The Man Who Can't Let Go novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: What Abel Saw

The fourth-floor corridor at Empire General smelled of floor wax and burned coffee.

Abel was pacing it in his camel coat.

Virginia waited on a bench outside human resources with her bag in her lap.

The door opened, and a woman in a grey suit said, "Dr. Crane, you may go. The review begins Monday."

"Review of what?" Abel asked.

"Of whether you've followed hospital policy on recording private conversations."

She shut the door.

Abel sat down on the bench, and the bench creaked.

"I can't operate," he said. "Starting Monday, no cases, no clinic, until they finish deciding."

"How long?"

"Weeks. It could be longer. Greta knows exactly how long."

Virginia looked at his hands, which were square and clean and shook a little in his lap.

"Abel," she said. "I need you to tell me what you saw."

"I told Tobe on the roof."

"You told him you saw her carry some mail upstairs." Her voice was steady, and it cost her. "I'm asking for the rest."

He didn't answer for a while.

A transport orderly went by with an empty gurney, and a pager went off somewhere down the hall.

"There was one morning in the fall," Abel said. "Eight, maybe nine months after you left."

"Go on."

"The tray was full. Greta came down in her robe and sorted it."

"One envelope was blue, in your handwriting. I knew it from your birthday cards."

Virginia's hands closed on the strap of her bag.

"It had a Maine postmark," he said. "She read the front, and she didn't open it."

"She carried it up the stairs, and I stood in the hall with my keys in my hand."

"You saw a letter from me."

"I saw a letter from you to him, and I watched her take it."

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