The Doctor She Always Dreamed Of by Wendy S. Marcus Page A

my being here, take it up with your son. I assure you, while I am here of my own free will...now,” she glared at Derrick who’d followed her in, “it was not my idea to bring me up here, and had I been included in the decision making, I would not have come. Now, I need to use your phone.” She turned, added, “Please,” and hurried into the kitchen, picked up the black wall-mounted phone and dialed Connie’s cell phone number from memory.
    She answered on the first ring. “Did you find her? Is she okay? Did you arrest that scum-sucking sonofabitch and throw him in jail?”
    â€œI’m fine,” Kira said, smiling. Only Connie could get her to smile at a time like this.
    â€œKira!” Connie screamed. “It’s you! Oh, thank God, it’s you! And you’re fine! I have been scared out of my mind! When I couldn’t find you on my Find My Friends App this morning I figured no biggie. You were probably too busy having spectacular sex to charge your phone last night, which hey, yay for you. But how would you do on call with a dead phone? So I figured maybe you’d gone home and were using your landline.”
    â€œPlease tell me you didn’t call my sister.” This was getting worse by the second.
    â€œWhat did you expect me to do? My best friend left the bar with a man neither of us knew, at least at the time I didn’t know I knew him. Well, kind of knew him. When I couldn’t reach you on your cell phone, I brought up the picture I took of Derrick’s driver’s license to get his address so I could look up his home phone number. That’s when I recognized his full name. Do you know who he is?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œNo friggin’ way! Did you know who he was last night when you were hanging all over him?”
    Don’t remind me . “No. He told me this morning. How did you figure out he brought me up to his parents’ house?”
    â€œUh...”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI didn’t know for sure so I sent police to his home address in White Plains first.”
    â€œYou didn’t.”
    â€œSure did. His old neighbor said he didn’t live there anymore but he’d talked to Derrick and he’d mentioned visiting his parents this weekend. So I logged into your work computer remotely to get Daisy Limone’s address.”
    â€œConnie! You’re not supposed to have that log in!”
    â€œWell I do.” Kira could almost see the stubborn look on her assistant’s face. “A good assistant needs to be prepared for anything.”
    Couldn’t argue with that logic. Kira let out a breath. “Thank you for tracking me down.”
    â€œSo,” Connie said. “Did you...?”
    â€œNo. You need to call my sister and tell her you found me and I’m okay.”
    â€œNo? All this trouble and you didn’t—”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWell, damn.”
    Yeah.
    â€œDid you hear me?” Kira asked.
    â€œYes I heard you. But honestly, Krissy didn’t sound all that worried. Said something like, “Kira can take care of herself,” that was it.”
    Sounded like Krissy. She didn’t worry about much, mostly because Kira took care of herself and everything having to do with their mother which allowed Krissy to live the carefree life she’d enjoyed since they were kids, only worrying about herself. Maybe she should tell Connie not to call Krissy, leave her to wonder, give her the opportunity to picture life without Kira in it.
    â€œWhat’s going on at work?” Kira asked.
    Talkative Connie stayed quiet.
    Not good. “Tell me.”
    â€œSheila freaked when she found out you reassigned Daisy Limone to another case manager.”
    Kira squeezed the bridge of her nose. She’d hoped she could wait until Monday to deal with that. “How did she find out?”
    â€œThe agency she’d referred the case to initially left a message