Killer
intellectually.”
    “Not as smart as her sibs.”
    “No doubt you think my remark was unkind. But the facts back it up. I was a straight-A student, graduated as high school salutatorian, and the only reason they didn’t make me valedictorian was I hadn’t accumulated enough ‘social points.’ Whatever that means. I attended Occidental College on a full scholarship, graduated with a four point oh, Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude, departmental honors in chemistry, advanced to medical school at UC San Francisco, where I also served my internship and my residency in pathology.”
    “You were always academically gifted.”
    “Quite. After residency I enjoyed a stint at Harbor General Hospital, then I obtained an executive position with a private lab. Ten years ago, I began my own lab and experienced immediate and consistent success. Currently, I specialize in the analysis of esoteric tropical diseases as well as immune disorders, including but not limited to HIV. My referrals emanate from private physicians and institutions as well as several governmental agencies secure in the knowledge of my total discretion. Since completing my residency, I’ve earned six figures consistently, have invested wisely, and I enjoy a comfortable lifestyle, including ownership of my own thirty-five-hundred-square-foot house in Westwood. I am able to provide anything a child could possibly desire. A fact my sister was well aware of when she abdicated the care of her child to me for three months while she went gallivanting across the country with Melandrano and Chamberlain and engaged in who-knows-what. It was only after she returned and apparently experienced some feeble variant of maternal
pangs
that she changed her mind and began making a fuss.”
    She put her glasses back on, sat back.
    Long speech and an obvious invitation for me to ask more about the details of the “fuss.”
    I said, “Tell me about your brother.”
    “Connor was also an excellent student. Not at my level, but solid A’s and B’s. He attended Cal State Northridge, obtained a degree in accounting. With honors … I’m not certain if it was magna or just cum, but definitely honors, I distinctly remember the asterisk next to his name in his graduation program—a ceremony that my sister did not attend, because, apparently, she had better things to do. More like worse things … in any event, Connor was always a
solid
boy.”
    “He’s an accountant?”
    “Much better, Doctor. He’s an executive at a firm up in Palo Alto. Very successful. So you see.”
    “You and Connor,” I said. “Then there’s Ree.”
    “She was never close to our level and I’m certain the discrepancy affected her. No doubt that’s why she ran away. When she was fifteen. Did she mention that?”
    “What led her to run away?”
    “You’d have to ask her.” Sly smile. “If you already haven’t. No, won’t fall into that trap, Doctor. Giving you unsubstantiated information—innuendo, rumor. I want you to be certain that when I say something it’s based on fact. Why did she run away? Obviously, she was unhappy.”
    “With family life.”
    “We had a fine family. If my sister was a poor fit, all the pity for her. But a child shouldn’t be made to suffer.”
    “Tell me about your parents.”
    “Fine people. Working people.”
    “What kind of work?”
    “Father was a teamster, Mother did bookkeeping.”
    “You all got along pretty well.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “You’ve heard different?”
    “Tell me how you remember family life.”
    Her arms clamped across her chest. One foot pushed the briefcase farther to the side. She said, “Fine, but that’s no excuse for
her
behavior. There were three of us, only one turned out immoral.”
    “What’s no excuse?”
    “Drinking. They both drank. Not during the day, it never impeded their work, they supported us in fine form during our entire childhoods. We had food on the table, clean clothes, the home was beautifully kept.

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