get her own Ph.D.?”

“You talk to her,” I said. “She wants to be an attorney.”

When she stopped laughing, she said, “What was that? Comic relief?”

“Think of it as a pause for air.”

“Yes…so may I tell you exactly what happened?”

That’s what they pay me for.

I said, “I’m listening.”

CHAPTER 4

“The second week was all about pain,” she said. “That was everyone’s focus except Mommy’s.”