Chapter 9: What Janet Said

Janet had a private room at the end of the cardiac floor.

It had a window onto the parking lot and a vase of white lilies on every surface.

She had arranged her hair.

She had put on lipstick.

A woman who has collapsed that afternoon should not have lipstick, and I understood that I was looking at a performance.

Tiernan stayed in the hall.

Mr. Winslow stayed with him, and neither of them spoke.

I closed the door behind me.

"Sit," Janet said.

"I'll stand."

"Margaret."

"My name is Lexi."

Her mouth went thin.

"It was Maggie for twenty-four years," she said, "and you answered to it."

"I answered to a lot of things."

She looked at me for a long moment.

Then she reached over, pressed a button on the bed rail, and the head of it rose until she was sitting straight.

Her hands lay on the blanket, and I noticed they were bare of rings.

She had always worn three.

"I want to make you an offer," she said.

"You made me an offer on Friday. It was three million dollars."

"This one is bigger."

"I'm listening."

"The Winslow Holdings shares in your name.

Twelve percent, plus the trust Gordon set up, and the house on Lake Drive.

A seat on the board, if you want it."

I thought she must be dying.

"In return," she said, "you leave the cemetery alone."

My skin went cold.

"I haven't done anything at the cemetery."

"You will," Janet said.

"That woman has weeded that grave with her bare hands since you were in diapers.

She will want to do something. A new stone. A lawyer, God help us.

She will ask for the body to be tested, and then they will know."

"Know what?"

Janet did not answer.

The monitor beside her ticked.

"Do you want to know what I did?" she said at last.

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