At first Janey shook her head, then changed her mind and nodded.
“She’s asleep now. She came around an hour ago. Maybe you didn’t know. She’s out of her coma, but the doctors say it’s still touch and go. So she needs to rest. I’m sorry we can’t wake her up, but if you want to leave a note I can give it to her.”
Janey heaved a sigh of relief. Miranda had woken up? Did Janey even need to talk to the doctors? If she was awake then maybe the model was out of the woods. Miranda’s mother looked so hopeful that Janey didn’t feel comfortable giving her any more bad news than what she’d been dealing with.
“I’ll leave my name and number. Please just tell her I came by.”
Miranda’s mom put one of Janey’s hands in both of hers. “She’ll be so happy you did. You’re the only one who’s shown up here besides family. So many people talk to those newspapers and they say how sorry they are on the Facebook, but you’re the only friend who has stopped by. I know she’ll appreciate it.”
As she walked out, Janey passed by the nurse’s station and asked for the doctor on duty for Miranda Mills. He was a small and harried man with bloodshot eyes who’d clearly been on call for longer than twenty-four hours. He listened quietly when she told him she’d been on the retreat with Miranda and had some information to share with him. She explained very carefully how she’d learned that the women at the retreat could have been given medications (she was careful not to use the word drugs) that bore a resemblance to amphetamines.
“Thank you, ma’am. I’ll do you the favor of not asking how you came by this information. But we had an anonymous caller tell us something similar. It wasn’t completely anonymous, I suppose. The initials were KW. Do those mean anything to you? Oh nevermind.”
Janey capitalized on the doctor’s exhaustion and excused herself. He didn’t call after her or follow her.
She hoped Miranda was on the road to recovery.
· · ·
Back at the apartment, Janey pulled City Walks of New York off the shelf, thumbing two-thirds of the way through to a page Lorna had turned down. As she opened the book to a lovely stroll along the Hudson River in the West Sixties, a beige vellum note card fell out and fluttered to the floor. Janey and Boo Radley reached the piece of paper at the same time, inspecting it together. Janey felt a tug of emotion at seeing her mother’s initials, LMS, Lorna Marie Sweet, atop the personalized stationery with the profile of an elephant on the top. Lorna loved elephants. “They’re a matriarchal society, you know,” she’d say whenever anyone complimented her on her note cards. “Strong women can do anything.”
When the book first arrived, Janey remembered being surprised there was no note. Lorna must have tucked it inside instead of just leaving it in the package the way she usually did. Lorna never used emails or text messages, but this was the first note Janey had found since her mother’s death.
My sweet, Sweet girl,
Quiet couple of weeks here at home. Daddy’s been off on one of his bird-watching trips. After all these years of marriage I can’t make myself like birds. I don’t know the difference between a kingfisher and a cuckoo bird and I don’t ever care to.
I saw Miss Elsie at the store the other day. You remember Miss Elsie, right? Your third-grade teacher? She asked me about you. I said you were doing great. I didn’t mention the divorce. Did you know she’s a lesbian now? And such a pretty girl too. Shame. She asked me about Beau too. Third grade was when you met Beau, wasn’t it? That boy just worshipped you back then. You have always been that boy’s muse, and I don’t know what he’d be without you. He worshipped you, but he also wanted something you had, maybe it was money or status or maybe just a mama who took care of him. I loved that little boy, but I never trusted him. I don’t think I’ve ever told you that, but maybe this cancer is making me melancholy.
My mama always used to tell me that behind every great man is an even better woman. I love your father to the ends of the earth and back, but I know that has been true for our marriage. Your daddy has me and Beau has you. But I want more for you than to be the great woman behind any man. You’ll never spread your wings as long as you work with Beau. I don’t know if this will make sense to you, and you might write this off as the ramblings of an old lady, but I hope it gives you something to think about. I’m also enclosing my latest recipe for zucchini bread. All those young skinny ninnies joining the Rotary Club these days want me to make it low-carb and sugar-free, so I just lie and tell them it is, but this recipe contains more sugar, butter, and flour than any other yet. What they don’t know will make them happier!! Give it a try if you have some time. All the love in the world.
Your mama.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
It was another full week before Janey felt good enough to lace up her sneakers and actually go for a walk. At six a.m. she pulled on her grey track pants and favorite worn-out Princeton sweatshirt, made her way to the coffee shop, ordered her usual double espresso, and sipped at the strong liquid as she made her way over to the High Line’s northern staircase. The snows of the previous month were a memory and the first flowers of spring poked their heads from beneath the old railroad trestle.
Janey broke into a light jog for about a mile before settling down on her favorite bench in a wild patch of elephant grass just above Fourteenth Street. She turned on her phone to find a new email from Ivy with the subject line HOLY SHIT!!!!!-!!!!!-
In it there was a link to a New York Post story describing in great detail the capture of Sara Strong.
Federal agents had searched Sara’s apartment, finding several kilograms of high-grade pure Colombian cocaine in her closet. But Sara was nowhere to be found. For a week, the authorities tried to track her down by attempting to triangulate her cell phone calls and monitoring her credit cards, but Sara was sneaky, and they came up empty-handed until yesterday. Maybe she’d gotten too cocky. Maybe she was just hungry. Whatever caused Sara Strong to order $200 worth of gorditas at the Taco Bell in Duluth brought about her downfall. She charged the fast food to her MasterCard and was found by the local police within the hour. There was a second story on Miranda’s emergency evacuation and miraculous recovery. Apparently the movie rights to Miranda’s story had already been optioned by Paramount. Kate Wells was considering taking on the role.
Janey put down her phone and stretched her legs, tilting her head up to let the sun stream down onto her face.